Admiral Raises Fears of a President in the Dark

Former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter’s declaration today that “the buck stops here with me” in allowing use of Iranian arms sale profits for the contras was viewed as troubling by some members of the Iran-contra panels in showing a President not in control of his foreign policy.

His testimony that he kept President Reagan in the dark prompted House Majority Leader Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) to say, “In some ways it’s a more disturbing reality that (Reagan) didn’t know than if the admiral testified that the President did know.

“If you take the admiral’s testimony on face value, and I have no reason not to, he made the decision on a critical national foreign policy decision not to tell the President, and I think that anyone who now thinks this is now over and is no matter of concern doesn’t understand that this is a most serious problem here--which is, how does national security policy get made in this Administration?” Foley said.

How Is President Informed?

He went on to ask how any President gets information “if honorable people can conceive it within their mandate and authority to make such decisions without the President’s knowledge.”

Foley added: “We simply cannot afford to have Presidents shielded from critical and controversial policies by their subordinates. . . . Where is the accountability?

“I don’t think the President should take any satisfaction today,” Foley said.

Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.) commented that “the buck is supposed to stop at the top, not with a subordinate. I don’t simply conclude because the President didn’t know that it doesn’t carry equally serious consequences.”

Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) who had an advance look at Poindexter’s deposition and saw excerpts of Reagan’s diaries, said he is “convinced (Poindexter) is telling the absolute truth.”

“The examination of the President’s diaries in our view confirms Poindexter’s testimony,” Rudman said during a break in the hearings. “There is nothing in the diaries that will conflict with what the admiral said.”

Rudman said the diaries are quite complete and that he doubts Reagan could have resisted recording “that juicy tidbit.”

“I think it was an incredible burden for Adm. Poindexter to take on himself,” Rudman added. “No one should have made that decision for the President.

Decision Up to President

“I have felt since the day I first heard it the President of the United States should have been given the opportunity to put himself in that kind of box . . . and no one should have made that decision for him.”

Rep. Jim Courter (R-N.J.), a consistent Reagan supporter on the House panel, said he believed the decision to divert money should have been placed before the President but the outcome would have been the same.

“The President established the policy, and others were trying to legitimately implement that policy,” Courter said.

Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) said the testimony was particularly bothersome because of revelations by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North last week that Reagan’s subordinates had mapped out an “off-the-shelf” covert operations network that might also have avoided any mention to responsible elected officials.

Those involved, including retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord and his business partner Albert Hakim, “had very expansive notions about where they were going and what they were going to do,” Sarbanes said.

“It leaves enormous and large and serious questions hanging over the policy-making process in this Administration,” he said. “Who’s running the government in that instance?”