McFarlane Said to Admit Faked Data : Report Allegedly Was Altered to Let Reagan Deny Approving 1st Arms Deal

Former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, testifying in the hospital room where he is recovering from a drug overdose, said Thursday that he helped draft an inaccurate chronology of the Iran arms affair to protect President Reagan from political damage, a source familiar with McFarlane’s testimony said.

The doctored chronology was used to provide a basis for President Reagan to deny that he had authorized the first Israeli shipment of arms to Tehran, made in August, 1985, McFarlane reportedly told the special presidential commission investigating the Iran- contra scandal.

“The chronology showed there was no formal authorization by the President and no formal authority to do anything,” the source familiar with McFarlane’s testimony said. “Bud helped piece together language that would enable the President to go out (at a press conference) and say he didn’t authorize the shipment.

‘To Save the Presidency’

“It was all done in the atmosphere of trying to save the presidency,” the source said.

McFarlane, in three hours of questioning by the commission, stood behind his earlier testimony that Reagan had in fact given oral approval for the shipment, according to a knowledgeable source.

Reagan himself substantiated McFarlane’s testimony in an initial appearance before the commission on Jan. 26. But the President initiated another session with the commission on Feb. 11, and this time Reagan said that, after conferring at length with White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan, he realized his earlier account had been mistaken and that he actually had not approved the arms shipment.

Members of the commission, which is headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), were flabbergasted by the President’s correction of his earlier statements, according to one source, because they had twice asked him during the first session whether he had approved the Israeli shipment and both times he said that he had.

The President’s recollection on the subject is important to the commission’s inquiry because Chief of Staff Regan, in direct contradiction of McFarlane’s testimony, had told the commission that the President did not authorize the shipment.

A source close to McFarlane said that--although the erroneous chronology had been prepared to give the President “deniability” and protect him from political damage--Regan is now using it to try to substantiate his contention that Reagan never approved the first Israeli arms shipment.

McFarlane, along with then-National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter and his aide, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, compiled the chronology to prepare Reagan and his aides for testimony, briefings and news conferences after the outlines of the scandal came to light last November. It is not clear who ordered the chronology written.

Both Poindexter and North were relieved of their White House duties when evidence surfaced that profits from the Iran arms sale had been diverted to aid Nicaraguan rebels.

Overdose of Valium

McFarlane has been a patient at the Bethesda Naval Hospital since Feb. 8, when he was taken there for treatment of an overdose of Valium. Police said McFarlane apparently took the drug in a suicide attempt. On that day, he had been scheduled to appear before the Tower Commission for additional testimony.

The three commission members--chairman Tower, former Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Me.) and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft--went to Bethesda Thursday to hear McFarlane after being assured that he had recovered sufficiently to testify.

Leonard Garment, McFarlane’s attorney, said that his client was “in good shape,” answered all the commission’s questions and backed up his earlier testimony “100%.”

At the commission’s request, McFarlane plans to examine several top-secret documents before submitting written answers to several other brief questions, said Garment, who refused to comment further on McFarlane’s testimony.

Critical Report Expected

Meanwhile, at the White House, chief spokesman Marlin Fitzwater refused to comment on the President’s conflicting statements to the Tower Commission, which is scheduled to deliver a bulky report of its findings next Thursday. Sources familiar with the findings say that the report will criticize the President and a number of his aides.

“We won’t comment on any aspects of this until after the Tower board report is finished,” Fitzwater said.

When asked whether the President had spoken to Regan to refresh his recollections about the Israeli arms shipment, Fitzwater said: “I’m not aware of any specific sessions for that purpose. Of course, he met with the chief of staff every morning. They have innumerable discussions. So it’s impossible to say when or if those kinds of discussions were held.”

Also at the White House Thursday, Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the chief of staff for his role in the affair, telling reporters:

“To the degree that Don may have convinced the President that he was wrong in his . . . recollection, it was inappropriate to do.”

‘Doesn’t Hurt Anybody’

Durenberger headed the Intelligence Committee when McFarlane testified in December that Reagan had given advance approval for the Israeli transfer of weapons to Iran. He said:

“All of the evidence would indicate . . . that the President did at least give a conditional OK to going ahead (with the Israeli arms shipment). I think the President ought to stick with that. I don’t think it hurts him. It doesn’t hurt anybody. I think even by creating an issue over it, Don probably is just making some problems that don’t have to be.”

Durenberger spoke with reporters after attending a White House meeting at which Regan announced the lifting of U.S. government sanctions against Poland.

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, whose initial investigation disclosed evidence of diversion of profits from the arms sale to aid the contras, also refused to comment on Reagan’s conflicting statements to the Tower Commission.