Walsh calls for bin Laden’s death

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2002 | 9:22 a.m.

John Walsh, America's top media bloodhound whose long-running television series has helped capture nearly 700 criminal suspects and bring them to trial, called Tuesday for the slaying of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

"He's a coward, a fanatic, a combination of Hitler and Jim Jones. He's dangerous. He needs to be found and killed," Walsh told more than 1,000 conventioneers attending the opening of the National Association of Television Program Executives convention Tuesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"Osama bin Laden should pay, and he should pay with his life."

Walsh, host of the Fox-TV series "America's Most Wanted" for the past 15 years, recently went to the Persian Gulf region to shoot a terrorist-hunting episode of his show. The series to date has helped capture 695 criminal suspects and rescue 24 missing children.

Walsh was at the convention to promote his new one-hour daily social issues talk show "The John Walsh Show," set to air this fall on NBC.

Walsh said he was at the site of the World Trade Center after terrorists flew hijacked commercial jets into the twin towers and knocked them down on Sept. 11, killing more than 3,000 people.

He remembers one firefighter looking up at him from the rubble and saying, "John, go get them. Saddle up and get those bastards."

"I don't believe he (bin Laden) is in Afghanistan," Walsh said. "I believe he took his mercenaries ... and crossed into Pakistan. He's in Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia -- places that think Osama is a hero. There are a lot of countries that hate us" and will protect him.

Walsh recalled wanting to see another individual killed about 21 years ago. He said he had "all the dark thoughts" about killing the killer of his son, Adam, who was abducted at age 6 on July 27, 1981, and later found dead.

But Walsh told the conventioneers he decided to take another direction after a coroner told Walsh, then a hotel management company owner, to work to get justice for other victims and to make sure Adam did not die in vain.

"He told me to honor my son's memory, and that is what I've tried to do for 20 years," Walsh said.

Also at Monday's opening session of NATPE, Ted Koppel, anchor and managing editor of ABC's long-running late night news talk show "Nightline," received the Chairman's Award for outstanding contribution to the television industry.

Koppel joined past Chairman's Award recipients such as producers Norman Lear and Aaron Spelling and comedian Jerry Seinfeld.