Weinberger Passes Lie-Detector Exam on Iran-Contra : Arms sale: The former defense secretary arranged for the polygraph test. In it, he denies taking part in a cover-up to protect Reagan in the scandal.

Former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, in an unusual move, Wednesday released results of a polygraph test he passed in which he denied taking part in a cover-up to protect former President Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra scandal.

In a test administered May 5 by the former chief polygraph examiner for the FBI, Weinberger also gave “no indication of deception” to questions on whether he lied to government investigators about his knowledge of a secret 1985 arms sale to Iran and about his own diary entries during the period.

Weinberger’s lawyer, Robert S. Bennett, also made public a letter from the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Iran-Contra Committee that said it is “inconceivable to us that he would intentionally mislead or lie to Congress.”

Both the test results and the letter from Sens. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Warren B. Rudman (R-N. H.) have been given to independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, Bennett said.

The polygraph test indicates Walsh is investigating three major issues in the cover-up probe--whether senior Reagan Administration officials deliberately attempted to cover up the scandal, whether they lied about their knowledge of a potentially illegal 1985 missile shipment and whether they failed to turn over all relevant documents and notes in the subsequent investigation.

Polygraph test results are not admissible as evidence in federal court, but investigators often use them as tools to determine whether to continue a probe that has not produced sufficient evidence to support an indictment and a case prosecutors believe they can win.

Weinberger, a former Cabinet officer for Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Reagan, felt it was necessary to arrange for such a test as Walsh weighs whether to prosecute him. Walsh’s investigators have also been pressing Weinberger for any incriminating evidence he may have on Reagan, sources familiar with the investigation said.

“Mr. Weinberger is innocent of any wrongdoing,” Bennett said Wednesday. “In fact, he passed a lie detector test given by the former chief polygrapher for the FBI, Paul K. Minor.”

Mary Belcher, a spokeswoman for Walsh, said: “I have no comment on anything you’re describing. We never discuss any aspect of our investigation publicly until we make known our charges in a court.”

In the polygraph examination, Minor, who was chief FBI examiner from 1978 to 1987 and now runs an international security firm in Fairfax, Va., said the five questions asked of Weinberger “are believed to directly address the issues of concern” to Walsh’s office.

The questions, to all of which Weinberger responded “no,” were:

--Did you ever intentionally withhold diary notes from any governmental entity?

--Did you deliberately mislead any governmental entity, including the Office of Independent Counsel, about your diary notes?

--Did you knowingly engage in a cover-up with senior Administration officials in the fall of 1986 or in 1987 regarding Ronald Reagan’s participation in the Iran-Contra matter?

--During your June, 1987, deposition, did you deliberately lie to the House Select Committee counsel about the existence of your diary notes?

--Did you deliberately mislead any governmental entity regarding your knowledge of the transfer of arms to Iran from August through November, 1985?

In their April 29 letter to Bennett, written at his request, Inouye and Rudman focus on “incontrovertible” evidence that Weinberger consistently opposed the secret sales of arms to Iran and that Reagan rejected his advice and similar counsel from Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

However, Walsh appears to be trying to determine whether Weinberger told the truth when he denied he knew about a November, 1985, shipment of U.S.-made Hawk antiaircraft missiles from Israel to Iran.

In testimony before congressional investigators, Weinberger said he did not know about the shipment before it occurred. But Pentagon documents show that his closest aides were aware of the shipment.

Inouye and Rudman noted that when he denied knowing about the shipment, Weinberger also acknowledged that “he had difficulty sorting out what he knew at any particular time from what he had learned later.”

“We were also aware that Secretary Weinberger received intelligence reports . . . which contained suggestions that shipments might be taking place in the fall of 1985,” the senators wrote. But they said that the important issue in their probe was not the date he knew about the shipment, but that he adamantly opposed the sales and even warned Reagan that they were almost certainly illegal.

The questions put to Weinberger in the polygraph test were apparently composed by Bennett and Minor on the basis of the questions Walsh’s investigators have been asking.

They thus confirmed the accounts of other sources that the prosecutor is pursuing the question of whether Reagan aides--and perhaps Reagan himself--conspired in 1986 to conceal the former President’s role in the affair.