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NUARY 19, 1987
’OttfigtWAdpCIassified
Inside: Washington Business
Detailed index on Page A2
Price# May Vary in Areaa Outaide
Metropolitan Washington (See Box on A2)
Iran Panel
Presses to
See Reagan
White House Is Said
To Sidestep Requests
For an Interview
By Bob Woodward
^
WAfthlngton Pi»t Staff Writer
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
that a request is pending for a pres-
idential interview and said that the
board had been assured
it Is forth-'
coming. "The president
will meet
See IRAN, AP, CoL 1
Shultz
cShmUed oh
[Iran “talking points.*
l\tge A8
U.S. Waives Death
For Hijack Suspect
German Businessman Kidnaped in Beirut
By Howard Kurtz
Wnnliiiifjton Post Stnff 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 Mfinistry 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 arrested at the
Frankfurt
airport
last week
after
leaving
a
flight
from
the
Middle
East. He was carrying several bot-
tles
highly
explosive
liquid.
Through
fingerprint
checks,
Ha-
madei was tstmdjoJf&tam jgur
Lebanese men lr «!c|W m the Unit-
ed States on char$» 6f particM-
RUDOLF CORDES
.
.
. seized 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 qf_
Waldorf, Md. ( was killed.
“Because this
is the only means
by which the United States can ob-
tain custody of the suspect, we have
agreed
to waive requesting impo-
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 dropped as a pos-
sible punishment. West Germany’s
constitution forbids the death sen-
tence.
The decision, :macle by; U.S. At-
torney
General Edwin Meese
III
and
Associate
Attorney
General
Stephen S. Trott, was to be relayed
to. West German authorities yester-
day, Korten said, He said that under
U.S.
legal
procedures,
a
federal
judge would not impose the death
penalty if it is not sought by govern-
mfehtprdsecutors.'^
.£
*
See EXTRADn5CAi4, Col 5>
outh African Rebels Seek Wider Base
Halved ANC, in Policy Shift, Emphasizes Appeal to Whites
Rv Allister Smirks
under the state of emergency de-
could last a year or more before the
s “buo-riHLX p™.
clared last June » at
.restoring a
next crisis sends it to new heights.
/Q^O
9 RCRJ^bbOfF<4(D€m3^©
n
Lusaka,
ships.
Thousands
of
community
Zambia, where
the ANC
is
head-