WEBSTER CANNOT RECALL BEING WARNED ON NORTH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504890001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 9, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504890001-8
A~CLE~~~~ LU5 HNGELES TIMES
~ P~E~~ r~ 9 Apri 1 1987
Webster Cannot Recall
Being Warned on North
cT By RONALD J. OSTROW, Times Staf f Writer
WASHINGTON-FBI Director
William H. Webster was advised
indirectly by a Justice Department
official last Oct. 30-nearly a
month before the department be-
gan investigating Lt. Col. Oliver L.
North-that classified information
should be withheld from North
because he might be involved in a
criminal probe of U.S. activities in
Central America, the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee was told
Wednesday.
Webster, testifying at confirma-
tion hearings on his nomination to
be CIA director, acknowledged that
he had initialed the FBI memoran-
dum reporting the recommends-
tion, which was written the same
day that he agreed to delay an FBI
investigation into efforts to supply
Nicaraguan rebels. However, he
said he did not recall reading the
memo..
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)
questioned Webster aggressively
on why the memo was not "a
danger signal or a warning flag" Lo
bring the FBI into the Iran-contra
investigation earlier. But Webster
said he did not remember it on Nov.
2I, when Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese
III first discussed the Iran inquiry
with him.
"I have to tell you in all candor it
was not on my mind; ' Webster
said.
Webster added later that the
memo cited no evidence, saying:
"There was nothing in that memo
that pointed to illegal activities of
U.S. officials."
Meese has come under criticism
for conducting an informal inquiry
into the Iran-contra case before
enlisting the FBI in the investiga-
tion, adelay that some officials
have said gave key ,figures time to
alter documents and conceal ques-
tionableactivities.
Despite Specter's declaration
that "the language [of the memo]
just can't be blown away," and the
criticism by committee Chairman
David L. Boren (D-Okla.) of "a
very naive approach" to securing
investigative documents, Web-
ster's prospects for confirmation by
the Senate appear bright.
Webster disclosed at the hearing
that he has proposed to President
Reagan that-if he is confirmed for
the post-the CIA director no lon-
ger begiven Cabinet rank. He said
that would minimize the perception
that the CIA director is "a political
officer of the President."
Webster said that Reagan
agreed. At the same time, Webster
said, he was assured of having
"one-on-one" contact with Reagan
if he is confirmed.
Former CIA Director William J.
Casey, who resigned after having
an operation for a cancerous brain
tumor, was elevated to Cabinet
statue when he took the job after
having served as Reagan's cam-
paign manager.
The memo about North, first
brought to light at the hearing
Wednesday, was written by an
unidentified FBI agent on the
agent's conversation with Mary C.
Lawton, an intelligence expert who
heads the Justice Department's
office of intelligence policy and
review.
It was called to the committee's
attention by Lawrence E. Walsh,
the independent counsel investi-
gating the Iran-contra case, but.
Webster noted that the FBI had
supplied the document to Walsh.
A Justice Department official
said that Lawton had based her
recommendation on newspaper ar-
ticles relating to contra matters.
Those articles included remarks by
some congressmen calling for ap-
pointment of an independent coun-
sel to investigate various Adminis-
trationofficials, including North.
Meese did not know of Lawton's
recommendation, according to the
official, who asked to remain un-
identified.
Specter pointed out that the
memo, the contents of which are
classified and were not released,
showed Lawton had recommended
also that information North sought
should not be provided to his
colleagues at the National Security
Council because they might give it
to North.
"Aren't those two matters of
sufficient importance that you
would recollect" the memo? Spec-
terasked.
"I already told you," Webster
shot back, displaying his only testi-
ness of the day. "I don't recollect."
He explained that the memo was
only for his information, like doz-
ens of others he said he receives
daily, and required no action on his
part.
Webster disclosed that he had
serious reservations about North's
"influence at the NSC." He charac-
terized North, who was fired from
the NSC last November and is a
prime suspect in the Iran-contra
investigation, as a "gong ho" indi-
vidual with "tunnel vision" who
was "result-oriented without a
broader-gauged approach to the
results of what he dces."
Webster said he had discussed
those concerns "in general terms"
with Meese. "He was aware of Ollie
North and the kind of personality
he was," Webster said. Although
he had held those concerns for "a
long time," Webster added: "I don't
want to suggest we were panicked"
about North.
Webster, citing frustration in the
executive branch over getting the.
American hostages out of Iran, said
he "had ill ease" when the NSC
"became the focal point for opera-
tional" assignments. "It never
seemed to me that the NSC was
appropriate for operations," he
said. "The people largely lacked
experience and the capability" to
run such operations.
He said he was concerned that
"these think-tanks might turn into
action tanks."
Webster was questioned about
his decision last fall to delay, at the
request of Meese, a federal investi-
gation in Miami of Southern Air
Transport, a small air service in-
volved in the Iran operation that
also delivered covert aid to the
contras. He said he believed the
delay was justified to prevent com-
promising the Iran effort at a time
when there was a chance hostages
might still be freed.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504890001-8