Sorry to say that this is one of those urban legends which has been around. The incident did take place but Ollie gave the name of some Sheikh whose name escapes me at the moment. The story was suitably changed by some media hack after Sept 11. best wishes Mike in Jeddah Saudi Arabia (the home of you know who) ----- Original Message ----- From: George Elting To: GEN-FRIENDS-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 11:23 PM Subject: [GEN-FRIENDS] FW: 14 Years Ago Just another soggy Seattle Sysop. Do you remember this? It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they played 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 some senator; "Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?" Ollie replied, "Yes, I did, Sir." 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 terrorist, sir" Ollie answered. "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 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. If anyone is interested, the senator was none other than Al Gore. ==== GEN-FRIENDS Mailing List ==== Visit List General Archives at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GEN-FRIENDS ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.309 / Virus Database: 170 - Release Date: 18-Dec-01