Oliver North on Islamic Terrorists and WMD

CBN.com – Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is a highly decorated ex-U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran, and former coordinator for the National Security Council. He is now a newspaper columnist and the host of the award-winning television series “War Stories” on Fox News.

North has written a new book called “The Assassins,” dealing with the scenario of radical Islamic terrorists acquiring WMD. An Iranian-directed terror movement aims first for the lifeblood of the U.S. economy – oil. They successfully cut off the oil supply, bringing America to its knees. North recently spoke with Lee Webb to discuss just how realistic this scenario might be.

LEE WEBB: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is joining us from New York to talk about his latest book "The Assassins."

LIEUTENANT COLONEL OLIVER NORTH: It does deal with…the strong likelihood that any Iranian leader is going to acquire nuclear weapons and then use them to further their gains for a caliphate - the Islamic political military religious theocracy in what they describe as the holy lands. Their religious heritage, if you will. It is also interesting that you see them working very hard not just with the Shia, but also with Sunni radicals like you have seen along the Lebanese border with Israel. So the Iranian possibilities, which is what much of the assassins are about, is something that we need to be concerned about right now. Don’t wait until it happens, as this book posits we’ve done.

WEBB: Are you convinced we are prepared to deal with that threat?

NORTH: Not at all. I’m not sure that relying on the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is going to be the way to go, because they have proven themselves totally inept at keeping India, Pakistan –[and] we know the Libyan program – from confessions from Kaddafi - was well under way without them knowing it. The North Koreans already have nuclear weapons, the Iranians have been lying to the IAEA for at least 15 years, and currently have, by everyone's estimate, the ability to make or acquire nuclear weapons.

WEBB: Let me put you in the place of General John Abizaid in prosecuting this war in Iraq. Let's make that promotion and put the four stars on you right now - you're calling the shots. What changes would you make in dealing with the current insurgency in Iraq?

NORTH: I would do more of what we’re doing right now, and that’s this big operation out in the West. I was out there to cover that kind of operations a few weeks ago for Fox News. In fact, the unit that Vice President Cheney welcomed back to Camp Lejeune just yesterday was the unit that I was with, the 25th Marines. I would do more of that. Every time I go back, Lee, I see that they're better prepared, particularly the Iraqis, to step up and provide for their own security. So what we need to be doing is more training of the Iraqis, get them out in front. And make sure that at some point in the not-too-distant future, probably after the election in December, the U.S. can back off.

WEBB: Do you think we're headed for a military showdown with Iran?

NORTH: It doesn't have to be a military showdown. There has to be something done to prevent the kind of scenario in this book. That is the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons, using them to extort and intimidate and coerce the United States, particularly given that Iran could indeed become the big oil power in the Middle East. They’re very concerned about a democratic Iraq on their west, in Afghanistan on their east. They have internal dissent with the youngest students of the country. They look at Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabi money as an opportunity, and they're trying to advance that caliphate. They want that theocratic and military leadership. They want to drive Judeo-Christian values out of their region.

WEBB: Would a terrorist attack like you describe in your book be worse than a natural disaster like these hurricanes?

NORTH: Well, let me take everybody to the flashback from both New Orleans, and then later on with Rita from Houston. I mean, we had lines and lines of cars. You have gasoline over $3 a gallon. If it were $6 or $12 and it’s autumn as it posits in this book in 2007, and all of a sudden you can't heat your house for wintertime, where do you go to stay warm? How do you handle the exodus of people coming out? Then what is the broader government program for dealing with adversary, the likes of which you have got in that scenario that you just reported on?

WEBB: Oliver North, the book is called "The Assassins.” This is a trilogy. Any more books?

NORTH: God has given me the ability to write and blessed me with this book. I believe that Peter Newman is going to live for a long time.

WEBB: I'm a big fan of your war stories on Fox Network. You’re continuing those?

NORTH: Oh, yeah. This weekend's show is Okinawa, the biggest military opposition. People don't know that because they think of Normandy, but that's this weekend's show. I get to sit there with the heroes or the eyewitness participants who actually did these things and let them tell their story.

WEBB: Thank you, Ollie North for being with us.

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