Article 20547 of alt.conspiracy:
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy,alt.activism,alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.individualism,alt.censorship,talk.politics.misc,misc.headlines,soc.culture.usa
Subject: Part 31, The Casolaro Murder --> The Feds' Theft of Inslaw Software
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The following excerpts are from an article by
James Ridgeway in the September 22, 1992 issue of
THE VILLAGE VOICE, a weekly newspaper.
36 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10003
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
....
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee released a lengthy
investigative report on Inslaw, the Washington computer software
outfit that claims that [Reagan's Attorney-General Edwin] Meese and
his associates, with the apparent complicity of the Justice
Department, pirated their software. The report essentially backs
two previous court decisions that found in favor of the company,
and seeks the appointment of an independent prosecutor to carry on
the investigation.
The committe applied a subtle investigative filter to the case by
tracing the activiities of various individuals who figure in the
Inslaw matter as well as several other scandals of the last decade,
including the BCCI banking affair, the Justice Department's abortive
inquiry into entertainment industry giant MCA and its ties to the
Mob, the S&L Scandal, Iran-Contra, and even the pre-Desert Shield
Iraq weapons trade. The theory is that the Meese Justice Department
provides a central and continuing link among these various
activities, leading in the end to journalist Danny Casolaro's
[discovery of the] "Octopus" -- a stand-alone, off-the-shelf,
covert apparatus, of which [Reagan aide] Richard Secord's
Iran-Contra "Enterprise" was but a part.
The report also recommends that Casolaro's mysterious death should
be more fully investigated, suggesting that the official ruling of
suicide may have been premature. In fact, Casolaro's ghost seems to
animate the Judiciary Committee's investigation. For, in addition
to tracking individuals, Committee Chairperson Jack Brooks and his
staff compared the history of business activities involving Inslaw
with that of firms previously involved in the arms trade, health
care, and entertainment industries, looking for racketeering-style
similarities. this is exactly what Casolaro and others had been
trying to show -- that ultimately the Inslaw case is a kind of
archaeological dig into the garbage left behind by the 1980s.
....
The House Judiciary Committee found that getting to the bottom of
the disagreement was much more difficult -- despite its subpoena
powers -- than anyone had imagined.
"The [Justice] department's unwillingness to allow Congressional
oversight into its affairs, in spite of an alleged coverup of
wrongdoing, greatly hindered the Committee's investigation of
the Inslaw allegations."
the report states.
"The Justice Department delayed and hindered Congressional
inquiries into the Inslaw matter over several years. The
Committee consumed almost two years, and had to resort to a
subpoena to obtain key information. Even then, key Justice
Department files subpoenaed by the Committee were reported lost
and other key investigative files are still being denied on the
basis that these files contain criminal investigative material."
[the House Judiciary Committee report states.]
For example, Michael Riconosciuto, a precocious scientific wiz who
claims contacts with American intelligence agencies, had long been
in contact with [Inslaw owners Bill and Nancy] the Hamiltons and
the Committee staff, detailing stories of the alleged conspiracy by
the Justice Department to steal [Inslaw's case management software]
PROMIS. When Riconosciuto was arrested in March 1991 by the Drug
Enforcement Administration on narcotics charges, the Committee
staff sought to interview him. Arrangements were made to speak with
him in jail in Kitsap County, Washington, but the Justice Department
at first blocked the interview, then forced its venue to be changed
to the U.S. Court House in Seattle, and ultimately refused to
guarantee that the meeting would not be monitored or taped.
Eventually, Riconosciuto was interviewed by the Committee, and he
claimed that he had a tape recording of a threatening conversation
that he had with a Justice Department official on the Inslaw matter,
[also claiming] that the DEA had confiscated [the tape] upon his
arrest. The Committee staff, needless to say, wanted to find out
whether this was so, and it asked to interview the arresting DEA
agents. But the Justice Department refused, claiming that it was
engaged in an ongoing investigation.
Over the years, the Hamiltons have run across bits and pieces of
evidence that suggest their PROMIS software is being used by
American intelligence agencies, including both the FBI and the CIA,
as well as being sold abroad, possibly as an intelligence tool. But
this area, too, proved difficult for Brooks's investigators.
"The Committee ... encountered serious problems with obtaining
cooperation from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies,"
the report says.
"While some limited level of assistance was eventually provided
from these groups, it often took months to arrange even minimum
cooperation. The Committee also encountered virtually no
cooperation in its investigation of the Inslaw matter beyond
U.S. borders."
[the report adds.]
The clearest evidence of the international use of PROMIS involved
the Canadian Mounted Police. The Canadian Department of
Communications, at one time, actually sent the Hamiltons a
questionnaire about the software, asking for advice on how to employ
it most efficiently. Canadian officials at first admitted to the use
of PROMIS, then denied it. When the Committee sought to interview
officials there, the Government refused to cooperate, eventually
permitting only a limited deposition. In it, the Canadians said that
they had used software that was, coincidentally, named PROMIS, but
that they had bought it from the Strategic Software Planning
Corporation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
....
Closer to home, Tom Gates, an FBI agent who had spoken to Casolaro
several times about the FBI's entertainment industry probes, said
that a Justice Department official had warned him that any statement
he made to the Committee would be reviewed by the Justice
Department, thereby eliminating any confidentiality -- and
intimidating Gates. The Justice Department representative involved
later denied that she had ever said any such thing.
(to be continued)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This is one of countless stories unveiling the subverted, corrupt
and fascistic state of our theoretically democratic Government.
This story makes it disgustingly obvious that true patriotism is not
the waving of flags, the tying of yellow ribbons and the mindless
supporting of our Government, just because it happens to be ours.
You don't support cancer just because you happen to have it.
True patriotism is telling the truth to the people of our country
in order that they may unite to conquer this anti-democratic cancer
that is gradually destroying ours and our children's freedom.
So please post the installments of this ongoing series to
computer bulletin boards, and post hardcopies in public places,
both on and off campus. That would be a truly patriotic deed.
John DiNardo
