American Notes IRAN-CONTRA

U.S. District Court Judge Gerhard Gesell is known as a tough sentencer, but he turned surprisingly lenient last week. Though Gesell could have sent former Lieut. Colonel Oliver North to prison for ten years for his role in the Iran- contra affair, the judge declined to do so. Instead, after listening to North softly declare that he had grieved over his "mistakes," he handed North three suspended sentences, two years' probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours of community service in an antidrug program for inner-city youths. (The Navy promptly suspended North's $23,000-a-year pension but recommended that the Comptroller General restore it when the matter comes before him.) Incarceration, Gesell explained, would only harden the "misconceptions" that had led North into wrongdoing. In Gesell's sight, North was a "low-ranking subordinate" ordered into illegal activity by "cynical superiors" in the White House's "elite isolation." Said Gesell: "You're not the fall guy for this tragic breach of public trust."