The Nation : GAO Rejects Restoring North’s Pension

The U.S. comptroller general refused to restore Oliver L. North’s $23,000-a-year military pension, saying there is “serious doubt” whether the former White House aide convicted in the Iran-Contra scandal is entitled to retirement pay. In a three-page letter to the Navy, General Accounting Office general counsel James Hinchman said that “it has long been the government’s practice” not to provide retirement pay to someone convicted of destroying government documents, one of the three felony crimes for which North was convicted. The letter was in response to a Navy recommendation that North’s pension be restored by Comptroller General Charles A. Bowsher, who is head of the GAO. “The denial of payment gives Col. North the right to sue for it,” Hinchman said. According to the Navy, the decision does not affect North’s commissary and exchange privileges and medical benefits.