Did you know the Al Gore/Ollie North/Bin Laden email was a HOAX???

Question

Within weeks of 9/11 an email began circulating from an anonymous author that claimed to have "stunning" information. They claimed that Oliver North had warned Congress as far back as 1987 that Osama Bin Laden was "the most evil man alive" and had said, "I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to elminate him and his men from the face of the earth." The message went on to state that the senator questioning North was Al Gore. The email then asserts that 9/11 could have been prevented if only Gore had listened to North. Except that it WASN'T GORE questioning North. It was the Iran-Contra investigative committees lawyer John Nields. Al Gore wasn't even a member of the Iran-Contra investigative committee. This is all just a nice, warm, cozy, little fairy tale conservative Republicans like to tell themselves before bedtime. And it's ALL A LIE!! (www.factcheck.org)

Answer 1

Not to mention the fact that North never mentioned Bin Laden, obviously since Bin Laden was a fairly obscure nominally pro-U.S. fighter against the USSR at the time, and North has subsequently said as much.

But it sounds so good to many Cons that they repeat it regularly on this site (sort of like the one where they claim Gore says he invented the Internet).

Answer 2

I answered a similar question here in Y/A many months back. Yes it was a hoax. All you need to have is a keen sense of historical facts about the Middle East to know this.

In 1987, during the Iran-Contra deal investigations when Oliver North testified during those hearings, Osama Bin Laden was an unknown guerilla fighter waging war at the time against the Russians in the Soviet-Afghan War. He was one of the Mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan fighting against the Russian occupation. How could Oliver North have said at the time that Osama Bin Laden was the most evil man alive?. Oliver North had never been in Afghanistan nor met Osama Bin Laden face to face during that period. How could Oliver North purportedly recommended that an assasination team be formed to eliminate a virtually unknown Bin Laden, considering that Ronald Reagan himself (the president at the time) even praised the Mujahedeens as freedom fighters who got the guts to face the Soviets?. The CIA even supplied the Mujahedeens and other Afghan groups with weapons in their fight against the Soviets (the US considered them as allies at the time).

Osama Bin Laden founded Al Qaeda much later (only in 1991), after the First Gulf War (when Bush Sr was the president). He declared a jihad against the US many years later and only made a name for himself after he attacked the US embassies in Tanzania (South Africa) and the USS Cole (when Clinton was the president).

Answer 3

Yes, I knew that. Heard the rumor a long time ago. But I didn't hear the rumor from any republicans. It was on some mass e-mail that a conspiracy theorist liberal friend of mine sent me and she swore it was true. I then went to snopes.com where I saw it was debunked.

Answer 4

Mmmmm such fascinating information from SIX YEARS AGO

Answer 5

yes we know. Took you this long?