Prophets of War by William Hartung

Author:William Hartung [Hartung, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nation Books
Published: 2010-10-20T13:00:00+00:00

One of the most interesting aspects of the whole affair was how unapologetic the Air Force and Lockheed were once the lobbying scheme hit the press. For example, Air Force Lieutenant General Kelly Burke, who was responsible for overseeing the C-5 program, asserted, “You’re just wrong if you think this is a highly unusual happening ... all you’re seeing is democracy in action. This is how the system is supposed to work.”

Not everyone agreed. Representative Jack Brooks (D-TX) asked the General Accounting Office to review the lobbying scheme to see if any laws had been broken. The GAO report, issued on September 30, 1982, was surprisingly hard-hitting. It called for investigations of possible criminal violations of the laws restricting lobbying activities on the part of executive branch officials. Suggested targets of the investigation included individuals in the congressional liaison office of the Air Force, the legislative affairs office of the Pentagon, Secretary of the Air Force Verne Orr, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, among others. The first point of concern was whether these individuals violated a 1913 statute prohibiting the lobbying of any branch of government by executive branch personnel; the second involved whether the coordination with contractors also violated the law. The GAO had this to say about the second point: “Since the Air Force is prohibited by appropriation restrictions from directly mounting a grassroots lobbying campaign ... it follows that it may not engage in a network of defense contractors to do the same thing.” The reference to appropriation restrictions reflected the GAO’s view that the salaries paid to Air Force and Defense Department officials during the joint lobbying campaign with Lockheed were an improper use of federal funds.46

Ernie Fitzgerald, for one, was skeptical as to whether the referral of these matters to the Justice Department would go anywhere, saying that it was like “asking the King’s lawyers to prosecute the King’s men for doing the King’s business.”47 Calls for a special prosecutor to sort out the facts of the case were ignored.

Unfortunately, Fitzgerald’s prediction was on target. The Justice Department let the case languish, then closed it in February 1983 without bringing any charges. The perfunctory nature of the investigation was underscored by the fact that the Justice Department officials involved never even called Carl Palmer, the author of the GAO report that had prompted the investigation in the first place. Palmer said as much in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “I’m really disappointed that they’ve decided not to prosecute. I think they should have gone further than they did.... Nobody has contacted us.”48

Dina Rasor observed that, after the dust settled on the C-5B campaign—with Lockheed and the Air Force winning the battle—the only unusual aspect of the whole affair was that it received as much attention as it did. Calling it “a larger illustration of the congressional role in the procurement process,” she noted that “it happens every year with other weapons in a similar but much quieter way.”49 All the same

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