http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/29/reviews/iran-pardon.html
December 25, 1992
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Aborting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor
Assails 'Cover-Up'
Six years after the arms-for-hostages scandal began to cast a shadow
that would darken two Administrations, President Bush today granted
full pardons to six former officials in Ronald Reagan's
Administration, including former Defense Secretary Caspar W.
Weinberger.
Mr. Weinberger was scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 5 on charges that
he lied to Congress about his knowledge of the arms sales to Iran and
efforts by other countries to help underwrite the Nicaraguan rebels, a
case that was expected to focus on Mr. Weinberger's private notes that
contain references to Mr. Bush's endorsement of the secret shipments
to Iran.
In one remaining facet of the inquiry, the independent prosecutor,
Lawrence E. Walsh, plans to review a 1986 campaign diary kept by Mr.
Bush. Mr. Walsh has characterized the President's failure to turn over
the diary until now as misconduct.
Decapitated Walsh Efforts
But in a single stroke, Mr. Bush swept away one conviction, three
guilty pleas and two pending cases, virtually decapitating what was
left of Mr. Walsh's effort, which began in 1986.
Mr. Bush's decision was announced by the White House in a printed
statement after the President left for Camp David, where he will spend
the Christmas holiday.
Mr. Walsh bitterly condemned the President's action, charging that
"the Iran-contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six
years, has now been completed."
Mr. Walsh directed his heaviest fire at Mr. Bush over the pardon of
Mr. Weinberger, whose trial would have given the prosecutor a last
chance to explore the role in the affair of senior Reagan officials,
including Mr. Bush's actions as Vice President.
'Evidence of Conspiracy'
Mr. Walsh hinted that Mr. Bush's pardon of Mr. Weinberger and the
President's own role in the affair could be related. For the first
time, he
charged that Mr. Weinberger's notes about the secret decision to sell
arms to Iran, a central piece of evidence in the case against the
former Pentagon chief, included "evidence of a conspiracy among the
highest ranking Reagan Administration officials to lie to Congress and
the American public."
The prosecutor charged that Mr. Weinberger's efforts to hide his notes
may have "forestalled impeachment proceedings against President
Reagan" and formed part of a pattern of "deception and obstruction."
On Dec. 11, Mr. Walsh said he discovered "misconduct" in Mr. Bush's
failure to turn over what the prosecutor said were the President's own
"highly relevant contemporaneous notes, despite repeated requests for
such documents."
The notes, in the form of a campaign diary that Mr. Bush compiled
after the elections in November 1986, are in the process of being
turned over to Mr. Walsh, who said, "In light of President Bush's own
misconduct, we are gravely concerned about his decision to pardon
others who lied to Congress and obstructed official investigations."
In an interview on the "McNeil-Lehrer Newshour" tonight, Mr. Walsh
said for the first time that Mr. Bush was a subject of his
investigation.
The term "subject," as it has been used by Mr. Walsh's prosecutors, is
broadly defined as someone involved in events under scrutiny, but who
falls short of being a target, or a person likely to be charged with a
crime.
In the inquiry into the entire Iran-contra affair, a number of
Government officials have been identified as subjects who were never
charged with wrongdoing.
What Charges Are Unlikely
The prosecutor said he would take appropriate action in Mr. Bush's
case, implying he might contemplate future legal action against the
President for withholding relevant documents.
But prosecutors have said in the past that charging a President or
former President with wrongdoing would be highly unlikely without
overwhelming evidence of a serious crime.
C. Boyden Gray, the White House counsel, said today that Mr. Bush had
voluntarily supplied the disputed material to Mr. Walsh, asserting
that the notes contained no new information about the affair. Mr. Gray
said Mr. Bush wanted make the notes public, but did not say when.
President-elect Bill Clinton, at a news conference in Little Rock,
Ark., to announce his remaining Cabinet selections, said he wanted to
learn more about the pardons, adding, "I am concerned by any action
that sends a signal that if you work for the Government, you're beyond
the law, or that not telling the truth to Congress under oath is
somehow less serious than not telling the truth to some other body
under oath."
Mr. Bush, in a statement accompanying the pardon, seemed to anticipate
his critics, acknowledging that his decision might be interpreted as
an effort to "prevent full disclosure of some new key fact to the
American people."
He said, "That is not true."
Asserting that "no impartial person has seriously suggested that my
own role in this matter is legally questionable," the President sought
to position himself on the side of greater openness.
Mr. Bush said he had asked Mr. Walsh to provide him with a copy of his
testimony to the prosecutor, which he would make public.
Lobbying by Ex-Reagan Aides
Today's action followed intensive lobbying by former Reagan aides to
pardon Mr. Weinberger and a series of meetings in recent days at the
White House, culminating with the President's decision this morning.
Republicans, long angered by the prosecution, were incensed by the new
indictment of Mr. Weinberger four days before the election.
The indictment said Mr. Weinberger's notes contradicted Mr. Bush's
assertions that he had only a fragmentary knowledge of the arms
secretly sold to Iran in 1985 and 1986 in exchange for American
hostages in Lebanon.
Mr. Weinberger was also charged with testifying falsely to Congress
that he did not recall whether Saudi Arabia had ever contributed to
the contras.
Prosecutors said his notes showed that he had known of the Saudi
contributions.
Records made public over the years included no evidence that Mr. Bush
knew about he secret efforts to arm the Nicaraguan rebels, but they
did suggest he knew of Iran operation almost from its inception in
1985 and took part in crucial meetings where the arms sales were
openly discussed as an arms-for-hostages swap.
The Reagan Administration's public policy was never to bargain for the
freedom of hostages.
Mr. Bush said today that the Walsh prosecution reflected "a profoundly
troubling development in the political and legal climate of our
country: the criminalization of policy differences."
Question of Politics
He added:
"These differences should have been addressed in the political arena
without the Damocles sword of criminality hanging over the heads of
some of the combatants. The proper target is the President, not his
subordinates; the proper forum is the voting booth, not the
courtroom."
In his comments, Mr. Bush said he was trying to "put bitterness behind
us," asserting that each of the men he was pardoning had a long record
of public service and had already paid a heavy price for their
involvement in the affair in damaged careers, hurt families and
depleted savings.
The Iran-contra affair, the worst scandal of Mr. Reagan's Presidency,
came into the open in the fall of 1986 with the disclosure of two
intertwined secret operations: the arms sales to Teheran, and the
diversion of profits from those sales to help finance a covert weapons
supply network to the contras, set up in 1985, after Congress barred
direct aid to the rebels.
Besides Mr. Weinberger, the President pardoned Robert C. McFarlane,
the former national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, the former
assistant Secretary of State for Central America.
Both officials had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of
withholding information from Congress about support for the contras.
Others Who Are Pardoned
The President also pardoned Clair E. George, the former head of the
Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine services, who was convicted
earlier this month, at his second trial, of two felony charges of
perjury and misleading Congress about both the contras and the Iran
initiative -- crimes for which he faced up to five years in prison and
$250,000 in fines.
Two other intelligence officials were granted clemency, Duane R.
Clarridge, the former head of the C.I.A.'s European division, who was
awaiting trial on charges that he misled Congressional investigators
about a missile shipment to Iran in 1985.
The other was Alan D. Fiers Jr., once a rising star with the agency,
who had pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information about the
contras from Congress and who later decided to cooperate with the
prosecution, becoming Mr. George's chief accuser at both his trials.
Mr. Bush described Mr. Weinberger as a "true American patriot" and he
said clemency was granted both to spare him torment and cost of
lengthy legal proceedings as well as out of a concern for the health
of Mr. Weinberger, who is 75 year old.
Mr. Weinberger, who was asked at a news conference today whether his
notes contained any entries that might be embarrassing to Mr. Bush,
replied:
"No, certainly not. There's nothing in those notes that in any way
contradicts what President Bush said, or what President Reagan said."
But not since President Gerald R. Ford granted clemency to former
President Richard M. Nixon for possible crimes in Watergate has a
Presidential pardon so pointedly raised the issue of whether the
President was trying to shield officials for political purposes.
Mr. Walsh invoked Watergate tonight in an interview on the ABC News
program "Nightline," likening today's pardons to President Richard M.
Nixon's dismissal of the Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox,
in 1973.
Mr. Walsh said Mr. Bush had "succeeded in a sort of Saturday Night
Massacre."
Democratic lawmakers assailed the decision.
Senator George J. Mitchell of Maine, the Democratic leader, called the
action a mistake.
"It is not as the President stated today a matter of criminalizing
policy differences," he said.
"If members of the executive branch lie to the Congress, obstruct
justice and otherwise break the law, how can policy differences be
fairly and legally resolved in a democracy."
The main supporters of the pardon were Vice President Quayle, the
Senate Republican leader, Bob Dole, and Mr. Gray, one senior
Administration official said today.
The decision, discussed in private, seemed to coalesce in the last
three weeks although Mr. Bush was said to believe that Mr. Weinberger
had been unfairly charged ever since the former Reagan Cabinet officer
was first indicted in June.
Throughout the deliberations, Mr. Bush consulted with Attorney General
William P. Barr and Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser,
who had sat on a Presidential review panel that examined the affair in
early 1987.
In lengthy Oval Office meetings in the last week, Mr. Bush and his
advisers, none of whom offered a sharp dissent, discussed how to
balance their desire to grant a pardon with their realization that
such an act would almost certainly provoke hostility.
In the end, Mr. Bush's advisers decided he could surmount his critics
by expressing, as did in his statement, his willingness to make public
additional documents about the affair, like his statement to the
prosecutors and Mr. Weinberger's notes.
Independent Counsel's Statement on the Pardons
By REUTERS
Following is a statement by the independent counsel, Lawrence E.
Walsh, regarding pardons granted today by President Bush.
President Bush's pardon of Caspar Weinberger and other Iran-contra
defendants undermines the principle that no man is above the law.
It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit
serious crimes in high office -- deliberately abusing the public trust
without consequence.
Weinberger, who faced four felony charges, deserved to be tried by a
jury of citizens.
Although it is the President's prerogative to grant pardons, it is
every American's right that the criminal justice system be
administered fairly, regardless of a person's rank and connections.
The Iran-contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years,
has now been completed with the pardon of Caspar Weinberger.
We will make a full report on our findings to Congress and the public
describing the details and extent of this cover-up.
Weinberger's early and deliberate decision to conceal and withhold
extensive contemporaneous notes of the Iran-contra matter radically
altered the official investigations and possibly forestalled timely
impeachment proceedings against President Reagan and other officials.
Weinberger's notes contain evidence of a conspiracy among the
highest-ranking Reagan Administration officials to lie to Congress and
the American public.
Because the notes were withheld from investigators for years, many of
the leads were impossible to follow, key witnesses had purportedly
forgotten what was said and done, and statutes of limitation had
expired.
Weinberger's concealment of notes is part of a disturbing pattern of
deception and obstruction that permeated the highest levels of the
Reagan and Bush Administrations.
This office was informed only within the past two weeks, on December
11, 1992, that President Bush had failed to produce to investigators
his own highly relevant contemporaneous notes, despite repeated
requests for such documents.
The production of these notes is still ongoing and will lead to
appropriate action.
In light of President Bush's own misconduct, we are gravely concerned
about his decision to pardon others who lied to Congress and
obstructed official investigations.
_______________________________________________
Harry
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