Walsh Vows Quick End to Iran-Contra Inquiry

After calls for his dismissal by Republican leaders in Congress, Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh responded Friday by promising a quick completion of his 4 1/2-year-old investigation.

“Our ongoing investigation, which has been very active in recent months, is nearly finished,” Walsh said in a statement. “This office is completing its work as quickly as possible.”

But the independent counsel did not rule out bringing new indictments and noted that his office still faces appeals brought by three people convicted in the affair, including former White House aide Oliver L. North.

The Supreme Court this week cleared the way for hearings on whether testimony North was compelled to give Congress had tainted his 1989 trial.

Walsh’s announcement Tuesday that he was ready to conduct those hearings prompted calls to Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh to dismiss the independent counsel from Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and a group of House Republicans led by Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois.

The Republicans argued that Walsh’s investigation has dragged on at great expense to the taxpayers. “It’s now time for history, and not the courts, to be the final judge of the Iran-Contra affair,” Dole said.

Walsh’s expressed determination to proceed against North prompted the former White House aide to take to the airwaves on a radio call-in show. North, appearing on the USA Radio Network’s “Point of View” program, called Walsh “a vindictive wretch . . . who has nothing in mind other than trying to ruin me and my family.”

The suggestion that Thornburgh seek Walsh’s dismissal was greeted coolly by the Justice Department, where spokesman Dan Eramian said such a step would probably be unnecessary because the independent counsel appeared to be winding up his work.

Walsh said he is eager to conclude the work of his office.

“I and all members of my staff look forward to that day so that we can resume more normal professional lives,” he said.

But Walsh’s statement made clear there was still unfinished business in addition to the pending appeals.

Walsh is known to be deciding whether to bring charges against a number of current or former government officials concerning allegations of involvement in the cover-up of the Iran-Contra affair.

These officials include Donald P. Gregg, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, who was national security adviser to then-Vice President George Bush during the Ronald Reagan Administration, according to sources familiar with the case.

Gregg faces allegations that he misled Congress about when he first learned that North was directing a covert operation to arm the Nicaraguan rebels after Congress banned direct U.S. military aide, sources say.

Walsh’s office is apparently in the final stages of deciding whether the evidence collected by a federal grand jury that has been sitting for a year warrants fresh charges.

In his statement, Walsh said his office is writing its final report to Congress, which “will be issued promptly when the other matters are resolved.”

The investigation, which has cost more than $25 million, has resulted eight convictions, including North’s.

Hearings on whether North received a fair trial in 1989 could take months while lawyers question witnesses about whether their testimony was in any way influenced by what the former White House aide told Congress.

North was fined $150,000 and ordered to perform 1,200 hours of community service for destroying government documents, aiding and abetting the fabrication of a false chronology of the Iran-Contra affair and accepting an illegal gratuity.