Webster Cites NSC Staff Impatience : Unresolved Problems May Have Influenced Some Actions, He Says

“Impatience and frustration” on the part of National Security Council staff members over long-standing, unsolved problems may have influenced some of the actions that are now under investigation in the Iran arms case, FBI Director William H. Webster said Thursday.

In the first comments on possible motivation made by an official involved in the investigation of the case, Webster cited unsuccessful U.S. efforts to win the freedom of American hostages in Lebanon as one example.

However, Webster would not say whether such frustration may have been responsible for the diversion of Iran arms sales profits to assist the Nicaraguan rebels--even though that is the aspect of the case that brought the FBI into the probe.

Holds Breakfast Meeting

“I’d love to answer that, but I’m not going to,” Webster said at a breakfast meeting with reporters.

As “one of the most leak-proof agencies of government,” the White House unit received so many assignments that it “found itself carrying a lot of water,” Webster said.

The FBI is investigating whether any criminal laws were violated in the complex arms sale case. Arms were shipped to Iran in an NSC operation without notice to Congress, an arrangement some congressmen have charged violated disclosure laws, but which President Reagan has maintained was within legal limits.

Some profits from arms sales were diverted to the contras at a time when Congress had prohibited U.S. aid to the rebels, posing further unresolved legal questions.

Webster hailed Reagan’s appointment of a special commission to rethink the NSC’s role, noting: “When operational matters find their way into the NSC, we seem to have these problems.”

“It serves a very vital function in our national security, in giving advice and analysis, and even in conducting private initiatives on behalf of the President which involve discussions and negotiations and matters of that kind,” he said.

Webster said that the FBI’s investigation of the case, which began Nov. 26 after the disclosure of the contra link, now is going “full-bore” and will continue until a special court decides on the appointment of an independent counsel to pursue the case.

Sources said that a request by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III for an independent counsel was forwarded to the three-judge court Thursday, but no appointment is expected before next week.

If an outside prosecutor is named, it will be up to him whether to continue using the FBI, a choice that seems likely because the bureau has investigated for the previous six independent counsels appointed to probe sensitive cases.

Webster confirmed that the case had delayed his plans to leave his job as much as a year ahead of his mandatory retirement date in February, 1988.

He said he discussed his retirement plans with Meese some time ago, but that “right now it’s not a very good time to do it.”

Webster said he is receiving daily written briefings on the case, along with oral reports.

The investigation is being conducted by teams of FBI agents, “handpicked for their maturity, experience and expertise,” who have “broken down this big problem into workable” size, Webster said.

“More than 18 agents” are involved, he said, but another source familiar with the inquiry said the number assigned is much greater than that.

Wants Compact Staff

Webster said he wanted to use the smallest number of agents on the complex case “consistent with a rapid determination of the facts. We want to have a workable group of people who understand the picture and not spread it out over a lot of agents who may not recognize the significance of something they see,” he said.

Asked about reports that Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the NSC aide fired by Reagan for allegedly arranging the contra funds diversion, had shredded documents at his NSC office before the FBI entered the investigation, Webster said: “We have developed at this point no indication of non-routine destruction of records. They do routinely destroy or shred records over there for interests of security,” he said.

“But we have not come across anything at this point that suggests any out-of-the-ordinary course of destruction,” Webster added.

“That would be relevant to this investigation?” a reporter asked.

“I can’t say that,” Webster said.