Prosecutor Compares North to Hitler

WASHINGTON--Lt. Col. Oliver North was portrayed to his trial jury yesterday as "the Joe Isuzu of government" who followed Hitler's maxim that "the victor will never be asked if he told the truth."

Prosecutor John Keker, in final arguments at North's trial, said "If Ollie North wanted to get it done, he didn't care if he broke the law."

But defense lawyer Brendan Sullivan called the comparison outrageous, saying anyone "who links Colonel North to Adolf Hitler is not credible and should not be believed.

"This man is not Adolf Hitler," Sullivan said, "and he doesn't do things like Adolf Hitler."

Why shouldn't North have thrown papers away, he asked, when they referred to the secret operations of the government.

"In this case," Sullivan told the jury, "the government is off track and running wild, and you should stop it."

North, the former National Security Council aide at the center of the Iran-Contra vortex, sat stone-faced at the defense table as prosecutor Keker methodically tried to dismantle his American-hero image.

"Telling the truth is something you learned at your mother's knee," Keker said. "Government by deception is not a free government. Government by deception is not a democratic government. Government by deception is not a government under the rule of law."

After North's lawyer finishes his closing argument today, there will be rebuttal, and the trial--now in its 12th week--will go to the jury, which will then be sequestered.

Prosecutor Keker told the jurors yesterday, "I will be asking you to return a verdict of guilty as to each of these 12 counts against Oliver North."

He said, "The tragedy of Oliver North is of a man who cared so much for freedom in Nicaragua, but forgot about the demands of freedom and democracy here at home."

If convicted on all counts, North could serve up to 60 years in prison.

The charges include six counts of lying to Congress and withholding information; obstructing a presidential inquiry and making false statements to investigators; altering, shredding and concealing documents; receiving an illegal gratuity, a security system at his home; stealing money from an Iran-Contra account and conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

The charges focus on an alleged attempt to cover up various aspects of a secret Reagan Administration operation to aid the Nicaraguan rebels.

Standing behind a portable lectern and using a huge chart that outlined the charges, Keker contended that North, a highly decorated former Marine officer and White House aide, had a defense of "the devil made me do it."

North "blames other people. 'McFarlane made me to it. Casey told me to do it,'" the prosecutor said. Robert McFarlane was the national security adviser at the time of some of the alleged offenses, and William J. Casey was director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

"In time, a good man turned into a bad man," said Keker in a low, unemotional voice. "Once lying becomes a habit, it's hard to stop. He put his hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth."

Sullivan painted North as a slighted hero.

"He faced machine gun fire like a wall of death," Sullivan said. "If you listen to the government, you'd believe Colonel North went to work every day and decided what kind of crime to commit in which meeting."

Speaking of Keker's Hitler line, Sullivan told the jury, "it is outrageous. It should send a course of rage through all of you."