Transcripts For FOXNEWSW On The Record With Greta Van Suster

FOXNEWSW On The Record With Greta Van Susteren January 16, 2015

Simultaneous antiterror raids around belgium. There were 10 arrests, search warrants, arrest warrants issued by the Prosecutors Office and those raids took place in brussels billboard and where we saw those two suspects killed and one arrested. They are suspected members of a terrorist group that were supposedly preparing an attack in the police said that a raid was extremely necessary. Thankfully the prosecutors said that no Police Officers or any civilians had been hurt. Investigations are still underway. In fact there are reports that the federal Police Headquarters here in brussels still not over. Belgium has had a problem with some of fighters. Hundreds of fighters going into syria joining jihadist groups and magistrate here in belgium has said that these groups today that were raided were those that had returned from syria. So all of these cells still being carefully looked at. And the prosecutor very careful in revealing details as investigations and possibly raids are still underway. Anyone yell anything out . We always sort of see if there is any link to radical islam and radical paris. Did the terrorists yell anything . No, not that we saw similar as in paris. However, there was another report here in belgium in brussels, in a metro station where an armed man had been yelling religious slogans here. The police had been called and the man had been apprehended. Now, it had clear whether that man is linked to the raid yet we saw earlier. Clearly people are very afraid and especially after what had happened in paris. And also we saw one of the shooters in the paris attacks Amedy Coulibaly who had killed four people at that kosher supermarket. Now he had it had been reported that he had gotten weapons that he used from belgium man. A man here had stepped and given himself up to the police and said that of course those links are still being confirmed and investigated. There is that possibility that the attacks in paris may be linked to those in belgium or there are Common People involved in these terrorist cells. Of course, the belgium and French Police are certainly working on this European Police forces. Tessa thanks very much. To breaking news, the obama radiation releasing terrorist suspects from Guantanamo Bay. Al qaeda branch in yemen brags that it is responsible for the right next door to yemen. Kelly yea yacht calling yemen the wild west for terrorists and she joins us. Good evening, senator. Good evening, greta. Prior to it being done . Did the president notify the u. S. Senate . Apparently he said that he notified the u. S. Senate. But the way the notification provisions are is really the chairman of committees and he has really no duty to tell the American People publicly what these individuals had v. Been alleged to be involved in and what we have seen is detainees that were previously designated premium or high risk by the administration with no information out there. What is security conditions upon which they are being held or not being held. They are just being left out openly. As you pointed out oman is very close to yemen. One of the attackers alleged to have committed the paris attacks. The information thats been revealed is that he went through yemen went through amman through yemen to get training with al qaeda. This is a very big issue. I think transparency is what is really lacking. Senators mccain, Lindsey Graham and you have made a joint statement about this. And you keep referring to these people being transferred. They are being released. Right . When i think of transfer i think from one facility to another. Right. From one custody to another. They are being released. Is that correct . Thats correct greta. Because as we have seen, for example, four released to afghanistan on december 20th, the public reports are that they have gone back to their families, release is a better word and a deep concern to people. If you have been previously designated medium or high risk for reengagement to terrorism, if there is no conditions upon you being released then of course you can get back in in terms of our Public Safety and allies and men and women in uniform apparently these five were recommended for release back in january 2015. That is five years ago they were released until now on the heels of the massacre in paris. Which seems to me about the worst timing, sends the worst possible message. Do you have any idea why it happened now . I have no idea, greta, they have been periodically releasing people since the election. 15 in december. They seem to be doubling down the administration on the president s Campaign Promise to close gitmo. So the timing couldnt be worsened in light of the connection with yemen and amman being so close to yemen it makes no sense. 2010 five years ago not 2015. So i misspoke. You have introduced legislation to try to block him. Is it going to pass . Well, i hope so, greta. I hope that especially one thing in the legislation is a prohibition on transferring anyone to yemen. The administration is yet to commit to that. I think there is a lot of bipartisan support for that but i would hope that we could get this passed in the senate because we cant be closing guantanamo with no plan for where these individuals are going where they can get back into battle against us. Snearkts thank you. Thanks, greta. So does letting gitmo prisoners go sending them straight back to the battlefield. Fox news chief White House Correspondent ed henry. Ed, who got released and why . Well, greta, its very interesting. These are five yemeni nationals and one of them will be going to it a stoney four going to oman. Whats significant is oman borders yemen. The majority of the terror detainees still at gitmo are from yemen and remember what happened in paris there is a direct connection there between the kouachi brothers and at least one of them being trained directly by al qaeda in yemen. So the fear that republican senators are raising today is that this is a disaster in the making because some of these terror detainees will just wind up getting back to yemen, being retrained and getting back on the battlefield. Now, the white house pushed back on that today when i pressed josh earnest they say they have a lot of safeguards in place there was unanimous recommendation by the president by his National Security team that the nation will be safe. But i thought it was significant that josh ernest said that the team recommended that there are ways safeguards to mitigate the threat. Of course they cant guarantee these terrorists will not go back on the battlefield. I thought it was interesting there is a letter today from Lindsey Graham, kelly ayotte and john mccain who as you know they have been on your program talking about gitmo a lot. Kelly ayotte has pointed out in this letter that one of the kouachi brothers in the summer of 2011 allegedly used a trip to oman to go across the border and sneak in to yemen and be trained and use that training, of course, for the deadly terror attack just last week in paris. The final point i make is josh earnest pushed back on kelly ayotte and other republicans saying that 30 of the gitmo detainees that are released wind up back on the battlefield. Josh said his numbers suggest the administration believes about 6 of those terrorists wind up on the battlefield. Well whether its 30 or 6 . Obviously there is difference there. Its also significant. 6 ending up on the battlefield is still a problem and still means potentially going to launch more terror attacks against either us or in paris or somewhere else greta. Ed, thank you. So should president obama keep releasing gitmo prisoners, keeping his promise or is this dangerous . This is ebrahim Senior Advisor for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. One of the most wanted tears in the world. One the men released from Guantanamo Bay and now back in the fight for global jihad. Terrorists are being trained and sent back to commit acts of terror. Since 2009 the ebama administration has released 117 detainees from Guantanamo Bay. Gitmo has become a symbol around the world for an america that flouts the rule of law. They are not alone. The Bush Administration released more than 500 detainees from gitmo between 2002 and 2008. All of it part of a controversial policy in which detainees, even some who are considered high risk are sent back home or to host countries and set free. And with a staggering 45 of the remaining detainees at gitmo set to be transferred, not the word i would use its apparently best president obama can do to keep this promise he made in 2008. I have said repeatedly that i intend to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that. Since the 2008 election, bipartisan opposition in congress rejecting the president and refusing to fund the transfer of detainees to the United States prison. This preerchts president obama from shutting down the controversial prison. But that doesnt stop the president from releasing some gitmo detainees. Individuals could be transferred to other countries without posing a significant threat to u. S. Interest. But a september 2014 report, issued by the director of National Intelligence says otherwise. Showing that more than 17 of released detainees are confirmed to have returned to the fight. An additional 12 suspected of rejoining the fight. Former detainees like abdul, a supposedly low risk detainee is now actively recruiting for isis. A horrifying situation that has Senate Republicans introducing legislation blocking the release of medium and high risk detainees from gitmo. Now is not the time to be emptying guantanamo with no plan for how and where these individuals are going to go. And the move gaining momentum now that intelligence officials have linked the brutal attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine in paris to al qaeda in yemen. [gunfire] congressman Adam Kinzinger joins us. Good evening sir. Hey greta. Thanks for having me. Thank you for joining us. Are the gitmo review task force agreeing to release these five years ago january 2010 now fast forward to now and its being done now. Of course in light of what happened last week, its certainly everyones radar screen. Why did they wait five years and what do you think about this timing . I dont know about the wait. Can i tell you the timing, regardless of whether the president thinks this is in americas National Security interest in his own mind or not, i mean the fact is in the middle of this i guess awakening of jihadism, of islamic jihadism, the message thats being sent, not just even the risk that these five men pose its possible by statistics that one of these men will go back to the battlefield or be a leader. Keep in mind now, they are going back as a leader that has been in get who gitmo. They come out with like new stature and everything else. Regardless of the actual risk they pose the message thats being sent to the middle east right now, to our allies and to our enemies in the middle east is that america is quickly retreating from this war of ideology in the middle east. That is very dangerous. I think thats led to the rise of extremism, the rise of isis. I think thats done more perception wise to hurt our cause than anything. And so the message thats being sent is absolutely wrong. I would love to see president obama come out and give a speech like, you know, what we have seen out of Prime Minister of australia or canada or france even now and say that, you know he, this is a real issue, and it must be confronted head on. The oppo being sent. I just dont get this though. For five years they have had the okay. Maybe they had to find a place to release them to, but five years ago they okayed it. I just dont get by the presiden at least wait another month or two when the paris massacre is in our rear view mirror. I just cant get sort of the wisdom of doing it now . To me its just so tone deaf. Well, it is tone deaf. Its the same reason no high level at the administration went to paris. Should the president have gone or not . Well, i dont know. But somebody of much higher stature should have gone. The president does not think through the actions, i think, to the extent of what impact its really having. I dont think he thinks in terms of, you know, america is a fantastic country that is the last line of defense between this growing jihadist threat and everything else. I think there is really a belief. A left wing belief that we can in essence show ourselves to be good people. Folks in the middle east, no matter how extreme they are will look at us and aappreciate it. Maybe in his mind this is sign of goodwill. Goodwill doesnt work. What works is strength and power. Americas job in the world frankly is not to be loved. But its to it, you know whether we like the burden or not, we are a force for good. If we dont do this nobody is going to. The message being sent is terrible and, as you said, beyond why. I dont understand why now. Even if you are going to release them, which i dont think you should, wait a couple months. One quick question, did you learn about the actual release after they were out of gitmo or did you get the heads up that this was going to happen in a day or two or week or two . Its interesting. We get all this information on the news on fox news and you know, the berg doll swap, i had no idea about that despite having to notify congress. None of us knew. We learn about this stuff on the news and the president has made it clear that he doesnt consider congress very important lately. Congressman, thank you. At least you are watching fox news, thank you, sir. Thank you greta. What think about gitmo release. 54 say president obama is he can exceeding his authority by releasing terrorist suspects. Lawmakers are not happen about the prisoner releases either. This administration has a very difficult time differentiating good guys from bad guys. So these are not minor players. When you are at war, you dont let the warriors go free. We wouldnt have let the nazis go free until the end of the war. We are talking about people holloway associated who have been associated with al qaeda or attacks against our troops. Is he releasing killers to kill americans. Bottom line is we need to call a timeout on what the president wants to do with these releases from Guantanamo Bay. And joining us our Political Panel abc political director rick klein and National Journals ron fournier. Ron, the American People 54 , think the president exceeded his authority. He was released 117. I should ad that president bush released over 500 during his 8 years. What do you think . American people dont like this. They think the president shouldnt do this. I think if the poll was taken right now, i believe this poll was taken a week or so ago. If it was taken right now i think those numbers would be even higher. We have a history of when an ally has been attacked. Fear dictates our actions. I think it would be interesting if you overlay whats happened in france where a lot of us published the photos of the cartoons and a lot of us urged news organizes to print the cartoons because we didnt want our fear to overcome our values of free speech. Over lay that here in guantanamo and i wonder personally, you know, should we let fear dictate the way we handle these monster sisters . Monsters . Is there any reason we cant. Cant gather evidence. Dirty little secret is we couldnt prove it. Thats a dirty little secret. Why not put them on u. S. Soil. Why not put them in Fort Leavenworth or prison. Thats when that kicks in that other problem. Were letting our fear overcome our values. You know, rick, i dont get doing this now. To me its like the president not going to paris. That was stupid. Its like he wouldnt go to the border and he has a photo shooting pool with the governor of colorado. He is laughing 10 minutes after he does the james folly speech on the gulf coast. Why not . Wait a week or wait a month. It certainly juanita done for political expediency. There is no way you can time that around that look the president has made clear he was elected twice on platform he wants to close guantanamo. Next week would be good not bleeding from last week. I dont know why the time something now. Even members of congress dont know that he is trying to do this almost unsolvable problem. Unless you are able to say that are zero people at guantanamo you have tout people them somewhere. It does raise the issues. If you think its bad people, bad guys bring them back for trials you cant have and dont have another institution here thats what the president has come up against. He wanted to close it years ago. Its this nimby problem. Stand up to terrorists but afraid to have them in the United States. Why not put them in the jail here and lock them away. Different Legal Protections on u. S. Soil. Thats why they created this in the first place. Theyre north going to escape on u. S. Soil. Thats not the problem. The problem is once they are on u. S. Soil we have to try them and we dont have the evidence. We havent collected it right. Well then maybe we need to collect it right. We cant we have got ourself in this mind because we are trying to uphold our values while we are protecting ourselves. Should be mutually exclusive. It could have waited a month if he waited five years. I dont get building this extra constitutional thing on iraq and cuba that now has us in this position. Panel, thank you. Always nice to see you. Thanks, greta. A new campus controversy brewing. A muslim call to prayer, good idea or not . Colonel oliver north here to talk about that next. Freshman republican senator joni ernst just got a new job. Start guessing. Thats coming up. Sign of unit or park for controversy. Duke university announcing a weekly call to prayer from the center of campus. What exactly is a call to prayer . Listen. Duke is planning to do this across the entire campus tomorrow. Initially members chant the call from the duke bell tower on friday. This afternoon they announced calls from prayer from the quad. Lt. Co

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