North Portrays Self as Persecuted and Abandoned

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North portrayed himself Thursday as an abandoned and persecuted figure, taking advice just from his attorney and getting comfort only from his family and the Lord.

North, besieged by reporters in the driveway of his home in Great Falls, Va., reacted sharply to First Lady Nancy Reagan’s complaint Wednesday that her husband was “not told things that he should have been told.” She said the President wishes North and his former boss, John M. Poindexter, would tell what they know about the Iran- contras scandal.

North and Poindexter have invoked their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, and Reagan has asked that they tell the full story “consistent with their constitutional rights.”

North, grim-faced but stoic in his Marine Corps uniform behind the wheel of his car, said:

“The President has not asked me to do that. I don’t believe the President really wants me to abandon my individual rights under the Constitution. People have died face down in the mud all over the world defending those individual rights. It’s the thing that makes this country so much different than any other country in the world.”

President’s Position

White House spokesman Rusty Brashear agreed, saying, “The President has not asked anyone to give up their constitutional rights,” asking only that each key figure “find a way within his constitutional rights” to tell what he knows.

“I don’t think the President has ever taken the position he’s on anyone’s side” in the dispute, Brashear added.

White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan, after testifying before the House Intelligence Committee Thursday, repeated calls for North to clear up the myriad of mysteries and tell “what exactly happened” in the Iran arms scandal.

After his testimony, Regan, asked about North’s role, said: “We still don’t know what Col. North did. What we’re most anxious to have happen is for Col. North and Adm. Poindexter to tell their story of what exactly happened so that, again, all the facts will be known out on the table and the American people can make a judgment (about) who was right, who was wrong, who did something that was possibly wrong.”

‘Found Myself Abandoned’

North, the reputed mastermind of the diversion of Iranian arms sales profits to the Nicaraguan contras, was fired on Nov. 25 from his post on the National Security Council staff.

“I have, over the last 23 days, found myself abandoned by former friends and so-called friends and colleagues,” North said Thursday. “I continue to place my trust in the Lord. I refer you to Psalm 7, Verse 1. I continue to place my trust in the family I just left behind me (in his house), and I continue to take the advice of my counsel.”

The psalm of King David that North referred to reads: “O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.”