This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes”, May 11, 2004, that has been edited for clarity.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Joining us now, the host of “WAR STORIES,” retired Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who served on the National Security Council under President Reagan and who’s seen his share of international crises.
Ollie, welcome to the show once again.
What do you make of the father of Nick Berg saying, had he not been detained by the United States he might be alive today?
LT. COL. OLIVER NORTH, HOST, “WAR STORIES”: I think the father of any young man 26 years old, murdered as brutally as his son was, is going to be an excuse for saying almost anything. I mean, I know I’d have devastated by it.
Here is a more important question, Alan. Is where is the outcry from all of these international observers? Where is the ICRC and the Red Crescent and all these sheikhs and imams and mullahs who have been so adamant about, “atrocities” being perpetrated at this prison? Where is their outcry? Where is the human cry against someone doing this in the name of Allah? That’s what they did.
COLMES: I agree with you and I would hope that Islam comes forward. Those who practice peaceful Islam say this is not what we represent, what we do.
NORTH: Let me suggest you not hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
COLMES: Before we rush to judgment, look…
NORTH: Wait a second, rush to judgment? There ought to be a judgment.
COLMES: I agree with you.
NORTH: There ought to be a judgment rendered by the international community, by every American, by those who may be opposed to this war, Alan.
The fact is, what we’re up against is that kind of brutality, the same kind of thing that resulted in four Americans being hung from a bridge.
COLMES: What should be the official response of the United States?
NORTH: The official response of the United States is to catch and punish the perpetrators of this heinous act. That’s what we must do.
COLMES: And there certainly has been outrage. There’s been outrage in this country. There’s outrage globally. You don’t feel there’s enough outrage about this? I’ve been hearing outrage all day.
NORTH: Alan — Alan, for 13 or 14 days now, all we have seen on the front pages of America’s newspapers is a group of obviously twisted young people with leashes and weird sex acts, the kind of thing that you might find on any college campus nowadays, being perpetrated by people in uniform.
Interestingly enough, there was no cover-up. This was discovered and investigated by the military. Restorations and reparations were made and repairs to the system.
And this is all being played as though it were the same thing. In other words, there’s a moral parity that’s been created by our media with this very act.
And what you’re seeing today is the kind of thing we’re up against over there. Doesn’t excuse anything that happened in that prison. But what I’m telling you, there is no morally equivalence, and there ought to be outrage.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: We’ve learned the difference between mistreatment, which is wrong, and atrocities. Because this is an atrocity what they did to this guy.
And to further extend on the point that you were making, I haven’t heard — I was looking all day. Show me one Muslim leader that has condemned this.
NORTH: In any country. Any country.
HANNITY: They’re welcome on this program. I invite them right now.
NORTH: Again, I would suggest the same thing to you. Don’t hold your breath. Because what you’re seeing, unfortunately, in today’s world, you are seeing an acquiescence, even on the part of those who would consider themselves to be moderates who are afraid or unwilling to come forward and condemn what is obviously an atrocity.
HANNITY: There was a suggestion that al Qaeda was involved in this. Can I infer from that that al Qaeda is in Iraq? You just got back.
NORTH: No. No, there’s no doubt al Qaeda is there, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, Ansar al-Islam, every terrorist Jihadist group is there. We try to lump them all under al Qaeda as if some guy off in the mountains in between Afghanistan and Pakistan were running it. It’s not.
This is a Jihadist movement that is being supported by every single neighboring country around Iraq. Interestingly enough, to my knowledge, as recently as when I just got back, not one of those suicide terrorists have been Iraqi. They’ve all come from other countries perpetrating that.
HANNITY: I want to talk about the political side of this and I think this should be a public responsibility. Men and women are in harm’s way, and I think politicians ought to show some restraint in their reckless comments.
And we have seen from the beginning Al Gore calling George Bush, saying he betrayed his country and that he preordained this war prior to 9/11.
And similar comments from Ted Kennedy, who suggested that the war was concocted in Texas for political gain.
And Howard Dean saying he knew about 9/11 ahead of time.
All of this culminating with the torture pictures of seven people. A hundred and fifty thousand are there. And these politicians rushing to the cameras and not putting in context the infrastructure being built by the troops, the schools and roads being built, the lives that are better.
NORTH: Unfortunately Sean, what the acts at the prison have done, as the president said yesterday at the Pentagon, is besmirched the reputations of good, courageous, decent soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
They’re the ones hurt the most by those prison pictures. They’re the ones right now who are shocked and revolted. Because we all know the web site has the entire act laid out for people to see.
HANNITY: I’ve seen it. Have you seen it yet?
NORTH: I have.
HANNITY: It is hideous.
NORTH: It is hideous. It is — it is the kind of thing, again, that’s what they are up against.
Again, it doesn’t excuse anything that happened at that prison. But that’s what our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are up against. I’ve seen it consistently in three trips out to Iraq.
And quite frankly, the attitude, deportment, conduct of the good soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines is something under those conditions you just have to admire.
HANNITY: I think prior to today, there might have been some movement in the direction, well, maybe we’re not doing the right thing. Is this a wakeup call?
NORTH: Well, look, this is one of many. I would have thought that the wakeup call…
HANNITY: 9/11.
NORTH: Well, 9/11 with 3,000 dead. We had a wakeup call in Fallujah just before I got there with the murder of four Americans and their bodies hung from a bridge abutment, no apologies, no international probe for those who carried it out. Well, just “We’re shocked.” We ought not be shocked and surprised by this kind of behavior.
COLMES: We’ve got to run.
NORTH: This is what radical Islam…
COLMES: Thanks for being with us.
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