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Subject: Roots of Bush's Iran Credibility Gap; Weinberger Note Is Latest Challenge to
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 04:35:15 EST
Message-ID: <15.1992Nov2.043515@AmeriCast.com>

Roots of Bush's Iran Credibility Gap; Weinberger Note Is Latest
Challenge to President Bush's latest Iran-contra credibility
problem had its roots in a 1987 interview and an autobiography
published that same year in which he attempted, while vice
president, to distance himself from the then-unfolding Reagan ad-
ministration scandal.

In both the book and the interview, Bush said he was "out of the
loop" when the plan to sell arms to Iran was formulated and
unaware that the secretaries of state and defense strongly op-
posed it.

In an Aug. 5, 1987, interview with The Washington Post, Bush
said: "If I'd sat there and heard (Secretary of State) George
Shultz and Cap (Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger) express
it (opposition) strongly, maybe I would have had a stronger view.
But when you don't know something, it's hard to react. . . . We
were not in the loop."

In his campaign autobiography he wrote: "In retrospect there were
signals along the way that gave fair warning that the Iran ini-
tiative was headed for trouble. As it turned out, George Shultz
and Cap Weinberger had serious doubts, too. If I'd known that and
asked the President to call a meeting of the NSC (National Secu-
rity Council), he might have seen the project in a different
light, as a gamble doomed to failure." In his 1988 campaign for
the presidency and over the past four years of his own adminis-
tration, Bush has had to deal with a series of Iran-contra docu-
ments and testimony that challenged his 1987 statements. In most
cases he was able to ignore the new material or supply a response
that muddied the issue.

A Weinberger note, describing a Jan. 7, 1986, White House meeting
to discuss the Iran arms sales, was released Friday in an Iran-
contra indictment of Weinberger. It provides the most direct con-
tradiction to Bush's statements made five years ago.

The note makes clear that Weinberger considered the deal for
sending 4,000 TOW antitank missiles to Iran in exchange for the
release of five American hostages as an arms-for-hostages swap.
He also writes that he and Shultz objected to it and that Bush
was present and apparently showed his approval.

Back in 1987, after his Post interview, Bush was asked about the
Jan. 7, 1986, meeting and an aide responded, "(Bush) doesn't re-
call it as a showdown session, and it's possible he was not there
for all of it." In succeeding years, Bush has had to revise that.
White House counsel C.  Boyden Gray last month said only that
"records show" Bush attended the meeting.

Faced with the Weinberger note, Bush has modified what he knew
about Shultz and Weinberger opposing the deal. Yesterday on CNN's
"Newsmaker Sunday," Bush said, "I didn't know . . . how strongly
they felt about it, that there was a kind of ravaging fight going
on, and I did know, and I've said that, and I've testified to
that."

For the past three days, on "Larry King Live" and elsewhere, Bush
has been arguing that there is nothing new about the Weinberger
note by reading about the Jan. 7, 1986, meeting from the report
of the House-Senate committees that investigated the Iran-contra
affair.

But that congressional report describes Weinberger and Shultz as
continuing "to object strenuously" to the Iranian arms sales.

The report also introduces another little-noticed conflict with
Bush's autobiography and past statements.  It says that at a Jan.
6, 1986, national security briefing of the president, which Bush
attended, it was "decided there would be a full NSC (National
Security Council) meeting the following day (Jan. 7) on the pro-
posal" to sell arms to Iran. That information conflicts directly
with Bush's repeated claim that there never was an NSC meeting on
the Iran initiative.02:15 11-02C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)