
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992                   TAG: 9203080082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

REPORTS: WHITE HOUSE HELD UP IRAQ PROBE

When Congress tried to investigate billions of dollars in U.S. aid and technology sales to Iraq, the Bush administration sought to restrict access to key records and minimize information given to committees, according to confidential documents and interviews.

The actions reflected longstanding efforts by the administration to keep Congress from learning the extent of U.S. assistance to the regime of Saddam Hussein in the years and months leading up to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

In many cases, classified documents show that President Bush played a personal role in providing that aid, both as vice president in the Reagan administration and later as president.

Now that details of the assistance have become known, the shape of the congressional response also is beginning to emerge.

The Senate Agriculture Committee plans to look into whether its members were misled by administration officials on the Iraqi aid, according to committee aides.

Rep. Henry Gonzalez, D-Texas, chairman of the House Banking Committee, has asked the General Accounting Office, an investigating arm of Congress, to investigate whether the Export-Import Bank violated its charter by approving loan guarantees for Iraq in 1984 and 1987 after intervention by Bush, who was then vice president.

The House Banking Committee, in hearings set to begin April 3, plans to seek testimony from officials at agencies belonging to the National Advisory Council, the inter-agency group where loan guarantees for Iraq were debated and approved.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that in October 1989, nine months before Iraq invaded Kuwait, Bush signed a top-secret directive ordering closer ties with Baghdad and opening the way for $1 billion in loan guarantees to finance the purchase of U.S. agricultural products by Iraq.

Officials in the Department of Agriculture and other agencies objected to granting Iraq the loan guarantees but were overruled after Secretary of State James Baker telephoned Clayton Yeutter, then secretary of agriculture, and asked for the aid "on foreign policy grounds," according to classified documents.

When questions were raised about these and other matters related to Iraq, however, the administration took steps to limit the amount of information it provided to Congress.

In some cases, congressmen say they believe the administration concealed critical information about agricultural loan guarantees and exports of sensitive technology to Iraq.

"The Agriculture Department clearly misled me and my subcommittee," said Rep. Charlie Rose, D-N.C., chairman of a House Agriculture Committee. "Clearly, there was pressure at the highest levels of the Bush administration to see that Iraq got continuing and large amounts of loan guarantees, although the administration knew there were abuses and kickbacks."

The Department of Justice has confirmed that it is conducting a preliminary inquiry into alterations that were made to a list of export licenses granted to Iraq. The list was provided to a congressional committee investigating the $1.5 billion worth of sensitive technology approved for sale to Baghdad between 1985 and 1990.

by CNB