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Scientist Said to Assert Fraud in 'Star Wars'

Scientist Said to Assert Fraud in 'Star Wars'
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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March 2, 1992, Section A, Page 10Buy Reprints
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Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has been ordered by a special counsel to investigate assertions made by a Pentagon scientist that officials of the "Star Wars" anti-missile defense program had violated the law and engaged in "gross waste of funds," The Washington Post reported in Monday's issue.

The Post said the order to the Defense Secretary was made by the United States Office of Special Counsel, which was established by Congress to protect employees making such accusations against Government agencies.

The spokesman for the Defense Department, Pete Williams, did not return a telephone call made to his home late tonight, and the scientist who made the accusations, Aldric Saucier, has an unlisted telephone number.

The Post said the Office of Special Counsel had issued the directive on Friday after having found a "substantial likelihood" that Mr. Saucier's accusations were well-founded.

It added that the directive had also conferred "whistle-blower" status on Mr. Saucier, who was dismissed last month from his job with the Star Wars project. That dismissal was set aside last week after members of Congress protested.

Mr. Saucier, The Post reported, had accused the project of making false or misleading statements to Congress about the potential effectiveness of the proposed "Brilliant Pebbles" system in which space-based missile interceptors destroy incoming warheads by force of impact rather than by explosions.

Mr. Saucier also said that there had been diversions of funds and that wasteful spending on research and development had occurred.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 10 of the National edition with the headline: Scientist Said to Assert Fraud in 'Star Wars'. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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