Again calling for law enforcement to “go out to the Muslim communities,” Dietl falsely claimed all 9-11 hijackers “were in this country illegally”

Written by Brian Levy

Published

On MSNBC's Tucker, former New York Police Department detective Bo Dietl falsely claimed that “all the hijackers that came and then bombed [the United States] on 9-11, all of them were in this country illegally.” In fact, all 19 of the 9-11 hijackers reportedly entered the United States legally, though two had overstayed their visas.


Discussing the Department of Homeland Security report “Progress in Developing the National Asset Database” on the July 12 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, former New York Police Department detective Bo Dietl falsely claimed that “all the hijackers that came and then bombed [the United States] on 9-11, all of them were in this country illegally.” Dietl cited the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as evidence that "[w]e have to be able to go out to the Muslim communities ... to identify people" and that “we have to tighten up our borders.” In fact, as reported by the Christian Science Monitor on February 5, 2002, all 19 of the 9-11 hijackers entered the United States legally, though two had overstayed their visas.

As Media Matters for America has noted, Dietl previously claimed that the next terrorist attack would “come from a Muslim person” and that law enforcement should "[g]o into your 7-Elevens or go into one of these stores that keep rotating young men who are Muslims," and say "[i]dentify yourself."

From the July 12 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:

DIETL: You know, they have had dozens of plots against the -- against New York City. We had plots against the subway system. These plots have been broken over the last couple of years since 9-11. And people have to realize, when you have these plots coming to fruition, these are ones we know about. We're not talking about the ones we don't know about today.

And if you think, for any reason, that they're not going to try to come back and hurt us again, New York City, then you've got to be smoking crack. And any of these politicians who don't want to give us money in New York -- you've got the New York City Police Department, headed up by Ray Kelly. You have an intelligence division that has intelligence sourcing now that they are going undercover, and they're getting information before these things occur.

TUCKER CARLSON (host): Are they going undercover in mosques? I mean, what -- the question that no one wants to address in public is what should we do about Muslims in the United States?

DIETL: Well, you know what? Everyone's worrying about our freedom and our rights. I love my freedom. I love my rights. But the fact of the matter is that where the people are going to hurt us are hiding are in Muslim communities. I have nothing against Muslim people, but you have Muslim fanatics that want to kill us. In the Muslim community, of all the hijackers that came and then bombed on 9-11, all of them were in this country illegally. The problem here is we have people that are in our country. We have to be able to go out to the Muslim communities. We have to be able to identify people. If they don't have the right identification, we should ship them out. Then we have to tighten up our borders. You know, we have security technology right now where law-enforcement people can go up to somebody, put their palm print, and know if that person is legally here or not. And if they're not legally here, we've got to ship them out before they start to develop -- we've to get the cancer out of this country.

CARLSON: Well, sure. But that's your solution. I want to read to you a little more of the federal government's solution.