Monday, Sept. 30, 1985
Nation/World
University Daily Kansan
9
Defense is meeting its security crackdown goal
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Armed services and defense contractors appear to be meeting Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's three-month goal of reducing security clearances by 10 percent.
Final figures on the crackdown, which grew out of a Navy spy scandal, are not expected until next month. But Weinberger's deadline for an across-the-board, 10 percent reduction in clearances expires today and some preliminary figures have been compiled.
When the cuts were ordered, on June 11, there were 4.3 million Pentagon employees, congressional aides and contractor employees with clearances ranging from Confidential to Secret to Top Secret.
The idea of slashing the number of individuals with clearances is aimed at both reducing the potential sources of information to the Soviets investigators to perform more thorough and timely background checks.
Military allegedly loses weapons
L. Britt Snider, the Pentagon's
United Press International
NEW YORK — The Pentagon loses or misplaces $1 billion worth of weapons each year and millions of dollars worth of the arms end up on the black market, the New York Times reported yesterday.
Officials from the Defense Department, other Federal agencies and members of Congress told the Times that theft from United States military bases, ships and warehouses is the principal source of the black market's supply of advanced American-made weapons intended for military use.
The weapons often become available for sale
to hostile governments, or terrorists, potentially contributing to the problem of terrorism the government is trying to fight, the Times said.
Land mines, plastic explosives, missiles, bazookas, grenade launchers and artillery have reached the black market, the newspaper said.
The military sorts and stores so much weaponry in its $80 billion stockpipe that it loses or misplaces $1 billion worth per year, the Times reported.
Federal officials say it is impossible to know how much of the missing weaponry is stolen, although they contend多of it is simply misplaced because of poor record-keeping, the newspaper said.
"We're keenly aware of the problem and looking at everything we can do to try and fix it," said James Reay, the Pentagon's deputy director for supply and programs.
Pentagon officials say they have improved their record-keeping and security since two years ago, when the General Accounting Office said, "The magnitude of the inventory accuracy problem is much greater than has previously been recognized by the Department of Defense."
"The problem is pretty widespread," said Defense Department Deputy Inspector General Derek Vander Schaaf.
principal director for counterintelligence and security policy, told a House panel last week that it appeared that the Department of Defense would meet or exceed the secretary's 10 percent objective by the first of October."
"As of Sept. 15, we estimate that an
overall reduction of approximately 8 percent had been achieved." Snider disclosed. "Each of the military departments has advised that it expects to satisfy the requirement in a timely manner."
Defense contractors "had eliminated 149,599 existing clearances, or
10.7 percent of the whole" by Sept. 14,
Snider continued. "In short, the
overall objective has been met."
But Snider also said the Pentagon approved some exceptions to Weinberger's order. While he declined to offer figures, he said the goal won't be met by the National Security
As for chances of new cuts, Snider said: "I do not anticipate further across-the-board reductions at this time."
Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency because their employees "have an undisputed need for a clearance."
Snider also noted, however, that Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. has set a goal of reducing Navy clearances by 50 percent as soon as possible, and Weinberger also ordered a 10 percent reduction in the number of new requests for security clearances during fiscal 1986, which begins tomorrow.
ine Navy's higher goal of 50 percent was a direct response to the so-called Walker family spy scandal, which erupted in May with the arrest of John Anthony Walker, a retired warrant officer, who was accused of passing Navy secrets to the Soviet Union over a 20-year period.
Snider said that, because of Lehman's special crackdown, the service had revoked or reduced the number of security clearances by at least 26 percent since the scandal began. A Navy source who requested anonymity said Friday that the actual total might be as high as 45 percent, but reports were still being received from the field.
Gorbachev to travel to France
United Press International
MOSCOW — Mikhail Gorbachev leaves this week for his first trip to the West as Soviet leader, a visit to France that foreshadows the November summit with President Reagan.
"Whatever the Soviet interest in relations with France, Gorbachev will have his mind on the summit with Reagan," a European diplomat said. "It will be an important public relations exercise as Gorbachev approaches the summit."
The choice of France to unveil the new Soviet leader on Wednesday is natural. France is a country that has always struck an independent stance with the United States, most recently the over Reagan's "Star Wars" program.
The visit will give the world its best view yet of the man himself, a leader
who has moved with startling speed to solidify his grip and promises to shake the nation's economy out of the stagnation it had slipped into under years of weak leadership.
Gorbachev arrives in the French capital for the three-day visit with his power more secure than ever. The resignation of the octogenarian Prime Minister Nikolai Tikhonov and his replacement by Gorbachev's appointee Nikolai Ryzhkov late Friday placed the government bureaucracy firmly under his hand.
Although Gorbachev took over as head of the Communist Party only in March, men clearly identified as his supporters now run the KGB secret police (Viktor Chebrikov), foreign policy (Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze), the government (Ryzkhov) and party personnel appointments (Glig Earoche).
been made carefully. The French government's sinking of the Greenpace anti-nuclear ship, which normally would have been a windfall for Soviet propagandists, was almost ignored by the newspapers.
While briefly deciering the "systematic anti-Soviet propaganda" of some French media, the focus was clearly on what the Soviet government newspaper Izviesia called the "mutual sympathy" between the two countries.
Preparations for the visit have
Their common opposition to the "Star Wars" program — the Strategic Defense Initiative anti-missile defense system that Reagan is committed to — should provide an area of agreement for Gorbachev to capitalize on. There will be no need for the Soviet leader to note that their objections have different roots.
Soviet offer may end deadlock
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State George Shultz, while insisting the United States will not give up its "Star Wars" program, said yesterday a Soviet proposal to cut superpower nuclear arsenals may end the arms talks stalemate.
Switzerland. He declined to confirm specifically reports that Moscow will suggest a 50 percent cut in nuclear weapons, but said it is "clear" the Soviets "will bring forth a proposal dealing with offensive missiles ... They'll put some counterproposals on the table, and we welcome that."
The issue of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative project to create a shield against nuclear weapons has been a big stumbling block in U.S.-Soviet negotiations and the stance may open "a way of getting around the preconditions."
Shultz was questioned on NBC's "Meet the Press" about a proposal Moscow is expected to present this week at the arms talks in Geneva,
Suggesting new hope for movement in the talks, Shultz said, "Really, for the first time, the Soviets are talking about genuine reductions. Now, we'll have to see - reductions of what?"
Edward Shevardnadze the Soviet foreign minister, previewed the proposal for Reagan during a meeting at the White House Friday, after which the president reiterated his intention to move ahead with research and development on the missile-defense program, nicknamed "Star Wars."
In the past, Moscow has insisted the United States scrap the multibillion-dollar project as a condition for progress in the Geneva talks, which are divided into three areas - strategic, or long-range, weapons; intermediate range; and space weapons.
Suggesting a shift in the prospects for the talks, Shultz said, "At this point, they are going to table. I presume, with some ideas in the strategic defense area, and some ideas in the intermediate range area, as well as whatever they will say today and tomorrow in the space and defense fields.
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