WASHINGTON, June 11--As it looks ahead to the Presidential campaign, the White House has been warned that Iran is "not above exploiting" the nine Americans captive in Lebanon.
That message was sent by Robert M. Oakley, the senior official for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, in a memo to Lieut. Gen. Colin Powell, the national security adviser. State Department officials were also made familiar with its contents.
The memo was written about two weeks ago, officials at the White House and State Department said. It was disclosed Friday by the Wall Street Journal.
"He basically has been warning people that, based on past experience, someone in Iran--and not necessarily the Government--may try to jerk us around," said an Administration official. "Its message was that we all need to be on guard."
The Americans are believed to be held by Shiite militants in Lebanon with whom Iran has influence.
While Reagan Administration officials confirmed that the memo had been written, White House aides speaking to reporters Friday night sought to minimize its significance.
"I think it's safe to assume in a common sense way that Iran is not above exploiting the elections in some way," said Marlin Fitzwater, the White House spokesman."It's kind of an obvious, common sense approach."
Other officials, speaking privately, said Mr. Oakley's memo had been drafted as an update on the hostage matter and was designed to counterbalance growing speculation that a release of Americans may be imminent.
For example, last Tuesday, The Times of London said the United States, Britain and West Germany had started direct contacts with Iran in an effort to free foreign hostages.
Quoting Shiite and Sunni Moslems in Beirut, The Times reported that the United States had opened talks in Europe almost two months ago in the hope of finding a "legal" formula to win the release of American hostages.*
Mr. Fitzwater denied that the United States had direct contact with Iran.
The Administration official said of the memo, "A lot of people were getting their hopes up, and there was talk here and there about hostages being moved.. This was designed to say, let's not get anyone's hopes up."
Officials characterized the memo's significance as slight, noting that Mr. Fitzwater, as well as several other White House aides, did not know anything about it until the Journal's report on Friday. It was not discussed, for example, at the meeting Friday of senior White House staff. "Today was one of our typically vacuous senior staff meetings and it didn't come up," another administration official said on Friday.
The Journal's report said that Mr. Oakley, director of the State Department's counterterrorism office, foresaw "possible offers to release some hostages before the November election," perhaps in exchange for a pledge from Vice President Bush that if he wins he would soften policy toward Teheran.
The newspaper said, "An Iranian official recently tried to arrange a clandestine meeting with a Bush aide, whose colleagues told him he would be "crazy" to meet secretly with the Iranian.
Mr. Bush, in response to a reporter's question in Denver on Friday, said he was familiar with the news report but added, "I don't know anything about it, nothing at all."
WASHINGTON, June 11 (AP)--Oliver I. North wanted to use the Church of England's special envoy, Terry Waite, to lure Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to his compound in Tripoli to increase the chances that the Libyan leader would be killed in a 1986 American air raid, according to excerpts of a book being published in U.S. News & World Report.
The plan was considered and rejected and Colonel North had to be content with drafting a White House statement to be released in the event that the Libyan chief was killed , which would call his death "fortuitous," according to the account.
The book, "Best Laid Plans The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism", was written by David Martin of CBS News and John Walcott of The Wall Street Journal.
It looks at the events surrounding the April 15, 1986 air raid, which United States officials said was carried out in response to Libya's role in the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque frequented by American servicemen.
According to the book, Mr. North, then a Marine lieutenant colonel on the National Security Council staff, planned to ask Mr. Waite to go to Tripoli on April 14 to meet with Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Waite, the hostage negotiator who represents the Archbishop of Canterbury, would ask the Libyan's help in freeing captives in Lebanon. He would then leave, leaving Colonel Qaddafi to spend the night at his compound.
Mr. Waite, himself now believed a hostage in Lebanon, would not be told that he was being used to set up the Libyan leader for a killing, the book said.
(text of June 12, 1988 New York Times articles)
-WHILE I APPRECIATE THAT NOT "ALL
OF US" ARE, SAY, RHODES SCHOLARS--AS, COINCIDENTALLY,
NOT ONLY PRESIDENT CLINTON, BUT ALSO JOHN
TURNER WAS--I SUPPOSE YOU, LIKE ME, MAY WELL WONDER WHY
NO EFFORTS (EXCEPT FOR MINE) WERE MADE TO ESTABLISH
"'LEGAL' FORMULA"(S) IN 1981, AT THE TIME OF TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE, OR IN 1983,
check for oct. 83 to reagan siteTAKE
ANOTHER BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
SO, THERE IS THIS PROBLEM TAKE ANOTHER BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE. DID YOU NOTICE THAT THE "HUMAN SHIELDS" PROTECTING THE PALACES OF SADDAM HUSSEIN IN THE LATE-1997 CONFRONTATION SEEMED TO LOOK NOT LIKE, SAY, IRON WORKERS, BUT MORE LIKE...POSSIBLY THE MOTHERS OF THESE "560,000" DEAD IRAQI KIDS?
...MAY I ASK, ALTHOUGH I AM NOT A RHODES SCHOLAR, IN THESE REMAINING TWO YEARS OF THE UNITED NATIONS "DECADE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW",