Still Probing For Answers

By George Russell

If any single issue in the Iranscam mess could still cause irreparable harm to the Reagan presidency, it is the purportedly illegal diversion of funds from Iranian arms sales to the Nicaraguan contra rebels. Ronald Reagan has denied any knowledge of the labyrinthine transfer, via Swiss bank accounts, of at least $23 million to the contras. The President repeated his denial during last week's televised speech, and the Tower commission discovered nothing that directly contradicted his assertion.

Nonetheless, much about the contra fund diversion remains unknown. Who ordered the diversion, and where did the money go? Answering those questions will be one of the main objectives of the Iranscam independent counsel, Lawrence Walsh, and the Senate and House committees that are also probing the scandal.

Last week all those investigations were plowing ahead, albeit in a jangling fashion. The two congressional committees appeared headed for a sharp conflict in tactics. Senate probers were leaning toward granting limited immunity from prosecution to departed National Security Adviser John Poindexter in exchange for his testimony. This would put the committee on a collision course with both its House counterpart and with Walsh. Said one House committee source: "Immunity could be premature."

The congressional investigators were closer together on another potential dispute. The House committee and the Senate panel announced that they will hold their public hearings on Iranscam jointly, a move that the legislators had earlier rejected. The dates for these hearings have been pushed back twice. Slated to begin early this month, they are now scheduled for late April.

In line with the Administration's stated eagerness to cooperate in full disclosure of the Iranscam mess, Attorney General Edwin Meese publicly came to the aid of the Walsh probe on the ticklish issue of its legal validity. The Walsh investigation was challenged two weeks ago in U.S. district court by attorneys for fired National Security Council Aide Oliver North. They asserted that the broad mandate given to the court-appointed special prosecutor under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act is a violation of the constitutional separation of powers.

Meese announced that in addition to his court-appointed role, Walsh henceforth would head a new Office of Independent Counsel in the Justice Department. The move gives Walsh standing within the Executive Branch and thus, said Meese, provides an "insurance policy" that will allow Walsh's investigation to continue even if the North court challenge is successful. But North's attorneys tried to trump this play by filing a new suit challenging Meese's authority to give Walsh the Justice Department post.

What do the contras say about who supplied them with funds during 1984 and '85, when Congress officially had cut off their U.S. backing? Following a two-day session with a grand jury in Washington, Contra Leader Adolfo Calero declared that retired Generals Richard Secord and John Singlaub had helped the Nicaraguan rebels to "engineer" arms deals worth millions of dollars. Calero also declared that his own contra group, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, had received $32 million from non-American private donors. (Actually, most of that money is known to have come from Saudi Arabia's King Fahd.)

Another probable source of contra money was cited by the Washington Post, which reported that it had obtained documents showing that more than $1.7 million from a foundation set up by Carl Channell, a conservative fund raiser, was sent indirectly to a Swiss bank account known as Lake Resources. North had used the same account to receive some of the proceeds from the Iran arms sales and reportedly to help fund the contras. Still, Calero insisted, his organization never got any money from Iranian arms deals. Said he: "I wish we had. We're $2 million in debt."

With reporting by David Beckwith and Hays Gorey/Washington