Unprecedented Powers Sought for Senate Panel

The Senate select committee that will investigate the Iran arms affair will be given unprecedented power to subpoena top-secret documents from the National Security Council, according to legislation being drafted by the Democratic leadership.

The committee will receive broad authority never previously given to a Senate select investigating committee to “pierce” the President’s claim of executive privilege over pertinent documents held by the White House National Security Council staff, sources said.

Senate aides familiar with the draft legislation said that the committee, whose members are expected to be appointed as early as next Monday, will be empowered to subpoena witnesses, grant immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony and take possession of highly classified materials bearing on national security issues.

Bipartisan Negotiations

The legislation, which is still the subject of negotiations between Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas, is expected to be passed by the Senate when Congress reconvenes Jan. 6. Sources said the bill, as currently drafted, will require the committee to make its final report within eight or nine months.

Unlike normal legislation that requires concurrence in the House and signature of the President before it becomes law, this rules-setting legislation need only win approval of the Senate. It then will govern the procedures of the select committee that will investigate the Iran- contras scandal.

In writing the legislation, Senate aides have been consulting with former employees of the Senate Watergate Committee. Sources said that Byrd’s staff would meet today with Rufus L. Edmisten, deputy chief counsel of the Watergate panel.

Meanwhile, Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), one of the leading candidates to chair the select committee, acknowledged that he would discuss the matter later this week with Byrd. Heflin’s Southern charm reminded many of the personal style of the late Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr. of North Carolina, who chaired the Watergate committee.

“I sort of feel like the mule at the Kentucky Derby,” Heflin said. “I don’t expect to win, but I’m enjoying the attention and the company.”

In its widespread probe, sources said, the Senate will contend that its investigators have the right to subpoena White House documents, which are almost always protected by executive privilege. The Senate will argue that its investigation centers on covert activities by NSC staff members and that Congress has the power to oversee covert activities by the government.

Normally, covert operations are carried out by U.S. intelligence agencies, not by the National Security Council. But, in the case of the Iran arms sales operation, the primary figure reportedly was Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a NSC staff member.

Although Dole is expected to object to some aspects of the Democrats’ draft legislation to create the Senate select committee, aides said that the Republican leader supports the notion that the committee should have the power to subpoena NSC documents. Dole has told his staff that he does not expect the President to assert a claim of executive privilege to impede the Senate investigation.

Still at issue between the Democrats and the Republicans is the length of the Senate select committee investigation. While Democrats are pressing for an investigation of up to nine months, Dole is proposing that the committee be required to issue its report by March.

“You can’t do it in three months,” insisted a Democratic source, who declined to be identified.

Watergate Panel Cited

In rejecting Dole’s proposal for a March deadline, Democrats noted that the Watergate panel was authorized by legislation to conduct a one-year, three-week investigation. The Senate Watergate probe, which required two months to hire staff and three months to conduct hearings, took 16 months.

The committee also will be under pressure to conduct as much of its investigation in public as possible, even though it involves highly sensitive national security matters. “There is going to be a very serious attempt to make it as open as possible,” one source said.

Sources said that the draft legislation will attempt to remedy one particularly difficult problem encountered by the Watergate panel: the competition for documents with the independent counsel, who is to be appointed by a three-judge federal panel. In the case of Watergate, special prosecutor Archibald Cox resisted congressional efforts to obtain taped conversations of former President Richard M. Nixon and his aides.

The legislation will stipulate that the Senate committee has the power to enter into sharing arrangements with the independent counsel and other congressional committees investigating the Iranian arms affair, sources said.

Testimony by Foreigners

In addition, sources said, the legislation will empower the Senate select committee to take depositions from officials of foreign governments such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and other nations that have been linked to the operation. Normally, congressional committees do not hear testimony from foreigners.

The committee will be instructed by the Senate to determine what laws have been violated and to recommend legislation to remedy the situation in the future, sources said, but the select committee itself will not be charged with the responsibility of drafting legislation.