Beck revives false claims as part of his bizarre conspiracy theory

Glenn Beck was at his conspiracy theory-slinging best tonight, bizarrely suggesting that the Obama administration is seeking to continue some plot that the Weather Underground started 40 years ago to take over the country. He didn't go into great detail to support his ridiculous theory, but much of what he said the administration is doing now was flatly false.

During his rant, Beck stated:

BECK: If you got somebody now who's gonna say you don't have a right to privacy in your email, you don't have a right to privacy of location. If you're funding a terrorist organization -- not defined, remember, they don't believe in terrorists. We're not fighting a war on terror, so why are they now pushing for -- if you are funding a terrorist organization, you can be held without due process.

First, both the claim that President Obama doesn't “believe in terrorists” and the suggestion that he has not characterized fighting the threat of terrorism as a “war” are false. Beck previously peddled this claim on his radio show, and it wasn't true then, either.

His remark about due process was a little more careful tonight than the previous times he's made similar remarks. He's stated twice before that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan supports holding suspected terrorists without due process. Media Matters documented that in her confirmation hearing as solicitor general, Kagan testified that, when the government detains terrorist suspects indefinitely as enemy combatants during a time of war, it must use a transparent legal procedure that includes “substantial due process.”

Beck didn't mention Kagan this time, but Attorney General Eric Holder, during his January 2009 confirmation hearing, also expressed support for the “due process rights” of suspected terrorists. Beck's claim, once again, is just plain false.