House OKs Probe as Speakes Casts New Doubts on North : Panel Gets Wide Power in Iran Case

The White House today cast additional doubts on the credibility of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North as the House, following the Senate’s lead, voted 416 to 2 to organize a special committee to investigate the Iran- contra affair.

The House legislation creates a 15-member panel under the chairmanship of Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, (D-Ind.). Its mandate extends to next Oct. 30, and the panel was given broad powers to investigate arms transfers to Iran, the diversion of arms sale profits to the contras, the “circumvention of any act of Congress” and other matters.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) said he hoped the investigation will not “deteriorate into an exercise in political cannibalism” but will focus on the government’s role in foreign policy.

Senate Panel Set

The Senate voted 88 to 4 on Tuesday to set up an 11-member investigating committee, giving it a seven-month mandate to complete its work. (Story, Page 12.)

The House action came as the White House today defended its refusal to make public materials gathered on the Iran scandal last November.

Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said White House release of North’s chronology of the Iran affair would not be useful because it contains factual errors.

“It contained erroneous information and we would be accused of releasing erroneous information and we’re not sure of all the facts ourselves. We might be accused of being self-serving. Its just not the proper thing to do. The committee’s got a lot more stuff,” Speakes said.

Falsification Reported

He refused to elaborate on the contents of the North report, but the New York Times today quoted a senior Administration official as saying that North had falsified information by suggesting that President Reagan had given advance approval of Israeli arms sales to Iran.

The White House has repeatedly maintained that Reagan approved those sales only after one shipment had already taken place in late 1985.

However, former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane has told Senate investigators that Reagan gave oral approval beforehand.

Speakes said today the North chronology, prepared after the arms sales to Iran were disclosed in early November, differs from sworn testimony and documents reviewed by the White House.

Senate Given Report

Speakes said North’s report had been turned over to the Senate Intelligence Committee and should be made public as part of a preliminary report prepared by the committee.

The Intelligence Committee voted 7 to 6 earlier this week to withhold its report because many members felt it was incomplete and misleading. The White House said Reagan was outraged by the panel’s decision.

Speakes said the committee report was “the most comprehensive information anyone has.” He said the errors in the North chronology, if released as part of the Senate report, would be balanced by testimony provided the committee by McFarlane, White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and Central Intelligence Agency Director William J. Casey among others.

White House ‘Suspicious’

Speakes said Tuesday that White House officials “were suspicious” of the chronology and had talked to people who “have different recollections” of events. He said “the preponderance of evidence” supports what they said rather than what North said.

But when asked whether North lied, Speakes answered, “I’m not prepared to say that.”