Toppling of Reagan Held Unrealistic : ‘Puzzle Is Coming Together,’ Head of Senate Inquiry Says

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Monday that the evidence the panel has accumulated so far on the Iran arms operation does not justify the “toppling” of President Reagan but noted that key questions will not be answered until the White House turns over secret National Security Council memoranda.

The committee, which began its second week of closed hearings Monday, appears now to have shifted its focus from an examination of the decision to sell arms to Iran to questions about how the profits were diverted to the Nicaraguan rebels and who knew about the diversion. The witnesses called Monday, in addition to several CIA personnel, included individuals involved in efforts to supply the contras.

“The puzzle is coming together and the result of that doesn’t justify the dismantling of the republic or the current occupant of the White House,” Sen. David Durenberger (R-Minn.), the committee chairman, said after the day’s session.

The “toppling of this government” or of Reagan based on the current evidence is unrealistic, he said.

Filling in Gaps

He said that gaps left by the refusal of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a member of the National Security Council staff, and former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter to answer questions probably will be filled only when the White House turns over “memoranda that relate to an NSC staffer.” He would not identify the staff member.

He said the committee requested the memoranda on Friday and the White House said it is still “accumulating” the documents.

“In another 24 hours,” if the documents are not turned over, “we’ll get curious about that,” Durenberger said. He added that he would try to get the documents through a phone call “to find out what the glitch is” before issuing a subpoena.

Peter Roussel, a White House spokesman, said he did not know “the specifics” of the documents the committee wants. But he said that “the President has indicated we will do everything possible to cooperate and that’s what we’re doing.”

5th Amendment Invoked

North, fired two weeks ago for allegedly arranging the diversion of arms profits to the contras without notifying the President, and Poindexter, who resigned his post, have invoked the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

About six witnesses appeared before the panel Monday. They included Robert Owen, a North aide who helped set up the private supply network to assist the contras after Congress halted U.S. military aid to the rebels, according to U.S. officials and contra sources.

Owen, accompanied by two attorneys, cited the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer the panel’s questions. Outside the committee room, one of his attorneys, Leonard Greenbaum, said that Owen was subpoenaed Thursday and “we’ve not had very much time to talk to him.”

Greenbaum, citing a “complex and cloudy” situation, said his client “‘asserted his constitutional right not to testify.” When asked if he was seeking immunity for Owen, Greenbaum said: “That question has just not come up.”

Owen served as a liaison official between North and contra leader Adolfo Calero, sources said. A conservative activist and former aide to U.S. Sen. Dan Quayle (R-Ind.), Owen is now staff director at the private Institute on Terrorism and Sub-National Conflict here. He refused to respond to reporters questions Monday.

Congressional investigators said they are looking into whether Owen helped the contras buy weapons in the United States and overseas and what role he might have played in organizing arms deliveries to the rebels.

In 1986, Owen was hired as a consultant to the State Department’s Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, which was in charge of delivering non-military U.S. aid to the rebels. Office director Robert W. Duemling objected to hiring Owen because of questions over his alleged role in arms purchases, but North and Calero persuaded the office to hire him, officials said.

Aid Used Illegally

Owen handled much of the State Department’s aid to several small contra groups in Costa Rica. One of the groups illegally used about $15,000 of the “humanitarian” aid to buy ammunition but returned the money when the purchase was discovered, according to a GAO report. It was not known whether Owen was aware of the purchase.

Other witnesses included Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs, who testified behind the closed, guarded committee doors for nearly three hours. He refused to discuss his testimony with reporters but said that neither he nor anyone in his office knew about the diversion of Iran arms sales money to the contras.

Durenberger criticized Cabinet members who knew about the Iranian arms sale but failed to ask questions about its details.

‘It’s About Time’

“Each of these Cabinet-level people who chose to ignore this whole thing for at least the last 11 months now very appropriately are starting to ask questions of their own people, and all I can say about that is it’s about time,” Durenberger said. “I say that about (Secretary of State) George Shultz and everybody else.”

He added: “I don’t think any of those who were aware of the Iranian situation did anything other than turn their back on it, pretend that it wasn’t going on, and now they’re all scrambling around to do their own investigations.”

Durenberger said the panel intends to recall CIA Director William J. Casey, who testified on Nov. 21. He said that Casey “didn’t have all the answers and he didn’t have them all accurately” in that session, but that he does not believe Casey wanted to “keep the committee in the dark.”

“There are other people around, though, who have been less than forthcoming on purpose, and some of those people we’ve talked to already and others we’re going to talk to in the course of this week,” Durenberger said.

He refused to name them, saying only that he was not referring to North or Poindexter.

Meanwhile, as the House Intelligence Committee prepared for the beginning today of three days of closed hearings, Chairman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) said that, after weeks of investigation by the committee staff, “we really don’t know a lot of very basic answers to questions . . . . We can’t get the information at this point, so it’s really a very puzzling and frustrating situation.”

The committee voted Monday to subpoena North. Hamilton said that the former NSC aide is expected to invoke the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, as is Poindexter.

To Summon McFarlane

Also being called to testify are Robert C. McFarlane, who preceded Poindexter as national security adviser; Casey and other CIA officials, Hamilton said. All of the officials identified already have been called before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Iran-contras scandal was on the minds of members of both parties in the House as they caucused Monday to choose their leaders for the new session of Congress.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, was philosophical about the potential damage Reagan may have incurred from the affair.

“If the President handles it well from now on, he ought to be able to contain the damage pretty well--assuming there isn’t anything more that we haven’t learned about,” Beilenson said.

But, declaring that “the President needs a lawyer,” Senate Assistant Majority Leader Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) urged Monday that Reagan retain a counsel who can sift through government information about the Iranian arms deal, ask the President questions about it and produce a comprehensive answer about Reagan’s role in the Iranian mission.

“What gnaws in all our guts is, how much does he know on a daily basis?” Simpson told reporters at a luncheon session.

Staff writers Marlene Cimons, Sara Fritz, Oswald Johnston, Lee May, Doyle McManus and Jack Nelson contributed to this story.