Casey Hospitalized After Suffering Cerebral Seizure : CIA Chief’s Testimony Put on Hold

CIA Director William J. Casey, a key figure in the Iran- contra scandal, was rushed to a hospital today after suffering a “mild cerebral seizure” at his office, a hospital spokesman said.

Plans for a third day of questioning of Casey on Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee were thrown on hold by the sudden development. A spokesman for the panel said, “I can’t imagine them expecting him to be there.”

A CIA spokesman initially said Casey, 73, had suffered an apparent reaction to medication, but Jack Stapleton of Georgetown University Hospital said the CIA boss suffered “a seizure in which his arms and legs suffered multiple spasms for a period of about a minute.”

Casey testified for nine hours about his knowledge of the Iran arms affair during two days of closed hearings of the Senate panel last week.

Since Nov. 21, Casey has appeared before closed sessions of House and Senate panels investigating the widening scandal, and there have been questions about the content of his initial testimony.

CIA spokesman George Lauder said Casey was taken to the hospital in Washington from spy headquarters in Langley, Va., about 11:30 a.m. “after having some reaction to some medication he was taking.

‘He’s Pretty Tired’

“He was taken down there for observation. He is fully conscious,” Lauder said.

Asked about reports that Casey is suffering from exhaustion after last week’s intense hearings, Lauder said: “I just don’t know (what the precise ailment is). We’ll have to find out from the doctors.”

But he added: “He’s pretty tired.”

Later, the hospital spokesman said it was a minor cerebral seizure.

Lauder declined to reveal whether the CIA chief suffers from any serious ailments or what type of medication he was taking.

Inquiry Won’t Be Delayed

The Senate Intelligence Committee was meeting later today to discuss what other Cabinet members to call as witnesses, and spokesman David Holliday said the panel’s investigation will not be delayed if Casey is unable to testify Tuesday.

“I would assume we would go on to other Cabinet members,” Holliday said.

The White House, trying to avoid a clash with Congress, offered today to make Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan available to testify in an open hearing about the Iranian arms sales.

Even as the offer on Regan was being disclosed by presidential spokesman Larry Speakes, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told reporters that the committee has decided to call Regan to testify under oath.

Regan’s testimony would be most helpful in closed session, Leahy said, but he added that the chief of staff is “perfectly free to walk into the press room at the White House and answer any questions he wishes.”

Poindexter and North

Speakes said he could not envision Regan’s invoking either the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination or the doctrine of executive privilege.

When asked whether the President plans to increase pressure on former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter and his fired aide, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, to stop invoking the Fifth Amendment and testify before Congress, Speakes replied:

“(I) don’t know of anything specific but we do reiterate, underscore and publicly proclaim that we would like for them to testify; we would like for them to work out a means to testify; we would like for them to tell the entire story; we would like for them to tell it in open session, and we would like for them to do it as quickly as possible.”