Word: iran-contra
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Nevertheless, Iran-contra defendants Oliver North, John Poindexter and former CIA agent Joseph Fernandez forced prosecutors to reduce or dismiss many of the charges against them by insisting that reams of classified information were necessary for their cases. Noriega's lawyers are almost certain to make the same argument. "The only way to get to the truth is to get those documents," said Noriega defense attorney Steven Kollin last week. Even if that tactic fails, a question that has haunted more than one previous President -- what did he know and when did he know it? -- may yet rise...
...guilty plea on Noriega's behalf. Defense attorneys are also insisting that Noriega cannot get a fair trial in a nation where the President has publicly called him a thug. Yet the fact that twelve jurors could be found who were unfamiliar with the congressional testimony of Iran-contra star Oliver North makes it less likely that those objections will stand in the way of a trial...
...convince Federal Judge Harold Greene that he should not be forced to testify at Poindexter's upcoming trial. North claimed that his memories of the secret arms sale to Iran had become so intertwined with the account Poindexter gave Congress that he could no longer distinguish between them. The implication was that he could not give evidence against Poindexter without violating an immunity agreement under which the Iran-contra defendants' congressional testimony cannot be used against them...
...girlfriend, now reduced to offering more private entertainments; and a spooky guru bilking the faithful. Librettist Larry Gelbart cheerily exploits these cliches without sneering at the genre. In telling the Hollywood side of the story, however, he is at times as snide as in his just closed satire of Iran-contra, Mastergate. But when he becomes cranky about the writer's woeful lot, the show is redeemed by the wit and humanity of David Zippel's lyrics and the zip of Cy Coleman's score, which delights in the past without sinking to pastiche except, maybe, in the close- harmony...
That leaves only one Iran-contra defendant still facing trial: former National Security Adviser John Poindexter. He insists that testimony by former President Ronald Reagan is vital to his defense. Reagan is resisting Poindexter's subpoena. If Judge Harold Greene rules that Poindexter's ex-boss need not testify, the retired admiral presumably will ask to have his case dismissed...