European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 1, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns or. Tower report stresses White House fumbling Hie presidency of Ronald Reagan who Only a few month Asp commanded the widest popularity of any postwar chief executive reached what May Well be in decisive moment with he issuance of the report of i review Beard thursday. At a time when the Western european allies by Ticic that the soviet Union a seized the initiative Reagan finds himself on the defensive pictured by the report at unwilling to involve himself in the details of foreign policy and at least in the Iran Contra affair unable to control his Tuff unable even to remember when he authorized what critics and some of his friends will no doubt find parallels Between the Story of confusion in the report and another recent episode the Summit meeting in Iceland last fall. And on a different level he report will dramatize for a much wider audience across the country a controversy that has heretofore generated excitement mostly among the political cognoscenti. Reagan s accomplishments students of Bis presidency say have been to restore the Confidence of the american people in themselves their country and its leadership and initially at least to Lake the initiative against the soviet Union. These accomplishments now seem imperilled. The danger is that the Faith of the american Public and of the allies in Reagan s capacity to Lead will be further eroded in the remaining 23 month of his second term. The erosion has been severe. It appears unlikely with two congressional committees and a Spe Cial prosecutor beginning their work that anything Reagan does now will repair Alt of the damage. A Republican conservative rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia commented thursday he will never again be he Reagan that he was before he blew it. He is not going to regain our Trust and our Faith Al meetings in the White House Over the weekend Reagan will be told according to people who Are to Lake part that he must admit he made serious mis Lake that he must install a staff that will ensure that such mistakes will not recur and that he must act quickly. His advisers arc said to be convinced that the chief of staff. Donald t. Regan must leave but that this alone will not be enough this is he most important passage of Iii presi Dency a staff member said we will either Start Toj get it together next week when the president makes he speech to the nation or we May never gel it Roget re he will have to go much further than he has Belt accepting the blame fora policy thai was Catasia Puric. William f. Buckley a after this report the by not enough. " of Floc Union formula just is in his stale of the onion message on Jan. 27, Rea Gan said Only in rec did not achieve what we wished in Iran Job thai serious mistakes were made in trying to at no Point has he said that he himself made Slakes. A form White House aide summed up the problem fuelling of an encounter after a speech he gave University. A student stood up and said Jpio ple want to believe the president but they it think he has told the the student got Ding ovation. Living the breach of Confidence is one Mailer. Bother is providing what the Western european allies and official Washington want some evidence that the president is Back in control that a has a staff that will do his bidding that foreign policy is being run in a level headed professional Way. An american travelling through Britain Germany and France during the last 10 Days was asked whether Reagan was capable what the euro peans saw As milk hips. Gorbachev powerful new thrust of soviet pork Boih domestically and toward a new . This Majska historic moment in East in relations Ftp Diplomat said. We need the bes analysis Jap most exhaustive policy debate and the execution we can get. But we in the West in Aderley. And that is very dangerous in do drop cant mentioned the Summit meeting in ice he As further evidence of what they saw As the of muddled stale of american foreign policy. This View seems to be spreading in the United states As Well. Writing in the current Issue of foreign affairs Magazine James r. Sch Tastinger a former defense Secretary and former director of Central intelligence de scribes the american performance in Iceland As ill prepared and quite badly executed phrases that matched those used thursday in the Tower commis Sion report in a different context. The report cited no evidence that Reagan had been involved in the diversion of arms Sale proceeds u the nicaraguan rebels or that he had taken part in an Effort by Slaff members to conceal the a a Bui in faulted him for failing to Monitor the work of his staff and it came close to picturing him u & nun who sometimes inhabited a fantasy land. The president appear t to have proceeded with a concept of the initiative that was not accurately reflected in the reality of tie operation the report said. The president did not seem to be aware of the Way in which the operation was implemented and the full consequences of United slate but it it not any individual finding in the report that is Likely to cause the most damage. It is the cumulative weight of Page after Page of unemotional description of experts in consulted of policies Neya lulled of re cords unkept of questions unasked of operations concealed by officials even from one another and of a policy so incomprehensible that some of the charts illustrating individual transactions look like Rube Goldberg cartoons. It adds up to a depiction not of inadequate institutions but of inept stewardship of the National Trust at a moment of crisis from the president on Down which May be Why the commission chose As the epigraph for its narrative is line from the latin poet Juvenal who will guard the guardians themselves Ivan fhe Lorr be trial raises judicial policy Issue the trial in Israel of John Janis pc is interesting beyond Eves die melodramatic question was he he not Ivan the terrible the Lasu was a creature who look in expediting the torture and of a of i million jews Between 1942 an 1943 in tre Winka probably the run efficient single Abattoir in the his tort genocide. He claims of course i he is not that the witnesses who entity him As Ivan Are mistaken. Agthe has friends. Not Only ukrainian Cajon lists who Are Quick to believe that it have Here one More example of Coffiei manipulation the witnesses Are for the most part under Oviet control but also his family and his neighbors who knew Demjan Juk in Cleveland where he worked for 30 years As an Auto Mechanic scratching not even the paint Job of an automobile. The Demjan Juk Case and that of Karl Linnas who is scheduled to be deported to the soviet Union where he was sentenced to death in absent a Back in 1962have aroused the energies of those who Don t like it at Oil. Don t like what the office of special investigations Osi of the Justice department has been up to since it was empanelled in 1979. An hour with Allan Ryan jr., who was for four years in charge of the Osi and who prosecuted Lianas and Demianiuk yields information relevant to evaluating the Osi s work. Ryan now in private practice answers his critics by taking the following positions 1. Nobody prosecuted by the Osi with the intention of de Naturalize fion and deportation is other than in the opinion of the Justice department a War criminal. We do not Ryan says go after people who lied on their Driver s License 2. Although the proceeding is a civil proceeding fraudulent representation by someone seeking entry to the United slates after the War under the displaced persons act is a civil offence not a Crim Inal offence the Osi attempts to act As though it were in fact a criminal proceed ing this does t mean a jury trial to be sure. Bui it docs mean Ryan insists that defense attorneys Are Given the Opportunity to travel to the soviet Union or wherever in order la Cross examine wit Nesses. The prosecutor s own Eros sex Amina Tiiu bearing especially in mind that we Are dealing with soviet citizens much of the Lime Are filmed. The Testi Mony is then shown in open court and a Federal judge passes judgment on its credibility. 3. It in t widely known says or. Ryan that defendants Are Given the Opportunity to select a country to which in the event they lose the court Battle hey wish to be deported to. But that is a once Only Opportunity in which presumably the defendant would say Cosia Rica or Portugal or wherever. If the nominated country declines to give him a visa one gathers that the . Government looks the other Way if the defendant joins up with a tour group and squats Down in his new fatherland on the Assumption that nobody will get around to deporting him afresh. 4. The figures to Date reveal thai 19 naturalized americans have been stripped of citizen thru and nine de ported Only one to the soviet Union. Another 35 cases Are pending and 300 investigations Are current. What or. Ryan was asked would be his reaction if the court in Israel after a thorough trial found do Manjuk not Guild Ryan replied with a shrug of his shoulders. It would not he said alter his own conviction Towt he was indeed Ivan the terrible. But on reflection he said that if the israeli Cour. Succeeded in impeaching the credibility of a witness on whom the Osi had truly relied then the experience would be sobering. But it would not in his judgment be so much so Aslo invalidate the purpose of the Osi which is to ferret out nazi Crimi nals he emphasized he term who have been enjoying american Sanctuary since 1945. The question of amnesty was touched on and or. Ryan expressing Here Derivatively the position of Congress argues that there should be no amnesty for criminal behaviour. We arc not talking about military activity. We Are talking about crimes committed far from the front lines crimes against men women and Ryan understands the Groves query of a soviet "trial.1 Bui it is his Point really that the soviet disposition of someone deported there who has passed through the Ost s Crucible is of no substantive interest. He View he soviets Here merely As executioners. In is his position that by the time any alumnus of the Osi lands in the soviet Union that Man s guilt has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt. The position of the Osi deserves ventilation however queasy one feels about the idea of trials 43 years after the fact. Id Unn Erml flan so a the Opi ism i us Cihua Nuiji Zuj Cino Onton met Page Rimm mow of in Duvvi and 11 in to Way to to Conw Dkl pm Tiung it a Mai at tows Losand slip Dion us u
