AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): The Muslim Brotherhood could soon be labeled a terrorist organization. The New York Times is reporting that the White House is looking to sanction the group, which has members across the Middle East. Some critics think this goes too far but our next guest disagrees, saying this should have been done years ago. Aaron Cohen joins us now, he's a former member of Israel's special operations counter-terrorist unit and the founder of Cherries, a leading manufacturer of law enforcement products for terrorism readiness. Good morning to you, Aaron. Thanks for being with us again.   

AARON COHEN (FORMER ISRAELI SPECIAL OPS AGENT): Good morning Ainsley.

EARHARDT: Good morning. So if this is true, if the White House is trying to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, what does this mean for Americans? 

COHEN: Well, it means that Americans are going to be significantly safer because the Muslim Brotherhood is probably one of the most sophisticated terror networks in the world and probably in the history of terrorism. The way they operate, Ainsley, is through a series of very complicated public relation subpockets where they essentially set up offshoots in various Middle Eastern countries for one specific reason: It's in order to establish a dominant Islamic Sharia foundation for the country to be run. And what that means is that nationalism is out, off the table, and Sharia law now rules the day which means that terrorists have a safe country for which to continue to harvest future potential suicide bombers, future potential active shooters and essentially to continue to exploit the novelty of terrorism as it relates to the Middle East. So they're very complicated. They are very, very dangerous. And Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is the current leader of Al Qaeda, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. So legally it's very important for the president to get his stamp on this group as a terror organization for, what I believe, the purpose of U.S. national security.

EARHARDT: Well when there is terrorist attack, ISIS many times, if they say they are responsible, they come right out there and say it. So why would the Muslim Brotherhood, why would they deny these accusations? Why do they say no, we are a safe group, we support democracy? 

COHEN: Well, because it allows them to operate in a vanguard and that's a very important thing to remember with terrorists. That the macro-picture of terrorism, the big picture, is for these terror groups to be able to operate in the vanguard quietly behind the camera, away from the lenses, building schools, building mosques where more incitement and more recruitment can happen and staying out of that spotlight and so let me give you an example: Hamas is an off shoot, splinter terrorist group which has legally already been labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States and by the international community and the Muslim Brotherhood openly supports them. Now, regardless of their beef with Israel, the fact is they have been labeled a terror organization. So, what does that say about the Muslim Brotherhood if they fail to condemn Hamas? It means that the Muslim Brotherhood wants to pick and choose who they think is good and bad levels of terrorism. They need to be classified immediately. 

EARHARDT: Well Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE designated Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. We will have to find out if we're going to follow suit. The president did meet with the Egyptian president on April 9 and maybe this is a result of that conversation. 

COHEN: If [Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi is calling them a terrorist organization, they are a terrorist organization, period.

Related:

NY Times: Is the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group?

Previously:

Fox & Friends warns of Muslim “enclaves in the West” and the need to replace Americans with “our own babies”

Fox's Jeanine Pirro says Rep. Omar's hijab may mean that she's against the Constitution

Jeanine Pirro’s history of anti-Muslim attacks