anyone find the Kerry transcript on O'reilly last night?

[jambooti]

Kerry/Oreilly interview replay of 2001. Couldn't find it on the FNC/Oreilly site...this would be really good material to have available.

[hipaatwo]

O'REILLY: And you feel the same way as Joe Lieberman, senator?

SEN JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Essentially, yes. I'm not sure exactly what Joe means by that, but I think we ought to put the heat on Saddam Hussein. I've said that for a number of years, Bill. I criticized the Clinton administration for backing off of the inspections, when Ambassador Butler was giving us strong evidence that we needed to continue. I think we need to put the pressure on, no matter what the evidence is about September 11, but I think we have to do it in a thoughtful and intelligent way.

O'REILLY: Which is what? I mean, look, you know the guy -- the guy is simply -- he's an out of control guy.

KERRY: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: And he's not going to respond to embargoes, no-fly zones. He's not going to do that. How would you put enough pressure on him to open up inspections again?

KERRY: Well, I'd reinvigorate that process as step number one. And I think the administration is now suddenly starting to move in that direction. I think you have to work our allies sufficiently to pull that component of the effort back together.

But the second thing I would do, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it, is back opposition more openly and do it in a way that begins to put a counter insurgency in the country itself.

O'REILLY: So what do you do? Drop heavy weapons to the Kurds in the north and to Muslims who don't like him in the south?

KERRY: Bill, let me tell you, I was all for our following through at the end of the Gulf War with the Kurd uprising. And I thought it was a great betrayal, in a sense, that we encouraged them verbally. We gave them forces. We gave them weapons. We encouraged them and said we were with them. And then we pulled out at the last minute because the Kuwaitis and the Saudis and others were unsure of what might follow.

O'REILLY: Yes, that was a classic mistake. But if you arm the Kurds in the north of Iraq, you're going to alienate one of our most valuable --

KERRY: I didn't say necessarily the Kurds. There are other members of the opposition. There are people who are outside the country prepared to go in. There are others inside the country. And I believe -- I mean, I was in Saffra (ph). I went there when the signing of the armistice took place at the end of the war.

And I remember seeing that land, which lent itself in my judgment, considerably to the creation of almost an enclave, which I thought we should have done then. And I think is one way to begin to approach things now, but there are other possibilities. The important thing is that Saddam Hussein and the world knows that we think Saddam Hussein is essentially out of sync with the times. He is and has acted like a terrorist. And he is engaged in activities that are unacceptable.

O'REILLY: All right, but you know, I still don't see the hammer that's going to convince him to open anything up.

KERRY: The hammer ultimately will be the evidence that we uncover as we go further down the trail that shows his support for terrorism and begins to build the coalition even more strongly.

O'REILLY: Have you seen any evidence that's really compelling, that has not come out yet?

KERRY: I have not seen any evidence yet with respect to the 11th, but there are avenues of -- to pursue there. The important thing is that Saddam Hussein has used weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein fired weapons on Israel. They took some -- I think it was 29 or more scuds without even responding during the war. In addition to that, he has refused to live by the terms of the treaty that he signed at the end of the war, in which he agreed to do certain things.

O'REILLY: Sure. Absolutely. I mean, we...

KERRY: The international community ought to hold him accountable for that.

O'REILLY: But the international community won't. If he's going to get out of there, it's going to have to be us.

KERRY: Well, ultimately...

O'REILLY: It's going to have to be us. Nobody else is going to do anything, because they're all frightened little ninnies. Now let's shift.

KERRY: In the end, we protect our own national security interests. In the end, I'm prepared for the United States to do what it has to do in order to do that.

O'REILLY: All right. Well, he's got to go. That's for sure.