Reagan Asks for Special Inquiry : Independent Counsel Sought to Probe Iran-Contras Arms Deal

President Reagan announced Tuesday that his Administration has asked for an independent counsel to investigate clandestine U.S. arms sales to Iran and the diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan rebels.

“If illegal acts were undertaken,” Reagan said in a brief speech from the Oval Office, “those who did so will be brought to justice.”

Immediately after Reagan’s remarks, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III told a Justice Department press conference that he would quickly ask a special three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals here to name an independent counsel to take over the investigation that he has supervised for the past week and a half.

A preliminary draft of the Justice Department’s application for an independent counsel listed as many as a dozen federal laws that may have been violated by Administration officials in implementing the Iranian arms sales and diverting profits to the contras, as the Nicaraguan rebels are known.

The laws range from defrauding the government of profits earned from the sale of U.S. property to conspiring to violate federal laws. Both of these carry penalties for the violators.

In addition, the draft listed the law authorizing the 1986 intelligence budget, which prohibited direct or indirect military aid for the contras during the year that ended on Sept. 30, and the Arms Export Control Act, which bars the export of weapons to Iran. Neither of these laws provide penalties.

Meese’s formal request for an independent counsel could come as soon as today, Justice Department officials said, but the appeals court panel will probably need at least 10 more days to appoint a counsel. Meese reached his decision to seek an independent counsel on the advice of Reagan’s longtime California advisers, sources said.

Reagan pledged to cooperate fully with the independent counsel and with congressional investigations of the arms sales and their link to the contras. He endorsed proposals by several members of Congress to establish a special Watergate-style committee to look into the matters.

In his fourth televised appearance to try to explain the Iranian arms sales, Reagan vowed to disclose all the facts of the clandestine operation to the American public.

‘Corrective Steps’

“If acts in implementing my policy were taken without my authorization, knowledge or concurrence,” he said, “this will be exposed, and appropriate corrective steps will be taken.”

Reagan also announced the appointment of Frank C. Carlucci, deputy defense secretary for the first two years of his Administration, as his national security adviser. Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter resigned from that job last week as Meese revealed that Poindexter was one of the few Administration officials who knew about the link between the Iran arms sales and the contras.

Before Reagan went on television, Republican leaders met with him at the White House and urged that he act immediately to try to resolve the crisis before it further damages his presidency and the Republican Party.

An aide to Sen. Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, who ranks second in the Senate Republican leadership, said that the congressional leaders expressed disappointment in Reagan for failing to act more quickly to lay the scandal to rest. Reagan, in turn, criticized the Republican leaders for failing to support him more vigorously in public.

“We’d certainly like to be helpful to the President,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), a potential 1988 Republican presidential candidate, told reporters after the meeting. “But the party has an interest in this also, and we’d like to get moving on it.”

House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) said he asked Reagan if he knew of anything beyond what he had already made public. “His answer was, ‘No. Absolutely no,’ ” Michel said. “I know the President is telling the truth, (and) I’m convinced he has not broken any laws.”

Both Republicans and Democrats praised Reagan for requesting an independent counsel to investigate the role of Administration officials. But all agreed that the move would not preempt a congressional probe.

House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said Congress has an obligation to make its own judgment. “Whether the President was involved directly or indirectly in giving the go-ahead . . . is the question that has to be answered,” he said.

In his Oval Office speech, Reagan said that Meese advised him Tuesday morning that his investigation had turned up “reasonable grounds to believe that further investigations by an independent counsel would be appropriate.” He said that he immediately urged Meese to apply to the appeals court for appointment of the outside counsel.

‘No-Nonsense’ Probe Vowed

Reagan also reported that at his first meeting Monday with the three-member Special Review Board he has named to study the Administration’s national security apparatus, the board “promised a tough, no-nonsense investigation.” He said he promised the board, headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), the full cooperation of the White House staff and all agencies of the executive branch.

At the center of the national security apparatus is the White House National Security Council. Poindexter headed the council’s staff, and Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, who spearheaded the program of financing the contras with the profits of Iranian arms sales, was one of its staff members until he was fired last week.

“No area of the NSC staff’s activities will be immune from review,” Reagan said, “and when the board reports to me, I intend to make their conclusions and recommendations available to the Congress and to the American people.”

Declaring that he recognizes Congress’ interest in investigating the matter, he pledged his full cooperation. He noted that he had already “taken the unprecedented step” of committing two of his former national security advisers--Poindexter and his predecessor, Robert C. McFarlane--to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Poindexter at Meeting

Poindexter showed up for a committee meeting Tuesday but, instead of testifying, conversed privately for 17 minutes with the committee’s chairman and vice chairman; he is expected to return later. McFarlane, who originated the Iran arms deal as Reagan’s national security adviser last year, spent six hours with the committee Monday.

Reagan responded to criticism from many of his strongest supporters that he had sold arms to Iran, which is on the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism, to engineer the release of American hostages held by Iranian-linked terrorists in Lebanon.

“It is my policy to oppose terrorism throughout the world, to punish those who support it and to make common cause with those who seek to suppress it,” he insisted. “This has been my policy and will continue to be my policy.”

Meese, in the press conference after Reagan’s speech, also found himself on the defensive. Reporters asked him why he excluded the FBI and the Justice Department’s professional prosecutors from the first several days of his investigation of the Iran arms sales. It was during that period that North destroyed documents that might indicate the range of White House officials aware of the link between the arms sales and the contras, sources have told The Times.

Explains Limiting Inquiry

Initially, Meese said, “there was no hint or actually any idea of criminality.” So it was appropriate, he said, to limit the investigation to himself and a team of close advisers with little experience in criminal law.

“All of my participation has been entirely proper,” Meese said. Until Tuesday, he said, there had been no statutory basis “for taking me out of it (the investigation).

“I don’t know whether documents were shredded or not,” Meese said. “I can’t tell you what happened out of my sight. But I do know that we had the documents that we needed, because we had access to the files.”

Meese said that the lawyers assisting him had examined all NSC records “pertaining to the Iranian initiative” and had obtained copies of documents relevant to possible wrongdoing. “We are satisfied that we obtained copies of all the evidence that was available in the National Security Council,” he said.

No Grounds for Search

As for any personal papers, relating to the arms transaction, that North may have shredded, Meese said: “I’m not sure we would have had any opportunity or any legal right to get into those personal papers. There was certainly no evidence of any criminality that would have supported a search warrant at that time.”

In a further indication of potential problems, it was learned Tuesday that Oliver B. (Buck) Revell, the executive assistant FBI director who normally would oversee the internal inquiry, has removed himself from the matter, presumably because he worked alongside North on a key NSC subcommittee.

Revell served as the Justice Department’s representative on the operational support group, headed by North, which was charged with ruling on proposed anti-terrorist actions.

Meese, in noting that he did not call in the FBI until last Wednesday, said he had discussed the matter with FBI Director William H. Webster five days earlier. “We both agreed that there was no legal basis to involve the FBI because there was not even a suggestion of anything criminal which would justify legally their entrance into the matter,” Meese said.

Reagan text, Page 9.