Ron Gardner & Lt. Col. Oliver North — Transcript

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1. 0:00foreign
2. 0:04Oliver North writes in his book Under
3. 0:07Fire that the most interesting piece of
4. 0:09evidence not used in his trial was an
5. 0:11audio tape that will now be known as The
6. 0:13Smoking Gun tape because it begins with
7. 0:15an unidentified man saying that line
8. 0:22the tape was supposed to be a routinely
9. 0:24recorded call between workers at two
10. 0:26Citibank offices in New York the second
11. 0:28dialogue between the two unidentified
12. 0:30men was bleeding through from somewhere
13. 0:32else
14. 0:33North says he would guess that one of
15. 0:35the men discussing the existence of
16. 0:37important memos in Reagan's possession
17. 0:38was Ed hickey a former military aide to
18. 0:41President Reagan who has since died but
19. 0:43no one knows for sure the tapers
20. 0:45apparently never heard by the
21. 0:47Congressional committee that
22. 0:48investigated Iran-Contra and it was
23. 0:49never heard by the jury in North's Trial
24. 0:51North writes of a very close working
25. 0:54relationship with former CIA director
26. 0:56William Casey says that Casey taught him
27. 0:58how to set up the procedure for covertly
28. 1:00diverting money to the Nicaraguan
29. 1:02contras because Casey and Reagan were
30. 1:05such close friends North says he can't
31. 1:07believe Casey never discussed the Iran
32. 1:09Contra operation with the president
33. 1:11for this and many other reasons outlined
34. 1:13in his story north says he's sure Reagan
35. 1:15knew what was going on and that the
36. 1:17president abandoned on the battlefield
37. 1:19the men he had enlisted to carry out his
38. 1:21policies quite honestly I think the
39. 1:23president knew and I tell why in this
40. 1:26story if that's frustrating to to those
41. 1:29who say this isn't really the Smoking
42. 1:31Gun in the closet as the tape says or if
43. 1:33it goes too far for those who want to
44. 1:36believe that he didn't know anything I'm
45. 1:38sorry but I will let the American people
46. 1:41choose
47. 1:42once they conclude reading the book
48. 1:44which way it really was
49. 1:46Time Magazine has published excerpts
50. 1:49from North's book in this week's edition
51. 1:50the book itself will be in stores later
52. 1:52this week many Republicans are
53. 1:54speculating that Oliver North intends to
54. 1:55seek political office within the next
55. 1:57few years we'll talk about his plans for
56. 1:59the future and the book in Greater
57. 2:00detail with Oliver North tomorrow night
58. 2:03Ron Gardner Fox News Washington
59. 2:09I believed right from the very start
60. 2:12that everything that I had done whether
61. 2:15it was in support of the Nicaraguan
62. 2:16resistance or in the efforts to recover
63. 2:19the hostages had been fully approved not
64. 2:21only by he or his predecessor but by the
65. 2:25president himself Under Fire is the very
66. 2:27personal story of how efforts by North
67. 2:29Admiral John Poindexter and former
68. 2:31National Security adviser Robert
69. 2:32McFarland to establish a dialogue with
70. 2:35the Iranian government quickly turned
71. 2:37into arms for hostages negotiations in
72. 2:40it North makes it clear he feels they
73. 2:41were all betrayed by President Ronald
74. 2:43Reagan do you hope
75. 2:46or expect that in response to your
76. 2:49writing this story
77. 2:51that he will react in some way
78. 2:54an apology to you to Admiral Poindexter
79. 2:58Bud McFarlane and the others I don't
80. 3:01think it's necessary that anyone
81. 3:02apologized to me I make no apologies for
82. 3:05what's in the book the experiences that
83. 3:08I had have made me a wiser if not sadder
84. 3:11man
85. 3:12I am better for the experience I I know
86. 3:15what I can withstand I also know why I
87. 3:19was able to withstand it no apologies
88. 3:22but the experience has left a mark on
89. 3:24Oliver North
90. 3:25yeah I I very clearly feel that the
91. 3:30certainly for me the most difficult part
92. 3:32of all the things that I did
93. 3:34was the hostage initiative uh meeting
94. 3:37with the families of the hostages
95. 3:39dealing every day with what we knew was
96. 3:42incredible brutality
97. 3:43to this day I anguish over that
98. 3:48the fact that we established a price 500
99. 3:52toes for a human life is to me the the
100. 3:56greatest mistake in which I was involved
101. 3:59is it conceivable to you that that that
102. 4:02those things could have happened without
103. 4:05it being discussed
104. 4:07in the Oval Office
105. 4:10Ron I again I speculate in the book and
106. 4:13and I know from the various things that
107. 4:16were said
108. 4:18that we all anguished over what had
109. 4:23happened uh the The Taking of the new
110. 4:25hostages in the Autumn of of 1986
111. 4:30I don't know who it was that told the
112. 4:33president I'm still convinced that he
113. 4:35was told
114. 4:36uh that doesn't mean that when the
115. 4:40President says today that uh he uh he
116. 4:43necessarily remembers what took place
117. 4:46back then he's a much older man we have
118. 4:49all been through a lot even he has gray
119. 4:51hair like I do now North says there are
120. 4:54lessons to be learned from the Iran
121. 4:56Contra Scandal among them the
122. 4:57president's advisory staff should
123. 4:59include some members of Congress you
124. 5:01know they say it's easier to change the
125. 5:03system from within than from without
126. 5:05which leads me to the question you've
127. 5:07been asked a lot the last few days have
128. 5:09you thought about
129. 5:10entering politics and trying to affect
130. 5:13some of these changes from within the
131. 5:14system well I am I am a big believer in
132. 5:17free enterprise Ron I have found that as
133. 5:21I go out to speak to Corporate America
134. 5:23which I've been able to do over the last
135. 5:26couple of years to encourage them in
136. 5:28difficult times that the principles of
137. 5:31leadership that I learned in the
138. 5:33military are equally applicable in
139. 5:35business
140. 5:36I want to make a success of this
141. 5:39business and we're doing well and I know
142. 5:41we can do better
143. 5:42we make a quality product with quality
144. 5:45American workers I know that can can
145. 5:47still happen in America
146. 5:49if at the end of the the line
147. 5:54I'm able to in some way again serve our
148. 5:57country then I'd be blessed to be able
149. 5:58to do so
150. 5:59but for the foreseeable future North
151. 6:01says the only campaigning he'll be doing
152. 6:03will be for other political candidates
153. 6:05he's now on a grueling book tour that
154. 6:07takes him to 19 cities and England in
155. 6:10the next 30 days Ron Gardner Fox News
156. 6:12Washington