On the August 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly asserted that “the Bush administration is in a war not only with the terrorists, but also with the far left in this country.” Discussing the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program, which was recently struck down as unconstitutional by a federal district court judge, O'Reilly described the “far left” as the “fifth column in this country.” According to Webster's dictionary, a “fifth column” is “a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders.”

From the August 21 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: [Caller], New York City, go.

CALLER: Bill, great show. I love listening to you.

O'REILLY: Thank you.

CALLER: Just wanted to clarify something on your NSA wiretap situation.

O'REILLY: Hmm-hmm.

CALLER: Most people own one cell phone. They have one phone line, and if something was heard on that line, you'd go and say, “Bill O'Reilly's the guy who mentioned the word Brooklyn Bridge. I want to tap his cell phone and his home phone.” What most of them don't realize is that people engaging in clandestine operations, they'll have 1,000 cell phones; and they won't be in their name. They'll be saying this conversation, you know, on a phone today and then another phone tomorrow and another phone the next day. And they don't use the same piece of equipment all the time.

O'REILLY: Yeah, all I'm saying -- I -- look --

CALLER: They use thousands and thousands of different ones.

O'REILLY: -- and the NSA knows that. Look, I am obviously, obviously not opposed to the NSA program. I want the program because I believe that it helps protect you and me, [caller], from being killed. All right? You're in -- from New York City. I'm from New York City. We know first-hand what happens. So, I am obviously for the program.

All I'm saying is that if there's any way at all the Bush administration could, after the fact, go to the FISA court and say, “Here's what we did this week,” and get warrants, then I would do that to give the far left problems in what they're trying to do. You make -- look. The Bush administration is in a war not only with the terrorists, but also with the far left in this country. It's the third column in this -- fifth column in this country. Third column -- I'm thinking about third rail. It's the fifth column in this country, and that fifth column doesn't believe the war on terror is real or believes it's our fault. And if only we would sit down and talk and be nice, that it would all go away.

So, the Bush administration fights two wars. And I am so flabbergasted that so many Americans don't understand the danger, you know, and I listen to them and I see them and you talk to them. Most of them don't pay attention. The good news is that they aren't, you know, real conversant in these subjects. They just -- you know -- they're watching junk TV; they're going to every soccer game their kid has. They're just enveloped in their own little world. They don't know. But those people vote, too; they vote, too. And they're just picking stuff up off the fly and the fly is the Bush administration is making a lot of mistakes -- and the truth is the Bush administration has made a lot of mistakes.