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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994                   TAG: 9405120177
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOSTAGE: NORTH USED HIM

Former hostage Terry Waite said Wednesday that a newly declassified CIA document shows the U.S. government was ``far more manipulative'' in its attempt to trade arms for hostages than he realized.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that former White House aide Oliver North implied in a 1986 meeting with representatives of Iran that Waite was his agent, according to the document. That could have jeopardized Waite's life, it said.

Waite, a former Anglican Church envoy who went to Lebanon in an attempt to negotiate the release of hostages, was himself seized there in January 1987 and held until 1991.

Waite said the disclosure "certainly did, or it seems to have, given the impression that one was totally in the control of the American administration, which was a false impression."

The Journal said North claimed he could move Waite around quickly as a ``humanitarian'' cover for deals with Iran.

North's comments were reported in a U.S. intelligence transcript declassified by the CIA.

Waite reiterated he knew nothing about the arms-for-hostages deals. He said the document ``indicates how manipulative this whole matter was - I mean far more manipulative than I or anyone else realized at the time."

North, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Virginia, refused to comment on the document, the Journal said.

Jonathan Baron, spokesman for rival Jim Miller's Senate campaign, said the disclosure highlights problems with North's credibility. "Fairly or unfairly, Mr. North's record has been questioned by many, many conservatives and liberals alike," he said. "This is just part of that pattern."

Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, saw it as less of a problem. "It's not damaging," he said. "It just puts North in a statesman-like role negotiating the release of hostages, even if he did Waite dirty."

North, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, was convicted of three felonies in the Iran-Contra affair. The convictions were later reversed on a technicality.

Staff writer Warren Fiske contributed information to this story.

by CNB