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'L00206(r14$0P9A'r§r_lassified
                                 Inside: Washington Business
                              Detailed index on Page A2
3 V, Prices May Vary in Are~ Outsidle
WARY 19,1987 Metropolitan Washington (See Box on A2) 250
Iran Va"d
Wesses to
See Reagan
C7--
White House Is Said
To Sidestep Requests
For an Interview
By Bob Woodward
WRAIngtoff Pont Staff Writer
The 66iril 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 formalsession with Rea-
gan were carefully sidestepped by
White House schedulers, According
to administration sources. er
Beginning Jan. 9, the day aft
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 Whiie
House has shifted strategy.
As the Iran-contra affair esca-
lated in November, the bwrd was-
set up to demonstrate the adnain-
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 an'swer
4 =dSteidns from the board, which is
  e4
Towe, (by former senator John G.
R-Tex.), and a White House
spokesman yesterday confirmed
th.at a request is pending for a pres
Idential Interview and said that the
board haa bpeh'assUr6d it is fbeth_
coming. "The president will meet
See IRAN, AD, Col. I
     I
41r, ~., Ii" I
Ir" "IA14# RW# A
                                 U.S. Wai'ves Death
                               For Hi*ja.cli. Suspe'd
X
German Businessman Kidnaped in Beirut
By Howard Kurtz
Wnshinmton Post Staf(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.theire
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 Bonti 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 6ft~ited At the
Frankfurt airport last week after
-leaving a flight from -the Middle -
East. He was carrying several bot;.
ties 6f :'highly explosive liquid.
Through fingerprint checks, iHa.
madel wall found 12r,
Lebanese Men Ind
        ` ,
ed States- on c~W '0
ot
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 9f
Waldorf, Md., was, killed
"Because this is the only means
by which the United States ~c'a n* 'ob-
tain custody of the suspect, we have
agreed to waive requesting Im-po-
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 ihe 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 deciston.~'_W'06, 1U.S. At-
torney General' Edik e'ese III
and Associate, Attorney General
Stephen S. Trott, was to be relayed
tP.West QqrMg_Wh%ities_vester-
day, Korten said. H6 sik1hat-under
U.S. legal procedures, a -federal
Judge would not impose the'de'ath
pena
Ity If it is not io*t by govern-
I&A osecutork
See EXT
RADJVM~ii4, C~l
               -Afripan Rebds Seuek Wider B,,',
outh
t1awed ANC, in Policy Shift, Emphasizes App 1 to
ea Ites.
B Allister Sparks under the state of emergency de- could last a year or more before the
specini to,rho Washington P08t clared last June is at last restoring a next crisis sends it to new heights.

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Lpp 2M0/ i q 91ocory*MR "0()JD2nAn Lusaka,
ip? musands o mmunity n "11, ere t is head-
... seized along deserted road