PENTAGON ACTS ON DYNAMICS DIRECTOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310023-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: September 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310023-9
NtW YURK i1MS
ARTICLE APP 0
27 September 1
ON PAGE
985
Pentagon Acts on Dynamics Director
By BILL KELLEN
had gun prop to revoke the
!K~rst V&
r cearance o
Special to Tlw Now Yost Timm
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26-Thg~
tense Department said today that
of a broader effort to cut back on the
bribery case.
If the move is successful, Pentagon
officials said, General Dynamics
would be responsible for denying Mr.
Crown access to any classified infor-
mation. If the company failed to do
so, its own security clearance could
be jeopardized.
"It means he can't deal with us on
any classified material," said Glenn
Flood, Pentagon spokesman. "You
can't say it would force him off the
board. It's up to General Dynamics
how to handle it."
An aide to Representative John D.
Dingell. Democrat of Michigan, who
first raised the issue about Mr. Crown
in February, said the removal of the
clearance "would mean that he'd
have to get off the board; he couldn't
handle classified information, and I
assume that the board deals with a lot
of classified stuff."
Pentagon officials said the move
reflected a new policy of being "more
selective" in granting military con-
tractors access to classified informa-
tion. That policy, they said, was Par
Navy s scandal disclosed earlier
MOLME.
General Dynamics, the third-larg-
est military contractor, makes the
F-16 tighter plane, the M-1 tank and
the ' Trident nuclear submarine,
among other weapons.
The Pentagon said there was no
particular reason that a board mem-
ber would have to have security
clearance, but Mr. Crown, who has
8.9 million shares, or 21 percent, of
General Dynamics stock, has been i
particularly influential board mem-
ber. For example, he played a key
role last May in choosing Stanley C.
Pace as the successor to David Lewis
as chief executive. old, has
Mr. Crown, who is 00 years
also been an influential bebind-tbe-
s inter-
scenes figure in the company's -
nal strategy as it coped with
by a number of Congressional
committees and Government agen-
cies. He has been an the board for 11
Lloyd N. Cutler, a lawyer repre-
senting Mr. Crown, issued a state-
ment saying that the Pont
becau.e r.
had "no justification"
Crown had never been charged with
violating the terms of his clearance.
He added, "Mr. Crown has held a
clearance continuously for 13 years.
He ? has scrupulously observed the
terms of that clearance." Mr. Cutler
said the action would be contested in
a Pentagon administrative proceed-
ing. A General Dynamics
spokesman
declined to comment.
Kathleen A. Buck, a Pentagon legal
counsel, disclosed the Pentagon move
today at a hearing before a House
Armed Services subcommittee that is
investigating how Mr. Crown was
granted a clearance after admitting
in 1974 that he had contributed to an
industry fund that attempted to bribe
members of the Illinois Legjslature.
Mr. Crown was named an unin-
dicted conspirator in the can and
granted immunity from prosecution
in exchange for testimony.
The Pentagon lawyer said that De-
fense Secretary Caspar W. Weinber-
ger last February ordered a review of
Mr. Crown's clearance after the mat-
ter was raised by Mr. Dingell.
The investigation found that Mr.
Crown's "admitted misconduct" and
the fact that it was not disclosed to the
Pentagon until 1982 violated new Pen.
tagon standards for granting access
to secret information.
She acknowledged that the Defense
Industrial Security Clearance Office
had investigated the bribery case In
1963 and decided to continue his clear-
ance. But she said the new guidelines,
which generally prohibit clearances
for those who admit to felonious con-
duct, "reflect our determination to
strengthen significantly the security
posture of our industrial sec ri
gram ty of personal security clear-
Mr. Flood, the gd&b
spot s-m Were
issued by Deputy Def Secretary
William H. Taft 4th in August as part
of an effort to tighten security follow-
ins the Navy spy scandal last spring.
He said that after an administra-
tive hearing, the final decision on Mr.
Crown's clearance would be made
Under Secretary of Defense Fred
Ikle, who is responsible for security.
The effort to remove Mr. Crown's
security clearances is the latest in a
string of troybles for General Dy-
namics that have included al}egatiaos
of fraud, overpricing, and illicit for-
eign payments.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403310023-9