Excerpts: McFarlane Tried ‘to Protect the President’

Following are excerpts from Thursday’s testimony to the congressional Iran-contra committees by Assistant Atty. Gen. Charles J. Cooper, who worked with Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III last November to investigate the emerging scandal over U.S. arms sales to Iran:

McFarlane Interview

(Meese and Cooper interviewed Robert C. McFarlane on Nov. 21 about a shipment of U.S. Hawk missiles to Iran the previous November, when McFarlane was President Reagan’s national security adviser. McFarlane has since acknowledged knowing about the shipment before it occurred.)

Question: Did Mr. McFarlane say that he knew about the Hawk shipment prior to Nov. 25, 1985?

Answer: No, he did not.

Q: What did he say about the Hawk shipment?

A: . . . He indicated he did not know that there were Hawks on the plane until substantially after the November transfer. . . .

Q: Did Mr. McFarlane mention to you the diversion of the Iranian arms monies to the contras?

A: No.

Q: Did he mention with you any plans to alter or destroy documents at the National Security Council?

A: Most certainly not. . . .

Q: After the conclusion of the interview, and you’d left the room, did Mr. McFarlane stay back and talk to the attorney general briefly?

A: He did. We left together, but he then wheeled and basically went back into the office with the attorney general. . . .

Q: Did the attorney general tell you later what Mr. McFarlane had said to him?

A: He did.

Q: What did he tell you?

A: I have a--only a general recollection to the effect that Mr. McFarlane said: “You know, I’m trying and I’m hopeful that I can keep the President’s interests uppermost in this. I’m trying to protect the President.” Something to that effect. . . .

Q: What was the impression that you had after the interview of Mr. McFarlane’s credibility during the interview?

A: . . . I did not leave the interview, nor did I take it during the interview, that Mr. McFarlane was being entirely straightforward and entirely forthcoming.

Diversion of Profits

(Meese and Cooper had lunch Nov. 22 with other Justice Department officials, who had found in the files of White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver L. North a memo describing the diversion of profits from the Iran arms sales to the contras.)

Q: What was the reaction of the other people at lunch?

A: Well, it was one of great surprise.

Q: What was the attorney general’s reaction to that news that the funds had been diverted to the--or the possibility that the funds had been diverted to the contras?

A: He--my recollection is that the attorney general said something analogous to “Oh, darn.” But it’s perhaps more strenuous than that.

(Meese, Cooper and other Justice Department officials asked North about the diversion on Nov. 23.)

Q: What was Oliver North’s reaction when the attorney general asked him if any of these funds went to the Nicaraguan resistance.

A: He appeared to be visibly surprised and not expecting to hear that question.

Q: Can you describe to us what his reaction was?

A: . . . My best recollection is that he paused for a moment, silent, before he responded, and then he responded that--in a way that was responsive, and certainly did not--he acknowledged the transfer to the contras. . . .

Q: Did he say whether or not the President had seen (the memo), to his knowledge?

A: Yes, he did not think that the memo had gone to the President. . . .

Q: And who did he say knew of the diversion?

A: He identified Mr. (John M.) Poindexter (Reagan’s national security adviser), Mr. McFarlane and himself--in the government. . . .

Q: Did the attorney general go to the White House that Monday morning, Nov. 24?

A: Yes, he did. . . .

Q: Did he tell him what he had discovered about the diversion?

A: Yes, he did, as I understand it.

Q: What did he tell you the President’s reaction was?

A: One of surprise. I don’t recall him elongating on the President’s reaction, other than to say it was one of complete surprise and that the President was entirely unaware.