THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409100255
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE AND DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Oliver L. North's campaign mounted an all-out damage control effort Friday to discredit a former White House aide who calls North a ``degenerate liar'' in a television interview to be broadcast nationally on Sunday.
Former National Security Adviser Robert ``Bud'' McFarlane will make the charge on CBS's ``60 Minutes.'' And in an autobiography that goes on sale next week, McFarlane claims that North lied under oath at televised Iran-Contra hearings in 1987 when he testified that he was acting under orders to provide illegal aid to Nicaraguan rebels.
McFarlane, who was North's direct supervisor from October 1983 to December 1985, denies in his book that he ever gave North permission to circumvent a congressional ban on aid to the Contra rebels.
McFarlane said he passed along orders from then-President Reagan to keep the Contras alive ``body and soul'' after Congress shut off aid in 1984. But McFarlane said he issued clear orders to North and other staffers to stay within the letter and spirit of the law.
Later, after news reports linked North to the Contras, McFarlane said he confronted his gung-ho aide.
``He looked me right in the eye and told me a boldfaced lie. `Bud,' he said. `I never did anything illegal.' ''
North denounced the charges as untrue and questioned his former boss's mental health and ability to tell the truth. McFarlane, who pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress about the Iran-Contra diversion, tried to commit suicide in 1987.
``Bud McFarlane is a man I respect as a tireless servant of our national defense and national security,'' North said. ``He worked very hard and perhaps the pressure of the job and what happened afterward affected his very severe depression.''
North, a Republican, called McFarlane's comments a ``pitiful and mean-spirited attempt to glue his broken reputation back together again.''
The North campaign also released a transcript from North's trial on charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair in which U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell questioned McFarlane's credibility.
``This man (McFarlane) has told so many stories since he has been on direct testimony that there isn't any way to know what he believes or what he knows,'' Gesell said.
And at a fund-raising dinner in Norfolk on Friday night that netted $100,000 for North's campaign, retired Marine Lt. Col. Edward J. Bronars said McFarlane's comments are ``beyond comprehension.''
Bronars, once North's commanding officer, ordered North to go to work for the National Security Council in 1982. He said the normal tenure for a Marine officer at the NSC is two years. But North stayed on for almost five years at McFarlane's insistence, Bronars said.
``We tried to get Ollie back,'' said Bronars, who has been a key paid adviser to North in recent years. ``Robert McFarlane fought to keep Ollie North because Ollie North was carrying out his orders and directions and doing so in an exceptional manner. He (McFarlane) did not want to lose his thoroughbred.
``It seems to me that Bud McFarlane's remarks are disingenuous at best,'' Bronars added. ``I am forced to conclude that they are politically motivated.''
Also rushing to North's defense at the fund-raiser was John P. Poindexter, who succeeded McFarlane as national security adviser and supervised North in 1985 and 1986.
``I have no idea what prompted Bud to say these things,'' said Poindexter, who was found guilty of five felonies stemming from Iran-Contra. Those convictions were later overturned on a technicality.
North also noted that the book's co-author, Zofia Smardz, is married to the campaign manager of independent Senate candidate J. Marshall Coleman.
Smardz replied that her collaboration with McFarlane began several months before her husband, Anson Franklin, joined Coleman's campaign.
``Mr. Coleman's campaign wasn't even a gleam in John Warner's eye,'' she said, referring to the state's senior senator who encouraged Coleman to run as a Republican alternative to North.
In his book, McFarlane credits North for the hard work and dedication that he brought to the White House staff. But McFarlane said he eventually realized that North could not be trusted with the truth.
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