Senators Squabble Over Who Will Head Probe

Only about a month before the new Congress convenes, Democratic senators already are squabbling over who will chair the select committee that will investigate the shipment of U.S. arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to Nicaraguan rebels, sources said Tuesday.

This clash of ambitions came to light as the Senate Intelligence Committee continued to hear testimony in closed sessions on the matter. Intelligence Committee Chairman Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.) said that witnesses are being cooperative, even though former White House aide Oliver L. North was said to have invoked the Fifth Amendment on Monday in response to some questions.

On Tuesday, former White House national security adviser John M. Poindexter showed up at the committee hearing but did not testify. He departed without explanation after a 17-minute private conversation with Durenberger and the panel’s vice chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), and is expected to return to testify at a later date.

Expected in January

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia told reporters that he expects a select panel on the Iran- contras operation, similar to that which investigated the Watergate scandal when Richard M. Nixon was President, to be created when Congress reconvenes Jan. 6. In addition, he disclosed that he already has been deluged by requests from senators who want to serve on the committee.

Sources said that Byrd probably will announce his choices next week.

Although House Majority Leader Jim Wright (D-Tex.) said Tuesday that his chamber would consider a joint congressional committee to look into the matter, Byrd said he opposes the idea. Parallel investigations by the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees are expected to continue.

Byrd declined to disclose the names of those seeking to serve on the Senate select committee, but sources reported that Leahy and Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York are among the Democratic senators who are pressing hardest to be appointed as chairman.

Moynihan at Hearings

Biden and Moynihan were not available for comment, and Leahy refused to say whether he had expressed interest in the job. Moynihan has demonstrated his interest in the probe by attending Intelligence Committee hearings, though he is no longer a member of the panel.

At the same time, Senate Democratic sources said that Byrd probably will not choose any of the three. All three have reputations as publicity-seekers, and Biden, who is expected to run for President in 1988, is viewed by his colleagues as too partisan for such an assignment.

Instead, Democratic sources said, Byrd will probably name someone who shuns publicity such as Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), a widely respected senator who served on the Watergate select committee.

On the Republican side of the aisle, sources said that Sen. Warren B. Rudman of New Hampshire is pressing to be appointed to the select committee. Assistant Republican Leader Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming also is understood to be interested in serving. Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas will appoint the Republicans.

Byrd, Dole to Decide

Byrd said that he and Dole will meet soon to decide how many senators will serve on the panel, which he predicted will be created by legislation passed by the Senate shortly after it convenes. He said he believes that the panel should be composed of four Democrats and three Republicans because, “if it got too much larger than that, it would be an unwieldy committee.”

Although Dole had proposed a special emergency session of Congress to create a select committee immediately, the idea received little support from either Republicans or Democrats. “Nobody wants 535 people in this town right now,” Durenberger said, referring to the total number of members of Congress.

Despite the apparent reluctance of North and Poindexter to testify before the Intelligence Committee, Durenberger said he was satisfied with the cooperation of Administration officials. “I would say that, with all of the witnesses that we have heard from, I have found them very forthcoming--more than we might have anticipated,” he said.

2 Dozen Witnesses

Durenberger said he expects the committee to call about two dozen witnesses. Although he refused to identify any of them, sources said the list includes such State Department officials as Robert W. Deumling, who headed the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Organization, the agency established by Congress to distribute $27 million in non-lethal aid to the Nicaraguan rebels last year.

Committee members declined to discuss what they have heard in two days of testimony, and some indicated that they had been admonished by Durenberger against making any more public statements that could jeopardize the integrity of the probe.