GRAN-JURY PROBE JARS THE CLOSE-KNIT WORLD OF ELECTRONIC WARFARE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605050023-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: March 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For
A7PEARED
ON PAL
Arms and Influence
Grand-Jury Probe Jars
The Close-Knit World
Of Electronic Warfare
Did a Top Consultant Flout
Law on National Security
By Giving Data to Firms?
Old Crows and New Weapons
By ANDY -PASZTOR
Staff Reporter Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Old Crow didn't get old by being
the fastest of the birds, or the strongest,
or the bravest. He got old by being wily. ?
?The unofficial motto of the
Association of Old Crows
WASHINGTON?In the shadowy, high-
tech world of electronic warfare, Bernie
Zettl has been a prominent player and pur-
veyor of inside information since he retired
as an Air Force major in the early
1960s. . . . ? '
The gregarious 62-year-old consultant
with the ready smile seems to know just
about every important military and corpo-
rate decision-maker in the $3 billion-a-year
business. He helped create and then served
as president of the 20,000-member Associa-
tion of Old Crows, a little-known but influ-
ential fraternity of electronic-warfare ex-
perts, U.S. military officers and corporate
executives scattered around the globe.
Devices and Techniques
With his quick wit and connections, Mr.
Zettl became an essential link to help
industry understand the Pentagon's latest
thinking about everything from new radar-
jamming devices and submarine-surveil;
lance techniques to improved anti-detec-
tion missile systems. From his nondescript
suburban Virginia office, Mr. Zettl has
worked at one time or another as a consul-
tant for nearly a dozen of the country's
largest military contractors, including
TRW Inc., GTE Corp., Northrop Corp. and
Sanders Associates Inc.
But in the process, federal investigators
contend, Mr. Zettl violated national-secu-
rity laws and regulations by quietly sup-
plying certain clients with a steady stream
of classified budget and planning docu-
ments that the Pentagon didn't want re-
leased. A continuing two-year federal
grand-jury investigation of Mr. Zettl's ac-
Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605050023-4
WALL STREET JOURNAL
20 March 1985
tivities hasn't produced an indictment as
yet, but it has ended his cozy arrange-
ments and sent shock waves through the
close-knit group of senior military officers
and civilian weapons engineers who rou-
tinely dealt with him. It has also prompted
doubts about military-procurement proce-
dures.
Many of the allegedly leaked docu-
ments, according to current and former of-
ficials familiar with the investigation, were
clearly stamped "secret" and included in-
ternal spending projections for a variety of
future Air Force _Ind Navy weapons and
electronic intelligence-gathering systems.
Unfair Advantage?
Dissemination of the information didn't
endanger U.S. security, these officials
agree. because none of the documents fell
into the hands of people without the neces-
sary federal clearance to handle sensitive
military data. But investigators from the
Justice Department and the Defense De-
partment's inspector general's office want
to determine how the allegedly unautho-
rized release occurred.
They also are raising questions about
the role of the Old Crows and examining
whether any contractors gained an unfair
competitive advantage by obtaining the
classified material outside official chan-
y els. ?
Interviews with Mr. Zettl, a group of his
friends and business associates and sev-
eral industry executives interrogated by
prosecutors reveal the extent of the un-
usual federal investigation. The interviews
also provide a rare glimpse inside the Old
Crows, an organization that Mr. Zettl and
others helped turn into a powerhouse in the
weapons industry. The Old Crows, for ex-
ample, quietly advise military leaders on
complex technical issues, while the Penta-
gon routinely sponsors and provides space
for the group's annual convention and also
approves the presentation of classified pa-
pers there. -
Violations Denied
Mr. Zettl denies violating any laws and
asserts that the kind of consulting work he
performed was "something that was done
by many other people" in the industry. "I
wasn't the only person in the loop," he as-
serts. "The documents were readily avail-
able to any company that wanted to go to
the trouble . . . and pick them up. They
really didn't have any reason to zero in on
me."
Gus Slayton, the executive director of
tire Old Crows, argues that sharing the in-
formation, in fact, may have benefited
U,S. security. "Industry is trying to figure
out what kind of weapons systems govern-
ment wants" for the future, he maintains,
and routine exchange of information is a
central element of that effort.
The Justice Department confirms that
Mr. Zettl is the target of an "ongoing crim-
inal investigation," but it declines to pro-
vide details. Washington attorney Robert
Klimek, a retired Air Force colonel who
represents the Association of Old Crows
and at least one military official inter-
viewed by investigators, says he has been
assured by prosecutors that the group it-
self isn't a target of the grand-jury investi-
gation.
The Pentagon declines comment. But
privately some military officials worry
that details of the investigation could pro-
vide critics with fresh ammunition about
loopholes in the Pentagon's procurement
practices at a time when federal spending
on electronic weaponry is booming.
Quite apart from any potential criminal
violations, investigators have documented
a widespread pattern of information-swap-
ping among members of the Association of
Old Crows and their friends in uniform.
Critics contend that these practices may
have discouraged aggressive price compe-
tition among major weapons contractors,
squeezed many smaller companies out of
the business and hurt taxpayers.
Northrop, TRW and Sanders Associates
deny receiving any unauthorized docu-
ments or information from Mr. Zettl. A
NorthroP spokesman says Mr. Zettl still
serves as a "technical consultant" to one
of the company's units. GTE officials de-
cline to comment on the matter.
The association was founded in 1964 by
a small band of World War II intelligence
and electronics officers eager to share
some drinks and recount their days of bat-
tlefield glory. The name comes from the
code word "Crow," which was used to
identify Allied aircraft that jammed Ger-
man radar signals during bombing raids.
Outsiders first considered the group
nothing more than "a marching and chow-
der society," recalls Rear Adm. Albert
Gallotta Jr., one of the Navy's top elec-
tronic-warfare experts and the vice presi-
dent of the Old Crows. But after developing
a more professional image, conducting
regular electronic-warfare training lec-
tures for the Pentagon and stepping up ef-
forts to recruit more members, the organi-
zation grew rapidly in both size and impor-
tance. -
Chapters Abroad
. It now boasts a pair of retired major
generals on its executive committee and
board of directors, along with committed
members in corporate board rooms across
' the country. There are 81 separate chap-
ters, or "roosts," including groups in Aus-
tralia, Japan, Taiwan and the Nether-
lands.
Continued
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"We don't try to impede or criticize the
military," explains William S. Crawford,
another association founder who now
works as a consultant in the field. How-
ever, that didn't prevent Mr. Zettl, one of
the most senior and respected Old Crows,
from running into difficulty: Pentagon au-
ditors turned up an unauthorized classified
document during a routine audit of one of
Mr. Zettl's client companies, and the audi-
tors started asking questions about how it
got into the files. The company initially
balked at providing an explanation, so the
Pentagon's inspector general began a full-
scale investigation to track down the leak.
Mr. Zettl and his supporters won't identify
the company, and neither will the govern-
ment.
The investigation comes at a time when
the Pentagon is enforcing tough new secu-
rity protections and when senior policy
makers such as Defense Undersecretary
'red Ikle are railing against leaks of all
kinds. The Zettl case also coincides with
publicity about a separate Pentagon inves-
tigation of allegations that a Ford Motor
Co. subsidiary and other companies work-
ing on the Army's controversial $4.5 billion
Divad antiaircraft gun hired at least eight
retired military officers who previously
had important roles in the weapon's devel-
opment.
Expenditure Analyses
Among the documents Mr. Zettl alleg-
edly passed to industry officials were five-
year and one-year intelligence-expenditure
analyses for the Air Force and summaries
of electronic-warfare budget priorities for
the Navy. Mr. Zettl maintains that all of
the material was legally available to any
contractor who had the required security
, clearance and could demonstrate "a need
to know" about such projections. The most
? he was guilty of, Mr. Zettl's supporters
I contend, was technical violations of secu-
rity rules for failing to officially sign out
and adequately safeguard the documents.
"There are all kinds of people out there,
call them consultants if you will, who
make a living trying to understand such
documents" and then translate them for
companies, says Mr. Klimek, the associa-
tion's lawyer. Mr. Klimek adds that when
he worked on electronic-warfare projects
in the Pentagon, "Bernie Zettl used to
come around and talk to me from time to
time" without ever abusing his security
clearance by requesting documents.
Recently, Mr. Klimek asserts, the gov-
ernment
-
ernment has "tried to intimidate and
threaten" him and some active military
personnel who knew Mr. Zettl by calling
. them to testify before a grand jury in Alex-
andria, Va., or requiring them to submit to
long interviews with Pentagon criminal in-
vestigators.
It isn't clear how many documents are
part of the investigation, although some
Old Crows familiar with the details of the
case suggest it could be as many as a
dozen spread over a period of several
years.
Mr. Zettl won't discuss details of the
documents, except to say that they didn't
include the most highly classified and valu-
able "project-specific" information. And
despite the government scrutiny of leaks,
he asserts, "it's still good business and vis-
ibility for companies" selling to the Penta-
gon to have their executives elected to run
the Association of Old Crows.
The association's officials and military
backers strongly defend the organization.
; George Nicholas, the Pentagon's assistant
director of electronic combat, says he was
"concerned" when he first learned about
the investigation but is now satisfied that
the group's current leadership wasn't in-
volved in any questionable activities. "The
1 Pentagon has always supported the Old
Crows," he says, and relied on them to
help solve the "tough political and techni-
cal problems" of electronic warfare.
Lynwood Cosby, former superintendent
of tactical electronic-warfare weapons at
the Naval Research Laboratory who now
works for Teledyne Inc. and is a past pres-
ident of the Old Crows, says a major goal
of the association is to "create the environ-
ment where exchange of information be-
tween the military and contractors can
flourish." National-security restrictions,
Mr. Cosby argues, sometimes "create an
unnecessary impediment to the informa-
tion flow" and prevent contractors "from
knowing how to invest" intelligently for the
future. "I'm not, sure he (Mr. Zettl) did
anything wrong," Mr. Cosby says.
Prosecutors' View
Prosecutors, on the other hand, are
known to believe that committing even
technical violations of security rules, par-
ticularly among people accustomed to
dealing with sensitive information, would
show that Mr. Zettl and his associates rec-
ognized that the documents were obtained
and circulated outside the law. "The gov-
ernment attorneys keep insisting that the
documents were stolen or otherwise cor-
ruptly obtained," says one Old Crow re?
cently interviewed by investigators.
? Adm. Gallotta suggests that the investi-
gation is focusing on "questions of favorit-
ism" involving some of the companies that
hired Mr. Zettl. Anton Brees, a Northrop
Corp. executive and retired Air Force offi-
cial on the association's board, says that
some Pentagon officer probably gave the
documents to Mr. Zettl as a sign of friend-
ship and trust. If so, Mr. Brees adds, such
a relatively minor mistake "surely doesn't
wipe out 20 years of productive and patri-
otic work" by the Old Crows.
Mr. Slayton, the association's director,
says Mr. Zettl remains a member of the
Old Crows but hasn't been active in run-
ning the organization tor several years. In-
vestigators have asked the association for
information about several current or for-
mer members who were friends or busi-
ness associates of Mr. Zettl. But it isn't
clear how many other individuals in the as-
sociation or in the Pentagon also may be
targets of the grand-jury proceedings.
Some members of the group associated
with Mr. Zettl appear bitter about the un-
wanted attention. Retired Air Force Maj.
Gen. Gerald Carey, for instance, who
works as a researcher at Georgia Institute
of Technology and also serves as a director
of the Old Crows, praises the association
for creating a "vehicle that allows govern-
ment, industry and universities to share in-
formation" about the latest advances in
electronic warfare.
Without such cooperation, Mr. Carey
suggests, the U.S. may be unable to tile
full advantage of developments in laser
technology, electronically controlled onti-
cal systems. and artificial intelligence tp
track enemy weapons and avoid detection
of its own. "I don't think what he (Mr.
Zettli was doing had anything to do with
the Old Crows" or its importance as an in-
stitution, Mr. Carey argues.
Old Crows President Doyle Larson, for-
mer commander of the Air Force's Elec-
tronic Security Command, insists that the
association helps give industry "guidance
and direction" that would be "impossible"
for the Pentagon to provide by itself.
The government's scrutiny of Mr.
Zettl's consulting work also has raised
questions about some of his other activi-
ties. A federal indictment released in
Cleveland last month doesn't name Mr.
Zettl as a defendant but says that he
played a key role in helping a friend and
former National Aeronautics and Space
Administration official submit more than
$6,800 of false travel vouchers to the gov-
ernment. The indictment says that Mr.
Zettl participated in the allegedly fraudu-
lent scheme at the same time that a num-
ber of his clients, including TRW and
Sanders Associates, were interested in ob-
taining federal contracts at a NASA facil-
ity run by the same official.
Meanwhile, friends worry that Mr. Zettl
seems increasingly depressed as the cur-
rent investigation drags on. He has lost
nearly all his defense-contractor clients,
and many of the companies voluntarily
tightened internal procedures for obtain-
ing and handling classified materials.
"They're afraid to have somebody working
for them who is under investigation," Mr.
Zettl complains.
The only reason the government singled
him out for prosecution, the consultant told
a reporter over the phone recently, is be-
cause "I was a big name in the aerospace
industry. I knew virtually everyone in the
business." But Mr. Zettl contends, "I
didn't do anything different or improper"
compared with "other people in the
field."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/02/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605050023-4