European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 18, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes thursday december 18,1986 George will granting immunity is Best route to the truth in a remark of exemplary tenseness and extraordinary irresponsibility sen. David Durenberger r minn., chairman of me Senate intelligence commit tee has asserted that vice adm. John Poindexter and i. Col. Oliver North should not insist on immunity before testifying. We have All exaggerated their per Sonal liability Durenberger says and neither of them has anything to tear from the he knows this because he knows that if this scandal is a 1do-piece j Jigsaw Puzzle i be got 9s of the most experts think it will be a hideously complicated task determining who broke what Laws not Durenberger who foresees the Resolution. Rep. Michael Barnes. D-md., who should be the congressman from Delphi also knows the future but it differs from the one Durenberger sees Barnes told Poindexter to testify without immunity because the most Poindexter would probably gel is a very Short probably suspended rep. Lee Hamilton d-ind., chairman of the Perma nent select committee on intelligence opposes immunity for a strikingly in reason. Hamil ton says some monstrous kind of evidence May emerge. Monstrous enough presumably to make prosecution morally mandatory. Hamilton should Consul the clairvoyant Durenberger. Who is sure that such worries Are exaggerated. So some legislators oppose immunity because the crimes if any Are not weighty. Others oppose immunity because the crimes if any May be monstrous. Al opposition to immunity has the consequence of pro longing the prominence of the committees that refuse to vote to Grant immunity Durenberger says his committee is no threat to either Man because the committee is not in the business of investigating criminal behaviour or Mak ing indictments As you would in a grand jury and there is no discussion of any private testimony. The first pan of the statement that the committee is not a grand jury is trivially True and uninteresting except for the misleading ass of it. His committee is investigating behaviour which May Well be criminal. And As to Poindexter and North entrusting their safety to the discretion of congressional committees i they testify to one All will summon the the less said the better. Nowadays radio newscasts begin in a closed session today William Casey said closed docs l mean secret just when you thought the White House had cornered the Market on imaginative violations of governmental due process critics have come up with their own Rump Tings of procedures there is Tor example the notion that Good government can be re established by the president summoning Poindexter and North to James Reston the splendor of the Oval office there to bully them into abandoning their attorneys and their Constitution Al right to avoid self incrimination it. The . Code title 18, Section 6005, says immunity May be granted to a person called to appear before any committee of either House of Congress to testify or provide other the Clear purpose of this Law is to enable Congress to make the political judgment that in particular instances the prompt pro vision of information serves a Public interest larger and More urgent than the interest in criminal prosecution of individuals. Congress which is worked up about being improperly excluded from foreign policy decisions seems unwilling to make a decision As provided by Law for immunity. Members who will not vote for immunity should explain How they can give greater weight to the prosecution of two individuals than to opening spigots of testimony that might restore equilibrium to the nation s government. It is particularly incumbent upon Durenberger to explain Why he opposes immunity having announced that the criminal liability of poin Dexter and North is negligible. Hamilton says the administration is stonewalling that is a shockingly tendentious characterization of the exercise of constitutional rights by two men who Are not in the administration. Actually Hamilton opposition to immunity is the biggest Stone Wall in the Way of testimony. Durenberger says it has taken just 40 Days Roget the 95 pieces of the Puzzle but May Lake 400 More Days to get the other five. He says this disturbs him but strangely it does not disturb him More than the Prospect of voting immunity to two people whose criminal liability has been Secretary of stale George Shutlz speaking in Bel Gium and one suspect from his tone barely suppress ing d Yawn says laconically somehow or other incur inquisitive society information tends to emerge and the essence of what look place will somehow or other either a congressional committee will break the log Jam by voting immunity or the nation May be Able to loll away the late Winter mornings enthralled by Tele Vised hearings and wondering whether it is television rather than truth that Congress craves. We Lunson pet writers or Arpi foreign officials silent on Iran Contra scandal its interesting How other governments reacted to the Reagan administration s present foreign policy crisis. They were dismayed but canny. Their newspapers condemned and even mocked the president but their officials did t confuse or. Reagan with Ameri Ca or today with tomorrow. In private they had a lot to say about Amateur Cowboy diplomacy and the Dif Ference Between Public relations and for eign relations but in Public they were silent or discreet. The allies who know a lot about the accidents of history and personal stupidity pretended to be sad and sorry and even the russian were less vicious than usual. Pravda and Izvestia and radio mos cow blew off on time but general Secre tary Gorbachev was comparatively Calm and talked about getting on with control of the arms race after the storm. Other people have behaved very Well. The israelis for example who have been blamed for helping out Nave been sur Prui Fly silent and the democrats now in control of cab fits Nave been cunningly sympathetic. Sometime it lakes the vision of disaster to bring nations to their senses and this May be happening now in washing ton not much but a Little. The tension had become too great. Congress Felt deceived by an administration that either knew it was breaking the Law or did t care and even the head of the Cia William Casey was feeling the personal pressure. So it is adjusting very slowly to the facts. It has got rid of Admiral poin Dexler and colonel North at the National Security Council. It has liberated its chief of staff Donald Regan and it Secretary of state George Shultz to testify under oath on Capitol Hill and it has muzzled pal Buchanan who condemned the republicans for deserting the president and now though wanting to gel out is condemned himself not to leave the linking ship. There will be some changes Here now. The president will no longer be Able to run his foreign policy out of the base ment or across the Street in the executive office building. The National Security Council will get out of the Doak and Dag Ger business and the vice president will have to preside Over crisis manage meat in a different Way. Congress will also change on both sides of the aisle. It is tired of crash land Ings and will now insist on being Consul Ted at the takeoffs. It May even pay a Little More attention to the people it confirms to preside Over the Cabinet and the embassies and the courts and look into the staff and operations of the National Security Council. But nothing will really be resolve until the president himself keeps hit pub Lic Promise to get All the facts of this scandal out of the Way. He is our skipper and our Symbol and no other individuals count so much no matter How much he counts on them. Every Day now there is some other disclosure that is a drop of Poison in the Stream and it promises to go on until in january he must face Congress and de liver his slate of the Union address. And the pity and danger of this from Bis own Point of View is that As Long m he does not take control and re establish Trust in himself he will be the victim of every Rumor in Washington. The latest ii that the Money from Iran did t even go to the Conru in Nican Fua they deny that they to a Penny of i to butt that it went from Tome. Swita Bank under Coquel North control to help finance congressmen in the last elec Tion who wanted to help the Contres and defeat congressional candidates who opposed them. There is no Clear evidence that this happened that the administration knowingly or not was violating the whole political process. But in the pre sent poisonous atmosphere of mistrust Here almost anything is believable. It is this crisis of Confidence that must be cleared up if reman is not to be remembered As one of the most popular and least Luck cupful presidents of the postwar. He still hat two Yean to go with a Hance to repair much of the damage. His allies and his adversaries know gadabout political corruption Fonse of them invented it but history aside they know that log Nuny cannot be cup Dpi and that the Power of americ remain no matter How it i i suied he could change the question by com in a tort Ami in tin to try a for Ofarri control it i an ironic tragedy that Kif main Hope now a i we tag i decontrol at nuclear Arm with the a Al Empire be denounced. V
