Angry Judge Threatens Iran-Contra Dismissal : Court: Prosecutors scramble to produce documents for review by a former CIA official’s defense team.

The trial of the highest-ranking CIA official indicted in the Iran-Contra affair began with a bang Monday as an angry federal judge threatened to throw out all charges because the government has failed to supply the defense with necessary documents.

If the government “can’t cope” with the job of processing evidence for the trial of Clair E. George, the CIA’s former No. 3 official, “I can put the government out of its misery,” declared U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. “I know how to end it.”

Iran-Contra prosecutors were left to scramble to produce the requested documents for review in a closed hearing today, as the judge ordered the questioning of potential jurors to proceed. Lamberth left open the possibility of imposing “sanctions for the government” over failure to comply with the court’s orders.

In addition to determining George’s fate, the trial could yield insight into the extent of CIA involvement in the failed plan pursued by the Ronald Reagan Administration to trade arms for U.S. hostages in Iran and to funnel money from the scheme to Nicaragua’s Contras.

George, 61, headed covert operations for the intelligence agency from 1984 to 1987. He has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of perjury, obstruction and false statements before congressional committees and a federal grand jury investigating the Iran-Contra case.

In 1986, George testified before Congress that the CIA did not know who was supplying guns and ammunition to the Contras.

Lamberth had directed government officials to complete their review of the requested intelligence documents by last Friday. But prosecutors said that the job had not been completed, and requested more time to turn over the material.

Lamberth, usually a cheery, patient jurist, seemed furious as he told associate independent counsel Michael Vhay: “I want some public accountability for who is trying to thwart this trial from going forward. I want the name.”

The hearing illustrated the extent to which the prosecution, while technically independent of the executive branch, must rely on assistance from the intelligence community and other Bush Administration officials to prove criminal charges against Iran-Contra defendants.

Under the Classified Information Procedures Act, an interagency review group studies any classified material sought as evidence by prosecutors and defense attorneys. The review group has the power to bar introduction of documents or to provide substitute material.

The group is composed of representatives of the CIA, National Security Agency, State Department, Defense Department and the National Security Council, a branch of the White House. In 1989, the review group, backed by then-Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, objected to evidence being sought for the trial of Joseph F. Fernandez, a CIA station chief in Costa Rica. As a result, the charges against Fernandez were dropped.

So far, after five years of investigation, independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh has obtained guilty pleas from seven Iran-Contra defendants and convictions at trial of another three. But two key convictions, against former White House aide Oliver L. North and former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, were overturned or set aside in part on appeal.

Monday’s hearing was recessed for 30 minutes while prosecutors gathered information demanded by Lamberth on the reason for the delay in turning over classified material. When the hearing resumed, deputy independent counsel Craig A. Gillen identified Peter Badger of the NSA general counsel’s office as the person responsible.

Gillen, reviewing Badger’s progress last week in going through the classified material, said that his schedule had been interrupted by a dental appointment, a trip to nearby Quantico, Va., to attend his son’s graduation and a full day during which he did not appear at the Justice Department to examine the material in a specially designed security room.

Lamberth, rejecting the government’s motion for more time to submit the classified material, told Gillen he had given “a poor explanation at best for the conduct of the National Security Agency in failing to complete the review.”

The judge seemed particularly irritated by the interagency review group’s attempt to designate previously cleared information as material that could not be used in the George case. The prosecutors assured him that problem had been “resolved” and the case appeared virtually to be back on track.

Meanwhile, potential jurors practically filled a massive ceremonial courtroom in the federal courthouse here. They were asked to complete a 36-page questionnaire that sought, among other things, their reactions to CIA-related books and movies such as “Invisible Government,” “Reagan’s Secret Wars,” “JFK,” and “Patriot Games.”

With questioning of individual jurors by Lamberth not likely to begin before Thursday, the panel is not expected to be seated until next week.