North Takes Fifth, Won’t Give His Notes to Congress

WASHINGTON — Oliver L. North invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination today in refusing to turn over to congressional investigators nearly 3,000 pages of notes he made while a key White House operative in the Iran-Contra affair.

North’s refusal to turn over the dozens of spiral-bound notebooks was made through his lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. North, a recently retired Marine lieutenant colonel, did not appear.

Congressional investigators have been given portions of the notebooks, which are sprinkled throughout with references to drugs, drug traffickers, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the CIA. But large segments--committee aides said about half the contents--have been blacked out by Sullivan or by White House censors.

“It’s the first time I ever heard of in history that an attorney who is not code-cleared, classified-cleared or even any security clearance whatsoever, sits as the custodian of documents that have been walked out of the workplace of the most highly sensitive government agency that we have,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

“It’s unheard of, and I think it’s inappropriate,” said Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations narcotics subcommittee, which is investigating links between the aid network for Nicaragua’s Contra rebels and drug trafficking.

Kerry said the committee will meet again soon to review its options. These include issuing a new subpoena directed at Sullivan, who presumably could not use the Fifth Amendment defense, and granting limited immunity from prosecution to North in exchange for access to the classified documents.