North Takes Huge Stack of Documents to Iran Panels

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, star witness in the congressional Iran- contra hearings, appeared briefly in full military uniform before a closed session of the investigating committees Tuesday and surrendered a huge stack of documents, including the contents of 21 spiral notebooks he used to record his daily activities at the White House.

North’s 15-minute appearance before the Senate and House committees was the first step in a previously orchestrated legal process that will include his private testimony before the panels today and public testimony beginning next Tuesday.

Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), vice chairman of the Senate committee, described the session as “polite, friendly and businesslike.” Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the Senate panel, said North and the committee members were simply “carrying out a script” prepared for them by their lawyers.

In response to a subpoena, North supplied each of the committees with seven black three-ring binders containing edited copies of his telephone logs, correspondence, personal calendars, handwritten notes, a code book, photographs and the spiral notebooks.

The existence of the spiral notebooks was disclosed by North’s secretary, Fawn Hall. They are expected to reveal the inner workings of the Iran-contra affair, which was masterminded by North as he held a key position in President Reagan’s National Security Council.

In Tuesday’s session, North described the spiral notebooks as containing “day-to-day notations of some of my conversations and activities which may relate to the subject matter of your inquiry,” according to a transcript released by the committees.

North did not give them everything in the notebooks but edited out portions that he determined were not pertinent to the inquiry.

Committee members said the documents supplied by North fully satisfied their subpoena. In exchange for North’s cooperation, the committee has promised to give him copies of pertinent documents supplied by other witnesses.

North earlier had refused to testify before the committee or to surrender his documents without receiving immunity from prosecution. He reiterated his position Tuesday by initially refusing to answer seven separate questions put to him by Arthur L. Liman, chief counsel for the Senate panel.

Thus satisfied that North still intended to insist upon limited immunity from prosecution, the committees then formally granted limited immunity to North and Liman repeated all seven questions. On the second round of questioning, North answered “yes, I do,” or “I did” to all of the questions, which were as follows:

--”Do you have any knowledge regarding the efforts of the United States government to secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon?

--”Do you have any knowledge regarding the sale of United States military equipment and the transfer of intelligence to Iran in connection with that effort?

--”Do you have knowledge concerning the generation and use of the proceeds from those sales and related matters?

--”Do you have knowledge about the support for the contras that was given by U.S. government personnel after Jan. 1, 1984?

--”Did you ever prepare any documents or other records relating to these subjects?

--”Do you have knowledge of the existence and location of the documents and other records relating to those subjects?

--”Do you have custody, possession or control of records of other documents relating to those subjects?”

Although the questioning was a pro forma exercise designed to clarify matters covered by North’s grant of limited immunity from the committee, it was also the first indication of what questions the committee will be asking when he appears for substantive testimony.

At the beginning of the session, North’s attorney, Brendan Sullivan, reiterated his earlier opposition to the committee’s insistence on questioning the former White House aide privately before his public appearance. Although Sullivan had argued that the immunity statute does not apply to private testimony, North eventually agreed to submit to private questioning under a threat of being cited with contempt of Congress.

The committee wanted to question North privately first to have an opportunity to verify his story before it is told in public session.