TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/051589/05158900.040

Text File | 1992-09-25 | 7.4 KB | 133 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 34

"A Partial Vindication"


The North trial ends with an equivocal verdict -- and many
unanswered questions


    Some questions are so fraught with political ambiguity that a
criminal trial cannot answer them completely. One such conundrum:
Who should be held accountable for the Iran-contra affair? Last
week a jury in Washington rendered a judgment on retired Marine
Lieut. Colonel Oliver North. But it was a verdict equivocal enough
for both the defendant and the prosecutor to hail it. North
proclaimed a "partial vindication" because he was found not guilty
of nine felony charges. Prosecutor John W. Keker asserted that
North's convictions on three other counts demonstrated "the
principle that no man is above the law."

    They were both right. The criminal case against North had
divided the complicated scandal into discrete and comprehensible
acts, like lying to Congress, tampering with evidence and illegally
converting funds to his own use. But such narrow charges barely
touched broader and still unanswered questions: To what extent was
the former National Security Council staffer, as he claimed in his
defense, following orders when he led a secret effort to provide
assistance to the Nicaraguan rebels in defiance of congressional
bans? Were present and former Government officials, including
Ronald Reagan and George Bush, involved in a cover-up of the covert
campaign? Why were documents suggesting that the former and current
Presidents were more deeply enmeshed in the affair than either has
acknowledged not given to congressional investigating committees?

    The public has been sharply divided about North since the
scandal burst into the headlines in 1986. While many consider him
a rogue who set out to thwart the lawful conduct of foreign policy,
others are convinced that North is a patriotic pawn swept up in
what he called a "chess game played by giants." The heart of his
defense was that his actions were approved by such superiors as
Reagan, former National Security Advisers Robert McFarlane and John
Poindexter and the late CIA Director William Casey.

    Despite U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell's specific
instructions to the contrary, that defense proved persuasive to the
jury of nine women and three men, all black, all working class, all
chosen for their ignorance of North's celebrated 1987 congressional
testimony. Declared juror Earl Williams: "I think there were people
higher up who gave him the authority to do a lot of things, and
then when he got caught out there high and dry, no one came to help
him." Added jury forewoman Denise Anderson: "North was used and
abused."

    Such sentiments led some jurors to hold out for North's
acquittal on all counts. But after one member led a "strong prayer"
on the twelfth and final day of deliberation, the jury voted guilty
on the last of three charges to which North had virtually confessed
on the witness stand. As jury member Beverly Turner explained, "He
was wrong, and he knew he was wrong."

    The most clear-cut example was North's conviction for accepting
an illegal gratuity -- a $13,800 home-security system -- from
retired Air Force Major General Richard Secord, quartermaster of
the Iranian arms sales. North admitted forging two letters in an
attempt to prove that he had offered to pay for the system.

    On other charges, the verdict was finely calibrated. North was
exonerated of four counts of lying to Congress and one count of
obstructing a congressional inquiry before the imbroglio became
public. But he was found guilty of two counts of trying to conceal
the scandal after investigations were under way. "The jurors were
willing to credit the defense that prior to the public disclosure
and the investigation, the whole thing was a covert action in which
the President and North's bosses were involved," says a lawyer
familiar with the Iran-contra investigations. "So even if North
told lies, they were willing to say don't make him take the rap for
what everybody else was doing."

    Judge Gesell will sentence North on June 23. He theoretically
could be imprisoned for up to ten years and fined $750,000. But a
TIME/CNN poll taken last week shows that there is widespread public
sentiment against sending North to prison, and that a majority
believe Bush should pardon him. Two other findings in the poll
should trouble the President. One is that 56% think he was
personally involved in some of the actions that led to North's
conviction. And 67% say the President has yet to tell the full
truth about his involvement in the affair.

    After the trial ended, Gesell released previously undisclosed
evidence showing that in 1986 high officials of the CIA, NSC and
Department of Defense received intelligence reports about the
multimillion-dollar profits generated by arms sales to Iran. During
the trial, a separate summary of classified documents described how
officials of the Reagan Administration in 1985 agreed to expedite
a $110 million aid package to Honduras, provided that the Central
American country stepped up its support for the contras. The
details were considered so sensitive that they could not be written
down. Instead, a "discreet emissary" was sent to brief President
Roberto Suazo Cordova on the deal. Later, Bush traveled to Honduras
to assure Suazo that the aid was on its way. At the time, such
arrangements were prohibited by the Boland amendment.

    Minutes before the North verdict was announced last week, Bush
angrily broke his silence on the question, declaring, "There was
no quid pro quo." The White House flourished a State Department
cable in which John Negroponte, then Ambassador to Honduras,
described the Bush-Suazo meeting, omitting any mention of a deal.
But since the State Department was kept largely uninformed about
the Reagan Administration's clandestine assistance, it is unlikely
that the envoy would have included it in communications with Foggy
Bottom.

    Congressional Democrats have demanded an explanation for the
FBI's failure to turn over the documents describing the Honduras
deal to the House and Senate Iran-contra committees. Last week the
White House promised to correct that lapse, but only to the extent
that certain documents are "relevant." Meanwhile, the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee is holding up Negroponte's nomination
as Ambassador to Mexico. It is also preparing some tough questions
for Donald Gregg, a former Bush adviser whom he has nominated as
Ambassador to South Korea. In 1986 Gregg discussed the contra-aid
effort with CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, who was assisting the
rebels, but Gregg says he never told Bush about the conversation.

    The White House is convinced that the public has lost interest
in the Iran-contra affair. But the continuing concern in Congress
over whether the Reagan Administration withheld important evidence
ensures that the controversy will endure. The pressure could mount
this fall, with the approaching trial of North's former superior,
Poindexter, who faces six counts, including the two main conspiracy
and theft charges that had to be dropped against North because the
White House would not release classified documents to the defense.
While North could point up the chain of command to Poindexter,
Poindexter may have to point to his boss, Ronald Reagan.