North Says He Never Told Reagan, Assumes He Knew : Denies He Was Loose Gun, Links Meese to Deception

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, ending months of silence, testified today that he “never personally discussed” the diversion of Iranian arms sales profits to contra rebels with President Reagan but assumed--without being told--that Reagan had approved.

In a combative first appearance before two joint congressional committees looking into the scandal, North also said he was no “loose cannon on the gun deck” and that Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III had a role in the deception.

“No memorandum ever came back to me with the initials from the President,” North said, but he added, “I had the approval of my superiors” and assumed they had approval from Reagan concerning plans for Iranian arms payments to help finance the rebels fighting the Nicaraguan government.

President’s Words

Still, he quoted Reagan as saying in a telephone conversation last Nov. 25, “I just didn’t know.” Earlier that day Reagan had fired North as an aide on the National Security Council.

North was a take-no-guff witness, at times angrily denouncing what he thought were questions about his motives.

At one point, questioned by House committee counsel John Nields about a falsehood deliberately placed in a National Security Council chronology, North said firmly:

“I did a lot of things and I want to stand up and say I’m proud of them. I don’t want you to think, counsel, that I went about this all on my own. I realize there’s a lot of people around that think there’s a loose cannon on the gun deck of state on the NSC. That wasn’t what I heard while I worked there. I’ve only heard it since I left.

“People used to walk up to me and tell me what a great job I was doing. And the fact is there were many, many people, to include the former assistant to the President for national security affairs (Robert C. McFarlane), the (then) current national security adviser (John M. Poindexter), the attorney general of the United States (Meese) and the director of central intelligence (the late William J. Casey), all of whom knew that (document) to be wrong.”

Using the Money

To a question about diversion of the Iranian arms profits to the rebels fighting the Nicaraguan government, North said, “The only thing we did was divert money out of Mr. Ghorbanifar’s pocket and put it to better use.” Manucher Ghorbanifar was a middleman in contact with Iran.

“I would have offered the Iranians a free trip to Disneyland if we could have gotten our hostages home for it,” North said.

North led off his testimony by saying “I came here to tell you the truth--the good, the bad and the ugly.”

North said he shredded documents as the Iran-contra scandal began unraveling last October--when a plane crashed in Nicaragua killing three people and resulting in the capture of an American mercenary--and from then until the affair became public knowledge on Nov. 25.

Shredded Regularly

“I do not deny that I engaged in shredding on Nov. 21,” said North, referring to the day Meese began an investigation of U.S. involvement in the Iran-contra connection.

“I will also tell this committee that I engaged in shredding almost every day that I had a shredder,” North said.

When the plane carrying Eugene Hasenfus crashed, North said, he knew he would be leaving the NSC--to become “a scapegoat, if you will”--and he didn’t want his successor “opening files that would possibly expose people at risk.”

Billed as the man who pulled most of the strings in the complex affair, North drew a nationwide television audience, a crowded committee hearing room and 150 tourists lined up outside in the humid Washington morning hoping for a seat inside.

The 43-year-old North, his gray hair cropped to Marine officer length, was in his uniform with six rows of ribbons. He testified under a grant of immunity that prevents his word from being used against him in court.

Matter of Secrecy

Asked about memos on the diversion of funds, he said: “I think I shredded most of that. Did I get them all? I’m not trying to be flippant. I tried to destroy all references to covert operations.”

But he hadn’t managed to, he acknowledged.

He said he mistakenly assured Poindexter--national security adviser at the time--last Nov. 21, when warned that Meese was beginning an inquiry, that “all those documents were destroyed”--a reference to papers mentioning the diversion of funds.

One version of a North memo on the subject was put before him on the witness table as “Exhibit One.” Nields questioned him repeatedly as to whether Reagan approved such a memo. North said he never saw any indication the President had but assumed he knew what was going on.

North said firmly that he does not believe he violated the law while working at the National Security Council, even though Congress had prohibited government assistance to the contras.

Shredding ‘in Earnest’

He testified that he began shredding documents “in earnest” last October after Casey told him that Canadian businessman Roy Furmark had told Casey that funds had been diverted.

He said he took part in drafting false chronologies for White House use last fall in part to spare American hostages and secret Iranian intermediaries from possible harm and in part to prevent domestic repercussions in this country. He said several past and present officials knew the chronology was inaccurate.

North described meetings last fall at which congressional testimony being prepared for Casey to give was falsified. He said he and Casey later decided in a private meeting attended by only the two of them that the CIA director would tell Congress that an airplane carrying Hawk missiles to Iran contained “bulky cargo”--not the whole truth but not the lie about oil-drilling equipment inserted earlier.