RUSH: Greetings, my friends, and welcome to Open Line Twilight Zone. Great to have you here. Yep. It was just an average American teenager walking along the street, Tennessee, Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez al-Sahib Skyhook. Just your average American teenager, had a gun he shouldn’t have had, and you know what happened.

JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny south Florida, it’s Open Line Friday!

RUSH: Yeah, we have no idea why. The media’s pulling its hair out trying to figure why in the world would this average, ordinary blend-in-with-the-crowd, never-stop-him-in-a-lineup American teenager, Mohammed Youssuf Abdulazeez, what in the world could have motivated him to shoot five people. Why in the world would something like this happen?

We have to be very, very careful here, my friends, not to rush to judgment. We have to move slower than the glaciers move to avoid bigotry, to avoid prejudice, to avoid racism, and obviously to avoid the truth. And that’s what we must avoid at all costs, we must not find the truth, and if anybody does find the truth, they better not say it.

How are you, folks? Great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh, once again wrapping up another week of brilliant broadcast excellence here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Telephone number is 800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program. Open Line Friday, by the way, means when we go to phones, the program’s all yours, whatever you want to talk about, fine and dandy, but look, I know I say that. I need to add a caveat here because something happened last Friday, and I was on the verge of apologizing for it and I said to heck with it.

Now, while I grant you the once-a-week opportunity to take this program in directions that I don’t take it — I mean if you want to. By that I mean you can talk about things that I don’t care about. But I’m gonna tell you something, if I get bored I’m not gonna sit here and run the risk of the audience getting bored, so while you can talk about things I don’t care about, but if you bore me , I can’t — I mean, I’m the nicest host. (interruption) I am. (interruption) I am not changing the rules. I said if I don’t care, I will pretend I care, fake it, but I’m not gonna sit here and be bored.

I mean, I’m gonna giving everybody a chance. Don’t misunderstand. There’s no minimum time limit that people have in order to get to the point. But if I sit here get bored, look, if I’m bored, then the audience will be board, and that’s gonna be curtains for the caller, it’s just that simple. I have to guard against Open Line Friday like any other freedom being abused, and I’m in charge of what freedoms exist here and I’m in charge of how much I will allow them to be abused. It’s that simple.

Okay, so Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was identified as the shooter by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was shot to death in the rampage that killed four people, including a sailor critically wounded. The headline, this is the story from Reuters, scratching their heads there at Reuters. The headline: “Investigators Seek Motive Behind Tennessee Shooting Rampage.” Investigators on Friday sought to determine what in the world might have led a 24-year-old gunman, an average, ordinary American teenager, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez to open fire at a couple military offices in Chattanooga killing four Marines “in an attack officials said could be –” could be, must not jump to any hasty conclusions here “– an act of domestic terrorism.” Could be.

And why does the media insist on calling terrorism perpetrated by Muslim extremists who could have come to the US, domestic terrorism. What is this domestic terrorism business? The suspect was imported here from Kuwait, probably as a refugee, which is one of the several ways he’s like the Tsarnaev brothers, this bunch in Boston. Are you kidding? They haven’t found a motive. Haven’t they ever seen the state flag of Tennessee? It reeks of the Confederacy. Seriously, I’m just kidding, folks. Remember what I said, this is — he-he-he — Snerdley is looking at me. I’m just trying to relate to the libs in the audience as they look for motivation here.

It could be the guy’s all upset about the Confederate flag still. It could be he’s really upset about what happened in Charleston, South Carolina, looking for an outlet. Now, you would think that after all of the previous Muslim terror attacks, the authorities in the news media would start see a pattern. But they don’t want to jump to any conclusions, and they don’t want to move any faster than the glaciers move. They don’t want to bring up Muslim terrorism until we’ve gotten used to the idea that another four people have been killed. Nobody wants a backlash against Muslims.

I was thinking about this this morning. I want to put this in perspective. On September 11th, 2001 nearly 3,000 people died because of 19 Islamic terrorists hijacking airplanes and crashing them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in western Pennsylvania. The majority of the hijackers were Saudi Arabian, but they were all Al-Qaeda, and they were all Islamic terrorists. It seems to me that from the moment that happened, we have been bending over backwards to apologize to Muslims. It seems like we have been bending over backwards to be in denial about what happened and who did it.

I’ll never forget that the State Department, shortly after 9/11, I mean within two weeks, had a seminar, I mean an actual real serious seminar, and the title of the seminar, “What have we done to make them hate us?” It’s almost as if, at the top levels of our government, and maybe not even just the top levels, but perhaps all the way through our government, it’s almost as though there is an opinion that we deserved it, and we had better change if we don’t want them to do it again.

Everything seems 180 degrees out of phase. The moment 9/11 happened, well, give a day or two for it to settle in, but it seems like practically immediately afterwards we started apologizing to Muslims, we started trying to assure them that we had nothing against them. It’s never made any sense to me. I mean, if 9/11 had never happened, then some of this stuff might make sense. But 9/11 did happen, 3,000 Americans died. There have been further attempts. Other Americans have died at the hand of Islamic terrorism around the world. And following each incident, it seems our primary concern is not making the perpetrators of these acts angry.

It makes no sense to me. It never has made any sense to me, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, why in the world are we so defensive? Why are we so worried about Muslim backlash if we dare tell the truth about who’s perpetrating these acts of terror. It defies common sense. Now, there might be explanations for it that you could come up with that would fit the liberal mind and mind-set, but it doesn’t make any common sense.

I can’t think of any other period of time where — I mean, after World War II, after Pearl Harbor, did we run around the country and the world assuring everybody that, “Hey, hey, you know, the Japanese, we have no quarrel with the Japanese.” After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, did we act at all the way we act now after an act of Islamic terrorism?

“We don’t know the motive. We can’t figure out why they would have done it! We have to be careful that we do not level unfair, inaccurate allegations. We have to make sure that there’s not an anti-Muslim backlash!” Were we worried about an anti-Japanese backlash after Pearl Harbor? (interruption) Well, I know, FDR interred people. I know that. That’s the point. I’m not advocating FDR-like behaviors or policy, but it just doesn’t make any sense here. I don’t care what it is, we hear that.

“Fort Hood? That’s workplace violence! No, no, no, nothing to see here.” It all seems to be our fault, or at least after each of these events it’s us that have to feel guilty. It’s we who have to ask ourselves, “What are we doing to cause this?” It doesn’t make any sense! It was before Obama even got to Washington, folks, before Obama was elected president. This goes back 9/11. This goes back to the immediate aftermath of 9/11. George W. Bush was president, and reaction that we’ve…

I’m not blaming, Bush. Don’t misunderstand. But Bush’s State Department did that seminar and a number of others like it. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Not only are we in denial about who’s doing what, we’re looking for reasons under the rubric of motivation that would further excuse their actions and then end up somehow blaming the United States for doing things either in the present or in the past that somehow justify this kind of thing.

One of these Marines that was shot dead was awarded not one but actually with two Purple Hearts in combat fighting for the United States overseas. These guys volunteer. They go through rigorous training. We send them, we deploy them to the most dangerous places on earth to protect us to protect us and we bring ’em home and we don’t even let them protect themselves with their own firearms!

These are highly trained people, particularly Marines. These are rifle experts. They clearly are trained in the use and possession of firearms. We have these silly gun-free zones everywhere! Military people… It just burns me! We send them to these hellholes where there’s actual military combat and declared hostilities, and they come home here and get killed while in circumstances of complete and total innocence.

And then you look further at the silly rules of engagement that we put them under while they’re in combat in these areas of declared hostilities, and that’s absurd. Let’s go to the audio sound bites; I’ll show you what I mean. We have a montage here of the Drive-Bys. This is Fox News, it’s CNN, it’s CNN, it’s CNN, it’s CNN, it’s CNN. It was all over MSNBC, too (but we have a ban there), and Al Jazeera. They can’t figure out why it happened!

SHEPARD SMITH: (music) Now the search for motive.

DON LEMON: (music) …too soon to know the motive.

LESTER HOLT: The motive for the attacks unknown.

JOHN BERMAN: Any sign of a motive?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK: We do not yet know the motive at this point.

ERIN BURNETT: They’re desperately trying to figure out what the motive might have been.

WOLF BLITZER: This individual, we don’t yet know the motive, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.

JOIE CHEN: Investigators are already looking into the suspected shooter’s background to identify some motive. The trail so far has not revealed much.

RUSH: You all remember a comedy show that was produced by a friend of mine Joel Surnow that ran on the Fox News Channel. It was called The 1/2 Hour News Hour, and on the pilot episode of that show… It was a 30-minute satire news program that the liberals have copied and they’ve got their own version of it now on Comedy Central just like a lot of what is on Comedy Central is a rip-off of my television show. So has the left ripped off The 1/2 Hour News Hour, retitled it, and done it under the umbrella of liberalism.

They had a routine. They had a bit exactly like this, except they exaggerated. The perpetrator’s name consisted of six Abduls, Mahmouds, Yousefs. He had a six-name name. The bit was the reporter for the 1/2 Hour News Hour was talking to the local officials after the crime had taken place and kept mentioning this guy’s full name, six names, “Are you telling me that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you have no idea why this crime took place?” “No, we haven’t the slightest idea.”

And with each question, each time the question was asked the man’s full name. It was made up, of course, with the six names. The joke has come to life and it’s real! The joke on that show, The 1/2 Hour News Hour… We might even have it. I don’t know if in our Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorite archives of audio sound bites, we might even have that, and we might even have it cataloged, we might even be able to pull that out of the archives even before the end of the program.

I’m making no promises, but it would be good if we had it and I could show you, play it for you rather than describe it. But it’s this to a T. “No idea why! Can’t figure it out. No apparent motive. I mean, we’re in the dark here we’re clueless. Do you have any ideas? ‘Cause we can’t see a reason what so ever. He’s just an average, ordinary American teenager.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, I was trying to avoid saying it, but I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. The word that I was looking for — I was dancing around — is why did we start sucking up to Muslims after 9/11? That is the thing. That’s the thing that struck me, that’s exactly what it was, with the State Department seminar, “What did we do to make them hate us?” there began an immediate effort not to offend the people who had just killed 3,000 of us. I have never understood it; I don’t understand it today.

Well, the that’s not true. I do understand it, and that make makes it even more maddening. I do not understand it, because I understand liberalism. Three thousand of us are killed by virtue of an Al-Qaeda attack, and the first thing we do is suck up to them. Anyway, you gotta hear this sound bite at CNN. Again, John Berman is filling in for Jake Tapper. He’s talking to former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes about the Chatanooga, Tennessee, attacks.

Berman says, “We have the name of the shooter. The name is [Mahmoud] Youssuf Abdulazeez. Obviously it appears to be a Muslim.” Really, John? What’s your first clue, Bud? “Appears to be… Alleged…” I tell you, he’s an alleged Muslim. That’s right, he’s an alleged Muslim. That’s good journalism” He’s an alleged muscles. “Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez, but that’s all we know, Tom, and now that we have the name, the key questions are what after that?”

FUENTES: I know that what the name sounds like, but we don’t know that it’s a Muslim name. We know it’s an Arabic name. We don’t know what this individual was believing in, and that’s what they’re gonna be trying to determine.

RUSH: So you just heard a CNN analyst, a former Fibbie director — FBI director — Tom Fuentes saying (summarized), “Well, I know what the name sounds like, but we don’t know that it’s a Muslim name. We know that it’s an Arabic name, but we don’t know that it’s a Muslim name. Gotta be very, very, very careful here that we don’t take this too far. Might make ’em even madder!”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We stick with the audio sound bites because now, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to be treated to an audio sound bite from none other — dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut! — Brian Ross of ABC News.

Now, as a brief reminder, Brian Ross heads up the investigative journalism unit at ABC News, and at one of the recent mass shootings in Colorado, Brian Ross went on Good Morning America with a news alert claiming that the shooter was likely a member of the Tea Party in Colorado. The name of the shooter had been released and Brian Ross, the first thing he did upon hearing the name of the kid that shot up the movie theater, was find a roster of members of a Tea Party group in Colorado and see if he could find the guy’s name.

And you know what?

He found a name exactly like the shooter’s!

So he successfully engineered a news bulletin, a news alert, breaking news on Good Morning America, at which he informed the world that the shooter was of the same name as a prominent member of the Colorado Tea Party! It turned out to be not true. It’s two different people. But first thing he did — the instinct, the desire — of all the probabilities Brian Ross went to the Internet and tried to find this guy’s name on a roster of members of the Tea Party. So on Good Morning America today Brian Ross, investigative journalist extraordinaire, was talking about Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez.

ROSS: Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait, but he and his family have lived in the US since 1992.

MAN: He was just a typical American kid in high school.

ROSS: But in his high school senior yearbook, Abdulazeez wrote, “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?” And a local newspaper in 2010 quoted Abdulazeez’s sister saying she had been harassed at school because of her Muslim faith. But from outward appearances, Abdulazeez did not appear to be a loser angry at America. Something clearly changed in Abdulazeez’ life since then.

RUSH: Well, maybe he was distressed that the Aurora, Colorado, shooter wasn’t in the Tea Party, Brian. Or maybe he’s upset at what he learned the Confederate flag stands for. Maybe he’s upset at some other outrage committed by the United States of America at some point in his life. Because, clearly, Brian, you and your buddies in the Drive-By Media have certainly given people like this a list of reasons to hate this country.

Because all you’ve done is try to list and make news out of every transgression you think this country’s guilty of. And not just you, Brian, but a majority of teachers in this country have no doubt filled their students, young skulls full of mush all with a budge of garbage about the atrocities committed by this country. It has real-world consequences. These libs is sit up there, they talk about hatred, they talk about bigotry and racism and they level these allegations and accusations at the United States of America, and these young kids in these class rooms, they hear this stuff!

These libs might be just flapping their gums and trying to score their points, these young kids hear this stuff. They’re driven crazy, they’re driven mad, they’re driven insane, they’re driven angry. Who knows what happens? I for one know that this stuff does not happen in a vacuum, and it’s not gonna take long to find the motive. The reason it’s taking so long to find the motive is because what they’re actually doing is looking for a cover-up of the motive.

I mean, even the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, went out there and he’s sort of chuckling at some of the questions because he thinks they’re originating from right wingers, conservatives. He’s sort of chuckling (imitating Earnest), “You know, Islamic terrorism, it’s on the list of possibilities we’re looking at.” But he didn’t indicate it was at the top of the list. So ABC News runs a report, just a typical American kid in high school. Yeah. Don’t you know, we have a lot of American high school kids named Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez.

They walk down the street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, all the time, and they’re looking for uniformed military personnel, and they’re carrying guns in federal gun-free zones. Yeah, average American teenager. They found an entry in his high school senior yearbook about how his name causes national security alerts. You see what this country does to these young kids, folks. See what your country is doing? You see what the bigotry and racism of your country is doing to these young, innocent minds? Poor Mahmoud, he’s just going to school and finds out that his name causes national security alerts and then asks other people, what does your name do?

And then they find a local newspaper quoting the sister of Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez saying she had been harassed because of her Muslim faith. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold it a minute. Hold it just a minute. Go back to audio sound bite number two, Tom Fuentes, former FBI director. Play it again, Sam.

FUENTES: I know that what the name sounds like, but we don’t know that it’s a Muslim name. We know it’s an Arabic name.

RUSH: Stop the tape. Here in Brian Ross’ report… an ABC correspondent says the sister of Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez says she’s been harassed at school because of her Muslim faith. Well, the former FBI director doesn’t know that. The former FBI director: no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we cannot rush to judgement on this. It’s obviously an Arabic name, but we cannot be sure it’s a Muslim name. But ABC found out because they talked to the aggrieved sister.

So what we have here are a young man and woman, the Abdulazeezes, and we find that they are sad because they’re feeling discriminated against because their name puts them on a watch list or some such thing, and you see now the beginnings, ladies and gentlemen, of how the left is going to present to us a motive that they are then supposed to say, “You know what? We can understand this act of rage. Look what we have done to this young man, simply because of his name. We discriminated against him and made him feel like his name is a national security alert, and then his sister has felt the same shame.” This is what’s happening out there, folks. You keep a sharp eye, see how long it takes for this to develop.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: And we go to upstate New York, Bob, great to have you. EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Oh, greetings. Okay, I got three quick things. Number one, if President Obama is such a good Muslim, does he make Michelle and his daughters wear burqas?

RUSH: Well, I don’t think he’s a Muslim. He says he’s a Christian.

CALLER: Okay, number two, they call it domestic terrorism because it’s our fault. We’re responsible for it along with global warming and world hunger.

RUSH: You mean that’s what they mean by it. Okay. What’s number three?

CALLER: Number three. This Tennessee shooting could not have come at a more opportune time to prove that the Muslims cannot be appeased. Obama gave Iran everything they wanted to appease them, and the very next day they’re killing us.

RUSH: Is Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez Iranian?

CALLER: It doesn’t matter. They have no country. They told us —

RUSH: Oh.

CALLER: — we’re not fighting a country.

RUSH: That’s true. They are fighting an ideology. I understand. I get your point there about all of this suck-up has not stopped any of it. That’s my point earlier in the program. Call it whatever you want to call it, we’re sucking up, and it isn’t stopping any of it. What do you call a State Department doing a seminar a couple of months after 9/11 entitled, “Why do they hate us or what have we done to make them hate us? What have we done to cause this?”

By the way, Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, spoke to a schoolmate of Mahmoud Youssuf Abdulazeez. She asked the schoolmate, “Well, does Mahmoud enjoy hunting and other small-town Tennessee activities?” And the schoolmate doesn’t know, “What, what, what, what?” And Andrea Mitchell said, “Were guns a big part of social activities of young Mahmoud?” And schoolmate said, “What are you talking about?” Look, is this kid a typical Southerner?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have been mispronouncing the name of the alleged, we-don’t-know-why-he-did-it shooter in Chattanooga because I’ve got a news story that has it wrong. Yep, I’ve got a news story here from Reuters that spells it Mahmoud, and it’s actually Mohammed. So, you know, I have not been purposely butchering or making fun of the name. I have an incorrect source here. It’s Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez.

So I got two out of three, but again it’s ultimately my fault. I will take the blame. Mahmoud/Mohammed. I have an excuse, but I’m not gonna lay it off on the Drive-Bys. I don’t expect them to be right anyway, so it’s my mistake for not checking in the second place. Anyway just to repeat this because I had to hurry this through the break previously, Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington) got hold of a former classmate of Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez and started asking the schoolmate what kind of things young Mohammed likes to do.

By the way, Mohammed’s family, they’re apparently well to do. Big house, swimming pool. Anyway, Andrea Mitchell said, “Well, did Mohammed enjoy hunting and other small-town Tennessee activities?” Yeah, hunting. “Small-town Tennessee activity.” Like John Kerry went into, I think, Kentucky. “Is this where I get me a hunting license,” during the campaign in 2004. Remember that? “Is this where I get me a hunting license?” The classmate she asked the question kind of cocked his head.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Andrea Mitchell said, “You know! Were guns a big part of activities, social or other activity?” The interviewee said, “What?” And Andrea Mitchell kept prodding him (shouting), “Did he hunt! Did he shoot! Did he have a pickup truck with a gun rack in the back window! Is he a typical Southerner!” Well, she didn’t add that. I actually made that last part up. But that’s what she meant. She did say, “Did he hunt? Did he shoot? Was that just part of small-town Tennessee activity?”

She tried to lay this off on Southern conservative culture. We sit here and laugh at it, but Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington) is laying out the possibility here that this kid, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, was inspired to do what he did because of Southern (which is conservative) culture. That’s what… (interruption) Apparently his parents are well to do. (interruption) Well, it’s a big house. Who knows? (interruption) I don’t know what the mortgage is. (interruption) Well, no, no. No, no. (interruption)

Well, maybe it’s income inequality. But if his family has a lot of money, it would be guilt over the fact they have a lot of money and some of the other hayseeds, the hicks Tennessee don’t. I don’t know. But she might as well just have said, “Does he have any Confederate flag decals anywhere? Have you ever seen him with a Confederate flag anywhere?” Look, you laugh, but I’m telling you that’s what she’s stepping up here with this question.

Why ask if Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was a product of small-town Tennessee activities and culture? ‘Cause you know what Andrea Mitchell thinks of those. Small-town Tennessee? Southern, conservative, hunt, guns, shoot things! Mike McCaul, who is a member of Congress from Texas, chairman of Homeland Security, was on CNN with Wolf this afternoon and made this statement…

MCCAUL: I just got off the phone with the FBI, had a very good briefing with them. I can tell you this: They have opened this case now as a terrorism case, which is very significant. Right now, his communication devices, they’re on the airplane as I speak going to Washington. My assumption is based on my experience, both as a federal prosecutor and as chairman of Homeland Security, and that is: We’ve seen touch of this traffic. There are too many warning signs. The targets are identity to the targets called by ISIS to attack, so my judgment and my experience is this was an ISIS-inspired attack.

RUSH: He’s not waiting for Josh Earnest and the Regime to finish their investigation to figure it out. He’s putting things together things that he knows and has seen as both a prosecutor and chairman of Homeland Security, ISIS-inspired attack. He said, “We’ve seen too much of this traffic. Too many of the warning signs.” Meanwhile, Andrea Mitchell (NBC News, Washington) is trying to lay the blame on Southern culture, and other Drive-Bys are doing similar work.

They’re trying to make it look like the last thing this guy is is an Islamic terrorist. “Nah! (scoffing) That couldn’t possibly be. I mean, we don’t have any alleged motivation yet that would tie it to that. There’s nothing to see here. We don’t even know if he’s a Muslim! Not even sure! Arab, maybe, but we don’t know he’s a Muslim. You’re a bunch of racists jumping to these conclusions. We’re looking at this responsibly. It was probably, you know, the Dukes of Hazzard! We’re gonna find out if he watched that show, and number other things here. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

That’s Mike McCaul again. He’s from Texas.