al Qaeda in Iraq Leader Reported Dead
BECK: All right. If you`ve been watching the final season of "The Sopranos", you know that the tensions between New York and New Jersey families are heating up, and as a result, people are getting wacked. Now the feds investigating organized crime, they don`t mind gangsters killing other gangsters. A little less trash that they have to take out. Something similar happened in the Middle East today. It was reported that the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq had been killed. We`re not exactly sure who pulled the trigger or even if he`s definitely dead yet, but much like the feds in "The Sopranos", as far as we`re concerned, one more dead bad guy, especially a captain like this guy, would be a very good thing. But it doesn`t mean that we shouldn`t be interested in who`s putting out the contracts. Was it a renegade Iraqi, a Sunni militia, a rogue faction within al Qaeda itself? Lots of questions, but in the end, I`m just glad this guy was finally sent to collect his 72 virgins. David Grange, he is a general that served in the United States Army for 30 years. Now CNN analyst. General, you look like a general. I mean, you just...</s>GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN ANALYST: Well, thank you.</s>BECK: You are no -- you`re just no-nonsense, all business here. So let`s get to it. First of all, do you think this guy is dead or alive?</s>GRANGE: I have no idea. But if the perception is that he`s dead, that`s just as good as having him physically dead. As you know, this is a world of disinformation and psychological warfare, so it`s good.</s>BECK: This guy is -- he was much worse than al-Zarqawi. Because this guy had Russian military training. This guy was a military mind, was he not?</s>GRANGE: He was. And he had in-depth training. And -- but there`s many more like him out there that can take his place.</s>BECK: OK. I have to ask you this, and I don`t know if you`re a guy that can answer it. It`s killing me that there`s a $5 million reward on this. What happens if it turns out that they were terrorists that killed him? What happens if it was a rogue, you know, al Qaeda guy and he killed him and he just wants the money to finance al Qaeda, do we have to pay him the $5 million?</s>GRANGE: Well, first of all, we`d have to have proof that he, in fact, is dead in order to give the reward out. If it`s a terrorist organization, then that would be supporting a terrorist organization, which is, again, against our law. And what we say that no one should do. Now if it`s a rogue element that maybe we have been combating in the past, and now they`re collaborating with us and they have killed one of our enemies, so what if we pay the money? I mean, $5 million is well worth getting this guy off the books. So yes, I think we should pay in that case.</s>BECK: There was a story in "the New York times" that I don`t think a lot of people paid attention to that came out this weekend that there are these elements that have been fighting us. And now they`re fighting with us because they have recognized that al Qaeda is the bigger threat instead of the Sunnis or the Shias or the Americans. Is that going to come back and -- I mean, we`re kind of -- the enemy of my enemy is my friend right now, but how do you, once we clear out al Qaeda, if we could in that area, how do we unite them onto, you know, being decent human beings?</s>GRANGE: Well, you know, this is always -- in history, you always have collaborations for convenience. Our adversaries do it, we do it, coalition members do it. If you recall, one of the -- when we started off in helping the Shia, now some of the Shia situation is causing us problems because the influence of Iran. And it`s going to continue to do that. We`re going to do whatever is best for us as we assess the situation now.</s>BECK: OK. You`re a general, so you`ve studied history, where I haven`t, on military affairs. Is there ever a time that that`s really -- that it lasts? For instance, you know, we made friends with the Russians -- enemy of my enemy is my friend -- and look what happened to us. We got the Cold War. I don`t trust the Saudis for a second and we`re friends with the Saudis right now. Looks like they`re starting to turn on us. How do we -- how do we not create more problems? We -- in a way, we trained Osama bin Laden. We kind of helped build Osama bin Laden, because he was the enemy of our enemy.</s>GRANGE: Yes, good point. And in fact, history is full of situations like this where, in fact, as you have the convenience of now, which is important, but you have to look at the second and third order of effects. What is the result of your collaboration right now? I mean, in the future, we could have problems with the Russians again, going back to your example, and I will predict we probably will. We`ve got to do the best we can.</s>GRANGE: Yes. I don`t think -- the Cold War, that wall coming down was almost like David Copperfield. It`s like, don`t look over here. We`re not doing anything over here. I mean, I think these guys are going to come back and bite us in the butt. Who are we really fighting in Iraq now? I mean, you`ve got a guy who was a major in Saddam Hussein`s army. We just caught him. He was coming from Iran into Iraq, and he was the mastermind behind the 7-7 bombing in England and the training over there. Who are we really fighting? Who`s the one that`s really causing us the trouble?</s>GRANGE: You know, it`s not a one. It is definitely a loose network of adversaries. It`s a very convoluted, complex battlefield, shifting alliances constantly, state actors, non-state actors.</s>BECK: Iran?</s>GRANGE: Some were -- worked with us before. Back and forth, and it`s going to continue to be that way. That`s why irregular warfare is so difficult. And why there`s no white and black answers when Congress discusses this and an easy solution. There is none. This is the gray area, and you have to be able to operate in the gray area. In a regular warfare environment, which is very difficult to grasp but we got to do it.</s>BECK: You know, it`s amazing. It`s exactly what the president said that we were going to face right after 9/11. He said it was going to be a war like anything we`ve never seen before and you won`t understand it. General, thanks a lot. Coming up, the global warming hysteria reaches a new low. I`ll tell you what Al Gore`s carbon footprint has to do with death threats. Plus, if you missed the first Democratic primary debate last week, you missed some real entertainment, and I`m not kidding. Former Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Mike Gravel.