THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040588
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Oliver L. North has learned his lesson about shredding sensitive documents.
Now, he pulverizes them.
After gaining notoriety for hosting a ``shredding party'' to cover his tracks in the Iran-Contra affair, North is going one step further to protect campaign secrets in his bid for the U.S. Senate.
His campaign has hired a Northern Virginia company - Document Destructors Inc. of Lorton - to destroy paperwork that could fall into the hands of prying news media and political enemies.
``We have had experiences of reporters and activists rooting around our Dumpsters,'' said Mark Merritt, North's deputy campaign manager.
Many political candidates shred sensitive documents. But few ever gained the appreciation for tight security that North acquired while running covert operations in the basement of the Reagan White House.
Document Destructors uses an industrial-strength hammer mill to pulverize paper into tiny, irregular-shaped pieces.
``This is a much more secure way to destroy documents,'' explained Carol Kopelman, an owner of Document Destructors. ``When you shred documents, it's possible to reconstruct them.''
Campaign finance reports show that North paid Document Destructors $520 in May. Kopelman declined to discuss the company's arrangements with North, citing a policy of not divulging information about clients that range from giant corporations to top-secret government agencies.
Document Destructors has also pulverized paper for other politicians, but North is the only one of the four candidates in the Virginia Senate race who has retained its services.
``We've got a shredder in the closet, but it's rarely used,'' said Bert Rohrer, a spokesman for incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb. ``Maybe we ought to use it more.''
Spokesmen for L. Douglas Wilder and J. Marshall Coleman said they are conducting shredder-less campaigns.
``It sounds like overkill,'' Coleman campaign manager Anson Franklin said. ``I wonder what he (North) can be doing that is so secretive?''
Merritt said the North campaign hired Document Destructors because shredding would have been too time-consuming. Now, campaign workers simply drop supporter lists and other sensitive paperwork in special containers.
``If you don't want to read something in the (newspaper) the next day,'' he said, ``you put it in the Document Destructors bag.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color graphic by JOHN CASERTA
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE
by CNB