Charges Dropped Against North
In refusing to release allegedly classified information, the Reagan Administration has short-circuited the judicial process. That is demonstrably obvious to everyone. Is national security worth more than the truth? Isn’t national security about the truth after all?
Since government officials write the ground rules on what is and is not classified and on what is or is not injurious to the national security, they can decree anything they want in order to shield their own malfeasance from public scrutiny. North’s lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, isn’t concerned with truth, he is concerned with victory. And how can victory that blasphemes the judicial procedures not be inimical to our security as a nation?
It is truly sad, disgusting and disquieting that men in this nation can commit crimes and by some act of sophistry, they can go free. It is doubly disturbing when these crimes are instigated at the pinnacles of executive power. National security allegations are merely smoke screens for illicit behavior.
As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson once said, “Security is like liberty in that many are the crimes committed in its name.”
DANIEL SABIA
Los Angeles
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