REAGAN DID NOT RECALL APPROVING ARMS DEAL, COUNSEL
President Reagan's legal adviser said
the President could not recall when he approved a 1985 arms
sale to Iran, the New York Times reported.
    "We were trying to stimulate his (Reagan's) recollection and
he had no recollection, although he remembered being surprised
about something," Peter Wallison, who is resigning, was quoted
as saying in an interview.
    "That led us to expect that he would not be able to recall
(the date) when he appeared before the Tower board," Wallison
said, referring to the question of whether Reagan gave prior
approval to an Israeli shipment of U.S. Arms to Iran.
    Wallison said John Poindexter, then head of the National
Security Council (NSC), kept him from probing the scandal for
weeks after it was first made public last November, the Times
reported.
    Wallison told the newspaper that Poindexter, who resigned
from his NSC post last November 25, refused to give him
information about the deal, despite pleas by former White House
Chief of Staff Donald Regan.
    "Regan told me on several occasions that he had been unable
to move Poindexter to include me in any of the discussions or
to provide me with ... The facts," he said.
 REUTER
