American Notes

PENTAGON "Nothing Improper"

The new consulting firm was to be called Procurement Strategy Corp. In a solicitation of 29 prospective clients, P.S.C. claimed it would provide military contractors with "timely information of imminent policy changes being considered by the Federal government," enabling them to "compete for government business with confidence and success." There was only one thing wrong: the head of the proposed firm, Mary Ann Gilleece, had been Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Management since 1983, a job that made her Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's principal adviser on procuring weapons from defense contractors. Gilleece knew that her job was being phased out, but before leaving the Pentagon, she was attempting to line up clients among the companies she had dealt with as a public official.

The Pentagon was initially unperturbed. "Nothing improper or illegal," said Spokesman Fred Hoffman. Indeed, Pentagon Counsel Chapman Cox had approved Gilleece's move, requiring only that she stop handling Government business with the 29 firms she was soliciting. Faced with criticism inside and outside the Pentagon, Gilleece finally decided not to set up the firm. And late last week she submitted her resignation. CONGRESS Giving and Receiving

Election Day is still more than a year away, but campaign chests are already hefty. The 31 U.S. Senators who will be running next year raised $20 million the first half of 1985, $5.8 million of it through political-action committees. That is an increase of 77% overall (95% for PACs) since 1979, according to a report by Common Cause, a Washington-based citizens' lobbying group.

The interest in congressional campaigns is directly linked to one of Ronald Reagan's pet projects, tax reform. The largest PAC contributors are usually the energy, real estate, banking and insurance industries, all of which benefit from tax breaks threatened by some of the tax plans under consideration. Not surprisingly, Oregon's Bob Packwood, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has received the most enthusiastic support: $2.6 million so far, $691,000 of it PAC money. Common Cause President Fred Wertheimer notes that PACS have donated $3.7 million to the 56 members of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, more than triple the amount contributed by PACs in 1983, the last congressional nonelection year. "We are seeing a classic example of how PACs operate," Wertheimer says. "It is a bald and blatant effort to buy political advantage." NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY A Borderline Case

Seldom has a 99-year-old lady enjoyed such persistent suitors. Ever since the Statue of Liberty's centennial began to loom on the national calendar, New Jersey has reignited an old claim to the woman who has long been considered New York's leading citizen. After all, New Jerseyans argue, she is less than 600 yds. from their shore, but a good 1 1/2 miles from Manhattan.

A federal court suit on the matter, brought by a group of New Jersey residents, is to be heard this week. A state historian, Kevin Wright, bolstered New Jersey's position by unearthing a December 1889 agreement between the two states that puts the 225-ton statue decidedly inside the Garden State. Headlined the New Jersey Herald of Dec. 25, 1889: ANCIENT BOUNDARY DISPUTE SETTLED--LIBERTY LIGHTING THE WORLD IS NOW ON JERSEY SOIL. But since 1834, New York has exercised jurisdiction over Liberty Island, the small space on which the statue reigns, and it is doubtful that the state's traditional control can be wrested away. PHILADELPHIA How Big Was the Bomb?

When 60 houses in Philadelphia's Osage Avenue neighborhood were leveled in May after police bombed a house used by the MOVE cult, Mayor Wilson Goode set up a commission to investigate the disaster. "I want the truth," Goode declared. The inquiry is still in progress, along with federal investigations. Now a surprising revelation from city hall has sparked a preliminary investigation by the Philadelphia district attorney. In May, police said the bomb weighed about 2 1/2 lbs. and was made with Tovex, a relatively tame explosive that would not have been expected to cause a widespread fire. City hall now reports that the device weighed 4 1/2 lbs. and also contained C-4, a powerful military charge. "The C-4," according to city hall, was "included by the individual officer who made the device, without the knowledge of his superiors." In a police department interview obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the officer, William Klein, said the bomb contained 1 1/4 lbs. of C-4 but weighed only 3 1/4lbs. Klein, a 14-year veteran of the force, said he did not originally tell investigators about the C-4 because he did not want to "embarrass" his superiors by contradicting them. CHARITIES The Lady and the Contras

William Clayton, an Under Secretary of State just after World War II, was a lifelong anti-Communist who helped devise the Marshall Plan, though he expressed fear that it did not go far enough to prevent an economic collapse that would lead to a Communist takeover of postwar Europe. Now his daughter, Ellen Garwood, of Austin, has taken on the family crusade by making a unique contribution that she says will help stop "this ugly specter" of Communism from spreading in the Western Hemisphere. Last week she announced that she had written a check for $65,000 that will go toward the purchase of a UH-1 "Huey" helicopter for "non-lethal" use by Nicaragua's contras, the U.S. -supported rebels fighting the Sandinista government.

The idea came from retired Major General John Singlaub, head of the U.S. Council for World Freedom, whose group says it has collected more than $150,000 in tax-deductible contributions for the contras. "He said they need a helicopter," Garwood explained. "I felt my father did so much work that I've got to do something." The name of the new chopper? Lady Ellen, of course.