European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 11, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday. February 91, 1937 David Broder Iran arms probes should protect presidency when rep. Dick Cheney a Wyo said inc Oiher Day that a principal objective of All investigations or the Iran arms sales affair should be protecting he Power and privilege of he president it seemed at first an Odd assertion. But after what happened Las week i think that Cheney who served As chief of staff to president Gerald r. Ford before starting his own congressional career May be exactly right. Cheney was disturbed As others were by the new that congressional investigators were interested in Tak ing a look at anything in the president s personal note pertaining to his administration s dealings with the Ayatollah Khomeini. The notes Are being kept by Rea Gan for the Day when he writes his memoirs of the presidency and it is not Clear under the Law whether congressional investigators have a right to acquire them no matter what their relevance to the Case at hand. The supreme court ruled in 1974 that president Nixon had to turn Over the watergate tapes to the special prosecutor weighing criminal charges against various while House officials Many of us who were not the least sympathetic to Nixon worried that the unique necessity to Deal with a president s Effort to cover up criminal actions by his aides would set precedent that would come Back to haunt another chief executive. It turns out that Reagan is the  As soon As the question was raised with the White House about the availability of Reagan s Memoir notes he Gui Short hit aides discussion of the liner Points of the Law and said relevant excerpts or his notes would be made available to investigators. Cheney s reaction was that this May have been Good Public relations but that ultimately trash ing the procedures that protect inc confidentiality of presidential communications serves no one s interest. I m worried Cheney said that no one in the Whitehouse is concerned about the next president and his  after this Reagan Retreat there is goo reason to worry. The tendency most of us have is to Praise Reagan scan Dor in agreeing so readily to cooperate with the investigations. But think for a moment what is involved he re. No one has brought charges of criminality against Ronald Reagan no one has suggested that he is about Louke Over the old Nixon role or the a indicted co Lixon i gators conspirator. But Reagan is yielding a Point that the guilty in ought to the end. These notes that the investigator covet Are not the policy papers that led up to the dumb decision to sell arms to Iran. They Are the president s personal musings on his Middle East policy intended Only As a jog to his memory when he comes to write of Anthony Lewis what he was saying doing and thinking at the time. If such notes Are not personal privileged and protected then surety not one scrap of paper produced in the White House decision making process can be Kep from the scrutiny of curious congressmen or special prosecutors any of us who save string for our own future use in writing about events we have covered can empathize with the indignation a president presumably ought to feel in having such notes snatched out of his files and Matte the subject of subpoena by representatives of a different Branch of inc government. Will they next be talking about subpoena ing presidential doodles and turning them Over to a psychiatrist for analysis this is the kind of Price that is paid when a presi Dent embarks on the course of secretive policy making. That cull of secrecy always in the end entrap the person who lets it set out of control. In Reagan s cose the fatal moment came when designed off on the silly scheme to sell arms to Iran. It was such a dubious proposition it had to be conducted by crooked and lying arms traders Shady retired government officials and military officers and ego trip Ping Junior White House staff members. From the be ginning the president seems to have realized it was so implausible a policy that in had to be kept secret fro Congress statute and precedent to the contrary notwithstanding. Now see what has happened. A president who did not take time to make me Case for his policy to con Gress and the country in Advance sees his retroactive rationale rejected As a face saving fiction. Desperate to reclaim a degree of his damage credibility he makes foolish concessions to the investigators that he would never consider had not his Politi Cal position been so damaged by his previous hyper secrecy. In doing so As Cheney says he weakens his own office and authority thereby compounding the prob Lem from which he is trying to  that is Why paradoxically enough Protection of the presidency has to be As Cheney says a major goal of the investigation of this particular president. Shocking conduct of Federal agents stuns woman she is a 22-year-old woman a Stu Dent in san Diego Calif. Born in Ramal Lah in inc West Bank she came to this country at the age of 3 and is an Ameri can citizen. On the Telephone she sounds Tike California. I shall Call her Evelyn Titan not her real name. "1 was studying alone in the school Library on the night of Jan. 26. At about 8 10 a Large Man 6 feet tall came up and shoved a paper in front of me. It said subpoena and had my name on it. He flashed what looked like a badge and said Evelyn we want you to come Withus he had a gun in a hols ice As his  took my left Arm and handcuffed me to his right Arm. Another Man he also showed a gun came Over and grabbed me roughly by the Riith Arm. They took me out to a dark Burgundy car cuffed my hands in front of me and shoved me into the Back  that was the begin i no of a n Nightmare 12 hours for Evelyn Bilar. I Lake he words from an affidavit she drafted afterwards and from a Telephone Conversa Tion with her. What happened to Bilar is related to her palestinian origin. Two Days before her experience eight palestinians and one s kenyan wife had been arrested in the los Angeles area by agents of the immigration and naturalization service she was a Friend of one of them. But let us continue with her Story. We drove for some time when they made me face backwards. In a residential area we drove into a garage and was taken into the House into a big Bare room with a Cement floor. There was a big Metal desk. The room also had a Metal Pote set in the Cement floor. It had a Hook at the lop sort of like a tether Ball pole. I was thrown into a Grey Metal chair. Still handcuffed. The room was dimly lit but with a Bright fluorescent Light com ing at my face. They threw a picture Down on the desk. In was a picture of me my Hus band and x the Friend who had Bee arrested they slapped it and said who is this Man identify him.1 i refused and said what they were doing to me was illegal. One said Honey we Are the Law they kept throwing pictures on the desk. They were All pictures from san Diego some from the old arabic club. It was after Midnight by now. They in cuffed my right hand then cuffed my left hand to the Hook on the top of the Metal pole. My left Arm was stretched up to reach it. Then they left the House and left me hanging there like that for Over three hours. They came Back around 3 3 1 with a third Man 1 asked if i could use the bathroom. I was desperate to go. They would not let me. They told me that my husband was in custody that they had just picked him up. That was false they said we could work out a Deal i could be a witness for the prosecution of x. If i would do that they would let my husband go. When i still did t respond they said at your rally you said Long live  Well show you what we think of your Palestine they look out a Small palestinian Flag Aboul 3 by 5 inches and burned it. Then icy took me out Back into the car. They stopped about two Miles from my House. They said listen Bane when you least expect us expect us. Well always be around i looked at my watch. It was 8 30  could that have happened in America readers will no doubt find it hard to believe As i did. So did Evely Bitar. She was too frightened to talk at first. But now she is ready to testify using her real name if her lawyers Asker to. Those eight palestinians arrested in los Angeles were taken at gunpoint in their Homes at 7 in the morning then shackled in Arm and leg Irons each of them too was shown photographs and offered advantages if he would testify against someone. And All that was no evidence whatever that he had done or contemplated any act of violence. The charges had to do with Reading or distributing palestinian literature. But that is another Story of unconstitutional out rage. For the moment it is enough to think about whal happened to Evelyn Bur i that America realism requires us to recognize that it can happen Here. It has happened. But in is not too late to find out How and to punish the Federal agents who behaved like totalitarian hugs. When we speak out Bilar said that s our Only  she still believes in America. New Yogi time Hus