Fox News - Transcript

Interview

MS. HILL: I'm going to be real honest. I'm pretty conflicted about it.

Four years ago, two Georgia boys were sent to Pakistan, by their parents - Americans - to study in, what some say, is a school that teaches radical Islam. Well, the parents now want the kids back and they're running into trouble.

Three congressmen flew to Pakistan last week to discuss the situation with the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharaff. We are joined now by one of them: Texas congressman Michael McCaul. Thank you for being with us.

REP. MCCAUL: Thank you, E.D.

MS. HILL: What happened here? Why can't they - they sent the kids there; why can't they just get them back?

REP. MCCAUL: We travelled to Afghanistan and to Pakistan, met with the president of Pakistan, Musharaff, to talk to him about the war on terror and, specifically, these radical Islamic madrassas that teach children, basically, to hate America.

Now we - I asked the president, head on, about these two American boys who have been held against their will in a madrassa for several years. He told me that the policy of Pakistan was not to include foreigners, and particularly Americans, in these schools. Yet, I called to him the attention of these two American boys.

MS. HILL: Yeah, clearly they're there.

REP. MCCAUL: They're there.

MS. HILL: Well, let me question that a bit because the reason they - and honestly, you know, came to light is because there was a documentary filmmaker who was in there and talked to these boys. I didn't get the sense that he thought those boys were being held against their will. And I certainly understand the parents wanting their kids back - I'd want that, too - but my question is: whether it's safe to bring them back to America. Have they become radicalized?

REP. MCCAUL: I think they'd have to undergo some monitoring, but when you watch the documentary, it's pretty clear they want to come back to the United States. And they are brainwashing a generation over there of potential terrorists. You know, when they - at this particular madrassa, they have a sign says, support the Taliban, on the outside. And the Taliban and al Qaeda use these schools as a recruiting ground to train terrorists.

MS. HILL: All right.

REP. MCCAUL: And they'll take them to the tribal areas on the border of Pakistan-Afghanistan where they train them and they're a direct threat to our troops in Afghanistan, who we met with, and a direct threat to the security of the United States. The next terrorist attack, if it happens, is going to come out of this region.

MS. HILL: That is exactly what I hear. And I also hear that people say it's going to come from somebody from within; somebody who's here. And that's what - that's what, you know, causes this conflict in me because I understand from a parent's perspective, wanting your children back. I do not understand, from any view that I take at it, a parent sending a child overseas, when there are plenty of good mosques here in America, where they can study the Koran - plenty of them - sending them to a radical madrassa with signs like you said, overseas in Pakistan.

Why did they do that?

REP. MCCAUL: I think we have to question the loyalty of this father who would send his kids to such a radical school. And this raises a bigger issue, E.D., and that is: how many more American kids are over in these madrassas? We have about - there are about 20,000 madrassas in Pakistan, currently. This is one of the most radical. According to the religious leader of this madrassa, there are 80 Americans in that school.

MS. HILL: Really?

REP. MCCAUL: When you look at 20,000 across the country, how many more Americans are there who have legal documents to return to the United States? I would argue this is great training ground for the terrorists to train them and then bring them back to the U.S. to plot against the United States.

MS. HILL: Well, Congressman McCaul, obviously, getting these two kids back home, and hopefully some help here at home, is the key issue today. But, it sounds like you've touched on the bigger issue that we in America have to face, tomorrow, and that is: who's over there, from America, people from within who are being radicalized and can easily come back because they are us; they are Americans. It's not the last of this.

Congressman Michael McCaul from Texas, thank you very much.

REP. MCCAUL: Thank you, E.D.

END.

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