(3 of 4)
The candidates and the country have not heard the last from Walsh. "The grand jury is not finished," the independent counsel said as he announced the indictments. "This is simply an interim report." Thus the stage was set for more indictments and more scrutiny of the scandal that refuses to die.
The 101-page indictment sheds little new light on the tangled Iran-contra affair; it simply places events in a criminal framework. The grand jury treats the initiative to sell arms to Iran in exchange for U.S. hostages as a legitimate covert operation, not a crime. It is the abuse of that operation, the diversion of funds and other related activities, that led to the possible breaking of laws. The grand jury seems to have reached the same conclusion as the Tower commission and the congressional committees about Reagan's involvement in the contra scheme: the President was practically an innocent bystander in his own Administration, oblivious to the machinations of his overzealous aides.
Walsh cast a wide net around the four defendants by handing up broad conspiracy charges as well as precise allegations of skimming for personal benefit. Conspiracy convictions are sometimes difficult to win. The Iran- contra defendants will counter the charges by saying they believed they had presidential authorization for their schemes to supply the Nicaraguan rebels. But if Walsh can convince a jury that the defendants were busy lining their pockets, it could help him win guilty verdicts on the broader counts as well.
According to the grand jury, North was cagey and aggressive in securing profits for the enterprise managed by Secord and Hakim. In January 1986, for instance, North arranged to sell 4,000 TOW missiles to Iran for $10,000 each. The Iranians paid $10 million for the first shipment of 1,000 TOWs. But North told the CIA he had sold the weapons for only $3,469 apiece. The U.S. Government, through the CIA, received just $3.7 million on the deal. Some of the remaining $6.3 million was used to aid the contras, but the bulk of it was retained by Secord and Hakim. Walsh charges that the money is the rightful property of the U.S., but the arms merchants have repeatedly said the money belongs only to the enterprise.
The grand jury alleges that Secord and Hakim encouraged North to remain on the NSC staff so they could continue to realize "opportunities for substantial revenues and profits." To persuade North to stay in his White House post, Secord gave him the expensive security system while Hakim established the "B. Button" investment account, a $200,000 fund to be used for the education of North's children. During his congressional testimony, North passionately denied any knowledge of the Button account and said he needed the security system to protect his family from the terrorist Abu Nidal. % It remains to be seen how effective that explanation will be in a courtroom, where North's rambling account will be constrained by rules of evidence and a prosecutor's cross examination.