Hatch Says Senate Should Grant Immunity to North

Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, last night called on that investigative body to grant immunity to two government officials charged with illegally transfering funds from the arms sales to Iran to Nicaraguan "contras."

In Cambridge to speak at the Kennedy School, Hatch called the Lt. Col. Oliver North and Admiral John Poindexter's testimonies "indispensible" to the investigation.

"We on the intelligence committee know a lot, but if we had [their testimony] we could put this thing to bed," Hatch said in an interview after the speech.

North and Poindexter have refused to comment before various congressional committees on the Iran-Contra scandal that has rocked the Reagan Adminstration.

Hatch said that the Democrats on the committee would probably bar granting immunity to the two, who have thus far been the only administration officials linked to the plan to transfer about $30 million dollars to the Contras.

Calling North and Poindexter "heroes to this country for a long time," Hatch said that Congress should "stop being vindictive." He added, "They are zealous people who want to help the freedom fighters, and believe me they are freedom fighters."

Hatch said that he believed that President Reagan was telling the truth, but added that the President could have heard the plan and not realized its implications.

"I have known him for many years and he has always acknowledged his mistakes," Hatch said. "I believe he is telling the truth, the only way we will ever know is if we let [North and Poindexter] testify."

Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe '62, who was debating Hatch, also commented on the scandal. "It is an irony," Tribe said, that the two "put their own view of the national interests above the laws of Congress."

Yet, he added, they cited their constitutional rights as protection against self-incrimination to avoid serving the national interest during the crisis.