Lt. Col. Oliver North`s ”four-star performance” during four days of testimony at the Iran-contra hearings has won him the adulation of many Americans and has left committee members impressed and maybe a little cowed.
North, who will testify for a fifth and probably final day Monday, has offered answers to most of the contentious questions awaiting him, claiming he never took ”one penny” in personal profits from the Iran arms sales and only accepted a home security system to protect his family.
He has given his answer to the ”mega question” of what President Reagan knew by saying he originally believed the President was aware of the diversion of Iran arms profits to Nicaraguan rebels but that Reagan later told him this was not so.
He has repeatedly drawn a picture of the late CIA Director William Casey as a mastermind of the operation. He testified Friday that Casey even envisioned that funds from arms sales to Iran would finance an ongoing
”entity” for covert operations in addition to aiding Nicaraguan rebels.
North has contradicted statements by other administration officials about their knowledge of the affair, and he has raised serious questions about the efficacy of a Justice Department investigation into his own role.
The fired White House aide has more than set the stage for the next witness, former National Security Adviser John Poindexter. North testifed he assumed Poindexter, his onetime boss, had passed on to Reagan memos North had written describing the diversion plan. Reagan repeatedly has denied any knowledge of the scheme or reading such memos.
North has done all this in a manner so sincere and appealing and patriotic that he has taken on instant folk-hero popularity. In a week he has almost reversed his status with the committee, so that at times he seems to be the one effectively in control.
At the witness table Friday morning a huge stack of telegrams was left for reporters to peruse before he arrived. They were from all over the country and said things such as ”God Bless You” and ”You Deserve a Purple Heart”
and ”You Are A True American Hero.” One said, ”Money Will Follow.”
Flowers were reportedly pouring in, too, both to his lawyer`s office and to committee members who apparently were deemed likely to pass them on to North. Rep. Henry Hyde (R., Ill.) said he received four bouquets during the lunch break Friday–three addressed to North and one to North`s wife, Betsy.
Outside the Russell Senate Office Building, where the hearings have been held, a woman and a small girl held up a huge, homemade banner Friday afternoon that said, ”Col. North Is A Hero.” At one point the crowd outside reportedly was chanting, ”Ollie, Ollie, he`s our man, he`s the hero of the land.”
When North left at the end of the day amid tight security–there reportedly had been a death threat that morning–huge cheers greeted his nine- car motorcade.
None of this escaped committee members, who clearly were being careful about the way they handled this new media star.
Rep. Bill McCollum (R., Fla.) interrupted questioning Friday morning by Senate committee counsel Arthur Liman to complain that Liman was trying to
”slant” his questions and added, ”He doesn`t speak for everybody.”
Rep. Jim Courter (R., N.J.) jumped in to say he thought North should be allowed to present his standard speech about the contras to the committee–and presumably to a huge, nationwide television audience–so they could determine if it actually was an attempt to solicit money.
And Sen. Warren Rudman (R., N.H.)–who has been one of the more vigorous questioners to date, enthusiastically boring in on most of the previous witnesses–said after Friday`s session it had been ”an extraordinary four days” and called North ”honest and forthright.”
”The American people think North`s a stand-up guy,” Rudman said,
”(and) I think so.”
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii), chairman of the Senate committee, said he thought ”from the standpoint of performance” that North was a ”four-star star.” But Inouye added he thought some questions remained, specifically about what Liman called ”a CIA outside of the CIA” allegedly promoted by Casey to carry out covert policy.
In response to Liman`s questions, North testified that what Casey ”had in mind, as I understand it, (was) an overseas entity that was capable of conducting operations or activities of assistance to the U.S. foreign policy goals that was a `stand-alone`; it was . . . self-financing, independent of appropriated monies and capable of conducting activities similar to the ones that we had conducted here.”
Sen. William Cohen (R., Me.) later said he thought that perhaps ”the most serious revelation to have taken place during the course of these proceedings is that of a plan, proposed by or conceived by high-ranking officials, to create a contingency fund for the intended purpose of carrying out other covert operations at some time in the future, with or without presidential findings, with or without notice to Congress.”
Inouye viewed the Casey plan as ”the creation and maintenance of a secret government within our government.”
During his testimony Friday, North testified that the Iran initiative had been a straight arms-for-hostages trade almost from the outset, contrary to Reagan`s assertion that it had begun as an attempt to establish contact with moderates in Iran and only later had evolved into a direct swap for Americans held hostage in Lebanon.
North described the beating and torture of one of those hostages, William Buckley, the former CIA station chief in Beirut. North said Buckley was
”probably tortured considerably” and ”a tortured confession of some 400 pages was extracted from him.” He said Buckley died from pulmonary edema, meaning he had been kicked so brutally his kidneys and lungs filled up with fluid and he ”basically suffocated.”
North will return to the witness table Monday for what is expected to be his final day of questioning by committee members.
Among the key points of the last four days:
— North insisted he never acted without the authority of his superiors and said he assumed Reagan had approved the diversion plan. He said he prepared five memorandums on the subject, and thought on at least three occasions that Poindexter had delivered them, or relayed the information to the President. Later, he said, when the operation was exposed, Poindexter said Reagan never knew and the President himself, in a phone call to North, said,
”I just didn`t know.”
— North said he never profited from the Iran arms sales, never knew about a $200,000 ”death benefits” account set up for his family and cashed $2,500 in traveler`s checks from a contra fund he controlled as reimbursements for money he already had spent for the operation out of his own pocket. He said he accepted a $13,900 home security system–in apparent violation of federal law–because he felt it was essential to protect his wife and four children after international terrorist Abu Nidal threatened his life. North said his falsification of documents to make it appear he intended to pay for the system was the ”grossest misjudgment of my life.”
— North said that when the Iran-contra scheme was about to be disclosed last November, he shredded documents in his White House office less than 10 feet from a Justice Department team sent to investigate his files. The Justice Department quickly denied this. North said Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese never told him to preserve his documents and that he continued shredding for several more days, until he was fired.
— North said he was prepared to be the scapegoat if the operation were disclosed, but Casey told him he might not be senior enough and Poindexter might have to take the blame. North said when he learned he faced criminal charges, he decided he would not ”go quietly.”
