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Oliver North - Iran Contra Hearing (Audio Enhanced) — Transcript

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0:00as you all know by now my name is Oliver
0:03North
0:04lieutenant-colonel United States Marine
0:06Corps my best friend is my wife Betsy to
0:09whom I have been married for 19 years
0:12and with whom I have had four wonderful
0:15children aged eighteen sixteen eleven
0:19and six I came to the National Security
0:22Council six years ago to work in the
0:25administration of a great president as a
0:28staff member I came to understand his
0:30goals and his desires I admired his
0:33policies his strengths and his ability
0:36to bring our country together I observed
0:39the president to be a leader who cared
0:41deeply about people and who believed
0:43that the interests of our country were
0:46advanced by recognizing that ours is a
0:48nation at risk in a dangerous world and
0:51acting accordingly he tried and in my
0:55opinion succeeded in advancing the cause
0:57of world peace by strengthening our
0:59country by acting to restore and sustain
1:02democracy throughout the world and by
1:05having the courage to take decisive
1:07action when needed I also believe that
1:10we must guard against a rather perverse
1:13side of American life and that is the
1:15tendency to launch vicious attacks and
1:17criticism against our elected officials
1:20President Reagan has made enormous
1:23contributions and he deserves our
1:25respect and admiration the National
1:29Security Council is in essence the
1:31president's staff it helps to formulate
1:34and coordinate national security policy
1:37some perhaps on this committee believe
1:40that the NSC was devoid of experienced
1:42leadership I believe that is wrong while
1:48at the NSC I worked most closely with
1:50three people mr. Robert C McFarlane
1:54Admiral John Poindexter and CIA director
1:57William Casey bud McFarlane is a man who
2:00devoted nearly 30 years of his life to
2:02public service in a number of
2:04responsible positions at the NSC he
2:07worked long hours made great
2:09contributions and I admire him for those
2:12efforts Admiral Poindexter is a
2:14distinguished naval officer who served
2:17in a number of important positions of
2:19responsibility he too was a tireless
2:21worker with a similar record of public
2:24service and I too admire him greatly
2:27William Casey was a renowned lawyer a
2:31war veteran of heroic proportions and a
2:35former chairman of the SEC I understood
2:38that he was also a close personal friend
2:41and advisor to President Reagan there is
2:44nearly a century of combined public
2:47service by these three men as a member
2:50of the NSC staff I knew that I held a
2:52position of responsibility but I knew
2:54full well what my position was I did not
2:57engage in fantasy that I was the
3:00president or vice president or cabinet
3:02member or even the director of the
3:04National Security Council
3:05I was simply a staff member with a
3:08demonstrated ability to get the job done
3:10over time I was made responsible for
3:13managing a number of complex and
3:15sensitive covert operations that we have
3:17discussed here to date I reported
3:20directly to mr. McFarlane and to Admiral
3:22Poindexter I coordinated directly with
3:25others including director Casey my
3:28authority to act always float I believed
3:31from my superiors my military training
3:33inculcated me in me a strong belief in
3:36the chain of command and so far as I can
3:39recall I always acted on major matters
3:42with specific approval after informing
3:45informing my superiors of the facts as I
3:48knew them the risks and the potential
3:50benefits I readily admit that I was
3:54action-oriented
3:55that I took pride in the fact that I was
3:57counted upon as a man who got the job
3:59done and I don't mean this by way of
4:02criticism but there were occasions when
4:05my superiors confronted with
4:06accomplishing goals or difficult tasks
4:09would simply say fix a dolly or take
4:12care of it since graduating from the
4:15Naval Academy in 1968 I have strived to
4:18be the best marine officer that one
4:20be in combat my goal was always to
4:23understand the objective follow orders
4:25accomplish the mission and to keep alive
4:29the men who served under me one of the
4:33few good things that has come from the
4:35last seven months of worldwide notoriety
4:39has been the renewed contact that I've
4:41had with some of the finest people in
4:44the world those with whom I served in
4:46Vietnam among the fifty thousand or so
4:50messages of support that have arrived
4:52since I left the NSC are many from those
4:55who recount the horrors we live through
4:57and who now relate stories of their
5:00families and careers after Vietnam I
5:04worked with my fellow officers to train
5:07good Marines to be ready in case we were
5:09called upon elsewhere in the world but
5:11at the same time to hope that we never
5:14were I honestly believe that any soldier
5:17who has ever been to a war truly hopes
5:20he will never see one again my Marine
5:24Corps career was untracked in 1981 when
5:27I was detailed to the National Security
5:29Council I was uneasy at the beginning
5:32but I came to believe that it was
5:33important work and his ears past and
5:36responsibilities grew I got further from
5:39that which I loved the Marine Corps and
5:42Marines during 1984 85 and 86
5:47there were periods at times when we
5:49worked two days and everyone my guess is
5:53that the average workday lasted at least
5:5514 hours to respond to various crises
5:58the need for such was frequent and we
6:02would often go without a night's sleep
6:04hoping to recoup the next night or
6:06thereafter if I had to estimate the
6:08number of meetings and discussions and
6:10phone calls over that five years it
6:12would surely be in the tens of thousands
6:14my only real regret is that I virtually
6:18abandoned my family for work during
6:20these years and that work consisted of
6:23my first few years on the staff is the
6:28project officer for a highly classified
6:29and compartmented national security
6:32project which is not a part of
6:33this inquiry I worked hard on the
6:37political military strategy for
6:38restoring and sustaining democracy in
6:40Central America and in particularly El
6:43Salvador we sought to achieve the
6:45democratic outcome in Nicaragua that
6:47this administration still supports which
6:50involved keeping the Contras together in
6:52both body and soul
6:54we made efforts to open a new
6:56relationship with Iran and recover our
6:59hostages we worked on the development of
7:02a concerted policy regarding terrorists
7:04and terrorism and a capable and a
7:07capability for dealing in a concerted
7:09manner with that threat we worked on
7:12various crises such as TW 847 the
7:15capture of Achille Lauro the rescue of
7:18American students in Grenada and
7:19restoration of democracy on that small
7:21island and the US raid and Libya and
7:24response to their terrorist attacks and
7:28as some they will be willing to admit
7:30there were efforts made to work with the
7:33Congress on legislative programs there
7:37were many problems I believe that we
7:40worked as hard as we could to solve them
7:41and sometimes we succeeded and sometimes
7:44we failed but at least we tried and I
7:48want to tell you that I for one will
7:50never regret having tried I believe that
7:54this is a strange process that you are
7:57putting me and others through apparently
8:00the president has chosen not to assert
8:02his prerogatives and you have been
8:05permitted to make the rules you call
8:07before you the officials of the
8:09executive branch you put them under oath
8:11for what must be collectively thousands
8:14of hours of testimony you dissect that
8:16testimony to find inconsistencies and
8:19declares some to be truthful and others
8:21to be liars
8:22you make the rulings as to what is
8:25proper and what is not proper you put
8:28the testimony which you think is helpful
8:30to your goals up before the people and
8:32leave others out it's sort of like a
8:36baseball game in which you are both the
8:38player and the umpire it's a game in
8:41which you call the balls and strikes and
8:43where you determine who is out and who
8:45is safe and in the end you determine the
8:49score and declare yourselves the winner
8:51from where I sit it is not the fairness
8:54process one thing is I think for certain
8:58that you will not investigate yourselves
9:01in this matter there is not much chance
9:04that you will conclude at the end of
9:05these hearings that the Boland
9:07amendments and the frequent policy
9:09changes therefore were unwise at the or
9:13that your restrictions should not have
9:15been imposed on the executive branch you
9:18are not likely to conclude that the
9:19administration acted properly by trying
9:22to sustain the freedom fighters in
9:23Nicaragua when they were abandoned and
9:26you are not likely to conclude by
9:29commending the President of the United
9:30States who tried valiantly to recover
9:33our citizens and achieve an opening the
9:37strategically vital Iran I would not be
9:41frank with you if I did not admit that
9:43the last several months have been very
9:45difficult for me and my family it has
9:50been difficult to be on the front pages
9:52of every newspaper in the land day after
9:54day to be the lead story on national
9:57television
9:57day after day to be photograph thousands
10:01of times by bands of photographers who
10:03chase us around since November just
10:06because my name arose at the hearings it
10:12is difficult to be caught in the middle
10:13of a constitutional struggle between the
10:15executive and legislative branches over
10:18who will formulate and direct the
10:20foreign policy of this nation it is
10:23difficult to be vilified by people in
10:26and out of this body
10:28some of proclaimed that I am guilty of
10:30criminal conduct even before they heard
10:33me others have said that I would not
10:36tell the truth when I came here to
10:38testify and one member asked a person
10:42testifying before this body whether he
10:45would believe me under oath I asked when
10:49I got here if you don't believe me
10:52why call me at all it has been difficult
10:57to see questions raised about my
10:58character and morality my honesty
11:01because only partial evidence was
11:03provided and as I indicated yesterday I
11:07think it was insensitive of this
11:08committee to place before the cameras my
11:11home address at a time when my family
11:14and I are under 24-hour armed guard by
11:17over a dozen government agents of the
11:19Naval Investigative Service because of
11:22fear the terrorists will seek revenge
11:23for my official acts and carry out their
11:27announced intentions to kill me it is
11:30also difficult to comprehend that my
11:32work at the NSC all of which was
11:36approved and carried out in the best
11:37interests of our country has led to two
11:40massive parallel investigations staffed
11:43by over 200 people it is mind-boggling
11:47to me that one of those investigations
11:49is criminal and that some here have
11:53attempted to criminalize policy
11:55differences between co-equal branches of
11:58government and the executives conduct of
12:00Foreign Affairs I believe it is
12:04inevitable that the Congress will in the
12:06end blame the executive branch but I
12:08suggest to you that it is the Congress
12:10which must accept at least some of the
12:12blame and the nicaraguan freedom
12:15fighters matter plain and simple the
12:18Congress is to blame because of the
12:20fickle vacillating unpredictable
12:22on-again off-again policy toward the
12:25Nicaraguan Democratic resistance the
12:28so-called Contras I do not believe that
12:33the support of the Nicaraguan freedom
12:35fighters can be treated as the passage
12:37of a budget I suppose if the budget
12:39doesn't get passed on time again this
12:41year there will be inevitably another
12:43extension of a month or two but the
12:46Contras the Nicaraguan freedom fighters
12:48are people living breathing young men
12:51and women who have had to suffer a
12:53desperate struggle for liberty with
12:56sporadic and confusing support from the
12:59United States of America armies need
13:02food
13:03and consistent help they need a flow of
13:05money of arms clothing medical supplies
13:09the Congress of the United States
13:11allowed the executive to encourage them
13:14to do battle and then abandon them the
13:18Congress of the United States left
13:20soldiers in the field unsupported and
13:22vulnerable to their communist enemies
13:24when the executive branch did everything
13:26possible within the law to prevent them
13:30from being wiped out by Moscow
13:32surrogates in Havana and Managua you
13:36then had this investigation to blame the
13:38problem on the executive branch it does
13:41not make sense to me in my opinion these
13:46hearings of cause serious damage to our
13:48national interests our adversaries laugh
13:51at us and our friends recoil in horror I
13:55suppose it would be one thing if the
13:57intelligence committees wanted to hear
13:59all of this in private and thereafter
14:01passed laws which in the view of
14:02Congress make for better policies or
14:05better functioning of government but to
14:07hold them publicly for the whole world
14:10to see strikes me is very harmful not
14:14only does it embarrass our friends and
14:15allies with whom we have worked many of
14:18whom have helped us in various programs
14:20but it must also make them very wary of
14:23helping us again I believe that these
14:27hearings perhaps unintentionally so have
14:30revealed matters of great secrecy and
14:32the operation of our government and
14:34sources and methods of intelligence
14:36activities have clearly been revealed to
14:39the detriment of our security as a
14:41result of rumor and speculation and
14:44innuendo I have been accused of almost
14:47every crime imaginable wild rumors have
14:51abounded some media reports have
14:53suggested that I was guilty for of
14:55espionage for the way I handled US
14:58intelligence some have said I was guilty
15:00of treason and suggested in front of my
15:04eleven-year-old daughter that I should
15:07be given the death penalty some said I
15:09stole ten million dollars some said I
15:12was second only in power to the press
15:14the United States and others that I
15:16condone drug trafficking to generate
15:18funds for the Contras or that I
15:20personally ordered assassinations or
15:22that I was conducting my own foreign
15:24policy it has even been suggested that I
15:27was the personal confidant of the
15:29President of the United States these and
15:32many other stories are patently untrue I
15:37don't mind telling you that I'm angry at
15:40what some have attempted to do to me and
15:42my family I believe that these committee
15:46hearings will show that you have struck
15:48some blows but I am going to walk from
15:52here with my head high and my shoulders
15:53straight because I am proud of what we
15:56accomplished I am proud of the efforts
15:58that we made and I am proud of the fight
16:00that we fought I am proud of serving in
16:04the administration of a great president
16:05I am not ashamed of anything in my
16:08professional or personal conduct as we
16:11go through this process I ask that you
16:13continue to please keep an open mind
16:15please be open-minded and able to admit
16:19that perhaps your preliminary
16:21conclusions about me were wrong and
16:24please also do not mistake my attitude
16:28for lack of respect I am in awe of this
16:33great institution just as I am in awe of
16:36the presidency both are equal branches
16:41of government with separate areas of
16:43responsibility under the Constitution
16:45that I have taken an oath to support and
16:48defend and I have done so as many of you
16:52have and although I do not agree with
16:54what you are doing or the way that it is
16:57being done I do understand your interest
16:59in obtaining the facts and I have taken
17:01an oath to tell the truth and helping
17:04you to do so in closing mr. chairman and
17:07I thank you for this opportunity I would
17:09just simply like to thank the tens of
17:11thousands of Americans who have
17:12communicated their support encouragement
17:15and prayers for me and my family in this
17:18difficult time

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