THE O'REILLY FACTOR (20:00)
November 18, 2002 Monday
Now for the top story tonight. Weapons inspectors are now in Iraq, and the showdown is just weeks away. Meantime, a very visible peace movement has formed here in the USA. But wait till you hear who is behind that movement.
Joining us now from Washington is journalist David Corn, who often writes for "The Nation" magazine.
But you wrote this piece for L.A. Weekly. And you say that the Workers World Party, a hardcore communist organization inside the USA, is putting together these peace rallies. Is that true?
DAVID CORN, WASHINGTON EDITOR, "THE NATION": Well, they are leading, they're organizing the peace rallies. And to call them an organization is perhaps giving them too much credit. I doubt they have enough people to fill a telephone booth. They're a very small sectarian political outfit based in New York City. But they're the ones who have sort of put forward, you know, they put up the signs, they rent the buses, they (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a march or protest, a demonstration against the war.
They're not the only ones who do this, but they do that, and they've gotten the biggest crowds so far, because there are, I think, a lot of Americans who are looking for a way to express their opposition to the war...
O'REILLY: OK. But they're not saying...
CORN: ... and this is being taken advantage of.
O'REILLY: ... according to you and your reporting, the Workers World Party, which supports North Korea's dictator Kim Il Jung, wants to abolish private property, I mean, these are hardcore commies, OK?
CORN: Sure, yes, they're a small...
O'REILLY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) exaggerate...
CORN: ... group of them, yes.
O'REILLY: But these people aren't saying it's the Workers World Party, they're using other...
CORN: No, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: ... organizations like ANSWER.
CORN: You know, what they...
O'REILLY: Go ahead.
CORN: Yes, what they do is, they set up other organizations with different names. But in essence, it's the WWP organizers who are putting these rallies together and getting a lot of people -- you know, most people who come to these rallies don't know who's putting them be -- who's putting them on...
O'REILLY: Right, but...
CORN: ... and don't care. But indeed...
O'REILLY: But the big...
CORN: ... it is...
O'REILLY: ... the big group is ANSWER. Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.
CORN: Exactly.
O'REILLY: That's the big group, and that's who -- I talked to Tim Robbins today, he was one of the peace protesters, he's Susan Sarandon's husband, the director and actor, famous in his own right. And he said he didn't know that the Workers World Party...
CORN: I'm sure most, I'm sure that most...
O'REILLY: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CORN: I'm sure most of the speakers at the rallies and 99, 95 percent of the people who attend do not know. And I think that is a problem, because as long as the peace movement is being led in part by this type of sectarian outfit, it's going to have a harder time broadening itself and becoming a bigger movement...
O'REILLY: All right. But if this...
CORN: ... because they throw a lot of things into the mix other than just opposing the war.
O'REILLY: Yes. I mean, they're throwing, they want to overthrow the government and all that. But if you say...
CORN: Right.
O'REILLY: ... that this organization has enough members to fill a phone booth, how do they get the power to run an organization like ANSWER?
CORN: Well, I may -- this may be hard for people to understand, but you don't need a lot of power, you don't need a lot of bodies to put on a march or a demonstration in Washington. You need several dozen people, a couple score maybe, who do the -- get the permits, get the buses, and devote their time and energy 20 hours a day to making this happen.
It doesn't take a lot of people to do this, which is why they're able to sort of jump ahead of the more mainstream peace and religious organizations and get out in front and do this and get a response.
O'REILLY: Well, that makes sense. Now, you finger a guy who is on the board of ANSWER who is on the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- he is one of the board members of the Communist Party too. Forget his name. But you finger him as being really the driver behind all this, right?
CORN: Well, I said there were a few people. At the rally they had here in Washington on October 26, one of the main emcees of the day was a member of the secretariat of the Workers World Party.
O'REILLY: That's the guy.
CORN: Again, I put this in quotation marks because who cares whether they have a secretariat or not? Probably everybody gets to serve on the secretariat at some point. And the spokesperson for International ANSWER is a member of the Workers World Party. You know, it, it, it, it, it's a, it's a problem, I believe, because they have an impact on the agenda and the message at the rally. They're not in favor of inspections on Iraq and I think most...
O'REILLY: No, they like Saddam Hussein.
CORN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: They like him.
CORN: Well, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: But, you know, but look...
CORN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: ... here's the, here's the problem.
CORN: Go ahead.
O'REILLY: Here (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
CORN: Go ahead, Bill.
O'REILLY: ... America are a nation that has freedom of speech and that debate is good, I think it is. And that we want to hear all sides of the story. But when there's subterfuge, as apparently there is here, when...
CORN: Right.
O'REILLY: ... you know, they say 100,000 in Washington, I think it's more like 50,000, when 50,000 people come out with signs and the media is all over it, showing that they want peace, they're against the U.S. intrusion in Iraq, and this is run by, you know, or seeded by an organization that wants complete overthrow of this government and our system, and nobody says it up front, that's wrong. And I'd like...
CORN: Well, I, I, I, I...
O'REILLY: ... I, I, I invited...
CORN: ... I, I, listen, listen, Bill...
O'REILLY: ... Mr. Robbins -- I invited Mr. Robbins to come on this program tomorrow to see if he feels used. See, it was him and Susan Sarandon and Jesse Jackson, Patty Smythe, the singer, and -- was Sharpton there? I think Sharpton was there, too.
CORN: Yes, Sharpton.
O'REILLY: Yes.
CORN: It was Patty Smith.
O'REILLY: Those are the...
CORN: It was not Patty Smythe.
O'REILLY: All right, whatever her name is. I mean, who the heck knows who she is?
CORN: Yes, but, but, but, but the point, the point, the point, the point you raised, Bill, is a, is a legitimate one, it's a good one. And it's -- the fact is that the people there, whether it's 50,000 or 100,000, are not connected to this group, don't advocate these other things...
O'REILLY: They're being used.
CORN: ... but the fact is -- Well, they're being used in a...
O'REILLY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) yes, no...
CORN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
O'REILLY: ... they're being...
CORN: ... it's going...
O'REILLY: ... used by this group.
CORN: ... back and forth each way.
O'REILLY: They're being duped...
CORN: No, no, I don't...
O'REILLY: ... by this group, no question about it.
CORN: I'm not sure, I'm sure they're being duped...
O'REILLY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
CORN: ... in the classic sense of the word. But nevertheless, each side is using the other side. They're using the Workers World Party to give them a forum to show their opposition to the war, and the Workers World Party is using their bodies to show they have...
O'REILLY: You bet...
CORN: ... clout.
O'REILLY: And the Workers World Party, I bet you, took away some cash in this thing, you know, passing that little hat around. All right, Mr. Corn, good reporting. Nobody else reported that. And we appreciate it.
CORN: Thanks, Bill.
O'REILLY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to know about that.
Next on the rundown, say goodbye to the Ten Commandments in Alabama. A federal judge says they are unconstitutional.
And public sex at a public school. Why did Indiana University allow a porn shoot on campus? Right back with those reports.