C Nicholas Rostow

A former undersecretary of commerce has told congressional investigators that White House officials and top aides to former Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher supervised preparation of a list of export licenses to Iraq that was altered before it was submitted to Congress, it was disclosed Tuesday. The claims by the former official, Dennis E. Kloske, stopped short of saying that the officials ordered the changes.

A House committee on Thursday formally requested the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by the Bush Administration in assisting Iraq before its invasion of Kuwait and in trying to conceal from Congress the extent of the aid. The action by the House Judiciary Committee represents a watershed in the expanding controversy over U.S. support for Iraq before the Persian Gulf War.

The special investigator appointed to examine the government's handling of a politically sensitive Iraqi loan case rejected demands for an independent counsel Wednesday and called allegations of criminal wrongdoing by the Bush Administration "errant nonsense." Former U.S. District Judge Frederick B.

On its face, it seems to be a criminal act. In preparing a document to be submitted to Congress in late 1990 listing all U.S. technology exports to Iraq, someone at the Commerce Department removed a critical phrase identifying the military nature of a facility north of Baghdad where the exports were headed, according to internal department records. The original, classified record of the export license--for sensitive U.S.

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.

On June 12 of last year, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher met with key aides to confront the contents of a three-ring binder that threatened to tarnish the Bush Administration at the height of its glory. It was the summer of 1991, and President Bush was still basking in the glow of the allied triumph in the Persian Gulf War.