THE STEALTH OF DEAVER'S QUESTIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301890037-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: May 16, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301890037-4
r AP EARED WASHINGTON POST
44i 16 May 1986
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak
The Stealth of Deaver's Questions
Michael K. Deaver was transformed from
door-opener de luxelo ungtudediobbying_missile
in March when he submitted to budget director
James Miller technical questons involving na-
tional security secrets that sought to compare
the existing B-1 bomber with its successor, the
still classified Stealth bomber.
Those questions are in the hands of a House
Energy and Commerce subcommittee that con-
ducts its first closed-door session today. They
went unanswered by Miller.
But no longer can it be claimed that ex-White
House aide Deaver was not an active lobbyist in
behalf of Rockwell International's efforts to build
additional B-1 bombers.
It was the revelation of Deaver's March visit
to Miller's office next door to the White House
that triggered the spreading investigation. He
has denied violating federal law that prohibits
ex-officials from lobbying their former agencies
for two years; Deaver insisted he did not consid-
er Miller's Office of Management and Budget
part of the White House. Deaver has called his
meeting with Miller "informational."
What he did not say is that he was seeking
highly sensitive "information" at OMB. Rockwell
International supplied him a list of questions that
could be construed as an argument for the B-1
against the Stealth. According to two separate
sources who have read the questions, the last
several ones concerned Stealth performance and
contained classified national security informa-
tion.
Deaver alerted Miller during their meeting that
he would submit questions in writing, an OMB
official told us, and the budget chief made no
response. Nor were the questions answered after
Deaver submitted them. In any event, according to
a nongoverrunent source familiar with the Deaver-
Rockwell relationship, Deaver handed Miller the
questions as he left. But an official source said they
were sent to the OMB director later. In any event,
Miller was not capable of answering the questions,
and such information would not conceivably have
been supplied him by the Pentagon under need-to-
know regulations.
Deaver's office said it would not respond to
questions until after the House hearing. A Rock-
well spokesman in Washington said the company
prepared the list "to help familiarize" Deaver
with "the nation's bomber fleet' adding that
"there was clearly no intention that the questions
be used to obtain classified data." An OMB
spokesman stressed that Deaver's questions
went unanswered. "There are no embarrassing
questions, only embarrassing answers," he said.
The image of Mike Deaver, the most skilled
political advance man of the '80s who became
famous fulfilling the needs of the Reagans, juggling
military secrets testifies to his trouble filling his
new role as military lobbyist. He was in the wrong
office saying the wrong things to the wrong man.
Nor did Rockwell contract to pay what one compa-
ny official estimated as a $250,000 retainer for
nuts-and-bolts lobbying with Cabinet-level officials.
It wanted somebody to open the Oval Office door.
For the past two decades, Rockwell International
has been punctilious in its Washington operations.
But the company's future was at risk in the B-1 vs.
Stealth struggle, which has split the national defense
community. Northrop clearly was winning.
So, when Rockwell's chairman and chief exec-
utive officer, Robert W. Anderson, last year noted
Deaver was leaving the White House, he wanted to
retain the man who clearly had not cut his intimate
ties with the White House. But the notion of Mike
Deaver going into the Oval Office to get the,
president to persuade Defense Secretary Caspar.
Weinberger to overrule his Pentagon and build
extra B-1 bombers suggests a CEO fantasy world. .
There is no sign Deaver even tried getting
Anderson a presidential audience. According to
insiders, he specialized in giving Rockwell "stra-
tegic" advice about Cap Weinberger's impor-
tance and the need to contact key congressional
figures. That produced grumbling inside Rock-
well that he was not earning his keep.
Deaver's visit to OMB was his own idea,
Rockwell insiders told us. The trouble is he
really didn't know much about bomber technolo-
gy or defense procurement.
So, when Deaver asked for something on
paper to show Miller, the telltale questions were
retrieved from the Rockwell files. The super
advance man, of whom it was said by associates
that he would not know substance if it hit him in
the face, had blundered into Pentagon high-tech
when what his clients really wanted was some
doors opened?one in particular.
01986, News America Syndicate
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301890037-4