North’s Denials of Giving Help to Contras Failed to Satisfy Him, Hamilton Says

The former chairman of the House intelligence committee testified today that he was not satisfied with White House denials of news reports that Oliver L. North was helping Nicaraguan rebels in defiance of a congressional ban on such assistance.

Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) testified that then-National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane assured him in two letters and in a 1985 committee briefing that neither North nor other National Security Council aides were helping the Contra guerrillas.

“Were you satisfied with the response?” prosecutor John W. Keker asked Hamilton, the lead-off witness at North’s trial in U.S. District Court.

“No, I was not,” Hamilton replied. “The press stories continued in large numbers; it was of great interest to Congress.”

The inquiries were first made in August, 1985, after news reports that North was helping raise money for the Contras and giving the rebels tactical military advice despite prohibitions on U.S. aid first enacted by Congress in the so-called Boland Amendment of 1984.

“This was the most controversial matter of policy in Washington at the time,” Hamilton testified. “It was not possible for me to go onto the floor of the House of Representatives without members asking me about the news stories.”

Prosecutors are trying to show that North, then a Marine lieutenant colonel serving on the NSC staff, subverted the processes of government by helping McFarlane draft false answers to letters from Congress inquiring about the news reports of his activities.

Accurate answers to congressional inquiries are needed, Hamilton said, because “we can’t fulfill our responsibility unless we have accurate information from the executive branch.”

After further reports of his activities, the committee questioned North directly during an Aug. 6, 1986, meeting in the White House Situation Room, Hamilton said.

“Col. North insisted they had not violated the Boland Amendment and that they had not assisted the Contras by raising money and had not provided any military advice to the Contras,” he said.