BILL O'REILLY: And in the "impact" segment tonight, a new Bin Laden video and audio released today on the anniversary of 9/11. And that should make everybody furious because he is taunting us.
Terrorist still has his beard dyed black. I guess he goes to the beard club for men. He's wearing the same clothes he wore in last Friday's video and basically said one of the 9/11 killers was a good guy and all young men should imitate him.
Joining us now from Washington, Jonathan Schanzer, the author of the book, "Al Qaeda's Armies: Middle East Affiliate Groups and the Next Generation of Terror."
You know, I don't care what Bin Laden says in these stupid videos. Should I?
JONATHAN SCHANZER, TERRORISM ANALYST: You could care a little bit, Bill, for really two reasons. One, he's still alive. And he's taunting the United States. And for every day that he's alive, it is a victory for al Qaeda and for radical Islamists around the world. They're going to say, hey, you know, the United States has the strongest military in the world and they still can't get this one guy who's hanging out in the cave somewhere and was (INAUDIBLE). That's number one.
The other reason why we might want to be worried right now is because there may be a message embedded in these messages -- in these videotapes that he sends out. The idea might be that there's a sleeper cell somewhere in the United States and that something that he says inside those videos might activate somebody here in the U.S. or somewhere else around the world.
O'REILLY: OK, it's an interesting point.
SCHANZER: Other than that, I don't think that these...
O'REILLY: Yes.
SCHANZER: So other than that, Bill, I don't see anything else.
O'REILLY: But that would make an argument, Mr. Schanzer, if anybody was worried about, you know, a message activating anything, the media shouldn't show it at all. You should just ignore it.
SCHANZER: Exactly.
O'REILLY: Because this guy's a kook. Do you think we should?
SCHANZER: I think that there's a great argument for not showing it. I mean, I think that, you know, I've been calling this Bin Ollywood videos for some time. You know, I think this a megalomaniac here, a guy that likes to see himself in the headlines . He likes to show up in the American media. It makes him, I think, feel important. It makes him still feel like he's in charge of a powerful network when I really think that he's not. And for that reason, we might think twice about airing him on American media.
O'REILLY: So you feel that his power has waned in the past six years?
SCHANZER: Absolutely. I think that when the 9/11 attacks were launched, he was in charge of a network. And he would dole out money. And he would provide instructions.
I think right now, the network that he's set up, you know, he set up basically a bunch of franchisees, these franchises now operate independently of Bin Laden largely. You've got attacks going on in Algeria and Yemen, all over the place in Iraq, some in Afghanistan. And I doubt that any of these are at his behest.
O'REILLY: All right. So he's just the symbolic fixture of the hatred and homicide that al Qaeda embraces. And now you've got all these franchisees doing his dirty work. Now it's interesting because if you look at the tape and you analyze it, it's very Americanized. And he has an American working with him, does he not?
SCHANZER: He does, a guy named Adam Gadahn, who is from California, used to be a heavy metal rock album contributor. He would write reviews on heavy metal albums and somehow converted to Islam in I think the early '90s and now works side-by-side with Bin Laden. Has a pretty slick media production. And this is what you're seeing.
Actually, what's interesting is that the message from a couple of days ago is very similar to the messages that Adam Gadahn talked about, you know, two and three years ago. He issued his own messages on the anniversaries of 9/11. And the writing is extremely similar. If you analyzed who he talks about, he talks about the author, Michael Scheuer, who was a CIA analyst. In the past, he's talked about analyst Steven Emerson and Daniel Pipes. You know, these messages show a pretty good understanding of American culture. And I think that Adam Gadahn's hand is behind this.
O'REILLY: OK. Last question for you, you said at the beginning that the United States military can't get to Bin Laden. It's not that you can't get him, they won't get him because to invade where they believe he is, Pakistan, would then set a charge throughout that country, which might overthrow Musharraf, who's pro-American in name anyway. And that's why they don't go in there. Plus, it'd be a blood bath, because you'd have to fight. If you read "Lone Survivor," you know the terrain and what the U.S. military's up against there with thousands of tribesmen going to fight them.
So it's not a matter of can, it's won't, is it not?
SCHANZER: Well, I mean, I think it is. And I think there are a lot of political considerations that Washington is weighing right now, but I still think that we do have the strongest military in the world. We've got incredible technology. We've got guys that I think could target people from hundreds of meters away. They wouldn't even necessarily have to be in hand to hand combat...
O'REILLY: No, I think we'd do if we could. You know, from all my information, if they could get them, they would get them. Mr. Schanzer, thanks very much. We appreciate it.