1987 Testimony by Lt Col Oliver North about the Iran-Contra Affair — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00I want you to know that I'd be more than
2. 0:02willing and if anybody else is watching
3. 0:04overseas, and I'm sure they are, I'll be
4. 0:06glad to meet Abu Nidal on equal terms
5. 0:09anywhere in the world.
6. 0:12Okay, there's an even deal for him. But
7. 0:15I am not willing to have my wife and my
8. 0:18four children meet Abu Nidal or his
9. 0:21organization on his terms. And I want
10. 0:24you to know what was going through my
11. 0:26mind. I was about to leave for Tyron. I
12. 0:30had already been told by Director Casey
13. 0:32that I should be prepared to take my own
14. 0:34life. I had already been told that the
15. 0:37government of the United States on an
16. 0:39earlier proposal for a trip might even
17. 0:42disavow the fact that I had gone on the
18. 0:44trip on an earlier proposal and we can
19. 0:46come back to that at some time if you
20. 0:47like. And so having been asked having
21. 0:50asked for some type of US government
22. 0:53protection for my wife and children and
23. 0:55having been denied that and perhaps for
24. 0:57fully legitimate reasons and if there is
25. 0:59a law that prevents the protection of
26. 1:02American government employees and their
27. 1:04families from people like Abu Nidal,
28. 1:07then gentlemen, please fix it because
29. 1:09this kid won't be around much longer as
30. 1:11I'm sure you know. But there will be
31. 1:13others if they take active steps to
32. 1:15address the problem of terrorism who
33. 1:17will be threatened. One of the people
34. 1:19killed in the Christmas massacre,
35. 1:22and I do not wish to over dramatize
36. 1:24this,
37. 1:26but the Abu Nidal terrorist in Rome who
38. 1:28blasted the 11-year-old American Natasha
39. 1:31Simpson to her knees
40. 1:35deliberately zeroed in and fired an
41. 1:37extra burst at her head just in case.
42. 1:41Gentlemen, I have an 11-year-old
43. 1:43daughter,
44. 1:45not perhaps a whole lot different
45. 1:49than Natasha Simpson.
46. 1:52And so when Mr. Robinette told me on or
47. 1:56about the 10th of May
48. 1:59that he could immediately install a
49. 2:01security system, I said, "Please try to
50. 2:04keep it to the 8,8500."
51. 2:08I am after all a marine lieutenant
52. 2:10colonel and I live on my salary and he
53. 2:13installed that system. And now let me go
54. 2:15to your next question because I know
55. 2:17it's coming and it deserves an answer.
56. 2:20I never got a bill
57. 2:22and it is after wait before you after
58. 2:25all the answer to your question. It is
59. 2:27the answer to your question. You asked
60. 2:28me where it came from and I'm trying to
61. 2:30tell you.
62. 2:30>> I am going to ask you that question but
63. 2:32but
64. 2:32>> you've already asked me the question.
65. 2:33You asked me whether or not the money
66. 2:35came from General Cord. I'm getting
67. 2:37there.
68. 2:37>> All right. Okay. Okay. I didn't ask for
69. 2:40a bill and I never received one. I never
70. 2:44asked where's the bill until well after
71. 2:47it was too late. And I'll cover that.
72. 2:52When I didn't get a bill, I basically
73. 2:56understood what had happened. And I
74. 2:58don't know exactly how it worked out,
75. 3:01but I I believe that an accommodation
76. 3:04was worked between Mr. Robinette and
77. 3:08General Cord to make a gift out of that
78. 3:11security system that I did not pay for.
79. 3:16When I came to the end of my tenure at
80. 3:19the NSC,
81. 3:21it was to say the least a busy time.
82. 3:24There were other things to be done
83. 3:25besides shredding documents. When I
84. 3:27left, there was a lot of work to be
85. 3:29done. And one of the things that I did
86. 3:31was to sit and contemplate the previous
87. 3:335 and a half years of my work
88. 3:36and I am proud of that work.
89. 3:39I believe that we accomplished a lot.
90. 3:43But there was one thing that just didn't
91. 3:45look right. And that was that for the
92. 3:48first time in my life,
93. 3:51I had accepted something that I hadn't
94. 3:53paid for. And even though I honestly
95. 3:56believe that the government of the
96. 3:58United States should have paid for it,
97. 4:00should have put it in,
98. 4:02I then picked up the phone and asked for
99. 4:04a bill. I got a bill. In fact, I got two
100. 4:08of them. I didn't ask that be backdated,
101. 4:11but after all, Mr. Robin, that is an old
102. 4:14hand in the CIA.
103. 4:17All right. The bills came with the old
104. 4:18original dates, and I think there was
105. 4:20another bill with a later date on it.
106. 4:23And then, as I told you yesterday, I was
107. 4:26going to tell you the truth, the good,
108. 4:28the bad, and the ugly. This is the
109. 4:31truth. I did probably the grossest
110. 4:33misjudgment that I've made in my life. I
111. 4:37then tried to paper over that whole
112. 4:40thing by sending two phony documents
113. 4:43back to Mr. Robinette.
114. 4:46It was not an exercise in good judgment.
115. 4:49I don't believe I have any particular
116. 4:51monopoly on bad judgment. I think it was
117. 4:54a gross error in judgment for this
118. 4:57committee to put my home address up on a
119. 5:00screen for the whole world to see when
120. 5:03I've got 20 security agents guarding my
121. 5:06wife, my children, and me right now.
122. 5:09But the fact is, I am grateful for that
123. 5:12assistance beyond measure. Because when
124. 5:14you think about what could happen when
125. 5:17somebody like that is out to kill you
126. 5:19and doesn't care if he takes out your
127. 5:21children with you, you run out of
128. 5:23options in a big hurry. I ran out of
129. 5:25options. I think the government of the
130. 5:27United States should have stepped up to
131. 5:29it and didn't. Whether it's because of
132. 5:31laws or regulations, I don't know. I
133. 5:33admit to making a serious serious
134. 5:36judgment error in what I then did to
135. 5:38paper it over. And I'm willing to sit
136. 5:40here and admit to that. But I'm also
137. 5:43suggesting to you gentlemen that if it
138. 5:45was General Cord who paid the bill,
139. 5:48whatever it was, I thought it was
140. 5:49$8,000. Didn't hurt learn until the
141. 5:52hearing started it was more. I also
142. 5:54suggest to you that if it was General
143. 5:56Cord, first of all, thank you, General
144. 5:58Cord. And second of all, you guys ought
145. 6:01to write him a check because the
146. 6:02government should have done it to begin
147. 6:03with. Thank you, sir.
148. 6:08There's been testimony about uh use of
149. 6:11travelers checks. I'd like to give you
150. 6:14an opportunity to
151. 6:16um answer or explain that testimony. I
152. 6:20take it you have it in mind. I do have
153. 6:22it in mind, council, and I appreciate
154. 6:24the opportunity.
155. 6:26Uh
156. 6:28again, you'll have to indulge me a bit.
157. 6:31When I uh when I began the covert
158. 6:34operation in 1986,
159. 6:37excuse me, 1984
160. 6:39uh in support of the resistance,
161. 6:42uh we had enormous problems trying to to
162. 6:45solve near time, real time uh what I
163. 6:49call operational problems.
164. 6:51The
165. 6:53end result of that was that
166. 6:56I talked to director Casey about the
167. 6:58difficulties. He estep he had suggested
168. 7:02establishing an operational account and
169. 7:04I did so there were times when that
170. 7:08account was down to zero. No money in
171. 7:12it. I didn't have any travelers checks
172. 7:14and I had handed out all the cash not to
173. 7:17myself but to others. Under those
174. 7:20circumstances I would use my own money.
175. 7:24Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North's
176. 7:27paycheck money. his own money that he
177. 7:29had earned and I would use it for an
178. 7:32operational expense. I would therefore
179. 7:35make a notation in the ledger, spent
180. 7:38$250
181. 7:39on going to Atlanta to meet with
182. 7:41somebody. And the next time I got cash
183. 7:45or traveler's checks, I would use those
184. 7:48checks to reimburse myself.
185. 7:51Every single penny
186. 7:55on the checks that you saw that came to
187. 7:59me was used to pay an operational
188. 8:02expense on the scene or to reimburse
189. 8:04myself. I never took a penny that didn't
190. 8:08belong to me. Every single one of those
191. 8:11checks. And I would also point out to
192. 8:14you, council, that you don't have them
193. 8:16all because by my own recognition and
194. 8:18memory, there were checks used in 1986
195. 8:22and the ones that you depicted earlier
196. 8:24were only 1985. And I used those
197. 8:26travelers checks right up until shortly
198. 8:28before I was fired, but only for the
199. 8:31purposes that you saw. And I realize
200. 8:34that that that this hearing is a
201. 8:37difficult thing. Believe me, gentlemen,
202. 8:39it isn't as difficult for you as it is
203. 8:42for a guy that's got to come up here and
204. 8:43tell the truth. And that's what I'm
205. 8:45trying to do. And I want to make it very
206. 8:47clear that when you put up things like
207. 8:50Parklane Hosery and you all snicker at
208. 8:53it and you know that I've got a
209. 8:55beautiful secretary and the good Lord
210. 8:57gave her the gift of beauty and that
211. 9:00people snicker that Ali North might have
212. 9:02been doing a little hanky panky with his
213. 9:04secretary. Ali North has been loyal to
214. 9:06his wife since the day he married her.
215. 9:09And the fact is I went to my best friend
216. 9:12and I asked her, "Did I ever go to
217. 9:14Parklane Hosery?" And you know what she
218. 9:17told me? "Of course you did, you old
219. 9:19buffoon. You went there to buy leotards
220. 9:21for our two little girls." And the
221. 9:24reason I wrote the check at Parklane
222. 9:26Hosery, just like the checks at Giant,
223. 9:29is because I was owed my money for what
224. 9:33I had spent in pursuing that covert
225. 9:35operation. You gentlemen may not agree
226. 9:38that we should have been pursuing covert
227. 9:40operations at the NSC, but we were. We
228. 9:43had an operational account and we used
229. 9:45the money for legitimate purposes within
230. 9:48that covert operation. Does that answer
231. 9:50your question, sir?
232. 9:52>> Yes.