European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 13, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday november 13,1966 columns William Buckley Reagan losing credibility Over Iran arms Deal what a mess one Worrick Aboul Many things Foremost among Ihm inc credibility of the president of the United slates. When a month ago we All Learned that a Little disinformation had been beamed into Libya and thai this had been picked up and innocently relayed Back tothe United slates resulting in false information mov ing from the government of a to the government of b Back in the people of a. One could tighten one s Bell Natl Vay. Well in an age of Ini Iam global communication these things ju1i happen. Bui what has now happened it that he government of the United states at the lop level the office of the president has been laugh up in Flat deception. Ugly stuff inc More so As inc Story unfold is. We begin with the reiteration isl May of . Policy the . Government will make no con Cessions to terrorists. It will not pay ransoms release prisoner change its policies or agree w Oiher acts Thiol might encourage additional  we now learn that even while that statement was being made the National Security Council had made a secret arrangement with inc government of Israel. This called for the delivery of arms no less to Iran. Now the preliminary justification forgoing this was the argument thai the United states ought to gel in there an Pilch for support by the successor government to Kho Meini s. The argument for ingratiating ourselves with the future governors of Iran is certainly a sound one after All we managed to become close fiends to the successor governments to h Iller s and Tojo s but the arms Deal in question was approved by Khomeini himself so that to the Isle no we were being plausible in was something like gelling Hitler s approval of in Deal with the july Joplin Rio kill Hiler. What then were we up in. Sending arms to Iran this is inc moment when offi Rivil Washington clears its Horai. Well we were also just coincide cnally involved in trying to get Iran s Hilp in Acpal railing our hostages because our five hostages were being held by an Iran Orion Iii terrorist group. To help us out on this dissimulation we go from Shimon Peres who was prime minister when the arms were shipped from Israel a Marc loudly fatuous couple of paragraphs about compassion and loyalty. Israel. When to comes to saving the life of any individual whether in israeli or american considers it part of a democratic Way of life to respect human life and human Freedom. We Jav Mil submitting to terror one should never ignore the value or the safely of a single person no Mailer what his citizenship May  us huh. With one conspicuous exception Israel has been the world s Leader in Ihu no concessions to Titor iils policy and in a paid huge dividends. Trifle with an israeli and you arc most Likely to become a late James resign terrorist. But this time around in addition to helping the . Cover. The israeli homily distracts attention from inc fact that Israel made a profit from the arms Deal and that the arms sen up to Iran were replaced by More modern equipment. Not bad. Meanwhile we learn that the stale department and the defense department were infuriated by this subversion of . Policy on dealing with terrorists. Even so one official of the slate department slipped into the general discussion the observation that for a year and a half Iran has gone easy in the terrorist business. Prom which in is hard to know what exactly to conclude unless it is thai we should Send arms to Libya Syria and the Flo on the grounds thai we have discovered a wonderful formula for eliminating terror ism Down the line in might be argued that Llie very Best Way of eliminating terrorism from the Mideast is10 ship to the terrorists the slate of Israel. In defense of or Reagan it is Only fair to acknowledge that in is not easy in the same room with the wife of a hostage to adhere to the transcendent position we do not bargain with terrorists. But no one Ever said it was easy to be the president and what we now Haveis a country that wonders whether in is Safe to rely on the word of the government. And of course we have in Europe whih we have been pressing to take our own position to be Tough with terrorist governments governments openly scornful of american credibility. Or. Reagan will now find it As Tough to ask Europe for sanctions against terrorist governments As he found in Lough to ask for sanctions against the soviet Union after ending inc Grain embargo soon after taking office. Meanwhile we have got two hostages Back and endangered the lives and Liberty of who knows How Many More americans at the hands of terrorists who have Learned thai terrorism pays. Uru Vart up Eia syn Fitl Deal with Iran sets stage for partisan struggle the last thing president Reagan needs in the final two years of his presidency is a running fight with inc democratic majorities in Congress Over inc con duct of foreign policy. Yet he is now in danger of encouraging even of provoking such a partisan Strug Gle with ims secret efforts to Trade weapons to Iran for american hostages in Lebanon. It s Odd that the president has chosen such a Bat tie ground in Iran of All places the Nightmare of presi Dent Carter s final failures Reagan despite All his promises not o make deals with terrorists has been caught in this barter attempt and refuses to explain even to his own Cabinet what he was doing. The Secretary of slate George Shultz and the Secre tary of defense Caspar Weinberger opposed the idea when they found out Aboul it late in the game. They could scarcely believe that the president had authorized the National Security Council in the White House to Send Robert Mcfarlane a former National Security adviser to Iran with an Irish passport and a Bible in one hand and a cake in the other to Deal with somebody Here for the hostages after the arms had gone to Tehran. Also it now appears thai there was another charac Ter Marine la. Col. Oliver North involved in the Ira Nian Deal. He also worked with the administration on coven operations to Send arms to tiie Anli sandinista rebels in Nicaragua. The democrats having kept control of the House and gained it in the Senate in this month s elections naturally want to look into All his. And they Aren t Likely to Stop at the iranian question. They want to know not Only who North is but what role he played for he National Security Council in Nicaragua and in the air raid on Libya and what adm. John Poindexter the National Security adviser had in mind Wilh his disinformation policy on Libya. The president is saying that All this is out of Bounds. Shutlz and Weinberger have been told to shut up Aboul Iran and Congress is being Laid that the activities of Poindeter and North Are protected by executive privilege and that they cannot be questioned by the new democratic chairmen of inc various congressional committees. This is obviously a formula for a two year confrontation Between the president and Congress precisely Al the time when the pics Ideal needs the support of the democratic majority for his efforts to carry on he much More important negotiations Wilb the soviet Union for the control of nuclear weapons. The president is in a weak position to win such an argument with Congress. He had not been Able to explain his Swap with the russians of an american reporter for a spy. He has been embarrassed by the National Security Council s efforts to wage the disinformation Campaign on Libya. The shooting Down of an american plane carrying weapons to the Nicara Guan rebels has seemed to violate his promises to con Gress and at the Summit meeting with Mikhail Gorba Chev in Iceland the president got mixed up by offering to eliminate not merely All ballistic missiles but All nuclear missiles As Well. Sen. Sam Nunn d-ga., the new head of the Senate armed services committee is still trying to untangle this Blunder. It is the combination of All these events since the air raid on Libya that has encouraged the democrats to use their new investigative authority to find out what s going on and who is directing american foreign policy the slate department or some unknown and unavailable officials in the White House. The democrats have everything to gain Politi Cally and Little to lose in such a fight with the chief executive they Are offering to cooperate with the president on reaching a nuclear Compromise with inc so Viet Union provided he takes them into his Confidence. But this is precisely what the president is refusing to do. He is appealing for a bipartisan foreign policy but Only on his own terms on the understanding that the democrats Back his Star wars nuclear defense pro Gram and not ask questions about his Covert operation sin Iran Nicaragua and elsewhere. It is Clear that the democrats Are not going along with this proposal. Accordingly unless it u amended the Outlook is for a prolonged partisan stalemate with the nation losing out in the end. No Tom Tun. Una St not