The FBI on Tuesday entered the investigation into the Reagan
administration`s role in the shipment of U.S. weapons to Iran and the diversion of up to $30 million to buy arms for the anti-Sandinista contra forces in Nicaragua.
The inquiry, disclosed by President Reagan, could confront the administration with a variety of legal problems, ranging from criminal conduct by individual officials to broader violations of congressional restrictions on the transfer of weapons.
Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese said the Justice Department was examining whether laws were broken. He said a determination on whether criminal charges would be filed depends on ”precisely what was done, and precisely who did it.”
Two federal law enforcement sources said the FBI was brought into the inquiry by Meese, who requested assistance in a telephone call to FBI Director William Webster.
In a press conference at the White House, Meese singled out Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who was dismissed Tuesday as an aide to the National Security Council, as a subject of the inquiry.
An official confirmed that North, who was described as having dealt directly with the Iranians and Israeli middlemen in the arms deals, has been questioned extensively by Justice Department lawyers.
Meese also said Vice Adm. John Poindexter, who quit Tuesday as Reagan`s national security adviser, and Robert McFarlane, Poindexter`s predecessor who headed covert dealings with ”moderate” factions in Iran, both were aware that money from the sale of those weapons was diverted to the contras and did not take steps to stop it.
He said no other administration officials were aware that money was being funneled into arms for the contras.
In addition to an investigation of whether individuals committed criminal acts, Meese indicated the inquiry would encompass possible violations of the so-called Boland Amendment, in which Congress barred the administration from using third countries to provide military assistance to the contras.
Congressional sources also said that Israel may have violated U.S. export control laws by transferring weapons to Iran without prior approval from the Reagan administration.
In the administration`s first public acknowledgement of Israel`s role, Meese said ”representatives of Israel” shipped American arms to Iran in the fall of 1985 without Reagan`s advance knowledge, but that Reagan approved later shipments.
Early Wednesday, the Israeli government acknowledged for the first time it had shipped weapons to Iran at the request of the U.S. government.
Meese said Israeli middlemen siphoned off $10 million to $30 million collected from the Iranians on later shipments and transferred the money to a Swiss bank account used to buy arms for the contras in Nicaragua.
He said no American official handled any money, but White House sources said North supervised the transfer of funds and the subsequent purchase of arms for the contras at a time Congress had prohibited U.S. military aid to them.
(In Managua, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega charged that diverting the money to the contras was ”totally illegal.” He said his government would file a formal protest with the U.S.
(Ortega also said Reagan was trying ”to save face” by sacrificing Poindexter and North.)
Reagan may have violated the arms export law by failing to notify Congress of Israel`s unauthorized shipments of arms to Iran, but that section of the law does not provide any penalties for the President.
Israel, however, could be prohibited from receiving future military aid from the U.S., a prospect that several congressional sources said was extremely unlikely.
Justice Department officials said they do not have enough information to determine what laws may have been violated, but one official said: ”It could be up to half a dozen laws.”
Several members of Congress and outside legal experts called for a special prosecutor to investigate the possibility that laws were broken by administration officials.
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Morton Halperin, director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said a special prosecutor is needed because Meese approved the arms deals with Iran last January when Reagan began official U.S. involvement.
”I think we already know enough to know that laws were broken and that high officials were involved,” said Halperin, a national security aide in the Nixon administration. ”The fact is that the attorney general told the President it was legal and now he is in a position of asking who knows what happened and who should have known.”
Meese rejected the need for a special prosecutor or a congressional inquiry, saying: ”We are not investigating ourselves. We are investigating certain people within the administration.”
The only person identified as a subject of the inquiry was North, who made several trips to Europe and Israel and at least one trip to Iran in connection with the arms deals.
Meese said North was the only administration official involved in the siphoning of millions for the anti-Sandinista rebels.
When asked about North`s role, Meese said: ”We are looking into the legal aspects of it as to whether there is any criminality. I am not prepared at this time to make a legal conclusion, because that is still under consideration.”
A Justice Department source said North was questioned by a team of lawyers for 12 hours last Saturday and then he was questioned by Meese on Sunday. It was not learned whether North was questioned under oath.
Some legal experts raised the possibility that North may have violated the Arms Export Control Act, which requires private citizens to obtain a license to ship arms to another country. They said North also could be accused of conspiring to defraud the government by participating in a scheme in which all of the money paid by Iran for the U.S. arms was not given to the U.S.
Meese said the U.S. got $12 million, which covered the actual cost of the arms, but that documents indicated that Iran paid between $10 million and $30 million more than that amount for the weapons.
The investigation started as an effort to pull together different facts provided by various administration officials as they prepared for
congressional briefings last Friday.
Meese said the ”hint of a possibility” that some money from the arms deals had been used for other purposes came out in the review of intercepted communications, but he did not identify them.
Justice Department lawyers questioned several individuals over the weekend in what one official called ”an information-gathering mode.” The official said he did not think the statements were taken under oath.
”I have the distinct impression that the investigation was broadened today,” the official said Tuesday, referring to the involvement of the FBI.
Meese said he was not certain who originated the idea of using the arms sales to raise money for the contras. He also said he could not say whether the actions by the Israeli middlemen had been sanctioned by their government or whether Israeli officials were aware that the money was being transferred to an account on behalf of the contras.
”As far as things that are happening other than involving United States persons or United States government officials that we have talked to, we don`t know all the facts,” Meese said.
”That is why I am being very careful to say that, as best we know, they were representatives of Israel. Whether they were specifically authorized by the government or not is one of the things I assume we will find out.”