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Inside: Washington Business
Detailed index on Page A2
NUARY 19, 1987
3
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25¢
Iran Panel
Presses to
See Reagan
White House Is Said
To Sidestep Requests
For an Interview
By Bob Woodward
Washington Post 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, A9, Col. 1
Shultz Bys he was consulted on
Iran "talking points".
Page 18
U.S. Waives Death
For Hijack Suspect
German Businessman Kidnaped in Beirut
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post 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 arrested 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 fingerprint checks, Ha-
madei was found to be one of four
Lebanese men Indicted in the UMr-
ed States on charges of participat-
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 of
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, made 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-
thenit prosecutors.
See EXTRADITE, A14, Col. 5-
South African Rebels Seek Wider Base
Outlawed ANC, in Policy Shift, Emphasizes Appeal to Whites
By Allister Sparks
Special to The Washington Post
under the state of emergency de-
clared last June is at last restoring a
could last a year or more before the
next crisis sends it to new heights.
Thousands
of
community
ships.
Zambia, where the ANC is head-
..