An Un-Uniform Code of Military Justice : For Sgt. Lonetree, North’s ‘Hero’ Status Is a Double Standard at Best

The superstar status accorded to Lt. Col. Oliver L. North by a sizable portion of the electorate following his six-day stint before the joint congressional committees investigating the Iran- contra affair is in sharp contrast to the treatment meted out to another Marine, Sgt. Clayton J. Lonetree, who is about to enter his eighth month in the brig at Quantico, Va.

Unlike North, who has publicly admitted a number of serious federal crimes, as well as many violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Lonetree, currently in the opening stages of his general court-martial, has pleaded not guilty to highly questionable charges carrying the possibility of the death penalty.

The colonel, however, has not spent one moment in custody since the revelation last November that he was the central operational figure in the covert diversion of profits from the secret sale of American arms to Iran to the Nicaraguan contras.

In addition, since his discharge from his White House staff position he has been retained on honorable active duty in Washington. Moreover, his resort to the Fifth Amendment before the House Intelligence Committee in the early stages of the congressional investigation into the unlawful diversion of the arms sales’ proceeds, dramatically differing from Lonetree’s voluntary cooperation with the authorities, quickly earned him the accolade of “hero” from his commander-in-chief.

His legal maneuvers around the issues of immunity from prosecution and the validity of the special prosecutor’s office have been widely publicized and, in some quarters at least, loudly applauded. His derring-do at shredding pertinent (and perhaps incriminating) documents under, according to his testimony, the very eyes of an inquiring Justice Department team has drawn admiring titters from friend and foe alike.

He has been flatteringly portrayed by the press and his supporters as a dedicated soldier, a consummate patriot and a loyal subordinate. The nightly news has often, and quite sympathetically, depicted him as a devoted husband and father. Life magazine recently acquired his wife’s story, glorifying him and his achievements as an officer as well as extolling the stellar performance of his domestic duties.

While all this was going on, Sgt. Lonetree, well into his second hitch, was confined to a windowless 5-foot-by-10-foot cell in the Quantico brig, his every move monitored--night and day--by closed-circuit television cameras.

During his first four months of captivity he had no access to either radio or television, and was denied any newspapers or current periodicals. He was allowed no visitors except his attorneys and the members of his immediate family who were able to finance the trip from Minnesota or Arizona.

During the time when he was afforded limited exercise periods, he was initially required to wear handcuffs and leg irons. When Cpl. Arnold Bracey, the Marine whose espionage charges were dropped last month as totally unfounded, was also confined to the Quantico brig, he was put at the opposite end of the cell block and the two men were ordered not to attempt to talk to each other. For a time they tried to communicate by tapping on the walls or their cell bars or flushing their respective toilets. One day, after they were almost caught trying to make contact by their guards, they decided to discontinue their efforts.

It took the persistent complaints of their counsel to alleviate these medieval conditions of confinement. After some time they were permitted to exercise unshackled and, at the end of April, to have television receivers placed just outside their cells--dependent, however, on the military police for program selection. They were finally allowed to read newspapers, from which all references to them or their cases had been carefully excised. Although many representatives of the news media, including CBS’ “60 Minutes,” were eager to interview Lonetree, all of their requests were precipitously denied.

In fact, the press was initially excluded from the post when Lonetree’s preliminary hearing began, despite the fact that the classic text on military justice says that “the military accused possesses the same Sixth Amendment right to a public trial as does the civilian accused,” and expresses “a strong preference for public trials.” After vehement protests from the hordes of reporters covering the proceeding, they were finally allowed to enter Quantico but were forced to take up stations across the street from the building where it was taking place.

The contrast between this enforced isolation and the media orgy generated by Col. North’s recent appearances before the joint congressional committee scarcely needs any elaboration.

Shortly before the sergeant’s court-martial began, his grandfather, a Winnebago holy man and peacemaker, offered a prayer on his behalf at a support rally in St. Paul, Minn. Dressed in a traditional eagle-feather headdress, Samuel Lonetree referred bitterly to the stark disparity of treatment between his grandson and Col. North.

“The white man,” he observed, “like those who massacred Indian villages during the last century, is a hero to his peers, while the red man is still considered to be a dangerous savage and not entitled to be treated as a human being. There can never be true peace between us until we all walk equally upon Mother Earth.” There were noticeable tears in the old man’s eyes when he sat down.