U.S. MILITARY'S PERFORMANCE IS PRAISED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570032-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: October 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570032-0
'U ARTICLE APPS RED
ON
PAGE g
Military's Performance Is Praised
U.S.
By BILL KELLER
highest quality we've ever had.
Sp.,v , TEe New Yost Timr
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11t the P argon
officials said today that
that thwarted the escape of
four hijackers over the Mediterranean
was a firm rebuttal to critics of recent
military budgets and organization.
"What this demonstrates said Sec-
'
retary of the Navy John F. Lehman Jr.,
-s despite the not Ong
try to o portray y have the
able to tie their shoelaces, we "
A =4"- - -----v--
reporters on the incident, said today
motespent on
money equipment and
combat P mbat readiness during the last four
years.
-'We really do have readiness, in
spite of what people have been saying
on the Hill about spending a lot o?
money and not getting anything for it,
said the official, who asked not to be
identified.
View In Congress
NEW YORK TIMES
12 October 1985
..several" aircraft using the commer-
cial airline routes across the Mediter-
ranean. The Navy planes, their running
lights out and radios silenced, trailed
the Egyptian airliner until
Tunis and
refused landing rights
Athens.
Plane ordered to Sicily
Then four F-14s flanked the Egyptian
plane and a Hawkeye ordered it to land
at an Italian-American naval air fa-
cility in Sicily.
the interception
At the Pentagon,
quickly was taken up as an argument in
defense of President Reagan 's mounting
buildup, and against campaign to change the way the mili-
tary organized.
official, citing
The senior Pentagon
the numbers of F-14's and E-2C's pur-
chased by the Reagan Administration,
asserted that "we have a greater ca-
pacity to do this now on a day-to-day
is than we did four, five, six years
ago.01
The official said the operation also
proved the importance of having more
aircraft carriers to carry air power to
remote parts of the world.
The Navy has come under attack for
its costly plan to expand the number of
aircraft carriers from 13 to 15. Critics
say that proposal is too expensive.
Controversy Over A*htrays
,.The operation was terrific," he
said. --It was very appropriate and
very well executed. But it doesn't an-
swer the questions of how good our
military is overall, what have we got
for our trillion dollars, and how do we
stack up against the Soviet Union com-
p -It' to where we were in 1990.
to daw enor-
It's very dangerous
mous conclusions from single opera-
tion," he added. Referring to the
failed 1979 military effort to rescue
American hostages in Iran, he said,
"Because Desert One didn't work did-
n't demonstrate that our overall mili-
tary preparedness was bad. And this
The F-14 and the E-2C have not been
targets of criticism or budget cuts in
recent years, except earlier this year
when it was disclosed the Navy was
being charged $650 apiece for spare
ashtrays for the communications
plane.
Mr. Lehman, in several interviews
today, said the exercise over the Medi-
terranean also disproved the idea that
the Pentagon is too riddled with fac-
tions to operate smoothly.
The belief has gained a number of in-
fluential adherents, including the
Chairman of the Senate Armed Serv-
ices Committee, Senator Barry Gold-
water, Republican of Arizona, and the
committee's senior Democrat, Senator
have been
Sam Nunn of Georgia, who
pushing to streamline the role of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon and
Congress in grooming and running the
military.
"Contrary to the parlor-room Per-
shings around this town.. we have a
fully integrated multiservice unified
command structure to ooppeerraato these
people," Mr. Lehamn told .Cable News
Network this morning.
The House Armed Services Commit-
tee Chairman, Representative Les
Aspin, Democrat of Wisconsin, who has
recently begun a series of hearings
questioning whether the Reagan Ad-
ministration's military buildup was
worth the cost, disputed Mh Lehman in
an interview.
'Very Wes Ezecuted'
planes, and K-A6 tankers took off from
the aircraft carrier Saratoga as it
steamed south of Greece, flew 150
miles, and circled for hours in the flight
path of the chartered Egyptian Boeing
737, refueling repeatedly.
Pentagon officials said the Hawk-
eyes picked the Egyptian plane from
Members Of
ut'OnW
against making so much of the m ci
dent, but they agreed that the intercep-
tion was a well-executed operation that
showed good military training and,
histh uali of intelli-
especially, a
gence. --They carried off a very well
planned, very well executed, extraordi-
narily difficult mission," said Senator
Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, a
member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee. "It feels damn good to be
able to respond to a terrorist attack on
innocent American civilians."
In the operation, F-14 Tomcat fight-
ers E-2C Hawkeye communications
doesn't demonstrate that everything L.
in good shape."
Officials were particularly pleased
with the performance of American in-
telligence networks, which have been
widely criticized for failing to foresee
crises in the Middle East or to trace
terrorists.
_- th"VIT-0 -m Tnam
so-me." said Senator P Leahy, trick J ecrat o Vermont, e vice chair-
man of t e Senate intelligence Com-
ma ee. a were so &0 1 m sure
we ear a out it at u
QAIa Thai Ee had been
.,.~tnr T e
y
hriP t mu out a day 141M
IAaencv hen quarters in Lanalev. Va.,
to read cable messages exchanged dur-
ing the operation. He said his review
c^^~irmed Adm~^~wtrAtiea accounts.
that American mtelli~~^~P servtces.
without hel from allied services were
b1 to keep track o t e terrorists from
time they left the hijack ,^ I iann
the th's
c
airliner was interce*~ted evP^ ~___*+^Q a
tnrv rob,
Approved For Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303570032-0