THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
The crimes of which Oliver North was convicted were serious, but they pale in significance compared with those he admitted.
The testimony of North and his co-conspirators before congressional investigating committees revealed a secret plan to subvert national laws, foreign policy, national-security regulations and constitutional restrictions on the use of funds.
As his testimony was given under a grant of immunity, North could not be prosecuted on charges derived therefrom. Even those few charges that led to conviction were subsequently deemed on appeal to have been possibly influenced by immunized testimony, and the convictions were overturned.
The grant of immunity from prosecution did not mean that North's actions were legal or acceptable, and it is not a bar to public condemnation. All of us who have faith in a government of laws under the Constitution hold him accountable for these serious transgressions.
He boasts of freeing hostages, not mentioning that by making hostage-release profitable to the terrorist captors, he caused them to take new hostages. Among these was Terry Waite who, without bribery, had done more to negotiate release of U.S. hostages than North did. Waite was seized following statements by North which were construed as evidence that Waite was a U.S. agent.
By his own testimony, North has shown that he is not to be trusted.
THOMAS W. AIKEN
Virginia Beach, Oct. 10, 1994 by CNB