North Wilts Under Tough Questions on Lies to Congress

The starched military bearing of witness Oliver L. North wilted for a telling moment under relentless questioning Wednesday as he acknowledged his lies to Congress and stated he had already demonstrated his remorse to the world.

On his fourth and final day as a reluctant witness in the Iran-Contra trial of former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, North faced a barrage of sharp and unfriendly questions from both special prosecutor Dan K. Webb and defense attorney Richard W. Beckler.

The prosecution clearly wanted to closely link Poindexter with North, who was convicted last year of destroying documents and lying to Congress. The defense obviously wanted to separate the two in the minds of the jury. Both strategies ensured rough questioning for North.

The most dramatic confrontation centered on North’s meeting with 11 members of the House Intelligence Committee in the White House Situation Room on Aug. 6, 1986. In that meeting, North, then a Marine lieutenant colonel on the staff of the National Security Council, falsely denied that he was involved in arming and aiding the Contras fighting in Nicaragua.

Webb, a former U.S. attorney in Chicago, had dealt softly with North on earlier days in the trial. But his manner changed when he demanded to know whether North knew he had committed a crime by lying to the congressmen.

“No,” North replied, “I was not under oath. I have never lied under oath. It was an informal, off-the-record session.”

“Did you think it was a tea party in the White House Situation Room?”

“No, counsel, I knew that it was not a tea party.”

“I don’t want to be flippant,” Webb persisted, “but did you not know that it was an important and solemn occasion?”

“I did not attach any particular solemnity to the occasion.”

Webb asked if Poindexter had reassured North that he could “handle” talking to Congress.

“Or take care of it,” North corrected.

“And you did?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you lied?”

“Yes, I have admitted that.”

“Did you expect him to be happy?” asked Webb in scathing tones. “You carried the admiral’s water and lied to Congress. Did you feel good about that?”

North, who had sat stiffly tall in the witness chair for most of the four days, replying with a touch of contempt to unfriendly questions and often insisting he could not remember anything that had happened, tried to speak but could not be heard. The judge asked him to speak louder.

North leaned forward, then after many seconds moved back, then said softly: “I have told the whole world I did not feel good about that.”

Poindexter is charged with five counts involving a conspiracy to destroy documents, obstruct investigations and lie to Congress. Defense attorney Beckler, in his cross-examination of the witness, asked North if he had ever conspired with Poindexter to withhold information from Congress.

“If conspire means to violate the law,” North replied, “I didn’t do it.” He then elaborated, “I have never considered, nor do I now consider, anything I have done as a crime.”

Beckler interrupted him. “Col. North, you’re not on trial here,” he said. “You don’t have to give me a whole justification.”

But some of Beckler’s questioning, like that of prosecutor Webb, made it seem as if North really were on trial. At one point, North said that he could not recall whether he had sent a message to Poindexter informing him that he had destroyed embarrassing documents. Beckler turned on him sarcastically:

“I’m just asking if you ever sat down at your machine and sent him a note, saying, ‘I’m sitting down in my office, it’s 3:30 in the morning, and I’m busily destroying documents.’ You did not send that, did you?”

“No, sir,” North said.

Repeatedly, North said he could not reply to questions because he could no longer recall details and events of the Iran-Contra affair. His failure to remember what happened during his final weekend at the White House exasperated U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene.

“Didn’t that weekend stick out in your mind since it resulted in your firing?” asked the judge. “Wasn’t that an unusual weekend in your career?”

“I’m sure it was, your honor, but I don’t recall it in any degree of clarity,” North replied.

After North stepped down from the witness box, his former secretary, Fawn Hall, repeated well-known stories of how she helped her boss alter, shred and carry away embarrassing government documents from their office in the Executive Office Building. But she testified she did not know whether Poindexter knew anything about what she and North were doing with the documents.

Trying to explain why she took some documents and hid them in her boots and the back side of her clothing after North was fired on Nov. 25, she said: “I’m extremely emotional. I couldn’t understand why a man who had worked for his country for so long was fired.

“I was crying at my desk. . . . My intention was to protect national security secrets, which was completely useless at that point, as we can now see.”