Hamilton Prods Bush on 2 Papers : Calls for Explanation Why Contra Panel Never Received Them

The chairman of the now-defunct House Iran-Contra Committee is demanding a formal explanation from the White House on why his panel never received two key documents suggesting that then-Vice President George Bush was involved in setting up a secret quid pro quo deal with Honduras to aid the Nicaraguan rebels, according to a letter obtained by The Times.

Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), who made the demand in a letter to White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, said that an extensive review of committee files over the last week indicates that Congress was denied at least two of the documents that have since turned up in evidence at the trial of former White House aide Oliver L. North.

It is the first time in the long saga of the Iran-Contra affair that any member of Congress has accused the Administration of former President Ronald Reagan of withholding evidence in the probe.

Panels Disbanded

Despite strenuous efforts to determine whether Bush participated in the scandal, members of the Democratic-controlled investigating committee never succeeded in tying Bush directly to Reagan’s efforts to provide the Contras with military assistance that had not been approved by Congress. The House and Senate committees were disbanded at the end of their inquiry in 1987.

Hamilton asked Gray, who also served as Bush’s counsel when he was vice president, to “undertake an immediate review to determine whether documents were withheld from the Iran-Contra committees and to identify such documents, if any, to me and explain why they may have been withheld.”

White House officials had no immediate comment on the request, according to a spokesman. Bush has refused to discuss the information in these documents, insisting that any remarks by the President might jeopardize a fair trial for North. North’s case on Iran-Contra charges goes to the jury next week.

Although Hamilton’s letter did not accuse the Administration of trying to cover up Bush’s involvement by withholding the documents, he has made it clear that he thinks the material would have prompted the committee to explore Bush’s role in arranging the deal with Honduras.

“The documents clearly suggest that the then-Vice President Bush, now President Bush, was involved in the quid pro quo arrangements with Honduras,” Hamilton told CBS News on Thursday. “I don’t think the documents prove that, but they clearly suggest it. And it would be apparent from those suggestions that he was more ‘in the loop’ than he has thus far stated.”

Hamilton said the two documents in question were clearly within the scope of the committee’s investigation and also within the realm of the committee’s request for relevant documents from the White House.

‘Major Focus’ of Probe

“A major focus of the investigation, of course, was: ‘What was the role of President Reagan? What was the role of Vice President Bush in these events?’ ” he said. “And any document suggesting that the President or the vice president at the time were involved in dealings with (Honduras) on a quid pro quo basis where we would increase our aid in return for Honduran help in helping the (Contras), those documents would have rung a bell with us.”

The two documents that prompted Hamilton’s request are:

--A memo written by then-National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane on Feb. 19, 1985, that recommended that Reagan dispatch an emissary to privately explain what assistance the United States expected Honduras to provide for the Contras in exchange for continued economic and military assistance to that country. The President authorized the plan and subsequently wrote a letter to Honduras President Roberto Suazo Cordoba, which Hamilton contends the committee also did not receive from the White House.

--A memo written to McFarlane by North and another National Security Council staff member on Feb. 20, 1985, that explicitly outlined the quid pro quo arrangement and acknowledged that the Administration had devised its plan in an effort to circumvent the limitations that Congress had imposed upon the Administration’s support for the Contras. Next to the paragraph outlining the quid pro quo , McFarlane’s deputy, John M. Poindexter, wrote in longhand: “We want VP to also discuss this matter with Suazo.”

Not Banned Until Later

Less than four weeks after the memo with Poindexter’s notation was written, Bush met with the Honduran president. At the time, Congress had banned all U.S. aid to the Contras, “direct or indirect,” although U.S. solicitation of third-country support for the Contras was not explicitly banned until sometime later.

At a news conference last Friday, Bush told reporters that the Iran-Contra committees had received all of the relevant documents to their investigation of his role in the affair. At the same time, a knowledgeable Administration source told The Times that congressional investigators had received at least “an undated draft” of McFarlane’s Feb. 19 memo.

In his letter, Hamilton indicated that he believes that the independent counsel prosecuting North may have obtained other documents that were not provided to the committee. He said several statements contained in a 42-page “admission of fact” that the government and defense provided at the North trial indicate that there are still other materials relating to the effort to obtain third-country support for the Contras that the investigating committee never saw.