By allowing two key aides to send conflicting signals, the President had sandbagged himself.

"For the last few weeks morale was terrible," said one key aide.

Top department officials and key mayoral aides have already been briefed on the report's conclusions.

He is a former key aide and lieutenant of Dawood Ibrahim.

A key aide has warned that already overloaded services cannot handle them.

One key aide put Mr. Bradley's chances at 40 percent.

A key aide to Osama bin Laden was reported dead.

A key Republican aide said the idea would "keep the caps but insert a trigger" to blow them away.

Disappointed, he mentioned it to one of the boss's key aides, who immediately applied for the position and was hired on the spot.

But other key aides to President Reagan sounded a good deal more defensive, especially in private.