Arms Prober Named, Given Broad Power

Lawrence E. Walsh, a respected lawyer, former prosecutor and judge whose legal career spans 50 years, was named an independent counsel Friday and given broad authority to investigate the Reagan Administration’s sales of arms to Iran and diversion of proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels.

Walsh pledged to make a “fair and thorough investigation” but would not say whether he would grant immunity to key former White House officials who so far have refused to testify before Congress about the arms operation.

A three-judge federal panel, in announcing the appointment, directed Walsh to determine whether any laws were broken in the secret arms sales and, if so, who was responsible. The independent counsel will handle any criminal prosecutions stemming from the scandal.

Mandate Widened

The mandate was somewhat broader than requested by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III in his Dec. 4 application for appointment of a counsel.

Meese had recommended that the investigation focus on the arms sales and what happened to the profits. But the panel directed Walsh to investigate also the “provision or coordination of support” by U.S. officials for the rebels .

That instruction was apparently made in response to concerns expressed by congressional Democrats about the private supply networks that aided the contras at a time that U.S. military support for them was banned by Congress.

Walsh’s appointment was hailed by President Reagan, who said that, through this investigation and the Senate and House special investigations, “all of the facts will come before the American people at the earliest possible time.”

“I have done everything in my power to make the facts known . . . “ Reagan said. He promised the counsel his “complete cooperation” and said he had instructed all others in his Administration to cooperate.

Under the order signed by the federal panel, Walsh was given authority “to investigate to the maximum extent . . . whether any person or groups of persons . . . including Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, other United States government officials, or other individuals or organizations . . . (have) committed a violation of any federal criminal law.”

Directed Arms Sales

North, as a National Security Council staff member, directed the arms sales for the Administration, but he was fired for allegedly diverting proceeds to the contras without the President’s knowledge.

The order says that Walsh is to focus on all direct U.S. arms sales to Iran since 1984, indirect sales that went through intermediaries or third-party governments, the financing of the operations and the diversion of any proceeds to “insurgents in any foreign country, including but not limited to Nicaragua.”

Walsh’s appointment, which had been expected for more than a week, was praised by leading Democrats as well as Republicans.

“He’s first class,” Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose) said of Walsh, a lifelong Republican. “He’s very distinguished, very experienced and entirely trustworthy.”

Pleased by Mandate

Edwards, who is chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights and a frequent critic of the Administration, said he is also pleased by the broad mandate given to Walsh.

“He can look into the private armies down there (in Central America), the secret airfields, the gun traffic. There are an awful lot of items to be examined.”

The veteran Wall Street attorney and former Justice Department official was sworn in by Circuit Judge George E. MacKinnon, who called him “one of the outstanding lawyers in the nation (who) brings to this very broad investigation . . . the judgment and ability acquired through years of experience.”

For his part, Walsh, 74, had little to say about his plans. In comments to reporters in the courtroom and before television cameras, Walsh said that the congressional committees investigating the arms scandal “had had a very good start” and that he would move “as rapidly as we can” to get his investigation in gear.

To Meet With Meese

A first step, he said, will be to meet with Meese to discuss obtaining the evidence gathered so far by the Justice Department. The FBI agents working on the case will now go to work for him, he said.

Walsh said that he could not give an estimate of how large his staff will be or how long the investigation will take. He added, however, that a grand jury will be impaneled to hear any evidence that could lead to criminal indictments.

Walsh’s experience as an investigator and prosecutor dates to 1936, when he headed an investigation involving murder and racketeering in New York City, working under Thomas E. Dewey, then a district attorney and later governor of New York.

In 1954, he was appointed a federal district judge by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, but he resigned three years later to become deputy attorney general during Eisenhower’s second term.

Had Role in Peace Talks

In 1969, he became a deputy to Henry A. Kissinger at the Paris peace talks on the Vietnam War. He served as president of the American Bar Assn. in 1975 and 1976. Earlier, he had headed the judicial selection panel that approved President Richard M. Nixon’s nomination to the Supreme Court of Clement F. Haynsworth Jr. and G. Harrold Carswell. Both nominees were rejected by the Senate.

Since his retirement as a longtime partner in a Wall Street law firm, Walsh has lived in Oklahoma City.

Former Atty. Gen. William P. Rogers, under whom Walsh served in the Eisenhower Administration, called Walsh a “perfect choice for this job.” He said that Walsh is a “very forthright, direct man” and that the public should “have great confidence in his role.”

In the job, Walsh will address many disputed legal questions about the arms sales to Iran and the Administration’s involvement in the Nicaragua war.

Possible Violations Cited

Congressional critics have charged that the secret arms sales may have violated legal disclosure requirements that apply to U.S. covert actions abroad. The Administration has maintained that its late disclosure to Congress of the sales was appropriate and legal considering the risks faced by U.S. hostages held by pro-Iranian terrorists in Lebanon.

Some officials have also questioned whether North’s alleged secret diversion of some profits to aid the contras was a misuse of public funds.