Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990 TAG: 9003133262
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Under tough, sometimes relentless questioning by prosecutor Dan K. Webb, and prodded several times by an impatient U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene, North gave the most damaging testimony so far as he wound up his second day on the stand at Poindexter's trial.
One of the five charges against Poindexter is that he personally destroyed a 1985 document that would have disclosed to Congress and the public that secret U.S. arms dealings with Iran that year were part of a plan to swap arms for U.S. hostages held in Lebanon.
After Webb had tried repeatedly Monday to get North to say, simply and directly, that he knew that Poindexter had torn that document in two in order to protect Reagan from that embarrassment, North finally conceded that he had said in earlier testimony - last year, at his own trial - that he knew that.
North gave that answer soon after Greene bluntly told North that his discussion of that matter at his own trial a year ago "was the only credible testimony you've given on this subject. Now, follow that up."
At that point, Webb again asked if potential political embarrassment was the reason Poindexter destroyed the 1985 document. North did not concede that. Finally, the prosecutor read back to North his testimony last year, and North then conceded that embarrassment was the reason.
The sparring that led to that one concession was typical of North's entire encounter with Webb, during nine hours and five minutes of questioning as the first prosecution witness. Webb finished his first questioning of North late in the afternoon, and Poindexter's chief lawyer, Richard W. Beckler, began cross-examining North.
A new development at the trial Monday was that Judge Greene for the first time took an active role in the questioning, and repeatedly chided North either for "quibbling," for "embroidering" his answers unnecessarily, for failing to be "responsive" or for failing to answer directly.
Early in the day, Greene remarked tartly: "Almost every time a question is asked, he [North] says he can't recall. It's like pulling teeth."
The judge at one dramatic point stepped into the very middle of the disputed issues at the trial to show his apparent dismay at destruction and alteration of official documents as Congress began to investigate the Iran-Contra scandal in late 1986.
When North sought to say he thought it was "futile" to destroy or change the papers, the judge brusquely countered: "I'm not talking futile. I'm talking bizarre. Is this what goes on at the NSC all the time?" North said it was not.
by CNB