Kitty Hawk, Target of Probe, Set to Sail

The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk is scheduled to leave here today on a six-month cruise of the Western Pacific and Indian oceans amid concerns that the tour may hamper a federal investigation into the sale of stolen aircraft parts to Iran.

Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) Tuesday called for Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger to move swiftly to step up federal investigations before the Kitty Hawk departs.

“If we wait six months for the return of this ship, the trail will have grown cold, more records may have gone over the side and the informant (Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Jackson) will no longer be on active duty,” Bates wrote in a letter to Weinberger.

Jackson has given Bates, the Navy and the FBI a statement and 1,100 pages of documents alleging widespread abuse and waste within the Kitty Hawk supply system, including the dumping overboard of supplies ranging from desks to radar equipment.

Telegram to Reagan

Jackson sent a telegram on Tuesday to President Reagan urging him to stop the Kitty Hawk from sailing. “If the carrier gets underway, I believe valuable evidence necessary to the investigation of my charges will be altered and destroyed,” Jackson wrote.

Weinberger told Bates during a 10-minute telephone conversation Tuesday that the Kitty Hawk’s maneuvers could not be delayed. But Weinberger said he would contact the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General to make sure the investigation proceeds in a “timely manner,” Bates said.

Winston Kuehl, regional director for Naval Investigative Service operations, said that one Navy investigator usually accompanies the Kitty Hawk at sea. On this deployment, three investigators will sail with the crew.

“It’s specifically to handle anything that comes up in the course of our investigation here that would have ramifications aboard the ship,” Kuehl said.

Due to “political” questions that have surfaced over the Kitty Hawk’s trip, the FBI refused to disclose whether any of its agents would be on board, said Gary Penrith, special agent in charge for FBI operations in San Diego.

International Theft Ring

The U.S. Customs Service, FBI and Naval Investigative Service are investigating an international theft ring that allegedly shipped stolen F-14 fighter plane parts to Iran. Seven people, including a Kitty Hawk aviation storekeeper, have been arrested so far in the case.

A central figure in that alleged smuggling ring has been freed by British officials after posting bail, it was disclosed Tuesday.

Saeid Asefi Inanlou, identified in a federal affidavit as an Iranian national living in London, was freed Friday after posting about $150,000 bail. Inanlou allegedly received the stolen parts from San Diego-based smugglers and forwarded them to Iran.

In a separate investigation, authorities are looking into the disappearance of more than $1 million in equipment and supplies from the Kitty Hawk, including 31 silver bars that vanished in 1983.

Meanwhile, the Kitty Hawk this week won the Navy’s coveted Efficiency Award for the Pacific Fleet’s best-run supply department. The competition, which covers all areas of supply management from parts to laundry service, is held every 18 months among the fleet’s six aircraft carriers. The carrier Constellation won the “E” award the last two contests.

Times staff writers H.G. Reza in San Diego and Tyler Marshall in London contributed to this story.