The Classified File Room for the Iran-Contra Affair

The Tower Commission Report

on the Iran-Contra Affair

for President Ronald Reagan

Around 1986 as a designer for the US General Services Administration, I had finished designing space for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). There new location was right on New York Avenue in Washington, DC, and the project was most interesting.  The Division was handling a large telecommunication concern. It was my job to create space where both sides of the legal case could not know what the other side was doing. The case was United States v. AT&T. The design project turned out successful, and in August of 1987, DOJ offered me a job.

I was attending a church retreat at the University of Maryland, staying in the dorms, when the phone rang out in the hallway. In those days, no one had a cell phone. I picked it up, and there was DOJ Personnel offering me a job. It was one of those moments that I knew that the Department could find you in the bottom of a haystack in the middle of nowhere. I joined the Facilities and Administrative Services staff, as a Space Management Specialist, just another glorified name to say that I was an interior designer who understood commercial real estate.

I held a “Top Secret Clearance” from my days at the Office of the Secretary of the Army, Pentagon, when I worked there in the early 1980’s. During my time at the Pentagon, I had participated in the design of “Secured Compartmentalized Information Facilities” better known as SCIFs within the security and defense community. Being the only one to hold a secret clearance, I was informed by my supervisor that I would be designing the space for the prosecution and defense of the Iran-Contra Affair. I have always followed the news, but didn’t realize this would fall into my lap.

The short definition of the Iran-Contra Affair by Khan Academy is:  The Reagan Administration secretly sold weapons to Iran to effect the release of American hostages in Lebanon. The money from the Iran weapons-sale then was used to help the Contras, a group of guerrilla “Freedom Fighters” opposed to the Marxist government of Nicaragua.

Needless to say, there were four defendants involved: Colonel Oliver North, former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, retired Air Force Major General Richard Secord and businessman Albert Hakim. Today, we best know Mr. North as the former head of the National Rifle Association.

I was not on the inside track of any of the details, the best I could determine that there was a powerhouse judge that wanted action. It appeared that the US District Court Judge Gerhard A. Gesell had barked at my most senior management and they needed to show action. This included a space where the prosecution and defense could review all of these documents that surrounded the Iran-Contra Affair. There was a Department of Justice Independent Counsel named Lawrence E. Walsh who had a secured facility, but the defense felt unenthusiastic and uncomfortable about using his space.

These senior DOJ officials had found some potential space at 1025 Connecticut Avenue, that had just been vacated by a law firm that might meet the requirements. They had gathered at the DOJ Facilities Office, to go and look at the potential property. These four DOJ officials: Anthony Moscato, US Assistant Attorney; Steven Colgate, Assistant Attorney for Administration; Ben Burrell, Director of Facilities Services; and D. Jerry Rubino, Director of Security.  All of these men were over 6 feet tall and had the body build to match their height. On the other hand, I was 5 feet 4 when standing straight up and weight about 128 pounds when wet. There was no room for me in the car.  It was a Lincoln Towncar, with the driver and four great big men there was no space left, yet one of these guys determined that I was tiny, and scooped me up like a child and had me sit on his lap.

We arrived at the Blake Building, fourth floor, and somehow and very quickly a two-year rental agreement was consummated. It was a great location, not far from K Street and the noted law firms, and still not too far from the Department of Justice. Time Magazine at the time called it an undistinguished office building, but I knew the neighborhood, and loved the location. There were upscale shoe shops, jewelry stores, and on the ground floor a custom shirt shop, that to me said elegance.

The project started overnight. I was given floor plans of the existing space, CIA design specifications and proceeded with the assignment of design criteria, requirements development and meeting and collecting business cards from the high end attorneys. I was to complete the tasks necessary, right-way. With that in mind, I decided that we would keep the front reception desk. Rarely did I get the chance to specify “high-end” furniture for my projects, and this reception desk was about to become a “Security Desk” with around the clock security personnel. The previous law firm, had this custom desk created, it was a half-circle, veneered in mahogany, and looked superb.

The security desk and the entire suite had to be retrofitted with the latest - state of the art communications equipment that met SCIF requirements. This included secured phones, and TEMPEST-approved IBM personal computers, designed to thwart electronic eavesdroppers. Beyond the communications, there was a demand that the demolition and construction happen as quickly as possible, as DOJ was paying for overtime to get the space ready.  There were inspectors on site to ensure that we were meeting all the security requirements and the construction team was building false walls that inspectors could check to make sure no listening devices had been inserted into the space.  In 1988, this was the top of the line of security, now it is totally outdated. 

While that was going on, I was selecting the thick red-burgundy carpet. Really, it was not my choice, it did not met accessibility requirements, but it was the only carpet the building management team had, so to meet the on-time delivery, I used the red carpet. Likewise, I needed window coverings that met security requirements, and all windows had to be covered.

Yet, the most important space within the suite, was the file room. I created a place where the defendant's attorneys could look at the classified documents and build their strategy, likewise, so could the attorneys for the other side, they researched these same documents all within the suite. This neutral file room was manned by security personnel that checked-out and then back-in all the documents. The construction team was helpful and created a “Dutch-Door” with a shelf so the documents could be easily processed. There was suppose to be about 300,000 documents, meaning that I sat down with calculator and determined how much space we needed to take care all of these pages.  In other words, I determined the linear feet of documents, and the file cabinet storage required.

The security personnel onsite, made copies of the documents, within the file room, and made sure nothing left the suite. Even notes by the defense needed to be inspected by security personnel, and their notes were destroyed at the end of the case. Yes, everyone was inspected going in and coming out, and there was the job of declassifying documents for trial. I no longer know the details of the “Classified Information Procedures Act”, but it was created to prevent classified materials and information from becoming public during a criminal trial, and that is why each piece of Iran-Contra paper was scrutinized by security.

I sometimes say that I went to the Department of Justice to design the space for the Prosecution and Defense for the Iran-Contra Affair. In reality, working for a DOJ operation that highly prized attorneys and thought designers were extraneous riff-raff, was really why I only lasted one-year. When I left they presented me a gift wrapped in a copy of the blueprints of the Iran-Contra Office Suite.