White House Iran Memo May Be Fake, Probers Say

A key White House memorandum on secret arms sales to Iran, released publicly by the White House last month in an attempt to explain the policy, may have been a fake, congressional investigators said Wednesday.

Congress’ two special committees on the arms sales are investigating whether the memorandum was deliberately altered last November by then-National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter to make it appear that President Reagan was not aware of two Israeli weapons shipments to Iran in 1985, they said.

“The questions of alteration of documents (and) slanting documents to protect the President are clearly matters that we are interested in,” said Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the House special panel. He confirmed that the memorandum is one of the documents being studied by his committee but said it is too early to conclude whether the paper was part of a deliberate attempt to cover up the President’s involvement.

The memorandum, written by White House aide Oliver L. North and initialed by Poindexter, suggests that the White House did not know that Israel had sent two shipments of U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in 1985. Several officials have since testified, however, that Reagan and his aides were informed of both shipments in September and November, 1985, when they occurred.

“The memo doesn’t square with the facts as we know them,” a knowledgeable Administration official said.

The investigators’ interest in the Poindexter memorandum was disclosed as the White House braced for the release today of the report on the Iran- contra scandal of the presidential commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.). The panel’s report is expected to focus partly on evidence that the White House attempted to cover up Reagan’s involvement in the arms sales after they were disclosed by the press last November.

A White House official said that Reagan, after two appearances before the commission, wrote a letter to the panel saying he could not recall whether he had approved the Israelis’ first shipment in 1985 before it occurred.

“The President can’t seem to keep his tale straight. He can’t remember what he said and when he said it,” Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said as he left a White House meeting Wednesday.

‘Other Recollections’

But presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that Reagan “simply felt that there were other recollections and clarifications that he wanted to provide the board, and he just sat down and wrote them out.”

The 1985 shipments have become a focus of controversy because they may have violated several laws that bar such arms sales without approval from Congress.

Former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane has testified that Reagan secretly approved the shipments; White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan has testified that no such authorization was given. Reagan himself has offered both versions in separate interviews with the commission and finally said in the letter that he could not remember whether he had approved the sales beforehand or not.

The one thing all sides have managed to agree on is that Reagan and his aides knew about the Israeli shipments during the fall of 1985.

False Chronology

However, the Poindexter memo suggests that they did not know of the shipments. Instead, like the false chronology of the arms deals prepared by North and McFarlane last November, the memo implies that the President was unaware of any arms deals until he signed a formal order, or “finding,” on Jan. 17, 1986, authorizing arm sales to Iran.

Congressional investigators believe that the Poindexter memorandum may have been substituted for an authentic memorandum that was prepared to brief the President on the sales.

“It certainly makes sense as part of a cover-up,” a congressional investigator said. “You’ve got to do that (prepare a false memo) if you want to construct a chronology that is supported by the documents in your files. But it’s tough to do in a way that will stand up over time.”

The memorandum, which is also dated Jan. 17, 1986, outlines the reasons for selling weapons to Iran. The White House said it was presented to the President in the meeting at which he signed the “finding” to order the CIA to begin selling missiles to Tehran.

The memo says that the government of Israel had secretly proposed a plan “to help bring about a more moderate government in Iran.” As part of the plan, it says, “the Israelis are prepared to unilaterally commence selling military materiel to Western-oriented Iranian factions . . . . The only requirement the Israelis have is an assurance that they will be allowed to purchase U.S. replenishments for the stocks that they sell to Iran.”

Illegality Cited

However, the memo says, such an arrangement would be illegal. “Because of the requirement in U.S. law for recipients of U.S. arms to notify the U.S. government of transfers to third countries, I do not recommend that you agree with the specific details of the Israeli plan,” says the memo, addressed from Poindexter to the President.

The problem with that phrasing, investigators said, is that the Administration allegedly had already approved two shipments that worked precisely that way, in September and November, 1985. The memo suggests that the idea had never come up before January, 1986.

The memo is initialed by Poindexter in three places. At the bottom, it carries the handwritten note: “President was briefed verbally from this paper. VP (Vice President George Bush), Don Regan and (Deputy National Security Adviser) Don Fortier were present.”

In the blank provided for Reagan to approve or disapprove his aides’ recommendation, the memo indicates that Poindexter initialed approval on the President’s behalf. A White House official said it appeared unusual that Reagan did not initial the paper himself.

Sources have said that Fawn Hall, North’s secretary, has told federal investigators that she was ordered to type altered versions of several National Security Council documents on the arms sales in November, after the shipments were disclosed but before North and Poindexter were fired. It could not be determined whether the Jan. 17 memo was one of the documents she retyped.

Attorneys for Poindexter and North did not respond to questions about the memos.

Investigators are also looking at another NSC memo, reportedly dated Jan. 6, which may also conflict with the testimony of Administration officials. Sources have said that this possibly altered memo also suggests that Administration officials had no knowledge of the Israeli transactions. The discrepancy between the two memos and the officials’ testimony was first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal.

Several congressional sources cautioned that the memos, even if they prove to have been fabricated, may not be evidence of any criminal misconduct--merely an attempt to shield the President from political harm. “It’s not a lie to protect the President,” said one.

Possible Embarrassment

Nevertheless, if the memos turn out to be fake, it will be an embarrassment to the White House. Both memos were provided to Congress as authentic, and the White House publicly released the Jan. 17 briefing paper as part of an attempt to show that the arms sales were not aimed merely at gaining the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, White House aides were working on plans to demonstrate that Reagan is still able to exercise leadership in the face of the Tower panel’s expected onslaught of embarrassing details on his presidency.

A Republican source, pointing to the political effort being expended to lift the President from the self-imposed isolation brought on by the Iran affair and his prostate surgery in January, said that “the process is already under way to look for a cause to take up and show that the President is vibrant and energetic and advocating something.”

Such a project would serve to place Reagan in the public eye--and in a positive light--in March, reflecting the White House plan to use the Tower Commission’s report as a springboard to propel Reagan beyond the scandal.

The commission was appointed three months ago to review the operations of the NSC staff, which drew up the plan to ship arms to Iran, along with the parallel effort--reported by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III--to funnel profits from those weapons sales to the anti-Sandinista rebels fighting in Nicaragua.