Instead, it has been waiting for the publication of the Tower board's report.

Certainly, it is a question that has been asked often in Washington since the Tower board issued its report last Thursday.

But I remember very well what the Tower board said last February when it issued this report.

"We were not permitted to make copies of the notes, and we couldn't keep them," said one official with the Tower board.

The Tower board found huge gaps in the trail of contra money and in other evidence needed for questioning to begin.

Yet with only a paragraph of explanation, the Tower board recommended against any law forbidding the abuse.

More generally, the Tower board's comments notwithstanding, its members understood that there is no practical way to separate the making and the implementing of policy.

I endorse every one of the Tower board's recommendations.

"That led us to expect that he would not be able to recall when he appeared before the Tower board."

"It is obvious that the Tower board took it to mean that," he said.