Reagan administration lawyer, power broker in Cambodia
Brett Sciaroni, a Reagan administration lawyer who was embroiled in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s and later became a power broker for the global business community in Cambodia under Hun Sen’s authoritarian regime, died March 12 at his home in Phnom Penh. He was 69.
His brother, Brian Sciaroni, said the cause was likely a heart attack, although an autopsy has yet to determine an official cause.
Mr. Sciaroni had just left his position as counsel to the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board, a panel that advises on the legality of U.S. intelligence operations, when he burst into the news in 1987 as Congress began hearings on Iran-Contra.
Orchestrated by Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North and other members of President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council, the illegal scheme involved the sale of arms to Iran to win the release of U.S. hostages held by Iranian-backed militants in Lebanon. The profits were then used to support rightwing Nicaraguan rebels knownas the Contras.
The plan was a blatant violation of congressional amendments prohibiting U.S. funding to topple the leftist regime in Nicaragua. The laws were passed between 1982 and 1984, the last of them after news reports emerged about CIA mining of Nicaraguan harbors and other unsavory tactics.
But in 1985, Mr. Sciaroni drafted a legal opinion that seemed to exempt NSC staffers from complying with the ban on aid. According to news accounts, even national security adviser Robert McFarlane — who publicly volunteered his role in the illicit Iran-Contra affair — found the legal conclusion dubious.
Rep. Edward Boland, DMass., who had sponsored the amendments to end U.S. assistance to the Contras, said Mr. Sciaroni’s testimony before the body in 1987 was “very useful” because it showed how the White House had tried to circumvent the law.
Mr. Sciaroni saw his reputation tarnished, in part because of revelations that he had failed four times to pass the bar exam and had never before held a job in a law-related field. His main qualifications for the oversight board had seemingly been his fealty to the Republican Party and his connections in conservative circles.
After working as a fellow at the American Conservative Union and lobbying in Washington on behalf of the rightist government of El Salvador, Mr. Sciaroni saw a chance at a fresh start in Cambodia. A congressional ally had advised him about a job opening as a legal adviser for one of the parties running in the 1993 election — the country’s first United Nations-backed vote following the reign of the Khmer Rouge andyears of civil war.
His client was Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was running to retain the post. Although Hun Sen suffered a decisive loss in the election, Mr. Sciaroni helped his Cambodian People’s Party strike a power-sharing agreement with the winning royalist party. Hun Sen then served as “second prime minister” for four years before seizing exclusive power in a 1997 coup.
Mr. Sciaroni became a sought-after counselor for the CPP and within a few years was made an official adviser to the government, a position that came with the ceremonial rank of minister. His primary role seemed to be to attract foreign capital and serve as a go-between for business executives seeking audiences with top Cambodian government officials. Mr. Sciaroni also became a trusted contact for the U.S. Embassy.
Even as human rights groups condemned Hun Sen as a ruthless tyrant, Mr. Sciaroni gave him the benefit of all doubt.
Survivors include his wife of 15 years, Bui Thi Hoa My and their daughter, Patricia, both of Ho Chi Minh City, as wellas two brothers.
Mr. Sciaroni was long trailed by accusations that he was chief architect of a “white paper” that sought to justify Hun Sen’s bloody coup of 1997, during which at least 41 supporters of the royalist opposition were killed. He declined to comment on the paper but said his main role had been handling Hun Sen’s public relations and trying to make inroads for the regime witht he GOP in Washington.
“My conservative brethren don’t understand my involvement with the CPP,” he told The New York Times. “I would argue the CPP is more pro-free enterprise. But ideology has nothing to do with it. It’s all power.”