The Nation : Hearing Ordered on Iran-Contra Papers

The judge in the Iran-Contra trial ordered government security officials to explain at a closed hearing the “apparent lack of progress� in declassifying key documents for the trial. U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell scheduled the hearing for Friday morning and ordered the attendance of representatives of national intelligence agencies who are reviewing some 300,000 pages of classified documents collected by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh. The hearing will be closed to reporters and the public. Gesell issued the order a day after Walsh reported that 82,820 pages of classified documents plus another 22,965 pages of classified or sensitive non-government papers had been placed in a security facility for examination by defense lawyers for Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and three co-defendants. At the hearing on Friday, Gesell said he would set deadlines for “reporting the final results of the declassification process.�