SHULTZ SIGNALS DISCORD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900029-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: November 8, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved
ARTICLE APPEARED
3 ON PAGE 4-/ ?,.
Shultz
Signals
Discord
Disagreement Hinted
Over Reported Deals
With Iran on Hostages
For Release 2013/02/19 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900029-5
WASHINGTON POST
8 November 1986
*r and David Hoffman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Secretary of State George P.
Shultz, signaling indirectly his dis-
agreement with the White House,
said yesterday the declared U.S.
policy of refusing to negotiate with
terrorists for the release of Amer-
ican hostages is "the right policy."
Bombarded with questions the
past two days over reports he op-
29sed secret, U.S.-supported arms
shipments to Iran, Shultz repeat-
edly refused to comment directly,
citing a White House statement
that it alone will deal with queries
regarding U.S. dealings with Iran.
"There hasn't been any change in
my posture or the guidance coming
from the White House," Shultz told
reporters en route here from talks
in Vienna. "I don't particularly enjoy
it. I like to say what I think about
subjects," he added.
Nonetheless. he made clear that
he disagrees with a reported White
House decision to undertake secret
negotiations with Iran to gain the
release of American hostages in
Lebanon by offering arms as an in-
ducement. "I don't want to get
down into this business, but I will
say that I think the policy of not
negotiating for hostages is the right
policy," he said.
Shultz appeared to pick his words
carefully to avoid saying whether he
thought that this, is still the admin-
istration's policy or whether he
knew there had been a change in
the case of the American hostages
held in Lebanon.
President Reagan, who wel-
comed freed hostage David P.
Jacobsen at the White House yes-
terday, was asked whether Shultz
protested the operation. "We've all
been working together," Reagan
told reporters. Asked whether
Shultz and Defense Secretary Cas-
par W. Weinberger support the pro-
gram, Reagan said, "Yes."
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes repeatedly refused to com-
ment on reports that the United
States provided military equipment
to Iran as part of an effort to win
release of Jacobsen and fellow hos-
tages.
Senate Minority Leader Robert
C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) criticized the
White House yesterday for failing
to inform Congress of its efforts to
secure release of hostages.
Senate Majority Leader Robert J.
Dole (R-Kan.), warning anew that
he opposes trading arms for hos-
tages, said he has been assured by
White House national security ad-
viser John M. Poindexter that the
administration is "not doing any-
thing improper."
Meanwhile, two key House com-
mittee chairmen, Dante B. Fascell
(D-Fla.) of Foreign Affairs and Lee
P H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) of the intel-
ligence panel, complained in a letter
sent to Reagan Wednesday that
they had tried unsuccessfully for
two days to "obtain the basic facts"
on the reported trip to Iran by for-
mer national security adviser Rob-
ert C. McFarlane.
"The total denial of information
or explanation is simply unaccep-
table." they wrote. The two said the
covert negotiations with Iran may
have jeopardized longstanding for-
eign policy objectives, including re-
fusal to negotiate with terrorists,
remaining neutral in the Iran-Iraq
war and coordination of policy ac-
tions with allies in the region.
:Aides to Fascell and Hamilton
said yesterday they had been unable
to get information from either the
State Department or the Central
Intelligence Agency. "We are being
referred to the White House, and
the White House won't talk," one
aide said.
The Justice Department is re-
viewing pending cases involving
illegal arms shipments to Iran in
case defendants cite news reports
of secret White House involvement
in such shipments.
The department does not expect
to drop cases because, as one Jus-
tice source said, if someone were
shipping arms illegally on the gov-
ernment's behalf, "he already would
have raised that defense."
At the White House yesterday,
Jacobsen appealed emotionally to
the news media to avoid speculation
about U.S. attempts to win freedom
for hostages remaining in Lebanon.
Jacobsen, director of the Amer-
ican University Hospital in Beirut
when he was seized in May 1985,
appeared in the Rose Garden with
the president after a flight from
West Germany. Jacobsen vowed not
to forget the other hostages and
warned reporters that "simple spec-
ulation" could lead to the deaths of
the hostages.
When reporters shouted ques-
tions at the president, Jacobsen
said:
"Please, didn't you hear what I
said at the beginning? Unreasonable
speculation on your part can endan-
ger their lives. I would like to take
some time now and talk, but this is
a day of joy for me. I have my chil-
dren inside. I want to share it with
them."
Referring to two hostages, he
added, "And I want Terry Anderson
to share the same joy with his fam-
ily, and I want Tom Sutherland to
share the joy with his family. And in
the name of God, will you please be
responsible and back oft?"
Continued
npr.lassified and Approved For Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900029-5
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Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/02/19 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900029-5
Reagan echoed the remarks, say-
ing that "there's no way that we can
answer questions having anything
to do with this without endangering
the people we're trying to rescue."
Referring to Jacobsen's 'release,
the president added, "It has to hap-
pen again and again until we have
them all back. And anything that we
tell about all of the things that have
been going on in trying to effect
this rescue endangers the possibil-
ity of further rescues."
Jacobsen, 55, was released Sun-
day after being held by Islamic Ji-
had, a pro-Iranian Shiite group.
Jacobsen had criticized Reagan last
month in a videotaped message for
not doing enough to gain the hos-
tages' release, but yesterday he
praised the president for seeking
their release "from the day that the
first American was taken hostage."
Earlier yesterday, Shultz dis-
cussed Syria and terrorism in his
meetings with French President
Francois Mitterrand, Prime Min-
ister Jacques Chirac and Foreign
Minister Jean-Bernard Raimond
during a brief stopover in Paris on
his way home from Vienna.
Shultz, who met with Soviet For-
eign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze
in Vienna, has been a leading advo-
cate within the administration of
taking a hard-line position toward
terrorists and states that support
terrorist activities. He is pressing
Western European nations to take
joint steps to isolate Syria following
the disclosure of British evidence
that Syria was involved in an at-
tempt to blow up a jumbo jet be-
longing to El Al, the Israeli airliner,
in London last April.
Briefing reporters on his plane,
Shultz went out of his way not to
criticize France for refusing tp join
U.S. and British efforts against Syr-
ia and instead seeking Syrian coop-
eration, in Paris' battle against ter-
rorism.
Shultz noted that France's spe-
cial relationship with Syria and Syr-
ian-dominated Lebanon, a reference
to its former status as the colonial
power there.
"So that differentiates them
somewhat both in the sense of what
they may conclude but also as to
action," he said, referring to con-
sultations under way among Euro-
pean Community (EC) countries
about possible joint action against
Syria. France's relationship with
Syria, he said, might give France
"some special ability perhaps to in-
fluence the situation."
Shultz said the administration is
waiting to see what EC countries
decide in London Monday regarding
Syria before taking further mea-
sures. Washington has withdrawn
its ambassador from Damascus.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000604900029-5