Sen. Boren Urges Regan to Resign : Low-Level Aides Saw Reagan, Others Were Frozen Out, He Says

The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman said today that White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan should resign because it appears that he gave low-level officials access to President Reagan and shut out top policy advisers on the Iran arms deal.

Sen. David L. Boren (D-Okla.), head of the committee that released the most comprehensive report to date on the Iran- contra affair, said evidence obtained by the committee showed that at times Regan was “foreclosing” foreign policy experts, including Secretary of State George P. Shultz, from seeing Reagan.

In an interview with United Press International, Boren called “very odd” the array of people who had access to the President and White House in working on the Iran arms deal.

He said the committee examined White House logs and raised questions about the “kinds of people who came in and out of meetings, those included and those excluded.”

However, Boren said much of the detail about Regan’s role and those allowed access to the White House was uncovered after the chief of staff testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

15 Days of Hearings

The committee held 15 days of hearings in December on the sale of U.S. arms to Iran and the possible diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan contras.

“I would hope that Mr. Regan would understand that in the interests of the country it would be best for him to step down,” Boren said.

When asked whether there was a policy of turning over foreign policy to private citizens, Boren said, “I don’t know if there was a concerted effort, but we certainly fell into the trap.”

“One of the most disturbing things to me is the disarray in which we find foreign policy and the undue role that private individuals played, people like Mr. Ledeen--a part-time, sometime consultant off and on, and you have him over conducting negotiations with chiefs of state, meeting with the prime minister of Israel, negotiating with arms dealers, Iranian officials, making arrangements to receive hostages. How appropriate is that? How strange is that?” Boren said.

Michael Ledeen, while a National Security Council consultant on terrorism, made contact with Israeli officials and Iranian arms dealer and middleman Manucher Ghorbanifar in May, 1985, in what apparently led to the first secret arms shipments to Iran.

‘Very Disturbing Pattern’

Boren said there is “no direct evidence” to link Reagan with the illegal diversion of arms profits to the Nicaraguan rebels, although he said some key witnesses have yet to tell their stories.

“What we did find, however, is a very disturbing pattern of a foreign policy-making process that is in some disarray.”

“Key people, advisers to the President, who could have given him expert advice, who were closed out--the secretary of state, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs--and very strange involvement of private individuals, not in the government, out negotiating with the government, people like Mr. Ledeen sent off to meet with heads of state. And even in some cases, foreign nationals, who seem to be--not only carrying out but having a great impact on--American foreign policy,” Boren said earlier today on ABC.

“So you have to ask the question, what was the chief of staff doing closing out people like the secretary of state from the process but letting in very low-echelon people?”