GAO SAYS PENTAGON IS LAX ON EQUIPMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R000802060041-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 15, 2007
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: November 25, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved Fo gl@A'e lqi
_f16 2(;140(3)&000802060041-6
BALTIMORE SUN 25 November 1982 (26) Pg.4
GAO says Pentagon
?
JSlaX01~equi equipment
Washington (AP)-The Pentagon there is little monitoring of the use of
got a low grade from congressional leased property and in some in-
investigators yesterday for the way It stances, the property has not been re-
keeps tabs on more than $170 million turned at the expiration of a lease."
tary property it leases at bargain
rates or free to foreign governments.
"We found the financial manage-
ment and monitoring of leased prop-
erty is inadequate and congressional
notification requirements are not be-
ing fully met," the General Account-
ing Office said in a report to Defense
Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.
"As a result, the Congress is not
being provided information needed
for effective oversight and thousands
of dollars in lease costs are not being
recovered," it added. "In addition,
WASHINGTON POST
26 Nov 1982 Pg.34
Habib Preseis is
New Plan for
Lebanon Talks
Special U.S. envoy Philip C.
Habib yesterday presented Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin
with proposals to start Israeli-Le-
banese peace talks.
Emerging from a conference in
Jerusalem with 'Begin, Begin, Habib de-
:lined to make any substantive
jtatement to reporters.
Begin's press secretary, Uri Porat,
' 3lso declined to comment on the de-
tails of Habib's peace proposals.
(Lebanese officials told The As-
3ociated Press that Habib was pro-
posing Israeli and Syrian forces with-
draw nine miles from the Beirut-to-
Damascus highway in the central
Lebanese mountains as the first
phase in withdrawing foreign armies
from the war-weary nation.]
In . Damascus, PLO Chairman
Yasser Arafat opened a long-awaited
meeting of his 66-member Central
Council to seek a united stand on
.President Reagon's peace bid.
In a 10-minute opening speech
before the meeting was closed to
journalists, Arafat said, "What we
say to Habib and [Israeli Defense
Minister Ariell Sharon is that this
revolution is created to remain and
it will continue to victory."
The unreturned equipment is val-
ued at nearly $69 million, and the
leases for the pieces expired as long
as seven years ago. The equipment in-
cludes an oceangoing tugboat, a lard-
ing craft and an auxiliary repair dry
dock, together worth $5.3 million, lent
to Chile rent-free in 1960 under a 15-
year lease that was not renewed.
The GAO recommended that the
Pentagon's Defense Security. Assist-
ance Agency and Security Assistance
Accounting Center tighten their book-
keeping, rent-collection and supervi-
sion procedures.
SOVIETS...
Continued
"Starting the implementation of the MX
program, Washington should know that this
runs counter to one of the central provisions
of the SALT I and SALT II accords-an
obligation not to create additional silos for
intercontinental missik's.
"Washington must also he aware that this step
Avill, not promote progress at the negotiations in
Geneva." it said.
The statement described as "absurd" Reagan's
so-called zero option at the Geneva talks on lim-
iting medium-range nuclear arms in Europe. It
said the plan envisages "the destruction" of Soviet
medium-range weapons while "leaving intact" the
similar weapons of Britain and France and U.S.
forward based "nuclear means."
It quoted Andropov as saying that American
statements linking "readiness to normalization of
relations with the demand that the Soviet Union
pay for this by some preliminary concessions in
various spheres sound, to say the least, not seri-
ous. We will not accept this."
The statement described as "positive in char-
acter" Reagan's proposal to improve the Moscow-
Washington "hotline" and other confidence-build-
ing measures, but said it was more important to
reduce the levels of arms on both sides than to
improve communications.
"If for a?a'erv"100 MX missiles we add 10 tele-
phones linkiuz Moscow and Washington,. red ones
or blue one., does this make the missiles any less
dangerous?*' the statement asked.
Diplomatic observers here said Reagan's NIX
speech came at a particularly inopportune mo-
ment, at a time when the new Kremlin leadership
was getting organized and following the visit here
of Vice President Bush and Secretary of State
George P. Shultz, which raised hopes for an easing
of tension in Soviet-American relations
The English-language newspaper Moscow N' w?s
said today that the meeting of Andropov with
Bush and Shultz was intended-,tie a "!%ign" to
Washington that Moscow would like to arrest the
steady deterioration in relations. It said recent
American pronouncements indicated' that the
Reagan administration was turning its back on-
this opportunity.
Commenting on Reagan s . statement that "it
takes two to tango" and reported U.S. demands
for Soviet concessions, the paper said: "Taking the
president's analogy further, one might note that
asking someone to dance is not generally done by
a demand that he or she change their hairdo, let
alone thinking. The partner is taken for what he
or she is."
The statement in Pravda, which was also dis-
tributed by the government news agency Tass,
was even more harsh. It accused Reagan of delib-
erately deceiving the American public by contend-
ing that the "road to peace was paved by new mis-
silee,'new nuclear charge3, new plane:; and ships."
It said Reagan resorted to "rudest exaggerations
and distortions" to depict Moscow as the initiator
of the arms race. The editorial said Reagan
showed "the naive television viewers colored
diagrams and charts in which everything could be
detected except the truth." It was an "irrefutable
fact that the arms race has its roots in American
soil," the statement said.
The;.statement asserted that Reagan "must be
aware that the Soviet Union will not tolerate a
lagging behind in questions which are vital for its
security." It said Moscow had found it "necessary
to mobilize additional forces and resource- for the
improvement of its armed forces",to meet earlier
American challenges and would do so again.
Pravda gave detailed figures on U.S. weapons
systems developed in the postwar period. It said
that Moscow had proposed that both sides re-
nounce the development of new weapons systems
and that it had advocated measures to prevent
"militarization of outer space."
But, it said, "none of these and similar propos.
ale have found a positive response in the United
States." It said the Russians were forced. to build
.their 'typhoon nuclear submarine to counter the
American Ohio sub.
"Why should one spend innumerable billions
for the creation and production of increasingly
destructive systems of weapons when an oppor.
tunity exists to maintain security at lower levels?'
the statement asked.
The editorial answered by asserting that Rea-
gan had "plainly explained that the purpose of the
deployment of the MX missiles and other arma-
ments:- is to achieve an incontrovertible military
superiority over the Soviet Union and to create
prerequisites for ensuring an American victory in
any conflict, including a nuclear one.
"Counting on a victory in a nuclear war is ad-
venturism. -It is doomed to failure. The Soviet
Union does not intend to chase the United States
in the creation of each new system of-weapons or
to'imitate the United States. This does not mean
at all that the Soviet Union will not find an effec-
tive reply to Washington if the United States be-
gins realizing its plans."
Approved For Release 2007/03/16: CIA-RDP84B00049R000802060041-6