European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 9, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday. Mav 9.1989 William f. Buckley Reagan erred when he did t Pardon North the american Public is almost certainly going to spare itself the Ristic pains of enumerating at 12 of the counts against Oliver North and then trying to make sense out of what the jurors came up with. Doing this docs not repay the Energy required. The verdict is freighted with incoherence. Not a meaning less incoherence the meaning of the whole $40 Mil lion prosecution was summed up in a casual statement by one of the jurors to a reporter. He said to David Rosinbaum of the new York tines that he did t think North should go to jail. Colonel North i Don t know if he s All that bad or ail that Good. He made some  that is pretty leisurely criticism from someone asked to judge whether Oliver North was trying to subvert the Constitution of the United states Rob the Treasury and systematically lie and cheat. Still the jury whose qualifying distinction to serve was that its members had not even heard of colonel North during the commotions of 1985-87 rather like a pomp iian not having heard of mount Vesuvius did t think he should be entirely exonerated. So what it did was to Nail him on three counts. But this was truly an essay in super rotation since North had acknowledged that he had done the three things whose illegality was reaffirmed by the jury. When North was asked by the Senate committee whether he had shredded documents his answer was the current version of Willie Sutlon s when asked Why he robbed Banks. Button said that that was where the Money was and North said that s what shredding machines were for. The Fine question whether he was using the shredding machine for illegal purposes is a part of that great Cloud that has not been made to go away. It was presumably illegal if he was countermand ing the orders of his superiors. North contended that he thought he was doing what his superiors wanted him to do and there was no Superior around to say definitively yes or no. The jurors exonerated North on the charge that he had switched $4,300 from All that stuff travelling from Iran More or less in the direction of Nicaragua. But then the same jury said that it was illegal for North to accept Money from the Money managers of the Iran Contra operation for the purpose of building a Security system around his House. Understand that one if you can it s of to pocket $4,300 for unspecified purposes but not of to build a Tot twis11n6 slowly in the North wind. Security Fence to make it harder for the enemy to maim kill or abduct members of your family. We pity the judges that arc now going to have to handle the Appeal. They arc not of course permitted to Rule on matters of fact. They will need to answer such questions As whether Ronald Reagan or president Bush should have been required to testify in order to Clear up the Murk surrounding the question did North do All of this on his own or did he have reason Able grounds for believing that he was executing the will of the chief executive or his representative it is surprising that Lawrence Walsh did not demand the appearance on the scene of William Casey. There is no fanatical act with perhaps that one exception that Walsh failed to engage in in this whole tormented business which so clearly belongs to the historians to wrestle with along with was there some one on the Grassy Knoll the Day John Kennedy was shot or my perennial favorite How much did Franklin Roosevelt know about what was going to Hap pen to Pearl Harbor before what happened to Pearl Harbor happened in retrospect one can t help but blame Ron Ald Reagan for this mess. It would have brought a temporary diminution of his popularity if last Decem Ber he had simply pardoned North and John poin Dexl or leaving Richard Accord there to fight for himself. What we have got instead is an institutionalization of a Case of constitutional crabs with dozens of lawyers and now dozens of judges worrying about the implications of random observations by fundamentally naive jurors who gave out what amounts to a character refer ence which however needs now to be scrutinized with the care Given to the dead sea scrolls. It was an act of sheer neglect to permit this Tornado to get Loose. And though we May Honor Reagan s motives a presumptive fear that to Grant pardons would be deemed self serving we must conclude that his judgment erred. Universal press Anthony Lewis no one can deny North is a convicted Felon. .  a ,_,.T� in non Thor to Vinci tin/1 Annn a Nervino out a Rucks to defenders of Oliver North re acted to the jury s verdict by arguing that the three charges on which he was convicted were  the whole prosecution was a waste of Money. Sen. Orrin Hatch a Utah and others said. In one count n9h was found guilty of aiding and abetting the obstruction of a congressional investigation by altering National Security Council documents. Was that trivial an act of no Conse Quence to be passed Over with a nod and a Wink what North did was to falsify a chronology of the secret arms shipments to Iran. He made it look As though Reagan administration officials were unaware of an Early shipment of . Weapons from Israel As though they thought the boxes really contained what their Manifest said Oil drilling  it was fundamental . Policy not to pay Ransom for hostages. Falsifying official documents to conceal subversion of the policy was hardly trivial. Indeed itis hard to imagine a More serious Viola Tion of the Law forbidding obstruction of congressional inquiries. If sen. Hatch thinks such acts should not be punished he has a Clear duty. He should introduce legislation to repeal the statute against obstruction of Congress. What is really involved Here is Clear enough. The modern Day conserva lives who defend North want the presi Dent and his assistants to be Able to con duct foreign policy on their own without any Check by Congress. In foreign affairs they want an All powerful presidency. It is a great irony. Through most of american history until this age conservatives fought against centralized Power. The conservative men who wrote the Constitution in 1787 were preoccupied by the need to subject Power to Check Sand balances in foreign As in Domestic matters. They had rebelled against George Iii and they did not want another King. But today s Rigil is impatient with checks and balances. One of North s friends actually said the other Day that presidents had absolute Power in foreign policy subject Only to elections. That is we have a four year Monarch. The jury in the North trial did not have any of those Large considerations before it. Its Job was to consider the Evi Dence. The three of 12 counts on which the jury returned guilty verdicts had one thing in common. In each North had taken tangible physical action of a fur Tive kind. There was something More than words. In the obstruction count there was alteration of a document. In another there was shredding. In the count about accepting a gratuity a Security Fence there was the fact that North went into a department store and used two different typewriters to Type notes attempting to conceal the truth. Such actions had the look of criminal acts. The Legal process put to a difficult test by the complexity of the Cassand the involvement of classified Materi Al was vindicated. Judge Gerhard Gesull showed How to be fair and firm in administering the criminal Law. As in watergate the courts proved better Able to Deal with official wrong doing than Congress. North s lawyer Brendan Sullivan ran rings around the congressional Iran Contra committee abusing it without being called to account. He could not do so before Gesull. The courts Are Likely to prove More effective than Congress again in exploring the next question what were the real roles of president Reagan and then vice president Bush in the Iran Contra affair North was carrying out what the presi Dent wanted there can be no doubt of that. But much remains to be Learned about Reagan s detailed involvement in the violation of Law. The North jurors said they had acquitted him of nine charges because he had Bee carrying t orders though Gesull had instructed them that that was no defense. North s immediate Superior rear adm. John Poindexter is due to be tried in september. The conspiracy counts dropped in the North trial remain in the Poindexter Case and the problem of classification May not prevent trying them this time. Poindexter saw the president often. The orders he got would be relevant Evi Dence. North said after the verdict that he had been sustained by the support and the love and the kindness and the prayers of the american  it was a characteristic statement the statement of a demagogue. There will be Many More Legal proceedings before his Case comes to an end. But the spin control efforts by him and his friends cannot conceal the fact that he is now a convicted Felon.  the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and arc in no Way to reconsidered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United Stales government