This is a partial transcript from the April 28, 2005 edition of “Hannity & Colmes,” that has been edited for clarity.
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ALAN COLMES, HOST: We’re joined now by the former head of Central Command in Afghanistan and Iraq, retired General Tommy Franks, also the author of “American Soldier,” an autobiography on his years of his military service in CentCom in the Middle East.
General Franks, thank you very much for being with us again tonight.
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS, FORMER CENTCOM COMMANDER: Thanks a lot, Alan.
COLMES: Appreciate it very much.
FRANKS: A pleasure to be with you.
COLMES: Charles Duelfer just came out with a 92-page addendum to his report. And he said still no WMDs, no evidence that they went to Syria either. What do you make of that? And do you agree with what he said?
FRANKS: Well, I have to agree with what he said, because you know, I think we sent somebody over there to take — to take a good hard look to see what we find. I simply would say the same thing that I’ve said all along. No one more surprised than I that our troopers didn’t find the WMD when — when we moved into Iraq.
COLMES: Where do you think they are?
FRANKS: I don’t know. I guess — I guess one could expect that Saddam Hussein, sometime between the time he last used WMD against his own people and against the Iranians, took the stuff apart into precursor elements. And I think — I think a lot of precursors have been found in Iraq but nothing weaponized.
COLMES: One of the other conclusions was that weapons inspection by the U.N. was working. One of the predicates of this war was weapons inspections are not working and WMDs.
FRANKS: Right.
COLMES: Does the administration owe the American people an explanation as to why their reasons for going in have not born out?
FRANKS: Oh, gosh, Alan, I guess I would say that I was pretty closely involved in working the United Nations sanctions for about — for about 10 years, from 1991 until past 2002. And you know, that was a time when our young troopers were flying over Iraq every day and every night and getting shot at each time they were doing it.
And I guess I would defy almost any one of my countrymen to put himself or herself on the 12th of September 2001 and consider where terrorism might find some juncture with weapons of mass destruction and — and simply blow off Iraq and say, “Well, you know, the U.N. sanctions are working.”
Come on. Come on, Alan, give me a break.
HANNITY: Hey, General, my friend, thanks for being back with us.
By the way, I’ve got to tell our audience here we’re expecting a statement from the family representative. We’ve been following the case of this missing woman in Duluth, Georgia. And by the way, we’ll be getting into that issue in just a minute. We expect the family to give a statement in mere moments. When that happens, we’ll have it for you here on the FOX News Channel.
General, first of all, thank you. I was stunned as I read — first of all, I read your book cover to cover, and I loved every word in it. And then I read the paperback that just came out, and you mentioned little old me. And I was honored. Thank you.
FRANKS: I couldn’t believe it. I think I mentioned — I’m pretty sure I mentioned Alan in there, too.
COLMES: I didn’t see that, General.
FRANKS: Missed it.
HANNITY: You know, General, it drives me a little nuts on the WMD issue is because we saw the picture of the dead kids when he used them on the Kurds in the north.
FRANKS: Yes.
HANNITY: We know he used them in the Iranian war. We know he didn’t agree with the cease-fire agreement of the resolutions, and he, you know, he forced our hand. Isn’t that what really happened here?
FRANKS: Well, you know, Sean, it’s not a matter of whether he had WMD or not. Of course he had it. He used it against the Iranians. He used it against his own people. The issue is how late did he have it?
And I believe that the wisdom of the intelligence community and certainly my belief was that he had it right up until the time that our forces moved into Iraq. And I have had no trouble at all saying I was wrong about that, but the world is a much better place now that Saddam Hussein is in prison.
HANNITY: I hope everybody gets a hold of your book, General. Because you know, it’s called “American Soldier.” This is about your life story.
You started as an artillery guy. You were brigadier general during Operation Desert Storm in ’91. You give all of the intimate details. With new technology you could monitor everything going on in the battlefield where you are and what is called the Turkish deception that you used in this war. It is such a great learning experience, this book.
Tell us a little bit more about your background.
FRANKS: My background is flunking out of the University of Texas because I had a lot of trouble when I was a kid, you know, being focused on grades.
HANNITY: I think you and I would have been friends. Yes.
FRANKS: I went down and found an Army recruiting office. And about almost four decades later decided, well, it was about time for me to, you know, move into a different line of work.
And an absolutely great experience, because of the quality of the kids that we have working in our military. And I love them, and I respect them and you know what, America does, too.
HANNITY: You know, you describe in detail — I want you to go into and maybe explain this to people. And this is why I hope they get the book. Is how you were able in your Central Command to watch all the movements on the battlefield. And tell us specifically, with specificity, about this deception, how you were able to convince Saddam that this battle was actually going to begin through Turkey, et cetera.
FRANKS: Well, we knew some time in advance that it was probable that we were not going to get through Turkey. But we thought it would be a very bad thing if Saddam Hussein were to know that the Turks were not going to permit us to introduce ground forces through there.
And so we had a young American who had been approached by Iraqi intelligence and had been placed on their payroll. And he continued to provide information to Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athist regime right up until the time that we moved into Iraq.
And it was disinformation that was put together by our staffs and by people up in the Pentagon that served to indicate to Saddam that, at the last minute, the Turks would permit us to come through. So it was a great thing, great action by a wonderful young man.
COLMES: General, thank you for coming on the show tonight.
HANNITY: Thanks, General.
COLMES: Appreciate your time.
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