Reagan Not Told of Plans--Fitzwater

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE —  President Reagan’s top spokesman said today that Reagan was never briefed on his aides’ plans to use Iranian arms sale profits for covert operations.

Marlin Fitzwater said a memo cited by the chairman of the Senate investigating committee does not support such an allegation.

Speaking to reporters aboard the President’s airplane en route to Indianapolis, Fitzwater disputed as inaccurate the characterization of a White House memo Sunday by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii).

Inouye said that document, written by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and dated Sept. 15, 1986, notes that then-National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter told Reagan of plans for use of the “residuals” from the arms sales to undertake covert operations around the world. (Story on Page 11.) Residuals is the word North used to describe profits from the Iran arms sale.

Fitzwater declined to say whether Reagan had ever seen the memo but insisted that Reagan had never been briefed on any diversion of funds. He contended that the memo did not describe a diversion of profits or use of the “residuals.”

‘Marlin Told You’

Arriving at the Indianapolis airport, reporters asked Reagan whether he had been briefed on the memo. He said only, “Marlin told you.”

Republican members of the congressional committees raised the issue of the memo in the hearings today, with two members saying they could find no reference to use of arms profits in the memo.

“I’ve read that memo very carefully this morning and I don’t find any reference in it at all to the notion of generating profits from selling arms to Iran,” Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.) said. “I would suggest the President could have read it cover to cover and never had any knowledge whatsoever of a diversion.”

Inouye responded that North had testified that covert initiatives described in the memo were to be paid for from the arms profits. “I did not say if the President was briefed. I said we would have to ask the admiral (Poindexter) first,” the senator said.

Inouye also said that he made the statement “to make it very clear to the Administration that they will have to answer this. I did not want to suddenly thrust this in their faces. . . . I thought I was playing it rather fair with the Administration.”

‘Now Up to the Admiral’

Sen. James A. McClure (R-Ida.) said, “I’ve read that memo very carefully, and there is absolutely no reference to the use of funds in that memo.”

Inouye responded: “The senator is absolutely correct. . . . We will have to wait until the admiral gives us an answer. It’s now up to the admiral to say, Did he brief the President, and if so, what did he tell the President?”