Panels Rule Out TV Testimony by Go-Between

Michael Ledeen, a key figure in the development of the plan to sell U.S.-made weapons to Iran, said Monday he wants the congressional Iran- contra committees to subpoena him so he can tell his story publicly.

Ledeen’s request to testify at the nationally televised hearings has fallen on deaf ears so far.

Bob Havel, a spokesman for the House panel, said the joint committees decided Monday not to call Ledeen because of time constraints and because lawmakers don’t think he has much new information to offer.

Ledeen’s deposition, given earlier behind closed doors, will be released, Havel said.

“He will not be a public witness,” Havel said. He said there was “no great dissent” among committee members on the subject.

Ledeen, who has close ties with Israeli officials, played a major role in the shipment of U.S. weapons through Israel to Iran in 1985.

He said he wants to explain how the weapon sales were “transformed from a geopolitical move into an arms-for-hostages” deal. He maintains that the weapons program started out, primarily, as a way of opening communication between Washington and the fundamentalist Islamic rulers of Iran.

Only later, Ledeen says, did the principal focus of the U.S. weapons program shift to freeing the Americans being held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.