Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 13, 1993 TAG: 9306140061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But the questions raised during the episode cut to the core of his character. "He has a lot to account for," said Mark Warner, chairman of the state Democratic Party.
The controversy stems from North's years (1981-86) as a White House employee at the National Security Council. In the early 1980s, Congress passed the Boland Amendments, laws cutting off financial aid to Nicaragua's Contras - insurgents who were battling the communist government in their country.
North became the central figure in a clandestine White House effort to subvert the law. At first, he raised funds for the Contras through wealthy individuals and the Saudi Arabian government. Then, he came up with what he later called a "neat idea."
North retained private arms dealers to sell U.S. weapons to Iran in return for the Iranian government's pledge to help free American hostages in the Middle East. The weapons were sold at inflated prices, and some of the profits were secretly funneled to the Contras.
News of the Iran-Contra dealings began to leak in late 1986, and North became involved in a massive cover-up. When congressional investigators visited the National Security Council, North altered documents and gave assurances that the spirit of the Boland Amendments had not been breached. To this day, North insists that although he was not "fully explanatory" to Congress, he never lied outright.
"As far as I'm concerned, he lied and he told numerous lies," recalled former Rep. Michael Barnes, D-Md., who was then chairman of the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs. "It always amazed me that a Marine officer would do that," Barnes added, calling North "an ideological zealot of the extreme."
When the full scope of the scandal broke, North was fired and called an "American hero" by President Ronald Reagan. North returned to his office and shredded sheafs of key documents.
North has maintained that each of his deceptive acts came on orders from White House higher-ups. But former security council chief Robert McFarlane, who pleaded guilty to several misdemeanors stemming from Iran-Contra, testified that North was an eager participant in the cover-up.
Debate over North's role in the affair may never be resolved. Former CIA Director William Casey, whom North decribes as his mentor, is dead. It was Casey, North says, who instructed him to destroy documents.
Long ago shredded and lost are North's financial records of the sale of arms to Iran and contributions to Contras. Prosecutors suggested that North may have profited from the affair, noting that in 1985 he paid $8,038 in cash for a used car. North testified that he had been saving the money for 20 years and kept it in a strongbox bolted to a closet floor in his home.
North accepted a $13,000 home security system from arms dealer Richard Secord, in direct violation of federal laws barring government employees from taking gratuities. As the scandal unraveled, North wrote backdated letters to indicate that he paid for the system.
In 1989, a federal jury convicted North of obstructing Congress, receiving an illegal gratuity and altering, destroying and concealing documents. A divided appeals court overturned the verdict on a technicality a year later. It ruled prosecutors could not prove they had not used information in the trial that North gave in 1987 when he testified with immunity before congressional probers of Iran-Contra.
Looking back, North said he regrets his "mistakes and lapses of judgment," but was caught up in his zeal to fight communism. "I know the difference between right and wrong, and I can tell good from bad," he wrote in his autobiography, "Under Fire."
"I never saw myself above the law, nor did I intend to do anything illegal."
by CNB