by senior Reagan administration officials to cover up a covert White House operation whose disdain for established law and outright deception marred Reagan's tenure.

The scheme, which unfolded over a two-year period beginning in late 1985, started with illegal arms sales to Iran.

Selling weapons to Tehran, which was at war with Iraq at the time, had two objectives. One was to enlist Iran's assistance in freeing American hostages being held in Lebanon. Among them was William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut. Buckley was ultimately killed by his captors, though other hostages were released.

In turn, profits from Iran's purchase at highly inflated prices for the weapons — which were routed through Israel — were used for the scheme's other objective: buying arms for anti-communist rebels known as Contrascalled "highly relevant contemporaneous notes" regarding the Iran-Contra scandal.

That diary was the kind of evidence Walsh had been requesting be turned over since 1986. "Inside the White House," Walsh wrote of Bush in his final report, "it appears (Bush) had little intention of cooperating with the Independent Counsel."

Bush had repeatedly insisted he was fully cooperating with that investigation. "I have nothing to explain," he told the Los Angeles Times three months before relinquishing his campaign diary.

"I've given every bit of evidence I have to these thousands of investigators."

Bush had publicly insisted he knew little about the Iran-Contra operation, but his diary revealed otherwise. "I'm one of the few people that know fully the details, and there is a lot of flak and misinformation out there," he noted in