THE BIGGEST WHISTLE-BLOWING OF THEM ALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100040034-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: May 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Si Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100040034-0
ARTICLE APF'EA . D
TIM, NATION
ON PAGE
8 May 1982
TheiggestW1iistIeBioyjig of Tie.
? Washington, April 28 "classify" such information. So Tillson is accused of pass-
ack: in January, with too little public attention, ino "official information," not military secrets.
somebody at the Pentagon blew the whistle on Military cost overruns are hardly a secret. They are
the R eagan defense budget. In terms of money, it notorious, and growing. Congress has been trying for years
was. by far the biggest wh'stle-blowing ever On to kee
th
with
p
em
in bounds 11972h
.n. te General Account-
January8, a veteran of the Pentagon press corps, George C. ing Office ? reported that Defense `Department weapons
Wilson; reported in.The Washington Post the explosion of a price:; were running 40 percent over cost estimates. Now
fiscal bombshell at a closed meeting o_f.the Joint Chiefs of even the hawkish and right-wing Heritage Foundation (in a
Staff the daysbefore.. .;
- :,. just released study, "Cutting the High Cost of Weapons")
= Wilson: wrote. that Richard IX -: DeLauer; ;the head- of says that cost overruns are averaging 100 percent:
:'weapons-research and procurement at the Defense Depart- "'So a9entagon spokesman at a press conference yester-
ment, told tht~Joint Chiefs that the Reagan Five-year arms day,`iin-discussing the Tillson case,'chose his words with
program-might-.end up costing asTuch as SO percent more. precision. He said the captain had leaked secrets; not to an
than the figuressent to Congress.!
enemy' but to an ..adversary." Congress ? is certainly an
This would bcno. minor gap. The Reagan five-year pro- adversary. The Pentagon feels about whistle-blowers'.
the
jection for fiscal 1984 through 1988 called for expenditures
I
Lac
d
i
d
--- -....,.. ,...,
e, a
v
se
tightening
up on the program because that amount was insuff icient.
The "best guess," he said, was a shortfall of $300 billion,
but the gap could be as large as $750 billion., _
To make these dizzy figures conceivable, let us borrow
one of Reagan's favorite rhetorical devices. If the Pentagon
had started spending a million dollars a day on the day the
Prince of Peace was born, it would by now have spent less
than half of that five-year $1.5 trillion projection.. And
that's still not enough?
All those White House muttering's' you have been hearing
about the dangerous disclosure of national security secrets
go back to that leak. Everybody at 'that secret briefing was
later subjected to a lie-detector test in a frantic- self-
investigation. 'The august Joint Chiefs-praise God! --were
cleared. But the ax has fallen on a former cateer-officer,
John C. F:--Tillson, now a- civilian director of manpower
management at the Pentagon. He is a West Pointer, twice
decorated with- a .Silver Star.. in.- Vietnam.: He denied: the
.charges but. faces ' dismissal r .
The affair raises-a wide range of public policy questions,
some 'of them?-urgent..Tillson-, is -a'ccused `.of -leaking'not
just to a reporter but to five-persons on 'the staffs of Con-
?gressional committees. The press reports .did not name: the
committees; but I had no trouble obtaining the names of.the
'recipients of the leak: two are from the Senate Armed Ser-
vices Committee, one from the House Armed Services Com-
mittee and one each from the Senate and. House Budget
Committees. s ~'. .....
These are they ery committees on whose "right to'know"
Congress depends- for its power to-control- the&military
'budget. -The -Pentagon doesn't-. dare- claim :a=right to
.The Problem transcends inflation: The Pentaon vi
l
o
ates
.g all the.-favorite shibboleths of the Reagan Administration.
One is?-reliance on the free market. The military-industrial
complex, though eager to defend free enterprise abroad,
evades it at home. The Heritage Foundation reports"that only
8 percent of military contracts are fully competitive, while
60 percent are negotiated on a "sole source" basis. -
-Wilson and the five Congressional aides have denied that
they learned of the new overrun forecasts from Tillson. The
truth is that. the Pentagon and the-armed forces are full of
rebels against the mindless dimensions and profligacy of the'
Reagan arms program.
The discontent surfaced in an extraordinary editorial in
the March 1 Army Times. 1t?fears "a backlash" against
needed military improvements because of unrealistic mill-'
Lary objectives. These were reflected in Secretary. Wein_
berger':> call earlier this..year for extant forces big :enough
. for 'world-wide war, including concurrent reinforcement !
of.Europe, deployment to Southwest Asia and support ofd
other potential areas of conflict.','
TheArmy Times said.that.."with a realistic foreign policy,
in which the armed forces would be assigned only to defend
the clear national interests, there: would be no need to gear!
up for war in every jungle, desert and mountain range on+
the surface of the earth."
Alt this has immediate relevance to the. current - budget
negotiations between Reagan and Congress. If the report of;
the Joint Chiefs is correct, it portends budget deficits worse,
than :.hitherto forecast. Defense- overruns could add an
average of from'$60 billion to $150 billion to future deficits.
On that basis how can fiscal sobriety ever be restored and in=
teresi rates brought down? I. F._STONE'
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100040034-0