'CLEANHOUSE,' KEY REPUBLICANS URGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201650026-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: December 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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LOS ANGELES TIMES
1 December 1986
`Clean House,' Key
Republicans Urge
Dole Wants Watergate-Type Inquiry;
Lugar Asks Reagan to Change Staff
By JACK NELSON, Times Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON-Senate Re-
publican leaders warned President
Reagan on Sunday that he must
immediately "clean house" and
make a full disclosure of the Irani-
an arms-and-hostages scandal if he
is to retain control of his presiden-
cy.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole
(R-Kan.) urged Reagan to call a
special session of Congress so that a
joint House-Senate committee
could be appointed to conduct a
Watergate- type investigation. And
Senate Foreign Relations Commit -
tee Chairman Richard G. Lugar
(R-Ind.), declaring that Reagan's
foreign policy is in "shambles," said
the President needs a new White
House staff and may need new
Cabinet members.
Staffers Agree on Urgency
Responding to an interviewer's
ot rule ut
question Lu ar di
dismissing a ense Secretary Cas-
par W, Weinberger and MA flirac
tor William J. Casey, as well as two
officials whom some of Rea an's
longtime associates reportedly
Have targeted or removal-White
House Chief of Staff Donald T.
end Secretar of State
George P. Shultz.
And two senior White House
aides, speaking on condition they
not be identified, said they agreed
that the crisis gripping the Reagan
presidency is so severe that he
must immediately order a full dis-
closure and the appointment of an
independent counsel to investigate
the possibility that laws may have
been broken.
So far, only two officials have
been removed because of the scant
dal. Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter,
who as Reagan's national security
adviser directed the Iranian opera-
tion out of the White House, re-
signed last Tuesday, and Marine Lt.
Col. Oliver L. North, a Poindexter
aide on the White House National
Security Council staff, was fired.
North has been identified as the
principal field operator of a pro-
gram of selling arms to Iran in
return for the release of American
hostages held in Lebanon by Irani -
an-backed terrorists, and then di-
verting up to $30 million of the
arms sale profits to the contras
fighting to overthrow the Marx-
ist- led government of Nicaragua.
At least three investigations of
the mushrooming controversy
have already been launched:
-The Justice Department,
which has brought the FBI into the
case, about 10 days ago began the
inquiry that revealed the link be-
tween the Iranian arms sales and
the contras.
-A special review board named
by Reagan will meet with the
.President and the other members
of the National Security Council
today as it begins its study of the
NSC's operations. The panel is
headed by former Sen. John Tower
(R-Tex.) and includes former Sen.
Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine) and
former national security adviser
Brent Scowcroft.
-The Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee is expected to begin hearing
testimony today.
Fears 15-20 Committees
Dole urged Reagan to call Con-
gress into session next week to
form a special committee that,
apart from having members from
both the House and the Senate,
would function as the Senate Select
Committee did during the Water-
gate scandal. That committee,
chaired by the late Sen. Sam Ervin
(D-N.C.), turned up the White
House taping system and other
evidence that implicated President
Richard M. Nixon in a cover-up and
forced him to resign.
Dole, interviewed on ABC's
"This Week With David Brinkley,"
warned that if Reagan waits until
January, "we're going to have 15 or
20 committees investigating this
problem."
Asked about Dole's proposal,
Reagan declined to commit him-
self. As he boarded a plane to
return to Washington from his
California ranch, Reagan said,
"We'll do everything necessary to
get at the truth, and then we'll
make the truth known."
Dan Howard, a White House
sVMkesman, said of Dole's sugges-
ti "It's a novel idea. We simply
ba`\'en't had time to consider it."
Congress has adjourned until
next month. when a new Congress
will be sworn in. Only Reagan
could call Congress back into ses-
sion before then.
`Crisis Atmosphere'
Senate Democratic Leader Rob-
ert C. Byrd of West Virginia oppos-
es a special congressional session,
saying he favors waiting until
January, when the Democrats will
control the Senate. A special ses-
sion of Congress, Byrd said on
CBS's "Face the Nation," would
only "contribute to a crisis atmos-
phere and would not necessarily
move us toward a timely resolution
of this crisis."
+*wHyrd urged Reagan instead to
instruct Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III
to seek an independent counsel to
investigate whether any laws had
been broken. "The President is in
trouble," Byrd said. "The presiden-
cy itself is being weakened. This
thing is not going to go away by
itself, and the quicker the Presi-
dent can take action himself and
appear to be in control, the better
off he will be and we will all be."
White House spokesman How-
ard refused to comment on the
appointment of an independent
counsel. "Anything we say on
that," he told reporters, "will come
through the Justice Department."
The attorney general can ask the
federal courts to appoint an inde-
pendent counsel to investigate a
probable violation of law by a high
Administration official or to take
over an internal investigation that
might raise even the appearance of
a political or financial conflict of
interest.
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A, .
Although a Reagan confidant
and longtime Meese associate has
told The Times that a decision has
already been made to seek an
independent counsel, Meese has
not yet announced the decision.
The Justice Department's official
position is that it is still in charge of
the investigation and that a deci-
sion to appoint outside counsel has
not yet been reached.
Lugar, appearing on NBC's
"Meet the Press," insisted that
Reagan must promptly "clean
house of all the malefactors" in his
Administration.
"I think he needs a new staff at
the White House," Lugar said. "He
may need new Cabinet members.
He clearly needs a new National
Security Council."
Asked if Casey, Shultz and
Weinberger should be removed,
the generally softspoken Lugar
declared: "I won't get into each and
every Cabinet member, but I
wouldn't rule out replacing any of
those. It seems to me at this point
the President has to have a true
new beginning, a new Administra-
tion."
Only then, Lugar said, can the
Administration address its "serious
foreign policy problems-in Cen-
tral America, in the Middle East,
terrorism across the board. We are
in danger from the Soviets when
they see us this vulnerble.-
'Old Men' vs. 'Young Bulls'
Lugar said the White House is
split between "the old men who are
all defending each other and the
young bulls who want to get on
with it.. .. I'm with the young in
this case. We'd better get on with
it.,,
Rep. Richard Cheney (R-Wyo.),
a member of the House Intelligence
Committee who was White House
chief of staff under President Ger-
ald R. Ford, said he did not have
enough information to know
whether Regan should resign as
chief of staff. But Shultz, he said in
a Cable News Network interview,
probably is secure.
"I think it has reached the point
now where he is likely to stay,"
Cheney said, "partly because his
reputation on Capitol Hill is a good
one, partly because he's perceived
.. , around the country as a fairly
strong figure and did at least object
to the policy that's now come under
so much criticism."
Senate Intelligence Committee
Chairman. Dave_D_urenber er
Minn.) said his committee, which
begins it-s-
ts investigation in- to the
scans al today, is concerned about
news repoi hat Poindexter and
North shredded documents before
leaving their; ^;~obs _~He said the
committee wrote the President a
Leiter asking that he ensure that
all of the records in control of his
Administration be preserved for
future investigations ei-t Herby
committee or any other."
The committee, Durenberger
said, will spend two weeks collect-
ing information from a variety of
officials and former officials in-
cluding Robert C. McFarlane,
Poindexter's predecessor as the
President's national security advis-
er. It was under McFarlane, who
left office last December, that the
Iranian arms sales began.
Only then, Durenberger said,
will he committee decide whether
to ca 1 CIA Director Case and
other Cabinet-level officials
Times staff writers James Ger-
stenzang and Don Irwin contribut-
ed to this story.
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