
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 12, 1993                   TAG: 9307120229
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CAN WE TRUST OLIVER NORTH?

TO CLAIM that senatorial candidate-apparent Oliver North endeavored "to bring peace to Nicaragua," as Gerald Flynn does (July 1 letter, "Oliver North is patriot, statesman"), is about as forthcoming as North was about his clandestine and unconstitutional activities.

By his own admission, North employed secret, illegal and unconstitutional methods when he sold U.S. weapons to Iran to raise money for the Nicaraguan Contras. The Contras were conducting a war to overthrow the government of Nicaragua. The United States Congress passed a law prohibiting aid to the Contras. North not only violated that law but lied about it under oath to Congress.

North was convicted. The conviction was later set aside, and his rights were restored. Ironically, the very Constitution he violated protected him from his self-incrimination.

The questions thrust upon Virginians by North's candidacy are stark: Is North - self-confessed liar to Congress, violator of the United States Constitution he swore as a soldier to uphold - to be entrusted by the people of Virginia to represent us in Congress? Should Virginians send North to the very Congress he held in such contempt when he acted above the law?

Can't Virginians do better? We can, and we must. REES SHEARER EMORY

by CNB