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tions raised by the American people. We can fill in the gaps remaining from the reports of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Tower Commission, make the appropriate recommendations and get on with the business of governing.
“The Iran/Contra affair has dominated the activities of both the executive and legislative branches of government since November of last year. It is time for government to move on,” Sen. Trible maintained.
He added that ‘it is important to underscore that Congress can grant limited ‘use’ immunity to Poindexter and North and compel their testimony without interfering with a successful criminal prosecution by the Independent Counsel.”
A clear majority on the committee, Sen. Trible maintained, now recognizes the desirability — and invevitability — of granting immunity. It is only a matter of timing. “There is no benefit to delay,” he said. “None to North and Poindexter, who have stated that they will speak only when granted immunity, none to the committee and certainly none to the country.”
Throughout our history, Congressional committees have granted immunity to witnesses when that is the only means of disclosing critical information, he said, naming the Senate Watergate Committee, which granted immunity to 27 witnesses, as an example.
“The legal requirements are no different in this case,” Sen. Trible said. “The Independent Counsel has available to him sufficient evidence from his own investigation, important memoranda and other documents — to seek indictments. If Mr. Walsh has a case of conspiracy or obstruction of justice against Poindexter and North it exists now*
“The United States suffers domestically and abroad when one sensational issue dominates the and government for as long as the Iran/Contra affair has plagued us. We must, as a Congress and as a nation, move quickly, yet responsibly, to finish amassing the critical facts and allow the chips to fall where they may.
“Only after hearing from Admiral Poindexter and Col. North can our Committee write the record, make its conclusions and offer remedial recommendations and then let history judge the Reagan administration,” Sen. Trible concluded.
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