RUSH: I got a note from a friend who had just watched the open to Greta Van Susteren last night on the Fox News Channel.
Let me read you the note: “Dear Rush: Watching Greta’s opener just now. She has Amy Kellogg, Fox reporterette on from Paris. And Amy Kellogg says that one of the two Kouachi brothers who killed the French magazine people said that he was moved by images of Abu Ghraib.” And my friend sent me this in a state of — two states. He was in a state of panic and also a state of exultation because he’d listened to the program yesterday.
What we had discussed on the program yesterday, the New York Times, if you’ll remember, very, very, very, very worried about a backlash, backlash against Islamists, backlash against Muslims. They were worried that being truthful in the story would create a backlash. We went through all of that. We had a caller yesterday that called to agree with me that I’d made the point, well, here’s the New York Times worried about backlash.
What did they do by publishing the Abu Ghraib pictures? You talk about creating a backlash. They’re out there saying George Bush with Gitmo is a terrorist recruiting tool, here’s the New York Times publishing pictures of what happened at Abu Ghraib, prison in Iraq where we made a pyramid out of terrorists in their underwear, you remember all that. The New York Times published the pictures to expose the Bush administration, to get ’em in trouble. The New York Times posed the pictures to make the United States look bad.
But in effect they also, we have this guy, one of the brothers that shot up the French magazine, “Hey, yeah, it was the pictures of Abu Ghraib that got me all wanting to get involved in this.” And I had to send my friend a reply, I said, “I think you may be looking at this the wrong way.”
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. So my buddy sends me this note, says, “I’m just watching the opening of Greta’s show on Fox and Amy Kellogg reporting from Paris and she says that one of the Kouachi brothers who killed the Charlie Hebdo people was, quote, unquote, moved by images of Abu Ghraib.” And he’d remembered we’d been talking about it on the program yesterday. I chided the New York Times, the New York Times, you know, all worried about backlash, but what the hell did they cause, and here was evidence it.
It wasn’t just New York Times. Every United States media outlet ran — and the Democrat Party made campaign ads out of those photos from Abu Ghraib. And here you now had a terrorist, one of two terrorists that ripped up that magazine, killed 11 people, claiming that he had become militant because of the photos of Abu Ghraib, and this guy said, “See, Rush? They make your point.” 
And I said, “No, no, no, no. I hate to tell you, but you’re looking at this the wrong way.”
By the way, if Amy Kellogg of Fox is reporting it, it means it’s on AP somewhere, and it’s at NBC somewhere. I mean, it wasn’t exclusive to her. This not a put-down of her, but it had to be everywhere, is my point. In fact, it was NBC News.
“During the trial, Kouachi testified that the alleged ringleader, Farid Benyettou, then a 26-year-old preacher, taught him that suicide bombers could die as martyrs.” These guys wanted to die as martyrs today. Well, but no, wait a second, now. Wait a second. Wait just second. They wanted to die as martyrs. No, I’ve not lost my place on Abu Ghraib, folks. Just sit tight, folks. My brain goes in 15,000 different directions at once. They want to die as martyrs but France doesn’t have the death penalty.
The cops had to shoot them. But the French don’t like the cops shooting guns. It was a real problem. And finally the cops shooting the terrorists won the day. And they theoretically got to go out as martyrs, but it had to happen. They couldn’t be captured if we were gonna let them go out the way they wanted to, and it appears that’s what we’re gonna do. Anyway, just an interesting sideline to the “I want to go out as a martyr” story. France doesn’t have the death penalty so that meant the cops are gonna have to step up and, you know, start the journey to 73 virgins.
Anyway, I told you my friend, you’re looking at this Abu Ghraib story all wrong. One of these guys that blew up the magazine claims he was inspired or angered or whatever, motivated to join jihad because of this. I said, “You wait a couple days after whatever’s going on here finishes,” and I’m gonna make the same prediction to you right now, it’s what I told him last night. Okay, we’ve got an end to this now. The two terrorists are dead, four hostages dead, but this episode ’til the next one happens is now at its end. That means the retrospectives will begin by the time Sunday shows come around. And a clear and reasoned look back with now the smoke having cleared, the dust having cleared, and now the brilliant analysts will be able to tell us what really happened and why what really happened really happened. And who was behind it.
I’m gonna tell you, because this clown said — it’s almost like he had a line into the Democrat National Committee. Because what’s gonna happen here is, the media and the Democrat Party and Obama, if he chooses to, are going to seize on this terrorist citing Abu Ghraib photos as an opportunity to blame this event at Charlie Hebdo on George W. Bush. Don’t smirk. You’re sitting in there thinking it will never happen. You’re sitting in there thinking, no way, ain’t gonna happen. Do you really think that it’s not gonna happen? Wait ’til the dust clears and wait ’til the emotion subsides and wait ’til these people on the left realize what they got.
They’ve got a terrorist — go back to the original reason they said they published the Abu Ghraib photos, to show how horrible the US was. And how we were sacrificing and way beneath our values. And this is why the world hated us. Okay. So we now have a terror event which has captured the world and paralyzed the world for two or three days, and one of the terrorists involved said he only did it because of the photos at Abu Ghraib. You don’t think the Democrat Party and the American media, when they realize it, are gonna seize on this and blame it on the War on Terror? Do you think they’re gonna blame this on Al-Qaeda in Yemen? Do you think they’re gonna blame this on Sheik Awlaki? They’re gonna blame this on militant Islam?
They’re gonna blame this on the war on terror. They’re gonna blame this on the war in Iraq. They’re gonna blame this on the war in Afghanistan. If it’s Abu Ghraib that made the guy do what he did, well, who did Abu Ghraib? George W. Bush. US military. You want to make a bet? I’ll tell you what it’s not gonna be. It’s not gonna be people realizing, “You know what? The New York Times is responsible for this. They published those Abu Ghraib pictorials pictures.”
The New York Times created this backlash. That’s what really happened. We didn’t publish those pictures. But the Democrat Party, the media, the opposition to Bush was intent on doing so. Obama hasn’t stopped blaming Bush for the economy or a whole bunch of other things. Why should he? This is made to order for him. And my friend last night wrote back, said, “You know, I hate to say, you’re right. I was looking at it as a win.” I said, “Well, it could be, but not with our media, not with the Democrat Party.” Keep a sharp eye.