U.S. MILITARY'S PERFORMANCE IS PRAISED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310008-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: October 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310008-6
'v ARTICLE A RED
ON PAGE g
NEW YORK TIMES
12 October 1985
U.S. Military's Performance Is Praised
By BILL KELLER
Spbv to rs. NW Yoft Time
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 - Peniwgon
officials that thwartedatthe tepee of
operation four hijackers over the Mediterranean
was a firm rebuttal to critics of recent
rniUtary budgets and organization.
'.What this demonstrates, ' said Sec-
retary of the Na John F.Lehman Jr.,
that
the
"is despite as not being
try to portray the we lay the
able to tie their shoelaces, ?
highest quality We've ever had.
reporters on the inch. said today
that the incident proved the v
money spent on new equipment and
combat 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 of
money and not getting anything for
said the offi ai, who asked not to be
Identified.
View In Congress
.,several" aircraft using the commer-
cial airline routes across the Mediter-
ranean. The Navy planes, their running
lights out and radios silenced, trailed
the refused- landing rights in Tunis and
Athens.
Plane ordered to Sicily
Then four F-140 flanked the Egyptian
plane and a Hawkeye ordered It to land
at an Italian-American naval air fa-
cility in Sicily.
pushi to streamline the role of the
Joint efs 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 operate these
people," Mr. Lehamn told.Cable News
Network this morning.
The House Armed Services Commit-
tee Chairman, Representative Lee
Aspin, Democrat of Wisconsin, who has
recently begun a series of hearings
questioning whether the Reagan Ad-
quickly was taken up as an argument in
defense of president Reagan's military
buildup, and against
campaign to change the the yo
the numbers of F-14's and E-2C's pur-
chased by the Reagan Administration,
p_ city to do this now on aday-today
basis than we did four, five, six years
The official said the operation also
proved the importance of having more air
Members of Congress cautioned
against making so much of the Ind-
dent, but they agreed that the intercep.
tion was a well-executed operation that military training and,
showed especially, high qualiq of tells-J
gene.
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 tools damn good to be
able to respond to a terrorist attack on
Innocent American civilians."
its coetly plan to expand the number of
say that proposal is too expensive.
Controversy Over Afhtrays
targets of criticism or budget cuts in
when it was disclosed the Navy was
being charged $960 apiece for spare
ashtrays for the communications
today, said the exercise over the Medi-
terranean also disproved the idea that
In the operation, F-14 Tomcat fight-
ers, E-2C Hawkeye communications
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
the Pentagon is too riddled with fac-
ministration's military buildup was
worth the cost, disputed Mtn Lehman in
an interview.
'Very Well Esecood'
--The operation was terrific," he
said. "It was very appropriate and
swer thwell executed. But it e questions of haw good doesn't
our
military is overall, what have we got
for our trillion dollars, and how do we
stack up against the Soviet Union com-
pared to where we were in 1980.
"It's very dangerous to draw enor-
mous conclusions from single opera-
tions," 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
doesn't demonstrate that everything is
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.
some " said Senator Patrick J. Leahy,
Der lcrat o Vermont. the vice cbak
man of the senate me ~ce om-
mitfee. "They were so awn I m Be
fluential adherents, including_ the
water, Republican of Arizona, and the
committee's senior Democrat, Senator
Sam Nunn of Georgia, who have been
Senator Leahv had IM
brTe-fi@111 1W=
to read cable messages exchanged dur-
ing the- operation. He sal
that American inteuie>n_.
without hell) from allied services were
ntet nvm
the time they left the hiia
~gliner was interc
day of contusing and contradictory re-
ports from Egy than ,ernment otfi-
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310008-6