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Member Profile

Oliver North

Board Member

Oliver North

Board Member

Biography

Oliver North grew up in Philmont, New York and attended college at the State University of New York at Brockport for two years before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. After seeing combat in Vietnam, North fulfilled a number of military assignments before joining the National Security Council (NSC) in 1981. North remained with the NSC until he was fired in 1986 when his role in the Iran-Contra Affair was revealed. In 1994 North served as the Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, losing to Democrat Charles Robb. Shortly before the election, former First Lady Nancy Reagan said North “lied to my husband and lied about my husband.” Since leaving politics, North has authored books and made television appearances to discuss military and political matters. In the 2010 NRA Board of Directors elections, North received more votes than any other candidate.


All Statements (38 total)

Statements by Category (38 total)

  • Foreign Policy
    On July 15, 2016, North posted a list on Facebook of "the 5 things we must do to stop Radical Islamic Terror." Among other items on the list, North wrote, "THEY HAVE TO BE KILLED & WHEN THEY ARE DEAD, DON’T TELL ANYONE HOW THEY DIED. DON’T HAVE PRESS CONFS & SHOW PICS & VID OF POTUS & PALS WRINGING HANDS IN SITROOM." Another item on the list read, "INSTEAD, OF BRAGGING ABT HOW WE DID IT, USE SOME REVERSE PROPAGANDA & PUT OUT WORD THAT SO-IN-SO DIED WHEN THE FINGER OF GOD STRUCK HIM DOWN WHILE EATING BABY BACK RIBS AT A NAMBLA MEETING."

    Sources [1]

  • Religion
    On July 15, 2016, North posted a list on Facebook of "the 5 things we must do to stop Radical Islamic Terror." Among other items on the list, North wrote, "THEY HAVE TO BE KILLED & WHEN THEY ARE DEAD, DON’T TELL ANYONE HOW THEY DIED. DON’T HAVE PRESS CONFS & SHOW PICS & VID OF POTUS & PALS WRINGING HANDS IN SITROOM." Another item on the list read, "INSTEAD, OF BRAGGING ABT HOW WE DID IT, USE SOME REVERSE PROPAGANDA & PUT OUT WORD THAT SO-IN-SO DIED WHEN THE FINGER OF GOD STRUCK HIM DOWN WHILE EATING BABY BACK RIBS AT A NAMBLA MEETING."

    Sources [1]

  • Foreign Policy

    Sources [1]

  • Fox News Appearances

    Sources [1]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    Sources [1]

  • Foreign Policy
    On May 25, 2015, in an article in the Christian Examiner, North responded to a White House comment regarding the conquest of Ramadi days earlier by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The White House described this event as a “setback.” North claimed, “What you've just heard from this White House is a bald-faced lie." He continued, "[The loss of Ramadi] is a catastrophe of unparalleled proportions because [Iraqi forces are] not going to be able to retake Ramadi without serious American help … The Obama legacy is going to be a bloodbath of unprecedented, biblical proportion in Iraq because this is setting up the ultimate Shiite-Sunni gunfight. That's where we're going." North offered no remedy to correct the fall of Ramadi, which he termed a “genocide.” Others took a different view. The editors of the Bloomberg View, for example, opined, “The fall of Ramadi will have little strategic value in the war against jihadism; [ISIS] already controlled the area around it. In the immediate term, Islamic State's victory counts as a public-relations win and little else.“

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Republican Party (GOP)
    On May 25, 2015, in an article in the Christian Examiner, North responded to a White House comment regarding the conquest of Ramadi days earlier by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The White House described this event as a “setback.” North claimed, “What you've just heard from this White House is a bald-faced lie." He continued, "[The loss of Ramadi] is a catastrophe of unparalleled proportions because [Iraqi forces are] not going to be able to retake Ramadi without serious American help … The Obama legacy is going to be a bloodbath of unprecedented, biblical proportion in Iraq because this is setting up the ultimate Shiite-Sunni gunfight. That's where we're going." North offered no remedy to correct the fall of Ramadi, which he termed a “genocide.” Others took a different view. The editors of the Bloomberg View, for example, opined, “The fall of Ramadi will have little strategic value in the war against jihadism; [ISIS] already controlled the area around it. In the immediate term, Islamic State's victory counts as a public-relations win and little else.“

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Foreign Policy
    In a July 18, 2014 interview on “The Kelly File” on Fox News, North spoke about President Barack Obama’s reaction to the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that was shot down over Ukraine the previous day, killing all 298 people aboard. North questioned Obama’s response to the tragedy, claiming, We all know now that Barack Obama is disabling America’s defenses. We are unilaterally disarming and everybody knows it.”

    Sources [1]

  • Republican Party (GOP)
    In a July 18, 2014 interview on “The Kelly File” on Fox News, North spoke about President Barack Obama’s reaction to the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that was shot down over Ukraine the previous day, killing all 298 people aboard. North questioned Obama’s response to the tragedy, claiming, We all know now that Barack Obama is disabling America’s defenses. We are unilaterally disarming and everybody knows it.”

    Sources [1]

  • Foreign Policy
    In a June 3, 2014 interview on “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV, North discussed the recent exchange of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl—a prisoner of war in Afghanistan for five years—for five alleged terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. He claimed, the Obama administration has, in essence, funded a criminal enterprise and encouraged the media to ask the administration if there was a financial monetary transaction involved. Ironically, North was at the center of the Iran-Contra affair, when the Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iranians in order to secure the release of American prisoners, then used the money to illegally finance a war in Central America.”

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Conspiracy Theory
    In a June 3, 2014 interview on “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV, North discussed the recent exchange of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl—a prisoner of war in Afghanistan for five years—for five alleged terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. He claimed, the Obama administration has, in essence, funded a criminal enterprise and encouraged the media to ask the administration if there was a financial monetary transaction involved. Ironically, North was at the center of the Iran-Contra affair, when the Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iranians in order to secure the release of American prisoners, then used the money to illegally finance a war in Central America.”

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Foreign Policy
    In a May 20, 2014 article published on ConservativeRead.com, North was quoted calling for the impeachment of President Obama, saying, Tragically, this administration has gotten away with things that any other president would have been impeached for. There’s no doubt in my mind.” He questioned the integrity and leadership skills of the President, stating, The one leadership example he’s given is how to avoid accepting responsibility for anything. It’s always someone else’s fault.”

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Foreign Policy
    In a May 1, 2014 interview on Fox News’ On the Record, North discussed the September 11, 2012 attack of the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi and claimed, The reality of it is this [Obama] administration is criminally negligent.” 

    Sources [1]

  • Foreign Policy
    On April 26, 2014, during a speech at the NRA annual convention, North stated, [Our military service members] deserve better than a Commander in Chief garbed as a Nobel laureate, trotting around the globe, kowtowing to foreign leaders, and apologizing for America.  They deserve a Commander in Chief who knows that America—the greatest force for good the world has ever known—America has nothing for which we need to apologize.  The members of our armed forces and their families deserve better than being treated like lab rats in some radical social engineering experiments.  The people of Ukraine at this very minute are paying a terrible price for America’s leadership deficit disorder and the O-Team’s utopian rush to unilateral disarmament.  They not only want to disarm America’s military.  They want to disarm you.  We don’t need a head of state who guts our defenses, who draws phony red lines with a pink crayon.  Our leader, our leader should be admired and trusted by our allies and respected or feared by our adversaries.” Continuing, North stated, Between now and 2016 when we hire a new Commander in Chief—oh yes we will—we need a majority in Congress who will insist on the rule of law.  I want to make this very personal.  The good Lord blessed my best friend and me with four lovely children and now fourteen grandchildren.  Their future is at risk, threatened by a mountain of debt, unconstrained spending, ever higher taxes, and a headlong rush to socialism by Washington.  Our Congress must hold accountable an administration that offers the protection of our Constitution to our enemies, but strips those same protections from our own citizens.  We need a Congress that will stop the frontal assault on free enterprise, private property and the Second Amendment.  All that’s enshrined in our Bill of Rights.  We need a Congress that will insist that the VA, the Veterans Administration, care for our veterans instead of letting them die waiting for care.  We need a Congress that will use the power of the purse to defend our national sovereignty and protect our borders.  We need a Congress that will stop suborning the wealth of our nation to a globalist agenda that limits the use of our own energy resources.  You see, the Obamacare debacle in Washington is just the tip of the incompetence and corruption that is rampant in our nation’s capital.  But we have a solution.  We The People, the first three words of our Constitution.  We demand accountability for a string of horrific scandals and cover-ups.  Benghazi, the IRS enemies lists, government spying on our citizens … Some say that we need to ignore social issues like the sanctity of life or religious freedoms.  I say those aren’t ‘social issues.’  They’re moral and spiritual issues and they should matter in our elections.” 

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Health Care
    On April 26, 2014, during a speech at the NRA annual convention, North stated, [Our military service members] deserve better than a Commander in Chief garbed as a Nobel laureate, trotting around the globe, kowtowing to foreign leaders, and apologizing for America.  They deserve a Commander in Chief who knows that America—the greatest force for good the world has ever known—America has nothing for which we need to apologize.  The members of our armed forces and their families deserve better than being treated like lab rats in some radical social engineering experiments.  The people of Ukraine at this very minute are paying a terrible price for America’s leadership deficit disorder and the O-Team’s utopian rush to unilateral disarmament.  They not only want to disarm America’s military.  They want to disarm you.  We don’t need a head of state who guts our defenses, who draws phony red lines with a pink crayon.  Our leader, our leader should be admired and trusted by our allies and respected or feared by our adversaries.” Continuing, North stated, Between now and 2016 when we hire a new Commander in Chief—oh yes we will—we need a majority in Congress who will insist on the rule of law.  I want to make this very personal.  The good Lord blessed my best friend and me with four lovely children and now fourteen grandchildren.  Their future is at risk, threatened by a mountain of debt, unconstrained spending, ever higher taxes, and a headlong rush to socialism by Washington.  Our Congress must hold accountable an administration that offers the protection of our Constitution to our enemies, but strips those same protections from our own citizens.  We need a Congress that will stop the frontal assault on free enterprise, private property and the Second Amendment.  All that’s enshrined in our Bill of Rights.  We need a Congress that will insist that the VA, the Veterans Administration, care for our veterans instead of letting them die waiting for care.  We need a Congress that will use the power of the purse to defend our national sovereignty and protect our borders.  We need a Congress that will stop suborning the wealth of our nation to a globalist agenda that limits the use of our own energy resources.  You see, the Obamacare debacle in Washington is just the tip of the incompetence and corruption that is rampant in our nation’s capital.  But we have a solution.  We The People, the first three words of our Constitution.  We demand accountability for a string of horrific scandals and cover-ups.  Benghazi, the IRS enemies lists, government spying on our citizens … Some say that we need to ignore social issues like the sanctity of life or religious freedoms.  I say those aren’t ‘social issues.’  They’re moral and spiritual issues and they should matter in our elections.” 

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Religion
    On April 26, 2014, during a speech at the NRA annual convention, North stated, [Our military service members] deserve better than a Commander in Chief garbed as a Nobel laureate, trotting around the globe, kowtowing to foreign leaders, and apologizing for America.  They deserve a Commander in Chief who knows that America—the greatest force for good the world has ever known—America has nothing for which we need to apologize.  The members of our armed forces and their families deserve better than being treated like lab rats in some radical social engineering experiments.  The people of Ukraine at this very minute are paying a terrible price for America’s leadership deficit disorder and the O-Team’s utopian rush to unilateral disarmament.  They not only want to disarm America’s military.  They want to disarm you.  We don’t need a head of state who guts our defenses, who draws phony red lines with a pink crayon.  Our leader, our leader should be admired and trusted by our allies and respected or feared by our adversaries.” Continuing, North stated, Between now and 2016 when we hire a new Commander in Chief—oh yes we will—we need a majority in Congress who will insist on the rule of law.  I want to make this very personal.  The good Lord blessed my best friend and me with four lovely children and now fourteen grandchildren.  Their future is at risk, threatened by a mountain of debt, unconstrained spending, ever higher taxes, and a headlong rush to socialism by Washington.  Our Congress must hold accountable an administration that offers the protection of our Constitution to our enemies, but strips those same protections from our own citizens.  We need a Congress that will stop the frontal assault on free enterprise, private property and the Second Amendment.  All that’s enshrined in our Bill of Rights.  We need a Congress that will insist that the VA, the Veterans Administration, care for our veterans instead of letting them die waiting for care.  We need a Congress that will use the power of the purse to defend our national sovereignty and protect our borders.  We need a Congress that will stop suborning the wealth of our nation to a globalist agenda that limits the use of our own energy resources.  You see, the Obamacare debacle in Washington is just the tip of the incompetence and corruption that is rampant in our nation’s capital.  But we have a solution.  We The People, the first three words of our Constitution.  We demand accountability for a string of horrific scandals and cover-ups.  Benghazi, the IRS enemies lists, government spying on our citizens … Some say that we need to ignore social issues like the sanctity of life or religious freedoms.  I say those aren’t ‘social issues.’  They’re moral and spiritual issues and they should matter in our elections.” 

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Republican Party (GOP)
    On April 26, 2014, during a speech at the NRA annual convention, North stated, [Our military service members] deserve better than a Commander in Chief garbed as a Nobel laureate, trotting around the globe, kowtowing to foreign leaders, and apologizing for America.  They deserve a Commander in Chief who knows that America—the greatest force for good the world has ever known—America has nothing for which we need to apologize.  The members of our armed forces and their families deserve better than being treated like lab rats in some radical social engineering experiments.  The people of Ukraine at this very minute are paying a terrible price for America’s leadership deficit disorder and the O-Team’s utopian rush to unilateral disarmament.  They not only want to disarm America’s military.  They want to disarm you.  We don’t need a head of state who guts our defenses, who draws phony red lines with a pink crayon.  Our leader, our leader should be admired and trusted by our allies and respected or feared by our adversaries.” Continuing, North stated, Between now and 2016 when we hire a new Commander in Chief—oh yes we will—we need a majority in Congress who will insist on the rule of law.  I want to make this very personal.  The good Lord blessed my best friend and me with four lovely children and now fourteen grandchildren.  Their future is at risk, threatened by a mountain of debt, unconstrained spending, ever higher taxes, and a headlong rush to socialism by Washington.  Our Congress must hold accountable an administration that offers the protection of our Constitution to our enemies, but strips those same protections from our own citizens.  We need a Congress that will stop the frontal assault on free enterprise, private property and the Second Amendment.  All that’s enshrined in our Bill of Rights.  We need a Congress that will insist that the VA, the Veterans Administration, care for our veterans instead of letting them die waiting for care.  We need a Congress that will use the power of the purse to defend our national sovereignty and protect our borders.  We need a Congress that will stop suborning the wealth of our nation to a globalist agenda that limits the use of our own energy resources.  You see, the Obamacare debacle in Washington is just the tip of the incompetence and corruption that is rampant in our nation’s capital.  But we have a solution.  We The People, the first three words of our Constitution.  We demand accountability for a string of horrific scandals and cover-ups.  Benghazi, the IRS enemies lists, government spying on our citizens … Some say that we need to ignore social issues like the sanctity of life or religious freedoms.  I say those aren’t ‘social issues.’  They’re moral and spiritual issues and they should matter in our elections.” 

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    In a March 4, 2013 op-ed for the Washington Times, North wrote, “The U.S. House of Representatives has joined the race for D.C. dunce. On Feb. 28, the House passed the Senate’s version of the Obama administration’s expanded Violence Against Women Act. Left-leaning pundits proclaim that the new law will somehow provide additional protections for American-Indian women, homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people and immigrants. In short, you are covered by this ‘new protection’ as long as you can prove you are not a heterosexual white male … While we’re passing new laws to protect women, we’re putting them into U.S. military ground combat units. Perhaps fear of prosecution will prevent enemy combatants from raping our female soldiers and Marines on the battlefield.” North also spoke about Secretary of State John Kerry, stating, “Mr. Kerry also is showing his independence from the White House. When Nobel laureate Barack Obama travels overseas, he prefers to bow to foreign potentates and apologize for America. Instead of apologizing in foreign capitals, Mr. Kerry prefers to insult us … The German kids also laughed and applauded Mr. Kerry for saying, ‘In America, you have a right to be stupid.’ He should know. In the immortal words of Forrest Gump: ‘Stupid is as stupid does.’” President Obama has bowed to several foreign dignitaries during the course of his presidency, including the Saudi King, the Emperor of Japan, and the Queen of England, as a customary gesture of respect upon greeting them.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    In a January 11, 2013 op-ed for Townhall, North wrote about Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement two days earlier that President Barack Obama would consider the use of executive orders/action as a means to combat gun violence. North stated, “Those words –‘executive orders, executive action’—used in conjunction with constitutionally protected rights and liberties, ought to alarm us all.” During his first term in office, President Obama issued fewer executive orders than any president since Grover Cleveland. North continued, writing, “Hard evidence of public support for new restrictions on firearms ownership by law-abiding citizens is hard to find.” In fact, numerous national polls found overwhelming public support for new firearms regulations in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, in which 20 children and 6 adults were killed. One public opinion poll conducted by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in January 2013 found that 89% of all Americans and 74% of NRA members supported requiring a background check on all gun sales. It also found that 77% of Americans support banning the sale of semi-automatic weapons and 76% support banning the sale of large-capacity ammunition magazines holding more than 10 bullets.

    Sources [1] [2] [3] [4]

  • Other Statements

    Sources [1]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    On the December 18, 2012 broadcast of the Glenn Beck Radio Program, North spoke to Joe Pags about President Barack Obama’s administration, stating “We’re in deep trouble in America … The background of all of this is a condition of governance today which is bereft of moral leadership. It is absent of any vision for America other than leading from behind and acquiescing to a global perspective that somehow the United Nations is gonna solve our problems if we simply surrender our sovereignty, our independence and our ability to defend ourselves.” North was referring to a U.N. Small Arms Treaty that would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.” Pags asked North, “How is it that we’ve gotten to that point in this country that the government thinks we work for them and not the other way around?” North replied, “This, I think, relates a lot to what just transpired up in Connecticut and what we’ve now seen with these killings. Over the course of the last fifty years, basically two and a half generations, this country has walked away from its founding principles. We’ve said, we’re not gonna allow prayer in schools. Role models that I grew up with, to give you an example my dad was a soldier. Two wars, Korea and World War II. Every one of my male teachers was either a veteran of World War II, or Korea, or both. These were people I looked up to … Where are those guys and people today? Are parents taking the kids to Sunday school or church? Are they taking them and showing them the positive, adult, male role models in life?” North was referring to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in which 20 first-grade students and six adults were shot and killed. Pags asked North, “I think we’ve got too many single parent households. I don’t know how we got here. Is government to blame for that at all, or have we as a society rolled over and said, ‘Forget it. We don’t have to worry about the old value system’? North replied, “Well, I think to an extent both are true. First of all, the idea of no-fault divorce became very, very attractive back in the 60s. The idea that we’re not gonna allow prayer or God to be mentioned in schools. We’ve all talked about the War on Christmas the last couple of years but, it’s not just Christmas. It’s the entire Judeo-Christian framework of our country.”

    Sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    On the December 18, 2012 broadcast of the Glenn Beck Radio Program, North spoke to Joe Pags about President Barack Obama’s administration, stating “We’re in deep trouble in America … The background of all of this is a condition of governance today which is bereft of moral leadership. It is absent of any vision for America other than leading from behind and acquiescing to a global perspective that somehow the United Nations is gonna solve our problems if we simply surrender our sovereignty, our independence and our ability to defend ourselves.” North was referring to a U.N. Small Arms Treaty that would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.” Pags asked North, “How is it that we’ve gotten to that point in this country that the government thinks we work for them and not the other way around?” North replied, “This, I think, relates a lot to what just transpired up in Connecticut and what we’ve now seen with these killings. Over the course of the last fifty years, basically two and a half generations, this country has walked away from its founding principles. We’ve said, we’re not gonna allow prayer in schools. Role models that I grew up with, to give you an example my dad was a soldier. Two wars, Korea and World War II. Every one of my male teachers was either a veteran of World War II, or Korea, or both. These were people I looked up to … Where are those guys and people today? Are parents taking the kids to Sunday school or church? Are they taking them and showing them the positive, adult, male role models in life?” North was referring to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in which 20 first-grade students and six adults were shot and killed. Pags asked North, “I think we’ve got too many single parent households. I don’t know how we got here. Is government to blame for that at all, or have we as a society rolled over and said, ‘Forget it. We don’t have to worry about the old value system’? North replied, “Well, I think to an extent both are true. First of all, the idea of no-fault divorce became very, very attractive back in the 60s. The idea that we’re not gonna allow prayer or God to be mentioned in schools. We’ve all talked about the War on Christmas the last couple of years but, it’s not just Christmas. It’s the entire Judeo-Christian framework of our country.”

    Sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    In a November 1, 2012 op-ed for the Washington Times, North wrote, “When Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman sat down to draft the Declaration of Independence, they began with a ‘Bill of Particulars’ against King George III. They accused the monarch of ‘repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.’ Now, 236 years later, ‘We the People’ are about to decide whom we should hire as our chief executive and commander in chief. It’s an appropriate time to review the grievances of our Founding Fathers—and examine the offenses committed by our present head of state”:

    Sources [1]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    In a November 1, 2012 op-ed for the Washington Times, North wrote, “When Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman sat down to draft the Declaration of Independence, they began with a ‘Bill of Particulars’ against King George III. They accused the monarch of ‘repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.’ Now, 236 years later, ‘We the People’ are about to decide whom we should hire as our chief executive and commander in chief. It’s an appropriate time to review the grievances of our Founding Fathers—and examine the offenses committed by our present head of state”:

    Sources [1]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    In a September 27, 2012 op-ed for the Washington Times, North wrote to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney some of the things U.S. Armed Services members would like to hear from him at the first presidential debate, stating, “I proffer a few lines you may want to use in the upcoming debates. Full disclosure here: These aren't my ideas. This is what the brightest and bravest of this generation now in uniform hope to hear from our next president:”

    Sources [1]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    In an August 14, 2012 interview with Newsmax, North stated that the killing of American soldiers by our Afghan allies “is the bitter harvest of [President] Barack Obama’s decision to announce withdrawal.” In North’s words, “Even though it was announced over a year ago, what you’re seeing is the rush to the exits. The need to increase the number of recruits for the Afghan National Security Forces, meaning the Army and the police, their intelligence services, has gone up dramatically. The ability to screen them as they’re coming in and vet out those who might be terrorists is almost gone. So the end result is the terrorists now know if they’re going to kill an infidel, you’ve only got a short window in which to get it done. You’re going to see a whole lot more of this. It’s become the number-one killer of Americans, replacing the IED as the most lethal part of this war, and it’s all because an announcement was made telling everybody, the enemy included, when we were leaving.” When asked if radical Islam was still a threat to American citizens, North replied, “Well you certainly wouldn’t know it by the way this White House and the State Department are acting, but yes, it is. [Some Americans] think the War on Terror is won just because bin Laden is dead and oh, by the way, Barack Obama did it. The fact is radical Islam will continue to be a major threat to American interests and our citizens, and another attack like 9/11 or the embassy attacks back in the 90s under the Clinton administration are entirely likely unless America does more to make sure that radical Islam does not get a toehold in places where they can train for those kinds of activities.” On June 22, 2011, President Obama announced that he would withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2014 as Afghan security forces replace them.

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    In a July 28, 2012 op-ed for Townhall, North wrote, “When Alexander the Great died at the age of 32 in 323 B.C., his once unbeatable army began a 2,900-mile withdrawal from India and headed home to Macedonia. As they retreated, the empire they had created collapsed behind them. To prevent pursuit, Alexander's royal cavalry and infantry dealt viciously with all internal dissent, destroyed cities and burned bridges. The Russians employed a similar scorched-earth tactic against Napoleon in 1812, as did the Red Army when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It's a maneuver now being employed both domestically and internationally by [President] Barack Obama.” North also addressed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border, stating, “[In Mexico] nearly 50,000 people have been killed in drug-fueled violence since 2006. With narco-terrorism now spreading to neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, the [Obama administration] decided to allow thousands of firearms to flow across the U.S. border to drug cartels in the ill-conceived "Fast and Furious" operation. The result: more dead Mexicans, at least one dead American Border Patrol agent and Attorney General Eric Holder held in contempt of Congress [for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena].” A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2012 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in "Fast and Furious" until after it was concluded in 2011.

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    In a July 28, 2012 op-ed for Townhall, North wrote, “When Alexander the Great died at the age of 32 in 323 B.C., his once unbeatable army began a 2,900-mile withdrawal from India and headed home to Macedonia. As they retreated, the empire they had created collapsed behind them. To prevent pursuit, Alexander's royal cavalry and infantry dealt viciously with all internal dissent, destroyed cities and burned bridges. The Russians employed a similar scorched-earth tactic against Napoleon in 1812, as did the Red Army when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It's a maneuver now being employed both domestically and internationally by [President] Barack Obama.” North also addressed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border, stating, “[In Mexico] nearly 50,000 people have been killed in drug-fueled violence since 2006. With narco-terrorism now spreading to neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, the [Obama administration] decided to allow thousands of firearms to flow across the U.S. border to drug cartels in the ill-conceived "Fast and Furious" operation. The result: more dead Mexicans, at least one dead American Border Patrol agent and Attorney General Eric Holder held in contempt of Congress [for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena].” A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2012 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in "Fast and Furious" until after it was concluded in 2011.

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Other Statements

    Sources [1]

  • Other Statements

    On June 6, 2012, the Washington Post published an article reporting that Oliver North may have plagiarized a part of his May 18, 2012 Memorial Day op-ed at a Fox News website. In the piece, North claimed that he turned to a “dear friend”—an Army vet and Medal of Honor recipient named Sammy L. Davis—to explain why it is important for veterans to travel to Washington to honor those who died in the Vietnam War. Davis, responded, according to North, by stating, “Comrades gather because they long to be with the men who once acted their best, men who suffered and sacrificed, who were stripped raw, right down to their humanity … I did not pick these men. They were delivered by fate. But I know them in a way I know no other men. I have never given anyone such trust. They were willing to guard something more precious than my life. They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me. It was part of the bargain we all made, the reason we were so willing to die for one another.” These words appear verbatim in “These Good Men: Friendships Forged in War,” a 1990 memoir written by Michael Norman, a Vietnam War veteran. Davis told Norman that North never asked him for the comment, and though Davis emailed Norman’s quote to North, he never intended for North to publish it. After a reporter brought the issue to Fox News’ attention, the op-ed was removed and re-posted without the passage. An appended editor’s note was included that mentioned, without explanation, that the paragraphs had been removed and that North had included them “through no fault of his own.” Later, the column was removed from Fox’s website altogether.

    Sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    In October 2011, North phoned into America’s Radio News to criticize a decision by the Obama administration to recall all troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. North said, “This administration was committed to doing away with America’s military force, basically, years ago. They are now carrying that out.” He also claimed that the “the people who are most glad of this [withdrawing from Iraq] aren’t going to be Americas soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines. Its gonna be the Iranians.” When the interviewer began to ask, “You say this administration has failed foreign policies, but they got [Osama] bin Laden, they got [Muammar] Ghaddafi, they’re doing what most Americans want which is getting out of Iraq,” North interrupted, “The unmanned aerial vehicles—which our colleagues in the media mistakenly call ‘drones’—were bought under the budget provided by George W. Bush. They’ve more than quadrupled the numbers of them available. As you’ve noticed, most of the action is now taking place with special operations troops who were recruited and funded by the Bush Administration.” When asked whether President Obama could take any credit for using the drone program “to great effect,” North stated, “[The President] is taking some of the advice provided by the military commanders on the battlefield, using assets that were not available during the Bush Administration. But they had the foresight to go ahead and start building these things, paying for them, and recruiting the people—I’m talking specifically now about the special operators—who could go on the ground and validate that the target was the real thing.” North also called the United States intervention in Libya a failure because of the Obama Administration’s decision to not send American combat troops into Libya.

    Sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    In October 2011, North phoned into America’s Radio News to criticize a decision by the Obama administration to recall all troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. North said, “This administration was committed to doing away with America’s military force, basically, years ago. They are now carrying that out.” He also claimed that the “the people who are most glad of this [withdrawing from Iraq] aren’t going to be Americas soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines. Its gonna be the Iranians.” When the interviewer began to ask, “You say this administration has failed foreign policies, but they got [Osama] bin Laden, they got [Muammar] Ghaddafi, they’re doing what most Americans want which is getting out of Iraq,” North interrupted, “The unmanned aerial vehicles—which our colleagues in the media mistakenly call ‘drones’—were bought under the budget provided by George W. Bush. They’ve more than quadrupled the numbers of them available. As you’ve noticed, most of the action is now taking place with special operations troops who were recruited and funded by the Bush Administration.” When asked whether President Obama could take any credit for using the drone program “to great effect,” North stated, “[The President] is taking some of the advice provided by the military commanders on the battlefield, using assets that were not available during the Bush Administration. But they had the foresight to go ahead and start building these things, paying for them, and recruiting the people—I’m talking specifically now about the special operators—who could go on the ground and validate that the target was the real thing.” North also called the United States intervention in Libya a failure because of the Obama Administration’s decision to not send American combat troops into Libya.

    Sources [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Other Statements

    Sources [1] [2] [3] [4]

  • Other Statements

    North appeared on “Hannity” on March 21, 2011 and expressed his belief that it is “beyond” President Barack Obama to serve as Commander and Chief. “[He] has done nothing but apologize for America” since becoming President, North said of Obama.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    In a January 7, 2011 op-ed for the Patriot Post, North expressed his belief that “death panels” existed in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 health care reform bill.

    Sources [1]

  • Other Statements

    Sources [1]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    Sources [1] [2] [3]

  • Other Statements

    North alluded to the potential repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy In a June 2010 opinion piece for Fox News, writing, “The present commander-in-chief has decided to treat the young men and women of our military like lab rats in a radical social-engineering experiment.”

    Sources [1]

  • Political Corruption

    In March 2010, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accused North of misrepresenting how donations to his Freedom Alliance charity were being used. CREW disputed North’s claim that, “There’s no overhead. There’s no expenses taken out. Every penny that’s donated or that’s raised through things like the Freedom Concerts goes to the scholarship fund.”

    Sources [1]

  • Other Statements

    On February 4, 2010, North appeared on “Hannity” and said that a repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy would lead to, “NAMBLA [North American Man/Boy Love Association] members, same-sex marriages [in the Armed Forces]. Are chaplains in the U.S. military going to be required to perform those kinds of rituals? Do they get government housing?”

    Sources [1]

  • Immigration

    North's Freedom Alliance has donated money to the Team America PAC, an anti-immigration Political Action Committee founded by former Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO). Team America PAC is perhaps best known not for its political work but for an incident in which intoxicated Executive Director Marcus Epstein attempted to karate chop an African American woman in the head while calling her the N-word. Epstein pled guilty, but retained his position with Team America.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Race

    North's Freedom Alliance has donated money to the Team America PAC, an anti-immigration Political Action Committee founded by former Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO). Team America PAC is perhaps best known not for its political work but for an incident in which intoxicated Executive Director Marcus Epstein attempted to karate chop an African American woman in the head while calling her the N-word. Epstein pled guilty, but retained his position with Team America.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Immigration

    Sources [1]

  • LGBT Rights

    Sources [1]

  • Women's Rights

    Sources [1]

  • Conspiracy Theory

    Sources [1]

  • Other Statements

    In January 2009, North called former Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC)—who famously and fiercely opposed the creation of a national Martin Luther King Jr. Day—“ a man of rare principle and fortitude in a town full of politicians who stick their fingers in the wind to determine how to vote.”

    Sources [1]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    Sources [1]

  • Republican Party (GOP)

    At a March 1993 Republican fundraising dinner attended by 250 people, North delivered remarks pretending to be a homosexual caller to the White House. North joked that he had tried to call President Bill Clinton, but the switchboard didn’t put him through until he adopted an exaggerated, effeminate lisp. When North was asked to apologize for his remarks by the Fairfax Lesbian and Gay Citizens Association, he responded, “If it angered some subset, that’s their problem.”

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Political Corruption

    North was a central figure in the Iran-Contra Affair. The political scandal, which came to light in November 1986, involved U.S. officials violating an arms embargo to sell weapons to Iran, and then using the residual profits to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua. North oversaw the transfer of the arms profits to the Contras, who engaged in widespread human rights abuses, including the rape and murder of civilians. They also had links to drug traffickers. In July 1987, North admitted to lying to Congress and shredding important documents related to the Iran-Contra scheme, which he referred to as a “neat idea.” He was later indicted on 16 felony counts before being convicted on three of them in 1989. The conviction was vacated in 1990.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Repressive Regimes

    North was a central figure in the Iran-Contra Affair. The political scandal, which came to light in November 1986, involved U.S. officials violating an arms embargo to sell weapons to Iran, and then using the residual profits to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua. North oversaw the transfer of the arms profits to the Contras, who engaged in widespread human rights abuses, including the rape and murder of civilians. They also had links to drug traffickers. In July 1987, North admitted to lying to Congress and shredding important documents related to the Iran-Contra scheme, which he referred to as a “neat idea.” He was later indicted on 16 felony counts before being convicted on three of them in 1989. The conviction was vacated in 1990.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Political Corruption

    On September 17, 1987, North sought leniency for Honduran General José Bueso Rosa. Rosa tried to ship $40 million worth of cocaine to the United States in order to fund an attempt to assassinate Honduran President Roberto Suazo Córdoba but was caught by the FBI. North was afraid that if he did not help Rosa avoid a long jail sentence, the general would expose the extent of the United State’s support of the Contra rebels.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Repressive Regimes

    On September 17, 1987, North sought leniency for Honduran General José Bueso Rosa. Rosa tried to ship $40 million worth of cocaine to the United States in order to fund an attempt to assassinate Honduran President Roberto Suazo Córdoba but was caught by the FBI. North was afraid that if he did not help Rosa avoid a long jail sentence, the general would expose the extent of the United State’s support of the Contra rebels.

    Sources [1] [2]

  • Political Corruption

    On May, 5 1985, North wrote to Admiral John Poindexter, “You will recall that over the years Manuel Noriega in Panama and I have developed a fairly good relationship.” At the time North was attempting to strike a deal where the United States would help improve the dictator’s image in exchange for Noriega’s help in defeating the Sandinistas. North’s exchange with Poindexter also revealed that North had met Noriega on a boat on the Potomac River.

    Sources [1]

  • Repressive Regimes

    On May, 5 1985, North wrote to Admiral John Poindexter, “You will recall that over the years Manuel Noriega in Panama and I have developed a fairly good relationship.” At the time North was attempting to strike a deal where the United States would help improve the dictator’s image in exchange for Noriega’s help in defeating the Sandinistas. North’s exchange with Poindexter also revealed that North had met Noriega on a boat on the Potomac River.

    Sources [1]