Oliver North and Osama Bin Laden

I was at work yesterday when a coworker asked for help forwarding an email to someone. We forwarded the email, then he told me to read what he had forwarded. "It's pretty cool," he said.

The email was a chain letter. It claimed that Oliver North, during the Iran Contra hearings, had mentioned Osama bin Laden and called him the most dangerous man in the world. The email had graphics of the twin towers, towering intact above the New York skyline, then in flames, and finally, as ruined, smoking rubble.

There was another story in the email - that Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers on 9/11, had been arrested for blowing up a bus in the 80's but was released at the demand of Clinton era liberals.

I googled "osama bin laden oliver north" and quickly found that both the Oliver North and the Atta story were myths.

This story is interesting to me on several levels.

• It is a blatant lie - but it has been circulating on the internet for years now. Thousands if not millions of people have seen it.
• My coworker, admittedly not the most savvy guy, accepted it at face value and forwarded it on almost immediately. The speed of email makes this sort of story that much more virulent.
• Oliver North is an interesting figure. Like G. Gordon Liddy, he is a symbol of someone who is willing to break the law for the greater good - as he perceived it. In the years since September 11, it seems that there has been an effort to remake his image, not as a criminal but as a hero. More on this later, perhaps.

This story is more than a myth - it is a virulent strain of propaganda.

Tags:

• propaganda