Iran-Contra Probe Drama Is Gone, Work Still Remains : Investigation: Walsh indicates he will ask court to reinstate Poindexter conviction. Two CIA officials await trial.

In the anteroom to the locked offices of the Iran-Contra independent counsel, a security guard dozed Thursday afternoon. Gone was the hustle-bustle of witnesses and suspects being escorted in and out by prosecutors, who first warily scanned the waiting room to assure that no reporters were lurking there.

More than 200 cartons of unused copying paper now compete for space in the anteroom with the stacked-up government desks vacated by the 21 lawyers and 60 support staff who have left the office since it reached peak strength in 1987.

But appearances on Thursday’s fifth anniversary of the counsel’s appointment do not tell the whole story. While the high drama of the Iran-Contra investigation has ended, crucial work remains to be done.

Copy paper waits to record hundreds of thousands of pages of classified documents that two former high CIA officials say they need to defend themselves against charges that they lied to cover up a scheme to supply arms to Iran and divert the proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels.

Trials of those two men, if prosecutors can overcome national security concerns in presenting evidence against them, are the major items of unfinished business, along with the appeal of a ruling that overturned the conviction of former White House National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter.

Ruminating over what his team of prosecutors has accomplished, independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh leaves little doubt that he will ask the Supreme Court to reverse the 2-1 decision in Poindexter’s case. Poindexter, former aide to ex-President Ronald Reagan, was convicted of five felonies in connection with Iran-Contra.

His ramrod-straight posture belying his nearly 80 years, Walsh vigorously defended the time--and money--spent getting convictions against 10 persons on Iran-Contra charges, although none has served any prison time. Convictions of the two highest-profile defendants--Poindexter and former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North--were reversed or dismissed.

Throughout it all, Walsh’s office had spent $27.9 million as of Sept. 30.

“The most important objective of criminal law enforcement is deterrence,” Walsh said. Convicting “officers at the highest level of government in the national security area” constitutes deterrence, Walsh added.

Prison time is “not the primary deterrent in this type of crime where an important government career ends in felony convictions,” Walsh said. “That is deterrent enough.”

The convictions showed that an ordinary lay jury can deal with complex activity conducted by “highly sophisticated people,” Walsh said.

“Everyone realizes that a jury in this community--the one most likely to be involved in law enforcement relating to central government--found each of these men guilty of several felony counts,” Walsh said.

The prosecutor allowed himself a rare venture into sarcasm over the activities of North, whose book and high-figure speaking fees seem to be surpassing his former salary as a Marine lieutenant colonel.

“Anybody who gets caught in interesting misconduct should be able to write a (salable) book. . . . That’s no indication of heroism or achievement,” Walsh said, adding: “That can even happen to Son of Sam,” referring to the New York serial killer. “But the fact is he was caught and convicted,” Walsh said of North, “and the only reason he’s traveling around the world is that Congress gave him immunity” for his televised testimony.

Walsh now is devoting most of his attention to working on his office’s final report, a product not likely to be finished at least until spring, although the federal grand jury that handles Iran-Contra matters is still meeting in Washington.

Although he would not discuss what elements of the arms-for-hostages deal are still under scrutiny, pieces of the puzzle clearly are still missing and the grand jury is believed to be investigating possible attempts to obstruct Walsh’s investigation.

The attempt to try the two former CIA officials--Clair E. George and Duane R. (Dewey) Clarridge--could well produce another showdown between Walsh and the Bush Administration over disclosing information that the Administration contends cannot be revealed.

Last year, then-Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh declined to disclose classified information Walsh needed to prosecute a former CIA station chief, and charges were dropped, even though Walsh contended that the information already was known to the public--an appeal that he made unsuccessfully to Bush.