North Wrote Iran Account Quoted by White House

WASHINGTON — A written White House chronicle of the Iranian arms operation, used last month to brief Congress and on Friday to refute charges that President Reagan had early knowledge of the arms shipments, was in fact compiled by the central figure in the scandal, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, and omits significant details of the program, officials said Friday.

The White House apparently ordered North to prepare the account early last month, before he was linked to a secret cash-skimming operation that sent profits from the arms sales to contra forces in Nicaragua. That cash-skimming scheme is not mentioned in the purportedly beginning-to-end account of the Iranian dealings.

There is no evidence that top Administration officials told North, who was fired last week from the White House National Security Council staff, to prepare a deliberately misleading chronicle of the Iran events.

However, a team of FBI agents was scrutinizing the document this week for further omissions or misstatements that might lead the Justice Department’s investigation of the Iran affair in new directions.

Asked on Friday why the Reagan Administration has relied on an account of the Iran dealings produced by the affair’s chief actor, one Administration official said that a more reliable history cannot be prepared because “there isn’t anybody to get it from.”

“All the records have been segregated,” that official said. “The three main players--North, Poindexter and McFarlane--aren’t there any more.”

Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter resigned as Reagan’s national security adviser last week after admitting to Administration officials that he was aware of the diversion of Iran arms sales profits to the contras but did nothing to stop it. The role in that operation of his predecessor, Robert C. McFarlane, is also the object of congressional and Justice Department scrutiny.

Challenges Newspaper Account

The White House on Friday cited the history, without naming North as its author, to challenge the validity of a New York Times report that Reagan had personally approved Israeli shipments of U.S.-made weapons to Iran in August and November, 1985.

The Times report said McFarlane has told Senate investigators that the President approved the shipments in the summer and fall of 1985. That contradicted repeated White House assertions that the Israelis operated without Reagan’s go-ahead.

In contesting McFarlane’s statements, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the Administration has “a written record of one individual” of the Iran dealings that “directly contradicts” McFarlane. Speakes refused to say who prepared the record.

Only Written History

According to an Administration official who refused to be named, the record was “produced by Ollie and his staff” and remains the only written history of the saga in Administration files.

It is not known when the account was compiled. But officials indicated it was first used outside the White House on Nov. 21, when CIA Director William J. Casey and Poindexter briefed congressional leaders and the House and Senate intelligence committees on the emerging scandal.

According to other officials, the lawmakers were told at those briefings that Reagan had rejected a plan to ship arms to Iran in July, 1985, only to learn later that the Israelis had delivered two shipments of U.S.-made arms to Iran without his knowledge.

Atty. Gen Edwin Meese III, who led an early probe of the arms dealings for the White House, also said this week that to his knowledge, Reagan was unaware of the two shipments until after they occurred.

In a related development, more facts came to light Friday about the document uncovered by a team of Justice Department attorneys, led by Meese, that first gave signs of possible criminal activity and a link between the Iranian arms shipments and funding of the contras.

Sources familiar with that document said it indicated there had been 1985 arms shipments not supported by a January, 1986, Reagan order that provided the legal basis for subsequent arms transfers.

The document “deals not just with Iran or arms shipments, but with the funds for the contras,” one official said.

Times staff writer Doyle McManus also contributed to this story.