Captured Hezbollah Fighter Admits Training in Iran

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes" August 9, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY::, CO-HOST: On Sunday, Israeli national television broadcast the interrogation of a captured Hezbollah fighter who, in fact, confessed to kidnapping an Israeli soldier and said he was trained in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you attend any military course outside of Lebanon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I did one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did you do it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Iran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people went?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We left Beirut, 40 to 50 people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Beirut to where?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We crossed the border to Syria. There we went to Damascus airport, and we took an individual terminal, and then we flew to Tehran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joining us now is the host of "War Stories" right here on the FOX News Channel, Colonel Oliver North.

So here we have one of the kidnappers, Colonel, he's admitting Iran's training and involvement. The long-range rockets we know — the Iranians admit they provided to Hezbollah. And now we have members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard found among the Hezbollah soldiers killed by the Israelis.

So really, as we've been saying from the beginning, it's Iran by proxy, correct?

OLLIE NORTH, "WAR STORIES" HOST: This should not come as a surprise to anyone. It surely does not come as a surprise to the Israeli Defense Forces. They've known for years that the Iranians were actively engaged.

We should have known it since 1983, when they blew up — this is Hezbollah, again — blew up our U.S. marine barracks in October of '83 in Beirut, and they've been attacking Americans and Israelis ever since.

HANNITY: Ahmadinejad speaks to Mike Wallace. Among the other things that he does here, Colonel, is he threatens President Bush. He said, "Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate."

This is where it gets interesting to me, though. He says, "You see President Bush's approval rating is dropping every day." He says, you know, hatred vis-à-vis the president is increasing every day around the world. Tell me if I'm wrong in terms of my political analysis.

NORTH: Well, these guys understand our media better than we do. Certainly, they're better at playing the media than this White House is.

These guys have been using the media effectively now ever since this war began. You and I have also seen some of the challenges to some of the reporting that's come out of there, of doctored photographs, even videotape that's been staged. Obviously, they know how to use the media. They're using it to their advantage.

Quite frankly, I think the Israelis have missed a bet by not having people embedded with them to give the full story of what the Israeli military is up to. There's no doubt that the enemy knows where the Israeli forces are. Hell, they're shooting at them. And what I think the Israelis should be doing — I have told this to some friends in Jerusalem as recently as a few hours ago — they ought to allow our FOX teams to embed with them, and we'd give it to them straight, just like we did in my seven trips to Iraq and two to Afghanistan.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Colonel North, that map behind you, just exactly how far do we expect the Israelis to go? How far do they need to go to accomplish what they want to accomplish? And can you show us what the likely boundaries are of this war at this point?

NORTH: Sure, Alan, let's go to that screen right here. This, of course, is the border between Lebanon and Israel. The missile fan, the rocket fan, goes all the way down here to Haifa. Rockets are being launched from the area that I'm putting in, in hash marks. The Bekaa Valley, which follows up the course of the Litani River, that literally runs right up here, comes out in Tyre, right here, this is the area where the Israelis are going to have to occupy.

Unless there is a strong multinational force in that area that I've shown with the hash marks, reiterating it right here, this will be a failure for the Israelis and ultimately, Alan, a failure for us because that's their stronghold.

COLMES: Is it realistic to believe that the Israelis can destroy Hezbollah, that they're going to be somehow decimated or reduced in power to the point where they're no longer a force? Is that a realistic expectation?

NORTH: It is realistic to expect that they can do serious damage to the military capability. You're talking roughly 3,000 fighters at the top end of Hezbollah's terrorist structure, even that guy that you just saw the interview with, who was captured and who was sent to Iran for training. That's, by the way, the key leaders. It will take 30,000 Israeli troops to accomplish that, however.

COLMES: You know, there's talk of a cease-fire agreement would have 15,000 Lebanese troops on the southern border. It would also have kind of a prisoner exchange, U.N. peacekeeping forces, as well. Shouldn't we be pushing for that, shouldn't that be the way to go, and why shouldn't we not push further, harder to make this happen as quickly as possible?

NORTH: Well, Alan, what's happened, of course, and the reason why Bill Hemmer is reporting on this new offensive is because of the failure of the United Nations to come up with a strong resolution providing for a powerful multinational force. That's what drove the decision to go in today. They'd been hoping for a well-armed international intervention force to enter south Lebanon.

Let me go back again. Here's Tyre on the screen right here. This area has got to be occupied by someone who's got the ability to fight. The Bekaa Valley all the way up to Baalbek, which is the headquarters of the Pasdaran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps and Hezbollah out in the Bekaa Valley, has got to be occupied by that intervention force.

The fact that the United Nations thought they had a deal last Friday, it collapsed over the weekend, it now prompts the IDF to realize they're going to have to do this themselves.

HANNITY: Hey, Colonel, what are we to make of Sheik Nasrallah's comments about the city of Haifa? You can go back to your map if you like. He said, "I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs, and to your wounded. I call on you to leave this city. I hope you do this. Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood."

What are they planning?

NORTH: Well, as we know, first of all, they have hit Haifa with a number of long-range missiles, rockets fired probably from south of the Litani River up here. Those missiles have come all the way down. They've also tried a UAV attack. Remember, they succeeded in their first UAV attack, killed Israeli soldiers aboard that vessel off the coast of Tyre.

The bottom line is, they have the capability in Hezbollah, if the Iranians authorize it, to use Fajr-5s and even heavier rockets, not just against Haifa, but against Tel Aviv itself, well to the south in Israel.

HANNITY: I wanted to ask one other question here. We have the professor of Near-Eastern studies at Princeton University — Professor Lewis, I believe his name is — and he writes about the scenario and the significance of August 22, in sort of a doomsday scenario that might be in the minds of people. Colonel, what do you know about that?

NORTH: Well, you know, there's a strong scent of numerology, if you will — as I put in my last book, "The Assassins" — within the Shia leadership and a lot of the Islamic radicals. There's a sense of numerology, that certain numbers, 9/11, perhaps the 22 of August, have some kind of significance.

Normally you can expect a terrorist attack to repeat on an anniversary. That's one of the reasons why we always pay more attention here on 9/11. It's possible that what the Iranians are going to do is launch some kind of major attack at that point.

COLMES: Ollie, thank you for being with us. Don't forget to tune into this weekend's "War Stories," Sunday night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

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