Roo206e7; A News/Editorials B Metro/Obituaries O7FOROScBciassitied Inside: Washington Business Detailed index on Page A2 Balen pest 4 NUARY 19, 1987 © Prices May Vary in Areas Outaide Metropolitan Washington (See Box on A2) 25¢- Presses to See Reagan White House Is Said To Sidestep Requests For an Interview By Bob Woodward a Washington Poat Staff Writer j .The board established by the White House to probe the National Security Council in the wake of the Iran-contra deals is having difficulty setting up an interview with Pres- ident Reagan. Two requests last week for a formal session with Rea- gan were carefully sidestepped by White House schedulers, according to administration sources, Beginning Jan. 9, the day after the president returned to the White House from a hospital stay for pros- tate surgery, the board has at- tempted to schedule a Reagan in- terview, and has been “rebuffed,” one source said, because the White | House has shifted strategy. . As the Iran-contra affair esca- lated in November, the board was. set up to demonstrate the admin- | istration’s willingness to be forth- right, the sources said. Now the plan is to make sure all the facts are assembled in the complicated affair before the president makes any fur- ther comment. The administration, therefore, has become uncomfortably pinched between two schedules—that of the board, which has less than two weeks to formally report, and that of White House counselor David | Abshire, who must assemble all the “| facts, which could take months, Reagan has said he would answer questions from the board, which is headed by former senator John G. Tower (R-Tex.), and a White House spokesman yesterday confirmed 4 that a request is pending for a pres- ‘& idential interview ‘and said that the "} board had been assured it is forth-~ 4 coming. “The president wilt meet Page A8 By Allister Sparks ak to The Washington Post } cdneulted on [Ror Hind Suspect German Businessman Kidnaped in Beirut By Howard Kurtz Washington Past Staff Writer The U.S, Justice Department, seeking extradition of a suspected Lebanese hijacker arrested in West Germany, agreed yesterday not to ask for the death penalty in. the case. In apparent retaliation for the Lebanese suspect’s arrest, a phar- maceutical company executive was kidnaped in Beirut, the first West German to be abducted there, Armed gunmen driving in two cars intercepted the chauffeur-driv- en car of Hoechst company exec- utive Rudolf Cordes just minutes af- ter he arrived at the airport ‘from. Frankfurt at 7:20 p.m. Saturday, security sources in Beirut said, One car blocked: the road, while gunmen leaped out of the other, pulled Cordes out at gunpoint and drove off with him, Washington Post special correspondent Nora Boustany reported from Beirut. A spokesman for the West Ger- man Foreign Ministry in Bonn de- clined to speculate about the kid- napers’ motive, and a West German Embassy official in Beirut said there was “no indication yet of any link- age” between the kidnaping and the arrest of suspected. hijacker Mo- hammed Ali Hamadei. . However, another ministry offi- cial in Bonn said -privately ‘that it seemed likely from the timing of the abduction that it was linked to Hamadei’s arrest. Also, although Americans and other Europeans , have been the constant targets of various clandestine Moslem groups, Cordes is the first West German to be kidnaped, despite the relatively large number of West Germans re- maining In the Moslem-dominated sector of Beirut. - Hamadei, 22, was atreated at the Frankfurt airport last week after leaving a. flight from -the Middle. East, He was carrying several bot- ties of “highly explosive liquid. Through fingerp cnt beara fn madel wad fund Lebanese. mei inde ed States 0 on caret ee under the state of emergency de- clared last June is at last restoring a OL is ,.« belzed along deserted road ing in the June 1985 TWA hijack- ing. During the 17-day incident, 39 - Americans were held hostage and a Navy diver, Robert D. Stethem of Waldorf, Md., was killed. “Because this i is the only means by which the United States can ob- tain custody of the suspect, we have agreed to waive. requesting ifpo- sition of the death penalty in this...- case,” department spokesman Pat- rick Korten said. West German: officials had said they would not consider the request to send Hamadei to the United States to stand trial unless the death penalty was droppéd as a pos- sible punishment. West Germany’s constitution forbids the death sen- tence. bebe The decision, ‘made. by. U. 3. ‘At torney General Edwin- Meese - III and Associate’ Attorney General Stephen é Trott, was to bé relayed ..to. West. German authorities yester- day, Korten and He said that under U.S, legal procedures, a ‘federal judge would not impose the death fee if it is not Sought by govern- eit prosecutora.= oe - Bee EXTRADITE A Als, ; South African Rebels Seek Wider Base 0 tlawed ANC, in Policy Shift, Emphasizes Appeal to Whites could last a year or more before the next crisis sends it to new heights. SHEER REA 01M ASSP MOONS REP RET ORE RE i