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- THE WEEK, Page 13NATIONOff the Hook . . . for Now
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- Reagan gets the word that he is not a target in the Iran-contra
- probe
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- The signals have suggested otherwise. Former Secretary of
- Defense Caspar Weinberger, who will stand trial early next year
- on perjury charges, strongly implied that special prosecutor
- Lawrence Walsh had offered to reduce charges against him if he
- would help finger Ronald Reagan. Clair George, formerly the CIA
- deputy director for operations, who is now on trial for perjury,
- received a similar offer to name names right to the top. Oliver
- North, once Reagan's most adoring acolyte, proclaimed his own
- unclouded version of the former President's involvement in the
- Iran-contra scandal in his memoirs: "President Reagan knew
- everything."
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- And yet the special prosecutor ended his pursuit last week
- -- at least for the moment. Responding to reports that he was
- about to indict Reagan, Walsh sent a letter to the former
- President reassuring him that he was neither a subject nor a
- target of the investigation. These legal terms mean that while
- Reagan may have information of interest to the investigation,
- he is not likely to be indicted. Former White House chief of
- staff Donald Regan received a similar letter, but Walsh was
- reportedly turning his sights on former Attorney General Edwin
- Meese, who, according to some accounts, masterminded the
- cover-up.
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