The events that prompted the Irancontra scandal were illegal and undemocratic, said House Iran-contra Committee Counsel John Nields in a panel discussion last night.

Nields, who gained national exposure last summer for his role in questioning witnesses at the congressional Iran-contra hearings, told a Law School audience of more than 300 that the government must reform its policy on covert operations.

The panel, which also included Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs John Shattuck and Professor of Law Charles R. Nesson, was critical of past covert operations in Iran, Nicaragua and Panama.

"In the Iran-contra affair, our government used official secrecy to enable it to carry out activities which were illegal and contrary to popular will," Nields said. "When confronted, the officials responded as though the questioner had missed some very obvious point that they were engaged in covert operations."

Nields recounted the details of the Iran-contra affair and described the numerous transgressions committed by the Reagan Administration in diverting profits from Iranian arms sales to the contras. Several Iran-contra players are currently under indictment for their roles in the scandal.

Nesson said that past covert actions have indicated a "disbelief in our own rhetoric of democracy and converted it from a powerful ideal to a transparent political slogan." He called for reform of the National Security Act of 1947, which established the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council and implicitly endorses covert actions.

"I hope the courts would see that the First Amendment is undercut by secrecy and covert action," Nesson said.

Shattuck said the President wields excessive independence in authorizing covert operations, adding that "inherent presidential powers," executive prerogatives not specifically mandated in the Constitution, are "eating away at the foundations of constitutional government."

Shattuck, Harvard's chief lobbyist, called on Congress to specify that no military or paramilitary operations could be conducted without congressional approval. He said that more efforts must be directed to creating "a constitutional framework for national security authority."