U.S. Lawmakers May Visit Iraq to Aid Hostages : Policy: A mission could come as early as next week. Bush has opposed such efforts.

In what would be a highly controversial move, several members of Congress are privately discussing traveling to Iraq, perhaps as early as next week, to personally seek the release of American hostages.

California Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed Tuesday that they already have met with Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Mashat, who promised them visas. At least two others said to be considering such a mission could not be reached Tuesday.

“This would be a strictly humanitarian effort. I’m disposed to going,” Dymally said. “And if I go, I would ask them to let me bring people out.”

However, a Reid spokesman said late Tuesday that the senator, at least for now, has decided not to go because of the Bush Administration’s opposition to such initiatives.

But discussions are continuing among several other members of Congress in hopes of forming a bipartisan delegation to make the journey, according to sources participating in the talks.

Such a mission would be the first by elected U.S. officials since the Persian Gulf crisis began more than three months ago, and it could prove highly embarrassing to the President’s efforts to maintain unity in the anti-Iraq coalition.

As former officials of countries in that coalition began streaming into Baghdad recently, the Bush Administration has quietly noted that the emissaries were private citizens.

“Travel to Iraq is dangerous,” an Administration official said tersely when asked about the possibility of a congressional delegation. “Things like this can play into the propaganda purposes of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein.”

But the trips may be increasingly difficult to discourage because Iraq has rewarded many who have personally sought its help. On Tuesday, for example, Hussein ordered the release of another 108 hostages, 77 of them Japanese citizens who will travel home with former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. Nakasone orchestrated the release after a meeting with Hussein.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Marine Corps said it is activating 824 reservists, including more than 600 combat troops, to bolster the 230,000 U.S. troops already in Saudi Arabia or to provide replacements in a rotation scheme.

The reservists will be sent to Camp Pendleton, Calif., presumably for training exercises, before joining about 46,000 Marines already stationed in Saudi Arabia or on ships in nearby waters.

Until now, the more than 34,000 reserves called to active duty have been noncombat troops.

Also Tuesday, the American Red Cross announced that it has reached an agreement with its Iraqi counterpart, the Iraqi Red Crescent, allowing for the exchange of messages between the hostages and their families.

Under the agreement, which was approved in advance by the Iraqi government, 8 1/2-by-5 1/2-inch message forms will be made available to the “human shields” within the next 10 days, said Stephen H. Richards, executive vice president of the American Red Cross. The exchange is to be followed by shipments of medication, clothes, books and food.

Richards also said he has asked Iraq to allow a small team of medical professionals under the Red Cross banner to visit the U.S. hostages by the end of the month.

Of the foreign nationals trapped in Iraq and Kuwait, there are an estimated 106 Americans who are held at key Iraqi installations as a deterrent to any U.S.-led offensive.

The continuing visits to Iraq by former dignitaries seeking hostages’ freedom--and the ensuing bickering--come at a time when President Bush has increasingly expressed his outrage at the treatment of American hostages, raising new fears that an attack against Iraq might be imminent.

One sticking point in the proposed congressional visit is that at least one would-be participant has a specific person--a friend--he would like to bring out, sources said. But that person is still in hiding in Kuwait, and Ambassador Mashat has given no specific assurances that that person will be allowed free passage.

Several of the members of Congress who have discussed going to Iraq also are closely consulting wives of hostages, many of whom strongly support a congressional mission and may even ask to accompany it.

“Going in a group would be helpful for a lot of reasons,” one source said.

“There’s nothing left to lose. They have to go,” said Kim Edwards, a Carson City, Nev., woman who returned home from Iraq on Tuesday after an unsuccessful solo attempt to win her husband’s release.

Edwards, 34, said she intends to strongly encourage other hostages’ wives--as well as members of Congress--to go to Iraq. She is scheduled to hold a telephone conference today with at least a dozen other wives who have delayed going to Iraq on their own pending Edwards’ return.

“I made a miscalculation going in there by myself,” Edwards said. She went to Baghdad alone last week and was allowed to visit with her husband, Tony, a 52-year-old urban planner. But the Iraqis refused to allow him to leave.

A number of private American organizations and individuals have gone to Baghdad, including Jesse Jackson and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which last week obtained the release of four ailing Americans.

But until now, no U.S. officials--and few from other nations--have responded to Hussein’s courting of Western delegations, fearful of undermining the coalition allied against Iraq.

Among the former top foreign officials who have journeyed to Baghdad recently is former British Prime Minister Edward Heath.

When former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt flew to Baghdad on Monday, his visit was endorsed by Bonn but questioned or criticized by Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Similarly, Nakasone’s visit to Iraq this week has angered his successor, Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu.

Several other former foreign leaders, including New Zealand’s David Lange and Denmark’s Anker Jorgensen, also are en route to Baghdad.

Times staff writers John M. Broder, David Lauter and Jim Mann contributed to this story.