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- <text id=92TT2852>
- <title>
- Dec. 21, 1992: Win One, Lose One
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Dec. 21, 1992 Restoring Hope
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 17
- NATION
- Win One, Lose One
- </hdr><body>
- <p>Iran-contra prosecutors convict Clair George but fail on
- Poindexter
- </p>
- <p> He was the first top CIA officer convicted of acts committed
- in the performance of duty. That alone makes Clair George a big
- catch for the Iran-contra prosecutors. But after six years and
- $33 million worth of frustration, his also was a rare
- conviction that might stick. A jury convicted the former chief
- of the CIA's spy network on two charges of lying to Congress (he
- was acquitted on five perjury counts). He could be sent to jail
- for 10 years, though it is unlikely he will ever go behind bars.
- Still, independent counsel Lawrence Walsh called his conviction
- "an important deterrent [against] cover-ups."
- </p>
- <p> Simultaneously, though, the Supreme Court refused to
- review a lower-court ruling that overturned the 1990 conviction
- of former National Security Adviser John Poindexter. He and
- Oliver North, whose conviction was also reversed, were the main
- architects of the secret sales of weapons to Iran and diversion
- of profits to the Nicaraguan contras. Ironically, that leaves
- former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, who angrily
- opposed the deal, as the biggest-name defendant remaining. A
- federal judge Friday threw out a charge against him of lying to
- Congress, but he still faces a January trial on four counts of
- perjury and making false statements.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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