Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.latimes.money From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Jewish Group Objects to GM Unit's Sale to Germans Autos: Relatives of Holocaust victims say dealing with a company Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 06:36:51 EST Message-ID: HEADLINE: Jewish Group Objects to GM Unit's Sale to Germans Autos: Relatives of Holocaust victims say dealing with a company Publication Date: Thursday November 19, 1992 BYLINE: DONALD WOUTAT A Jewish group added its voice Wednesday to complaints about General Motors Corp.'s proposed sale to a German firm of a subsidiary that, among other things, makes transmissions for army tanks. A New York-based organization called Children of the Holocaust said GM's proposal to sell its Allison Transmission unit to a firm that built tanks for Hitler's army was a "slap in the face" to the Jewish community at a time of rising neo-Nazism in Germany. The sale to ZF Friedrichschafen has already won most necessary government approvals, including one by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a multi-agency panel chaired by Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady that reviews all foreign investment in domestic high-technology and defense-related business. GM says none of the products built by Allison's 5,000 employees in Indianapolis are classified or on Defense Department lists of critical technologies, and only 30% of the subsidiary's annual sales is to the military. The rest is made up of heavy-duty transmissions for commercial trucks and construction vehicles. But some members of Congress have objected to the sale on grounds that too many U.S. defense-related businesses are coming under foreign control, and President-elect Bill Clinton has signaled a tougher posture toward such transactions. The cross-agency CFIUS has been criticized as a rubber-stamp group. In the GM case, the approval of the Defense Department--a key member of the panel--was ordered by Under Secretary Donald Atwood, a former vice chairman of GM who was once general manager of the Allison division. Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana), joined by such lawmakers as Rep. Mel Levine (D-Calif.), have written Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to object to the sale as causing more "erosion of our country's defense industrial base." This article is copyright 1992 The Los Angeles Times Home Edition. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM