PANEL LIKELY TO GRILL WEBSTER ON FBI ACTION IN NORTH CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: April 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030003-0
I uN PAGE 8 Apr! I 198/
19
Panel likely to grill Webster
on FBI action in North case
By John McCaslin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A delay by the FBI in securing the
National Security Council office of
Lt. Col. Oliver North last November
is expected to be a key element of
today's hearing on the nomination of
William Webster as CIA director.
"'Ib say he's not apprehensive is
not correct," William M. Baker, an
assistant FBI director, said of Mr.
Webster, current FBI director nom-
inated March 3 by President Reagan
to head the CIA.
When the Iran-Contra affair
erupted last November, Attorney
General Edwin Meese III decided to
leave the FBI out of the initial inves-
tigation. At that time vital doc-
uments were destroyed by Col.
North and his secretary, Fawn Hall.
"Given hindsight, everyone in-
volved knows it would have been bet-
ter [for the FBI] to get there first,"
Mr. Baker said. "Timeliness is a fac-
tor."
Mr. Webster, nominated to suc-
ceed the gravely ill William ('agcv
who resigned Feb. 2, will be ques-
tioned in an open hearing today be-
fore the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence.
Lawmakers also are expected to
ask Mr. Webster about his decision
to honor a request from Mr. Meese
to delay an FBI probe of Southern
Air 'Itansport Inc., a Miami-based
air cargo firm once operated by the
CIA and now linked to efforts to sup-
ply arms and other equipment to the
Nicaraguan resistance.
Mr. Baker denied that a "strain"
exists between Mr. Webster and the
attorney general over the incidents.
Sources within the department re-
cently disclosed, in published re-
ports, that this is the case.
"I deny that a strain exists; the
director has assured me that no
strain exists;" Mr. Baker said.
Mr. Webster, questioned by re-
porters Dec. 4 about the Iran-Contra
affair, defended Mr. Meese's conduct
during the early phase of the inves-
tigation when he said it had not yet
been determined whether "criminal
implications" existed.
"The attorney general got the
ticket to find out exactly what had
taken place. It was not in the context
of any unlawful conduct but to get it
straight," said Mr. Webster, adding
the FBI was called in as soon as pos-
sible wrongdoing was established
by the Justice Department's
criminal division.
Col. North was fired Nov 25 for
his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
Mr. Webster's apprehension going
into today's hearing "generates a
concern to be well-briefed, to have all
the facts, to be as candid as possible,
and to provide as much information
as he can to the committee;' Mr. Ba-
ker said.
The bureau opened an inquiry
into Southern Air last Oct. 8, shortly
after an airplane loaded with arms
was shot down over Nicaragua. The
investigation was suddenly sus-
pended three weeks later, one day
after Col. North complained to Rear
Adm. John Poindexter, who was then
national security adviser, about the
consequences of such a probe. Adm.
Poindexter resigned the day Col.
North was fired.
Mr. Webster, who has bipartisan
support in Congress for his nine
years at the helm of the FBI, was
tapped by Mr. Reagan after other
candidates, including former Sen.
John Tower, Texas Republican,
turned down the post.
And while the former Missouri
federal judge undoubtedly will face
tough questions on Capitol Hill, law-
makers expect him to get a nod of
approval after the conclusion of to-
day's testimony.
Sen. David Boren the Oklahoma
Democrat who heads the intelli-
gence panel, has said he has "no rea-
son to believe" that Mr. Webster's an-
swers will not be satisfactory.
But Sen. William (ohec-, Maine
Republican and committee vice
chairman, said yesterday that while
he knows of "no new stumbling
blocks, Mr. Webster will undergo
rigorous questioning"
Among the concerns committee
members expect to bring up with
Mr. Webster include charges
brought by a former FBI informant
that two agents broke into a Dallas
church office that housed files be-
longing to a group opposed to the
administration's policies in-Central
America. Similar unsolved break-
ins have occurred in other parts of
the country.
Mr. Webster also is expected to
respond to allegations that the FBI
suppressed evidence concerning
former Labor Secretary Ray Dono-
van and his relationship with organ-
ized crime, as well as to criticism of
the bureau for its 1980 Abscam in-
vestigation.
Sen. Chic Hecht, Nevada Republi
can, said he will ask Mr. Webster
about an alleged FBI cover-up of the
illicit activities of former Las Vegas
FBI chief Joseph Yablonsky, de-
scribed by the Las Vegas Sun as
"Webster's very own Ollie North."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030003-0