REAGAN ADVISERS WANT SHULTZ OUT, HOWARD BAKER IN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404630006-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 24, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASHINGTON TIMES
24 November 1986
Reagan advisers
want Shultz out,
Howard Baker in
Dole doubts
Congress got
all the facts
By Mary Belcher and Damon Thompson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Senate Republican leader Robert Dole
charged yesterday that the White House has
not given Congress all the facts about secret
U.S. arms shipments to Iran, and he urged
President Reagan to clean up "the mess"
quickly.
"It's very hard to tell" whether Conereas.
got f -eeTul1 story, despite House and.Senate.
toe rgence committee sessions Friday-wi,th
CIA Director William Casey_and_National
Security Adviser John Poindexter the Kan-
sas epU Trcan said on CBS TV's.--F c the
alto .
"Whether it's an intentional withholding,
or just that we haven't asked the right ques-
tions, I would say we don't know all the facts,"
Mr. Dole said.
Sen. Dale Bumpers said on CBS that the
value of weapons sold to Iran is still in ques-
tion. Although a figure of $12 million has
been reported, "it could be as much as $100
million that was, at least, agreed to;' the Ar-
kansas Democrat said. Other versions of the
deal said Iran paid $12 million for $20 worth
of weapons.
Since news of the president's secret
Iranian arms shipments surfaced in
a Lchanese magazine early this
month, Mr. Reagan has attempted to
cant public concern by explaining
lii, ;,etions in a nationally televised
In ; h and a separate press confer-
ci,,:c.
Members of Congress have
accu,cd the president of breaking
the law by failing to inform them of
cowl t arms shipments, which Mr.
Reagan approved in January. The
I- iiclayc briefings, given by Mr. Casey
un Capitol hill and by Mr. Poindex-
ter at the White (louse, apparently
did not satisfy menibers' desire for
information.
We have not heard ... all we're
going to have to hear from the CIA
on this one," said Sen. Sam Nunn,
Georgia Democrat, on NBC's "Meet
the Press."
"'t'hey the CIA] were more in-
yul n ~~~e tliiiug t_ t ey were;'
sate ~tfl Nunn. -who is expected to
Ica ii-cYoreign Relations Commit-
Te'itiexf si ssiori. ?I' eFc itf%
tee
irr
cu ty in t us situation is no single
group o payers seems to know the
w1i'Mc story.'
Mr. Dole has been one of the
pre:, dent's most reliable allies on
Capitol Bill for the past six years,
but yesterday he faulted Secretary
of State George Shultz and other
Cabinet members for "bickering"
among themselves to avoid blame
"The president is well-
intentioned, well-motivated, but let's
face it - that isn't going to wash;"
Mr. Dole said, suggesting that
Thanksgiving "might he a good
time" for Mr Reagan to "remove
some of the problems."
Mn Nunn said a personnel shake-
up is "not enough" Instead, he said.
the entire foreign policy-making
process should he reviewed.
Outgoing Senate Intelligence
ommittee Chairman David Duren-
erger agreed. "It goes way beyond
utting some throats;' he said on
BC.
The Minnesota Republican said
he president will have to make"visi-
le" changes in how foreign policy is
et.
In the first public hearing on arms
hipments to Iran, Undersecretary
f State Michael Armacost will
estify today before the House For-
ign Affairs Committee.
The hearing will be "much more
if a policy-level discussion" than
riday's closed hearings, a source
aid. Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana
Democrat who chairs the House In-
elligence Committee and sits on the
for the Iranian operation.
"It's pretty hard for some of us
who were elected and are Republi-
can leaders to get out front when
those in the president's Cabinet are
sort of hiding from the issue,' he
said, explaining his difficulty in sup-
porting the president on the secret
Iranian operation.
Mr. Dole said the dispute between
Mr. Shultz and former National Se-
curity Adviser Robert McFarlane
over whether the secretary of state
was informed of the operation "cre-
ates a real problem for a lot of us ...
who trust the president and want to
see the president out of this mess -
and it is a mess. It was a mistake."
Mr. Shultz has characterized his
knowledge of the Iranian affair as
"fragmentary;' while Mr. McFar-
lane, who initially led efforts to open
U.S. channels to Iran, has said Mr.
Shultz was repeatedly briefed on all
the details.
Mr. Dole would not say whether
Mr. Shultz or other presidential ad-
visers should resign. But he said,
"Right now they ought to circle the
wagons - or let a couple wagons go
over the cliff.
House Foreign Affairs Committee,
wants the operation to be "public re-
cord," sources said.
"He's been having regular hear-
ings on the Middle East and he's got-
ten statement after statement that
they [the administration] aren't giv-
ing anything to Iran," said the
source. "He feels they've misled the
committee."
The House panel will hold addi-
tional hearings in early December,
when Mr. Shultz and Mr. McFarlane
are expected to testify. Some of those
hearings might be closed.
Following Friday's hearings on
Capitol Hill, House Majority Leader
Jim Wright said Iran paid more than
$12 million for weapons from the
United States, depositing the pay-
ments in a Swiss bank account.
The Texas Democrat said 1,000 of
2,008 anti-tank TOW missiles
shipped to Iran were assembled in
February in San Antonio, Texas, and
the rest were shipped separately.
He said "several other countries"
besides the United States and Israel
were involved in shipping weapons
to Iran, but he would not identify
them. The shipments, he said, were
made with "the condoning of the
United States and the complicity of
the United States in some instances."
Mr. Casey assured House mem-
bers that the president has not or-
dered the CIA to withhold informa-
tion from ongress_about, any other
secret operations, according to Mr.
ht.
Wright.
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2,
Responding to allegations that Mr.
Reagan broke the law by failing to
inform Congress of the arms ship-
ments, Mr. Casey on Friday said,
'Oh, no, no, no"
Rep. Henry Hyde, Illinois Repub-
ican and a member of the intelli-
ence panel, said he did not think Mr.
eagan broke the law. But he said
he president was "unwise" to keep
he policy a secret from Congress
or so long.
In a letter to the president, Mr
urenberger and Senate Intelli-
ence Committee Vice Chairman
atrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat,
aid that "excessive compartmental-
ization of this program may have led
to mistakes in its formulation and
implementation,"
Senate Democratic leader Robert
Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, said
he has prepared legislation that
would require any covert intelli-
gence operation originating at the
White House to be subject to con-
gressional oversight.
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