Walsh Widens Inquiry Into Iran Affair : Seeks New Evidence, Potentially Hundreds of Thousands of Pages

Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, widening his legal inquiry into the Iran- contra scandal, last week submitted an “unbelievably extensive” request for White House and National Security Council documents potentially totaling hundreds of thousands of pages of material, government sources said Sunday.

The request, easily the largest of several made recently, opened a phase of the probe in which Walsh will seek new evidence instead of sifting through documents already reviewed by congressional intelligence panels and the presidential commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.).

A New Batch of Messages

Administration officials refused to discuss details of the classified request. But among the documents sought are a vast new batch of NSC computer messages written by people now believed to be only distantly touched by the scandal.

The Tower Commission was given all “relevant” computer messages still in existence that had been written by the scandal’s prime figures, including Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and former national security advisers John M. Poindexter and Robert C. McFarlane, one official said.

Those messages provided the grist for the Tower panel’s scathing disclosure of White House bungling in the affair.

The newly sought computer data is likely to be less valuable to the Walsh investigation, one source said, but it constitutes only a small part of the documents being sought.

“It’s the most exhaustive request I’ve ever seen anywhere,” one senior Administration official said. “If I didn’t believe the independent counsel was being responsible, I’d call it a glorified fishing expedition.”

“It’s massive. Giant. There are a lot of names in there I’ve never heard of before,” another source said of the Walsh request. “But I think they’re just being thorough.”

Word of the request came amid reports, denied by the White House, that new Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. is “appalled” by the laxity of efforts to protect President Reagan from the army of Iran investigators and has ordered a review of information in the case.

‘Money for the Contras’

The Washington Post, citing unnamed officials, said Sunday that the review stems from concern over North and Poindexter’s eventual testimony about Reagan’s knowledge of the Iran-contra affair.

According to the newspaper, Poindexter’s attorney was prepared last fall to assert that Poindexter told Reagan twice in 1986 that the Iran arms sales “were generating money for the contras.” Reagan was not told that an illegal diversion of money had occurred, the newspaper stated.

Poindexter’s lawyer, Richard W. Beckler, refused to comment on the report. The President’s special adviser on the Iran-contra affair, retired North Atlantic Treaty Organization Ambassador David M. Abshire, called the account “totally wrong.”

‘Nothing to Hide’

“There is no legal defense of the President necessary,” Abshire said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” interview program. “The President has nothing to hide.”

“He is deeply honest, he is deeply dedicated and he tells the truth,” Abshire said. “And when he says that he has no knowledge, he has no knowledge.”

A White House press spokesman said the Administration stands behind Abshire’s comments.

One White House official, speaking on condition that he not be identified, acknowledged that Reagan’s advisers are indeed “concerned that there’s a chance” North or Poindexter might attempt to draw Reagan more deeply into the scandal. He cast that concern largely as part of an effort to cover all legal possibilities in the Iran affair.

Legal Defenses

The White House has no knowledge of Poindexter’s or North’s planned legal defenses and “everything we have in the record indicates that’s not going to happen,” the official said.

Several White House officials said Sunday that they plan no substantive changes in the President’s basic legal strategy, which has been to furnish to investigators all information requested “to the extent permitted by law.”

So far, one source contended, investigators have not been denied access to any relevant documents, although he said that portions of some papers have been withheld for security reasons.

About 3,000 documents were provided last year to the Senate Intelligence Committee for its investigation of the scandal, and “cartons upon cartons” of papers from the White House and the CIA since have been delivered to Walsh and to House and Senate select committees probing the affair.

Stream of Revelations

The successive document requests have been filled slowly, in part because each is reviewed by a team of Administration security experts who make copies of all papers that are surrendered. One effect has been a continuing and drawn-out stream of revelations in the scandal.

Congressional intelligence panels asked for and were given copies of all computer messages known to have been written by North on his Iran and contra dealings. But it was not until the Tower Commission convened that a huge number of similar messages from Poindexter, McFarlane and other key figures were requested and turned over.

Walsh’s request, the largest so far, could take weeks or months to fill, one official said. The bulk of the documents sought are in National Security Council files, and “very few” papers involving the Iran arms sales or funding for the contras are to be found in White House files, that official indicated.

Grants of Immunity

In related developments Sunday:

--Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd, (D-W.Va.) said that top officials of the House and Senate panels investigating the scandal will meet Tuesday to discuss granting limited immunity from prosecution to North and Poindexter. Both men have refused to testify about their activities, citing the Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves.

Byrd and Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said the two former officials will likely receive some form of immunity for their testimony before congressional committees and that the major issues to be decided are the timing of their testimony and the areas to be covered.

Walsh is said to have expressed concern that quick and broad grants of immunity from prosecution could hinder his investigation.

--A Justice Department legal opinion written last Dec. 17, after the Iran arms sales became public, stated that the White House did not violate the law when it decided not to tell Congress about the secret operation and allowed the CIA to aid the arms shipments without written legal approval.

Covert CIA Operations

Federal law requires the President to notify Congress immediately, or in “timely fashion,” of all covert CIA operations abroad. It also requires the President to declare that a covert CIA operation is in the national security interest before the agency undertakes a mission.

The Associated Press, which obtained the Justice Department opinion under a Freedom of Information request, said the opinion appears at odds with the Tower Commission’s analysis of the affair.

The Tower panel said the law “would seem to require disclosure” of the arms shipments to Congress. It also stated that it is “difficult to conclude” that Reagan acted legally in allowing the CIA to aid in the shipment of arms without prior written approval.