Panel Votes to Subpoena North Diaries : May Be Essential to Narcotics Inquiry, Sen. Kerry Declares

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted today to subpoena the private diaries of fired White House aide Oliver L. North after Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said they may prove essential to the panel’s investigation of international narcotics smuggling.

The subpoena, which the committee voted 16 to 1 to issue, calls for North and his attorney, Brendan Sullivan, to produce 2,848 pages of diary notes with no deletions of any kind.

Kerry said that of that total, 1,269 pages have been heavily edited or censored by covering the contents of copies of the diary pages with heavy black ink.

He said the pages are studded with intriguing references to narcotics, to Kerry’s own ongoing investigation and to possible links to anti-Sandinista Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Most such references are followed by large blacked-out sections, Kerry told the committee.

Only Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) voted against issuing the subpoena, saying he did so because he believed that North, a personal friend, already is bearing too heavy a legal burden.

Kerry said the diary notes cover the period from September, 1984, to November, 1986, when North was a key member of the staff of the National Security Council.

Previously Reviewed

Censored versions of the diaries originally were provided to the congressional Iran-Contra committees under the grant of limited immunity from prosecution granted to North in exchange for his testimony last year.

Kerry said that in order to speed up the process, the Iran-Contra panels permitted North and Sullivan to block out sections they deemed to be irrelevant to that investigation.

But Kerry said that John Nields, chief counsel of the House Iran-Contra committee, agrees with him that there are many sections that appear to be relevant to the Kerry narcotics investigation.

Kerry has made it clear he believes there was a connection between drug-running and efforts to supply and arm the Contras. Some testimony has focused on that possibility.

North was in daily contact with Contra leaders during the period involved and visited them in the field. Those contacts and visits are reflected in his notes.

Speaking of the North diaries, Kerry told the committee: “I’m not asserting that there’s a smoking gun or something hidden or that some of the (deletions) are not appropriate.”

‘See All of It’

“My assertion is that given what has already been declassified, I don’t know how we can proceed with our investigation without being able to see all of it.”

He cited a number of specific references in the North diaries followed by inked-out text.

“I think it is important that we have the ability to know what is going on,” Kerry said.

Kerry said he has no present intention of calling North to explain his diary notes.