Iran Contra Alumni in Bush Gov't

Former Iran-Contra figures who have been given jobs in the Bush administration:

-JOHN POINDEXTER. Reagan national security adviser during Iran-Contra, the retired admiral is director of the Pentagon's Information Awareness Office. Created after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the office uses computer technology to detect and analyze new kinds of military threats, including those from terrorist organizations. Poindexter was convicted in 1990 on five felony counts of conspiracy, making false statements to Congress and obstructing congressional inquiries. In 1991, an appellate court overturned the convictions and similar ones against former White House aide Oliver North. The court held that the government had improperly used immunized congressional testimony against them.

-ELLIOTT ABRAMS. A former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Abrams was hired by Bush last year as special White House assistant for democracy and human rights. Abrams pleaded guilty to withholding Iran-Contra information from Congress and was among six Iran-Contra figures pardoned on Dec. 24, 1992, by the first President Bush.

-OTTO REICH. Serving as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Abrams' old job. From 1983 to 1986, Reich led a State Department office accused of running an illegal covert domestic propaganda effort against Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. Senate Democrats blocked his nomination last year. Bush installed him with a ``recess appointment,'' allowing him to serve for a year. The formal nomination was resubmitted recently.

-RICHARD ARMITAGE. As deputy secretary of state, Armitage is No. 2 at the State Department after Secretary of State Colin Powell. The first President Bush nominated him to be Army secretary, but Armitage withdrew after his knowledge of Iran-Contra dealings as a top Pentagon official became an issue. In congressional hearings, he denied he had met an Israeli official to discuss the Iran arms sales. A classified Israeli intelligence report suggested otherwise.

-JOHN NEGROPONTE. A veteran diplomat serving now as U.N. ambassador, Negroponte's nomination was stalled for months by Democrats. They criticized his work as ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s, when the Central American country was used as a base for the U.S.-backed Contra rebels. He was approved quickly, however, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

-MITCH DANIELS. Currently director of the Office of Management and Budget, Daniels was Reagan's political director who participated in a White House political damage-control effort in 1986 and 1987. Daniels privately complained to associates at the time, however, that the White House account of the secret diplomatic initiative to Iran was not believable, according to various reports.