European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 24, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 10 the stars and stripes tuesday february 24,1987 James Reston administration having outbreak of amnesia a big change has came Over Washington in the task few weeks. People Are beginning 10 talk about the Reagan administration in the past i Csc. The re porters Are Stilt running around like Blind Doss in a meal House but almost everybody else seems willing to leave the recent while House scandals to the investigators the historians and the psychological novel is. Suddenly i lot of officials have Dis covered Hinl they want to spend More Lime with their wives and children. President Reagan says quietly and almost enviously that he won t stand in the Way of anybody who wants to go Home and alot of people arc taking him upon it Pat Buchanan has decided he does t want to run Tor president after ail maybe remembering that the last Buchanan we had in the White House was t very Happy. Other official cheerleaders Are packing up. The president has t had news conference since the explosion but he has a new press Secretary and so does vice president Bush Richard pc rec i leaving the Pentagon to concentrate on fiction which is no big change. There has been an outbreak of Amne Sia Here since the turn of the year. Every body agrees that something went wrong on the Way to the iranian moderates and the Nicaragua Freedom fighters but Tew can remember exactly what happened and those who can Aren t talking. But despite new poisonous disclosures every week it does t seem to Matte now whether Lite president knew or did t know what col North and . Poinda Terwege up to in the basement of the White House. There is general agreement Here that Reagan was deceiving Congress if not breaking the Law and that knowing or not knowing it was a disgrace. Everybody is embarrassed George Shultz to discover that the while House was running a secret foreign policy be Hind his Back chief of Stan Donald Regan to discover he did t know what his staff was doing the Congress to Dis cover that intelligence oversight commit tees were bypassed and the press to Dis . Rosenthal nhe the rest of me cover that it had been scooped on the biggest scandal since watergate by a obscure Magazine in the Middle East. What hurts Here is not primarily what Washington does t know now but what it has known and ignored or minimized for a very Long time. It has known since the beginning of this administration that the president delegated More authority 10 his squabbling Cabinet and staff than any other president in Mem Ory. Ever since the secret mining of the nicaraguan harbours and the air raid on Libya it has known that the administration was engaged in Covert operation without informing Congress and was conniving with private gun runners to  the Candras and overthrow the government in Managua where it maintains diplomatic relations la was not however until it was Dis covered that he administration was shipping arms to the terrorists in Iran and sneaking the profits to the Candras that the whole squalid business was exposed As one senator complained it was like finding that John Wayne was Selling liquor la the  at first it was thought thai maybe these blunders were the result of he president s casual if not careless administrative procedures carried out by zealots who thought they could defend democracy abroad by defying it and corrupting it at Home to was Only later when the Congress began to examine the mindless and ill prepared Reagan nuclear arms negotiations with Gorbachev at Reykjavik that it was realized that he president s Shal Low knowledge of the facts and his feeble grasp of the possible consequences began to seem not Only reckless but dangerous. For a time the administration Hope that these mistakes would recede in memory and that the president s popu Larity and guileless affability would carry him through but this has not happened at least not yet. The administration Stilt seem stunned and bewildered not knowing quite what tins happened or what May happen tomorrow As the investigations proceed under the scrutiny of a demo cratic controlled Congress. The human tragedies Are painful and the unravelling process will no doubt go on but there Are consolations. The demonstration is correcting he procedures of the National Security Council and the Congress is reviewing the policies that have led to such deficit and mistrust at Home and abroad fortunately this crisis has come at the threshold of a new presidential election Campaign. Unfortunately neither gov Cuomo of new York nor sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia will be in the race. Bui the people will have a Chance to consider the candidates character and experience he procedures by which hey Are chosen and the regulations of the 200-year-old con Sii Lulion under which they Are suppose to serve. New loth times a bib 5arv� jazzed Jelly Beans behind Iron Contra fiasco new York you know How it is. Good help is hard to come by. So if you have a real Job to do you have to do it yourself right ii is the same in the newspaper business Lake it from me. With All those Youngho shot investigative reporters in Washington and All those inside stuff columnists pull ing Down you would t believe How much for lectures who had to go out and break Ira Gate himself 1 did it the old fashioned Way _ at first plenty of pavement pounding and Doorbell ringing. It did t actually get me any information but a lot of people insisted on placing orders for encyclopedia sets As soon at they opened the door so if 1 can find the books in won t be a total loss. Then i figured what i should do was forget footwork and use the old Noodle applying the Wisdom obtained from decades of journalistic Endeavor the world Over. It worked. Spies. Plain old fashioned spies in the while House like in All those million Dollar novels. You think those Fellows who turn in their Security Bodges for word processors would get Hosu contracts from Swifty and Mori if there was nothing in i maybe the spy was not the first Mother in Law or the head of the secret service like in the books but there certainly must be spies there. It stands to reason. You seriously think Ronald Reagan the president would do such things All by himself if the while House did t have a sizable Lurk of spies in the place come on you think the president and his top National Security people would Send missiles to the enemy the kidnappers the iranians for heaven s Sake if they were not manipulated by a Bunch of foreign agents no Way. And get this do you really believe this presi Dent would practically wipe out the whole Contr movement by letting some Light colonel divert As we say 130 million or $40 million to them from the Irani an arms Salt which they say they never Gol forget the Constitution. Just imagine the screaming that must be going on in Miami. Where s the Money Pedro what do you mean Youdon t know Alfonso you got il1, no you Don t have in Pedro does t have it i Haven t seen 3 Nickel. Who s got the Money Mother Teresa also who but spies could figure out a lot of other Weirdo plans that would put poor George Bush some where behind Ralph Nader in Republican presidential polls and make even old pals like prime minister Thatcher and president Mubarak so mad that they go around saying America who then i read in the paper that at the very Lime they Sei up a Good outfit the National endowment for democracy which openly gives Money for some Fine Freedom minded projects abroad some of the boys in the White House pasted up a cockamamie Covert operation and went around winking. That managed to give the endowment and the people who believe in in a Nice kick in the pants All right. Spies. So then i had to figure out the modes Oprandi. If he White House spies planted phony documents and executive orders themselves there would be so Many of them tramping around the place that Nancy of Ufa wonder who was wearing out the carpets. No there had to be some Way that the spies influenced the president and the other patriotic men inthe White House to take a big stick Bend Over and whack themselves until they were Black and Blue an do it everyday. Yes but Bow ? Abe worried hard trying desperately to figure out what the president and All his aides had in common that spies could control. Subliminal hypnosis Al National Security meetings possible but Tacky Given that some people were asleep at the beginning and other Juil glaring out the windows. 1 remembered a Case i broke when i was a cub reporter. Tong War going on in Chinatown. I tracked it Down loan irritable Cook who put a powder in onto soup dumplings that positively Embo Akered All who slurped them Down. It came to be known in annals of journalism As the Case of he crazy Kreilach. But my investigations showed the White House mess never served woman soup and anyway he president never ate there. Of what could it be these spies were using to dominate our prey and his band if Only i could find out then Friday staring sadly at a picture of the presi Dent making Busy at his Oval office dej4j. I gasped whipped out my magnifying Glass and got it Jelly Beans what United our president and his staff what did they All share every Day How simple How diabolically  libyan agents who injected the cuckoo powder in the Beans Are being rounded up in the Rose Garden at this very moment. And once More it is the free Presto the Rescue this time in the Case of the mad Mun chips. Us a Otic tilts n1u9 service