'I Can't Just Sit Back'

Amid his personal grief, Olson also has made another decision that could raise questions from some quarters. After consulting with his late wife's closest friends, he has given the greenlight to Regnery, the conservative publishing house, to proceed with plans to publish the manuscript Barbara Olson finished just before her death. Like her first book, "Hell to Pay," the new tome-entitled "The Final Days: The Last Desperate Abuse of Power by the Clinton White House"-is a fierce attack on Bill and Hillary Clinton. It is due out in a couple of weeks and will include an envelope seeking funds for a Barbara Olson scholarship fund recently set up at her alma mater, the Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University. (It's one of several such posthumous honors: The Federalist Society has just set up a lecture series in her name as well.)

Although the book is sure to stir controversy, Olson said there was never any question that his wife would have wanted it to come out. "For me to tell Barbara that her voice would be silenced because she was murdered by terrorists-I couldn't have lived with myself, and Barbara could not have tolerated that," he said. The book's inscription: "To my best friend, Ted."

© 2001