European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 26, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes column James Kilpatrick Pentagon has no equal in wasting tax dollars Federal jobs pr06rams Washington a a Little More than 14 years ago in March 1976, the Navy and the air Force set in motion a Jim Dandy project. They would acquire a new airborne self Protection Jammer that would befuddle enemy radar on the ground. Everyone said my what a bully idea and thereby hangs this tale. Thus the Pentagon contracted with itt and Westinghouse to develop the electronic Gizmo. Years passed. More years passed. Nearly $600 million of the taxpayers Money went out. Nothing much came in. At last in the summer of 1988, 12 years having elapsed the contractors declared themselves ready for developmental and operational tests. The Navy and air Force installed the contraptions and launched their planes. From the ground simulated radar beacons went up. From the air the hammers sent their signals Down. And behold the hammers did not work. Truly the Asp As it is known did not work. The Pentagon a specifications required that the system function for 33 hours a very Long time in combat without failure. Test models failed after 19 hours. The contract required that the Asp detect its own faults 90 percent of the Lime. On this test the mechanism scored a miserable 29 percent. Moreover when the Jammer was not jamming properly it was emitting signals that positively invited enemy missiles to Zero on target. The effectiveness of the system was judged a marginally operationally that is Pentagon Csc for Lousy. In july of last year top officials in the Field of weapons acquisition reviewed the findings. Deputy defense Secretary Donald j. Atwood saw a a Clear Case of not meeting the exit he voted to kill the program. Then the air Force indicated it had a better use for its Money and pulled out of the project altogether. On dec. 11, defense Secretary Dick Cheney signed a termination order. But hold like the fabled Phoenix from its ashes the Asp Rose again. Atwood reversed himself. Cheney reversed himself. The whole project is Back on track. The Navy wishes to commit $3.7 . Rosenthal billion Over the next 10 years to buy 700 units. Regardless of the sorry test results it wants to get on with production. Naval spokesmen say the Model Asp poor thing that it is is still better than the Jammer now in use. It is bound to improve Over time. Let us buy now and Fly later. Sen. David Pryor d-ark., chairman of a subcommittee on Federal services got wind of this chronicle last year. He has been fighting a Feather Pillow Battle Ever since. He chaired a hearing on May 11 that was typical of most committee hearings. In an opening statement Pryor asked a rhetorical question a Why Are we spending billions to produce a radar Jammer that does not work is Over budget and behind schedule a answer came there none. Well not exactly none. Atwood said he had changed his mind because of the Navy a Appeal. He feared that if the termination order were carried out 15 subcontractors would go on to other projects. The Vendor Supply line would dry up and 14 years of investment would be lost. Atwood was Long associated with general motors before he came to the Pentagon. Pryor asked him if he would have put a pm car on the Road with such defective equipment. A no sir a said Atwood. A would pilots like to be in such a plane a a absolutely Well then persisted the senator Why Are you going ahead Atwoods response dissolved in a smog of words. The hearing should have been dramatic exciting revealing. Through no fault of Pryor a it turned out to be a Yawn. Once Pentagon people get to talking pen tag ones eyes Glaze Over. In this bottomless bureaucracy in which initials speak Only to initials the old non concurs with findings of the Caig and the Nab appeals to the dab. Responsibility sinks in a sea of memoranda. We taxpayers Are about to buy a $3.7 billion system that demonstrably is no Damn Good. Its the Washington Way. C Universal press Syndicate a a u>im6s Sty arts programs a amp work Trai rtt wish aws Art p brw6& news reporting too often leads to glorification Here we Are right in the spot where the trouble that is bruising the soul of a City is taking place getting headlines around the country right in the Middle of it All. This is Church Avenue Brooklyn where a couple of korean owned fruit stores have been boycotted for months by african americans and Caribbean immigrants in the neighbourhood. May 22, just before noon. Lots of police on duty on the Street and in patrol cars around the Comer. Blue police barricades arc up. All right what a going on now nothing nothing is what is going on. No pickets no shouting no cameras nothing just customers buying some fruit in the stores. A cop says maybe pickets and cameras will show up in the afternoon maybe not. So Back to the office. No Story. No Story except the real one a the knowledge that the hate mongers who feed off the problems and angers of the people living around Here could get a mob of journalists and cameramen to Church Avenue in half an hour. Just a few Calls to the papers and to stations would do it maybe $2 Worth telling them there would be a news conference denouncing the mayor right in the Street or a a a demonstration where some of the vilest haters would appear or that the parents of a victim of a racial murder would show up in sympathy. When the Boycott started after a haitian woman complained that she had been roughed up by a korean shopkeeper much of the press was late to the Story. They were late to report the deprivations and tensions in the neighbourhood that made it possible the hate mongers role in promoting and prolonging them and the racism they were spewing. Then much of the Media turned itself Over to the evil men whose Only real Power rests in getting publicity. They Are the a a activists whose Only activity lies not in promoting civil rights but in promoting themselves Over the Heads of tested chosen civil rights leaders and elected officials. They would love to Hurt mayor David Dinkins As they did de Koch and Are already talking nastily about him. The press has a duty to record what they Are doing and saying. Yes but not to build them up As if they Are the a Loyal opposition to the elected officials when All they have Are Mouths and Hustle smarts. Sometimes it is difficult for the press to find the journalistic line Between reporting the opinions and actions of the political fringe a including Poison peddling a and creating the hate monsters. But that is Why to network executives and program managers and print publishers and editors get paid to use judgment. If they can to find the line in their Heads or stomachs they should not be in the Job a it is that simple. It is not a matter of codes or regulation. That would destroy the Worth of a free press. It is simply a matter of accepting responsibility. We can get to the responsibilities of others later. But right now i think those of us in print or to should talk about our own. Fine but who is responsible in the printed press look at the Masthead. If the people listed As editor or publisher or chairman of the Board whimper and say i did not do it myself so i am not responsible done to buy the publication. It is not just a matter of the fringe press. You might want to ask the publisher and editor of the Washington Post Why they astonished their journalism colleagues by turning Over More than a Page of text to an interview with Louis Farrakhan. Then Call the Washington times and ask the same question. Ask the editor of the Amsterdam news about a headline across a Page about the Black teacher who took Black students to buy at the korean shops a Erasmus teacher called intellectual i to finding the responsible character is More difficult. When i Call the networks to find out who decides on the amount of blood spilled on local to every night or whom to talk to about some hard Core packaged a news program like the one saying president Kennedy must have been killed by the top people around him i always get the same answer a that s not my wont get the truth but you always can use the Clicker when the programs come on again. On the Way Back to the office i thought of Arthur Miller a Harvard Law professor. At press seminars when journalists told him their Job was just to print the news never mind consequences he would smile sweetly put on a thick German accent and say a yes. Just like Werner von Braun no i just make the rockets and Send them up. Where Thev fall a not my c the new York times
