Panel Calls Regan; He Will Testify : Executive Privilege Waived in Probe of Contra Funding

White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan was summoned to make an extraordinary appearance today before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which plans to ask him who authorized the diversion to Nicaraguan rebels of profits from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran.

Committee Chairman Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), speaking to reporters after a closed business meeting of the committee, said he did not expect Regan to answer. “I can’t believe that Don Regan would be here tomorrow if he had knowledge,” Durenberger said.

Knew of Sales

Regan has said publicly that he knew and approved of the Iranian arms sales but that he had been unaware that proceeds had been siphoned off to Central America.

The decision by the White House to permit Regan to testify before Congress today reflects the intense pressure on the President by members of his own party to end the crisis as quickly as possible by disclosing all the facts. The pressure has mounted as three current or former White House aides have refused to testify to congressional committees.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz will follow Regan before the committee today, and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, who have not yet testified to Congress on the Iranian arms scandal, will appear on Wednesday.

Committee members decided to hear Regan in a closed hearing after White House officials announced Monday that President Reagan would not try to block his appearance on grounds of executive privilege. Presidential aides do not normally appear before congressional committees because of the concern that their testimony would breach the confidentiality between a President and his closest advisers.

Casey Hospitalized

The committee scheduled Regan in place of CIA Director William J. Casey, who was hospitalized Monday with what a spokesman called “a minor cerebral seizure.” The 73-year-old Casey later suffered a second seizure while undergoing tests but his physician, Dr. John Stapleton, described him late in the day as in stable condition, “mentally clear and resting comfortably.”

The CIA director had been expected to be questioned vigorously about his recent admission that he knew about the diversion of funds to the Nicaraguan contras more than a month before Meese announced it publicly on Nov. 25.

There were these other developments Monday in the investigation of the Iran arms scandal:

--White House officials and congressional investigators said they had no reason to believe published reports that some of the profits from the Iranian arms sales were used to help defeat members of Congress who have opposed contra aid.

--House Democratic leaders chose five House committee chairmen and two former chairmen of the House Intelligence Committee to serve on the special House committee that will investigate the affair.

--The commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) and appointed by President Reagan to study the procedures of the White House National Security Council announced that it will meet Wednesday and will begin hearings as soon as Thursday, probably behind closed doors, according to a spokesman.

When Regan testifies, the primary question will be who authorized Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, who was dismissed last month from the staff of the White House National Security Council, to divert money from the Iranian arms sales to the contras.

“We all know that Col. North did not act alone,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee’s vice chairman. “He had to get authority from somebody above him--not below him.”

2 Findings Questioned

Durenberger said Regan would also be asked why the President signed more than one “finding” in January authorizing the sale of U.S. arms to Iran in the face of an embargo on such sales. Previously it had been revealed that Reagan signed only one such finding, on Jan. 17.

The findings differed only slightly--”a word here, a word there,” Durenberger said.

Intelligence Committee Staff Director Bernard F. McMahon said that while the signing of more than one might not appear significant, “it’s unexplained. And in an investigation, anything that’s unexplained raises questions.”

White House spokesman Larry Speakes announced to reporters that Regan was willing to take the unusual step of testifying to a congressional committee. “If the committee thinks he can add anything to their investigation, he’d be glad to do so,” Speakes said. “He’d be glad to do so in open session.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee, however, does not generally meet in public and committee Chairman Durenberger said that it had decided not to change its policy in this case. A committee aide added that because classified material could come up, the senators would be limited in what they could ask in an open session.

Moreover, Speakes did not immediately reject the idea that the President himself might submit to questions from the Intelligence Committee, although he indicated that such an appearance is unlikely.

‘Willing to Talk’

“Have received no request,” he said. “Don’t anticipate one. If we did, we’d review it when we got it. I think he’s perfectly willing to talk about whatever would help the committee in their pursuit of the facts.”

Regan, comparing himself to a bank president who is unaware of the activities of all the tellers, has publicly denied knowing anything about the diversion of Iranian arms profits to the contras. At the same time, he has said that he was fully aware of the Iranian arms shipments approved by the President.

Also scheduled to appear before the committee today is Howard Teicher, a current employee of the White House National Security Council staff who was the immediate supervisor of North before he was fired at the NSC and a central figure in the matter.

Casey, who had been scheduled to testify to the committee for a second time before his seizure occurred, has been the target of numerous allegations that he was more involved in the Iranian arms deal than originally reported. But Stapleton, the medical director at Georgetown University Hospital, said the timing of the attack probably was just “coincidental.”

Stapleton described the attack as “a seizure in which his arms and legs suffered multiple spasms for a period of about a minute.”

A hospital spokesman said the attack should not be characterized as a stroke. He declined to comment on the speculation of a CIA spokesman, who said the seizure appeared to be a reaction to medication that Casey had been taking.

On the matter of the reports that some of the Iranian arms sales profits were used to pay for television commercials designed to defeat several members of Congress who opposed contra aid, Intelligence Committee investigators said they had no such evidence and had decided not to investigate.

But Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.), one of the alleged targets of the commercials during his unsuccessful campaign for Senate, called for an investigation.

‘Parallel to Watergate’

Leahy noted that any evidence the money was used to finance political campaigns “would draw the parallel to Watergate.”

But Speakes said he has been unable to find any evidence that the Iranian money was eventually used to support political campaigns aimed against opponents of U.S. support for the Nicaraguan rebels.

“We’ve found nothing here at the White House in our investigation, which, of course, is limited and as yet incomplete, to indicate anything in the files that points to political campaigns being funded with money from the Iranian arms sale,” he said.

If public funds were used illegally for political campaigns, he added, “the White House would condemn it in the strongest terms and would ask those responsible to be brought to justice at the earliest possible date.”

Speakes said that the office of Peter Wallison, the White House counsel, had not questioned anybody about the report. But Speakes, referring to Mitch Daniels, the President’s assistant for political affairs, said: “I talked to Mitch this morning, and Mitch told me he was not aware of any funding of this type in political campaigns.”

Speakes also declared of North and the President’s former assistant for national security affairs, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter: “We would like for them to testify.”

But when asked whether--as he has stated in the past--such testimony should be consistent with their constitutional rights against self-incrimination, Speakes added: “Well, they would have to take the advice of their attorney, of course.”

Cite Fifth Amendment

Both North and Poindexter, whose position made him the director of the NSC staff, have refused to testify to congressional committees by invoking the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The congressional investigations of the Iranian arms scandal will fall next year to special Senate and House committees and a congressional source said that the House Democratic leadership has chosen all but two of the nine Democrats who will serve on the House committee. The names will be announced officially Wednesday.

The source said that the seven Democrats already chosen are outgoing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Lee H. Hamilton of Indiana, incoming Intelligence Chairman Louis Stokes of Ohio, former Intelligence Chairman Edward P. Boland of Massachusetts, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Dante B. Fascell of Florida, Government Operations Committee Chairman Jack Brooks of Texas, Armed Services Committee Chairman Les Aspin of Wisconsin and Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. of New Jersey.

A Republican spokesman said that Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) has not made his six selections but may be ready to announce them as early as Wednesday.