Ollie-Osama e-mail myth fools war expert

An Internet spoof artist claimed two high-profile victims when an Afghanistan war expert and the Fox News Channel anchor interviewing him both fell for an e-mail hoax that's been circulating since Sept. 11.

The hoax goes like this: Retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, while testifying in the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, called Osama bin Laden the world's most dangerous terrorist and said he was targeting him and possibly his family. North cited the terrorist, so the story goes, to justify spending tax money to beef up his home security.

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Everything but the name of the terrorist is true.

North named Beirut terrorist Abu Nidal, not bin Laden. The wiseguy who penned the original e-mail – which by now has been forwarded to thousands, if not millions of unsuspecting Americans – merely substituted bin Laden for Nidal in telling the story. By offering a kernel of truth, the story appeared credible.

Even a fellow decorated Marine, retired Col. Dick Esau of New York, fell for it.

Appearing on Fox News as a war expert Monday, Esau told the story of North and bin Laden to illustrate his point that the U.S. had intelligence on bin Laden early on and failed to act on it.

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"We didn't do anything at that time, that I know of," Esau said.

The news host interviewing him in Fox's New York studios, Diane Dimond, claimed to recall the North-bin Laden testimony.

"I remember that," she asserted.

It's not the first time a TV news network and expert panelists have bitten hard on an e-mail hoax.

Last year, during a debate between Hillary Clinton and Rep. Rick Lazio, WCBS-TV political reporter Marcia Kramer, quoting almost verbatim from an anonymous e-mail, asked them about "federal Bill 602P." She said that under the bill "now before Congress, the U.S. Postal Service would be able to bill e-mail users 5 cents for every e-mail they send."

In answering the question, both Clinton and Lazio fell for the bogus bill, as WorldNetDaily first reported.

There's no such bill and never was, which should have been obvious to anyone, particularly a U.S. lawmaker and seasoned journalist acting as debate moderator, familiar with bill numbering. (No bill ends in a letter, and they start with either HR, for House of Representatives, or S, for Senate.)

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