Col. North Testifies He Was Told ‘Don’t Tell Anybody’ : On Stand 1st Time in Own Defense

Oliver L. North took the stand in his own defense today and testified that superiors in the Ronald Reagan Administration told him “not to tell anybody” about his role in funneling aid to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

The retired Marine lieutenant colonel testified shortly after George Bush was identified in court as an intermediary in President Reagan’s secret plan to aid the Contras.

North, who faces a dozen charges in connection with his role in the Iran-Contra affair, said, “I was particularly admonished” to keep secret “that another country was providing millions of dollars to help the Contras.” Saudi Arabia supplied about $32 million in aid to the Contras, beginning in mid-1984.

Asked by defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan who told him he was going to be running the operation, North identified then-National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, his deputy John M. Poindexter, and the late CIA Director William J. Casey.

Under questioning from his lawyer, the former White House aide depicted himself as a Marine officer with plans to take command of a battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., when top officials in the Reagan Administration enlisted him to run the secret Contra operation in 1984.

North testified in his own defense after his attorneys read into the record a lengthy account of the Reagan Administration’s efforts to keep alive the Contra struggle against the leftist government of Nicaragua.

The account, a legal “admission of fact” read to the jury with the agreement of the government, said Bush personally told the president of Honduras in 1985 that extra aid was being funneled to his country as payment for helping the Contras.

The account also said a representative of Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega offered in a meeting with North to assassinate the Sandinista leadership in Nicaragua. North was said to reply that the United States wanted no part of any such plans.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Stephen Hart said, “I have no comment” on the developments, adding that “this is part of an ongoing trial.”

A short while after the “admission of fact” statement was read, North was on the stand and fielding questions from his own attorney.

“Was there a time when you were stepping in” to help the Contras, asked North lawyer Sullivan.

“I was not stepping in, I was brought in,” responded North.

“I was told not to tell anybody” about his role in taking over from the CIA in overseeing the Contras’ needs, North testified.

Prosecutor John Keker objected when Sullivan asked whether North “understood” that President Reagan had designated him as the Contras’ new provider. U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell sustained the objection and North didn’t answer.

North said he ended up handling “everything that had been coming from the CIA.”

“Everything that they had, from the little tents that they lived in . . . to food, to bullets, to intelligence” had come from the CIA, said North.

“I don’t recall there was any specific break point” when all the Contras’ needs fell on his shoulders, but he was carrying the load by the time the cutoff in military aid went in effect in October, 1984, North testified.