Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor
2 de marzo de 2005
Spain Resists Assisting U.S.
Bill O'Reilly
O'REILLY: In the "unresolved" problem segment tonight, Spain used to be a staunch ally of the USA. Its former prime minister, Jose Aznar, was a close friend of President Bush and really helped us out in the war on terror.
But the new Spanish leader, Jose Lewis Zapatero, is a Socialist, anti-American guy. And now come charges that his government held back intelligence that al Qaeda may have been targeting New York's Grand Central Station, intelligence gathered during the Madrid bombing investigation.
Joining us now from Washington is Pablo Parto, the correspondent for the newspaper, "El Mundo," which broke the story. We have advanced the story a little bit. FOX News has learned from government sources it took Spanish government eight months to pass along the Grand Central Station information. Eight months, sir. That's outrageous. And nobody over here is very happy about it.
PABLO PARDO, EL MUNDO CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, the thing that it took eight months for the Spanish authorities to discover that among the information they have -- there were several drawings and several - and some information about New York's Central station. Once they discovered it, they immediately told the U.S...
O'REILLY: Are you buying that?
PARDO: ...the substance of this.
O'REILLY: Because U.S. intelligence isn't buying that at all. They're buying that it held - they held it back.
PARDO: No. I'm buying it, because I know the whole story. And I've been talking with my sources in Spain and the justice department of Spain. And, I mean, I think this is - extremely clear example of lack of competence in fighting against terrorism. It's like anyone here in the United States, the effect is renew the visas to the 9/11 terrorists one year after that.
O'REILLY: No, listen, I can't defend U.S. intelligence, believe me.
PARDO: No, no.
O'REILLY: And they paid a heavy price. But...
PARDO: Yes.
O'REILLY: ...I'm skeptical about this. And I'll tell you why I am. Because Spain has been very, very anti-U.S. for the past year. And in fact, the survey just taken says Spain is the most anti-U.S. country in Western Europe now, sir. So...
PARDO: Which survey is that?
O'REILLY: An Associated Press survey of all European countries.
PARDO: But it's based on the public opinion or?
O'REILLY: Yes. Public opinion.
PARDO: Public opinion. Yes, of course. I mean, public opinion, there's a strong anti-American sentiment in Spain right now. Unfortunately, that's right.
But I mean, one thing -- let's say that the current government doesn't have an extremely good relations with United States or very good relation with the United States. And something really different is that the government was withdrawing information about the terrorist attack which could be a total massacre in New York.
O'REILLY: All right. But this new president you have, Zapatero, he doesn't like the United States. He doesn't like our system. He doesn't like our aggressive posture against world terrorism, against dictators like Saddam. He doesn't like any of it. So why should we trust you guys?
PARDO: Well, I mean, Zapatero, or let's say the Socialist party, is not particularly close to the United States.
O'REILLY: Right.
PARDO: But you shouldn't forget, for instance, that the main economic advice of Zapatero, who has a PhD in economics in the University of Minnesota. And he's an advocate of a flat-tax rate.
So of course, I mean, the Spanish Socialist party and the Spanish left tends to be closer to Germany and France. And the conservatives in Spain, the right, tend to be much closer to Britain and the United States. I mean, this is no doubt about it.
O'REILLY: All right. So you -- let's sum up. You don't believe that the Spanish intelligence services held back information about the Grand Central Station drawings that they got from al Qaeda? You don't believe they held it back intentionally?
PARDO: Yes, I don't believe so. I believe they were extremely incompetent in their investigation.
O'REILLY: All right. Well, maybe they can be recruited. No, I'm not going to cheap shot our intelligence. We've improved here, Mr. Pardo. We have improved it. All right, thanks very much for coming on the program. We appreciate it, sir.
Plenty more ahead as "The Factor" moves along this evening. A teacher in trouble after disciplining a student who refused to stand for the national anthem. And this is all on tape. You're going to want to stay and hear this.
And a "Factor" exclusive. We have obtained the autopsy of murdered baby Destiny Ash. It is not good news for Atlanta D.A., Paul Howard, who has attacked us for our investigation on this baby. We hope you stay tuned for those reports.
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que opinais?.
