What a hero!

Dana got a copy of the viral email with these details:

  
  
  
 
It was 1987 and Lt.Col.Oliver North was 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?’ 

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. 

… By the way, that senator was Al Gore! 

Does that sound like right-wing alarmist turd slinging?

It is.

North himself debunked this email and laid out the facts in 2001:

it was $16,000, not $60k

it was lawyer John Nields, not Al Gore

the terrorist was Abu Nidal, not bin Laden (who was on the US paycheque at the time)

Snopes