"A Partial Vindication"

By Richard Lacayo

Some questions are so fraught with political ambiguity that a criminal trial cannot answer them completely. One such conundrum: Who should be held accountable for the Iran-contra affair? Last week a jury in Washington rendered a judgment on retired Marine Lieut. Colonel Oliver North. But it was a verdict equivocal enough for both the defendant and the prosecutor to hail it. North proclaimed a "partial vindication" because he was found not guilty of nine felony charges. Prosecutor John W. Keker asserted that North's convictions on three other counts demonstrated "the principle that no man is above the law."

They were both right. The criminal case against North had divided the complicated scandal into discrete and comprehensible acts, like lying to Congress, tampering with evidence and illegally converting funds to his own use. But such narrow charges barely touched broader and still unanswered questions: To what extent was the former National Security Council staffer, as he claimed in his defense, following orders when he led a secret effort to provide assistance to the Nicaraguan rebels in defiance of congressional bans? Were present and former Government officials, including Ronald Reagan and George Bush, involved in a cover-up of the covert campaign? Why were documents suggesting that the former and current Presidents were more deeply enmeshed in the affair than either has acknowledged not given to congressional investigating committees?

The public has been sharply divided about North since the scandal burst into the headlines in 1986. While many consider him a rogue who set out to thwart the lawful conduct of foreign policy, others are convinced that North is a patriotic pawn swept up in what he called a "chess game played by giants." The heart of his defense was that his actions were approved by such superiors as Reagan, former National Security Advisers Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter and the late CIA Director William Casey.

Despite U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell's specific instructions to the contrary, that defense proved persuasive to the jury of nine women and three men, all black, all working class, all chosen for their ignorance of North's celebrated 1987 congressional testimony. Declared juror Earl Williams: "I think there were people higher up who gave him the authority to do a lot of things, and then when he got caught out there high and dry, no one came to help him." Added jury forewoman Denise Anderson: "North was used and abused."

Such sentiments led some jurors to hold out for North's acquittal on all counts. But after one member led a "strong prayer" on the twelfth and final day of deliberation, the jury voted guilty on the last of three charges to which North had virtually confessed on the witness stand. As jury member Beverly Turner explained, "He was wrong, and he knew he was wrong."

The most clear-cut example was North's conviction for accepting an illegal gratuity -- a $13,800 home-security system -- from retired Air Force Major General Richard Secord, quartermaster of the Iranian arms sales. North admitted forging two letters in an attempt to prove that he had offered to pay for the system.

On other charges, the verdict was finely calibrated. North was exonerated of four counts of lying to Congress and one count of obstructing a congressional inquiry before the imbroglio became public. But he was found guilty of two counts of trying to conceal the scandal after investigations were under way. "The jurors were willing to credit the defense that prior to the public disclosure and the investigation, the whole thing was a covert action in which the President and North's bosses were involved," says a lawyer familiar with the Iran-contra investigations. "So even if North told lies, they were willing to say don't make him take the rap for what everybody else was doing."

Judge Gesell will sentence North on June 23. He theoretically could be imprisoned for up to ten years and fined $750,000. But a TIME/CNN poll taken last week shows that there is widespread public sentiment against sending North to prison, and that a majority believe Bush should pardon him. Two other findings in the poll should trouble the President. One is that 56% think he was personally involved in some of the actions that led to North's conviction. And 67% say the President has yet to tell the full truth about his involvement in the affair.

After the trial ended, Gesell released previously undisclosed evidence showing that in 1986 high officials of the CIA, NSC and Department of Defense received intelligence reports about the multimillion-dollar profits generated by arms sales to Iran. During the trial, a separate summary of classified documents described how officials of the Reagan Administration in 1985 agreed to expedite a $110 million aid package to Honduras, provided that the Central American country stepped up its support for the contras. The details were considered so sensitive that they could not be written down. Instead, a "discreet emissary" was sent to brief President Roberto Suazo Cordova on the deal. Later, Bush traveled to Honduras to assure Suazo that the aid was on its way. At the time, such arrangements were prohibited by the Boland amendment.

Minutes before the North verdict was announced last week, Bush angrily broke his silence on the question, declaring, "There was no quid pro quo." The White House flourished a State Department cable in which John Negroponte, then Ambassador to Honduras, described the Bush-Suazo meeting, omitting any mention of a deal. But since the State Department was kept largely uninformed about the Reagan Administration's clandestine assistance, it is unlikely that the envoy would have included it in communications with Foggy Bottom.

Congressional Democrats have demanded an explanation for the FBI's failure to turn over the documents describing the Honduras deal to the House and Senate Iran-contra committees. Last week the White House promised to correct that lapse, but only to the extent that certain documents are "relevant." Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding up Negroponte's nomination as Ambassador to Mexico. It is also preparing some tough questions for Donald Gregg, a former Bush adviser whom he has nominated as Ambassador to South Korea. In 1986 Gregg discussed the contra-aid effort with CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, who was assisting the rebels, but Gregg says he never told Bush about the conversation.

The White House is convinced that the public has lost interest in the Iran- contra affair. But the continuing concern in Congress over whether the Reagan Administration withheld important evidence ensures that the controversy will endure. The pressure could mount this fall, with the approaching trial of North's former superior, Poindexter, who faces six counts, including the two main conspiracy and theft charges that had to be dropped against North because the White House would not release classified documents to the defense. While North could point up the chain of command to Poindexter, Poindexter may have to point to his boss, Ronald Reagan.

With reporting by Michael Duffy and Steven Holmes/Washington