Iran-Contra Hearings - Testimony of Colonel Oliver North.
Iran-Contra Hearings - Testimony of Colonel Oliver North.
Senator David Boren. (D-Oklahoma)-I happen to believe very strongly that we have to have covert operations sometimes. We have to be able to operate in secret. We have to be able to keep those secrets. And I think you ve expressed appropriate concern as a witness that those secrets must be kept. We have instituted new procedures in the intelligence committee to make sure those secrets are kept. We lock up the documents and don t let them out of the room. We don t even let members take their notes out anymore. Senator Coren and I have gone to the leadership in the Senate. Both Democratic and Republic and received a commitment; that if a single member of our committee leaks classified information there resignation as a member of that committee will be demanded. And of course there are procedures in place for the President under current law. If the President does not want to tell the entire intelligence committees of both the House and Senate. As you know the President can only notify eight people: The Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader of the Senate, the Minority leaders of both houses and the Chairman and Vice Chairman of two committees. And we re working very very hard to reestablish the kind of mutual trust that is going to be necessary for us to be able to start policies and sustain policies and speak to the rest of the world with a unified voice. So I want to make clear that I don t disagree with you that we have to have covert operations, secret actions. Secrecy must be maintained but we must also have accountability. We need to have accountability to make sure the money is spent appropriately as was intended. In this case you as one person said You couldn t possibly keep up with all the funds for example in this operation. If you d been able to do this through regular channels, through the CIA with the proper accountability, we would know where all the money is and how it was spent. We have to have accountability also to make sure the President signed off on it, that the objectives are being properly carried out. In so we are working very very hard. We have been in conversations with Mr. [Frank] Carlucci and others at the White House between the intelligence committees in the last several days, to try and come up with a positive new approach.