Keeping Up His Guard

By Frank Trippett

"I don't think there is another person in America who wants to tell this story as much as I do."

Despite that heartfelt declaration to Congress last December, Marine Lieut. Colonel Oliver North has now twice refused to answer their questions about his pivotal role in the Iran-contra affair. North first invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before the House Foreign Affairs Committee; last week the former National Security Council aide showed no interest in testifying privately to investigators of the congressional select committees probing the scandal.

North bluntly informed the House and Senate committees that he would not submit to interrogation by staff lawyers, as have all other witnesses, in closed sessions that were to begin last Thursday. His lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, argued that in private interrogation North would not have the limited immunity from prosecution that he has been guaranteed as a witness before the full panel.

North's surprising maneuver left committee members angered and baffled about the Marine's underlying purpose. Did he hope to put off testifying until he had the advantage of knowing what would be said by his former boss, ex- National Security Adviser John Poindexter, who is due up as a witness early next month? Or could North's testimony be so explosive that he would not risk exposing it to a leak from the private sessions? Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh is not expected to start legal action against North before his congressional appearance. Could the refusal to testify be an attempt to pressure Walsh into indicting him -- thus providing North with a solid argument against the jeopardy of giving any testimony before Congress?

Committee members tended to downgrade the effect of North's tactic. Said a somber Senate Chairman Daniel Inouye: "We can ((start)) contempt proceedings, but obviously that would take much time." Finding North in contempt would trigger further court action that might take until October or later. Simply questioning North in public session could still produce an effective, if longer, interrogation, said Inouye. Lawyers for both sides discussed a compromise that would have North submit to limited questioning in private, but no agreement had been reached at week's end. Lee Hamilton, chairman of the House panel, indicated he and his colleagues would resist any plan under which "North would be dictating the procedures."

While North was jolting the congressional committees, the Justice Department launched an attack on the statute that provides for the appointment of independent counsels such as Walsh. The Justice Department contends that the 1978 law unconstitutionally abridges traditional executive power over all prosecutors by providing that judicial panels appoint the independent counsels. North has separately filed suit contesting Walsh's authority, and former White House Aide Michael Deaver, facing trial for perjury, is challenging his prosecutor, Whitney North Seymour.

With the law relating to independent counsel due to expire in January, Assistant Attorney General John Bolton announced last week that the Justice Department would ask the President to veto any extension of it. "Nothing is too trivial for these people to investigate," Bolton said of the independent counsels. Moreover, he complained, the independent probes cost three to five times as much as those by the department's public-integrity section. After Bolton lambasted Walsh for renting $36-per-sq.-ft. office space, the Iran- contra prosecutor's office mildly pointed out that its lease was arranged by . the General Services Administration and that unusually expensive security requirements were demanded by the FBI.

The Senate started drafting legislation to reauthorize the independent counsels despite the Bolton blast -- which even the White House considered "contentious and intemperate." The President, said Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, has not decided whether he would veto the expected extension of the statute. Such a veto might well be embarrassing. Six independent counsels are investigating present or former Administration officials, including Bolton's boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese.

With reporting by Anne Constable and Hays Gorey/Washington