Excerpt from the Executive Summary of the
"Addendum to INSLAW's ANALYSIS and REBUTTAL of the BUA REPORT'
dated February 14, 1994.
One of the organizational units that reports to Mark Richard
is the Office of Special Investigations (OSI). OSI's publicly-
declared mission is to locate and deport Nazi war criminals. The
Nazi war criminal program is, however, a front for the Justice
Department's own covert intelligence service, according to
disclosures recently made to INSLAW by several senior Justice
Department career officials.
One undeclared mission of this covert intelligence service
has been the illegal dissemination of the proprietary version of
PROMIS, according to information from reliable sources with ties
to the U.S. intelligence community. INSLAW has, moreover,
obtained a copy of a 27-page Justice Department computer printout,
labelled "Criminal Division Vendor List." That list is actually a
list of the commercial organizations and individuals who serve as
"cutouts" for this secret Justice Department intelligence agency,
according to intelligence community informants and a preliminary
analysis of the computerized list. A significant proportion of
the 100-plus companies on the list appear to be in the computer
industry. The Justice Department's secret intelligence agency
also has its own "proprietary" company that employs scores of
agents of diverse nationalities, as well as individuals who appear
to be regular employees of various departments and agencies of the
U.S. Government or members of the U.S. Armed Forces, according to
several sources.
According to written statements of which INSLAW has obtained
copies, another undeclared mission of the Justice Department's
covert agents was to insure that investigative journalist Danny
Casolaro remained silent about the role of the Justice Department
in the INSLAW scandal by murdering him in West Virginia in August
1991. INSLAW has acquired copies of two relevant written
statements furnished to a veteran investigative journalist by a
national security operative of the U.S. Government, several months
after Casolaro's death. The individual who reportedly transmitted
these written statements to the journalist by fax has testified
under oath to being a national security operative for the FBI and
the CIA. Partial corroboration for his claimed work for the FBI
is reportedly available in the sworn testimony of several FBI
agents during a recent criminal prosecution. One statement
purportedly reflects the operative's personal knowledge and belief
that Casolaro was killed by agents of the Justice Department and
is allegedly written in the operative's own hand. The other
statement is an excerpt from a typewritten set of questions and
answers. The questions were posed to a senior CIA official by the
investigative journalist; the answers, purportedly from the senior
CIA official, were reportedly sent by fax to the journalist by the
national security operative, who was acting as an intermediary.
The following is the pertinent question and answer:
Q. Do you have any information for [San Francisco-based
investigative journalist] George Williamson yet regarding the
Danny Casolaro matter?
A. Yes. Casolaro appears to have been working as a free lance
writer at the time of his death and was gathering material
for a book. He was investigating the INSLAW case. He was on
the trail of information that could have made the whole
matter public and led to the exposure of the Justice
Department and their involvement in the matter. Apparently
he was very close to obtaining that information.
We do not agree with the consensus of opinion among the
reporters who looked into the matter, that Casolaro committed
suicide. Casolaro was murdered by agents of the Justice
Department to insure his silence. The entire matter was
handled internally by Justice, and our agency was not
involved.
Although these allegations are profoundly disturbing, there
is significant circumstantial evidence that bears on the
plausibility of the allegations. As reported in INSLAW's July 11,
1993 rebuttal, Casolaro was scheduled to have his final, follow-up
meeting with two sources on INSLAW in West Virginia the night
before he died, and one of those sources was connected to the
Justice Department's PROMIS Contracting Officer. As reported in
this addendum, the meeting between Casolaro and those sources had
allegedly been brokered by a covert intelligence operative for the
U.S. Government, an Army Special Forces Major. This individual
appeared in Casolaro's life during the final several weeks and
introduced himself to Casolaro as one of the closest friends of
the Government's PROMIS Contracting Officer. Finally, during the
final week of his life, Casolaro told at least five confidants
something that he had never told a single one of them at any other
time during his year-long, full-time investigation: that he had
just broken the INSLAW case. The preceding facts and the
following information are noted in the July 11, 1993 rebuttal.
Shortly after Casolaro was found dead, the aforementioned covert
intelligence operative allegedly made the following statement, in
words or substance, to a woman who had been present during several
of his meetings with Casolaro:
"What Danny Casolaro was investigating is a business. If you
don't want to end up like Danny or like the journalist who died a
horiffic death in Guatemala, you'll stay out of this. Anyone who
asks too many questions will end up dead."
Copies of the entire Addendum are coming soon to an ftp site near
you, or (presumably) available in printed form from INSLAW, Inc.,
1125 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005-2707, 202/828-8600.
