NATION, Page 22Pawn Among GiantsAs Oliver North takes the witness stand, prosecutors disclosean embarrassing link to Ronald Reagan and George BushBy Ed Magnuson
In the cavernous Senate Caucus Room two years ago, a misty-eyed
Marine Lieut. Colonel Oliver North dazzled millions of TV viewers.
Imposing in his sharply creased uniform and Viet Nam combat
ribbons, he confidently minimized his role in the Iran-contra
scandal, insisting, "I was authorized to do everything that I did."
Last week in a Washington federal courtroom, a more subdued North,
now a blue-suited civilian with graying hair, took the witness
stand and tried to convince twelve jurors that he had been merely
a gofer, dutifully carrying out policy set higher in the White
House. Surprisingly, the Government conceded for the first time
that to some extent, at least, the former National Security Council
aide was right.
Having failed in his effort two weeks ago to bring Ronald
Reagan to the courtroom to testify on his behalf, North took the
burden of his criminal defense upon himself. A risky move, it
exposes him to cross-examination by the federal prosecutors and
leaves him liable to a possible perjury charge if he contradicts
his earlier testimony before the Iran-contra committees.
Soft-spoken and earnest, he admitted lying to Congress as well as
altering documents. But always, he insisted, he was following the
orders of his White House superiors. In yet another melodramatic
but memorable statement, he declared, "I felt like a pawn in a
chess game being played by giants."
Shortly before North took the stand, the defense read to the
jury an extraordinary 42-page "admission of facts," disclosing that
secret efforts to provide support for the Nicaraguan contras
involved not only North but also Ronald Reagan, former Secretary
of State George Shultz, CIA Director William Casey and, most
important, George Bush. The court paper was supplied by the staff
of independent counsel Lawrence Walsh with the approval of Attorney
General Dick Thornburgh. It had been drawn up to satisfy North's
attorney, Brendan Sullivan, who had fought for months for the right
to use classified documents to demonstrate that North's contra
activities were part of a secret Administration policy.
The document describes the then Vice President as assuring the
government of Honduras that it would be well rewarded if it would
continue to harbor contra camps on its territory and funnel
military supplies to the rebels. Bush visited Tegucigalpa on March
16, 1985. According to the evidence, he told Honduran President
Roberto Suazo Cordova that the U.S. would carry out a promise from
Reagan to increase and expedite military and economic aid in return
for this help.
According to the document, Reagan had urged the Hondurans to
continue helping the contras in a letter to Suazo one month before
Bush's visit. The U.S. "conditions" for giving some $110 million
in aid were considered so sensitive that a secret emissary was sent
to brief the Honduran President orally on them. The quid pro quo
had been approved that same month at a meeting of a special
interagency crisis-planning group headed by Bush, although it was
not clear whether he led this key meeting. At the time, the Boland
amendment was in effect, banning lethal help to the contras.
Those and other disclosures were deeply embarrassing to various
high officials of the Reagan Administration. Bush's covert role is
at odds with his insistence at a 1984 meeting of top Reagan aides
that soliciting help from other countries for the contras would be
legal but that there would be a "problem" if "the United States
were to promise to give these third parties something in return."
And while some Reagan Administration officials privately
considered Panama's Manuel Antonio Noriega corrupt, the court
document showed that North and his then boss, National Security
Adviser John Poindexter, were encouraging Noriega to sabotage
various Sandinista government facilities in Nicaragua. North,
however, set some limits: he rejected as illegal a Noriega offer
to assassinate the entire Sandinista leadership.
Bush last week simply shrugged off the disclosures and
insisted, as he did during his campaign last year, that he could
not discuss issues involved in court proceedings. If the
revelations had come during the campaign or earlier, his candidacy
might have been hurt. But now Administration officials believe that
the public is weary of the Iran-contra question and he can easily
weather the storm.
For North the stakes are higher: he faces a possible prison
term for lying to Congress, obstructing an investigation by
Attorney General Edwin Meese and shredding classified documents.
Thus he took the witness stand to claim that these acts were either
implicitly condoned or explicitly directed by higher officials.
Under the interrogation of his lawyer, North testified that he
had been content with his peacetime Marine career and had not
wanted to be assigned to the White House. Nor had he been eager to
jump into his covert contra role. By 1984, however, the impending
congressional cutoff of military aid clearly ruled out further
running of contra military supplies by the CIA. "Every bit of that
CIA responsibility had been passed on to me," he told the jury.
This "hand-off" came from Casey, "a man that I respected and
admired."
North claimed that Casey, former National Security Adviser
Robert McFarlane and Poindexter repeatedly told him that his
activities "could not be revealed." When suspicious congressional
committee chairmen asked McFarlane precisely what the NSC and North
were doing about Nicaragua, North said he argued in vain that
McFarlane should claim Executive privilege and refuse to answer.
Instead, McFarlane wrote deceptive letters to the committees. The
prosecutors claim North helped him; North insists that he had
objected. The deception is part of the charges against North.
Again directly contradicting McFarlane's testimony several
weeks earlier, North claimed that he and his secretary, Fawn Hall,
had altered various documents about the contra arrangements on
direct orders from McFarlane. North conceded, under Sullivan's
questioning, that he had lied when called before a congressional
committee in August 1986. "I knew it wasn't right not to tell the
truth about those things," he said in a voice husky with emotion.
"But I didn't think it was unlawful."
But North is also accused of acts difficult to explain away as
matters of high policy: defrauding the Internal Revenue Service by
helping a tax-exempt foundation raise money for the contras;
accepting an illegal gift to a Government employee, a $13,800
security installation for his home; and putting some funds raised
for the contras to his own personal use.
The jurors may have been impressed by his performance -- as
well as by the clear evidence of wider Administration complicity.
But they no doubt remembered the testimony earlier in the week by
Vincent Cannistravo, a former NSC aide, who admitted, "You could
never be sure whether what (North) said was true, fantasy, or was
being told deliberately to mislead." And North's ability to win
over an audience will face its roughest test this week, when
prosecutor John Keker gets his turn to ask the questions. "North
makes an excellent witness," said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former
Watergate prosecutor. "The question is the cross-examination, which
will provide by far the greatest dramatic element of the trial. The
trial may well hinge on the cross-examination of Ollie North."
