Iran-Contra: And Then There Was One

And Then There Was One

A cynic might suspect that one arm of the Government had protected another. The CIA swore to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh that if Joseph Fernandez, its former station chief in Costa Rica, were to use certain classified documents to defend himself at his Iran-contra trial, the nation's security would be endangered. Thornburgh last week repeated the claim in an affidavit to Federal Judge Claude Hilton. So Hilton dismissed all charges against Fernandez, even though Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh scoffed that the "fictional secrets" had already been disclosed in the press.

Earlier, Albert Hakim, who helped divert millions of dollars in U.S....

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