In the latest example of Fox News using the Boston Marathon bombings to politicize and hate monger, Greta Van Susteren teamed up with Allen West to twist the news that the Tsarnaev suspects received welfare into unfounded suggestions that other welfare recipients are terrorists, too.

It’s disturbing that Van Susteren would have turned to a guy like West as the sole guest for this discussion. West isn’t just an extreme right-winger but a hate monger extraordinaire. So there’s simply no good reason for the supposedly liberal, or at least moderate, Van Susteren to trot him out at a time when she should be working to promote calm and restraint. Especially since West, a former Congressman from Florida, is hardly in a position to know anything about welfare recipients or terrorists in Massachusetts. Except for the fact that he’s yet another of Fox News’ African American black attackers.

Just in case viewers didn’t get the hint, FoxNews.com called the video, “Are more potential terrorists getting food stamps?” Banners on the screen read, “LAWMAKERS DEMAND ANSWERS ON TERROR WATCH LIST WELFARE RECIPEINTS IN MA,” ‘TAXPAYER-FUNDED TERROR?” and “NEW CALLS TO PURGE WELFARE ROLLS OF PEOPLE ON TERROR WATCH LIST.”

“How much are we looking at these watch lists to see whether or not there’s sort of double dipping? You’re on a terror list and you’re getting welfare benefits?” Van Sustern asked the guest who almost surely would have no idea. 

Not that that stopped him from attacking opining. Noting the “explosion” of food stamp recipients, West said, “You have to start asking yourself, you know, are these people that are legitimately on these programs?” Not whether or why poverty might have increased to such a great extent, but how we should suspect the recipients.

One of the things that we need to start looking at is do we have people that are here illegally? Do we have people that are here on the terrorist watch list… that are receiving these benefits that they shouldn’t receive?

And then also, Greta, let’s be very honest. There’s a little bit of a theocratic ideological aspect to this There’s a Muslim cleric over in the U.K. …and he basically said that they should come to these western countries as he is doing in the U.K. and receive his social welfare benefits to the tune of $39,000 himself because that is a jihad-seeker’s allowance. …So we need to be very careful and understand the effects that this has on our budget and our debt but also understand the theocratic ideological aspect of it as well.

Rather than try to quell the deliberate fear mongering, Van Susteren piled on. She called it “particularly troubling… whether or not we’re paying terrorists so they can be home instead of working, they can be home putting together these pressure-cooker bombs. She continued by complaining, “For the life of me, I can’t figure why we can’t take a watch list and cross-reference it with a welfare recipient.”

By the way, neither of the Tsarnaev brothers received direct welfare benefits and neither were receiving benefits at the time of the bombings.