1is Ar4i$an Daigt
Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedopt
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Ml 48104
Mercenaries'
spread
U..
Thursday, March-18, 1976
Edited and managed by students at the Ur
News Phone: 764-0552
liversity of Michigan
By MICHAEL T. KLARE
(PNS) - As countries from Taiwan
to Brazil, Zaire to Malaysia stock up
on the most sophisticated American wea-'
ponry available, U.S. civilian arms ex-
perts are beginning to assume command-
ing roles in their armed forces.
This presence is discreetly justified by
officials involved as diving the U.S.
indirect control over the war-making ca-
pacity of these countries.
As Lockheed Vice President William
D. Perreault told PNS, "When you buy
an airplane, you also buy a supplier and
a general supply line - in other words,
you buy a political partner."
Pentagon statistics show 7,700 a r m s
experts - most recruited from the U.S.
armed services - are stationed in 34
countries, with the biggest concentration
in the oil rich Persian Gulf.
These "white collar mercenaries" are
the product of a growing hunger in the
Third World for near instant military
modernization, requiring arms too com-
plex for their own technicians to handle.
THE U.S. SHIFT in 1971 from arms aid
to arms sales to correct its trade im-
balance triggered this hunger by pro-
viding access for the first time to the
most advanced weapons in its arsenal.
Now that hunger has sent U.S. arms
sales zooming to $11 billion a year -
and last year turned the U.S. trade de-
ficit into a surplus of $11 bililon.
But where earlier the advisers ac-
companying arms aid - and even sales
- were under direct Pentagon command,
today they work for U.S. firms under
private contract with foreign govern-
ments. This means they are one step fur-
ther removed from the Congressional
overview imposed on Pentagon contracts.
While the Senate and House are now
in conference over a joint bill to impose
new controls over arms exports, there
has been relatively little Congressional,
oversight on arms sales and virtually no
disclosure of actual negotiations leading
PIRGIM REPORTS:
to sales - including the provision of ci-
vilian advisers.
The shift to private corporations be-
gan in Vietnam after U.S. troops were
pulled out in compliance with the Jan-
uary 1973 Peace Accords. Over 7,500
U.S. civilians - mostly retired military
personnel - worked under contract with
the Saigon government to service t h e
huge amount of sophisticated U.S. wea-
ponry left there.
THEN, AS THE U.S. cut back its mil-
itary commitments overseas, the Pen-
tagon began to hire private corporations
to maintain U.S. military programs in
other foreign countries.
Last year such programs received
wide publicity when the Los Angeles-
based Vinnell Corporation was discovered
to have hired 1,000 Vietnam veterans to
train troops in Saudi Arabia as part of
a $77 million contract with the Penta-
gon.
Today, however, the Pentagon is in-
creasingly by-passed by private arms
sales contracts in which weapons firms
provide the arms experts to maintain
their equipment.
Moreover, unlike the Pentagon con-
tracts, these new agreements provide no
limitations on how long American ex-
perts will remain in these countries.
Since advanced armaments require con-
stant maintenance by technicians with
years of specialized training, the sup-
port contracts open the door to a per-
manent U.S. presence.
AN EXAMINATION of the kind of
work involved underscores the critical
role such support personnel play in over-
seas armed forces.
9 In Iran at least 2,000 U.S. engineers
hired by Grumman maintain 80 F-14
Tomcat fighters purchased by the Shah
for an estimated $1.9 billion. A modern
high technology fighter like the Tomcat
requires at leat 20 hours of ground main-
tenance for each hour of flying time.
0 In Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Iran, Saudi
Arabia, Taiwan and Malaysia, several
hundred employees of Northrup are
training air force personnel to operate
F-SE International Fighters produced
by Northrup.
* In Iran Rockwell International is re-
cruiting cryptographers, cryptoanalysts,
computer programmers and electrical
engineers from the government's super-
secret National Security Agency to man
an electronic spy system (IBEX) it is
building under a multi-million dollar con-
tract.
t In Zaire, U.S. employees of Lockheed
provide training, repair and maintenance
service for the C-130 transport aircraft,
muscle
of recipient countries. According to Lock-
heed's Perreault, the complexity of mo-
dern aircraft means "it only takes one
little piece to go wrong" for the plane
to be grounded - and if Washington re-
fuses to supply a replacement part,
"that's the end," the plane is worth-
less.
U.S. policy, in fact, implicitly incorpor-
ates such sanctions. When some Congres-
sional people complained, for example,
that U.S. Phantom jets sold to Saudi
Arabia would ultimately be used by other
Arab states in attacks on Israel, then-
Secretary of State William P. Rogers
insisted that such action was highly un-
'As the U.S. cut back its military commitments overseas,
the Pentagon began to hire private corporations to maintain
U.S. military programs in other foreign countries.'
: {{{':: .{.. :: w: :.:. .4...a.:. ...t §S' ,v , . 5V .: i.%;?: :S'
the plane reportedly used to supply anti-
MPLA forces in Angola during its civil
war.
* In Kuwait, Hughes Aircraft employees
provide technical assistance on the TOW
anti-tank missile under a $236,000 serv-
ice contract with the Kuwaiti govern-
ment.
THE FLOW of highly trained former
U.S. servicemen to foreign arms pur-
chasers, notably Iran, is seen by some
government officials as an actual drain
on U.S. military preparedness.
In a secret study made public in Jan.
1975, the General Accounting Office
warned that. the sale of specialized mili-
tary skills to Iran "could adversely af-
fect the readiness status of U.S. forces"
because "many of the technical skills
sold to Iran" were "in critically short
supply in U.S. military units."
Those involved, however, justify the
flow as providing the U.S. with some
control over the war-making capacity
likely, arguing that "if the planes were
transferred it would only be a short time
before they have problems because the
planes require spare parts and mainten-
ance that can only be done by our ex-
perts."
HOW RELIABLE a hedge this control
over the delivery of spare parts and
specialized military skills will be over the
behavior of recipient states, however, re-
mains a subject of debate. The efforts
of superpowers to influence other coun-
tries through arms restraints have at
times simply prompted the recipients to
change suppliers. And lack of snare parts
has never deterred a country from going
to war when vital interests were at stake.
Michael Klare is a staff member of the
North American Congress on L a t i n
America (NACLA) and author of War
Without End: A erican Planning for
the Next Vietnams.
Hurricane Carter: Reprise
HURRICANE CARTER is, according
to the popular Bob Dylan Tong,
"the man the authorities came to
blame for something that he never
done." But now, the story of the Hur-
ricane has taken a positive turn, one
that may lead to the vindication of
Rubin Carter - the former middle-
weight boxer jailed in 1967 for a
triple murder in New Jersey.
In a 7-0 New Jersey Supreme Court
Editorial Staff
ROB MEACHUM -BILL TURQtUE
Co-Editors-in-Chief
JEFF RISTINE ................ Managing Editor
TIM SCHICK .............. Executive Editor
STEPHEN HERSH......... Editorial Director
JEFF SORENSEN ... .. ......Arts Editor
CHERYL PILATVD. .. .......Magazine Editor
STAFF WRITERS: Susan Ades, Tom Alien, Glen
Ailerhand, Mare Basson, Dana Bauman, David
Blomquist, James Burns, Kevin Counihan,
Jori Dimick, Mitch Dunitz, Elaine Fletcher,
Phil Foley. Mark Friedander, David Garfinkel.
Tom Godell, Kurt Harju, Charlotte Heeg,
Richard James. Lois Josimovich, Tom Kettler,
Chris Kochmanski, Jay Levin, Andy Lilly, Ann
Marie Lipinski, George Lobsenz, Pauline Lu-
bens, Teri Maneau, Angelique Matney, Jim
Nicol, Maureen Nolan, Mike Norton, Ken Par-
sigian, Kim Potter, Cathy. Reutter, Anne
MAreieSchtavi. Karen fthulkins, Jeff Selbst,
Rick Sobel. Tom Stevens, Steve Stojic, Cathi
Suyak, Jim Tobin, Jim Valk, Margaret Yao,
Andrew Zerman, David Whiting. Michael Beck-
an, Jon Panslus and Stephen Kursman.
S Ports Staff
BILL STIEG
Sports Editor
RICH LERNER ..........Executive Sports Editor
ANDY GLAZER ........Managing Sports Editor
RICK BONINOG..........Associate Sports Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Tom Cameron, Enid Gold-
man, Kathy Henneghan, Ed Lange, Scott
Lewis, Marcia Katz, John Niemeyer.
STAFF WRITERS: Dennis Bash, Paul Campbell,
Marybeth Dillon, Ernie Dunbar, Henry Engel
hardt, Jeff Frank, Cindy Gatzlolis, Jerome
Gilbert, Don MacLachlan, Rick Maddock, Bob
Miller Jim Powers, Patrick Rode, John
Schwartz, Mark Whitney.
ruling yesterday, Carter's trial was
declared substantially prejudiced by
the prosecution's failure to disclose
promises of leniency to a key prosecu-
tion witness who also faced criminal
charges at the time. "The withhold-
ing of material evidence favorable to
a defendant is a denial of due pro-
cess and the right to a fair trial irres-
pective of the good faith or bad faith
of the prosecution," the Court stated.
The sad matter about the whole in-
cident is that it took celebrities like
Dylan, boxer Muhammad Ali and act-
ress Ellen Burstyn to shed light on a
situation that smacked of racism and
a total lack of regard for civil liber-
ties. Suspected criminals - no mat-
ter how heinous the crime they are
charged with -deserve a "fair and
speedy trial," and that most certain-
ly includes a jury of his or her peers.
Carter, who is black, had an all-white
jury - not exactly what would be
interpreted as his group of peers.
What took the New Jersey crim-
inal court system so long to open
their eyes? At this point, advocating
a complete overhaul of the penal and
court systems would entail volumes
and volumes; what is important is
living up to the spirit and the letter
of the present laws.
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Diane Baumann, Mike Blum-
field, Andy Lilly, Ann Marie Lipin-
ski, Rob Meachum, Cathy Reutter,
Jeff Ristine, Tim Schick.
Editorial Page: Marc Basson, Stephen
Hersh, Jon Pansius, Tom Stevens
Arts Page: Kevin Counihan, Jeff Sor-
ense
Photo Technician: Steve Kagan
Making good ole Ma Bell hear you
By EDWARD PETRINI
"OW DOES utility regulation
work?
Too often, the scenario looks
like this: (1) a company regul-
lated by the government decides
what'it wants; (2) the company
presents, the plan to its regula-
tory agency for approval, alleg-
ing benefits to the company ard
consumers; (3) the company
claims to have studied, but real-
ly just ignores, alternative plans
it doesn't want; (4) thw com-
pany persuades the agency's
staff to go along with the idea;
(5) the company .ets approval
for the plan.
That's almost what happened
to Michigan Bell Tel ,phone
Company's aoplication to the
Michigan Public Service Com-
mission for permission to begin
charging for directory assist-
ance. But not quite.
Last March, Bell asked t h e
commission to allow a charge
of 20c per call for each direc-
tory assistance call above three
per month. Pages of statistics
were presented td show the need
for and the benefits v' i c h
would result from its plan.
THE COMPANY stated that
directory assistance calls h a d
increased twice as fast as the
number of telephones over the
past 15 years, and that operat-
or costs had increased more
than 400 per cent Jucmng t h e
same period.
'A small percentage
of customers, the com-
pany claimed, were
making a dispropor-
tionate number of calls
each month, while the
majority made little or
no use of the service.
Yet all customers paid
for information calls
as part of every phone
bill.'
A small percentage of cus-
tomers, it claimed, we-e making
a disproportionate number of
calls to directory assistance
each month, while the majority
made little or no uso of the
service. Yet all cust mers paid
for it as part of every phone
bill.
A charge for director; assist-
ance would encourage mzre cus-
tomers to use the directory, and
make those who ignored it pay
for the luxury. Thus, the cost of
providing the service would be
more equitably distributed. And,
by decreasing labor costs while
raising revenue, some $10 inil-
lion would be saved. This sav-
ings, the company prom'sed,
would be pased back to its cus-
tomers.
Sounds good, doesn' it?
UNFORTUNATELY, the plan
had a number of defects.
First, the charge would apply
whether or not the reques:.ed
number was accurate'y listed in
your phone book. 1 has, you
would pay 20c each fo- requests
far new listings, numbers not
published at customer request,
numbers printed incorreccly,
and numbers of cus-oners
whose service had been discon-
nected.
Second, you wOuld pa 20c
for directory assistance fir num-
bers beyond your local direct-
ory, but within your area code.
Thus an Ann Arbor customer
looking for a Detroit number
would be charged 0c, even
though the Ann Arbor directory
does not include Detaoir listings.
Because it didn't seem fair
to charge people for . thing di-
rectory assistance wi m they
had no choice in the matter,
PIRGIM intervened in the case.
PIRGIM was parti:ularly, con-
cerned about the effac:s of the
plan on students, who are rela-
tively transient and who might,
therefore, have a gre:ter need
than other groups to use direct-
ory assistance. PIRGIM's oppo-
sition was joined by Attorney
General Frank J. Kelley.
HEARINGS were hell during
the summer. Witne.ses were ex-
tensively cross-examiaed (more
than a thousand pages of tes;-
mony were -aken), data w a s
analyzed, briefs and counter-
briefs filed. David Klein, a Uni-
versity law student, spent a
good part of the summer help-
ing prepare PIRGIM'. case.
During the proceeings, it was
revealed that the company had
understated the costs and over-
stated the ben;fits -f its plan.
The "analysis" of alternative
plans had been slipshod. Michi-
gan Bell had paid little attention
to fairer plans in effect else-
where, such as Canada's, which
charges only if you request a
number already in your local
directory. The compa y admit-
ted that directories, beCome -is
much as 20 per cent obsolete by
the time they ate replaced.
Despite these and other weak-
nesses in the comvirly' . case,
the Public Service Commission
staff recommended a slightly
modified version of the company
proposal to the Commission.
Finally, the case :eached the
commissioners for a decision.
On January 5, the Commissian
unanimously rejected the com-
pany / staff position, citing the
doubtful benefits, tae new in-
equities the -!an woijd czeate,
and the faure to asses alter-
natives.
Apparently organize l consum-
er advocacy can make a differ-
ence in the all-too-typical regu-
latory scenario.
Letters to the Daily
I
MPLI4 reaches to U.S. blacks
r.
By REGINAL MAJOR
HAVANA (PNS) - Three top-
ranking officials of the
MPLA (Popular Movement for
the Liberation of Angola) have
given an unofficial delegation of
predominantly black Americans
a unique glimpse into their Af-
rican policies.
In its first public diplomatic
initiative aimed at the United
States since taking power in An-
gola in November, the MPLA
sponsored the three-day, f r e e-
wheeling, question and answer
conference.
MPLA conference delegates
included Central Committee
Member Rui Salomen Desa and
two Foreign Affairs officials -
one a woman.
Formal talks with delegates
and informal conversations with
Cuban officials have indicated
that:
* The MPLA is committed to
using diplomatic means to get
South African troops out of the
southern stria of Angola they
have occunied, defending t h e
Cunene River Dam.
A If the MPLA decides to use
force against the South African
troons, Cuba will back the move.
0 Cuban troops in Angola are
subject to the policv decisions of
the newly formed MPLA govern-
m ent.
MPLA officials also said their
While the MPLA government
would welcome diplomatic re-
cognition by the U.S., C o m -
mandante Desa told the confer-
ence "it would not beg. Diplo-
matic recognition is a bilateral
affair."
The MPLA and its
Cuban allies are at-
tempting to firm their
ties in a lon g-range
basis with individuals
and organizations in
the U.S. that could in-
fluence American pub-
lic opinion.
Asked about claims that the
two defeated military factions
wound mount a guerrilla war
asainst the MPLA government,
MPLA officials doubted such a
move would gain much support
from peasants in southern An-
gola.
But officials stresied the
MPLA government his no inter.-
tion of inviting either of the de-
feated factions into their coali-
tion government.
FINALLY, aneered by what
In selecting the American 4e-
legates - who ranged f r o m
American Friends Service Cort-
mittee and the World Council of
Churches to eight representa-
tives of the black press and a
coalition of black trade unions
- the MPLA clearly hoped to
reach out directly to the U.S.
public, by-pasing offioal govern-
ment channels and the major
news media.
Despite the MPLA's vic'ocy yin
Angolan conflict, the view from
here is that the drama in sou-
thern Africa is far from over.
THE MPLA and its Cuban Al-
lies are attemnting to firm their
ties on a long-range bass with
individuals and orgnizations in
the U.S. that could inflneoce
American public opinmo=.
Cubans, for the most parr,
have stayed discree'ly in - hc
background as conferen ce hosts
rather than particioants. But
Cuban officials have stressed in
private conversations that,
while the U.S. government see,
them as overseas nte'veotion-
ists. racially rnixed Cuha views
itself as an African coun:ry.
One Cuban, talking to , II.S.
delegate, goted Fidel Castro
as saying "the blood of Aficavs
flows abundantly in oir veins.
We are brv)hers of 01E Africans
and we are ready to fight on
faculty
To The Editor:
MUCH THAT IS curious about
modern faculty governance is
clearly illustrated by the LSA
faculty meeting of March 1,
during which the grade review
proposals were after long de-
bate tabled and thus disposed
of.
As of its February meeting,
the faculty was in possession
of a number of facts: grading
abuses do now occur; depart-
mental grievance committees
are insufficient to stem them
in every case; and the Univer-
sity, as a state institution, can
anticipate serious legal difficul-
ties if it does not discipline it-
self in this matter. These are
facts, and no speaker at the
March meeting ever called them
into question. The harm in this
matter is to individual students,
whose constitutional and statu-
tory rights may well in some
instances be infringed by in-
equitable grading procedures.
Yet in March the faculty's
majority met the problem just
outlined with a wall of ada-
mant resistance, much of it ir-
relevant (as in the invocation
of "academic freedom") or
tangential (as in the observation
that faculty members can be
stripped of tenure for irrespon-
sible conduct). Against this fit-
fil and confused position, one
faculty member quite simply
observed that the primary is-
sue was justice for students -
an issie which the opponents
of grade review never brought
themselves to address.
IN THE END, thanks to the
(nerhans unwitting) motion to
table, the faculty took no posi-
tion in the matter. It is im-
Despite this University's tra-
ditional stance as a public in-
stitution sensitive to public de-
sires, the faculty itself is not
in a good intellectual position
to perceive and implement pub-
lic opinion, or to direct the Uni-
versity in general conformance
with it. To the extent that its
conservatism acts as a check
on reckless experiment, the fac-
ulty's role is not of necessity
an empty or foolish one; but
the limitations of the faculty's
position must also be under-
stood.
Therefore, or so it seems to
me, the responsible members of
this community ought to seek
ways to implement policy by
other routes if the faculty digs
in its heels on issues crucial to
the University's integrity and
independence. I think, in this
respect, of Dean Frye's inherent
power to alter grades that are
clearly illegal. Of course, the
prerogativi requires restraint;
but on the other hand such a
weapon was never forged to lie
rusting in its sheath. I should
hope that the Dean's power
would become widely known
among students, and that it
would be used creatively as
a last resort to implement the
juidgments of departmental
grade grievance committees, at
least in the more outrageous
cases.
Unless these outrageous cases
are prevented, we can only ex-
pect the worst. The Michigan
faculty's powers and privileges
are not derived from Nature,
but are the creations of the
St-te: unless they are used
wisely, they may well be curb-
ed and controlled as easily as
they were instituted.
A 2
IMMEMEMMEMOe-