President’s Lawyer Linked to Iraqi Export List Changes : Inquiry: But witness says the elimination of military designations was not meant to deceive Congress.

A former senior Commerce Department official said Thursday that President Bush’s lawyer instructed the department to eliminate information from a list of Iraqi export licenses prepared for Congress.

But former Commerce Undersecretary Dennis E. Kloske took responsibility for some of the alterations himself. He also said that no one had tried to deceive Congress by eliminating military designations and making other changes in the list.

The statement was the first direct contention that C. Boyden Gray, the counsel to the President, had played a role in preparing the list.

President Bush, meanwhile, responded to critics of his Iraq policy in a speech Thursday to college Republicans at a Washington hotel.

“Don’t listen to these revisionists, those that sat on the sideline criticizing and now that are trying to turn history around,” said Bush. “Our actions in the (Persian) Gulf proved that America will stand up for its own interests.”

Kloske’s 16-page statement was submitted to the House Judiciary Committee, which is focusing on alterations in the list as part of its inquiry into whether an independent counsel is needed to investigate the Bush Administration’s policy toward Iraq.

Critics argue that Administration aid helped build Saddam Hussein’s military machine and that officials tried to conceal the extent of that assistance once the Gulf War ended.

Democrats reacted to Kloske’s implication of Gray as further evidence of the need for an independent investigation into whether the Administration had tried to conceal the amount of militarily useful technology licensed for sale to Iraq between 1985 and 1990.

“As I have said before, the burden of proof has shifted to the Administration to show why there should not be an independent counsel to investigate this incident,” said Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a senior committee member. “This statement has not helped remove a reasonable doubt in my mind.”

As has happened often in this politically contentious debate, Republicans had another view.

“This document in no way implicates any high-level policy official in the Bush Administration,” said a spokesman for Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr. (R-N.Y.), the committee’s senior Republican. “It confirms that Kloske made the decisions on the changes and contains thorough and plausible explanations for why they were made.”

Attempts to reach Gray, who has declined to testify before Congress, were unsuccessful. A spokeswoman for the Commerce Department said the congressional committee had received all the information it had requested at each step of its investigation.

In addition to the Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department is conducting a criminal inquiry into the alterations. Kloske, who resigned from the Commerce Department last May, was interviewed by FBI agents recently.

The list was assembled in October, 1990, in response to a request from Rep. Doug Barnard (D-Ga.), whose subcommittee was investigating exports of U.S. technology to Iraq. Barnard later learned that military references and other information on some licenses had been removed before the list was sent to him.

One change was the elimination of the words “military trucks” and “vehicles specifically designed for military purposes” from five licenses covering $1 billion worth of trucks that were to be sent to Iraq. Kloske said he was told by his staff that the trucks had been modified for noncombat military uses, so he authorized changing the designation.

“I believed that the ‘commercial utility cargo vehicles’ description was more accurate,” said Kloske, who also noted that the trucks were ultimately not shipped to Iraq.

Kloske did not explain such other changes as the elimination of a sentence identifying the Iraqi recipient of sensitive electronics equipment as a military facility.

However, he denied accusations by the Commerce Department’s inspector general that he had altered the permanent files. He also said Gray had ordered the removal of information showing the recommendations of the State, Defense and Energy departments on each export.

Kloske said he thought the recommendations were crucial to providing Barnard with an accurate list and showing that commerce was not acting alone. But other agencies, led by the State Department, claimed that the positions were part of the deliberative process and should not be disclosed.

After asking Wendell L. Willkie II, the general counsel at commerce, to telephone Gray about it, Kloske said, “We were informed that the White House would not approve the transmission of agency positions to Chairman Barnard. I was then instructed by (Willkie) to delete the interagency positions.”

Despite the changes, Kloske concluded that there was no intent to mislead Congress.