Security and Defense Studies Review 2010 Fall ... - Offnews.info

additional U.S. citizens, which allowed the Iranians to extort more arms and intelligence from theAmericans. News of the botched deal also created a political firestorm in the United States whileembarrassing the country internationally. When the affair “exploded” in the fall of 1986, one formersenior Reagan advisor noted, the administration “effectively came to a dead halt. For more than ayear, time stood still for Reagan,” as he fought a scandal that “nearly felled” him. 25Public demands for a full accounting of what happened led Reagan to appoint a Special ReviewBoard, popularly known as the Tower Commission after its chairman, Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) 26 ,to inquire into “the circumstances surrounding the Iran-Contra matter, other case studies that mightreveal strengths and weaknesses in the operation of the National Security Council system understress, and the manner in which that system has served eight different Presidents since its inceptionin 1947.”The Tower Commission Report, which was delivered to the President on February 26, 1987,criticized the actions of North; his boss, Poindexter; Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger andothers. In part due to the confusing testimony that was given by Reagan himself, who claimed faultymemory of key events, the presidential commission did not determine the extent of the president’sknowledge of the program. 27 It found, however, that Reagan should have exercised better control ofthe NSC staff and, instead, had only weakly supervised his subordinates and their actions. 28In March 1988, North and Poindexter were indicted on multiple charges. Of the 12 counts withwhich he was charged, North was found guilty of three lesser felony counts—obstructing Congress,destroying documents and accepting an illegal gratuity. He was acquitted of nine other counts—including lying to Congress—after convincing the jury that he carried out policies he believedhad been approved by Reagan. North’s conviction was later overturned on appeal on the groundsthat the former NSC aide’s Fifth Amendment rights may have been violated by indirect use of hisCongressional testimony, for which he had been given use immunity, not because he was wronglyconvicted on the facts of the case. 29“You’re here now because of your own conduct when the truth was coming out,” Judge GerhardGesell told North at his sentencing hearing. “Apparently you could not face disclosure and decided toprotect yourself and others. You destroyed evidence, altered and removed official documents, createdfalse papers after the events to keep Congress and others from finding out what was happening. … Ibelieve that you knew this was morally wrong. … It was against all your training. Under the stressof the moment it was easier to choose the role of a martyr but that wasn’t a heroic, patriotic act norwas it in the public interest.” 30A GRADUATE OF THE U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY, North was a decorated combat veteran ofVietnam known for his gritty determination, fierce loyalty and personal charisma. Reagan biographerLou Cannon called North “a zealot and an adventurer,” someone who was “fond of assigning himselfsuch code names as ‘Blood and Guts’ and ‘Steelhammer.’” 31 One military observer noted of North:25Anderson, op. cit., pp. xvii-xxi.26Its other members were former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie and former National Security Adviser Brent Scrowcroft.27Although key aides reported that Reagan had a “literal, photographic memory” (Anderson, op. cit. p57), Reagan’s inability to remember withprecision key events may have had to do with the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease as well as political expediency.28A Congressional report issued in November of the same year noted that: “If the president did not know what his national security advisers were doing,he should have.” It added that Reagan was ultimately responsible for his aides’ misconduct and that his Administration exhibited “secrecy, deceptionand disdain for the law.”29The charges against Poindexter included conspiracy, lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, and altering and destroying documents pertinent to theinvestigation. In 1990, Poindexter’s conviction on several felony counts was also overturned on appeal on similar grounds.30Gesell, North Sentencing Hearing, July 5, 1989, p. 36.31Cannon, op. cit., p. 656;Security and Defense Studies Review 2010 Fall-Winter Issue / Edicíón Otoño-Invierno 2010 / Edicão Outono-Inverno 2010 / Volume 11 135