I had forgotten about all of this.  Makes this an important point for those who try to blame everything on Bush.

Do you remember 1987 when the Senators were giving Ollie North such a bad time?  This brings it all into perspective.  I thought you might be interested in this forgotten bit of information.

It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt. Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.  There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning!

He was being drilled by a senator, “did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?”

The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience,

“Isn’t that just a little excessive?”

“No sir” continued Ollie.

“No, and why not?” the senator asked.

“Because the lives of my family and I were threatened sir”.

“Threatened? By whom?” the senator questioned.

“By a Muslim terrorist sir”. Ollie answer.

“Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?”

“His name is Osama bin Laden, sir”, Ollie replied.

At this point the Senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn’t pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn’t. A couple of people laughed at the attempt.  Then the senator continued. “Why are you so afraid of this man?” the senator asked.

“Because sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of”, Ollie answered, “And the Muslims are trying to take over America and destroy it from the inside out and putting their people into our political offices.

“And what do you recommend we do about him?”, asked the senator.

“Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth.”

The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.  By the way, that senator was Al Gore!  Also: Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him.  As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called, “political prisoners”.  However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands.

The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, insisted that all prisoners be released. Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked us by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center.  This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified.