Tonight, Bill O'Reilly announced that he was going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow and would force ABC to cover vague allegations that a “former associate of Imam Rauf” is a 9/11 Truther.

There are a couple of important points about these allegations. The first is that no one has provided any evidence at all that Rauf himself is a Truther. [See update below.]

The second is that Fox News has much closer ties to Truthers than Rauf allegedly does.

* Andrew Napolitano, a Fox host and judicial analyst who has appeared dozens of times on Glenn Beck's show and six times on O'Reilly's own show, has used his Fox platform to promote and praise at least two prominent 9/11 truthers: Alex Jones and Jesse Ventura. As we wrote:

Napolitano has used his FoxNews.com show to praise and promote two of the most visible leaders of the 9-11 Truth movement, Alex Jones and Jesse Ventura. On Freedom Watch last month, Napolitano called guest Ventura a “champion of exposing government fraud and lies,” and promoted Ventura's belief that the government either “participate[d]” in 9-11 or “knew it was going to happen and didn't do very much to stop it.”

Napolitano also hosted “the great” Jones to push anti-government conspiracy theories about one-world government and his DVD The Obama Deception, which describes Obama as a “hoax” by the New World Order to impose “forced National Service, domestic civilian spies, warrantless wiretaps, the destruction of the Second Amendment, FEMA camps and Martial Law.”

Napolitano is a regular guest on Jones' radio program. Napolitano has called the self-described 9-11 Truth “founding father” a “dear friend” who “we go to” because of “your zeal and your courage and your fearlessness in exposing” the government. Napolitano does not discuss 9-11 Truth conspiracies with Jones in available online videos, and Napolitano indicates in his book Lies the Government Told You that he does not believe the government carried out the 9-11 attacks.

* Andrew Breitbart has made scores of guest appearances on Fox, and his work is frequently promoted by that network. Michael Moriarty, a frequent contributor to Breitbart's websites, is a 9/11 truther and an Oklahoma City truther. As we wrote:

A frequent contributor to Andrew Breitbart's websites said he believes that the September 11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing were inside jobs, and suggested he'll feel “comfort” when President Obama is killed.

Appearing on the radio program Deadline Live in February 2007, Michael Moriarty, who played assistant district attorney Ben Stone on Law and Order, was asked by host Jack Blood if he believes “that 9-11 had fingerprints of [an] inside job.” Moriarty responded with his “theory” that before 9-11, President “Bush talked to the Bin Laden family in Riyadh” and said he needed “probable cause” to invade Iraq; the “Bin Ladens,” in turn, told Bush that “we'll give you probable cause.” When asked if he had any doubt that the Oklahoma City bombing was an “inside job,” Moriarty replied: “None! There were two seismic reports of explosions, there were no federal -- there were no children of federal employees in the building at the time in the daycare center, and the ATF were nowhere to be found.”

UPDATE: Not only is there absolutely no evidence that Rauf is a Truther, Rauf made clear in his 2004 book What's Right With Islam that he believes that September 11 is an example of a “suicide bombing committed in the name of Islam”:

Applying Durkheim's insights to the phenomenon of suicide bombing committed in the name of Islam, and in particular the suicide bombings in Israel and those of September 11, and those in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kenya and in Iraq, we can reasonably infer the following. [Page 146 of the paperback edition]

This is why sincere Buddhists do not regard Aum Shinrikyo as a genuine expression of Buddhism, any more than sincere Muslims regard September 11 as a genuine expression of Islam. [Page 134]

The burning question is how the horror of September 11 occurred in the name of Islam, and Americans legitimately fear that Islamic values seem to be inherently hostile to Western and democratic values. [Page xix]