Won’t Throw Casey, Regan ‘to Wolves,’ Reagan Says

President Reagan brushed aside advice from GOP lawmakers on Friday to replace Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan and CIA Director William Casey, saying he did not want “to throw people to the wolves.”

While Senate investigators dug deeper into the sale of arms to Iran and transfer of funds to rebels fighting the Nicaraguan government, a special panel of federal judges was reviewing the Administration’s petition for appointment of an independent counsel in the case, which has mushroomed into the most serious crisis of the Reagan presidency.

At the White House, spokesman Larry Speakes said he had “not found anyone who has a recollection of the President approving” in advance an Israeli shipment of arms to Iran. Speakes declined to say which officials he had talked with, or whether the President was among them. “I have talked to people at very high levels who were participants,” he said.

Two newspapers reported that former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane had told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday that the President gave his approval in August, 1985. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said the week before last that the President had been told generally about the shipments after they were made in September, 1985.

Changes Urged

Republican congressional leaders made their third visit of the week to the White House Friday, and said afterward that some lawmakers had urged the President to make personnel changes.

Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.) said some of the talk “obliquely referred to Mr. Regan,” while Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) added, “Casey’s name came up. The CIA came up.”

He said the President took the position that neither Casey nor Regan had done anything wrong and “they would stay there and help him.” Added Chafee, “The President took the view that he didn’t want to throw anybody to the wolves without adequate cause.” He said Reagan used approximately those same words.

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas said of Reagan: “He’s not going to dismiss anyone unless there is some evidence of wrongdoing.”

Report Disputed

Speakes also disputed a report that the ousted National Security Council aide who oversaw the operation met frequently with Reagan.

“Ollie North did not brief the President a couple of times a week in private,” the spokesman said of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who reportedly made such a claim in a meeting with a church group last winter.

“I don’t know that Ollie North ever briefed the President in private, one-on-one. . . . There are very, very few times that Ollie North was in the Oval Office, even with a group,” Speakes added.

Meanwhile Friday, the President decided not to call a special session of Congress to investigate the Iran arms sale and the diversion of funds to the Nicaraguan rebels, White House officials said.

Speakes said congressional leaders from both parties assured Reagan that Congress “will proceed expeditiously with its select committee investigations and there will be no proliferations of other committee inquiries.”

Said He Knew Nothing

Reagan has said he knew nothing of the transfer of funds to the contra forces battling the Nicaraguan government, which occurred at a time when federal law prohibited military aid to the rebels. He says he ordered the secret sale of arms to so-called “moderates” in Iran in an attempt to re-establish ties with the strategically placed Persian Gulf nation.

The Senate Intelligence Committee heard testimony Friday from unidentified CIA officials in a fifth straight day of closed-door testimony.

More than 2,000 miles away, its vice chairman said the panel has made substantial progress.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), in Las Vegas to address a group of milk producers, also said the committee will not consider granting immunity to compel testimony from witnesses who have invoked their Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent, including North and former National Security Adviser John Poindexter.

‘Heck of a Story’

“It would have been easier if they had come in and said, ‘OK boys, buckle on your seat belts, we’ve got a heck of a story to tell you,’ ” Leahy said. But he added, “We can do it without them.”

The Intelligence Committee itself came under fire, as Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said, “holding secret sessions on an issue like this, an issue that ought to be discussed in public, in my judgment, is wrong.”

Republicans also mounted a two-pronged attack against Democratic Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), a committee member who earlier last week said that he was “positive” the President knew about the Iran- contra link, even though other members of the panel have said that was not reflected in any testimony before the committee.

Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), in an unusual personal criticism of a colleague, said his fellow South Carolinian was trying to “run roughshod” over Reagan’s rights. Thurmond also suggested that Hollings, because of his comments, be removed from the Intelligence Committee probe.

Chairman’s Criticism

Hollings also was criticized by Republican National Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf, who issued a statement accusing him making “shrill, partisan” comments.

” . . . Such wild and speculative innuendo could easily impair the fair and even-handed resolution of these issues,” he said.

Hollings spokesman Mike Fernandez said the senator would have no immediate comment on Thurmond’s accusations.

Several GOP lawmakers gave Reagan a vote of confidence as they emerged from their session with the President.

Domenici said Reagan “indicated again to us, unequivocally, that on the single issue of . . . did he have knowledge with reference to the diversion of funds from the Iranian arms sale, looked right at each one of us and said, ‘I knew nothing about it.’ I don’t think anybody there challenged him. I think we believe him. I believe him here today.”

Said Senate Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia: “I certainly want to believe the President, and until things are proved to the contrary, I will believe the President.”