Texas Pages

From the Sept. 29, 2002 Dallas Morning News:

THE RIGHT'S ROCK STAR
Who cares what others think of Oliver North - to his fans he's the Elvis of conservative politics

By MICHAEL GRANBERRY
Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - For those who don't know, Oliver North is a man of the
left. Good Americans around the world have been astonished by this.

"I didn't know he was left-handed," says one of several hundred
fans standing in line at the LifeWay Christian Store on a
sun-dappled day earlier this month. Like everyone else, the man is
eager to get an autographed copy of Mr. North's new novel, Mission
Compromised. It's a Tom Clancy-like thriller inching its way up The
New York Times best-seller list.

Fifteen years after the Iran-Contra hearings made him famous and
infamous, Mr. North is a published author, forever writing down
right-wing thoughts and signing his book with, of all things, his
left hand.

"Isn't that somethin'?" mutters one of several good ol' boys
standing in line. "Ollie North, a lefty. Who woulda thought it?"

Indeed, the silver-haired former Marine is as much of a southpaw as
Sandy Koufax or - perish the thought - Bill Clinton. But as "Ollie"
will happily tell you, the hand he favors is where his tendencies
for the left come to a screeching halt. He's a man of the right and
proud of it, a provocateur whose adoring fans describe him over and
over by using the I-word - integrity.

Even if you don't agree with him, they say, he stands for what he
believes in ... when so few do anymore.

After signing hundreds of copies of his 605-page novel - and being
utterly gracious in the process - Mr. North takes only a few
minutes to relax on his rock-star-like tour bus, last used by Dolly
Parton. The bus bears a giant portrait of Mr. North, while the
sides carry paintings of the book's cover.

His 62-city tour has taken him to Christian bookstores, superstores
such as Costco and Sam's Club and a few traditional bookstores,
whose patrons have welcomed him with open wallets. A recent
appearance in Shreveport, La., drew more than 1,000 buyers.

It's a tour that lets the colonel be the colonel, as only he can.

"I'm willing to sit down and have discussions with someone who
disagrees with me - without being disagreeable," says Mr. North.
"And you know why?"

He pauses for effect, flashing that famous gap-toothed grin that
makes him look younger than his 58 years. Boyish, even. Like the
Eagle Scout he kept telling several kids in line they needed to be.

"Because," he says, bringing home the punch line, "it's the way my
mama raised me."

Adoration

The hundreds who embraced Mr. North at appearances in Fort Worth
and Arlington say it's those mama-raised-me values that really turn
them on. "Ollie" truly believes, they say, that if you don't stand
for something, you're apt to fall for anything.

It's qualities such as these, he says, that led him to becoming
President Ronald Reagan's "point man" for crisis management and
coordinator of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the 1980s. He was
involved, he says, in some of the most highly classified covert
operations undertaken by the U.S. government, including the 1985
interception of the hijackers who seized the Achille Lauro cruise
ship and the American bombing of terrorist bases in Libya that same
year.

He's a household name, of course, for having masterminded a plan to
finance the Contra rebels in Nicaragua by selling weapons to the
Iranian government.

He was convicted of aiding in the obstruction of Congress,
accepting illegal gratuities and destroying documents (as an early
pioneer in the practice of shredding).

The courts overturned the convictions on appeal in 1990.

And now, this 22-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps - awarded
the Silver Star, Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts - has written a
novel (with collaborator Joe Musser).

The press materials for Mission Compromised explain that "there are
aspects of North's activities that have never been made public. Now
North tells more of that story in the only way it can be told - as
a work of fiction."

He calls it the first of a trilogy, which comes from Christian
publisher Broadman & Holman, which is charging $24.95 for a novel
that generated 50,000 additional copies after a first-edition run
of 300,000.

"I would be crazy if I didn't think this wouldn't make a great
movie," says Mr. North, to whom fans are flocking as though it were
Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson or even Elvis getting off the bus.

Star-struck

In a crowd that contained only one face of color - and that an
adopted 2-year-old from China - no one risked even mild
disagreement with Mr. North.

The fawning - and this is not a reference to Mr. North's former
secretary-shredder Fawn Hall - wasn't a whole lot different from
what the bus' previous tenant, Ms. Parton, might get every time she
pulls into Bossier City or Barstow.

For Melissa Nadason, 35, the stars in her eyes are darned near as
big as those on the Cowboys' helmets.

"I can't believe it," she says with a smile.

"He's a living legend ... standing right here in front of me!"

Ms. Nadason, who works as an MRI technician at a hospital in
Granbury, is an Air Force veteran who met her husband in the same
branch of the military. Her husband, she says, "worships" Mr.
North.

"I was shaking," she says, "because I didn't think I'd get here in
time."

Casey Oliver Bise came all the way from Glen Rose just to meet Mr.
North. And why not? Casey, 14, is named for Mr. North, whom Casey's
daddy calls a "walkin', breathin' hero."

Rancher Clifton Bise, 37, so admired Mr. North that, when Casey's
mother was pregnant during the Iran-Contra hearings, the idea of
naming their son after him "suited us just fine."

"Casey" is for William Casey, director of the Central Intelligence
Agency at the time. So when Casey showed up to buy a copy of Mr.
North's book, he brought with him quite an arsenal.

He holds out a framed letter he received from Mr. North seven years
ago, when the colonel sent a formal thank-you to Casey for his
parents' having had the good sense to middle-name him Oliver.

In the letter, he praises Casey for his "patriotism and Christian
beliefs."

But when asked if he wants to be a Marine, like Mr. North, Casey
winces.

"I'd rather be in a rock band," he says.

Radio waves

Political passion is also in evidence. Mr. North chuckles at Rick
Chaviers, 54, a financial services salesman and a follower of Mr.
North's on the Fox News Channel.

"I like to watch you, Newt [Gingrich] and the pervert," he says,
referring to former Clinton aide Dick Morris, who once had a
regular assignation with a prostitute in a Washington hotel.

Mr. North's followers watch him on the cable channel, where he
serves as host of War Stories, or listen to his syndicated radio
show, Common Sense With Oliver North. It's carried in Dallas on
KXXL-AM (990).

When he arrives in Arlington, at Mardel, a Christian supply store,
the microphone is at the ready for a live broadcast. Over his right
shoulder are portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,
next to a giant American flag.

Mr. North uses the time to attack Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who
left a briefing with President Bush on Iraq by saying he needed
"more information" before committing to a possible invasion of
Saddam Hussein's country.

"What more information does he need?" Mr. North asks angrily.

Mike Tucker, 45, a consultant for the LifeWay chain, shows up with
11-year-old David Tucker, who tells Mr. North he hopes to attend
the U.S. Naval Academy.

"I took him out of school today so he could meet a real American
hero," says Mr. Tucker.

"I think if we had more people like him, then maybe Sept. 11
wouldn't have happened."

Of course, not everyone is a fan of Mr. North's, and the proof is
no farther away than local radio.

Glenn Mitchell, host of his own daily talk show on KERA-FM (90.1),
says his experience with high-profile guests of "one extreme or
another" is "that you get far more calls from people who are
irritated, rather than people who are happy with the guest."

Mr. North definitely fell into the latter category.

But, says Mr. Mitchell, "I had the same impression of him that I
had of other guys who are supposedly the devil incarnate - that,
when you actually talk to them, they're very charming guys. You may
not agree with something they say, but you don't come away hating
them because you think they're bad people. And I didn't come away
hating him at all."

Iraq emphasis
Concern over Israel and Mr. Hussein's motives in Iraq are much of
what motivates Mr. North these days, and, he contends, the reason
so many folks show up at his signings.

Arguably, no one favors an invasion of Iraq more than he does.

"[Hussein] can't find anyone willing to die for him in Iraq," says
Mr. North, "but he's willing to fight to the last Palestinian."

He accuses the Iraqi leader of sending money to the families of
young men and women willing to martyr themselves as suicide bombers
for the Palestinian cause. (U.S. officials have made similar
accusations.)

He leans forward, speaking almost in a whisper. The bus' big-screen
TV carries news footage from CNN - yet another suicide bombing in
Israel. Members of Mr. North's entourage - all young men - stroll
through the bus, which sleeps 13.

"I have seen the documents, and I believe that they're true,
they're real," Mr. North says.

"First, you get a $10,000 check for your child willing to agree to
a suicide bombing. Automatically, your life is better. That's a lot
of money in Ramallah. But if the kid goes through with the
training, his family gets an additional $5,000. So your kid goes
out and blows himself up. If he doesn't kill any Israelis, you
still get $5,000. But if he succeeds in killing any Israelis or any
Americans, you get an additional $25,000."

If Mr. North seems obsessed with terrorism, he has good reason. He
says he almost lost his own life - not on a street in Tel Aviv, but
in suburban Virginia.

"It's one of the great success stories of the FBI," he says.

The agency was monitoring an organization called the People's
Committee for Libyan Students, "which turned out to be a cell of
the Abu Nidal organization. Nidal had threatened me by name back in
May of '86, after the bombing raid on [Libyan President Moammar
Gadhafi's] terror camps. Now, Nidal's dead in Baghdad, in an
apparent 'suicide' - with four gunshot wounds to the head. I can't
say I'm unhappy about that."

He shakes his head and smiles, using the moment to revel in the
past.

He explains that the FBI had intercepted a communiqué from Tripoli
ordering the assassination of a Marine officer in Great Falls, Va.
But when federal agents intercepted the Libyans, their mission was
almost complete.

"They were coming down the road," says Mr. North, his hazel eyes
taking on a steely gaze.

"They had a diagram of the house. They knew where the bedrooms
were. They knew the names of our kids. They had cased the place
well. But, thank God, the FBI nailed them before they got there."

The North family was held for weeks at a U.S. military base while
the FBI guarded their home.

The Libyans were arraigned in the middle of the night, but with the
U.S. attorney unwilling to divulge the classified information that
provoked their arrest, they were held only on weapons charges.
Within hours, they had made bail and were returned to Libya.

"And so the federal government dropped millions of dollars
protecting my family," says Mr. North, who looks inconsolably sad.
His expression seems to suggest, "Why would anyone want to hurt
me?"

For a moment, Oliver North - hero, novelist and occasional pariah -
has the look of a stricken father.

"Try explaining to your 6-year-old daughter why her rabbit died
while we were living somewhere else," he says, "just because the
federal government decided not to feed your daughter's rabbit. Have
you ever been in that position? Believe me, it isn't easy."

(Dallas Morning News file photo/ KIM RITZENTHALER)