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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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011689
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01168900.045
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 25First Gusts from an Ill Wind
Unlike the Iran-contra investigation, another drawn-out federal
probe was finally starting to produce results. Operation Ill Wind
-- the two-year Justice Department inquiry into whether defense
contractors bribed Pentagon officials for contract information --
blew in its first indictments and guilty pleas. Two defense
contractors and nine men, including a middle-ranking Pentagon
official, were hit with charges that include fraud, conspiracy,
racketeering and bribery.
The charges focused on William Parkin and Fred Lackner, both
private defense consultants, and Stuart E. Berlin, former head of
the Navy's ship-engineering section at the Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Command. Court papers describe a scheme in which
California's Teledyne Industries paid Parkin and Lackner to obtain
confidential information about Government procurement plans for a
system to identify military aircraft. They in turn bribed Berlin
to turn over the information. Parkin was also charged with paying
Berlin to help New York's Hazeltine Corp. win a contract for a
radar test device. Hazeltine and two of its executives pleaded
guilty, as did a Teledyne employee. All are expected to testify
against the other defendants.
Last week's indictments were a far cry from the scores of
prosecutions originally anticipated. But the government indicated
that many more cases were on the way. Ill Wind, it appears, is
likely to keep on blowing.