Fox News Watchdog

On February 22, the hosts of Fox News’ three top-rated programs — Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity — did not mention the guilty plea on terrorism charges in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn by Najibullah Zazi, who was at the center of an alleged plot to bomb the New York subway system. Beck, O’Reilly, and Hannity have all previously criticized President Obama’s desire to prosecute suspected terrorists in the U.S. legal system rather than in military tribunals.

Plea described as
a success for Obama administration

NY
Times: Plea “marks the
successful prosecution of a terrorist in an advanced
plot.” A February 22 New York Times article reported that Zazi’s guilty
plea “marks the successful prosecution of a terrorist in an advanced plot in
which explosive materials similar to those used in the 2005 London subway and
bus attacks were actually brought into New York.” The Times also stated that Zazi “had begun
providing information to prosecutors as part of the initial stages of an
agreement that led to his guilty plea.”

Newsweek: Plea
“provides fresh
ammunition for Obama administration officials.” A
February 22 Newsweek blog post by Michael Isikoff stated
that Zazi’s plea “provides fresh ammunition for Obama administration officials
to argue that traditional law-enforcement methods can be just as effective, if
not more, in questioning terror suspects than subjecting them to ‘enhanced
interrogation techniques,’ ” adding that Zazi is “the fourth major terror
suspect to cut deals or at least begin plea negotiations with the FBI in recent
months.” Isikoff continued:

“These are major flips. This
is huge information that these guys are giving,” said Ali Soufan, a former top
FBI counterterrorism agent who is now a security consultant based in the
Middle East. “This shows that law enforcement
can be strong tool at our disposal.

Just as importantly, notes
Soufan, law-enforcement and intelligence officials around the world have been
eager to talk to the FBI suspects — and use the information they are providing
– precisely because it was gleaned without the use of rough interrogation
tactics, like waterboarding or sleep deprivation, that would create political
problems in most major Western countries that have officially condemned such
tactics.

Wash.
Post: Plea
“gave the Obama
administration a new argument” on treatment of
terrorists. A February 23 Washington Post article stated that Zazi’s plea
“gave the Obama administration a new argument in its battle with Republican
critics and predecessors over its handling of national security threats,” adding
that Attorney General Eric Holder “said the deal demonstrated anew the ability
of the U.S. court system to dispense justice
to terrorists.”

Conservative
blogger: Plea is “Non-Sarcastic Good News.” A February 22 post on the
conservative blog The Jawa Report carried the headline “Non-Sarcastic Good News:
NYC al Qaeda Bomb Plotter Cooperating.” The writer stated that it “is good news
if, in fact, he’s helping us track down his co-conspirators — like his former
imam who was supposed to be helping the FBI but instead tipped Zazi off that he
was under investigation.”

Beck, O’Reilly,
and Hannity have repeatedly attacked Obama for using civilian system to
prosecute terror suspects

Beck, Hannity, and O’Reilly have
repeatedly attacked the Obama administration’s handling of suspected terrorists
by prosecuting them in the U.S. legal system instead of military
tribunals:

Beck: “We need to
campaign for” KSM trial “being held at the White House.” On the
January 28 edition of his radio show, Beck said
that “we need to campaign for” the trial of suspected terrorist Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed “being held at the White House,” instead of New York City, because
Obama “doesn’t mind inconveniencing businesses. He doesn’t mind putting our
lives at stake.”

Hannity:
Mirandizing Abdulmutallab is “putting … every American in
danger.” On the January 4 edition of his show, Hannity
criticized the Mirandizing of Northwest Airlines bombing suspect Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab, asserting that doing so is “putting … every American in danger.
What does this guy know? Who are his contacts? Who did he meet? He’s lawyered
up. We can’t talk to this guy. We ought to — we ought to be waterboarding this
guy.”

O’Reilly
ridicules Williams for noting that civilian KSM trial is “a real opportunity to
really make a show of American democracy.” Discussing the idea of
trying Mohammed in New York on the February 1 edition of his show, O’Reilly
asserted that “just about everyone I know — liberals, Democrats, you know,
Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, I mean, come on — they’re all telling the
White House, you can’t do this. Why doesn’t the White House know that? … Why
don’t you know this, when everybody else knows it but you?” O’Reilly went on to
ridicule Fox News contributor Juan Williams for stating that the Obama
administration portrayed such a trial as “a real opportunity to really make a
show of American democracy”: “But it’s stupid, Juan. Oh, stop.” O’Reilly added
that by contrast to the cost of a civilian trial, which he claimed would be
“$800 million,” if Mohammed is tried in a military tribunal, “it costs $39.95 a
day, OK, Juan? Because they’re already on the payroll, Juan. You gotta buy
bagels and coffee in the morning, that’s all. … And so you’re worried about
some guy in Bangladesh going, ‘Oh, I’d like to
see the American justice system work’? It’s insane,
Juan.”

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