THE OCTOPUS

THE OCTOPUS © 2004 by Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith and Feral House

ISBN 0-922915-91-1
All Rights Reserved.

Feral House
PO Box 39910
Los Angeles, CA 90039

www.feralhouse.com
[email protected]

Author Kenn Thomas’ Steamshovel Press can be accessed at

www.steamshovelpress.com

Designed by Hedi El Kholti

 THE OCTOPUS
Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro

Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith

Feral House
THE OCTOPUS

“Facts are but the Play-things of lawyers—Tops and Hoops,

forever a-spin.... Alas, the Historian may indulge no such idle
Rotating. History is not Chronology, for that is left to lawyers,
—nor is Remembrance, for Remembrance belongs to the Peo-
ple. History can as little pretend to the Veracity of the one, as
claim the Power of the other—her Practitioners, to survive,
must soon learn the arts of the quidnunc, spy and Taproom
Wit—that there may ever continue more than one life-line
back into a Past we risk, each day, losing our forbears in for-
ever—not a Chain of single Links, for one broken Link could
lose us All—rather, a great disorderly Tangle of Lines, long
and short, weak and strong, vanishing into the Mnemonick
Deep, with only their Destination in common.”
—The Revd Wicks Cherrycoke, Christ and History 1

————
1. From Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.

iv
 Contents

iv Acknowledgements
viii A Note on Sources
xi Prologue: A Death in Martinsburg
1 Chapter 1: Danny Casolaro
5 Chapter 2: PROMIS Breaking
10 Chapter 3: Michael Riconosciuto
15 Chapter 4: “Danger Man”
18 Chapter 5: Earl Brian
30 Chapter 6: Indio
41 Chapter 7: Behold, a Pale Horse
43 Chapter 8: Wild Rumors
47 Chapter 9: Pursuit of the Tape
54 Chapter 10: Mysterious Deaths
59 Chapter 11: Robert Booth Nichols
64 Chapter 12: A Sea Creature Surfaces
66 Chapter 13: The Octopus
69 Chapter 14: Tracking the Octopus
72 Chapter 15: Tentacles (an Octopus hagiography)
102 Chapter 16: Bringing Back the Head of the Octopus
109 Chapter 17: Final Hours
114 Chapter 18: Rippling Waves
120 Chapter 19: Inslaw and the Law
132 Chapter 20: Whitewater Currents
140 Chapter 21: Diana
150 Chapter 22: Jim Keith
158 Chapter 23: September 11 Epilogue
163 Appendix 1: An Interview with the Hamiltons
180 Appendix 2: Casolaro’s Newsclippings File
220 Appendix 3: An Interview with Michael Riconosciuto
230 Index

v
Dedicated to Jim Keith, 1949–1999

vi
 Acknowledgements
V

Danny Casolaro developed a body of r esearch that inspired and affirmed the wor k
of many r esearchers and writers in the last decade of the tw entieth centur y. The
author would like to acknowledge that community and salute its continued growth.
Many of its members can be found in the footnotes of this book. All deser ve
great credit for saving and furthering the shattered remains of Casolaro’s research.
Special lifetime thanks go to my late par tner Jim Keith, co-author of the original
edition of this book and the gr eat popularizer of conspiracy culture critique, and
our mutual late comrade, Ron Bonds of IllumiNet Press. Connected now by their
suspicious early deaths to the O ctopus mystery, their spirits no doubt r eside now
with Danny Casolaro, the great conspiracy writer that neither met.
X. Sharks DeSpot and J udy Miller also deser ve credit for their r esearch help.
Credit for the original edition also still goes to Raleigh Muns, for that last little bib-
liographic note, and to Jim Martin of Flatland Books for his continued suppor t. A
nod for the subsequent help, support and promotional favors goes to Greg Bishop,
Rob Sterling and A charya S, and r eaders of my magazine, Steamshovel Press. The
great psychogeographer, extranationalist, Guy Debord biographer and novelist Len
Bracken contributed the most to the r evised edition of this book.
Timothy Lear y’s dissipated str ucture, as always, has an ongoing impact.
Outside of all that, I hav e had as inspiration two of the finest childr en in the
world, Sara and Simon, and my beautiful companion, Jennifer Crets.

Jim Keith’s acknowledgements, from the first edition:

This book is for Verity and Aerika, and for the Keith and Angell clans.
Great thanks to Bob S onderfan for kindnesses too numer ous; for the S aturday
night spetznaz; and to Ron and Nancy Bonds.
The authors would particularly like to express their gratitude for the patience of
publisher Adam Parfrey, who has Satan’s patience for contracts.

vii
 A Note on Sources
V

The sur viving notes of D anny Casolaro provide part of the basis for this book ’s
examination of his research. After Casolaro’s death, his brother, Dr. Anthony Caso-
laro, originally gav e the notes to ABC’ s Nightline program in or der to allo w six
journalist acquaintances of his brother a chance to review his leads. Tony Casolaro
then turned the papers over to Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), an office
in the U niversity of M issouri School of J ournalism in Columbia, M issouri. That
office still makes the papers available to researchers.1 The collection includes court
documents, a newsclipping file, tour guides and annual business r eports that per-
tain to Casolar o’s inv estigations, and what r emained of his handwritten notes.
These did not include any papers that Casolar o had with him the night he died.
Wide-ranging sour ces of information supplement this scar ce record of the
life, investigative work, and death of D anny Casolaro. These include: affidavits
filed by arms merchants and convicted felons; mainstream and non-mainstream
periodical sour ces, including some that publish messages r eceived fr om chan-
neled aliens, others notorious for their far-right connections, lite-left leanings,
and radical chic pose; unattributed sour ces on the I nternet; anonymous samiz-
dat; participants in Casolar o’s investigation; peripheral play ers; researchers who
knew Casolar o; and r esearchers whose wor k expanded on the O ctopus thesis.
While some might question the credibility of some of these sources—as, indeed,
some questioned the cr edibility of Casolaro’s own sources—the authors include
them here because they illuminate the r esearch in obvious ways.
Chapters in this book hav e been footnoted to encourage r eaders to track
these sources and make their own judgments concerning credibility. Any readers
with ne w information, corr ections, or supplemental sour ces are encouraged to
contact the author.

————
1. Griffin, Michael, “Key To Death, Mystery May Be Among Casolaro’s Documents,” St. Louis
Journalism Review, Volume 22, Number 180, October 1992.

viii
A good story allows a writer to go into him-
self and see how deep the place is from which
his life flows. A great story, though, is as nat-
ural a possession as our lungs and spreads
its roots into the depths of everything we love
and everything we hate.

—J. Daniel Casolaro

ix
THE OCTOPUS

Fifth-floor room at the former Sheraton Inn where Casolaro died.

x
 Prologue:
V

A Death in Martinsburg

Saturday, August 10, 1991, shortly after 12:30 p.m., a housecleaner working at
the S heraton I nn near H ighway 81 in sleepy M artinsburg, West Virginia,
knocked on the door of r oom 517. N o answer. She slid her passkey into the
hole and opened the door.
The bed was turned do wn, but looked unr umpled, as if it had not been
slept in. A man’s clothing rested on the bed’s foot. Glancing into the bathroom,
the housecleaner spied blood smear ed on the floor . S he hurriedly called the
main desk and told the assistant head housekeeper , Barbara Bittinger, to r ush
to the room.
Bittinger arrived quickly and v entured into the bathr oom. The door and
the shower curtain partially obscured her vie w, but she saw a half-empty bot-
tle of red wine by the toilet, a cigarette ashtray by the tub, and then a piece of
broken glass and gouts of blood splashed onto the wall.
A pair of pale, bony knees stuck out fr om the tub. She noticed two towels
drenched in blood under the sink. B ittinger recalled, “It looked like someone
had thrown the towels on the floor and tried to wipe the blood up with their
foot, but they didn’t get the blood, they just smear ed the floor.”1
The blood-filled bathtub contained the nude body of a blond man. B it-
tinger called 911.

————
1. Connolly, John, “Dead Right,” Spy, January 1993.

xi
THE OCTOPUS

J. Daniel Casolaro

xii
 C
Chapter 1.
V

D
Danny Casolaro

Minutes after Bittinger’s call, Martinsburg city police and paramedics arriv ed.
They determined that the dead man in the tub was a white male in his early
40s. They found a dozen deep gashes in his wrists, a shoelace around his neck,
and two plastic wastepaper basket liners floating in the tub , as if someone had
tried to asphyxiate him. When the paramedics lifted the body fr om the tub, a
single-edged razor blade appeared, along with an Old Milwaukee beer can and
a paper coaster.
On the bedr oom desk sat an empty composition notebook, a legal pad
with one page r emoved, and a B ic pen. The page from the legal pad lay near-
by with a note written on it:

To those who I love the most,

Please forgive me for the worst
possible thing I could have done.
Most of all I’m sorry to my son.
I know deep down inside that God will let me in.

If these were the dead man’s words, they were the last of his obscure writ-
ing career. A wallet found at the scene, filled with cr edit cards and a driv er’s
license, identified the man as J oseph Daniel Casolaro of Fairfax, Virginia.

Danny Casolaro had published thr ee books, and wor ked as a journalist of
sorts, writing for tabloids and trade magazines. N ow his wor k would be distin-
guished b y a book he nev er finished, the ultimate political conspiracy thriller
based on documentable fact, which he had star ted to call The Octopus.

1
THE OCTOPUS

The Octopus was Casolaro’s name for a handful of spooks and po wer bro-
kers in the intelligence community who manipulated public ev ents as
wide-ranging as the 1980 O ctober Surprise that may hav e cost Jimmy Carter
the presidency, and the BCCI bank scandal in the early 1990s. Like the tenta-
cles of his metaphoric sea cr eature, the slashes in both wrists—eight on one
side, four on the other—pulled Casolaro down into oblivion, ending his inves-
tigation into a po wer cabal whose inv olvement in a list of notorious
contemporary political crimes he had documented in his book. P erhaps Caso-
laro erred in changing the book’s title from Behold, a Pale Horse, taken from the
Biblical admonition fr om Revelation 6 : “B ehold a pale horse and its rider ’s
name was death.”
Even as Casolar o focused his inv estigation on tracking softwar e, his man-
uscript dealt with many connected crimes. It included contra war chemical and
biowarfare weapons developed on the tribal lands of the Cabaz on Indians of
Indio, California, w eapons possibly used in the O ctober 23, 1983 blast at a
compound in Beirut that left over 300 American and F rench military person-
nel dead. H is r esearch also looked at bizarr e mur ders among the Cabaz on
Indians inv olving administrators of the tribal land; the priv atization of CIA
dirty tricks through the notorious Wackenhut security firm, the policemen for
both the Cabazons and the mysterious Area 51, home of secret spy planes and
rumored UFO s; Vietnam MIAs; corr uption at H ughes Air craft; the human
genome project; even the Illuminati secret societies of the 18th centur y.
To his friends, Danny Casolaro was, above all else, the ultimate “nice guy.”
He came from a w ell-to-do background in M cLean, Virginia, the hub of the
intelligence community that pr eoccupied his adult attention. H is father had
been a successful obstetrician. Although his Catholic I talian family had expe-
rienced its shar e of tragedies—a congenital hear t defect took one of D anny’s
five siblings, an infant, and an older sister died of a dr ug overdose in Haight-
Ashbury—Danny grew up with the good things in life. B y all reports, he was
a congenial, open-minded and tr usting soul with fe w serious worries. A t age
20, he left P rovident College to sear ch for tr easures of the I ncas in E cuador.
When he returned, he settled into a marriage that lasted thirteen years and pro-
duced one son, Trey (J. Daniel Casolaro III). He lived in a $400,000 home on
three acres in Fairfax City, Virginia, where he kept horses. He played the piano.
His literary tastes ran along the lines of Jack Kerouac and the Beats; he was an
Elvis Costello fan.
Danny Casolaro had achieved only modest success in his chosen profession
of writing. The magazines and tabloids he wr ote for w ere as v aried as his
research: Washington Crime News Service, Home and A uto, Providence Journal,
Washington Star, The National Enquirer, and the Globe. His published books,

2
 DANNY CASOLARO

seemingly towering triumphs to a novice writer, did not provide him much in
the way of financial rewards. His novel, The Ice King, a Hemingway-like novel
about mountain climbing, had been published by a vanity press. He also pub-
lished a short story collection, Makes Me Think of Tall Green Grass, and worked
on two films, Rain For A Dusty S ummer and To Fly Without Wings, the latter
narrated by Orson Welles. According to one sour ce, “Danny wasn’t an inv es-
tigative reporter. He was a poet.” 1
The first piece of Casolaro’s life to pass into conspiracy lore was that a mys-
terious informant may hav e supplied him with the last bit of evidence he
needed to pr ove the existence of his O ctopus cabal. J ust prior to leaving for
Martinsburg, Casolaro warned his br other, “If anything happens to me, don ’t
believe it’s an accident.” 2 According to friends and family , little in Casolar o’s
disposition or behavior could have led to suicide. The gashes in his wrists were
too deep to be self-inflicted. The suicide note was unconvincing. The discov-
ery of his body, the rush to autopsy—without the consent of family—and the
quick cleaning of the murder site increased suspicions.
Something in Casolaro’s Octopus research quite likely led to his mur der.

————
1. James Ridge way and D ough Vaughan, “ The Last D ays of D anny Casolaro,” Village Voice,
October 15, 1991.

2. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 33.

3
THE OCTOPUS

The Promis software made by Inslaw, the Institute for Law and Social Research.

4
 Chapter 2.
V

PROMIS Breaking

After a brief return to college, Danny Casolaro picked up stringer wor k for var-
ious tabloids and magazines. H e ev entually found his way to Computer A ge
Publications, which r eported daily on the personal computer trade. Casolar o
stayed there for ten y ears, eventually becoming part-owner. He sold his stake in
the company in 1990. Unfortunately, friends said Casolaro had vastly underesti-
mated the value of the newsletter, and had sold it for far less than it was wor th.1
In early 1990, D anny Casolaro was on the make for a ne w beginning. H e
was looking for a great story, something he could sink his teeth into, something
that would catapult him to ward the monetar y rewards he desired. A friend and
fellow worker in the computer magazine business, Terry Miller, suggested that
Casolaro look into a dev eloping scandal involving software made by a company
called Inslaw, the Institute for Law and Social Research. After discussing the case
with one of the company ’s founders, William Hamilton, Casolaro felt like this
might just be the right pr oject.
The Inslaw case began in 1982, when the US J ustice Department granted
Hamilton’s company ten million dollars o ver thr ee y ears to adapt a computer
program to the needs of US attorneys in tracking criminal cases fr om office to
office. The program was called Prosecutor’s Management Information System, or
PROMIS. H amilton explained that, as a former member of the super secr et
National S ecurity Agency (NSA), he and his wife N ancy dev eloped PROMIS
with funding fr om the go vernment’s Law E nforcement Assistance A dministra-
tion (LEAA).
After the LEAA funding was phased out at the end of the Car ter adminis-
tration, the H amiltons conv erted I nslaw into a for-pr ofit business, with the
government’s knowledge and approval. Hamilton had sent a letter to the Depart-
ment of J ustice r equesting they waiv e any rights to the enhanced v ersion of
PROMIS, and on August 11, 1982, a lawyer for the Department responded, ver-

5
THE OCTOPUS

Bill and Nancy Hamilton Elliot Richardson

ifying that Inslaw had the rights to any privately funded enhancements added to
the public domain version of PROMIS.
The PROMIS program was developed for the purpose of tracking individu-
als pursued or pr osecuted b y the J ustice D epartment, and included the vital
capability of interfacing with other databases.
As Hamilton explained his situation, Casolar o must have grown increasing-
ly aware of the pot-boiler possibilities inher ent in this stor y. PROMIS was the
Maltese Falcon of a conspiracy w eb into which H amilton had fallen. H amilton
made it clear to the computer-savvy Casolar o that the enhancements he had
made to PROMIS were not minor. Early enhancements enabled the software to
be r un on other , less-po werful computer systems than the original, including
IBM, Wang, Burroughs, and Prime; later enhancements—the ones taken by Jus-
tice—allowed it to run on a DEC VAX minicomputer.2
If Hamilton sounded bitter when he talked about the deal he had struck with
the go vernment, he had his r easons. The 1982 agr eement with the J ustice
Department, through which Inslaw was to be paid $10 million for placement in
US pr osecutor offices and enhancements for sev enty-four smaller depar tment
offices, would have been just the beginning of PROMIS’ applications. Hamilton
estimated that the demand for the softwar e might eventually exceed five billion
dollars. I n place of that watershed business, H amilton r eceived a decade-long
legal battle.
The problems began after Inslaw delivered the modified PROMIS to the Jus-
tice Department. First, payments to the H amiltons were suspended. N ext, the
Department accused I nslaw of o vercharging. By February of 1985, the J ustice

6
 PROMIS BREAKING

Department had withheld almost two million dollars fr om I nslaw. When it

became obvious that the Justice Department was not going to honor its contract,
the company ’s attorney , former US A ttorney G eneral E lliot Richar dson,
renowned for his role in the Watergate scandal, advised the Hamiltons to sue. In
June 1986, the Hamiltons took Richardson’s advice and filed suit. 3
As the lawsuit pr ogressed, the H amiltons learned about secr et dealings
behind the scenes at the J ustice Department relating to Inslaw. On St. Patrick’s
Day, 1987, the first of sev eral whistleblowers stepped forward. Anthony Pasciu-
to, the deputy dir ector of the J ustice Department’s Executive Office for United
States Trustees, secr etly met with the H amiltons, and told of pr essure fr om
Thomas Stanton, the director of his office, to get Trustee officer William White
and others to liquidate I nslaw. Pasciuto also said that Cornelius B lackshear, the
US trustee in New York, knew what Stanton was doing, and that he had talked
about the pr essure on I nslaw to US Cour t of A ppeals Judge Lawr ence P ierce.
Blackshear, under a deposition b y Inslaw’s lawyers, confirmed his statements to
Pasciuto, but the follo wing day met with a r epresentative of the Justice Depart-
ment and r ecanted in a sworn affidavit, saying that P asciuto had confused the
Inslaw case with another one. After offering his testimony , P asciuto listened
while White, his superior in the Department, denied the statements that Pasciu-
to said had been made to him. I n anger and fr ustration, Pasciuto also recanted.
Despite this, P asciuto lost his job two days after he testified. A J ustice Depart-
ment memo recommended his dismissal, saying, “...but for Mr. Pasciuto’s highly
irresponsible actions, the Department would be in a much better litigation pos-
ture than it presently finds itself in.” 4
Even though P asciuto had changed his stor y, the federal bankr uptcy judge
hearing the case, J udge George F. Bason, accepted Pasciuto’s original testimony.
The judge also noted that White had r ecently joined a law firm practicing in
bankruptcy matters, and that his futur e with the firm might hav e been jeopar-
dized if he had muddied the water with the US Trustee’s Office. Bason made the
observation that Cornelius Blackshear had also offered “two different versions of
the same ev ent,” and that the first v ersion, which confirmed P asciuto’s original
testimony, was the most cr edible. I n S eptember, 1987, J udge B ason r uled on
Inslaw vs. the United States of America, finding the go vernment guilty of trick-
ery, deceit and fraud. He ruled that that the US Department of Justice had stolen
the PROMIS software.
Judge Bason stated that officials of the Justice Department had attempted to
bankrupt Inslaw through an “outrageous, deceitful, fraudulent game of cat and
mouse, demonstrating contempt for both the law and any principle of fair deal-
ing.” Judge Bason also wrote to Attorney General Edwin Meese, suggesting that
an outside official be appointed to r eview the evidence because of evidence of

7
THE OCTOPUS

Attorney General Richard Thornburgh Attorney General Edwin Meese

perjury by officials in the Justice Department. Meese did not answer the letter.5
On February 2, 1988, J udge Bason ordered the J ustice Department to pay
Inslaw approximately $6.8 million in licensing fees, and an additional near $1
million in legal expenses. B ason postponed his assessment of punitiv e damages.
An appeal was upheld b y US D istrict Cour t Judge William B. B ryant.6 Judge
Bason’s assessment of punitiv e damages against the J ustice D epartment nev er
came.
In November, 1987, Judge Bason threw out a motion by the Justice Depart-
ment for the liquidation of I nslaw. A month later, Bason received word that he
would be denied reappointment to the bench. The judge became one of four out
of 136 federal bankruptcy judges to have been denied reappointment in the pre-
vious four y ears. The decision was made b y a four-person merit selection panel
that had been appointed, in obvious conflict of interest, by Judge Patricia Wald,
who had pr eviously been emplo yed b y the J ustice D epartment. O utrageously,
Bason’s position was filled by S. Martin Teel, Jr., a Department of Justice lawyer
who had represented the IRS in its audits of I nslaw and had r ecommended liq-
uidation of the company.7
In March, 1988, Pasciuto, the man who had r ecanted his earlier testimony
about Department corruption, decided to come clean. In a letter from his attor-
ney, Pasciuto described J ustice Department actions designed to destr oy Inslaw,
quoting a statement by Robert Hunneycutt of the Department’s finance offices,
that “people in the US A ttorney’s offices don ’t like I nslaw,” and that inv oices
from the company were among those designated never to be paid. 8
In August, 1989, the behavior of the J ustice D epartment with r egard to

8
 PROMIS BREAKING

Inslaw had gained such infamy that the chairman of the J udiciary Committee,
Jack Brooks of Texas, began an inv estigation with a letter to A ttorney General
Richard Thornburgh. Thornburgh questioned the need to r einvestigate, but
promised full cooperation. As the inv estigation proceeded, however, he seemed
to do all in his po wer to thwart it. At first Thornburgh refused to appear before
the committee or to surrender Justice Department files relating to the case. This
forced the J udiciary Committee to subpoena almost fiv e hundr ed documents.
Thornburgh finally r elented and r eleased the files, although one sour ce in the
House of R epresentatives alleged that appr oximately tw enty of the files w ere
missing.9
In December, 1989, I nslaw attorney Richar dson submitted a writ of man-
damus to the US District Court in Washington, D.C. asking for the government
to intervene with the appointment of an independent investigator to further pur-
sue I nslaw’s allegations, no w suppor ted b y a cour t r uling, about the theft of
PROMIS b y the J ustice D epartment. Richar dson stated that, “ Attempts to
acquire control of PROMIS were linked by a conspiracy among friends of Attor-
ney G eneral M eese to take adv antage of their r elationship with him for the
purpose of obtaining a lucrative contract for the automation of the Department’s
litigating divisions.”10
This was where the case stood when William Hamilton and Danny Casolaro
talked on the phone. Casolar o found H amilton’s stor y interesting, par ticularly
since it dealt with one of his inter ests, computers. Casolar o took the bait, but
only when Hamilton started telling him about Michael Riconosciuto.

————
1. “Autopsy Backs Suicide Ruling,” Washington Times, Aug. 16, 1991.
2. “Area Writer Investigating...,” Washington Post, 8/13/91; Fricker, Richard L., “The Inslaw Octo-
pus,” Wired 1.1, premiere issue, 1993 p. 80.
3. M ahar, M aggie, “B eneath Contempt: D id the J ustice D epartment D eliberately B ankrupt
Inslaw?,” Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly, March 21, 1988.
4. Martin, Harry, “Federal Corruption,” Napa Sentinel, March 12, 1991.
5. Martin.
6. Martin.
7. Mahar.
8. Mahar.
9. “Was Writer the Victim of a DC Conspiracy?,” The Boston Globe, August 14, 1991.
10. Bleifuss, Joel, “Software Pirates,” In These Times, May 29–June 11, 1991.

9
 Chapter 3:
V

Michael Riconosciuto

Jeff Steinberg worked as an aide to Lyndon Larouche, the perennial presidential

candidate notorious for conspiracy vie ws about the E nglish empire. Steinberg
had put B ill Hamilton in touch with M ichael James Riconosciuto, a 44-y ear-
old denizen of the shadowy world of covert operatives. Riconosciuto first called
Hamilton on M ay 18, 1990, and talked with him for two and a half hours,
spinning a gossamer of connections that added startling new dimensions to the
Inslaw case. 1 Riconosciuto, in hundreds of collect telephone calls to H amilton,
revealed inside knowledge of the government conspiracy to steal PROMIS from
the Hamiltons. He stunned H amilton fur ther when he told him that he had
personally modified the PR OMIS software as r esearch director of a joint v en-
ture of the Cabaz on I ndian tribe of I ndio, California, and the nation ’s thir d
largest private security firm, Wackenhut.
Riconosciuto revealed that par t of his job in the modification of the soft-
ware had been to create a “back door access” for spying into the files of its users.2
These users included Great Britain, South Korea, Japan, Jordan, Canada, Israel,
Egypt, Canada, and I raq—Bill H amilton tallied the figur e at “ as many as
eighty-eight countries”—for use in such activities as the tracking of terr orists.3
According to Riconosciuto, A ttorney General Edwin Meese had pr ovided
PROMIS to D r. Earl B rian and Peter Videnieks from the D epartment of J us-
tice, who had then super vised the Wackenhut/Cabazon pr oject to copy the
program.4
Riconosciuto initially had been ex cited by the software. He told one inter-
viewer: “...this package wor ked, OK? I mean it r eally and tr uly worked. And
when I got my first copies of it and ran it up, I was dumbfounded. I have a sta-
tistical exercising package where I can put computer software and/or hardware,
and/or hardware/software systems thr ough their paces, and I can determine at
which point it will become unreliable... And here again, you have to realize that

10
 MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

we were on the thr eshold of a whole ne w era with bio-technology and with
information technology. Earl Brian had some backing, and he was going to buy
out some well placed star t-up companies that alr eady had a r unning start, and
then he was going to pump money and talent and the right connections into
them, and make them go...”5
Riconosciuto was not the only one to extol the vir tues of PROMIS. Harry
Martin of the Napa Valley Sentinel, while editing sev eral defense publications,
believed that an Israeli software package which he tested utilized PROMIS, and
had the capability to “[deal] with the complete militar y str ucture, and who ’s
who and what ’s what. I mean, it ev en got do wn almost to the number of
shoelaces: how many handguns—everything... It gets into numbers and details.
And that’s what this software has this tremendous power to do.”6
The theft of PROMIS, according to Riconosciuto, wasn’t all that was going
on at the Cabaz on I ndian R eservation. The Cabaz on/Wackenhut v enture
included the pr oduction of adv anced weaponry, including biological w eapons,
and fuel-air explosiv es (FAX), a ne w technology supposedly the equal of some
nuclear w eapons in explosiv e po wer. Riconosciuto claimed to hav e been
involved in the production of the fuel-air explosives in collaboration with Ger-
ald B ull of S pace R esearch Corporation, an arms dealer who designed the
“supergun,” and was murdered in Brussels, Belgium in 1990. 7
Riconosciuto dropped additional bombshells on Hamilton. He maintained
that M eese had pr ovided B rian with PR OMIS as a pay-off on a fav or.
Riconosciuto made the dramatic allegation that William Casey, outside counsel
to Wackenhut prior to his wor k in the R eagan administration, had hir ed him
and Brian in 1980 to facilitate the now infamous “October Surprise,” in which
the Reagan administration allegedly paid the I ranians not to r elease American
hostages until after his election. Riconosciuto claimed that he and B rian had
paid the I ranians for ty million dollars in bribes. The PR OMIS softwar e, so
Riconosciuto said, was Brian’s payment for his participation.8 Riconosciuto also
claimed that he had been instrumental in exposing the Nugan Hand bank scan-
dal; that he had met “the Jackal,” the famed international terrorist; and that he
had made a tape recording of a clandestine meeting with William Casey that he
was holding as an “insurance policy” on his life.
Could he be believed? At least some of what Riconosciuto said could be cor-
roborated. The Cabazon-Wackenhut joint venture did exist from 1981 to 1983,
and Riconosciuto was involved with it, at least in some capacity.9 A report from
a task force of the Riverside County, California Sheriff ’s Office also placed Earl
Brian (“with the CIA”) and Riconosciuto at a w eapons demonstration put on
by the Cabazons and Wackenhut.10
Amazingly, even Riconosciuto’s allegations about Brian’s involvement in the
so-called October Surprise could also be verified, at least to a degree. Brian had
told several persons that he planned a visit to Paris the weekend of the October

11
THE OCTOPUS

Michael Riconosciuto The October Surprise hostage.

Surprise meeting(s), and Ari B en-Menasche, who claimed to be pr esent at the

Paris meeting(s) said “I saw B rian in Paris.”11
Shortly after H amilton was contacted b y Riconosciuto, H amilton told
Casolaro about his new source. By late 1990, according to his friends, Casolaro
spoke of little else. He immediately set about investigating this new informant’s
background. What he learned only complicated the matter.12
Casolaro discovered that Riconosciuto had been a gifted child whose science
projects, including the construction of an argon laser, had enabled him to work
as a research assistant to D r. Arthur Schalow, the Nobel laureate. Other things
in Riconosciuto’s past had a shadier aspect. After leaving S tanford University,
Riconosciuto migrated to H aight-Ashbury in San Francisco, where he went to
work on an undergr ound ne wspaper. Riconosciuto told Casolar o that he had
acquired some photos that the ne wspaper had published which sho wed a nar-
cotics agent having sex with an underage girl, and because of this the nar c had
framed Riconosciuto on drug charges. In 1973 Riconosciuto was sent to prison
for two years for manufacturing psychedelic drugs.
Casolaro didn’t buy Riconosciuto ’s statement that he was innocent of the
drug charges. H is notes stated flatly that “M ike sold dope thr ough P hyllis.”
(Phyllis remains unidentified.) Casolaro told Bill Hamilton he didn’t totally buy
into Riconosciuto ’s wild stories. N onetheless, Risconosciuto pr ovided leads
Casolaro was determined to follow.
Casolaro ran down the leads, phoning person after person around the coun-
try, spreading his net further as he developed new contacts. A complicated case
of computer thiev ery was turning into something closer to a R obert L udlum

12
 MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

thriller. Casolaro started to spend a lot of his professional life on the telephone.
Each of Riconosciuto ’s leads seemed to connect to another . D anny Casolar o
began to sense that he was on the trail of the conspiracy stor y of the century.
By the beginning of 1991, Casolar o was heavily inv olved with the I nslaw
case. One contact supplied b y Riconosciuto was a man named Alan S tandorf,
who worked at the secr et militar y electronic listening post at Vint Hill Farm,
near Manassas, Virginia. Standorf supplied Casolaro with classified information
and, in order to quickly return the materials to avoid detection, Casolaro set up
high-speed commercial duplicating and collating equipment in room 900 at the
nearby Hilton Hotel.
Danny Casolaro may not hav e known what he was getting into when he
began the inv estigation of PR OMIS and the conspiracy tributaries that ran
from it. But the truth was brought home to him on J anuary 31, 1991, when
Alan Standorf ’s body was found on the back floor of his car at the Washing-
ton National Airport. Standorf had been mur dered by a blo w to the back of
his head. 13

————
1. Corn, David, “The Dark World of Danny Casolaro,” The Nation, Oct. 28, 1991, pp. 511–516.
2. Corn, p. 513.
3. Broadcast on WBAI-FM, New York, Pacifica Radio Network, September 20, 1991.
4. “The Com-12 Briefing,” Phoenix Liberator, March 23, 1993, p.17.
5. WBAI Broadcast.
6. WBAI Broadcast.
7. “CIA Computer Genius Alleges Massive Conspiracy,” Technical Consultant, Dec/Jan 1991, p. 7.
8. Corn, p. 512.
9. “Worldwide Conspiracy or Fantasy?” Seattle Times, August 29, 1991.
10. Stich, Rodney, Defrauding America, Diablo Western Press, Alamo, California, 1993, p. 83.
11. Fricker, Richard L., “The Inslaw Octopus,” Wired, premiere issue, 1993.
12. James Ridge way and D ough Vaughan, “ Worldwide Conspiracy or F antasy?” Seattle Times,
August 29, 1991, p. 34.
13. Stich, p. 407; Contact, May 10, 1994, p. 19.

13
THE OCTOPUS

US Justice Department agent Peter Videnieks.

14
 Chapter 4:
V

“Danger Man”

Bill Hamilton convinced Michael Riconosciuto to tell his stor y on the record.
On March 21, 1991 Michael Riconosciuto filed a sworn affidavit on the Inslaw
case. He began b y stating that US J ustice Department agent P eter Videnieks
had threatened him if he cooperated with a House Judiciary Committee inves-
tigation of I nslaw.1 The following text of the affidavit pr ovides a toe-hold for
Danny Casolaro’s research:

I, MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO, being duly sworn, do hereby state as follows:

1. During the early 1980s, I served as the Director of Research for a joint
venture between the Wackenhut corporation of Coral Gables, Florida, and
the Cabazon Band of Indians of Indio, California. The joint venture was
located on the Cabazon Reservation.

2. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture sought to develop and/or man-

ufacture certain materials that are used in military and national security
operations, including night vision goggles, machine guns, fuel-air explo-
sives, and biological and chemical warfare weapons.

3. The Cabazon Band of Indians are a sovereign nation. The sovereign

immunity that is accorded the Cabazons as a consequence of this fact
made it feasible to pursue on the reservation the development and/or
manufacture of materials whose development or manufacture would be
subject to stringent controls off the reservation. As a minority group, the
Cabazon Indians also provided the Wackenhut Corporation with an
enhanced ability to obtain federal contracts through the 8A Set Aside Pro-
gram, and in connection with Government-owned contractor-operated
(GOCO) facilities.

15
THE OCTOPUS

4. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture was intended to support the needs

of a number of foreign governments and forces, including forces and gov-
ernments in Central America and the Middle East. The contras in Nicaragua
represented one of the most important priorities for the joint venture.

5. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture maintained close liaison with

certain elements of the United States Government, including representa-
tives of intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies.

6. Among the frequent visitors to the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture

were Peter Videnieks of the US Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.,
and a close associate of Videnieks by the name of Earl W. Brian. Brian is a
private businessman who lives in Maryland and who has maintained close
business ties with the US intelligence community for many years.

7. In connection with my work for Wackenhut, I engaged in some soft-

ware development and modification work in 1983 and 1984 on the
proprietary PROMIS computer software product. The copy of PROMIS on
which I worked came from the US Department of Justice. Earl W. Brian
made it available to me through Wackenhut after acquiring it from Peter
Videnieks, who was then a Department of Justice contracting official with
responsibility for the PROMIS software. I performed the modifications to
PROMIS in Indio, California; Silver Springs, Maryland; and Miami, Florida.

8. The purpose of the PROMIS software modifications that I made in 1983

and 1984 was to support a plan for the implementation of PROMIS in law
enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. Earl W. Brian was spear-
heading the plan for this worldwide use of the PROMIS computer software.

9. Some of the modifications that I made were specifically designed to

facilitate the implementation of PROMIS within two agencies of the Gov-
ernment of Canada; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the
Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Earl W. Brian would
check with me from time to time to make certain that the work would be
completed in time to satisfy the schedule for the RCMP and the CSIS
implementations of PROMIS.

10. The proprietary version of PROMIS, as modified by me, was, in fact,

implemented in both the RCMP and the CSIS in Canada. It was my under-
standing that Earl W. Brian had sold this version of PROMIS to the
Government of Canada.

11. In February 1991, I had a telephone conversation with Peter Videnieks,

then still employed by the US Department of Justice. Videnieks attempt-
ed during this telephone conversation to persuade me not to cooperate
with an independent investigation of the government’s piracy of Inslaw’s
proprietary PROMIS software being conducted by the Committee on the
Judiciary of the US House of Representatives.

16
 “DANGER MAN”

12. Videnieks stated that I would be rewarded for a decision not to coop-
erate with the House Judiciary Committee investigation. Videnieks
forecasted an immediate and favorable resolution of a protracted child
custody dispute being prosecuted against my wife by her former hus-
band, if I were to decide not to cooperate with the House Judiciary
Committee investigation.

13. Videnieks also outlined specific punishments that I could expect to

receive from the US Department of Justice if I cooperated with the House
Judiciary Committee’s investigation.

14. One punishment that Videnieks outlined was the future inclusion of
me and my father in a criminal prosecution of certain business associates
of mine in Orange County, California, in connection with the operation of
a Savings and Loan institution in Orange County. By way of underscoring
his power to influence such decisions at the US Department of Justice,
Videnieks informed me of the indictment of these business associates
prior to the time when that indictment was unsealed and made public.

15. Another punishment that Videnieks threatened against me if I cooper-

ated with the House Judiciary committee is prosecution by the US
Department of Justice for perjury. Videnieks warned me that credible wit-
nesses would come forward to contradict any damaging claims that I
made in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, and that I
would subsequently be prosecuted for perjury by the US Department of
Justice for my testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT.

Michael J. Riconosciuto
(Signed and sworn to before me this 21st day of March 1991—Notary
Public)

————
1. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 38.

17
 Chapter 5:
V

Earl Brian

Following the lead of Riconosciuto ’s r evelations, D anny Casolar o took a long

look at a man named Dr. Earl Brian. Riconosciuto claimed that this man, along
with Peter Videnieks, had headed the alleged Wackenhut/Cabazon pr oject to
alter the PROMIS software. Casolaro eventually developed a dossier on Brian.
Brian was a high-profile individual who had been a combat physician during
the Vietnam War. He reportedly worked in an air support unit for the Operation
Phoenix political assassination program, a well-known covert action program to
wipe out the Viet Cong in Vietnam. After his return to the States, Brian became
Secretary of Health and Welfare in California, under G overnor Ronald Reagan.
In 1974, B rian had r esigned his cabinet position to go into priv ate business,
which Casolaro learned had allegedly included arms deals with the Shah of Iran.
Brian’s company Xonics had been cited b y the Security and Exchange Commis-
sion for illegal commissions and for issuing press releases with bogus information
meant to boost stock prices.
Brian also was inv olved in a scandal inv olving the confiscation of computer
tapes with the r ecords of 70,000 California state w elfare files. These tapes w ere
later discovered at the U niversity of S outhern California. After an unsuccessful
campaign for a Senate seat, Brian joined the USC faculty.1
During the Reagan administration, Brian served as an unpaid chairman of a
Reagan task for ce on health car e cost r eduction, reporting directly to A ttorney
General Ed Meese. Brian also ser ved with M eese on a “ pro-competition” com-
mittee.2 Further associations of B rian and E d M eese had come out during
Meese’s confirmation hearings, when Meese had admitted that his wife had bor-
rowed $15,000 fr om an advisor , E dwin Thomas, to buy stock in B rian’s
company. Meese had not listed the transaction in his financial disclosur es. Brian
headed Infotechnology, Inc., a powerful New York holding company which con-
trolled UPI, the F inancial News Network, and the Learning Channel. 3 If these
connections led far afield from Inslaw, others dovetailed neatly. Hadron, Inc. was

18
 EARL BRIAN

also controlled by Brian. Hadron, Inc. had suddenly taken an affluent turn—
after being $12 million in the r ed—upon Meese’s ascendancy to the office of
Attorney General. The company now subsisted on government revenues, includ-
ing a $40 million contract with the US D epartment of Justice.
The name Hadron, Inc. rang a bell with Bill Hamilton. Hamilton eventual-
ly r ealized that I nslaw’s difficulties may hav e begun as early as A pril 1983.
Hamilton had been in his office when he received a telephone call from Dominic
Laiti, the chairman of H adron, I nc. H amilton r ecalled Laiti telling him that
Hadron, Inc. was trying to corner the market on law enforcement software, and
that “they had pur chased S imcon, a manufactur er of police depar tment soft-
ware—and A cumedics, a company that pr ovides computer-based litigation
support services for courts.” Now Laiti was offering to buy I nslaw from Hamil-
ton in or der for H adron, I nc. to obtain the PR OMIS softwar e. A ccording to
Hamilton, when he turned down the alleged offer, Laiti bragged of his powerful
contacts in the R eagan administration, and told him “ we have ways of making
you sell.”4
Within 90 days of the date of the alleged Laiti call the deal betw een Inslaw
and the Justice department began to unrav el.5 A little research also showed that
Peter Videnieks, prior to o verseeing the PR OMIS contract for the J ustice
Department in 1981, had been in charge of three contracts between the US Cus-
toms Service and H adron, Inc.6 In light of the links betw een Earl B rian, Peter
Videnieks, and H adron, I nc., suddenly D ominic Laiti ’s “ways of making y ou
sell” threat took on more substance.
Many of Riconosciuto’s claims about B rian were backed up b y information
in the following March 21, 1991 affidavit filed on behalf of I nslaw by Ari Ben-
Menasche.7
I, ARI BEN-MENASHE, being duly sworn, do hereby state as follows:

1. Between August 1977 and September 1987, I was employed by the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF)/Military Intelligence External Relations Department.

2. In my above capacity, I had contacts with the Office of the Israeli Prime
Minister’s Anti-Terrorism Advisor.

3. In 1982, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Anti-Terrorism Advisor was Rafael

Eitan.

4. In a meeting that took place in December 1982 in Mr. Eitan’s office in the
Kirya in Tel Aviv, Israel, Mr. Eitan told me that he had received earlier that
year in the United States, from Mr. Earl Brian and Mr. Robert McFarlane,
PROMIS computer software for the limited use of the IDF’s Signals Intelli-
gence Unit for intelligence purposes only. Mr. Eitan stated on this occasion,
and on earlier occasions as well, that he had special relationships with both
Mr. Brian and Mr. McFarlane.

19
THE OCTOPUS

Earl Brian Ari Ben-Menashe

5. This meeting took place in the context of a visit by a foreign dignitary.

During a break in the meeting, Mr. Eitan took me aside and gave me the
above facts to relate to my superiors so that Mr. Eitan’s office could take
credit for the introduction of the PROMIS computer software into IDF’s Sig-
nals Intelligence Unit.

6. I hereby certify that the facts set forth in this Affidavit are true and cor-
rect to the best of my knowledge.

FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT

Ari Ben-Menashe
Signed and sworn to before me this 21st day of March, 1991.

Lexington, Kentucky, was the temporar y home of Ari B en-Menashe, a for-

mer Israeli intelligence officer who had mo ved there after his acquittal in N ew
York on arms trading charges. The federal go vernment had accused B en-
Menashe of conspiring to sell thr ee transpor t planes to an under cover federal
agent. He spent a year in prison awaiting trial, but when he finally came to trial,
the jury acquitted him after he brandished a diplomatic passport as evidence that
his activities had been sanctioned b y I srael, and documents sho wing that the
planes in question actually belonged to the I sraeli government.
Ben-Menashe became talkative when he left prison. He claimed to have been
personally involved in billion-dollar weapons deals between Iran and Israel, part
of the latter ’s plan to exacerbate I ran/Iraq tensions. H e v erified Riconosciuto’s

20
 EARL BRIAN

assertions that PROMIS had been sold to foreign intelligence agencies and trad-
ed thr ough back-channels that dev eloped o ver the O ctober S urprise and
Iran-contra operations, and that Earl Brian had been involved. As a special intel-
ligence consultant to the I sraeli prime minister in 1989, B en-Menasche
maintained that a Chilean arms manufactur er told him that he had been a go-
between in Brian’s deal to sell PR OMIS to Iraqi intelligence. Two years prior to
that, according to Ben-Menasche, he attended a meeting in Tel Aviv where Brian
claimed that the Central I ntelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and
the Defense Intelligence Agency all used PR OMIS, and then gav e the softwar e
to Israeli intelligence.
Even with this independent corroboration, Earl Brian continued to deny any
connection with Riconosciuto and Ari B en-Menasche. He insisted that he had
only read about Inslaw in the papers, although the company ’s founders contin-
ued to insist that Brian’s company had tried to acquir e it in 1983. 8
Then Richard Babayan, an I ranian arms dealer in prison awaiting trial on
securities fraud, corr oborated B en-Menasche’s statements, connecting B rian to
the sale of the software to Iraq and South Korea. In an affidavit dated March 22,
1991, Babayan swore:

I, RICHARD H. BABAYAN, being duly sworn, do hereby state as follows:

1. During the past several years, I have acted as a broker of sales of mate-
rials and equipment used by foreign governments in their armed forces,
intelligence and security organizations.

2. In the capacity described in paragraph #1, I attended a meeting in Bagh-

dad, Iraq, in October or November, 1987, with Mr. Abu Mohammed of
Entezamat, an intelligence and security organ of the Government of Iraq. Mr.
Abu Mohammed is a senior ranking official of Entezamat and a person with
whom I had extensive dealings over the previous three years.

3. During the aforementioned meeting with Mr. Abu Mohammed, I was

informed that Dr. Earl W. Brian of the United States had recently completed
a sales presentation to the Government of Iraq regarding the PROMIS com-
puter software. Furthermore, it is my understanding that others present at
Dr. Brian’s PROMIS sales presentation were General Richard Secord, of the
United States, and Mr. Abu Mohammed.

4. In early to mid-1988, in the course of subsequent visits to Baghdad, Iraq, I

was informed that Dr. Earl W. Brian had, in fact, provided the PROMIS com-
puter software to the Government of Iraq through a transaction that took place
under the umbrella of Mr. Sarkis Saghanollan, an individual who has had
extensive business dealings with the Government of Iraq since the late 1970s
in the fields of military hardware and software. I was also informed that the

21
THE OCTOPUS

Government of Iraq acquired the PROMIS software for use primarily in intelli-
gence services, and secondarily in police and law enforcement agencies.

5. During the course of the visits described in paragraph #4, I also learned
from Mr. Abu Mohammed that the Government of Libya had acquired the
PROMIS computer software prior to its acquisition by the Government of
Iraq; that the Government of Libya had by then made extensive use of
PROMIS, and that the Government of Libya was highly recommending the
PROMIS software to other countries. I was informed that the high quality of
the reference for the PROMIS software from the Government of Libya was
one of the principle reasons for the decision of the Government of Iraq to
acquire PROMIS.

6. In the capacity described in paragraph #1, I attended a meeting in early

1988 in Singapore with Mr. Y.H. Nam of the Korea Development Corporation.

7. The Korea Development Corporation is known to be a cutout for the Kore-

an Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA).

8. I learned from Mr. Y.H. Nam during the meeting described in paragraph
#6 that the KCIA had acquired the PROMIS computer software, and that Dr.
Earl W. Brian of the United States had been instrumental in the acquisition
and implementation of PROMIS by the KCIA.

9. In the capacity described in paragraph #1, I attended a meeting in San-

tiago, Chile, in December, 1988, with Mr. Carlos Cardoen of Cardoen
Industries. During this meeting, I was informed by Mr. Cardoen that Dr. Earl
W. Brian of the United States and Mr. Robert Gates, a senior American intel-
ligence and national security official, had just completed a meeting in
Santiago, Chile, with Mr. Carlos Cardoen.

10. I hereby certify that the facts set forth in this Affidavit are true and cor-
rect to the best of my knowledge.

FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT.

Richard A. Babayan

Further corroboration for the illegal sale of PROMIS would come from for-
mer agent of the U nited S tates’ D efense I ntelligence Agency , Lester Kno x
Coleman III. I n Trail of the O ctopus, an examination of his wor k in the DIA,
Coleman claimed that as a sur veillance consultant to the C ypriot Police Force
Narcotics S quad (CPFNS), he witnessed CPFNS officers unpacking softwar e
from bo xes mar ked “PR OMIS Ltd, Toronto, Canada,” for use in the police
agency’s r ecently centraliz ed database. Although it seemed unlikely that such
secret dealings would be so tr umpeted, the stor y supported Riconosciuto’s alle-
gations that Earl Brian had sold it to the Canadians.

22
 EARL BRIAN

According to Coleman, the database had been installed b y Link S ystems,

Ltd., described by Coleman as a US go vernment “cut-out,” established to fulfill
a contract with the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control. Further inves-
tigation by Coleman revealed that these were bootleg copies of PROMIS, “made
without the kno wledge of I nslaw, to which a ‘backdoor ’ softwar e r outine had
been added. No matter how securely the front door might be barr ed with entry
codes and passwor ds, American operators, holding the key to the secr et back
door, could break into the PR OMIS systems operated b y Cyprus, Egypt, Syria,
Pakistan, Turkey, K uwait, I srael, Jordan, I ran and I raq whenev er they wished,
access the data stored there and get out again without ar ousing the slightest sus-
picion that the security of those systems had been br eached...”9
In 1992, Ari B en-Menasche published a memoir of his car eer in interna-
tional arms trading called Profits of War. In it, he explained his understanding of
William Hamilton’s NSA background in establishing spy posts against the North
in Vietnam, where he computerized a Vietnamese-English dictionary and began
developing early v ersions of PR OMIS, according to B en-Menashe.10 “The pro-
gram he was dev eloping would hav e the ability to track the mo vements of v ast
numbers of people ar ound the world. D issidents or citiz ens who needed to be
kept under watch would be har d put to mo ve freely again without B ig Brother
keeping an ey e on their activities.” 11 Elaborating on his sworn statement, B en-
Menasche explained that some officials wor king for the R eagan administration
had hoped to use the Israelis to sell PROMIS to intelligence and police agencies
throughout the world. Ben-Menasche quoted Rafi Eitan, the anti-terrorism advi-
sor to the I sraeli PM mentioned in the affidavit, as saying “ We can use this
program to stamp out terrorism by keeping track of everyone. But not only that,
we can find out what our enemies kno w, too.”12
Ben-Menashe also gav e some description of ho w he envisioned the
PROMIS software might work: “Using a modem, the spy network would then
tap into the computers of such ser vices as the telephone company , the water
board, other utility commissions, cr edit card companies, etc. PROMIS would
then search for specific information. For example, if a person suddenly started
using mor e water and mor e electricity and making mor e phone calls than
usual, it might be suspected he had guests staying with him. PR OMIS would
then start searching for the r ecords of his friends and associates, and if it was
found that one had stopped using electricity and water , it might be assumed,
based on other records stored in PROMIS, that the missing person was staying
with the subject of the inv estigation. This would be enough to hav e him
watched...” B en-Menashe also detailed PR OMIS’ notorious “back door ,”
which allowed Israeli access, via modem and coded passwor ds, to the files of
any foreign intelligence service using PROMIS.

23
THE OCTOPUS

Details about ho w PR OMIS wor ks, why it made such a priz e for Earl
Brian, were and remain sparse and v ague. In a ne wsletter produced as par t of
a database on intelligence literatur e and personalities called Namebase, author
Daniel Brandt argues that B en-Menashe’s chapter on PR OMIS compromised
an other wise “ frequently believ able” book and should hav e been deleted.
Brandt states that “a ‘back door’ to get around password protection is easy for
any programmer,”13 and it explained why the intelligence community might be
interested in peddling it to for eign governments. “Please note, ho wever, that
you still need physical access to the computer, either through a direct-connect
terminal or a r emote terminal thr ough the phone lines, in or der to utiliz e a
back door. Ari B en-Menashe wants us to believ e that for eigners allow techni-
cians fr om another countr y to install ne w computer systems in the hear t of
their intelligence establishments, and don’t even think to secure physical access
to the system before they start entering their precious data.
“Then he claims that PR OMIS ... can suck in ev ery other database on
earth, such as those used b y utility companies, and corr elate everything auto-
matically...I don ’t like to see whistleblo wers like B en-Menashe needlessly
discredited by their own high-tech gullibility.”14

One person who might hav e had a vie w of ho w PR OMIS wor ks was
Charles H ayes. N ewspapers identified H ayes as a salv age dealer in P ulaski
County, Kentucky, near the temporar y home of Ari B en-Menashe in Lexing-
ton, who pur chased $45 wor th of surplus computer equipment fr om the
government in J uly 1990. The equipment included 13 terminals, nine print-
ers, two car tridge module driv es, 19 backup car tridges and two central
memory units—equipment that had been used b y the US A ttorney’s office
since 1983 to maintain information via PR OMIS on the witness pr otection
program, informants, office emplo yees, and outstanding grand jur y cases. I n
August, when federal officials discovered that a weak magnetic screwdriver had
failed to purge this information fr om the equipment adequately , two FBI
agents dispatched to make inquiries of H ayes w ere kicked out. 15 Three days
later, Hayes began to cooperate with the US A ttorney’s office, denied that he
had possession of any information that might hav e been on the equipment,
and invited an inspection. Inspectors discovered that the serial numbers of the
two car tridge modules that H ayes claimed w ere the ones he bought did not
match the numbers of the modules the J ustice Department had sold. 16 Hayes
then claimed he had sold the modules, but did not name the pur chasers until
after federal officials filed a lawsuit. 17 Justice D epartment attorneys later
claimed that Hayes had indeed tried to sell the secret information to an under-
cover informant, but criminal charges w ere nev er filed. 18 The case led to a

24
 EARL BRIAN

congressional investigation of computer security; the J ustice Department now

tosses rather than sells its extra data storage devices.
Even Bill Hamilton did not have a firm grasp on the wor kings of the full,
modified PROMIS system. I n a 1992 inter view, he maintained that it could
run on “ any UNIX machine, H ewlett P ackard UNIX, RISC 6000, A T&T,
AS400 under its own operating system and on mainframes under MVS,” that
it was comprised of 88 pr ogram modules and that the sour ce code—r eplete
with the I nslaw name thr oughout the code commentar y— was kept b y any
government that had it. When asked how a foreign country could modify the
source code without discovering the back door, Hamilton was cryptic: “I don’t
know what’s meant by the back door. What we’ve been told is that not only the
software was sold, but computers with extra chips...What the chips do, w e’ve
been told, the extra chips, is to broadcast the data inside PROMIS to satellites
owned b y the NSA ... but w e don’t kno w enough about it as they ’ve nev er
shared anything with us.” 19 This possibility neatly b ypasses objections that
physical access is required for a back door to wor k.
Ari B en-Menashe claimed that Earl B rian’s company H adron sold
PROMIS to J ordan as a test for the back door . Hadron technicians installed
PROMIS for Jordanian intelligence in Amman, connecting it also to the com-
puters of the city’s public utilities, IBMs sold to Jordan in the late 1970s. From
a small apar tment in Amman, a M ossad-connected impor ter/exporter used
PROMIS “to find out everything about everybody—as well as to tap into Jor-
dan’s militar y secr ets,” do wnloading it all to disks and passing it on to his
contacts whenever he left the countr y.
With the help of Wackenhut and the Cabaz ons, accor ding to B en-
Menashe, the US developed its own version of the back-door and the US and
Israel began looking for a neutral company through which it could sell the pro-
gram to for eign intelligence ser vices. The company chosen for the task was
Degem, a computer firm with offices in I srael, G uatemala and the S outh
African Bantustan homeland. It had been taken over for the purpose by Robert
Maxwell, the publishing mogul who drowned under mysterious circumstances
in 1991. 20 Through M axwell’s D egem, wor king in tandem with B rian’s
Hadron, the softwar e found a home with the militar y regime in G uatemala,
where it tracked leftist insurgents. “E ven if they trav eled under a false name,
various characteristics, such as height, hair color , age, w ere fed into r oadside
terminals and PROMIS searched through its database looking for a common
denominator. It would be able to tell an army commander that a cer tain dissi-
dent who was in the nor th three days befor e had caught a train, then a bus,
stayed at a friend ’s house, and was no w on the r oad under a differ ent name.
That’s how frightening the system was.” According to Ben-Menashe, PROMIS

25
THE OCTOPUS

was used in South Africa to track and squelch the organizers of a strike among
the black coal miners via their mandator y identity car ds.21 Degem also sold
PROMIS to the Soviet Union and the system was utiliz ed by its GRU intelli-
gence service at least until the coup against M ikhail Gorbachev.22
Ben-Menashe had one mor e footnote to add to the PR OMIS story in his
memoir. He claimed that because of I nslaw, an attorney, Leigh Ratiner of the
Washington law firm D ickstein and Shapiro, was forced into early r etirement
in an agreement that forbade him to practice law for five years. This happened
shortly after Ratiner began representing Inslaw for the firm. According to Ben-
Menashe, this also happened after D ickstein and Shapiro received a $600,000
transfer from a CIA-Israeli slush fund for the purpose of getting Ratiner off the
case, via Earl Brian.23

————
1. Fricker, p. 79, 80; Linsalata, Phil, “The Octopus File,” Columbia Journalism Review, Nov–Dec
1991, p. 76.

2. Fricker, p . 78. Earl B rian’s r ole in the PR OMIS theft was spelled out explicitly b y I nslaw
lawyer Elliot Richardson in the New York Times in 1992. Richar dson was the attorney general
who actually stood up to Richard Nixon’s corruption during the Saturday Night massacre. Brian
sued over the New York Times article and lost. Richar dson had written the ar ticle to encourage
investigation of the case, but B rian used the oppor tunity to star t a nuisance libel suit. O n
November 29, 1995, the N ew York Court of Appeals dismissed Brian’s claim and declar ed that
Richardson’s assertions came under free speech protections.
Although never prosecuted over the PR OMIS allegations, B rian sur vived only one mor e
year after the libel suit befor e other past shady deals began to catch up with him. I n October
1996 a California jur y convicted him of Federal bank fraud, conspiracy and lying to auditors.
Prosecutors charged that Brian had drafted documents to conceal losses of the F inancial News
Network and U nited Press I nternational, for whom he ser ved as chief ex ecutive, in or der to
obtain $70 million in bank loans for his other concern, a biotechnology firm called I nfotech-
nology.

3. Mahar.

4. Mahar.

5. Bleifuss, Joel, “Scandal Gates,” In These Times, September 18–24, 1991.

6. Bleifuss.

7. Linsalata.

8. Goddard, Donald, with Lester Coleman, Trail of the Octopus: From Beirut to Lockerbie, London:
Bloomsbury, 1993, p. 198.

26
 EARL BRIAN

9. Valentine, Douglas, The Phoenix Program, New York: Avon Books, 1990. Valentine notes that
the Phoenix program of assassination and torture utilized a “Big Mack” computer system to devel-
op documentation “that directs the territorial intelligence system to quantitatively and qualitatively
evaluate” the Viet Cong infrastructure (VCI)—in other words, tally body counts. “S tatistical evi-
dence of success so pleased the Washington brain tr ust,” according to Valentine, “that additional
computer systems were quickly introduced. In March 1969 the National Police Evaluation System
went on line, recording ‘police assignment data’ for analysis and ‘counter-measures.’” In 1970 Big
Mack’s bilingual r eplacement, the B ig M ack S pecial Collection P rogram, shifted the bur den of
reporting and accountability to the RVN Territorial Intelligence System. In January 1970 the VCI
Neutralization I nformation S ystem was inaugurated to r ecord all anti-V CI operations. The
National Police Criminal Information System (NPCIS) was implemented in A pril 1970 to track
VCI who w ere held bey ond ‘ statutory limitations. ’ D esigned to ‘inter face’ with a Chieu H oi
[amnesty program] ‘tracking system,’ which aided province security committees in the ‘post-appre-
hension monitoring of released VCI,’ NPCIS was also compatible with theVCI Neutralization and
Identification System, which stor ed in its classified files ‘ a histor y of the VCI member fr om the
time of his identification to his neutralization. ’”
Phoenix pr ogram police system upgrades happened at r oughly the same time that the S t.
Louis Police Commission upgraded to the REJIS system at the behest of B ill H amilton’s older
brother Alan. According to researcher C. D. Stelzer, Alan Hamilton held the position of secr etary
of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners from 1967 to 1970 and had wor ked for the city
police computer system since 1964. Like his br other, he had also worked with the NSA. After his
service as secretary to the St. Louis Police Commissioners, Alan Hamilton worked for an informa-
tion system tied to the FBI’ s mainframe, wher e he lobbied har d for the use of the first public
version of PROMIS.

10. Ben-Menashe, Ari, Profits of War, Sheridan Square, New York, 1992, p. 130.

11. Ben-Menashe, p. 131.

12. In 1995 M icrosoft announced that the ne w version of its Windows software, Windows ‘95,
would include an I nternet interface with the capability of r eading the user ’s hard-drive directory
and reporting it to M icrosoft. Eerily reminiscent of the PR OMIS back door, such transmissions
ostensibly could only happen voluntarily when the user registered the software electronically.

13. Brandt, Daniel, “Cyberspace Wars,” Namebase Newsline No. 2, July–September 1993.

14. Baker, David L., “Computer Records Accidentally Sold,” Lexington Herald-Leader, September
1, 1990.

15. Baker, David L., “Buyer Says Agents Didn’t Find Computer With Secrets,” Lexington Herald-
Leader, September 5, 1990.

16. “Buyer of US Computer Files To Be Disclosed,” Lexington Herald-Leader, September 6, 1990.

17. Baker, David L., “US S ays Pulaski Man Tried To Sell Secrets,” Lexington Herald-Leader, Sep-
tember 22, 1990.

18. I nterview with B ill H amilton, Technical Consultant , Volume 2, I ssue 2, A ugust–September,
1992.

27
THE OCTOPUS

19. Maxwell’s body was found floating in the ocean near his yacht, the Lady G hislaine, off the
Canary Islands on November 5, 1991. He had not been seen for hours preceding his death. These
types of rumors, of connections to M ossad and other international spy gr oups, had long cir culat-
ed about M axwell, and his publishing empir e’s finances had come under official r eview.
Nevertheless, Spanish authorities concluded that M axwell died of a hear t attack, although he had
no histor y of hear t disease. M axwell’s daughter G hislaine said the family was satisfied with the
investigation, but his sons, widows and lawyers insisted that the death was accidental, perhaps with
an eye toward Maxwell’s $35.8 million insurance against accidental death. (“Maxwell’s Mysterious
Death Raises M ore Questions,” MIN Media Industry Newsletter, No. 47, Vol. 44, November 25,
1991.)
One of the forensic specialists who worked on the autopsy later noted that a perforation under
Maxwell’s left ear could hav e been caused b y an injection of a lethal substance. Labor P arty MP
George Galloway openly speculated in the British House of Commons that Maxwell was murdered
because “dead men tell no tales.” B ritain’s PM John Major was even moved to deny publicly that
British intelligence was investigating Maxwell’s finances after his death. By 1995, however, Britain’s
Serious F raud O ffice had spent $13.9 million tracing M axwell’s w eb of o ver 400 companies
(Reuters, 2/15/95), r esulting in charges against M axwell’s financial advisors, Larr y Trachtenberg
and Robert Bunn, and his two sons, Ian and Kevin, for defrauding pensioners. A second charge of
conspiring with his father was br ought against K evin Maxwell, age 36. The charge claimed that
months before the elder M axwell’s death, he and his son used other pension assets and shar es in
another Israeli company, Scitex Corporation, to illegally raise money for other Maxwell companies
(Reuters, 5/26/95). The collapse of M axwell’s empire—which ultimately led to son K evin stand-
ing in the unemployment line and widow Elisabeth unsuccessfully fishing for a publisher to handle
her memoir—began well before he died, lending credence to the suicide theor y.

20. Oddly, Charles Hayes of Chicago, a member of a congressional delegation, was sent on a fact-
finding tour to Johannesburg at the exact moment the world ’s second largest platinum mine fir ed
20,000 black workers to end a walk-out in J anuary 1986. The mine was located in the homeland
of Bophuthatswana, nor thwest of J ohannesburg (“S outh African P latinum M ine F ires 20,000
Blacks Over Strike,” Lexington Herald Leader, January 7, 1986.) I n December of that y ear, attor-
ney Charles Hayes, who would later buy the loaded J ustice Department computers, was inv olved
with a gemstone smuggling operation in B razil with links to Kentucky. He represented one of the
Brazilian corporations indicted by the US over the smuggling. ( White, Jim, Courier-Journal, Sep-
tember 6, 1990.)

21. Ben-Menashe, p. 141.

22. Ibid.

28
The body of Alfred Alvarez, shot in the head with
a .38 caliber bullet, burned in the desert heat for
a day. It sat in a wooden chair behind Alvarez’s
house in a yard on Bob Hope Drive in Rancho
Mirage, located in Riverside County. Police dis-
covered the body along with those of two others,
friends of Alvarez. Six months later, police broke
open a door to a condo on Kearny Street and dis-
covered the dead body of Paul Morasca, hog-tied
by a telephone cord noosed around his neck and
his curled legs. Morasca had strangled slowly as
his legs uncurled. Three days later, Mary Quick,
a 63-year-old school-teacher and head of the
Women’s auxiliary of American Legion Post 509
in Fresno, was killed by a shot to the head as she
approached the Legion Hall. Investigators came
to believe that all three murders were connected.1

————
1. Littman, Jonathan and Taylor, Michael, “Bizarre Murders Puzzle Cops,” San Francisco Chronicle,
December 30, 1991.

29
 Chapter 6:
V

Indio

For a time, D anny Casolar o focused his inv estigation on the collaboration
between Wackenhut Corporation and the Cabaz on Indian tribe. The clues pro-
vided b y Riconosciuto, Casolar o looked deep into the Cabaz on angle and
watched the connections branch out. F rom the theft of the PR OMIS software,
the trail led to the October Surprise, to Ed Meese and Earl Brian, to the Cabazon
reservation and to points bey ond. The connections kept multiplying. Casolar o
made plans to visit the r eservation, but never did.1
The Cabazon tribe has only thir ty members, making it one of the countr y’s
smallest tribes. I ts desolate, thr ee-and-a-half mile deser t r eservation is located
near I ndio, California, in the Coachella Valley outside of Los Angeles, to the
Salton Sea’s north. The tribe was as destitute as the land it owned until the arrival
from Florida in 1978 of D r. John P. Nichols, a white-hair ed and bear ded Burl
Ives lookalike. By the early 1980s, N ichols had transformed the Cabaz on land-
scape into an enormous casino operation, replete with a power plant and housing
developments. It became a center for international business, par ticularly in the
weapons and security trade. I n his notes, Casolar o calls J ohn P hilip N ichols
“flaky—beyond a r easonable scope of achiev ement.” He also calls him “ a dan-
gerous man.” Nichols had been described b y others variously as a charlatan and
a spook, but a man with an ob vious talent for writing successful grants. A
Cabazon chairman, Art Welmus, described the tribe’s predicament when Nichols
came on the scene: “ When y ou don’t hav e nothing and y ou can’t get grants,
you’re last on the totem pole. Where can y ou get a star t?”2 After Nichols had
taken contr ol, Welman r emarked, “I t’s all contr olled b y outside for ces. These
poor Indians are brainwashed. They don’t want to lose the money they ’re get-
ting.”3
The origins of grantsman N ichols’ S vengali-like hold o ver the Cabaz ons
remain as obscure as the job histor y on his résumé. N ichols depicted himself as

30
 INDIO

an exper t in “ socio-health and economic-dev elopment planning” with tw enty-

five y ears experience. H e also cited cr edentials as an or dained minister and
Ph.D., with twenty years of employment by Pro Plan International, a company
involved in economic development. Other jobs listed on Nichols’ résumé includ-
ed stints as a M ilwaukee brewer and labor organiz er, a mental health pr ogram
director in K entucky, Wisconsin and M ichigan, and manager of a Coca-Cola
plant in S ao Paulo, Brazil. The résumé included a number of falsifications and
items conveniently left out. A ccording to his claimed alma mater , the P hilatea
Theological S eminary of the F ree P rotestant E piscopal Chur ch in London,
Ontario, Nichols never earned a doctorate in theology . As a labor organiz er, he
had been arrested for mishandling union funds and was later picked up on a fugi-
tive warrant.
Other facets of Nichols’ life also resisted a narrow reading of his background
in “socio-health and economic-development planning.” Although he left the bot-
tling plant after a year, Nichols spent ten more years in Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil.
Although he play ed a significant r ole in organizing two million M arxist and
Catholic v oters into the leftist Chilean E vangelical Chur ch,4 he later bragged
about his involvement in the murder of democratically-elected President Carlos
Allende, as well as the attempted murder of Castro, under the orders of the CIA.5
Later, Nichols denied that he ever made such statements. He characterized him-
self as “a simple social worker.”
Nichols also wor ked at one time as business par tners with G. Wayne Reeder,
an alleged CIA operative. Reeder was partners with Neal Bush, brother of George
W. Bush, and defaulted on o ver fourteen million dollars debt to the failed S il-
verado Savings and Loan and San Marino Savings and Loan companies. During
their association, R eeder was one of many people who pr ovided N ichols the
commodity he needed to succeed as a grantsman: contacts. Among many others,
Uganda’s Idi Amin and Chilean president Eduardo Frei made the list, and police
reports indicated that Nichols had business contacts in sixteen foreign countries.6
Whatever N ichols was, social wor ker, big money shmooz er or something
else, he quickly took o ver the management of the Cabaz on tribe and began
building his empire in the desert. Benefits accrued to an operation based on Indi-
an lands. The so vereign status of I ndian lands grants cer tain adv antages to
investors, including tax adv antages, relative freedom from government scrutiny,
and the b ypassing of legal r egulations—such as envir onmental impact state-
ments—which would be r equired on non-r eservation lands. O ne of the first
schemes N ichols put into action was the mail or der sale of tax-fr ee cigar ettes
from the reservation. This operation employed about ten Cabaz on Indians in a
non-air conditioned trailer . The I ndians r eportedly made about one hundr ed
dollars a week for their work. The cigarette sales succeeded, and within two years

31
THE OCTOPUS

John Philip Nichols. Alfred Alvarez.

the tribe branched out into the sale of tax-fr ee liquor. The state of California
stepped in this time, ho wever, and sued and won for unpaid tax es on the liquor.
From av ailable r ecords, it appears the back tax es w ere nev er paid. S imilarly,
Nichols’ plans for a telethon, an I ndian Olympics, the processing of coal and the
importations of gold, and the dev elopment of a pharmaceutical firm all fell
through—rankling tribal members, who charged that N ichols had manipulated
tribal factions and brought in non-Cabazons to vote on these operations.7 Nichols
had bigger plans. I n 1979 he put together the arms-manufacturing par tnership
between the Cabaz on tribe and the Wackenhut Corporation, called Cabaz on
Arms. Wackenhut remains one of the world ’s largest priv ate security operations
and the thir d largest priv ate prison contractor in the U nited S tates. Among
numerous other operations, Wackenhut has supplied guar ds for US embassies
worldwide, security for nuclear installations and test sites in the United States, and
security-related enterprises in thirty nine countries around the world.
Wackenhut is a private detective agency founded in 1954 by former FBI man
George Wackenhut and three ex-FBI friends in Miami, a hotbed of rightist polit-
ical activity at the time. G eorge Wackenhut had impor tant political
connections—Florida go vernor Claude Kir k and S enator G eorge S mathers
among them—and shared a predilection with J. Edgar Hoover for acquiring files
on people. H is connections helped build his agency into a po werful priv ate
police force with huge go vernment contracts. S enator Smather’s law firm hir ed
guards from a Wackenhut subsidiary to work nuclear bomb test sites in N evada
and Cape Canaveral, a workaround to the federal law forbidding priv ate detec-
tives from working for the government. George Wackenhut’s preoccupation with

32
 INDIO

Former Florida governor Claude Kirk George

George Wackenhut and wife Ruth. Wackenhut (center) and Grace Kelly’s brother,
Jack (right).

compiling files made the agency an extraor dinary intelligence r esource as w ell.
Investigator John Connolly noted that “B y 1965, Wackenhut was boasting to
potential investors that the company maintained files on two and a half million
suspected dissidents—one in for ty-six American adults then living. I n 1966,
after acquiring the priv ate files of Karl B arslaag, a former staff member of the
House Committee on U n-American A ctivities, Wackenhut could confidently
maintain that with mor e than four million names, it had the largest priv ately
held file on suspected dissidents in America.” 8
By then, almost half of Wackenhut’s executive staff w ere former FBI mem-
bers, two of whom had been senior officers of the division in charge of domestic
intelligence. C urrent and past members of the Wackenhut boar d of dir ectors
included former CIA D eputy D irector F rank Carlucci, former D eputy CIA
Director Bobby Inman, former CIA Director Admiral William Raborn, and for-
mer FBI Director Clarence Kelly.
Michael Riconosciuto pr ovided mor e names in the cast of characters that
made up the histor y of Wackenhut: “Robert Jason, who is the gr oup vice presi-
dent of Wackenhut, has an interesting history. Robert Jason was vice president of
International Telegraph and Telephone [ITT] … During the Allende situation in
Chile, he was the CIA station boss as w ell as vice pr esident of IT T for Chilean
operations. And his deputy station boss was D ino P ianzio. And J ohn P hilip
Nichols was working under Dino John Pianzio at that time. Jason goes from ITT
to Wackenhut. During the Car ter administration, R obert E. J ason is Commis-
sioner of US Customs for the entire Carter administration. As Commissioner of
Customs, he has some interesting projects directly out of his office. One of them

33
THE OCTOPUS

was Fat Alber t, the dr ug interdiction sur veillance balloons ... the big balloons
with radar and other sensors that w ere doing the aerial sur veillance for dr ug
smugglers flying in ... v endors suppor ting that pr oject w ere wholly o wned b y
Earl W. Brian. The contracting officer handling all of those companies was Peter
Videnieks, out of the B ureau of Customs.… And this was a v ery large procure-
ment. And Videnieks’ job, as contracting officer, was to deal with industr y.”9
To assist in the administration of Cabaz on Arms, J ohn P hilip N ichols
recruited Peter Zokosky, husband to the M ayor of Indio and the pr evious head
of an ammunitions manufacturing company called Armtech. Under the impres-
sion that N ichols intended to star t a similar arms manufacturing operation on
the Cabazon land, Zokosky soon discovered himself “involved with drug dealers,
schemers, contras and murderers.”10
In 1981, Nichols, Zokosky, and A. Robert Frye, a vice president of Wacken-
hut, trav elled to Q uebec in an attempted $18 million dollar pur chase of
Valleyfield Chemical Products Corporation, a weapons propellant manufacturer.
The deal went bust due to Canadian government objections. The trio then went
to Indiana, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., setting up the manufacturing of
combustible car tridge cases and thr ee hundr ed pairs of night vision goggles.
Zokosky r ecalls that the goggles, at least, w ere intended to be sold to the
Nicaraguan contras, and r ecalls a demonstration of the equipment for contra
Eden Pastora (aka Commander Zero) at a police weapons range in Lake Cahuil-
la, California. 11 Powerful men w ere creating powerful schemes on the Cabaz on
Reservation, and that po wer could be used to stop those who might inter fere
with those schemes.
In 1982, Fred Alvarez, a Cabaz on tribal leader, and two companions, w ere
found murdered on the I ndio reservation. Alvarez had been critical of N ichols’
and Wackenhut’s dealings with the Cabaz on tribe, 12 and he had mentioned to
friends that he had received death threats. Investigative reporter Virginia McCul-
lough later came to believ e that Alv arez had disco vered that monies rightfully
belonging to the I ndians were being embezzled b y the partnership called Bingo
Palace Inc.13 Alvarez knew what he was getting into, ho wever. He had told the
Indio Daily News, “My life is on the line.There are people out there [on the reser-
vation] that want to kill me.”
According to Riconosciuto, “ Alvarez was pr esent at all the meetings, and he
was gung-ho behind N ichols, and ev erything that was going on ther e. OK? We
were all red-blooded Americans, and we believed in the things that were going on!
The way things w ere shaping up with the R eagan Election Committee and the
things that w ere being or chestrated made us all concerned. And Alv arez wrote a
detailed letter to R onald R eagan expr essing his concern. All the details of the
October Surprise hostage issue were outlined in the letter. I mean, in specifics.”

34
 INDIO

Linda Streeter-Dukic, Alvarez’ sister, described early relations of Alvarez and

the inner circle around Nichols as being amicable, but said that when he star ted
objecting to some of the schemes coming down from Nichols and the other tribe
leaders, they began to send him on business trips. O ne trip was to D enver, in
June 1981, to attend a confer ence. Streeter says that, while in D enver, Alvarez
was offer ed a large amount of money to carr y dr ugs back to I ndio, but had
turned the offer down.
“When he got off the plane,” she said, “ the police grabbed him, thr ew him
spread-eagle against a car and sear ched him and his bags.” Alv arez’s mother said
that only Nichols and his son were aware of Alvarez’s trip to Denver.14
On the morning of July 1, 1981, a meeting was scheduled by Alvarez with attor-
ney and former Cabaz on chairman J oe Benitez. The intended topic of discussion
was how to oust Cabaz on control from Nichols. When Benitez arrived at Alvarez’s
home in Rancho M irage he found Fred Alvarez shot through the head as he sat in
a chair. Alvarez’s girlfriend and another friend w ere also nearby, shot dead. 15 16
The mur der of Alv arez and his friends took place during a period when
Nichols, Zokosky, and a Wackenhut associate named Bob F rye were travelling
around the country on munitions business. Zokosky told reporter John Connol-
ly, “I felt like they w ere stalling. We had no meetings scheduled.” 17 Zokosky
returned to Indio, and the following day the bodies of Alv arez and his compan-
ions were found. The day after that, N ichols returned to Indio. When Zokosky
told N ichols about the mur ders, “N ichols seemed unaffected, like he alr eady
knew.” Zokosky stated that Nichols, “... dialed a number and asked for Bob Frye.
‘Alvarez has been mur dered,’ he said into the phone a fe w seconds later . After
another few seconds, Nichols said, ‘Okay, so long,’ and hung up .”18
The investigation of the deaths by the police was slipshod and hurried. Police
familiar with the case note the friendship of N ichols with one of the inv estigat-
ing detectives. One police inv estigator believed he was r emoved from the case
because of pressure put on his superiors from the outside. When the investigator
pursued fur ther on his o wn, he r eceived death thr eats, one fr om a cr ossbow-
wielding man. Fearing for his family, the man gave up and moved out of town.19
In any case, the investigation languished until the appearance of Jimmy Hughes.
Hughes had been N ichols’ Wackenhut bodyguar d, and he r eported to I ndio
police officials that he was Nichols’ bagman for the murders of Fred Alvarez and
his friends. Hughes described Nichols and two of his sons, Mark and John Paul,
as having doled out $5,000 in cash in fr ont of him, with or ders to deliv er the
money to two men in the nearby town of Idyllwild. Hughes stated that, “Nichols
admitted to me the or dering of the Alv arez murder. He stated ther e was a US-
government co vert action... P ressures fr om unkno wn Washington, D.C.
government agencies have caused a possible shutdown of this case.” 20

35
THE OCTOPUS

According to H ughes, the mur derers included sev eral ex-G reen B erets
employed as firemen in Chicago. Hughes went into hiding in Sonoma and Lake
counties after the murders, under the protection of the Riverside county District
Attorney’s office and the California D epartment of J ustice. The FBI offer ed
Hughes protection under a witness pr otection program, but he turned it do wn,
fearing “Nichols has made a deal with the FBI thr ough the Wackenhut Corpo-
ration. P ossibly ... he himself has been pr otected b y the FBI.” 21 Hughes also
stated that the Alvarez investigation had been interfered with by “an agency out
of Washington, D.C.” O ffering no other specifics, he said, “ The FBI is small
potatoes compared to the agency.”
NAPA Sentinel editor Harry Martin detailed curiosities about the investiga-
tion that followed Hughes’ revelations: “The chief investigator for the Riverside
County District Attorney’s Office was later taken off the case and transferred to
the Juvenile division and then giv en early r etirement. Shortly after his r etire-
ment, the DA inv estigator states that he was pulled off the r oad one day b y a
CIA agent and told to forget all about the ‘ desert’ if he wanted to enjo y his
retirement.”22
After Jimmy Hughes came for ward with information he left the countr y,
reportedly traveling to Guatemala. Hughes was said to be in possession of doc-
umentation linking the men at Cabaz on to a hit list of political targets
including S wedish P rime M inister O lof P alme, who was mur dered in 1986;
Israeli intelligence agent Amiran Nir, who died in a mysterious plane crash; and
Cyrus Hashemi, a key play er in the ev ents of October Surprise, also murdered
in 1986.
The expansion of Cabaz on enterprises continued after the mur der of
Alvarez. In 1983 the D epartment of D efense gave the Cabaz ons authorization
to manufacture weaponry. At that time Nichols also engaged in discussions with
Stormont Laboratories, a genetics lab, about the possibility of manufacturing a
bio-weapons detector. In March 1983, a casino and bingo parlor appear ed on
the r eservation—visible on the left side of H ighway 10 driving in to P alm
Springs. Part of the funding for the bingo parlor came fr om a $90,000 HUD
grant, given ostensibly to the Cabazons for the construction of a museum.
In 1983, the Cabaz ons contacted La F rance Specialties, another w eapons
manufacturer, to seek assistance in building a w eapons factor y on the I ndian
lands. A letter to La France said that the weapons intended to be manufactured
included assault rifles with laser sights, sniper rifles with one mile-plus range,
9mm machine pistols, r ocket systems, night vision scopes, and battle commu-
nications systems. 23
Danny Casolaro focused on the most grisly of the Cabazon murders in his
notes, that of Riconosciuto associate P aul M orasca: “I n 1982, the body of

36
 INDIO

thirty-year-old P aul M orasca was found hog-tied and fatally strangled in his
condominium on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill. Morasca, who had been work-
ing among the Cabaz on Arms confidantes, r eportedly had the access codes for
offshore accounts containing hundr eds of millions of dollars in dr ug money
ostensibly for covert operations.”24
Michael Riconosciuto said of Morasca’s death, “And then my associate Paul
Morasca was found murdered. I was the one who found him. And Nichols and
others tried to keep me away from our condominium office in San Francisco. It
was suspicious to me. And after almost four teen days of not seeing P aul—and
then a day after he missed a critical meeting that ther e’s no way he would hav e
missed—that’s when I went looking for him. And Nichols tried to get me down
to the desert on an emergency basis to work on some project so that I’d be oth-
erwise occupied. And I said that I’d be down there as soon as I found out what
happened to P aul. And he was r eally pushy and r eally stressed out. When he
came across to me on this, it made me ev en more suspicious. And other people
that I talked to tried to dissuade me, and it was just not normal, the amount of
pressure and emphasis they were putting on this situation. I kne w in my gut ...
Paul was dead! He’d been slowly strangled to death.” 25
Three days after P aul Morasca’s murder, a woman named M ary Quick—
63 y ears old, a school teacher and Women’s A uxiliary pr esident of F resno’s
American Legion—was headed to ward Legion Post 509 when she was killed
by a single gunshot to the head in an appar ently unrelated mugging. A y ear
after the mur der, however, police learned that Riconosciuto claimed a busi-
ness association with M ary Quick’s nephew, Brian Weiss. Police sources told
the San Francisco Examiner that Weiss gave his aunt a bank car d with secr et
account numbers, perhaps the same access codes that may hav e led to P aul
Morasca’s murder. According to the police, “She had no connection (to any of
the principals) and could be trusted. Mary Quick was to be instructed to give
information only to P aul (M orasca) or M ichael Riconosciuto . S he was not
aware of what the computer car d was for and had nev er received the car d.”
Riconosciuto claimed that M ary Q uick’s murderers w ere pr obably tr ying to
recover the card.26
After the death of his wife, John Philip Nichols became involved with a twen-
ty-seven-year-old her oin addict. N ichols attempted to hir e a hitman to kill his
girlfriend’s alleged suppliers, but made the mistake of soliciting the hit thr ough a
police informant. On tape Nichols can be heard saying, “I’ll pay five hundred and
five hundred,” for two murders. Nichols also made clear that there would be addi-
tional work for the proposed hitman: “I need some work done in Latin America.
I do a lot of business do wn there.” Nichols proposed that the mur derer move to
Las Vegas, and “not freelance, but work out a guaranteed income.”

37
THE OCTOPUS

In January of 1985 John P. Nichols was arrested on charges of soliciting the

murder of five persons. The case never came to trial. Nichols pleaded no contest
and was sentenced to prison for four y ears, although he ser ved only nineteen
months. The felony conviction forced Nichols’ official removal from his job run-
ning the Cabaz on r eservation. The elder N ichols continued as “ mental health
counselor” to employees and the I ndians on the r eservation, however, while his
son, John Paul Nichols, became tribal administrator . A thir ty thousand squar e
foot casino and bingo hall were soon under construction, and a deal was cut with
Colmac Corporation to construct a $150 million power generating plant on the
reservation. Other business dealings b y the Cabaz on tribe included plans for a
thirteen hundr ed luxur y housing pr oject to take adv antage of HUD funding,
and an industrial incinerator for medical wastes. Both pr oposals would hav e
taken advantage of the fact that envir onmental impact statements would not be
required because of the land ’s so vereign status—a legalism pointed out b y
Michael Riconosciuto in his affidavit of March 21, 1991. An extensive Southern
California Edison electrical facility has also been dev eloped on Cabazon land.27
In 1990, control of the Cabaz on reservation was turned o ver to John Paul’s
younger brother, Mark. Mark had ser ved six months in jail in F lorida for pos-
session and sale of cocaine and LSD in 1978. Also in 1990, a pari-mutuel
offtrack betting parlor was opened, cour tesy of a grant fr om HUD. The Indian
Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 made the practice of I ndians opening betting
parlors and casinos commonplace b y the early 1990s. I n fact, the act allo wed
tribes like the Cabaz ons to buy pr operty outside the r eservation but r egulate it
under the same rules of sovereignty that protected the industrial incinerator and
Riconosciuto’s manufacture of chemical w eapons from federal contr ol, creating
great potential growth for such enterprises. 28
Casolaro began looking into illegal operations connected to other I ndian reser-
vations in the United States. He found connections to the Papago Indian reservation
and the alleged shipment of drugs by the CIA and the criminal underground. In his
notes on Cabazon, Casolaro remarked: “Guns to Iraq—Missiles to Iran—Dope—
for money” with arrows showing that dope money funds the abo ve.29
Casolaro had a har d time tr ying to come up with a title for his unfolding
story. He listed several alternates for his manuscript: “O n the Trail of the Mon-
eycatchers,” “On the Trail of an Unlikely Alliance,” “On the Trail of an Alliance
Gone Awry,” “Rogue Spies, Big Oil, Organized Crime and Secret Empires,” and
the prophetic “Death of the Poet.” Each suggested some connection to what he
had learned in his research on the Cabazons, struck as he was with its importance
to the Inslaw case. At one point he considered simply calling the book Indio.30
————
1. “Inslaw,” Leading Edge, p. 48; “The Family That Preys Together,” Covert Action 41.

38
 INDIO

2. Littman, Jonathan, “Mystery Man Who Transformed a Tribe,” San Francisco Chronicle, Sep-
tember 5, 1991.
3. Littman, Jonathan, “Tiny California Tribe’s Huge Clout,” San Francisco Chronicle, Septem-
ber 4, 1991.
4. Littman, “Mystery Man.”
5. “The Com-12 Briefing,” Phoenix Liberator, March 23, 1993, p. 16.
6. Littman, “Mystery Man.”
7. Littman, “Mystery Man.”
8. Connolly, John, “Inside the Shadow CIA,” Spy, September 1992.
9. Mahar.
10. Connolly, John, “Badland,” Spy, April 1992.
11. Ibid.
12. From US News & World Report, August 23, 1993: “I n 1980, California’s Cabazon Indian tribe
hired as their poker-room manager one Rocco Zangari, identified as a mobster in Senate testimony.
He was subsequently fir ed. Later, after tribal Vice Chairman Alfr ed Alv arez complained to local
newspapers about poker-room skimming, Alvarez and two others were shot dead; the case has never
been solved.”
13. McCullough, Virginia, Interview with Kenn Thomas, January 27, 1994.
14. Connolly, “Badland.”
15. Littman and Taylor, “Bizarre Murders.”
16. In the spring of 1991, Linda Streeter-Duvic and former tribal chairman Art Welmus attempt-
ed again to organiz e the Cabazon tribe to oust J ohn Philip Nichols and clan as administrators of
the Cabazons. They were kept from assembling in the tribal hall b y eleven guards, but held their
meetings instead in a nearb y mobile home. I n r esponse, the N icholses initiated expulsion pr o-
ceedings, and flew in a parliamentarian fr om Wisconsin to conduct hearings. Armed guar ds took
twenty Cabazons to a trailer next to a bingo hall, where they witnessed the parliamentarian accuse
Welmus of the theft of a cheesecake, the attempt to use the tribal hall, and of maligning the
Nichols management in the local press. The vote to banish Welmus and Streeter-Duvic was dead-
locked until votes were received from five Nichols supporters recently registered as voters. The new
voters w ere non-Cabaz on, distant r elatives (stepchildr en) of the N ichols faction. The final v ote
expelled Welmus, age sixty, from the tribe and S treeter-Dukic, age 44, for tw enty years, and fined
them $50,000. (Littman, Jonathan, “Tribal Managers Tough To Challenge,” San Francisco Chron-
icle, September 4, 1991; a letter from counsel to the Cabazons to the San Francisco Chronicle dated
Sept. 19, 1991 challenged the details of this r eport and J onathan Littman’s entir e series on the
Cabazons and demanded a retraction, which it did not r eceive.)
17. Connolly, “Badland.”
18. Ibid.
19. Littman and Taylor.

39
THE OCTOPUS

20. Connolly, “Badland.”

21. Ibid.
22. Martin, Harry, NAPA Sentinel.
23. Connolly, “Badland.”
24. Casolaro’s Notes, p. 88.
25. Casolaro’s Notes, p. 104.
26. Littman and Taylor.
27. Connolly, “Badland.”
28. Malone, Roy, “Edgar Opposes Indians’ Plan for Casino,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 14,
1992. Interestingly, in March 1995, Bill Hamilton’s brother Lou gathered together investors from
the St. Louis, M issouri area for a riv erboat gambling site in Lemay , Missouri. The effort gained
news attention because some the investors were longtime donors to the political campaigns of the
St. Louis County E xecutive George R. “B uzz” Westfall. Lou H amilton’s company, Futuresouth,
was the S t. Louis par tner to the S howboat casino chain based in N evada. (Schlinkmann, M ark
“Casinos Enlist Westfall Backers,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 30, 1995.)
29. Casolaro, p. 359.
30. Jonathan Littman, “Tiny California Tribe’s Huge Clout,” San Francisco Chronicle, 9/4/91.

40
 Chapter 7:
V

Behold, a Pale Horse

Danny Casolaro pulled the v arious threads he had unco vered together into a
book proposal for submission to publishers, entitled, Behold, a Pale Horse. He
didn’t realize at the time, but he was describing a part of the interlinking cabal
he would later call “ The Octopus.” The following excerpt is fr om the book
proposal.

Behold, a Pale Horse will be a haunting odyssey that depicts a manifesto

of deceit, decisions of conscience, good and evil, intrigue and betrayal.

John Philip Nichols found his promised land just north of Mexicali on the
wild grasses above the Salton Sea.

He was sixty-years-old then and the Cabazon Indian reservation on the

edge of Sonora was an ideal place for him to nurse his secret self. This is
vast desert emptiness where the yucca reaches nearly forty feet high, where
the Mormons saw it as a symbol pointing to the promised land and they
called it the Joshua Tree. But the Joshua Tree is an ugly, unsymmetrical lily
with burly arms crooked at the elbow and it points everywhere, not unlike
John Philip Nichols, as if asking itself “what shall I do next?”

There is a point on the ridge of the Little San Bernardino mountains known
as Salton View where you are more than five thousand feet above the desert
and where, to the north, you can see the great escarpment of Mount San
Jacinto and, to the south, the man-made Salton Sea, the orchards of the
Coachella valley and, on a clear day, old Mexico.

It is always clear in Indio and with the clarity of the warbler in the cotton-
wood grove, John Philip Nichols knew that he could bring his box office
charity and all his earthly possessions into the reservation of the Cabazon
Band of Mission Indians. With no more than two dozen Indians and nearly

41
THE OCTOPUS

two thousand acres of desert solitaire, cactus and cotton grove, the
Cabazon reservation was a suitable home for gambling, dope, dirty money
and gun running and all the fugitive visions that line the edge of oppression.

John Philip Nichols didn’t howl under twelve full moons before the gambling
was underway and, in the desert night, people flocked from all over to Indio
Bingo and to the poker casino at the fork of Highway 10 and Highway 86.
Under a major corporation’s umbrella subsidiary, later to be named Cabazon
Arms, the gun runners and the money traders soon arrived, the weapon
makers and the generals from Babylon, contra resuppliers, covert operatives
from both the East and West and, in what one source calls “a marriage of
necessity,” the dope dealers, the mobsters and the murderers.

Whatever John Philip Nichols saw in the dark cathedral of those desert
nights in silence and certainty cracked and came unglued. After a number
of still-unsolved execution-style murders and solicitation-for-murder charge
for which he was jailed, the dark vision of John Philip Nichols eroded.
Although he’s been released from a short stint in prison, he’s a one-eyed
Jack now since only Indio Bingo gambling—managed by his sons, the Las
Vegas-managed poker casino, the Indians and the most formidable crea-
tures of the desert remain.

Several of the Cabazon Arms associates during the 1980s ar e coming out of
the shadows to take top billing for the actual par ticipation in the multi-million
dollar laundered payment to the I ranians to delay the r elease of the hostages, in
shutting down the dope and dir ty money schemes of N ugan Hand and r esur-
facing its activities, in assisting G erald Bull in the r efinements and distribution
of his w eapon arsenal including his S uper Gun and in the dev elopment of the
Fuel Air Explosive technologies—thought to be responsible for the Beirut bomb
which killed two hundred forty-one US servicemen.

An international cabal whose services cover parochial political intrigue, espi-

onage, the trade of w eapon technologies, bioto xins, dr ug trafficking, money
laundering and mur der has emerged fr om an isolated deser t Indian reservation
just north of Mexicali. While this cabal continues, its origins were spawned thir-
ty years ago in the shado w of the Cold War. In recent months, however, several
of its members hav e gratuitously taken cr edit for the purposeful delay of the
release of the hostages until after the 1980 election, scuttling and r esettling the
schemes of the Australian-based Nugan Hand bank, their involvement with Ger-
ald B ull, assassinated last spring in B russels and the dev elopment and
distribution of fuel air explosive technologies.

42
 Chapter 8:
V

Wild Rumors

The facts that D anny investigated astounded him, but the r umors were out of
this world, some of them quite literally.
Rumor had it, for instance, that the Cabaz ons belonged to worldwide
“Reservation Operations” run on Indian lands by the “Enterprise” and Wacken-
hut under the pr oject name “ Yellow Lodge.” 1 Yellow Lodge allegedly pr oduced
advanced war fare projects, including par thenogenic vir uses co-engineered with
Stormont Labs in Woodland, California. Stormont Labs later acknowledged that
it had discussions with Wackenhut concerning biological weapons.2
Yellow Lodge ran operations on Jicarilla Apache lands and other Indian reser-
vations, including a center called “D6” located in D ulce, New Mexico. Danny
learned that some UFO enthusiasts identify this location as the site of a huge
underground joint human/alien base. O thers believ e the alien base to be go v-
ernment disinformation intended to confuse the r eal natur e of the D ulce
operation.3
In his notes D anny mentions “MJ 12—extraterr estrial,” alleged b y the
more excitable end of the UFO research spectrum to be a super-secret US mil-
itary group charged with signing a non-aggr ession pact with space aliens. 4 He
also mentions “ Area #51,” and “P ine G ap.” Area 51 is a militar y test site in
Nevada for advanced aerial weaponry. Although only through a recent job-haz-
ards lawsuit has the Air Force begun to admit to the existence of the base, Area
51 has long been known as the staging ground for the U2 spy plane, the SR17
Blackbird, and is much-rumored as the home of the post-Stealth marvel called
the Aurora. In 1989, a man named Bob Lazar went public with claims that he
had worked at Area 51, taking apar t and reverse-engineering alien space craft.
Although ev en UFO skeptics ackno wledge some consistencies in Lazar ’s sto-
ries, his efforts at documenting his credentials and work history have met with
some doubt. 5

43
THE OCTOPUS

Pine G ap is the top secr et undergr ound American base located near Alice
Springs in Australia, officially known as the Joint Defense Space Research Facil-
ity.6 Pine Gap allegedly serves as the central American base for the monitoring of
spy satellites and inter ception and decoding of v arious forms of br oadcast com-
munications between foreign powers unfriendly to the US. P ine Gap was built
in 1968, ostensibly as a means of sharing space pr ogram data with the A us-
tralians. O pposition to the base gr ew as it became clear er that it had a mor e
prosaic purpose—espionage. I n his 1987 book The C rimes of P atriots, author
Jonathan Kwitny demonstrated that CIA manipulation led to the early end in
Australia of the administration of Labor P arty PM G ough Whitlam, in par t
because of his opposition to P ine Gap. Indeed, Whitlam was r ousted after his
public complaints about intelligence agency deceptions o ver the tragic US poli-
cy in East Timor, and the CIA’s funding of Australia’s right-wing Country Party.
By a quirk of Australia’s constitution, Whitlam was not driven from office by an
election, but was removed by a governor-general he had appointed, one who had
strong ties to the CIA. 7 No doubt the paranoia about this destabilization of the
US ally do wn under fueled other r umors among locals about the undergr ound
Pine Gap base involving alien/government collaboration.8
One early page of Danny’s notes seemingly ties together Area 51, Pine Gap, a
small Pennsylvania town called Tonoma, and possibly one of its citizens, someone
named Fred Dick. Perhaps tracing one of many convoluted dead ends that Danny
traced, the authors of this book dispatched an inv estigator to the “ Tonoma, PA”
in the notes, but failed to find D ick, even after placing a classified in the local
newspaper, or any indication of what may have linked him to the two mysterious
military bases. 9 Buried in notes written much later , however, were references to
Tonomopah, Nevada, near Area 51. Fred Dick, however, remains a mystery.
Although he had an interest in computers and science, Casolar o’s interest in
the UFO world began with M ichael Riconosciuto. Riconosciuto had a pr oclivi-
ty for flights of flying saucer fancy going back at least a generation. After
Casolaro’s death, he told one computer magazine that D anny had learned noth-
ing more than what one of two intelligence agency factions wanted him to know
in order to embarrass the other faction. One faction was called Aquarius and had
a leadership sub-group called MJ-12.10 Riconosciuto even told one writer that he
had witnessed the autopsy of an alien body . The writer concluded that
Riconosciuto “would have told anyone anything to get out of prison.” 11
Rumors also had it that Riconosciuto had worked for Lear Aircraft in Reno,
Nevada. This connected him to both J ohn Lear, Sr., creator of the Lear jet, and
often claimed by UFO buffs as having done research on anti-gravity for the gov-
ernment, as w ell as J ohn Lear, Jr., a former CIA pilot who also hit the UFO
circuit with tales of saucers and aliens in cahoots with the US go vernment. Lear

44
 WILD RUMORS

Jr. and Bob Lazar comprise a faction within the UFO sub-culture that maintains
a regular presence at its gatherings. O ther members of this nexus hav e included
the redoubtable William Cooper, whose 1991 book, Behold a Pale Horse, shared
the title of the first draft pr oposal of Casolaro’s manuscript and became notori-
ous for its examination of Area 51, its reprinting of the anti-Semitic Protocols of
the Elders of Zion, and its claim that JFK was shot by the driver of his car in the
presidential motorcade. To a lesser extent this nexus also included Gordon Novel,
by rumor and confession a minor play er in the K ennedy assassination and the
Watergate scandal. Some have suggested that the bizarr e tales of extraterrestrials
coming from this nexus ser ve as disinformation to deflect attention away fr om
serious issues such as gun-r unning and black project weapons development.12
Riconosciuto had his o wn inter-generational connection to the UFO lor e,
and his o wn link to the K ennedy assassination. His father M arshall had been a
business associate of Fred Crisman, a man involved in the Maury Island incident,
one of the earliest UFO incidents to follow pilot Kenneth Arnold’s famed flying
discs over Mt. Rainier in 1947.13 Arnold, in fact, investigated claims by Crisman
and Harold Dahl that Dahl, his son, his dog and two others witnessed six saucers
as the crew boated in Puget Sound along the shore of Maury Island. Dahl’s child
was burned and his dog killed when one of the saucers spewed metallic debris on
the boat. C risman and D ahl mailed metal fragments of the debris to Amazing
Stories editor Ray P almer, who hir ed K enneth Arnold himself to inv estigate.
Confused by what he was hearing from Crisman and Dahl, Arnold called in two
Air Force Intelligence officers. They conducted some inter views, collected some
of the debris, and were headed back to home base on a B-25 when an explosion
on their early morning flight killed them both. The Maury Island incident was
written off for years as a hoax, 14 but recent research has brought up the possibil-
ity that C risman used his possession of the saucer debris as a means to a car eer
among the spooks. 15
Flying saucer crash retrieval rumors mounted in 1947 near the Riconosciuto
stomping gr ound in Tacoma, Washington. The Tacoma News Tribune reported
upon a r etrieval by William Guy Bannister, the FBI S pecial Agent in Charge of
the area at the time.16 Bannister became famous much later in life when he shared
office space with the F air P lay for C uba Committee in N ew O rleans, possibly
employing Lee H arvey Oswald as an agent provocateur. Crisman, too, had been
connected to Oswald via a subpoena from the investigation of JFK’s death by New
Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. Some alleged that C risman was one of
the three hoboes photographed after their arr est in the railr oad yard behind the
infamous grassy knoll on November 22, 1963. Crisman was notably silent about
both Maury Island and JFK in his 1970 memoir of life in Tacoma, entitled Mur-
der of a C ity, written under the pseudonym of J on G old.17 He did hav e warm

45
THE OCTOPUS

comments about Marshall Riconosciuto, however, and recounted that the young
Michael “had discovered several electronic bugs” at his father’s office.
————
1. “The Com-12 Briefing,” Phoenix Liberator, March 23, 1993, p. 16.
2. Cockburn, Alexander, “Meters and Mortars,” New Statesman, March 27, 1992.
3. “Com-12,” p. 23.
4. Blum, Howard, Out There, Simon and Schuster , New York, 1990. S ources for the histor y of
MJ12 abound in the rumor mill. This book, written by a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and for-
mer New York Times investigative reporter, discusses without dismissing the pr ospect of secret US
government investigations of extraterrestrials. It also reproduces the infamous MJ-12 documents,
from which lore about this unholy alliance has arisen.
5. “A Lineman F or Lincoln County: Ar ea 51’s G lenn Campbell I nterviewed,” Steamshovel Press
#12, 1995.
6. Sauder, Richard, Underground Bases and Tunnels, Dracon Press, 1995. Although this book does
not mention Pine Gap, it documents similar underground bases around the world and provides a
credible view of the tunneling technology.
7. Kwitny, Jonathan, The Crimes of Patriots, Touchstone, New York, 1987. Casolaro took extensive
notes from this book primarily for its main subject, the N ugan Hand bank scandal, which began
to figure prominently in the Octopus theory.
8. “The Mysterious US Base of Pine Gap,” Notes From the Hangar, 3rd Quarter, 1991.
9. Correspondence with investigator G. J. Krupey, September 8, 1993.
10. B rown, Colin, “CIA Computer G enius Alleges M assive Conspiracy,” Technical Consultant ,
December–January 1991.
11. Ecker, Don, “Inslaw: Was Wackenhut a Player?” UFO Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1993.
12. Hansson, Lars, UFOs, Aliens and ‘Ex’-Intelligence Agents: Who’s Fooling Whom? The Inside Story of
John Lear, Bill Cooper and the Greatest Cover Up in History, Paragon Research, Orlando, Florida, 1991.
13. According to researcher Virginia McCullough, Marshall Riconosciuto also had associations to
Nixon crony Pat Moriarty, and references to both appear in Casolar o’s notes. McCullough noted
that Moriarty helped arranged Nixon’s first trip to China and was later connected to another con-
spiracy potentate, Bo Gritz. Michael Riconosciuto mentioned his father in point 14 of his M arch
1991 affidavit for the House Judiciary Committee.
14. Ruppelt, Edward J., The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects, Doubleday, Garden City, NY,
1956, pp. 26–27; Menzel, Donald H. and Boyd, Lyle G., The World of Flying Saucers, Doubleday,
Garden City, NY, 1963, pp. 21–23.
15. Flammonde, Paris, The Age of Flying Saucers, Hawthorne Books, New York, 1971, p. 13–17;
Halbritter, Ron, “The Hoax On You,” Steamshovel Press #12, 1995, p. 23.
16. Halbritter, p. 24.
17 Gold, Jon, Murder of A City, Tacoma, WA, 1970, p. 78.

46
 Chapter 9:
V

Pursuit of the Tape

One of the incidents D anny Casolaro wrote about in his manuscript was the
attempted retrieval of an impor tant tape that M ichael Riconosciuto, “Danger
Man,” had stashed away . H ere is D anny’s account of this episode, fr om his
Octopus manuscript:

It is a pale moon that illuminates the characters in this story. With chords
of fear and longing, it is a world of darkness and betrayal that everyone
thinks they know but few have seen. The real faces in this world are all
too human. Danger Man’s mind is as balkanized1 as the script he lives and
the land he travels. Perhaps betrayal becomes a way of life.2 The back-
ground music no longer echoes national anthems3 but T. S. Eliot’s
Gerontion: “Think/neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices/are
fathered by our heroism. Virtues/are forced upon us by our impudent
crimes.”

These impudent4 crimes are the subject of this update and a brief capsule
seems as hopeless as carving the Lord’s Prayer5 on the head of a secret
agent. For, like the enormous Danger Man himself, this story will resist6
shrinkage. Its events are too febrile, its local color too relentless.7

The sun had burned away the morning fog when I arrived in Seattle on
Easter Sunday, bound for Everett, some thirty miles away. I had come to
visit and retrieve a tape recording from the intriguing Danger Man himself,
forty-three-year-old Michael J. Riconosciuto, whom lawmen had deposit-
ed in the Snohomish County jail in Everett, Washington.

The tape Danger Man has recorded a month earlier, he alleged, was a
direct threat from a former Justice Department official describing two
legal entanglements that were about to befall him if he cooperated with a
mushrooming Capitol Hill inquiry. If this tape was retrievable, I knew this
scandal was about to be publicly born.

47
THE OCTOPUS

It was during the last year that I began calling Michael “Danger Man.”
During hours of telephone calls from him, he had told me in exotic detail
of his participation in “an enterprise” that worked its way around the
world, trading in dope, dirty money, weapons, biotoxins and murder for
the secrets of the temple. I had been able to unearth some documenta-
tion and a number of other people who were willing to provide a rich array
of detail regarding Danger Man, his former associates and the under-
ground empire he described.

But now he had become a key witness in the eight-year-old legal battle
between the Justice Department and Inslaw, a District of Columbia com-
puter company whose software tracking system called PROMIS has been
used by law enforcement to track cases and criminals. “but it will track
anything once its provided with the rules,” Inslaw’s founder says.

Inslaw charged, and two courts have agreed, that the software—selling for
$150,000 per user—had been stolen by a handful of people in the Justice
Department in the course of a contract dispute. Now, Inslaw charges, the
software has been distributed by profiteers to intelligence and military
agencies in, among other countries, Iraq, Libya, South Korea, Israel and
Canada. Inslaw’s William Hamilton had independently learned from a
Canadian official that PROMIS was being used in nine hundred different
locations in Canada.

A little more than a week before his arrest, Danger Man had filed an affi-
davit in the case on behalf of Inslaw saying that private interests had hired
him in the early 1980s to modify the software for Canadian distribution.
Those private interests, he told me, represented tentacles of the under-
ground cabal that made its home on an Indian reservation just north of
Mexicali. In the affidavit, Danger Man said he was called in February by a
former Justice Department official and warned against cooperating with
an investigation into the case by the House Judiciary committee. He
added that the former Justice official told him that if he talked to investi-
gators he would be implicated in an unrelated criminal case and would
lose another ongoing child custody case.

Late Friday evening on March 29, on the Key peninsula off Puget Sound,
Danger Man was arrested for distribution of methamphetamine.

I arrived in Snohomish County two days later on March 31. This is pon-
derosa pine and giant fir country flanked by the Cascade Mountain range
to the east, Port Gardner Bay and the Olympic Mountains to the west with
the Snohomish River snaking through the north end of the city of Everett,
the county seat. By late evening, I had been to the jail a number of times
and each time Danger Man was refused visitors on the orders of the U.
S. Marshall in Seattle. Still, Danger Man was able to find me at a nearby
motel and call several times from the jail with cryptic directions for the

48
 PURSUIT OF THE TAPE

retrieval of the tape, his expected movement the following day to a fed-
eral magistrate in Tacoma and more details about how dangerous he was
becoming to the enterprise.

That enterprise moved drugs, guns and money to the ever changing tem-
ples of power in different parts of the world, the geography changing with
the political climate unless the political climate could be changed to suit
the enterprise, according to Danger Man, two other “agents of influence,”
and a former Israeli agent.

But no one is supposed to talk about it and Danger Man told me again of
his best friend Paul who had been murdered in San Francisco almost ten
years earlier. “Paul was the best there was as a money mover. The access
codes he maneuvered were offshore accounts amounting to over a billion
dollars,” Danger Man said. “They don’t play around. You’re just found
dead one day.”

Traveling to Tacoma with Danger Man’s lawyer, I saw seals basking in the
only shaft of sun I had seen so far in the Northwest—fat with their catch
of steelhead trout moving to freshwater spawning. We talked of Danger
Man’s allegations, some documentable, and the tape that both of us had
been promised.

“Michael sure called this one,” the lawyer said. We arrived in Tacoma just
before the 3 PM hearing. Danger Man filled the courtroom with his pres-
ence. Under six feet tall, he was immense in frame but agile and graceful
in movement like some giant white rabbit or perhaps some hybrid fugitive
creature related to a fox.

A former Air America pilot who says he may know Danger Man under a
name other than Michael Riconosciuto says, “He was called ‘the Fat Man’
in Asia.” Richard Brenneke won’t even talk about Danger Man over the
telephone. (Brenneke’s claims through the years regarding his role in an
“October Surprise” plot to delay American hostages in Ran until after the
1980 election have been bouncing around for some time.)

The hearing before a federal magistrate in Tacoma concerned bail for

Danger Man which was refused. While the complaint charged an isolat-
ed incident of distributing drugs on March 29, there were four other dates
mentioned in which confidential informants with audio and video record-
ings were used as well.

The next day—April 2—I was driven from Gig Harbor to a patch of bog in
the peninsula on the reaches of Puget Sound. This is where, I was told,
Danger Man had thrown a copy of the tape from a car on the night of his
arrest. I was driven up into the hills on the peninsula. Here the high pine
trees, mostly wolf pine, and the red cedar stay in the rain shadow. The

49
THE OCTOPUS

ground is mostly scrubland and skunk cabbage heavy with the scent of
wild herbs and flowers, especially in the pouring rain. Many of the people
live in huts, some attached to mobile homes, in the backwater of the
peninsula. The first man I was to meet on this far end of nowhere was an
old, grey-bearded Swede in a wide-brimmed leather hat. He came out of
his hut talking in staccato rhythms and reciting broken poetry. He
appeared somewhere between sixty and seventy years of age. “Can you
cry?” he asked me. “Then prepare to shed a tear and shed them now,” he
said. He hardly paused on the hillside in the pouring rain before advising
that “The fault is not in the stars. The fault is in ourselves.”

When he stopped talking, he started singing and finally I was able to ask
if he had a tape for me.

My driver said, “No. He doesn’t have the tape. We just wanted you to
meet some of Michael’s old friends.”

Sitting side by side under a tarp, the bearded old Swede took me on a
compulsory guided tour of Danger Man from the time he was a child win-
ning science fairs to now. Prior to working with the Nobel Laureate at
Stanford’s Physics Lab at sixteen and seventeen years of age, he had
suddenly already distinguished himself in mining, sonar, lasers and com-
munications. Much of that I had heard before. Nobel laureate Dr. Arthur
Schalow, in a lengthy interview months before, remembered Danger Man
well. “You don’t forget a sixteen-year-old youngster who shows up with
his own Argonne laser,” Dr. Schalow had told me. There was an old arti-
cle about Danger Man when he was ten-years-old after he strung up an
alternative telephone service in his neighborhood.

The old Swede, Danger Man’s father and my driver wanted to make it very
clear that this was a person who made very powerful people take notice
of him when he was a boy. But why, I asked, would this group pursue
him. Everyone, including Danger Man’s father, would tell me “To control
him.” He had been running from that, I was told, since the mid-‘80s when
he left the Indian reservation. And now he was regarded as a rogue
always presenting a moving target having been harassed through the
years by brigades of law enforcement for one charge or another. I had
even found an old letter of his dating back to 1982 in which he described
having “to present a periscopic image to the public.” The rain did not let
up as the old Swede danced in the brush. I watched a big jack rabbit dart
under and then away from the old Swede’s tarp before it limped trembling
and hidden in the grass. While some creatures are born to hunt, other are
born to flee. These are nature’s fugitives, and, like the fox, have a curious
freedom in the masks they wear and access to obscure regions where no
one will follow. Sometimes they have the protective coloring of the hunter
but that is the ruse of the fox. They learn that instinctively.

50
 PURSUIT OF THE TAPE

By the end of the week I had trucked back and forth across Puget Sound
by daylight and nightfall in an odyssey of pursuit for the tape. I would
meet Danger Man in jail and talk with him many times from the Kitsap
County jail to which he had been moved on the peninsula.

I had also been placated, I presumed, with documents concerned mostly

with weapons, fuel air explosives, documents relating to Gerald Bull,
assassinated the previous spring in Brussels, Carlos Cardoen in Chile, min-
ing papers, lab papers relating to scientific experiments with lasers, and
letters regarding the return of that mysterious billion dollars which Danger
Man said had come from the Nugan Hand bank in Australia. I had already
seen some of these documents in the months before but now it looks as
though the gumshoes from the House Judiciary Committee would also
see them.

Two Capitol Hill investigators had arrived on my heels to interview Danger

Man. By the end of the week they had arrived in Seattle, had discussions with
the U. S. Attorney, and made arrangements to have Danger Man moved.

“I’m screwed,” Danger Man said, “don’t you see. These guys are my only
hope. I’ve come up with the cheapest way to refine platinum there is. But
I’m screwed because they’ll try to show that the chemicals I use at the
mine are precursor ingredients to making methamphetamine.” The chem-
icals at one of his labs included, he said, chloracetone, sodium cianide,
nitric acid, ammonium chloride and bags of platinum dust.

If I received the tape, the original, I was to give it to the investigators, he

said. I could make a copy, he added, to bring back to Washington, DC.

The next morning, Danger Man was moved from his cell on the Kitsap
peninsula to Seattle where the Judiciary Committee investigators and their
stenographer would be interviewing him. I arrived in Seattle and met both
investigators. Despite their refusal to let me accompany them on their
interview with Danger Man, we reached an agreement to engage in dia-
logue back in the nation’s capitol. They spent all day with Danger Man
and then, I learned, provided documents from another repository which I
had not seen in Bremerton at the southern tip of the inlet. Having arrived
on the 3rd of April, both investigators left on the 5th.

By the tail end of the week, I had learned that federal agents had raided
one of Danger Man’s labs in the mountainous Pine Creek area west of
Tonasket still high in rain and snowmelt as well as his place in Aberdeen,
a coastal strip town and still another place in Anaheim, California.

I had previously talked to a Denver businessman about Danger Man and

his elusiveness. “I watched Mike demonstrate a new laser weapon he had
created,” the Denver man said, “a wand that blew whatever he pointed it

51
THE OCTOPUS

at straight up in the air. I had called a number of high ranking military peo-
ple and Michael was scheduled to demonstrate this new creation at Fort
Hood, Texas. When the time came and we gathered at Fort Hood, Michael
just didn’t show. That’s the way he was then and I don’t expect he’s any
different now.”

The beginning of spring always has its moody, bad tempered transitions
but with the tape never emerging, I was more than a little frustrated and
more than doubtful in the tape’s existence. “I hope, for your sake, I’m
wrong,” I told him when he was back in the jail at Kitsap County.

He was unhappy I was leaving. I could sense his feelings grow mute in
embarrassment, everything in him withdrew, a silence arose. I was going
to be indulgent with whatever he said which I knew would still leave both
of us empty handed; for ultimately, and precisely in the deepest and most
important matters, especially if he was telling the truth, he was unspeak-
ably alone.

I returned home the next day.

————
1. Danger Man’s mind is “willful and fragmented” in an earlier draft.
2. This sentence added to earlier draft.
3. “keeps a tune to the oath of patriots ”
4. “impudent” added
5. “the Bill of Rights”
6. “resists”

7. “Its events are too current, its local color too fev erish.”

52
“Arriving just a few minutes before his flight,
[Abbie] called me and started talking in a stream
as soon as I picked up the phone: “This fucking
truck, this fucking truck swerved; fucking truck.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask him what truck.
Then, just as suddenly as he’d began, his tone
changed, grew quieter and conspiratorial: “Jack,
don’t believe anything you might hear on the
radio or see in the newspapers tonight. Whatev-
er it is, it’s not true.”1

————
1. H offman, J ack and S imon, D aniel, Run, R un, R un, The L ives of A bbie H offman, A J eremy
Tarcher/Putnam Book (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), New York, 1994, p. 336.

53
 Chapter 10:
V

Mysterious Deaths

Riconosciuto could claim a dark credibility derived from the fact that colleagues
in his shadowy world continued to fall. An attorney fr om Philadelphia, Dennis
Eisman, known as the “F atal Vision lawyer” because of his inv olvement in the
Jeffrey McDonald case, was in touch with Casolar o and was scheduled to trav el
to Washington to defend Riconosciuto, planning also to meet with a woman
who had evidence of threat to his client. In April, Eisman was shot and killed in
his car in P hiladelphia. According to one sour ce, just prior to E isman’s death,
indictments were pending against him and other attorneys for narcotics traffick-
ing and money laundering. The indictments never appeared.
As soon as Michael Riconosciuto found out that Eisman was dead, he called
Virginia McCullough. McCullough said that he was “absolutely panicky in jail.”
Riconosciuto told her, “They’ve killed my attorney,” and asked her to telephone
another attorney working on his case, James Guthrie, to warn him. McCullough
did, and Guthrie told McCullough, “I’m out of here.”1
Nine days after Michael Riconosciuto issued his affidavit in the I nslaw case,
he was arrested. In April 1991, police arrested Riconosciuto on one count of dis-
tributing methamphetamine manufacture at Lakebay in Washington state.
Investigators for the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives
met with Riconosciuto in Tacoma, spent six hours taking depositions from him,
and asked him for pr oof for his statements b y way of legal documents. A ccord-
ing to one report, Riconosciuto asked for clear “Lawyer-Client Privilege” labeling
on documents when he called them in from his attorney, as a precaution against
search and seizur e by government agencies. N evertheless, Riconosciuto’s jailers
opened the privileged packages and refused to forward them. Instead, the report
goes on, they contacted the NSA, which sent a team to r eview the material. B y
the end of December 1991, the agency had not commented on when the docu-
ments would be returned to Riconosciuto.2

54
 MYSTERIOUS DEATHS

Casolaro confer ed with Riconosciuto r egularly in late 1989, and fle w to

Tacoma for the trial and to act as a legal inv estigator for ten days. 3 Their meet-
ing and the fruitless search for the alleged tape recording of Videnieks may have
contributed to a certain disillusionment that Danny felt about “Danger Man” by
the time he r eturned home. “ That guy is nuts,” he told a journalist after his
Washington trip .4 No such assessment of Riconosciuto ’s sanity was needed to
determine that his statements w ere suspect. I n addition to life among the ufo-
nauts, Riconosciuto failed to pr oduce an oft-r equested passport to corr oborate
his claimed trips to I ran. When asked b y the CNN M oneyline pr ogram to
describe Peter Videnieks, whom he claimed to have met on several occasions and
who threatened him on the lost tape, Riconosciuto was unable to do so .5
Four days after inter viewing Danger Man on June 19, 1991, former N ixon
campaign aide Alan Michael May died in his home in San Francisco. During the
interview, Riconosciuto had talked about May’s involvement in the October Sur-
prise. The initial coroner’s report attributed May’s death to hear t attack, but an
autopsy showed the presence of polypharmaceuticals in his body.
Anson Ng, a r eporter for the Financial Times of London, pursued J immy
Hughes, the Wackenhut security guar d central to the Alv arez mur der case, to
South America in an attempt to get an inter view. While in G uatemala during
July 1991, Ng was murdered by a single bullet to the chest. His death was ruled
a suicide. The Guatemalan government was asked to r etrieve Ng’s floppy discs
and personal papers r egarding his investigation. It did so and turned them o ver
to a US intelligence agency. In a press conference a few weeks later, Senator Alan
Cranston requested that these items be r eturned, but they never were.6
More than a y ear earlier, on M arch 31, 1990, a B ritish journalist named
Jonathan Moyle was found dead, hung in a hotel room closet in Santiago, Chile.
“Although Casolaro and Moyle were probing different leads, their investigations
involved some of the same people,” said columnist J ack Anderson. 7 Moyle, an
editor at London’s Defense Helicopter World, had been investigating the weapons
trade, specifically the alleged sale of non-militar y US helicopters to I raq for r e-
fitting as attack choppers. The notes Moyle left behind contained r eference to a
sophisticated missile guidance system that held I raqi interest, although whether
or not it used the system in its disastrous SCUD attacks during the Persian Gulf
War is unknown. Instrumental in the arms-dealing M oyle had investigated was
Carlos Cardoen, the same man Ari B en-Menashe identified as the intermediar y
between Iraq and Earl Brian for the PROMIS software deal.8 Initial reports called
Moyle’s death a suicide, but evidence, including the presence of a strong sedative
in his system and possible asphyxiation, suggested other wise.9
It is unclear whether or not M oyle kept contact with D anny Casolar o,
although his notes include r eferences to Carlos Car doen and the I raqi missile

55
THE OCTOPUS

deal. Casolar o kne w about Alan M ay and had also learned about Anson Ng ’s
death shortly after it took place. He also remembered the January murder of Alan
Standorf. Riconosciuto had intr oduced Casolar o to S tandorf as an electr onic
intelligence operative of the NSA, wor king at the Vint Hill military installation
in Virginia that gathered information from espionage satellites and other sources
throughout the world. Casolaro agreed that Standorf had important information
linking the Justice Department to parts of the various scandals he had researched.
After S tandorf ’s death, D anny mentioned to a friend, B ill Turner, that a key
source had vanished.10
Did D anny feel the tentacles tightening? I f so, it was not r eflected in his
research notes. H e collected information on vicious killers and po wer brokers,
but gave no clue that he thought they w ere coming after him.
Over time, M ichael Riconosciuto lost thr ee lawy ers and an inv estigator
under what could be constr ued as mysterious cir cumstances. In February 1987
Larry G uerrin, a priv ate inv estigator conducting I nslaw-connected wor k for
Riconosciuto, was killed in Mason County, Washington. After Eisman’s death, in
April 1993, another attorney who wor ked with Riconosciuto, J ohn Crawford,
died suddenly from a heart attack in Tacoma.11 The decomposed body of a third
Riconosciuto lawy er, P aul Wilcher, was found in Wilcher’s Washington, DC
apartment on J une 23, 1993. Wilcher also had been an attorney for the pilot
Gunther Russbacher, who claimed to hav e videotape proof and sixteen witness-
es to his having flo wn G eorge H. W. B ush to one of the O ctober S urprise
meetings.12 Wilcher belonged to the American P atriot F ax N etwork and had
recently prepared an ambitious fifty-fiv e page fax summarizing information on
circumstances leading to the fier y deaths of D avid Koresh and his follo wers in
April 1993 that he sent as a challenge to A ttorney General Janet Reno. The fax
included details of the stor y of his client, R ussbacher, concerning the O ctober
Surprise, and a page of information on the Inslaw case, pointing out that an exec-
utive assistant to S enator Robert Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia, was the
wife of Peter Videnieks, who had threatened Riconosciuto.13
The mysterious death list came also to include the ex ecution-styled slaying
of Ian Spiro and his family, a wife and three daughters, in San Diego on Novem-
ber 1, 1992. Spiro reportedly worked for US and British intelligence agencies on
operations that included the O ctober Surprise, Iran-contra and the hostage cri-
sis in Lebanon. Spiro spoke with Riconosciuto, for whom he was helping collect
documents to present to a grand jur y, only a few days before his death. 14
Later, others would begin to develop lists of significant deaths related to the
Inslaw case in much the same way many began making connections between the
deaths of witnesses and others associated to the JFK assassination tw enty five
years earlier . I n addition to the Riconosciuto lawy ers, the list included Vali

56
 MYSTERIOUS DEATHS

Delahanty, whose knowledge of a DEA plan to set up Riconosciuto on a dr ug

charge would have made her an important witness for Riconosciuto. She disap-
peared on A ug 18, 1992 but her body was not disco vered until the follo wing
April, in a ravine near Lake Bay, Washington.15 Another Riconosciuto ally, Pete
Sandvigen, who was wor king to help Riconosciuto defend himself fr om the
drug charges, died the following December, an ammo clip from the gun he car-
ried mysteriously missing. 16
Barry Kusnick, a computer engineer who had worked on PROMIS enhance-
ments, also made the list. A ccording to one r eport, Kusnick’s enhancement was
called Brainstorm, an artificially intelligent program that applied the pr ognosti-
cating ability of PR OMIS to individual thought patterns. I t ostensibly allo wed
PROMIS to deduce fr om personality characteristics the potential action of the
person being traced. As in the I nslaw case, K usnick appar ently had made the
modifications under a go vernment contract that the go vernment failed to pay ,
attempting to drive Kusnick into bankruptcy. Kusnick had previously done com-
munications and intelligence wor k for N orthrop Corporation and the US
military. His body had not been found, and nine months after he was r eported
missing family members were unable to get known business partners to acknowl-
edge knowing him. Five boxes of his belongings were found in a lock-up facility.17
Sherman Skolnick, long-time chairman of Chicago’s Citizen’s Committee to
Clean Up the Courts, charged that nearly for ty witnesses in the Inslaw case had
been murdered and complained that a federal judge appointed to review the case
failed to show concern over the safety of other witnesses. H e also claimed that a
Special Federal Grand Jury in Chicago planned to do an end-r un ar ound the
judge and issue high-lev el indictments. S kolnick also r eported that thr ee of the
grand jury witnesses joined with Riconosciuto to file suit against the judge for
obstructing the indictments, and that the judge had an FBI agent interr ogating
witnesses who was himself suspected of mur dering Casolaro.18
Most interesting of all the mysterious deaths connected to I nslaw, however,
was that of 1960s political activist A bbie Hoffman. Hoffman wrote an early
piece on the October Surprise for Playboy magazine and shortly thereafter was
involved in a suspicious automobile accident. Most regarded his death on April
12, 1989 as the suicide it was reported as, caused perhaps in part due to depres-
sion he suffered from the continued pain resulting from that accident. Others,
however, suspected foul play in H offman’s death, notably D avid Dellinger, a
fellow member of the Chicago 8. D ellinger’s suspicions ev en led him to
attempt to retrieve the coroner’s report for examination, but he was stopped by
a threatened court battle. “They basically would not allow that to go to court,”
Dellinger concluded, “but [A bbie’s] son Andr ew and A bbie’s first wife S heila,
are convinced he was killed.” 19

57
THE OCTOPUS

————
1. McCullough interview.
2. “Com-12,” p. 20.
3. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 34; “Worldwide Conspiracy, or Fantasy?” Seattle Times, August 29,
1991.
4. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 35; Linsalata.
5. Brown, p. 7.
6. Anderson, Jack and Van Atta, Dale, “Another Casualty in the ‘Octopus Case,” Washington Post,
August 28, 1991.
7. Anderson.
8. Ben-Menashe, p. 239 passim.
9. “The Riddle of Room 1406,” The Sunday Times.
10. Stich, Contact, p. 407.
11. Ibid.
12. Russbacher, Guenther, Interviewed by Alex Horvat and Joe Palermo, March 17, 1993.
13. Wilcher, Paul, American Patriot Fax Network Fax, May 21, 1993, p. 69.
14. Thomas, Kenn, “Inslaw Revisited,” Steamshovel Press #9, Fall 1993, p. 44.
15. Stich, Contact, p. 407.
16. Ibid.
17. “Inslaw,” Leading Edge, p. 48.
18. Skolnick, Sherman, “Obstruction of Justice Charged in I nslaw Special Grand Jury in Chica-
go,” privately published paper, 1993.
19. “King Co-Opted; Abbie Assassinated,” Steamshovel Press #9, Fall 1993, p. 7.

58
 Chapter 11:
V

Robert Booth Nichols

The Hamiltons acquired another impor tant informant and intr oduced him to
Danny Casolaro: Robert Booth N ichols, not to be confused with J ohn Phillip
Nichols.1 Casolaro wr ote in his notes that R obert N ichols “looks like Clar k
Gable.”2 Nichols presented himself as a dashing, spy-like figure with connections
to both the legal and illegal underworld, including the infamous Gambino crime
family. He had worked at the Cabazon reservation with Riconosciuto. Riconosci-
uto and N ichols formed a business par tnership in the 1970s to manufactur e
fertilizer, pesticide, and w eaponry, including fuel air explosiv es and the G-77—
an inexpensive sub-machine gun invented by Nichols—but the two had argued
in 1984 and had not spoken since. 3
Casolaro and N ichols spoke on the phone fifteen times in J uly, calls which
lasted as long as two hours. They met at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington,
D.C. on July 10, 1991. Casolar o was so impr essed with the sophistication and
“insider” knowledge his new friend Nichols had that he came to consider him a
mentor. A t one point, Casolar o spoke to him about his money tr oubles and
Nichols offered financial assistance—in exchange for a twenty-five percent inter-
est in Casolaro’s home and right of first r efusal if he sold it. 4
To tempt his girlfriend, Wendy Weaver, into accompanying him to his meet-
ing with N ichols at the F our S easons, Casolar o described N ichols as the
president of the Bechtel corporation, just arrived from Kuwait. Nichols intimat-
ed at the dinner par ty that he was going to be named state security minister of
the Caribbean island of Dominica, which would become a center for r ebuilding
Kuwait. Nichols repeatedly warned Casolar o that what he was r esearching was
dangerous. Nichols warned Casolaro at least five times about the danger of asso-
ciating with Riconosciuto . He warned that if Casolar o said anything that w ent
against Nichols’ former par tner Riconosciuto, he would be killed. A t one point
during the ev ening, responding to a slight fr om another patr on at the bar that

59
THE OCTOPUS

Robert Booth Nichols Clyde’s in Tyson Corner, meeting place

of Danny Casolaro and Robert B. Nichols.

Weaver later described as imagined, Nichols grabed the man, slamed him against
the wall and declar ed that he would kill him. Later that ev ening, Casolaro con-
fided to Weaver that Nichols “really scared him.” In his notes, D anny Casolaro
characterized Nichols as “very powerful.”5
On another night, Casolaro and a different friend met Nichols at Clyde’s in
Tyson’s Corner. Nichols again talked about Dominica, saying he had just done a
radio broadcast in his new position as minister of state security, and he also said
that he was par t of a planned CIA coup that was going to happen ther e. Caso-
laro’s friend claimed that N ichols “had this stor y that they w ere going to turn
Dominica into a CIA base, had plans for a desalination pr ogram and pulled out
this design drawn by a French architect of a dome the size of Texas Stadium that
was half under water. R eally, the whole thing r eminded me of E rnst S tavro
Blofeld...” After lunch, D anny took his friend aside and sho wed him what he
alleged was a summar y of an FBI wir etap on N ichols that linked him to the
Yakuza and the G ambino family. The friend was shocked. “I said, ‘D anny, I’m
gonna take you out back and whip y our ass! You just put me in a meeting with
this man and didn ’t tell me what the hell—why didn ’t y ou tell me befor e?’”
Casolora explained he just wanted to see ho w Nichols would react.6
Casolora related Nichols’ stories about D ominica in his N otes “Before the
reins of the O ctopus are turned o ver to sev eral younger players, the game con-
tinues no w—July, 1991—on the tiny Caribbean island nation of D ominica.
Possessing the largest boiling deep water lake in the world, D ominica’s geother-
mal potential is unmatched. I t is her e that the O ctopus may be making its
boldest and most dangerous move yet.”7

60
 ROBERT BOOTH NICHOLS

In 1976, N ichols r epresented a S audi company, Ali & F ahd, in a failed

attempt to acquire Howard Hughes’ Summa Corporation, after the death of the
reclusive magnate. Joseph Cicippio, later taken as a hostage in Lebanon, was an
employee of Ali & Fahd at the time, and stated that Nichols represented himself
as an agent for the US go vernment in the takeo ver bid. Cicippio said that
Nichols sho wed him J ustice D epartment identification, and had information
which he assumed could only have been acquired through government contacts.8
Casolaro learned more about Nichols from Richard Stavin, formerly a special
prosecutor for the J ustice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force, who had
some familiarity with N ichols’ attachment to the mob end of the enter tainment
industry. On July 31, 1991 Stavin explained to Danny about Nichols’ connections
to the Gambinos and the Yakuza, which the FBI had inv estigated in 1987 as par t
of its probe of Mafia presence in Hollywood. Stavin also mentioned that N ichols
had at one time offer ed to become an informant for the J ustice D epartment,
although he did not kno w whether anyone had taken him up on the offer . Stavin
felt that passing this information on may hav e contributed to Danny’s death.9
The FBI’s focus in 1987 was on M ob influence in the motion pictur e indus-
try. They took particular interest in Eugene Giaquinto, a member of the boar d of
directors of Nichols’ Meridian Arms, a firm that was to manufacture the G-77 gun
in South Korea. At that time, Giaquinto also served as president of the home enter-
tainment sector of MCA, which o wned Universal Pictures. In his application to
wiretap G iaquinto, agent Thomas G. G ates, who later supplied information to
Casolaro, suggested that FBI investigative files indicated that in 1978, Nichols had
been “an international money launder er for money generated thr ough nar cotics
trafficking and organiz ed crime activities.” 10 The wiretaps caught G iaquinto and
Nichols discussing a takeo ver of MCA, and r evealed G iaquinto’s connection to
renowned mobster John Gotti. Although the inv estigation was derailed b y mem-
bers of the R eagan administration, G iaquinto left both MCA and M eridian, but
not before unsuccessfully trying to secure an appointment for N ichols to head an
industry anti-video piracy operation in Asia. Nichols denied any involvement with
the Yakuza or the Mafia. Ron Rosenbaum wrote in Vanity Fair that Nichols traced
“the trouble to an FBI misunderstanding of his scr eenplay career. He says he was
introduced to a high lev el ex ecutive of MCA sev eral y ears ago at a coffeeshop .
When the MCA man encouraged him to turn some tales he’d told him into screen-
plays, they became friends, and briefly , business associates. U nknown to him, the
MCA man was the subject of a full-cour t-press FBI inv estigation for being a key
organized-crime link to the enter tainment industry. And so, G able [Nichols] says
his voice was picked up b y taps on the MCA man ’s phone. The bureau misinter-
preted their conv ersations as containing code wor ds for illegal activities, turned
around, targeted him, and slandered him to his business associates. In fact, Gable’s

61
THE OCTOPUS

Steven Seagal sporting somebody else’s Steven Seagal and ex-CIA operative
military-issue beret and insignia. Robert Strickland.
company is suing an FBI man for libel and slander . He says that the wiretap sum-
mary was part of the FBI man’s affidavit in the Gable slander suit.” 11
Nichols’ response to Gates’ affidavit linking him to John Gotti and the Gam-
bino family thr ough Giaquinto was to sue G ates and the US G overnment for
libel. However, the federal district cour ts dismissed N ichols’ suits twice. G ates,
believing Nichols to be undeterred in his attempt at retribution, said in testimo-
ny before the H ouse Judiciary Committee that informants had twice told him
that Nichols had placed a contract on his life.
The other high point of Nichols’ movie career came with his cameo appear-
ance as a terr orist in the 1992 S teven S eagal mo vie, Under S iege. Perhaps not
coincidentally, S eagal became embr oiled in contr oversy when a writer , Alan
Richman, claimed in GQ magazine that S eagal had appr opriated details of the
biographies of former associates R obert S trickland and G ary G oldman and
passed them off as incidents in his o wn life. When investigator John Connolly
later repeated the charges in Spy and made further claims that Seagal tried to set
up Richman in a fake homosexual tr yst and tried to hav e Goldman killed, Sea-
gal sued unsuccessfully.
In 1993 Nichols sought damages against the Los Angeles Police Department
over an incident that caused the revocation of his concealed weapons permit and,
consequently, a cancellation of the money for the manufactur e of the G-77 b y
Swiss financiers. A ccording to his testimony , Nichols had been thr own to the
floor, disarmed, handcuffed and car ted off to a North Hollywood jail by LAPD
officers responding to a disturbance complaint at a club called The Palomino.12
Nichols said he was not inv olved with any disturbance but had only stopped in
at the club for a couple of beers. F urther testimony and legal documents reflect-

62
 ROBERT BOOTH NICHOLS

ed an impr essive list of former business par tners, including H oward H ughes
cohort Robert Maheu and Texas oil magnate Clint Murchison.13
Casolaro may not have understood the possible danger of possessing the infor-
mation he had learned from Richard Stavin, that Nichols may have offered himself
as a go vernment stool pigeon. Casolar o may hav e worried that if he let slip his
knowledge of Nichols’ association with the M afia and the Yakuza during a conver-
sation, N ichols might turn danger ous. S ix days after talking to S tavin, Casolar o
spoke again to his mentor. The following day Casolaro informed Stavin that Nichols
had warned him off the investigation. At about the same time, Casolaro called FBI
agent Thomas Gates and asked whether he should take seriously N ichols’ warnings
that, “If you continue this investigation, you will die.” Gates later commented that
Casolaro was “upbeat, not like a person contemplating suicide.” 14

————
1. In January 1993, writer J ohn Connolly cast suspicion on the r elationship between Bill Hamilton
and Robert Booth Nichols: “... despite Hamilton’s reservations about Nichols’ character, the man who
designed a program for tracking criminals and the man who has been linked b y the FBI to two crime
organizations communicate with surprising fr equency. Last summer I visited H amilton’s office in
Washington to get a copy of the phone records that would show his call to Nichols on August 9, 1991.
He seemed reluctant. It took a fair amount of persuasion to convince him to turn it o ver—and what
he gave me was a photocopy with all but that call blocked out. Shortly after leaving, I remembered that
I had wanted to ask him something else and r eturned to his office. While I was waiting in the r ecep-
tion area, the phone rang. The receptionist buzzed Hamilton: ‘Robert Booth Nichols, returning your
call.’ When I asked Hamilton about the call, he replied, ‘I call Nichols all the time. It was just a coin-
cidence that it was right after y ou left.’” (Connolly, John, “Dead Right,” Spy, January 1993.)
2. “Without the ears,” Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 35.
3. Corn.
4. Linsalata; Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 36.
5. Connolly, “Dead Right”; Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 36.
6. Ron Rosenbaum, “The Strange Death of Danny Casolaro,” Vanity Fair, Vol. 54, December 1991.
7. Casolaro’s Notes, pp. 1–7.
8. From Casolaro’s Notes “Sworn affidavit alleges that Nichols gets word from Justice department.”
9. “Unanswered Questions on Casolaro,” The Spotlight, September 28, 1992.
10. Corn.
11. Rosenbaum, p. 96.
12. From Casolaro’s notes, “A Palomino is a Pale Horse.”
13. Weinstein, Henry and Feldman, Paul, “Trial Offers Murky Peek Into World of Intrigue,” Los
Angeles Times, March 21, 1993
14. “Unanswered Questions on Casolaro,” The Spotlight, September 28, 1992.

63
 Chapter 12:
V

A Sea Creature Surfaces

On May 8, 1991, the Inslaw case was overturned on second appeal, on the tech-
nicality that it should not have been tried in bankruptcy court. The ruling came
on the day before the Justice Department would have had to release all of its soft-
ware to the H amiltons.1 The Hamiltons asked the S upreme Court to hear the
case in October.2
In mid-June 1991, D anny Casolar o met with J eff S teinberg, the L yndon
Larouche aide. S teinberg, who had earlier arranged the contact betw een the
Hamiltons and Michael Riconosciuto, arranged for Casolaro to talk to an infor-
mant who went by the odd name of CHIPS, a former C ustoms agent who was
now assisting the Treasury Department. Steinberg believes that CHIPS turned
Casolaro’s inv estigations fur ther in the dir ection of R obert Booth N ichols,
toward the Gambino Mafia family and drug trafficking.
Shortly thereafter, Casolaro made phone contact with E. H oward Hunt,3 a
name that appeares on the “A” list of many conspiracy researchers. Of late, Hunt
had made a car eer writing spy fiction, but his infamy str etched back to his r ole
as one of the Watergate burglars and befor e. Hunt had lost a defamation case
against accusations that he had been inv olved in the JFK assassination. 4 Hunt
had been active in many spook projects of the Kennedy era, most notably in the
failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Even as Casolaro developed a “cordial, even effusive”
relationship with Hunt,5 he kept taking notes.
In a memo, Steinberg observed that b y this time, Casolar o was on the trail
of Inslaw and r elated stories “back to a dir ty CIA ‘O ld Boy’ network” that had
begun working together in the 1950s around covert operations in Albania. These
men had gotten into the illegal gun and dr ug trade back then and had contin-
ued in that business ev er since. Martin Killian, a Washington correspondent for
Der Spiegel, also spoke to Casolar o about the conspiratorial entity Casolar o was
by now calling “the Octopus,” a cabal which Casolaro believed had been started

64
 A SEA CREATURE SURFACES

by CIA superspook James Jesus Angleton. Casolaro believed that the motive for
creating the O ctopus had been r evenge for the notorious Albanian operation
which had been compromised by Soviet mole Kim Philby.6
According to Tony Casolaro, Danny’s brother, Danny did not see the O cto-
pus as a tightly-structured organization. “He didn’t envision them as a group like
the Mafia. More as a network. They would overlap when their needs coincided.”
The vie w r eflected in Casolar o’s notes was that “ This is the O ctopus whose
defensive posture could reap havoc anywhere in the world. Indeed, what you will
learn in this true crime narrative is a massive unraveling of modern history’s most
incredible puzzles.”7

————
1. DiRienzo, p. 8; “Shadow Justice,” Unclassified, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1991.
2. Linsalata.
3. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 35.
4. Lane, Mark, Plausible Denial, New York: Thunder’s Mouth, 1992.
5. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 35.
6. Ibid.
7. Casolaro’s notes.

65
 Chapter 13:
V

The Octopus

Danny Casolaro never lived to tell the full story of the Octopus. He left us with
only drafts and notes for his proposed project. Nonetheless, the story he was out-
lining is compelling and credible. Here are Casolaro’s notes on his Octopus:

This is the story of eight men whose real life “impossible mission” intrigues
have dominated key events that span the globe for nearly a half-century.
They are the men who make up THE OCTOPUS.

They are not government officials but their tentacles can reach into any part
of government in almost any country including legitimate and rogue spy
networks. They are not notable industrialists but they can pull the strings of
the oil and banking empires at will. They are not known criminals but they
have successfully penetrated all factions of organized crime including the
Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the secret Chinese Triads and the terrorist
underground.

With its tag team compartments, its exploitation of hundreds of people and
formidable stealth, THE OCTOPUS will help to unravel the most compelling
puzzles of the twentieth century. What may have begun for these few
learned men as a utopian response to harsh post-war realities quickly gave
way to what simple men have always known as the real enemy which is
selfishness and its allied forces of fear, greed, and power. While a few of
these eight men came together to insure the failure of an initiate in Albania
in the fifties, almost every one of them helped to frustrate the Cuban Bay of
Pigs invasion. What did the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs accomplish? President
Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell were becoming impossible as far
as the Octopus was concerned. Even Kissinger was being difficult in
bypassing normal circles of intelligence with Vietnamization and the China
card. Since this was the mission that reaped a windfall, how did all the
pieces come together for the snowballing of Watergate? What mistakes,
though, were made?

66
 THE OCTOPUS

A different, marginally more officious costume was worn in Chile with Sal-
vado Allende. Since this operation provided accumulated debt for favors
performed, the Octopus was now mature enough to know how to collect
those debts.

What were the favors performed, and what was the due bill? It didn’t take
many people to design the apparatus that would insure the renewal of the
lease for the Pine Gap installation near Alice Springs, Australia. After all, how
could a democracy spit up a Prime Minister that could sack the security of
the Western Alliance? What about tentacle operations of the Octopus in
Angola, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Nigeria? Was this another case of
wearing the right costume again, as in Chile. Politically correct assistance
can cover the cover of the Octopus for anything—drug trafficking, through-
out Asia and the Mideast, arms dealing and murder. But what happened to
the money—nearly a billion dollars?

Who drove the Shah out of power? Can best friends do this to each other?
What role did the Octopus play and for what reason? Who lit the fire for the
war between Iran and Iraq? What part did the Octopus play? What was its
purpose in the big picture? Is any picture that big?

Jimmy Carter had bruised the Octopus as badly as Nixon did with focus. Why
did the Octopus come off the ocean floor for this to make sure no rescue was
possible? What happened to those Sea Stallion helicopters, the most depend-
able helicopter in aviation history? Everyone knows that hostages equal
money but why is it that no one has asked what happened to the billions of
dollars in frozen assets? Since Reagan was not a favored son of the Octopus,
why did it work so hard to insure his election in 1980? Even if the participa-
tion by campaign officials in holding the hostages until the election was
limited to just the acquiescence of smiling gentlemen who knew better, why
was the veil removed when it could have been so absolutely secret?

Exploiting foreign policy objectives with the contras in Nicaragua is one

thing, but why was the creation of a Latin American equivalent to the Gold-
en Triangle so irresistable? A huge amount of money—several billion
dollars—was raised for the Afghan freedom fighters. The freedom fighters
didn’t get it and even the Octopus had to fight for it. Who else started to
play the game in earnest? How did the Octopus stop it?

Was it just a clever hand that the Octopus played with Kuwait and Iraq?
What about Kuwait’s OPEC decisions which goaded Saddam Hussein into
his takeover? What roles did the Octopus play? Why was the Bank of Cred-
it and Commerce International [BCCI] suddenly a sacrificial lamb?

Before the reins of the Octopus are turned over to several younger play-
ers, the game continues now—July, 1991—on the tiny Caribbean island
nation of Dominica.

67
THE OCTOPUS

Possessing the largest boiling deep water lake in the world, Dominica’s
geothermal potential is unmatched. It is here that the Octopus may be mak-
ing its boldest and most dangerous move yet. THE OCTOPUS is a story
about eight people who have been able to penetrate and exploit the secret
empires of spy networks around the world, big oil and organized crime.

Since it spans the globe and in its compartmentalized penetration in such

disparate secret societies has enabled it to control—through access—gov-
ernment around the [world]. This penetration by such a small group of
people in such seemingly disparate and secret empires has enabled this
group to develop compartmented tentacles that control governmental insti-
tutions in the US and abroad.

Indeed, the Octopus is less than a dozen people who have changed the
course of history the world over. This completed project will rewrite history
at the Bay of Pigs, in Allende’s Chile, Watergate, Australia, Iran, Iraq, the
1980 election, the drug/gun running in Latin America, and most recently the
war in Iraq. In events that span the globe nations know how to use this
Octopus and acquiesce in its designs. I will show you how these eight peo-
ple caused the US to turn its back on Fidel Castro after supporting him in
the mountains of the Sierra Maestra.

68
 Chapter 14:
V

Tracking The Octopus

Danny Casolar o believ ed the O ctopus r esponsible for criminal conspiracies

which, linked, formed a virtual history of intelligence double dealing from 1950
to the present. These events, in Casolaro’s view, included the ousters of US Pres-
ident Richard Nixon, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, the S hah of
Iran, and the murders of Chilean President Allende, and, of course, of President
John F. Kennedy. Casolaro saw the Octopus’ tentacles entwined throughout the
creation of the Golden Triangle and Latin America drug trade, the Cuban Bay of
Pigs debacle, the October Surprise, the BCCI banking scandal, and, almost as an
afterthought, the theft of PROMIS software.
Casolaro found a “Secret Team,” a high cabal of players operating a clandes-
tine, parallel government, identified previously by other writers. 1 The cabal had
operated beyond the control or scrutiny of the elected go vernment, financed by
drug-running from Southeast Asia and the Americas.
Other r esearchers tended to see the O ctopus as a fog of political crimes
ascribed to the alphabet soup of intelligence agencies, institutions or ev en the
natural dialectic of the modern terrorist state and its citizenry. Casolaro’s Octo-
pus, however, was no grand, unified mega-conspiracy theory. Casolaro believed
the crimes could best be identified b y linking them to a small networ k of
named individuals that made up his Octopus. He outlined their hierarchy and
provided specific detail about their behind-the-scenes r ole in contemporar y
political history.
Casolaro named people both familiar and unfamiliar to other researchers. He
deemed the “ first level” operatives to be Richar d Helms, George Pender, John
Philip N ichols, and Ray Cline. The second lev el included R obert Chasen, E.
Howard Hunt, Edwin Wilson, Thomas Clines, and Ted Shackley. Working back-
ward from the PROMIS theft, Casolaro saw them in ne w relationship, a nearly
organic entity that impacted on both past and then curr ent events.

69
THE OCTOPUS

Casolaro’s proposed chapter titles for The Octopus provide a glimpse into the
trajectory of his research:

Chapter 1: 1980—The Most Dangerous Year. Casolaro’s notes include sub-divi-

sions entitled “D eath of P aul M orasca, D eath of F red Alv arez,” “R esupply of
Contras,” “Casey,” “Vesco,” “John Nichols,” and “Transition—Mideast.”

Chapter 2: Backing up: The Post War Years. 1944-1950. When they met. Kim
Philby.

Chapter 3: Tag Team Compar tments. 1959: P atrice L umumba, F idel Castr o,
Europe, Albania, Golden Triangle, China, Formosa. He also brackets “Moriarty,
[Marshall] Riconosciuto, Fat Tony.”

Chapter 4: 1966: M aking F riends With the Terrorist U nderground. D ealers,

Drugs & Money [additional unreadable line].

Chapter 5: What Went Wrong With Nixon and the Windfall/Surprise.

Chapter 6: 1975: Australia With PM Houghton.

Chapter 7: The Asian Underground.

Chapter 8: Oil [unreadable] Controlling Countries.

Chapter 9: The Big Crime—ICN, Yakuza & Terrorists, Triads.

Chapter 10: 1980.

Chapter 11: The role of Mossad.

Chapter 12: KGB Underground.

Chapter 13: Wackenhut.

Chapter 14: Mideast—Beirut.

Chapter 15: Iran Shah, Helms.

Chapter 16: Iran & Iraq.

70
 TRACKING THE OCTOPUS

Even as he sketched this outline, Casolar o continued making phone calls,

and connections that brought the Octopus closer to the surface for a clearer view.
Whether he approached his work as a student of history or as fodder for fiction,
some of his r ealizations w ere not easy for him to face. A ccording to Virginia
McCullough, “Danny would say that he couldn’t believe the government would
do drugs for arms. He was God, motherhood, and apple pie. I would say, ‘Look
Danny, let’s get real, we’re living in the 20th centur y.’”2
One new contact, William Turner, had been an aer ospace engineer at Hon-
eywell in Virginia until Hughes Aircraft bought his division. Turner, who lived a
short distance fr om Casolaro, contacted him and furnished him with details of
an alleged fraud b y Hughes Aircraft. Turner claimed that when he r eported the
fraud to his seniors they began a cover-up. Turner had left Hughes in April 1991.
In August, Turner and Casolar o met in M artinsburg, and Turner handed o ver
documents which he said proved a “vast government conspiracy.”3 Casolaro met
with Turner again on February 21, at the Sheraton. The two discussed Casolaro’s
concept of the O ctopus with Casolar o making fur ther connections betw een
Oliver North and BCCI. I n May or June they met again in I nwood, West Vir-
ginia, drinking and bar-hopping. Casolar o was effusiv e o ver his
book-in-progress, and pr omised Turner he would personally autograph a copy
for him once it was in print. 4
McCullough at this time also noticed Casolaro’s research taking on more focus
and intensity. “In the middle of May he became very centered about what he want-
ed from me. What he wanted fr om me was ev erything I kne w Riconosciuto was
involved with, with the Iran-contra, with the Cabazon Indian reservation, and how
that pertained to the PROMIS software.”
“It began to come home to me loud and clear that there was a real danger here.”5

————
1. Prouty, L. Fletcher, The Secret Team, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1973.

2. Virginia McCullough interview.

3. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 36.

4. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 40.

5. McCullough.

71
 Chapter 15:
V

Tentacles

The following material, labeled a “hagiography” in the original edition of this

book, was assembled fr om D anny Casolar o’s notes b y r esearcher/writer J im
Keith.

The follo wing chr onology lists some of the ev ents and people that Casolar o
believed involved the alleged super-cabal, “ the Octopus.” It has been dev eloped
from Casolaro’s notes but expanded upon with additional research; Casolaro did
not mention many of the internal connections documented her e.

OSS in China

Casolaro’s Octopus may have begun earlier than he thought. D uring World War II
the OSS chapter in China, D etachment 202, included in its memberships alleged
Octopi Ray Cline (later station chief in N ationalist China between 1958 to 1962),
E. Howard Hunt, and Richard Helms, as well as such future covert ops luminaries
as Mitchell WerBell III (arms dealer, trainer of terr orists, and on-and-off emplo yee
of the CIA) and Major General John Singlaub. Singlaub later commanded the CIA’s
infamous Operation Phoenix assassination program in Vietnam, which provided yet
another link to other alleged O ctopus personnel. China has historically had sub-
stantial inv olvement in opium pr oduction and trade, although it is not kno wn
whether the Octopus took much notice of the commodity at this time. In his notes,
Casolaro lists Helms, Hunt, Shackley, Pender, Clines, Nichols as being “OSS.” 1

The Albanian Operation

The histor y of the O ctopus as delineated b y D anny Casolar o begins with the
OSS/British intelligence Albanian operation, which took place after World War

72
 TENTACLES

II. The Americans and B ritish set upon a plan to tr y to dislodge a S oviet bloc
country from Moscow’s influence, believing that this might lead to the shatter-
ing of the Soviet bloc. Albania was chosen because of its political instability, and
because of the belief that a large number of Albanian dissidents were waiting for
the opportunity to revolt. According to the CIA’s Frank Wisner, it was “a clini-
cal experiment to see whether larger r ollback operations [by the OSS] would be
feasible elsewhere.”2
Using bases in M alta and Lib ya, joint commanders J ames M cCargar and
Kim Philby (the head of MI6 division in charge of Eastern Europe and the Sovi-
et U nion, liasing betw een B ritish and American intelligence) super vised the
landing of hundreds of agents into Albania via parachute or across the border of
Greece. Almost all of these operatives were killed or captured. Kim Philby was an
agent in the KGB’s British “ring of five,” and was r un by Yuri Moldin, whose
specialty was r ecruiting and wielding homosexual agents. P hilby defected to
Moscow, and later admitted that he had betray ed the Albanian mission to S oviet
intelligence. E. Howard Hunt played a subordinate role in the Albanian opera-
tion, working out of Washington, D.C.3
Although Danny Casolaro does not state it explicitly in his notes, he appar-
ently conceived the Octopus starting as an anti-Communist response to Philby’s
betrayal; a conclav e of OSS/CIA v eterans, dispersing and coalescing in what
Casolaro called “tag team compartments” and reaping huge profits through assas-
sination, arms sales, the contr ol of go vernments, international dr ug trafficking,
and the promotion of international fascism. 4

Coup d’Etat in Guatemala

The Octopus soon surfaced again. E. Howard Hunt played an important role in
the 1954 o verthrow of Jacobo Arbenz’ Communist-inclined (but not Commu-
nist) government in Guatemala, which had been democratically elected. Arbenz
made the mistake of appr opriating 225,000 acres of land from the United Fruit
Company (later renamed United Brands), an organization alleged to hav e been
established by the Mafia and deeply involved in international drug shipping since
the early 1900s. J ohn Foster Dulles and the S tate Department lined up behind
United Fruit, which was not unusual since Dulles’ law firm represented the com-
pany, and his brother Allen (at that time the director of the CIA) had earlier been
the president of United Fruit. Allen Dulles also shepherded an extensive postwar
collaboration with the Nazis, most notably with Project Paperclip in which hun-
dreds of N azi scientists and soldiers w ere br ought to the U nited S tates. Allen
Dulles ser ved as the international lawy er for G eorge Bush, and on the Warren
Commission, ostensibly investigating the death of John F. Kennedy.

73
THE OCTOPUS

Guatemala was pr evented from buying arms fr om the US or its allies, for cing
Arbenz to pur chase arms fr om the C zechs, which in turn confirmed American
suspicions that G uatemala had gone Communist. The G uatemalan operation
was part and parcel of the activities of the CIA in combatting revolutionary activ-
ity and industrial nationalization in the Caribbean, M exico, and Central
America, later echoed in the CIA ’s attempts to inv ade C uba and assassinate
Cuban premier Fidel Castro.5
The American inv asion of G uatemala was assisted b y the Anti-Communist
League of the Caribbean (ACLC), a group started by ex-FBI, possibly CIA, Min-
uteman, and alleged Kennedy assassination conspirator Guy Banister in the same
year as the takeover. Lee Oswald purportedly knew Banister, used his office, and
was alleged b y priv ate detectiv e J ack M artin to hav e been one of B anister’s
agents.6 Banister and Michael Riconosciuto’s father Marshall have been connect-
ed to UFO activity—hoaxed or other wise—in the Tacoma, Washington region.
(See Chapter 8.)
Significant in understanding the purpose and the r each of the O ctopus is
that the ACLC comprised a portion of what evolved into the World Anti-Com-
munist League, with pr eparatory meetings beginning in 1958, although the
group was not officially founded until 1966. Funding for the WACL was alleged
to have been funnelled thr ough alleged O ctopus member Ray Cline, who had
been a member of the OSS in China, and station chief for the CIA in Taiwan
between 1958 and 1962. R esearcher John Judge has stated that the WACL was
financed by Nationalist Chinese opium money.7
The chairman for the WACL was at one time Major General John Singlaub,
linked closely and repeatedly to alleged Octopus personnel. The WACL has over
time included in its membership N azi SS, Solidarists, mercenaries, death squad
members, and other fascist elements.
Ray Cline had also been influential in fur thering the purposes of the inter-
national right wing in collaboration with Chaing Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang
Kai-shek. In the late 1950s they formed the P olitical Warfare Cadres Academy,
with recruiting managed by the WACL. The Academy has been r esponsible for
training many of the men inv olved in death squads, terr orism, and “unconven-
tional warfare” throughout Latin America. 8

Cuba

When Fidel Castr o—who initially was anti-American, but not Communist—
came to power in Cuba in 1959, he was rebuffed and diplomatically snubbed in
his appeals for aid fr om the US. H e nationaliz ed the countr y’s oil and gas
resources and other industries, cutting American companies out when they had

74
 TENTACLES

only begun to access Cuban resources. Castro also took over the lucrative Mafia-
owned casinos on the island, incurring the wrath of that gr oup. P resident
Eisenhower subsequently approved $13 million for a co vert war against Castr o,
whuch included sabotage missions and at least eight attempts on the C uban
leader’s life by the CIA (following plans drafted by E. Howard Hunt).
A possibly significant factor in the war against C uba was that, prior to Castr o’s
1959 revolution, the island had been a major center for the M afia for her oin and
cocaine pr ocessing and shipping fr om M arseilles. A dr ying-up of this impor tant
drug conduit greatly concerned the Mafia and its long-term partner, the CIA, which
had used the island ’s casinos to launder payments to mobsters. The OSS/CIA’s
partnership with the Mafia had begun with Operation Underworld in 1936. 9
CIA operations targeted against C uba were run by Theodore Shackley and
Thomas Clines out of the JM/WAVE CIA office in Miami, which grew into the
largest CIA station in the world, emplo ying o ver 3,000 agents and operating
through at least 55 dummy corporations. 10 According to a statement b y E.
Howard Hunt, Richard Nixon was the White House “secret action officer ” in
charge of the 53/12 Group of the National Security Council, which ran the Bay
of P igs fiasco .11 The M afia supplied intelligence r eports on C uban tr oops and
ships and r ecruited men for the CIA inv asion for ce. M afia don S antos Traffi-
cante, later implicated b y some r esearchers in the JFK assassination, wor ked
through Frank Sturgis (aka F rank Fiorini), who engaged in pr e-invasion raids
and was a member of the O peration 40 hit squad to assassinate C uban leaders.
Richard Whattley, a mer cenary involved in this operation, stated of the B ay of
Pigs operation that “ Trafficante would or der Sturgis to mo ve his men and he ’d
do it. Our ultimate conclusion was that Trafficante was our backer. He was our
money man.”12
Other members of assassination teams included C ubans F elix R odriguez,
and Rafael “Chi Chi ” Quintero, and M itchell WerBell III, 13 under the super vi-
sion of E. H oward Hunt, whose boss was station chief Theodore G. S hackley.
Quintero appeared frequently in important covert operations, including as a Spe-
cial Forces training advisor in Vietnam, doing jobs for the CIA’s Task Force 157,
and as supply officer for weapons shipments to the contras, working with Shack-
ley, Clines, H akim, and S ecord. Also alleged to hav e been inv olved in
assassination attempts on Castro is Dr. John P. Nichols, the administrator in the
Cabazon/Wackenhut venture which D anny Casolaro investigated. Edwin Wil-
son is said to hav e been a “junior officer ” in the attempts to assassinate Castr o
and his supporters.14
The Bay of Pigs operation, in which 1,400 CIA trained and armed anti-Cas-
tro C ubans inv aded C uba, was led b y Theodore S hackley, and took place on
April 15-19, 1961. The operation was a miserable rout for the anti-Castro forces,

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THE OCTOPUS

and Kennedy was blamed b y many of the inv olved JM/Wave operatives for the
defeat, for withdrawing logistical suppor t.15 A sense of the impor tance ascribed
to the Bay of Pigs operation is pr ovided by E. Howard Hunt in his autobiogra-
phy, Give Us This Day:

No event since the communization of China in 1949 has had such a pro-
found effect on the United States and its allies as the defeat of the
US-trained Cuban invasion brigade at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961.

Out of that humiliation grew the Berlin Wall, the missile crisis, guerrilla war-
fare throughout Latin America and Africa, and our Dominican Republic
intervention. Castro’s beachhead triumph opened a bottomless Pandora’s
box of difficulties that affected not only the United States, but most of its
allies in the free world.

These bloody and subversive events would not have taken place had Cas-
tro been toppled. Instead of standing firm, our government pyramided
crucially wrong decisions and allowed [Cuban unit] Brigade 2506 to be
destroyed. The Kennedy administration yielded Castro all the excuse he
needed to gain a tighter grip on the island of Jose Marti, then moved
shamefacedly into the shadows and hoped the Cuban issue would simply
melt away.

Although not specifically named as a member of the O ctopus by Casolaro,

there is much to suggest that G eorge H. W. Bush was par t of the management
of the Bay of Pigs invasion. This evidence includes the code name of the opera-
tion, Operation Zapata, reflecting the name of B ush’s oil drilling company . At
the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Bush had oil rigs located thirty miles north
of Cuba near Cay S al, an impor tant CIA operations base. F ormer members of
the CIA have alleged that B ush allowed the CIA to use Z apata as a fr ont for its
operations, and that Bush also functioned in disbursing CIA monies to agents in
the area.16
In Casolaro’s notes he makes the follo wing connections: “Z apata—1953—
Narcotics S muggling—Shadow go vt.”17 There ar e other speculativ e links
between Bush and Casolar o’s Octopus, including the fact that the B ush family
fortune was secured in large par t through the rise of H itler, through his father’s
Union Banking Corporation, which acted as a front for the Nazis, specifically the
major German financier F ritz Thyssen. To this day, George Bush retains many
connections linked to the N azis and fascists. G eorge Bush is also a member of
the Yale Skull and Bones secr et society. Founded by General George Russell in
the early 1800’s, Skull and Bones has long been a recruiting ground for the CIA.
General Russell was the anglophile Boston Brahmin said to have dominated
the opium trade in the 1800s as successor to the P erkins opium syndicate. Skull

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 TENTACLES

and Bones recruited from other Boston Brahmin families—such as the B undys,
Coffins, P aynes, S loanes, Tafts, and Whitneys—also alleged to hav e been
involved in the opium markets, with the Bush family historically serving as oper-
atives for these Eastern Establishment inter ests. The curr ent R ussell Trust
organization also has been connected to Wackenhut. Another connection of
George Bush to the O ctopus is his acquaintance with G eorge DeMohrenshildt.
DeMohrenshildt apparently worked as an agent of the CIA, had N azi connec-
tions, may also have been a Soviet agent, and, events suggest, may have been Lee
Harvey O swald’s handler . A ccording to one sour ce, B ush’s connection to D e
Mohrenshildt went back to the late 1940s. B ush’s name and address were found
in D e M ohrenshildt’s addr ess book after the latter ’s death, which took place
shortly before he was supposed to testify befor e the Warren Commission.18
The anonymous Com-12 briefing r efers to the B lack R ose O rganization,
which runs a “Black World Order” using drug monies from the Golden Triangle
and the G olden Crescent. According to this anonymous but intriguing r eport,
the current chairman and co-founder of the B lack Rose is alleged to be G eorge
Bush (known in under world circles as the White Rose). Bush is alleged to hav e
developed a her oin shipment ring while Ambassador in China, and to r un
cocaine from Panama through his offshore oil rigs. 19
Although not noted in this samiz dat document, Theodore Shackley (linked
to drug trafficking in Southeast Asia) was the head of the CIA’s Far East Division
during the time that Bush was the American ambassador to China. When Bush
became CIA dir ector in 1976 he made S hackley Associate D eputy Director of
Operations, the thir d most impor tant position in the CIA. O ne anti-Castr o
group in Miami at the time of the B ay of Pigs was called the White Rose.
The ultimate significance of the White Rose—perhaps leading back to the
real po wer behind international dr ug r unning—may r eside in G eorge B ush’s
association with Boston Anglophile inter ests and his claimed connection to
British royalty; the white rose is the symbol of the H ouse of York, which fought
the War of the R oses against the H ouse of Lancaster . M any r esearchers hav e
noted British aristocratic and banking interests behind world drug trafficking.
An anonymous informant stated to Barbara Honegger that George Bush was
elected an honorar y (i.e. non-Italian) member of the I talian Masonic (and CIA
and Mafia and Vatican-supported) cabal P ropaganda Due (“P2”) in 1976. H is
induction coincided with his appointment as director of the CIA. P2 is an influ-
ential secret society, hardwired into major clandestine networ ks, and kno wn to
have chapters around the world. The terrorism cell within P2, it was disco vered
by Italian police, was called “the Rose of Twenty.”20
David Yallop, in his book In God’s Name, states that, “On the surface P2 was
and still is a fanatical insurance policy against potential Communist go vern-

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THE OCTOPUS

ments. E xcluding I taly, ther e ar e still branches functioning in Argentina,

Venezuela, P araguay, Bolivia, F rance, P ortugal, and N icaragua. M embers ar e
even active in S witzerland and the U nited States. Moreover, P2 interlocks with
the Mafia in Italy, Cuba, and the U nited States. It interlocks with a number of
the military regimes of Latin America and with a v ariety of gr oups of neo-Fas-
cists. It also interlocks v ery closely with the CIA. I t reaches right into the hear t
of the Vatican. Apparently the common interest of all these elements is a hatr ed
and fear of communism.” 21 Note the parallel with the anti-Communist purpose
of the Octopus, as viewed by Danny Casolaro.

Kennedy Assassination

After the B ay of P igs invasion, John F. Kennedy promised “to splinter the CIA
into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.” 22 He did not carr y out his
threat, ho wever, bey ond dismissing Allen D ulles in J uly 1961, and his cohor t
Charles Pearre Cabell in December 1961. Richard Helms, as CIA Deputy Direc-
tor of P lans, r emained. Richar d H elms also had the dubious distinction of
suggesting to Allen Dulles the creation of the CIA’s infamous MK-ULTRA pro-
gram in 1953. 23 Helms became the dir ector of the CIA in 1966. S hortly
thereafter, at the time of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s prosecu-
tion of Clay Shaw, former CIA agent Victor Marchetti overheard Helms during
staff meetings r epeatedly ask an assistant “ Are w e giving S haw all the help w e
can?”24 Still on boar d at CIA after K ennedy’s “purge” was E. H oward Hunt, an
Octo-spook that Casolaro met on the phone. Hunt had helped set up the Bay of
Pigs, was one of the Watergate “plumbers,” and was alleged b y one Lee H arvey
Oswald familiar to hav e inv olved him in a mind-contr ol operation. 25 While
Kennedy stated to aides that “ the CIA will hav e to be dealt with ” before travel-
ling to D allas, the opposite appar ently came tr ue. Persistent allegations placed
Hunt and another Watergate burglar, Frank Sturgis, in Dallas on the day of the
assassination. Some researchers have also alleged that Sturgis and Hunt were two
of the thr ee “hobos” on the railr oad tracks behind the grassy knoll who w ere
arrested by Dallas police. 26 Mark Lane, one of the earliest critics of the Warren
Commission, documented H unt’s inability to defend himself in cour t against
accusations of his pr esence in D allas in his book, Plausible D enial.27 One of
Lane’s key witnesses in that trial, Marita Lorenz, named E. Howard Hunt, Frank
Sturgis, Orlando Bosch, Lee H arvey Oswald, the Novo Brothers, Gerry Patrick
Hemming and Pedro Diaz Lanz as part of a convoy that traveled from Miami to
Dallas for the JFK hit. The N ovos w ere later held for the Lettelier mur ders;
Bosch was imprisoned for bombing a C ubana Airlines jet in O ctober 1976,
killing seventy-three people. Were these more Octopus hits?28

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 TENTACLES

And what of the G eorge B ush addr ess found in the addr ess book of CIA
agent G eorge D eMohrenschildt, a close associate of Lee H arvey O swald’s?
DeMohrenschildt had been a spy for the OSS in German intelligence, and some
have speculated that he also may hav e been B ush’s CIA “handler .”29 Jeanne
DeMohrenschildt alleged that her husband had been a N azi spy,30 and J. E dgar
Hoover had written a memo concerning “Mr . George Bush of the CIA,” who
had been briefed on November 23, 1963, about the reaction to Kennedy’s assas-
sination by anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami.
Bush, Helms and Hunt held keys to answers behind the mother of all assas-
sination conspiracy tales, as w ell as the strings to an O ctopus puppet who may
have had special kno wledge regarding JFK’s death: Richar d Nixon. The Water-
gate tapes of June 23, 1972 have Nixon and H. R. H aldeman, his chief of staff,
scheming to put a halt to the FBI inv estigating Watergate because it might
expose “the Bay of P igs thing.” Later, Haldeman said that he believ ed that the
“Bay of Pigs” phrase was code for JFK’s assassination.31
Researcher Paul Kangas points out that the tape r eveals “Nixon discussing
the role of Bush’s partner, Robert Mosbacher, as one of the ‘Texas fundraisers for
Nixon.’ On the tapes N ixon keeps r eferring to the ‘C ubans’ and the ‘ Texans.’
The ‘ Texans’ w ere B ush, M osbacher and B aker. This is another dir ect link
between Bush and evidence linking N ixon and B ush to the K ennedy assassina-
tion... I n the same discussion N ixon links ‘ the C ubans,’ ‘the Texans,’ H elms,
Hunt, Bernard Barker, Robert Mosbacher and ‘the Bay of P igs.’ Over and o ver
on the Watergate tapes, these names come up around the discussion of the pho-
tos from Dallas that N ixon was tr ying to obtain when he or dered the CIA to
burglarize the Watergate.”32 Frank Sturgis told the San Francisco Chronicle that
“the reason we burglarized the Watergate was because N ixon was inter ested in
stopping news leaking r elating to the photos of our r ole in the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy.”33
In 1976 it was revealed that Richard Helms had lied to the Warren Commission
when he said that the CIA had not made contact with Lee Harvey Oswald (Freedom
of Information Act documents sho wed other wise), but G eorge Bush used Agency
pressure through a call to Associated Press to prevent the story from surfacing.34
The career movements of alleged Octopus member Ted Shackley also illumi-
nate Bush’s secret life: from 1952 to 1959 and 1965 to 1966 S hackley worked in
Germany; in the 1962 to 1964 period he was S tation Chief in M iami; Shackley
became station chief in Saigon and Vientiane from 1964 to 1974 and chief of the
CIA’s Far East D ivision thereafter, while G eorge Bush served as the Ambassador
to China. After Bush’s ascension to CIA director, Shackley was promoted to Asso-
ciate Deputy Director of Operations, considered the agency’s third most powerful
job. Shackley was put in charge of Central American operations. 35

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THE OCTOPUS

Another nexus betw een Casolaro’s research and the JFK assassination con-
cerns the Banca del Lavoro, a state-owned Italian bank that he was investigating
as par t of the BCCI tentacle of the O ctopus. According to the Torbitt Docu-
ment, an unpublished r eport of some contr oversy among r esearchers (although
there does not seem to be an indication that Casolaro had a copy), the Banca del
Lavoro financed the training of an assassination team in M exico, some of whose
members wound up in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.36 The bank’s branch
in Atlanta came under inv estigation for fiv e billion dollars in loans it made to
Saddam H ussein prior to the G ulf War, the so-called I raqgate scandal, with
George Bush at its center.

Southeast Asia

The main sour ces of the her oin supply shipped to America since the 1930s
were established through the actions of the US intelligence agencies, par ticu-
larly the OSS/CIA. B eginning in the mid-‘30s, thr ough a collaboration with
the S icilian-American M afia and the Corsican under world, the OSS helped
create “the French Connection” in M arseilles, France. The CIA, in the early
1950s, also supported the opium-growing Chinese nationalist Kuomintang in
the Burmese Shan states. This was accomplished thr ough two dummy corpo-
rations, Civil Air Transport (later named Air America) and S ea S upply
Corporation, flying in weapons and cash, and flying out raw opium. S ea Sup-
ply had been founded b y CIA man P aul H elliwell, who later play ed a
prominent r ole in the B ay of P igs and other CIA operations against Castr o.
Other airlines were partially or wholly owned by the CIA, and were considered
part of “Air America.” For a sense of the extent of the CIA ’s power, it should
be noted that Air America was the largest airline in the world at the time of the
Bay of Pigs.37
Beginning in 1954, the US began its war against S outheast Asian r evolu-
tionary movements. This meant collaboration with men like Ngo dinh Nhu,
the rich dr ug dealer who was the br other of S outh Vietnam’s President Ngo
dinh D iem, and tribes like the M ontagnards (or Hmong, whose opium the
CIA’s Air America r egularly transported). The Montagnard tribesmen assassi-
nated an estimated 100,000 non-combatants in Cambodia, Laos, and
Thailand. Among the Montagnards in Laos could be found alleged Octopi and
CIA Saigon station chief Shackley, with Thomas Clines working in support of
drug lord Vang Pao and his M eo tribes, with opium being shipped to M afia
lord Santos Trafficante. The Phoenix Project, run by Shackley and Clines (with
alleged participation by another supposed O ctopus operative, Dr. Earl B rian,
as w ell as M ajor G eneral J ohn S inglaub) in S outh Vietnam in 1974-5, was

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 TENTACLES

responsible for killing appr oximately 60,000 civilian Vietnamese, financing

said to have been provided by Vang Pao drug monies. It was during this peri-
od in Vietnam that Clines and S hackley met arms dealer and r ogue-CIA man
Edwin Wilson, with whom they w ere later to become close friends. Wilson is
another person alleged by Casolaro to be a member of the O ctopus.38
Shackley is mentioned in a letter fr om the dr ug lord Khun S a to the US
government dated 28 June 1987: “During the period 1965 to 1975 CIA Chief
in Laos Theodore S hackley was in the dr ug business.” The letter also says:
“Santos Trafficante acted as his buying and transpor ting agent while Richar d
Armitage handled the financial section with banks in A ustralia.”39

Watergate

Danny Casolaro’s investigation of the Octopus continued to note many of the

same individuals appearing and r e-appearing in the major conspiratorial scan-
dals of the era. Casolar o attributed Watergate to the Octopus.
Watergate and the fall of the M afia-funded politician Richar d N ixon
arguably began in April 1971, on the tenth anniversary of the Bay of Pigs deba-
cle. E. Howard Hunt, allegedly retired from the CIA although still working for
the CIA fr ont R obert Mullen & Co ., trav elled to M iami, F lorida to r ecruit
agents for the White House Special Investigations Unit (the P lumbers) from
Bay of Pigs veterans. Richard Helms, an alleged Octopus member and DCI of
the CIA at the time, was informed of the formation of the P lumbers on the
first day of its operation.
The personnel emplo yed in the Watergate burglary were all v eterans of the
Bay of P igs, but mor e impor tantly, all of them also w ere closely linked to the
CIA, either as officials or contract agents. These were E. Howard Hunt, G. Gor-
don Liddy, Bernard Barker (E. Howard Hunt’s lieutenant during the Bay of Pigs
operation), Agency security specialist J ames McCord, E ugenio M artinez (who
had been inv olved in thr ee hundred fifty-four anti-C uban forays, only to find
himself arrested at Watergate), and F rank Sturgis. The CIA furnished psy cho-
logical profiles to the team, and also pr ovided material assistance to Hunt.40
On June 17, 1972, the P lumbers w ere caught in the D emocratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Theories as to
what the Plumbers were doing in the Democratic headquarters vary from planting
or removing an electr onic bug, to the theft of a secr et file of information on a
prostitution ring which implicated D emocratic party figures, or, in another v er-
sion, John Dean. White House aide Chuck Colson came to view the Plumbers as
a team whose first purpose was to spy on Richar d Nixon, owing their allegiance
only to the CIA. Richar d Nixon also believ ed, according to his autobiography ,

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THE OCTOPUS

RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, that he had been trapped: “ The whole thing
was so senseless and bungled that it almost looked like some kind of setup .”41
Casolaro noted: “President Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell were
becoming impossible as far as the O ctopus was concerned. E ven Kissinger was
being difficult in bypassing normal circles of intelligence with Vietnamization and
the China card. Since this was the mission that reaped a windfall, how did all the
pieces come together for the sno wballing of...” [Notes end.] Casolar o undoubt-
edly was r eferring to the distr ust that had dev eloped by 1972 betw een Richard
Helms’ CIA and the Nixon White House. Helms believed that Nixon was trying
to co-opt the po wer of the CIA, and undermine its str ength with plans for a
domestic intelligence agency . A pparently Casolar o believ ed that the Watergate
debacle was a CIA (or O ctopus) operation meant to destr oy N ixon and his
administration.

Assassination in Chile

The Octopus thrashed again in 1973 in Chile. S hackley and Clines headed up
the “Track II” CIA strategy in Chile, acting in support of DCI Helms and Henry
Kissinger in the assassination of democratically-elected P resident S alvador
Allende Gossens (the hit allegedly per formed by two C ubans) and eight other
assassination attempts against Chilean officials. B y his o wn admission, J ohn P.
Nichols, who later ran the Wackenhut/Cabazon enterprise, was inv olved in the
Allende assassination plot. As Casolar o wrote in his notes, “A different, margin-
ally mor e officious costume was worn in Chile. S ince this operation pr ovided
accumulated debt for favors performed, the Octopus was now mature enough to
know how to collect those debts. What were the favors performed, and what was
the due bill?” 42

Iran, Iraq, Libya, and the “October Surprise”

CIA presence in Iran began circa 1953 with Operation Ajax, launched to defend
British oil inter ests in the countr y against nationalist inter ests led b y D r.
Mohammad Mossadegh. With CIA assistance, the S hah retained control in the
country.43 In 1965, Henry Kissinger masterminded a secr et war emplo ying the
Kurds, supporting the S hah against I raq. Additional support to the K urds was
provided by the Israelis. After the Iraqis launched a major attack against Kurdis-
tan, Henry Kissinger washed his hands of the matter , and suspended suppor t.
Starting in 1975, Kissinger , CIA D irector William Colb y, and S hackley inter-
vened in Iran in support of governments friendly to the US. B y 1980, however,
the United States had switched its suppor t to Iraq, in opposition to Iran.

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 TENTACLES

In Libya, Edwin Wilson, along with friend and former CIA man Frank Ter-
pil, worked for Qaddafi, training his air force, providing airplanes, weapons, and
mercenaries, as w ell as a laborator y for the manufactur e of assassination equip-
ment and plastic explosiv es bombs that could be carried thr ough airport metal
detectors. Wilson also offer ed training of Q addafi’s forces in “ espionage, sabo-
tage, and general psy chological war fare.” D uring this period Wilson supplied
reports on his activities to Theodore Shackley at the Agency , and federal cour t
testimony suggests that Wilson was acting thr ough an arrangement with the
CIA. Wilson also hired Cuban Bay of Pigs veterans like Rafael “Chi Chi” Quin-
tero, whom he had met in 1967, through Thomas Clines. Wilson is said to have
made $15 million from this Libyan operation, but it was hardly the only money-
making scheme that he was inv olved in at the time. 44
Casolaro wondered outloud about the actions of the O ctopus: “Who drove
the Shah out of po wer? Can best friends do this to each other? [Casolar o may
have been referring to the relationship between Helms and the Shah dating from
their childhood time together in a S wiss boar ding school.] What r ole did the
Octopus play and for what r easons? Who lit the fir es for the war betw een Iran
and Iraq?”45 Casolaro asked, “What part did the Octopus play? What was its pur-
pose in the big pictur e? Is any pictur e that big? J immy Carter had br uised the
Octopus as badly as Nixon did with more directed focus. Why did the Octopus
come off the ocean floor for this to make sure no rescue was possible? What hap-
pened to those S ea S tallion helicopters, the most dependable helicopter in
aviation history? [This refers to the Car ter Administration’s aborted attempt at
rescuing the Americans held in I ran.] E veryone kno ws that hostages equals
money but why is it that no one has asked what happened to the billions of dol-
lars in frozen assets?” One of the ways in which Jimmy Carter may have “bruised
the Octopus,” as Casolaro noted, was through the imposition of a 1979 embar-
go on the shipment of arms to I ran.
Certainly that bruise healed quickly. Octopus familiar Ted Shackley appeared,
after his alleged r etirement from the CIA in 1979, in 1984 negotiations for the
shipment of arms to Iran by the Reagan administration. Shackley passed informa-
tion from Iranians General Manucher Hashemi and Manucher Ghorbanifar (who
had held influential positions in the SAVAK secret police under the Shah and were
close to the Ayatollah Khomeini) to Oliver North and alleged P2 member Michael
Ledeen in the White House. The Iranians suggested that arms shipments to “mod-
erates” such as themselv es in I ran could do much to pr event the Ayatollah fr om
taking sides with the Soviets, and could speed the release of the American hostages.
The billions of dollars of arms shipments began, using I srael, Taiwan, and S outh
Korea as middlemen, as early as 1981, with some of the pr ofits from the I ranian
shipments being diverted to help the contra cause in N icaragua.

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THE OCTOPUS

Nicaragua

During the Reagan administration the holy banner of a war on dr ugs was used
to cr eate a war in N icaragua against the S andinistas, funded in par t b y illegal
drug trafficking. Prior to the arriv al of guns fr om the CIA in 1982, the contras
were a rag-tag band, b y reports engaging in mor e cattle r ustling than fighting
against the S andinistas. After small success initially against the S andinistas, in
1983 the CIA r edoubled its aid to the contras with additional aid, air suppor t,
and through the mining of N icaraguan ports. At the same time, contra leaders
were negotiating weapons shipments through the Wackenhut/Cabazon arrange-
ment in Indio, California.
While the CIA was engaging in its merr y little war, Congress was initiating
legislation to halt the funding of the contras, and b y 1983 the Boland Amend-
ment r estricted abo ve-board funding of the contras. I n violation of this
Congressional statute as w ell as international law , the CIA w ent ahead with
covert funding and suppor t. After a series of r evelations about US inv olvement
in Nicaragua, however, the contras found that their CIA supplies were beginning
to dry up. Private donations were sought, and channelled to the contras through
the NSC, with M arine Lieutenant Colonel O liver L. North as the official con-
tact point for the contras.
According to a r eport of the S enate S elect Committee on I ntelligence
released in 1987, N orth worked through at least thr ee accounts at the G eneva
branch of Credit Suisse, with monies being channelled to the contras, as w ell as
the Mossad and the Afghan r ebels. Albert Hakim and G eneral Richard Secord
were signatories on the account. The same branch of C redit Suisse was used b y
Manucher Gorbanifar—alleged by the CIA to be a shar ed agent of the M ossad
and the I ranian S avama intelligence agency (successor agency to SA VAK)—as
well as Mossad agent Yacov Nimrodi in the purchase of US armaments for Iran.46
Bush, Shackley, Clines, Singlaub, Hakim, Felix Rodriguez, and Rafael “Chi Chi”
Quintero, pop up again in v arious capacities pr oviding arms to the contras.
Another major par ticipant in the contra supply operation was r etired G eneral
John Singlaub, who had been spotted in alleged Octopus circles since China dur-
ing World War II.47
Did drug running have anything to do with the secr et government’s war in
Nicaragua? Casolaro thought so. In his notes he wr ote: “Exploiting foreign pol-
icy objectiv es with the contras in N icaragua is one thing but why was the
creation of a Latin American equivalent to the Golden Triangle so irresistable?”48
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North’s contra supply operation used known drug
traffickers in the transport of weapons to the contras, and those same traffickers
shipped drugs bought from the contras into the United States, via military bases

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 TENTACLES

which included H omestead Air F orce B ase near M iami. M ajor shipments of
drugs were flown out of the ranch of CIA operative John Hull, who met on sev-
eral occasions with Oliver North. Jack Blum, Special Prosecutor for Senator John
Kerry’s S ubcommittee on Terrorism, N arcotics and I nternational O perations,
said in interview, “There is no doubt in my mind that Oliver North knew about
narcotics trafficking....”49
Blum is not the only one who linked N orth to dr ug trafficking. A ccording
to Tim Ross, a v eteran BBC br oadcaster in Columbia, “I n late ‘84, early ‘85,
North brought five Afghani militar y advisers to Columbia on a speaking tour ,
three left, two stay ed. The two that stay ed were chemists who intr oduced hero-
in manufacturing to Columbia. H e also br ought in an I sraeli agronomist who
helped to cultivate opium poppies.” 50
Although North has denied any involvement in drug trafficking, some entries
in his diaries ar e difficult to explain. J uly 9, 1984: “... wanted air craft to go to
Bolivia to pick up paste, want aircraft to pick up 1,500 kilos.” July 12, 1985: “$14
million to finance Supermarket came from drugs.” The term “Supermarket” refers
to a Honduran weapons depot which was used for contra r e-supply.51
After North left the National Security Council due to his part in the Iran-con-
tra affair, a handwritten flowchart of some of his covert network (which he labeled
“Project D emocracy”) was disco vered in his safe. P roject D emocracy had been
authorized by Reagan’s National Security Decision Directive 77, while North had
been appointed b y NSC dir ector R obert McFarlane to head up the co vert net-
works. North’s flowchart lists approximately twenty “Resource Development” and
“Financial Management” companies as well as gun-running operations (including
Amalgamated Commer cial E nterprises, S outhern Air Transport, Trans World
Arms, Defex-Portugal, and Udall Research Corporation) linked to the CIA’s Gen-
eral Secord, Albert Hakim, Ted Shackley, and Thomas Clines.
One factor links the majority of these companies: funding fr om the National
Endowment for Democracy.52 NED includes in its management H enry Kissinger,
Sally Shelton Colby (the wife of ex-CIA dir ector William Colby), Barbara Haig
(Alexander Haig’s daughter), John Richardson (of the CIA, a former law partner in
Allen Dulles’ Nazi-linked firm, S ullivan and C romwell), Carl G ershman (former
head of Social Democrats, USA and the Young People’s Socialist Alliance), and Jay
Lovestone (founder of the Communist P arty, USA). Links lead fr om Gershman
and Lovestone to the Trust, the Bolshevik group led by Trotsky and Bukharin and
financed by the Morgan Guaranty Trust (a company r un almost entirely by Skull
and Bones members), and associated with Dulles’ Sullivan and Cromwell law firm.
When Dulles formed the CIA, Lovestone’s Socialist labor operations were merged
with it, forming the American Institute for Free Labor Development. Strange bed-
fellows, indeed, in certain cases both literally and figurativ ely.53

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THE OCTOPUS

Some P entagon officials hav e priv ately (and rightly or not) stated that
Kissinger (as w ell as B rzezinski) ar e K GB “ moles.” B rzezinski was allegedly
recruited during the time he was par t of a study gr oup of N ew World O rder
Round Tabler William Yandell E lliot, which included Kissinger as a member .
Kissinger is alleged to have joined a KGB homosexual spy ring which had pene-
trated EUCOM G-2 headquar ters in O berammergau, Germany at World War
II’s end. Kissinger is also closely connected to the Chatham H ouse British intel-
ligence think tank, the nexus of post-Round Table New World Order influence.54
In 1983, the NED was organiz ed as a “ private foundation,” although
financed by Congress to the tune of eighty million dollars. I ts “private” status
kept it safe from Freedom of Information requests as well as governmental audits.
NED has been inv olved in hundreds of programs as a “private CIA,” including
destabilizations of President Marcos of the Philippines and the Panamanian gov-
ernment, support for the Nazi PAN party in Mexico, channeling of money to the
contras, and support for operatives of the M edellin drug cartel. Some observers
have stated that the NED’s operations are more extensive and more effective than
those of the CIA. 55
The NED has been alleged to be a private intelligence network with the pur-
pose of establishing a fascist, corporatist world state, a theme which also seems
to inform the movements of Casolaro’s Octopus. The model of this state can be
observed in Michael Ledeen’s book, Universal Fascism, in which he extolls a fas-
cist state based upon the ideals of G abriele d’Annunzio, Mussolini’s predecessor.
Ledeen was connected to P-2, which was in turn connected to the NSC. 56
Reporting directly to North (as well as being a consultant in the Pentagon and
State D epartment) was M ichael Ledeen. Ledeen was r esponsible for obtaining
Israeli Mossad spy J onathan Pollard his job in the D epartment of the N avy, for
establishing a line of Israeli influence into the NSC, and is known in Italy to have
been a member of the Propaganda Due (P2) Masonic lodge. P2, with a member-
ship believed to include Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig, is the organization
known to have taken over the highest lev els of Italian government and responsi-
ble during the ‘70s and ‘80s for an attempted bankr upting of the Vatican, in an
alliance that linked the P2, the K GB, and major networks of drug trade.
The Wall Street Journal detailed a meeting between Alexander Haig, Michael
Ledeen, and high-ranking P2 member and number two man in I talian intelli-
gence Francesco Pazienza. Pazienza is said to have been involved in shipments of
US arms to Iran arranged by the Reagan administration.57
The dir ect historical antecedent of P2 was the P ropaganda U no lodge of
Freemasons Giacomo Mazzini and Albert Pike. In the 19th century P1 was direct-
ly involved in the cr eation of M arxism, anarchism, and syndicalism; in pr ograms
sponsoring both fascism and communism; and in a plan reportedly launched at the

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 TENTACLES

1815 Congress of Vienna designed to combat the spread of the democratic move-
ment of the United States. At the Congress of Vienna it is alleged that a pr ogram
to institute a “New Age” was concocted, and that Italian Fascism, German Nazism,
and the Bolshevik r evolution were variant attempts at international political dis-
ruption. Is this the essence of the philosophy of the men in Casolar o’s Octopus?58

The October Surprise

The October Surprise, if factual, can be viewed as yet another stunning coup d’e-
tat, like the assassination of K ennedy and the ouster of N ixon. The O ctober
Surprise is the persistent allegation that individuals high in the administration of
Ronald R eagan had, with or without the pr esident’s kno wledge, arranged for
fifty-two American hostages held in I ran to be detained until after his election,
thus stealing the thunder (and a landslide of v otes) from his opponent, J immy
Carter, derailing his reelection. Casolaro on the October Surprise (as well as the
Inslaw case), excerpted from his Behold, a Pale Horse book proposal:
“While rumors of the hostage release delay circulated for years after the election
of Ronald Reagan, it wasn’t until 1988 that testimony [was] offer ed by two covert
operatives in two differ ent courts regarding their knowledge and participation of a
hostage-release stall managed b y then R eagan campaign chief William Casey. But
now, two mor e covert operatives have emerged fr om that deser t reservation in the
journey of this stor y effort to confirm that pr evious testimony and pr ovide richer
details regarding the launder ed payment b y the S audis and other par ticularities in
order to prevent what Casey feared the most, a surprise release of the hostages before
the election almost guaranteeing windfall v otes for P resident Jimmy Car ter. The
alleged reward to another Reagan insider for that mission to I ran in the summer of
1980 has been almost wholly responsible for the leaks leading to this odyssey. For it
was in that r eward in the form of a multimillion dollar go vernment contract that
technologies were found to have been stolen by the government from another com-
pany. In that other company’s recovery from bankruptcy, its CEO has been the real
life star and gumshoe in this drama that continues to unfold each day .”59
Casolaro also wrote:
“Since Reagan was not a favored son of the octopus, why did it work so hard
to insure his selection in 1980? Even if the participation by campaign officials in
holding the hostages until the election was limited to just the acquiescence of
smiling gentlemen who kne w better, why was the v eil removed when it could
have been so absolutely secret?”60
Casolaro obviously believed in stories that a deal had been str uck by George
Bush and other members of the R eagan administration with the Ayatollah
Khomeini to detain the hostages. That arms shipments to “moderate factions” in

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THE OCTOPUS

Iran had begun shor tly after the deposing of the S hah, as early as 1980, is fact.
The evidence for the “O ctober Surprise” begins with statements of A bolhassan
Bani-Sadr, the former president of Iran, who claimed after-the-fact knowledge of
the event. Another source backing up the Bani-Sadr story was Ari Ben-Menashe,
a member of I sraeli intelligence, who corr oborated Bani-Sadr and also offer ed
insider knowledge about the Inslaw case.
Other sources varied in terms of their credibility. Additionally suggestive is that
there is a twenty-one hour gap in George Bush’s schedule corresponding to the time
he is supposed to hav e been in Paris negotiating the hostage detainment, and con-
flicting stories fr om Bush and his staff about what he was doing when the alleged
negotiation with the I ranians took place. I n an affidavit A ttorney Paul D. Wilcher
sent to A ttorney General Janet Reno, he too detailed the existence of a “S hadow
Government,” parallelling in precise terms the Casolaro Octopus, and their partic-
ipation in the O ctober Surprise: “ The October Surprise treason refers to the top
secret trip then-Vice Presidential candidate and former CIA D irector George Bush
(along with a planeful of some tw enty-five to thir ty other top CIA co vert opera-
tives—including a handful of prominent Republican and Democratic Senators and
Congressmen) took to Paris on the weekend of October 18th and 19th, 1980.
While in P aris, B ush secr etly met with r epresentatives of the Ayatollah
Khomeini, paid them bribes in the amount of $40 million, and promised to deliv-
er to the man additional $5 billion in arms (the shipments of these arms began
flowing even before the election), in ex change for the I ranians’ agreement NOT
to r elease the fifty-two American hostages they held in Tehran until after the
November 4th, 1980, US Presidential elections—in order to guarantee the humil-
iation and defeat of P resident Jimmy Car ter in that election—and in or der to
cement the CIA’s lock on the White House for the next twelve years under George
Bush. The Reagan and Bush Administrations—and Congress, in separate House
and Senate October Surprise investigations in 1992 —have tried to tell us that the
October Surprise never happened—that B ush and his CIA cr onies never made
this secret trip to P aris on O ctober 18th and 19th, and that no secr et deal with
the Iranians was ev er str uck. But that simply is not tr ue—as the sixteen co vert
operatives r eferred to belo w will demonstrate in their for thcoming testimony.
They will ev en produce a video tape to pr ove both the “O ctober Surprise” trea-
son, and George Bush’s participation in it—beyond all shadow of any doubt.”
Mr. Wilcher, age for ty-six, was later found in his apar tment dead fr om
unknown causes. 61
Also inv olved in shipments of arms to I ran was the I talian M asonic P-2
lodge, according to the sour ces of researcher Barbara Honegger. The grandmas-
ter of the P-2 was Licio G elli, who allegedly was closely linked to Theodore
Shackley when the latter was stationed in R ome.62

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 TENTACLES

Cabazon/Wackenhut

Alleged Octopus member John P. Nichols arrived at the Cabazon reservation in

1978. One former CIA man, however, who chooses to remain anonymous, said
in an interview that Wackenhut had a presence on the Cabazon reservation since
at least 1959, and that, “G uys hav e disappear ed do wn ther e [at the Cabaz on
reservation] for a long time.”
The Wackenhut/Cabazon connection includes a number of players pivotal in
Casolaro’s Octopus investigation. Here, in an endeavor run by one of the largest
private police forces in the world, contras and criminals bargained for arms ship-
ments, and met with CIA operativ es. H ere, testing of fuel-air explosiv es w ere
allegedly per formed, a technology said to hav e been used later b y extr emist
Islamic groups against the US militar y in Iran. Here, the voicing of an unwant-
ed opinion, as in the case of F red Alvarez, might leave your life forfeit. With his
investigation of the Cabazon reservation, Danny Casolaro was treading on dan-
gerous ground, indeed.
Many of the events that took place in the final days of D anny Casolaro’s life
are connected to Wackenhut. Casolaro was inv estigating the unsolv ed murders
of Alvarez and his friends on the Cabaz on reservation—and planned to visit the
reservation. Casolar o’s death is alleged to hav e occurr ed shor tly after he had
requested an interview with John Philip Nichols about the Cabazon/Wackenhut
collaboration. Casolaro’s contact with two women who looked “ too good to be
true,” may hav e been just that. Wackenhut has been sho wn to use women to
compromise their targets, as in Wackenhut covert operations connected to the
Alaskan pipeline. I s it possible that these women w ere pumping Casolar o for
information, to find out just what he knew and just what leads he was following?
Some of the figures with whom Casolaro was associating with were connected to
Wackenhut, including N ichols and Riconosciuto . Finally, the Com-12 briefing
alleges that the Wackenhut Special S ervices Team and the NSA contacted the
Martinsburg P olice and told them that they would inv estigate the Casolar o
death, and that the police should keep this secr et.

Nugan Hand Bank

“It didn’t take many people to design the apparatus that would insur e the renewal
of the lease for the Pine Gap installation near Alice Springs, Australia. After all, how
could a democracy spit up a Prime Minister that could sack the security of theWest-
ern Alliance? What about tentacle operations of the O ctopus in Angola, Rhodesia,
Zimbabwe, Mozambique and N igeria? Was this another case of w earing the right
costume again, as in Chile? P olitically correct assistance can co ver the cover of the

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THE OCTOPUS

Octopus for anything—dr ug trafficking, thr oughout Asia and the M ideast, arms
dealing and murder. But what happened to the money—nearly a billion dollars?” 63
The functions of the American Pine Gap installation in Australia include the
receipt and transferral of information fr om spy satellites, the inter ception of
phone calls from Europe, and the r elaying of messages to the American nuclear
submarine fleet. Gough Whitlam, the Labor Party candidate elected prime min-
ister of Australia in 1972, was concerned about the cozy relationship between the
ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, and the CIA, and that
ASIO had gone r ogue. This in turn caused concern at the CIA. Ted Shackley is
said to have gone “paranoid” and to hav e ordered a dimunition of the informa-
tion made available to them, while Ray Cline mentions “ a period of turbulence
to do with Alice Springs.”
Fearing the curtailment of their Australian operations due to an approach-
ing r enewal date for the P ine G ap base, the CIA flex ed their muscles, and
perhaps a couple of tentacles. O n N ovember 8, 1975, a message of pr otest
about Prime Minister Whitlam was sent by Theodore Shackley to the head of
ASIO. On May 11, 1975, the CIA and OSS-connected G overnor General of
Australia John Kerr removed Whitlam as the head of go vernment, using con-
stitutional pretext. According to CIA analyst K evin Mulcahy, the CIA effor t
was headed b y Milton Wonus, a friend of N ugan Hand Bank’s (and possibly
the CIA’s) Bernie Houghton.64
After removing Whitlam from office, the Octopus was still not finished with
Australia. At 4 A.M. on January 27, 1980, the body of banker Frank Nugan was
found in his Mercedes in Lithgow, Australia. He had died from a single gunshot
from the .30 caliber rifle which lay on the seat beside him. Nugan had been half
owner, with partner Michael Jon Hand, in Nuhan Ltd., a group of banks found-
ed in 1973, whose most visible subsidiar y was N ugan Hand bank in A ustralia
(and whose name is usually applied to the enterprise). H and had been a G reen
Beret in Vietnam, working closely with Air America, his commanding officer at
the time being William Colby.
Hand is also alleged b y former associates to hav e been a dr ug-runner. The
deceased F rank N ugan had been a lawy er in A ustralia. O thers connected to
Nugan H and included the pr esident of the bank, US R ear A dmiral Earl P .
“Buddy” Yates; the pr esident of N ugan Hand Inc., Hawaii, Brigadier General
Edwin F. Black; and a number of other senior CIA officials. Black had served in
the OSS, been a member of the N ational S ecurity Council, and had com-
manded all US troops in Thailand during the Vietnam War. The company also
retained as a lawy er William Colby, former head of the CIA. B lack had been
Colby’s OSS commander . I nquiries additionally sho wed that the majority of
shareholders in Nuhand, Ltd. were connected to the CIA in some capacity.65

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 TENTACLES

According to former CIA man Vincent Marchetti, the author of the classic
The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, speaking on Australian radio in October of
1980, Nugan Hand “...doesn’t seem to be a [CIA] proprietary in the full sense of
the word, that is, o wned and controlled by the agency, nor does it seem to be a
simple front organization. I t seems to be mor e of an independent organization
with former CIA people connected with it, and they ’re in business to make
money, but because of their close personal relationship with the agency they will
do favors for the Agency.
“This would include providing cover in some instances for operators, it would
include laundering of money, it would include cutouts for any sort of highly clan-
destine activity the Agency is involved in but does not want to be any way directly
connected with. When these organizations cooperate with the agency, the Agency
uses its influence, both dir ectly within the go vernment and indir ectly thr ough
other proprietaries and through other friendly organizations within the establish-
ment, to thr ow business the company ’s way because they want the company to
flower and succeed because it pr ovides good cover for them.” 66
Shortly after the death of Nugan, Michael Hand, Yates, and CIA-connected
alleged drug-runner Bernie Houghton led a group of former Southeast Asia mil-
itary operativ es in sev eral ransackings of N ugan H and files. A r oomful of
documents were shredded in the process.67
Inquiries following the death of N ugan found that N uhan Ltd., which had
been claimed to hav e moved one billion dollars thr ough its channels each y ear,
was flat broke. The company was placed under the control of a bankruptcy court.
With prosecution of the bank pending, in J une, 1980, M ichael Hand and
Bernie Houghton fled A ustralia and v anished. The only lead about the curr ent
whereabouts of Michael Hand is offered by the anonymous Com-12 document:
“Hand is currently the most wanted individual the Australian government has its
sights on. H e is living in the M iddle East under the pr otection of an I slamic
group by the name of the ‘G rey Wolves.’”68
The business of N ugan H and was laundering money , par ticularly money
connected to illegal activities, including the sale of dr ugs. Neil Evans, who was
the chief r epresentative for N ugan Hand in the major B angkok drug terminus
Chiang Mai has stated that Nugan Hand was an intermediary between the CIA
and S outheast Asian dr ug rings. N ugan H and, ho wever, was also engaged in
activities that hav e v ery little to do with mo ving money. The letters of J ohn
Owen, hired as a r epresentative of N ugan Hand in S outheast Asia, sent in the
course of his daily operations to the bank, are filled with reports on troop move-
ments and military activities in Cambodia and other ar eas.69
Nugan Hand was also involved in the financing of a number of CIA-connect-
ed operations in Africa, with Hand and Houghton dealing with friends like Major

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THE OCTOPUS

General Richard Secord, Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero, and alleged Octopus stalwart
Theodore Shackley. The Com-12 document links another alleged member of the
Octopus to Nugan Hand: “The drug-proceeds ... wound up deposited in N ugan-
Hand B ank in A ustralia after D r. Earl B rian carried the bank codes out of
Southeast Asia using formal diplomatic immunity.”70
Casolaro noted sev eral Octopus/Nugan Hand forays in his papers, including
the propping up of tiny minority white go vernments in Rhodesia (no w Zimbab-
we) and Angola. Millions of blacks in these countries were not allowed to vote, and
their efforts to take control of their homelands were characterized by the CIA and
Establishment pr ess as Communist. Arms sales to these white minority go vern-
ments w ere engineer ed b y E dwin Wilson with B ernie H oughton and M ichael
Hand representing Nugan Hand, which provided financing.71
An anonymous but intriguing document is the Kiwi G emstone, alternately
known as the O pal File, pr ovided a gr eat deal of additional information about
Nugan Hand, placing the operation within a greater international Mafia context.72

Egypt

In 1979 Edwin Wilson and Theodore Shackley formed EATSCO, the Egypt-
ian American Transport and S ervices Corporation, which, accor ding to some
sources, obtained an ex clusive and highly lucrativ e Pentagon contract to ship
US arms to E gypt. Wilson also included in the par tnership Richar d S ecord,
Thomas Clines, Hussein K. Salem, and Erich von Marbod (at the time Deputy
Director of the D efense Security Assistance Agency in the P entagon). Secord
and his partners were indicted in 1983 for $8 million in “billing abuses” to the
government. Michael Ledeen, at the time a State Department advisor, stepped
in, suggesting to US Attorney E. Lawrence Barcella that the overcharged funds
may have been used for the funding of black operations (thus r endering them
a “hands-off ” proposition for pr osecution). Secord retired from the Pentagon
in 1983, after the EA TSCO scandal, then star ted another company ,
IRANSCO, with Albert Hakim, in order to ship arms to I ran.73

Bombing of Pan Am 103

The anonymous Com-12 briefing provided a CIA connection to the bombing

of Pan Am Flight 103. The following excerpt describes this connection:
One of Casolaro’s many mistakes was his sudden interest, shortly before his
death, in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Killed
on board the flight, among many others, were Ron Laviviere, Bill Leyere and
Dan O’Connor—all CIA operatives from the Beirut station. Also killed was

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 TENTACLES

Matthew Gannon, the Chief of Station, CIA, Beirut office. The Toronto Star did
a story by John Pictton which was right in every aspect.

The commander in charge of their team was a US Army intelligence officer

by the name of Charles McKee, one of the individuals in charge of counter-
terrorist operations in the Middle East. Part of the information that was in
transit with these now-deceased individuals was material which could be
used to destroy the “Enterprise.” Included was the connection to the Syrian
drug smuggling ring and the man by the name of Manozar Al-Kassar. Kas-
sar was deeply involved in the drugs and arms for hostages deal with
Secord, North, Poindexter, Hakim, and all the others of the Black Rose Group.

McKee’s operation uncovered an Aqua-Tech group (CIA deep cover opera-

tives) which was actually the team the CIA employed to help provide cover
protection, safe routing and screening procedures for the Middle East drug-
running operations. Part of their duties was to cover and deflect interest from
other intelligence offices from Europe and other countries, especially US
agencies and, in particular, another deep cover operation working some-
where within the Office of Naval Intelligence.

The ONI [Office of Naval Intelligence] Group is working currently to topple

the “Enterprise” and restore the intelligence community to fall back within the
guidelines of their original intent. The most pertinent of their motives is a sal-
vage operation on the US Constitution and the prevention of an extreme
right-wing, fascist wing within the US government and intelligence commu-
nities (known to many as Aquarius or the Fourth Reich [Order of the Rose]).

West German intelligence and Mossad uncovered the fact that a bomb had
been placed on board PanAm Flight 103 by detecting a different briefcase
than the one regularly used by the drug smuggler. As mentioned, McKee’s
team was on board the same flight with key evidence which would be dev-
astating to the “Enterprise.” When the bomb information was relayed to the
proper sources, the reporting agencies were ordered by the CIA Cover Oper-
ations Group to “Disregard.”

The parameters of this operation reach to the highest levels of many world
governments. The Gander, Newfoundland crash is also linked, as well as the
bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut.74

The S & L Crisis and BCCI:

During the R eagan administration, r ules r egulating the practices of S avings and
Loan institutions w ere relaxed, creating an influx of speculation—not to mention
outright thievery —in a normally conser vative financial zone. Vice President Bush
took the helm of aTask Force on Financial Regulation in charge of this area of finan-
cial investment, and may also hav e been in charge of a systematic looting of the

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THE OCTOPUS

nation’s Savings and Loan associations by the intelligence community and associat-
ed organiz ed crime elements. R esearch into tw enty-seven S avings and Loans
“failures” during the 1990s evidence sho wed that a large per centage of these busi-
nesses had been owned by individuals with ties to the CIA, and that many of these
institutions had made large (and often unsecured) loans to individuals linked to the
CIA and organized crime. Profits accrued from the looting of the S&Ls were some-
times used in the financing of the contra movement. Predictably, the CIA moved to
block the investigation of operatives connected to the S & L and bank failur es.
One case of an S&L nosediv e is instr uctive. Stefan H alper and H arvey D.
McClean, Jr. were co-workers on the 1980 Bush campaign. Halper had also been
the son-in-law of alleged Octopus member Ray Cline. McClean was connected to
organized crime figure Herman K. Beebe, an associate of Mafia don Carlos Mar-
cello. Beebe provided funding for the P almer National Bank, which H alper and
McClean founded in 1983. Palmer Bank engaged in lending to persons and orga-
nizations providing aid to the contras, funds which included money sent to Oliver
North’s Swiss bank accounts. Halper later set up the legal defense fund for North.
Another bank failur e was Vision Banc Savings, owned by Robert I. Corson,
identified as a money launder er by federal sources, and also r eputed to be a CIA
operative. Corson’s bank was inv olved in a number of highly lucrativ e land pur-
chases and resales in 1986. These transactions, according to the Christic Institute,
were made b y buy ers connected to the CIA and the M afia, using a por tion of
Manuel Noriega’s cocaine profits. After the funds were transferred to Vision Banc,
they were transferred as unsecur ed loans to a number of companies inv olved in
the funding of the contras and r un b y Richar d S ecord. S ecord and Theodore
Shackley were both on the receiving end of funds in the collapse of several S&Ls.
The George Bush family also took advantage of the virtually unregulated state
of the industr y. Bush sons Jeb and Neil both made out like bandits fr om the col-
lapse of S&Ls. The Federal D eposit I nsurance Corporation (FDIC) absorbed a
$4.6 million loan that Jeb Bush and Armando Codina (the leader of the right-wing
Cuban American National Foundation) had defaulted on to the B roward Federal
Savings and Loan in S unrise, Florida, despite the par tners’ possession of posh r eal
estate holdings in Miami. Neil Bush and two partners in Good International, Inc.
defaulted on $132 million in loans fr om Silverado Banking Savings and Loan, for
which Bush had ser ved on the Boar d of Directors from 1985 to 1988. B ush had
not disclosed his connections to the firm when arranging the loan.
Neil Bush is also connected, through the receipt of an $86 million dollar loan
to his company, to Robert Corson and Herman Beebe, Sr., the figures mentioned
above in the collapse of S&Ls. Brother Jeb Bush is also connected to Wayne Reed-
er, an associate of B eebe, who defaulted on a $14 million loan fr om Silverado.
Reeder was a partner of John Philip Nichols of alleged Octopus infamy, and was

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 TENTACLES

present at meetings at the Cabazon reservation attended by contra leaders—bring-

ing full circle to the odyssey of the O ctopus that Casolaro tracked.75
The most pr ominent of dominoes in the collapse of CIA-linked banks was
the Pakistani-owned Bank of C redit & Commer ce International, its four hun-
dred subsidiaries shut do wn in sixty-two countries in 1991. BCCI was engaged
in laundering money fr om drug profits and arms-trade, pr oviding banking for
known international terr orists, and the razing of national tr easuries. BCCI was
also at hand for the National Security Council when it needed a conduit for con-
tra money or for other co vert measures.
An informant stated to Time magazine that, “BCCI was a full-ser vice bank.
They not only financed arms deals that one go vernment or another wanted to
keep secret, they shipped the goods in their o wn ships, insur ed them with their
own agency and provided manpower and security. They worked with intelligence
agencies from all the Western countries and did a lot of business with East bloc
countries.”76 Time quoted an unnamed American S tate Department official who
said, “when you look at the S audi support of the contras, ask y ourself who the
middleman was: ther e was no go vernment-to-government connection betw een
the Saudis and Nicaragua...
“It was BCCI that financed and brokered [Chinese] Silkworm missiles that went
to Saudi Arabia, and those were equipped with sophisticated Israeli guidance systems.
When you couldn’t sue dir ect government transfers or national banks, BCCI was
there to hot-wire the connections between Saudi Arabia, China, and Israel.”77
Drugs were a major part of the revenues of the bank. According to a US
intelligence officer quoted by Time, “If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US
that forthright investigations are not being pursued, it has a lot to do with the
blind eye the US turned to the her oin trafficking in Pakistan.”78
Among the clients of BCCI w ere Manuel Noriega, Ferdinand Marcos, Sad-
dam H ussein, and the P alestinian terr orist A bu N idal. When BCCI w ent
belly-up, investigators estimated that $10 billion or mor e was missing fr om the
bank’s coffers.79
According to US inv estigators, the US J ustice Department acted to inter fere
in probes of bank illegalities, including the blocking of a deposition by a key wit-
ness. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau stated, “ We have had no
cooperation from the Justice Department since we first asked for records in March
1990. In fact they are impeding our investigation, and Justice Department repre-
sentatives are asking witnesses not to cooperate with us.” 80
Researcher Sherman Skolnick discussed BCCI and the O ctober Surprise:
“A source on the committee r ecently told me that the committee wanted to
bring out the fact that ther e are large private business deals—not go vernment to
government, but private business deals—between George Bush and former Pana-

95
THE OCTOPUS

manian dictator G eneral Manuel Noriega and betw een Bush and I raqi dictator
Saddam Hussein.
“These deals went through BCCI and through another bank which interfaces
with BCCI, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). However, there’s great pres-
sure not to bring that out at the hearings.
“So can we have confidence in Kerry’s committee? You can judge for yourself.
Kerry is, along with P resident Bush, a member of the S kull & Bones S ociety at
Yale University... Kerry is also chairman of the D emocratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee, which has received campaign contributions from BCCI. Kerry him-
self received a $5,000 contribution from BCCI officials.” 81
The connection of BCCI to P resident Bill Clinton was discussed in an inter-
view with Tom Brown, who inv estigated both the M ena, Arkansas drug and arms
transshipment point (See Chapter 20), as w ell as the “B ank of Crooks and Crimi-
nals, International.” Brown mentioned Stephens Inc., stating that, “ This company
is one of the biggest bond sales and inv estment banking firms in the countr y. It’s
located right in Little R ock, Arkansas and has a dispr oportionate influence on the
government of the state of Arkansas. Back in 1977, Stephens Inc. invited some peo-
ple from BCCI to come into this country, and they set up the purchase of what has
now become First American Bankshares in Washington. Now in December of 1991
the Arkansas Democrat had a report entitled ‘Reports Link Stephens to BCCI.’ The
story was written by Hal Brown and identifies the same Curt Bradbury not only as
a former Stephens employee, but as chairman, president and chief executive officer
of Worthen National Bank. Bradbury is quoted as saying, ‘First of all, I don’t know
anything about any BCCI ties, and neither do y ou.’ This is in D ecember of 1991.
Remember, it was in 1977 that S tephens, Inc. invited BCCI into this countr y and
organized the whole BCCI takeo ver of Clark Clifford’s First American Bankshares.
It just so happens Stephens Inc. owns 38 percent of Worthen National Bank. Now
we go back to A ugust of 1991. A t that time ther e was another ar ticle in the no w-
defunct Arkansas Gazette. This article was entitled ‘Little R ock on the BCCI r oute
to power.’ The article was written b y Paul Barton. I quote this ar ticle: ‘Curt Brad-
bury, then a financial analyst for S tephens I nc., and no w chairman and chief
executive officer of Worthen National Bank of Arkansas provided [a BCCI officer]
research about F inancial G eneral, including a copy of its latest r eport. Financial
General was the parent company of the National Bank of Georgia, the bank run by
Bert Lance [longtime crony of former President Jimmy Carter].’
“That pur chase of F inancial G eneral and the N ational B ank of G eorgia is
what evolved into First American Bankshares, the Clar k Clifford bank in Wash-
ington. What is the Clinton connection? Worthen National Bank (headed by the
aforementioned Bradbury) gave Clinton a $2.5 million line of credit for his pres-
idential campaign.”82

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 TENTACLES

No less of an Establishment mouthpiece than Time magazine has talked about

the connections of BCCI to an organization called “ the black networ k,” which
“functions as a global intelligence operation and a M afia-like enforcement squad.
Operating primarily out of the bank ’s offices in Karachi, P akistan, the 1,500-
employee black networ k has used sophisticated spy equipment and techniques,
along with bribery, extortion, kidnapping and ev en, by some accounts, mur der.”
One wonders if this “black networ k” might not be identical to G eorge B ush’s
Black Rose, and a controlling tentacle of Casolaro’s Octopus.83
An Arab operative of the Black Network states, “I was r ecruited by the black
network in the early 1980s. They came to me while I was in school in the US;
they spoke my language, kne w all my friends and gav e me money. They told me
they wanted me to join the organization, and described its w ealth and political
power, but at first they nev er said exactly what the organization did.” 84

Summary

What Danny Casolaro had come to see was a collusion of international crime and
political power focused around a handful of men, primarily CIA operativ es, who
had banded together after World War II. Following the associations that Casolaro
made, starting with the OSS in Albania, the trail of mur der and conspiracy led
from this tight net of good old bo ys in US intelligence to a complex w eave of
major international criminals and po wer br okers; to N azis and fascists at least
sometimes wearing the uniform of the US militar y, to dr ug trafficking networks
melding seamlessly into international banking; to priv ate armies and death
squads; to secret societies such as S kull & Bones and P2; to men busily engaged
in looting banking institutions and national tr easuries; and to the pr esidents and
potentates of the world. These men reaped and are still reaping staggering profit
while at the same time constr ucting omnipresent world criminal and fascist net-
works—and all in the name of anti-Communism.
What Danny Casolaro planned to expose was an O ctopus indeed, and cer-
tainly no figment of his imagination.

————
1. Prados, John, Presidents’ Secret Wars, William Morrow and Company, New York, 1986, p. 155.
2. Prados, p. 46.
3. Prados, p. 51.
4. Casolaro notes; Ridgeway & Vaughan, pp. 37-38.
5. Swomley, John M., American Empire, Macmillan Company, New York, pp. 153-157.
6. Kangas, Paul, “The Role of Richard Nixon and George Bush in the Assassination of P resident

97
THE OCTOPUS

Kennedy,” The Realist 117; Kohn, Howard, “The Secret Alliances of the CIA fr om World War II
to Watergate,” Rolling Stone, May 20, 1976; Russell, Dick, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Carrol
& Graf, 1994.
7. Judge, John, “Nazis in the White House.”
8. Anderson, Scott, and Anderson, Jon Lee. Inside the League. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York
1986. pp. 55-56, 58.
9. Kohn.
10. Swomley, p. 168-177; Kimery, Anthony, L. “In the Company of Friends,” Covert Action Infor-
mation Bulletin #41.
11. Kohn.
12. Ibid.
13. Kwitny, p. 277.
14. Prados, p. 366.
15. Kohn; O’Toole, G.J.A. The Encyclopedia of American Intelligence and Espionage. Facts On File,
New York, 1988, p. 49.
16. Kimery.
17. Casolaro notes; “Last Days,” Ridgeway & Vaughan, p. 37.
18. Russell, Dick, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Carrol & Graf, 1994, p. 272.
19. Com-12.
20. Honnegger, Barbara, October Surprise, New York: Tudor Publishing Company,, 1989. pp. 240-242.
21. David Yallop, In God’s Name .
22. Summers, Anthony, Conspiracy, New York: Paragon House, 1989, p. 226; Hurt, Henry, Rea-
sonable Doubt, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1985, p. 283.
23. Russell, p. 381.
24. “Secret Alliances of the CIA,” Matrix III, p. 659.
25. See Chapter 12: Interview with Kerry Thornley, Steamshovel Press #5, Summer 1992, p. 17.
26. The charges were first made in the 1975 book Coup D’Etat In America by Alan J. Weberman
and Michael Canfield (The Third Press, 1975); and were offered again as recently as Robert Gro-
den’s ex cellent photo study of the assassination, The Killing O f A P resident, New York: V iking
Studio Books, 1993.
27. Lane, Mark, Plausible Denial, New York: Thunder’s Mouth, 1991.
28. “JFK’s Killers Apprehended,” Yipster Times.
29. Kimer y, Anthony L., “I n The Company of F riends,” Covert A ction #41; “S ecret Alliance,”
Matrix III.
30. Brussell, Mae, “Nazi Connection to JFK Assassination.”

98
 TENTACLES

31. Haldeman, H. R., The Ends of Power, with Joseph DiMona, New York: Times Books, 1978, p.
39. In later years, Haldeman reached the disingenuous conclusion that Nixon was referring to the
CIA cover-up of Fidel Castro’s involvement in the JFK assassination. As ne w files on the assassi-
nation are released, the CIA continues to hint at this as an explanation for its ob vious moves at
cover-up. The heroic motivation for protecting Castro, according to this scenario, was to av oid a
nuclear confrontation with his sponsors in his Soviet Union. In Ends of Power, however, the infor-
mation is being used to blackmail H elms—had the agency indeed acted so her oically to sav e the
world from nuclear conflagration, blackmail would not hav e been much of a pr ospect.
32. Kangas.
33. San Francisco Chronicle, May 7, 1977.
34. Matrix III.
35. Kimery.
36. Torbitt, William, Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal, 1970.
37. Kohn.
38. “Behind the Iran/contra Affair,” Christic Institute pamphlet.
39. Bleifuss, Joel, “Scandal Gates,” In These Times, Sept. 18-24, 1991.
40. Kohn; Prados, pp. 324-325.
41. Kohn.
42. Casolaro notes.
43. Prados, pp. 94-97.
44. Kwitny, p. 102-103
45. Casolaro notes.
46. Brewda, Joseph. “Senate Report Attacks ‘Parallel Government,’” Executive Intelligence Review,
Feb 13, 1987.
47. Prados, p. 382; Kimery; “Behind the Iran/contra Affair,” Christic Institute pamphlet.
48. Casolaro notes.
49. Shadow, Feb/May, 1995, pg. 21.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Zoakos, Criton. “ Tower Commission Co vers up for ‘P roject Democracy,’” Executive Intelli-
gence Review, March 13, 1987.
53. Ibid.
54. Thompson, Scott. “P roject Democracy: ‘Glasnost’ Submarine in US I ntelligence,” Executive
Intelligence Review, Mar 13, 1987.
55. Ibid.

99
THE OCTOPUS

56. B enton, N icholas F. “‘Parallel G overnment’ E xposed b y EIR R eport,” Executive I ntelligence
Review, April 17, 1987.
57. Honegger, p. 124; Servadio, Leonardo, “Ledeen’s Spanish Connection,” Executive Intelligence
Review, March 20, 1987.
58. Ibid.
59. Casolaro notes.
60. Casolaro notes.
61. Wilcher, Paul, American Patriot Fax Network Fax, May 21, 1993.
62. Honegger, p. 238.
63. Casolaro notes.
64. Kwitny.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Com-12.
69. Kwitny.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid.
72. Keith, Jim, The Gemstone File, IllumiNet Press, Atlanta, Georgia, 1992.
73. Honegger, p. 81-82.
74. Com-12.
75. Calhoun, Jack. “The Family That Preys Together,” Covert Action Information Bulletin, Summer
1992.
76. Beatty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S.C., “ The Dirtiest Bank of All,” Time, July 29, 1991. 77-80.
77. Ibid.
78. Ibid.
79. Ibid.
80. Ibid.
81. Skolnick, Sherman, “Bush-Saddam-BCCI Oil Kickback Scandal Can ’t Be Buried,” Spotlight,
August 26, 1991.
82. Spotlight, Nov 23, 1992.
83. Beatty.
84. Beatty.

100
“In the middle of the journey of our life, I
found myself in a dark wood, having lost the
straight path.”
—quote from Dante’s Inferno in Danny Casolaro’s notebook 1

————
1. Rosenbaum, Ron, “The Strange Death of Danny Casolaro,” Vanity Fair, Vol. 54, December 1991.

101
 Chapter 16:
V

Bringing Back the Head

of the Octopus

Danny Casolar o was warned fr om all sides to back off his inv estigation. B ill
Hamilton noted that a number of Casolaro’s contacts involved in US intelligence
warned him that some of the leads he was following could be fatal.1 Hamilton also
claimed that, “Danny was planning to go to a par ticular facility in the Washing-
ton, DC area, owned by the United States government, a facility with connections
to one or more of the people who r un ‘the Octopus.’ I think you can assume it’s
a covert intelligence facility, from the way that it ’s presented. And just going to
this facility, I was warned, could get him killed. The other thing that he was doing
was making inquiries, o ver the telephone, to the S yndicate in Los Angeles. And
those inquiries had rattled the cages of some people out there. And there was some
concern that they might respond to the rattling by killing Danny. The claim that
I have heard from some sources is that someone with mob responsibilities (I guess
you’d call it)—some person in the mob—is a member of the leadership of ‘ the
Octopus’ and it’s someone from the Los Angeles mob. And Danny was on to it.”
The whereabouts of this security installation was communicated to Danny Caso-
laro by Robert Nichols.2 Casolaro had also received threats from a man associated
with the matters he was investigating among the Cabazons. “Now that you know
this stuff you will have to die,” he quoted to a friend as one thr eat against his life
that he linked to his inv estigations of Indian reservations.3
As R obert Booth N ichols passed warnings to Casolar o about M ichael
Riconosciuto, Riconosciuto was warning him about N ichols. Riconosciuto said
that he mentioned to N ichols an attempt b y the Cali cocaine car tel to stop the
extradition of an alleged Columbian dr ug-runner named G ilberto R odriquez
Orejuela and Nichols, “went ballistic.” Riconosciuto later implied that Casolar o
may have died for the sake of this information, “B ut by the time I hear d about
it, there was nothing I could do, y ou know, except to warn Danny. And I called
from that day on—it was on a later M onday—Tuesday, Wednesday, all the way

102
 BRINGING BACK THE HEAD OF THE OCTOPUS

through the w eekend when they found D anny. E very day I was calling the
Hamiltons, asking if anybody had hear d from Danny. And I was frantic.” 4
Toward the end, coincidences began to enshr oud Casolar o. A woman he
picked up at a par ty surprised him with the depth of her kno wledge about his
research and the claim that she knew someone connected to the Octopus. He ran
into a friend of P eter Videnieks, the J ustice D epartment official Riconosciuto
accused of threatening him, at a r estaurant. The man claimed to hav e served in
Special Forces and had pr eviously worked for a company connected to I nslaw.
He had been so for thcoming with information that he alarmed Casolar o’s com-
panions. Casolar o experienced “ queer coincidences that would feed any one’s
paranoia.”5 The Hamiltons believed that in the last days of his life D anny Caso-
laro was being tailed b y a man named J oseph Cuellar, an Army special ser vices
officer and friend of Peter Videnieks.6
On Sunday, August 4, Casolaro attended a pool party at real estate agent and
close friend D anielle S talling. S talling had attempted to subdivide Casolar o’s
property for sale to provide him with badly needed funds. Stalling noticed Caso-
laro’s concern o ver threats to his life. H e convinced his br other John, who had
been staying with him, to move to other quarters.7 On Monday, August 5, Caso-
laro’s housekeeper, Olga, came b y his home to find Casolar o conferring with a
man in the kitchen. Olga described the man as heavy and possibly East I ndian.8
That same day, Casolaro telephoned Bill McCoy, a retired Army CID officer liv-
ing in Fairfax. They discussed the O ctopus and Casolaro claimed that Time has
given him the go-ahead for an ar ticle about it. H e also told M cCoy that Time-
Warner had agr eed to finance his wor k. Both claims w ere later denied b y the
Time-Warner gr oup. Casolar o also described to M cCoy a r ound-the-world
excursion in which he planned to inv estigate the O ctopus, financed b y the
advance money. Casolaro wanted to visit thir teen countries in two months, fin-
ishing the trip off with a visit to arms mer chant E dwin Wilson at an I llinois
prison. Casolar o noted in his papers: “ When the A dvance Comes, R OAST
PIG—SUMMER PARTY.” He feels that he has his quarr y in his literar y sights
and saw the main dish as an ir onic statement.9
Tony Casolaro saw his brother on Monday, August 5, and thought he looked
tired. Danny said he’d been getting thr eatening calls in the middle of the night,
ruining his sleep , adding that the calls had been going on for about thr ee
months.10 A close friend, B en Mason, appeared at Casolar o’s house ar ound 3:30
PM, and although M ason was anxious to go to a r estaurant to eat, Casolar o
retrieved five pages of material from a box and showed it to Mason. The first page
had information on contra arms transfers, allegedly involving Adman Khashoggi.
Two more pages were photocopies of BCCI checks for one million and four mil-
lion dollars, drawn on Adman Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar accounts.

103
THE OCTOPUS

These checks had been kno wn to researchers since 1987 or earlier . Another
page contained a passport photo of Hassan Ali Ibrahim Ali, said to be the man-
ager of Sitico, allegedly a front for Iraqi arms deals. From the way Casolaro spoke
to Mason, it seemed that he had met I brahim. Doug Vaughan’s research deter-
mined that the pages had come fr om Bob B ickel, who had gotten them fr om
Richard B renneke, another figur e pr ominent in Casolar o’s r esearch, someone
who had pr ovided testimony about the O ctober Surprise. Casolaro had M ason
look at an outline for the Octopus book, and mentioned that he was discouraged
about his agent ’s inability to sell the book. H e said that he dr eaded the idea of
obtaining a new agent. 11 In contrast to what he said to M cCoy, he had r eceived
his third rejection, this one fr om Little, B rown and Company . Casolaro kne w
that there was a $178,000 balloon payment due on his home Mortgage. He had
taken at least two loans. 12
Did Casolaro have a reasonable expectation that he would sell the book and
receive the elusiv e adv ance? S ome critics, notably D avid Corn in the Nation,
commented on the “ overly dramatic, purplish pr ose” evidenced b y Casolar o’s
notes (James Kilpatrick said associates had consider ed his style “florid”), and his
other works were virtually self-published. I n his notes and drafts, ho wever, the
published fiction sho ws pr ofessionally spar e wor k, suggesting that Casolar o
began with r ough, almost str eam-of-consciousness drafts that he subsequently
polished into something tighter. His finished prose was certainly not worse than
much that is published by mainstream book publishers. While he knew that con-
spiratorial fiction a la R obert L udlum could be lucrativ e for publishers, that
Casolaro planned to fictionaliz e his vie w of the O ctopus was at odds with his
eagerness to pr ove the tr uth of the sea-beast ’s existence. P erhaps he had plans
beyond the single manuscript.
Danny Casolaro’s investigations were never less than far-reaching. Harry V.
Martin, reporting later in the Napa Sentinel, listed some of the subjects Caso-
laro was gathering information on during this period: D ominic and Bob
Bolsano; Gemini Industries; the P apago Indian tribe; the M enominee Indian
tribe; gold and platinum smuggling from Southeast Asia, via Mexico, through
the Papago reservation in New Mexico, and gold smuggling fr om South Viet-
nam; the Cabaz on Indian tribe, the mur ders and political intrigue connected
to it, as w ell as the attendant issues r egarding so vereign tribal land and the
weapons/gun traffic; the P rimerit B ank of N evada; BCCI and other r elated
institutions; Dr. Earl B rian; Peter Videnieks; Community B anking of S outh-
ern California; H ome S avings of S eattle; Theodore S trand; R obert Booth
Nichols; Department of Commerce EDA funds; the Wackenhut Corporation;
former B ank of America dir ector B ill J enson; the death of journalist D on
Bolles; a corridor between Mexico and New Mexico which the Drug Enforce-

104
 BRINGING BACK THE HEAD OF THE OCTOPUS

ment Agency r efused to patr ol; an IBM-T el A viv connection linking the
PROMIS software to I sraeli intelligence. Casolar o had also dev eloped arcane
avenues of research into Nevada’s mysterious Area 51, the human genome pro-
ject,13 and ev en, his notes r eflected (perhaps as backgr ound on M ichael
Riconosciuto), psychedelic history, specifically Ken Kesey and Billy Hitchcock,
who helped fund Timothy Leary’s Millbrook commune.
These topics have preoccupied the computer nets and writings of those inter-
ested in conspiracy theories befor e and since Casolar o became their cyber-folk
hero. They certainly could have been fodder for a writing car eer. The volume of
the accumulation alone suggested that Casolaro had plans for the future with or
without the magical advance. In fact, he had cast his original proposal as a series
of articles and a book. Casolar o did hav e a mild form of multiple scler osis, an
often debilitating disease fatal to a small per centage of its suffer ers. It may have
caused him moments of disorientation, but he did not feel str ongly enough
about it to have it treated and he did not discuss it with people close to him. I n
fact, most did not kno w about it until after Casolar o’s autopsy. The one talk he
did have about MS, with friend and nursing teacher Ann Marie Winfield, ended
with an assurance fr om her that it pr obably was not serious and her obser vance
that Casolaro did not seem concerned or suicidal o ver it.14
If he was suicidal, his behavior contradicted it. H e visited the office of his
insurance agent and made a payment on his house insurance.15 According to one
report, “A review of his financial records indicated that he had made a July mort-
gage payment of about $2000, and still had $2,700 in his bank account. 16
On Tuesday, August 6, Casolar o finished what he was wor king on, having
working steadily at the type writer since the previous day. His housekeeper Olga
assisted him in packing a black leather bag, and watched him pack papers into a
briefcase. When she lifted the briefcase, she found it heavy. Casolaro told her, “I
have all my papers...Wish me luck. I’ll see you in a couple of days.” H e hugged
Olga and she crossed her fingers for good luck.
Suicide? “Not in a million years!” his cousin and sometimes drinking partner
Jim Gualteri would later insist, “D anny wasn’t a co ward. He wasn’t afraid. H e
would have never done that. Danny had a regular girlfriend. He was a good per-
son. H e was a sw eetheart who liked to laugh a lot. D anny was a pr etty
happy-go-lucky guy. He was v ery happy with his life. I would call D anny very
inquisitive. Writing was a gr eat passion in his life. H e was writing a book that
would blow everybody’s mind away in terms of revelations about the government
and all the sinister things that w ere going on.” 17
Before leaving the house, Casolaro received a call from Ben Mason. “Danny
was upbeat,” M ason said. “H e was enthusiastic about his sour ce in West Vir-
ginia.”18 Mason had called to discuss Casolar o’s financial situation—a topic

105
THE OCTOPUS

Casolaro had also discussed with another friend, Art Weinfield. Both Mason and
Weinfield had concurr ed with Casolar o on the impor tance of getting that
advance, and Casolaro told Mason that if it were not forthcoming he would have
had to borr ow fr om his family , as he had done many times in the past. 19 Jim
Gualteri affirmed this last point: “Knowing how close the family was, they would
have never left Danny in the lurch for money. Very close-knit family.”20
Shortly before his trip to Martinsburg, Casolaro called Virginia McCullough.
They had often discussed the idea that members of the go vernment might hav e
been engaging in drug running in order to fund guns. Casolaro told McCullough,
“You know, Virginia, I’m becoming a believ er.” McCullough said that Casolar o
sounded “distressed, but distr essed ... because he had to face the tr uth.” At the
same time, McCullough recalled, “he sounded very upbeat. When he came back
he would have Justice right where he wanted them in the I nslaw matter.”21
Casolaro had also called Albr o L undy Jr. of B everly Hills appr oximately a
week before his death. Lundy recounted that Casolaro related that he was close
to finding out who was in contr ol of the Octopus, and made a new connection:
to the issue of missing Vietnam POWs and MIAs. 22
One of the r easons Casolaro went to M artinsburg was to inter view for a
second time one or mor e members of the staff of S enator Robert Byrd. The
interview had been planned for F riday night, A ugust 9, 1991. Casolar o had
mentioned to the H amiltons that one chapter of the Octopus book would be
about Senator Byrd. He believed the secr ets that would crack the I nslaw case
resided with members of Byrd’s staff. He also told Bill Turner that he was going
to meet with two of Byrd’s staff, one of whom was r elated to Mrs. Peter Vide-
nieks. Reporter Sarah McClendon said that Casolaro had spoken with Mr. and
Mrs. Peter Videnieks. Mrs. Videnieks is Byrd’s chief of staff in his Washington
office, and had two r elatives wor king on B yrd’s staff .23 Bill H amilton also
claimed that the M artinsburg stay was supposed to inv olve a meeting with
Videnieks and Earl Brian.24 “He had been researching this thing for a long time
and was v ery excited about the information he was finally getting,” said B en
Mason. “He was in good spirits and very excited about the source he was going
to see in West Virginia. There is no way in the world that he would have killed
himself.”25 “He had been digging into stuff for months and getting no where,”
Casolaro’s brother Tony said in a telephone interview. “Then, suddenly, he said
he had this big br eakthrough, some sour ce he had.” D anny had also told his
brother that if an “ accident” befell him, not to believ e it. A ccording to B ill
McCoy, Casolaro made one mor e call on A ugust 5, to Bob B ickel, a Texas oil
engineer and former C ustoms B ureau informant, and told him that he was
going to bring back the head of the O ctopus.
Then Danny departed for Martinsburg.26

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 BRINGING BACK THE HEAD OF THE OCTOPUS

————
1. Interview with Bill Hamilton by Paul DeRienzo, WBAI-FM Radio, September 20, 1991.
2. Hamilton interview; Corn, p. 514.
3. Contact, May 10, 1994, p. 19.
4. Rosenbaum, p. 98.
5. Corn, p. 515.
6. The Hotline, March 11, 1993; Sarah McClendon’s Washington Report, January 6, 1994.
7. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 36-37.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Connolly, “Dead Right.”
12. “Unanswered Questions on Casolaro,” Spotlight, September 28, 1992.
13. A note fr om Ar thur P allotta to Casolar o attached to an unidentified ar ticle in Casolar o’s
newsclippings file on the human genome pr oject and its first dir ector, J ames Watson, r ead:
“Danny—Cannot think of one pr oject so massiv e and comparable to the ‘M an In The Moon.’”
The $3 billion H uman G enome O rganization (HUGO) wor ked to decode the human genetic
structure. Its director, James Watson, co-discoverer with Francis Crick of DNA, resigned over con-
flict of inter est questions r egarding his stock o wnership in companies like E li Lilly, Angen, I nc.,
and Ongene Science, Inc., charges that Watson bitterly denied. Moral and ethical issues of genet-
ic testing and genetic degradation haunt genome r esearch, but its potential to cur e disease is
enormous—as is the potential for pr ofit for medical tr eatments resulting from it. Casolar o’s clip-
pings collection included stories on the European Economic Community’s delay of the start of its
own human genome project for the sake of the ethics issues. It also included an article on research
at Howard Hughes Medical Institute that gave symptoms of arthritis to a rat through the insertion
on a human gene, and the isolation of cancer and gender identification genes. The H uman
Genome Project also disco vered genes for cystic fibr osis and fragile X syndr ome, responsible for
many forms of mental retardation. Casolaro’s interest along these lines may have coincided with an
interest in Creutzfeldt-Jakob, or Mad Cow, Disease and other bacterial research work done by sub-
contractors to Wackenhut like the Stormont Laboratories of Woodbine, California.
In October 1992, HUGO issued a r eport recommending the collection of genetic material
from 722 “I solates of H istoric Interest” (IHIs), or indegenous ethnic people whose numbers ar e
diminishing and leave sample DNA of each community with its r egional institution or a national
government. Another purpose was to locate and secure patents on unique genes that could be used
to fight disease. “Access to an IHI’s complete genetic make-up means it ’s theoretically possible to
devise cheap and targeted biological w eapons trained solely on that community ,” r eported the
northern California independent newspaper Community Endeavor (6/15/93), “Human rights vio-
lations against indigenous people, b y their o wn go vernments and/or go vernments within their
regions, is a major cause of their physical extinction.” This and similar issues may hav e attracted
Casolaro’s interest to the H uman Genome Project, but he may also hav e been more interested in
possible treatment for his own undiagnosed case of multiple scler osis.

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THE OCTOPUS

14. Connolly, “Dead Right”; Ron Rosenbaum noted in Vanity Fair that “... N ot long befor e his
death Danny had approached a nurse he knew and questioned her closely about the symptoms of
multiple sclerosis and brain diseases. This was particularly pertinent to the murder-or-suicide ques-
tion, because an autopsy examination of D anny’s brain r evealed possible symptoms of M.S.
Initially, his friends and family had dismissed this as irrelevant—it couldn’t be a motive for suicide,
because Danny had never complained of symptoms, or, to their knowledge known of the disease.
Then I mentioned to Ann the cr yptic notes I’d found in D anny’s files on germ war fare, on slow-
acting brain viruses like Mad Cow Disease, about targeting people with them by slipping them into
meat pies ... maybe he thought he ’d been targeted.”
15. Ridgeway and Vaughn, p. 37.
16. “Inslaw Prober Had Financial Worries,” Washington Post, 8/17/91.
17. Interview with Jim Gualteri by Kenn Thomas, January 20, 1994.
18-19. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 37.
20. Gualteri interview.
21. Virginia McCullough interview.
22. A posting on the alt.conspiracy ne wsgroup from March 11, 1992 included the stor y of Albro
Lundry III, who testified before a congressional committee on Vietnam POWs and MIAs that his
father, an MIA airman, was pictur ed in photographs that the committee sought to authenticate.
Lundry claimed to have received a call from Casolaro in August, a week prior to his death, in which
Casolaro claimed to be “only one or two steps away from uncovering the men in charge.” Accord-
ing to this account, Casolar o had said that “BCCI, I nslaw, I ran-contra, and the co ver-up of
POW-MIA was all related.”
23. The Hotline, March 11, 1993.
24. Hamilton interview.
25. “Area Writer Investigating,” Washington Post, August 13, 1991.
26. Connolly, John, “Dead Right”; Ridgeway and Vaughan, “Last Days.”

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 Chapter 17:
V

Final Hours

The last hours or Danny Casolaro’s life were set in the little town of Martinsburg,
West Virginia. In Martinsburg, witnesses saw Casolar o sitting in his car behind
the IRS building, appar ently waiting for a contact. M ichael Riconosciuto later
told NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries series that “D anny had a sour ce there inside the
IRS’ computer data center that was giving him hard copy printouts of IRS infor-
mation on certain specific targets that Danny was after.”1
Shortly before noon, on Thursday, August 8, Casolar o checked into r oom
517 of the S heraton Hotel in M artinsburg. A fe w minutes later he w ent to the
Stone C rab I nn, a r estaurant located near an exit nor th on I nterstate 81. H e
drank a bottle of wine during his nearly three hours there. Around 3 PM, Caso-
laro left for a P izza Hut located within a block of the S heraton. He ordered a
pitcher of beer, but after being told by the waitress she could not serve him alco-
hol without food, he also ordered pizza.2 Casolaro flirted with her, saying he was
member of the Edgar Allen Poe Society, and quoting from the poem epigraph to
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This was not out of character for Casoloro. Wendy
Weaver, an old girlfriend, r emembered when Casolar o once gr eeted her at a
restaurant with roses, in a tuxedo, and wearing a tin hat he had painted gold. 3
He sat alone for about half an hour, then left. Around 5 PM, Casolaro went
into the lounge at the S heraton, Heatherfield’s, with a man described b y a wait-
ress as “maybe Arab or Iranian.” The man complained about slo w service to the
waitress, but D anny apologiz ed for him, saying he had had a har d day. They
drink about four beers apiece, and then left the cocktail lounge.
Casolaro returned to the lounge for a bucket of ice about 5:30 PM. O n the
way back to his r oom, Casolaro ran into Mike Looney, the hotel guest who was
staying next door to him. Looney noticed the ice bucket Casolar o was carr ying
and commented, “It’s a hell of a note when y ou have to walk all the way to Vir-
ginia to get a bucket of ice.” Looney encounter ed Casolaro again around 8 PM

109
THE OCTOPUS

Sheraton Inn.

in the bar . Casolar o was talking with two blonde women in tights. After the
women left, Looney commented to Casolar o, “It looked too good to be tr ue.”
Danny had been drinking impor ted bottled beer, but switched to less expensiv e
glasses of draft beer during happy hour. He and Looney struck up a conversation
about the Octopus research, and Casolaro told him he was going to meet a con-
tact—an Arab , Looney thought he r emembered—whose information would
crack the case.
The appointed time came, but no contact appear ed. Casolaro left, possibly
to make a phone call or to relieve himself. When he returned,he told Looney that
the source was only going to furnish some trav el documents, and so he didn ’t
mind getting drunk.
Casolaro and Looney r emained in the bar until last call, ar ound 11:30 PM.
Looney later recalled, “He was excited about what he was doing. He thought he
was onto something big. He was convinced that there was a conspiracy. I was tak-
ing a kind of devil’s advocate position.”4
Casolaro’s next known movement was 2 PM, Friday, August 9, when he met
with informant B ill Turner in Turner’s car in the lot of the S heraton (to av oid
what Casolar o assumed was his bugged r oom). Turner said, “[D anny] came
bouncing up with that famous old smile of his and opened the car door and got
in...”5 Turner said Casolaro was carrying a cardboard accordion file, and that he
gave Casolaro some papers regarding mismanagement at Hughes and the Penta-
gon. Turner also told Casolaro about problems he was having with the Veteran’s

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 FINAL HOURS

Inside The Stone Crab Inn.

Administration over charges that he had r eceived improper benefits. The meet-
ing lasted appr oximately for ty-five minutes. Turner described Casolor o as
enthusiastic, saying that Casolaro was excited about wrapping things up over the
weekend, and that Casolar o told Turner he’d be back in touch. Casolar o’s last
words to Turner were, “Bill old buddy, got to watch your p’s and q’s and look over
your shoulder.”6
Casolaro returned to the Stone Crab Inn Friday at about 2:30 PM, where he
had a shrimp cocktail and began drinking bottles of B ud Lite. H e paid with a
credit card at 5:12 PM and told the bar tender that he had “a rough night.” The
bartender thought D anny looked lonely and intr ospective. The bar tender
remembered him as “a man with something to say. He was just like this, ‘Take a
minute and talk to me.’ He told me to keep smiling.”
After leaving the S tone Crab Inn sometime befor e 6 PM, Casolar o made a
pay phone call on Interstate 81 and a collect call to his mother’s home. He spoke
with his niece and said he ’d be late and might not make it all to the family din-
ner. This was har dly unusual. When his br other Tony recalled the incident, he
noted that “When the phone rang, we knew it would be Danny. It was like him
to show up late or not at all.” 7
Casolaro’s whereabouts from that point ar e unknown until ar ound 10 PM,
when he entered a convenience store located near the Sheraton and waited while
the clerk brewed fresh coffee. The last time any one saw Casolar o alive, he was
walking back to the Sheraton with his coffee. 8

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THE OCTOPUS

View from the fifth floor of the former Sheraton Inn.

While Casolaro had been in M artinsburg, some of his friends become con-
cerned about not hearing fr om him. Bill Hamilton called Robert Booth Nichols
in Los Angeles on F riday, August 9, worried about not having hear d from Caso-
laro and asked if N ichols had. A ccording to H amilton, N ichols said: “ Yes, he
called late M onday night. D anny sounded like the cat who had swallo wed the
canary. He was euphoric. I hav e probably had fifty hours of telephone conv ersa-
tions with him in the last y ear; he always plays chess with me on the phone.
Danny told me he had just come back fr om meeting with a sour ce, and he no w
knew everything about I nslaw and PR OMIS, and the H amiltons were going to
be very excited.” Nichols also informed Hamilton that he, Nichols, was travelling
to Europe that same evening.9 Ann Klenk, a CNBC producer who sometimes had
dinner with Danny,10 worried when he made no inquiries to her about a program
she had just finished that she kne w would intrigue him. S he went by his house,
and, finding it empty , scribbled a note to him: “D anny—where the hell ar e
you?”11 Bill Hamilton called the house as w ell and received no answer.12
Casolaro’s housekeeper, Olga, received four or fiv e strange phone calls that
day. At 9 AM a man called and said, “I will cut his body and thr ow it to the
sharks.” Approximately thirty minutes later, a man who O lga believed was dif-
ferent fr om the first caller said, “D rop dead,” and then hung up . When Olga
answered a third call, there was no voice, only music playing in the background.
A fourth call again had music playing. A t 10 PM ther e was another call. This
time, the other end was completely silent. 13

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 FINAL HOURS

The Village Voice’s national affairs editor, Dan Bischoff, took a call fr om an
anonymous man who said the paper should “look into the disappearance of a
reporter inv estigating the O ctober S urprise in West Virginia.” This happened
sometime after 4 PM on S unday August 11. He passed the wor d on via e-mail
to Jonathan Larsen, Village Voice editor-in-chief.14
The housecleaner discovered Danny Casolaro’s body on Saturday, August 10,
1991, just befor e 12:51 PM. S hortly thereafter, police called family members,
and reports of Danny’s death began to appear in the media.

————
1. Connolly, John, “Dead Right.”
2. The Hotline, March 11, 1993.
3. Ridgeway and Vaughan, “Last Days,” p. 39; Rosenbaum, Ron, “Strange Death of Danny Caso-
laro,” Vanity Fair, p. 83.
4. The Hotline.
5. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 39.
6. The Hotline.
7. “Frequent Drinking Marked Writer Casolaro’s Final Days,” Washington Post, August 25, 1991,
A 19; Ridgeway and Vaughan, pp. 39-40; The Hotline.
8. Ridgeway and Vaughan, “Last Days,” pp. 39-40.
9. Ridgeway and Vaughan, pp. 37-38.
10. Rosenbaum also reported in Vanity Fair that three weeks before he died, Casolar o asked Ann
Klenk “Will you kiss me when I’ m dead?” Klenk r emarked that “He’d told me sev eral times that
summer that if I heard he met with an accident make sur e I got that shit [meaning his notes] out
of there.” The program Klenk had been wor king on was a liv e interview with Richar d Secord, a
key figure behind Iran/contra operations. According to a pamphlet published by Christic Institute,
a group whose research had greatly interested Danny, Secord flew missions “during CIA’s covert air
war in Laos in 1960s,” embezzled “millions of dollars as a top Pentagon official overseeing Middle
East arms sales in late 1970s,” and was a par ter with Shackley, Clines, Hakim and convicted ter-
rorist supplier Edwin Wilson in the Egyptian Air Transport and Service Corporation (EATSCO),
an arms dealing entity.
11. Ridgeway and Vaughan, pp. 38.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.

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 Chapter 18:
V

Rippling Waves

The police had no idea that D anny Casolaro had been investigating malevolent
and mur derous for ces. When D anny’s br other Tony spoke with detectiv e
Sergeant George Swartwood, the one who first informed the family of D anny’s
apparent suicide, Tony r eceived a contradictor y description of the body ’s
wounds—cuts on both the wrists and the arms.Tony then told Swartwood about
Danny’s investigative work. Research papers and notes, other than the terse sui-
cide message, w ere nowhere in evidence at the mur der scene; the detectiv e did
not kno w they should hav e been. N o autopsy had been planned. S wartwood
directed Tony Casolaro to the medical examiner ’s office, wher e coroner Sandra
Bining in turn r efered him to the West Virginia medical examiner, a man with
the coldly appropriate name of James “Jack” Frost. On late Monday, Frost agreed
with Tony about the suspicious cir cumstances of D anny’s death and scheduled
an autopsy for the follo wing Wednesday. He observed to the incr edulous Tony
Casolaro that the body had already been embalmed. Because of the hastily drawn
conclusion of suicide, S andra B rining had turned Casolar o’s body o ver to the
funeral home. B ecause the family had not r eceived prior notification, the
embalming had violated the law—and had made the autopsy that much mor e
difficult.
After being brought up to speed by Tony Casolaro, Swartwood’s people back-
pedaled as quickly and as thor oughly as possible to inv estigate the death. They
went back to the S heraton and sear ched for indications of a br eak-in—finger-
prints, ev en footprints on the r oof in case someone had scaled the walls and
entered through a window. One detective took a dog onto the local highway to
look for the papers Tony Casolaro had mentioned—D anny’s papers as w ell as
those he had just r eceived fr om B ill Turner. The effor t was too late in many
respects. The cor oner’s husband D avid, a fir e depar tment lieutenant, had the
bathroom door r emoved less than a half-hour after the body was found. The

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 RIPPLING WAVES

coroner herself—also an emergency room nurse—drained the bathtub without a

filter. The body had been mo ved to the B rown Funeral Home and its dir ector,
Charles Brown, had done the embalming. 1
Sandra Brining performed a brief medical examination befor e the autopsy.
She took a blood sample fr om the hear t, noted old scars on the right leg and
scalp, and an old br uise inside the upper , right arm. S he also counted the slash
scars on his wrists. The right wrist had seven or eight slashes;2 the right had three
or four, all of them deep , strongly inflicted cuts. It was then that B rining deter-
mined that the death was a suicide.
Dr. James Frost’s autopsy agreed with Brining’s conclusion that Danny Caso-
laro’s life spilled out thr ough the cuts on his wrists. F rost determined that ther e
were no signs of str uggle and not enough dr ug residue in blood and urine sam-
ples to indicate an ar tificial inhibition of any such str uggle. H e r eported, “no
alcohol found in body ... traces of codeine fr om Tylenol III and an anti-depr es-
sant dr ug w ere found.” 3 Toxicological tissue tests also indicate the pr esence of
hydrocone, used in the painkiller Vicodin, six tablets of which Casolaro’s dentist
had prescribed for him three years previously, but the quantity of the anti-depres-
sant was too minute to identify . “Of the five or six things that bother ed me the
most, this is one of them,” Tony Casolaro commented later, “Because they found
no pill bottle, no written pr escription at any pharmacy.”4
This was only the beginning of the suspicions that spr ead out like ripples
behind an octopus swimming off after an attack. The first inv olved the r ecent
death of Alan Standorf, the electronic intelligence specialist whom, according to
Rodney Stich, Casolaro had met thr ough Michael Riconosciuto. Casolaro had
called Standorf a key source. After Casolaro’s death, when Art Weinfield accom-
panied Casolar o’s sister M ary E llen and son Trey to the M artinsburg police
station to recover Danny’s car, they ran into detectives who identified themselves
as working for the National Airport Authority in DC. 5 The detectives explained
that they w ere looking into possible connections betw een D anny’s death and
Standorf ’s, a “low-level” civilian NSA emplo yee at the r estricted Vint Hill mili-
tary facility. Standorf was killed by a blow to the head in early January. If he was
not killed for the $500 he had just r etrieved from an ATM, then his body was
made to look that way. It had been disco vered at National Airport in late Janu-
ary, wrapped in his coat in the back seat of his car, money missing. The detectives
explained that Army intelligence officers joined their inv estigation of the case
twice befor e an anonymous caller mentioned the link to Casolar o. While the
detectives never came up with evidence connecting the two cases, accor ding to
Ridgeway and Vaughan, they did disco ver that their anonymous tip came fr om
one of Casolaro’s last informants, Bill Turner.6
Fearful that he might be the next target of the Octopus, Bill Turner got him-

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THE OCTOPUS

self arrested in late S eptember on a bank r obbery charge. A similar strategy had
been used by a spook named Richard Case Nagell when he realized he was entan-
gled in the conspiracy to kill JFK. I n September 1963 Nagell shot up a bank in
San Antonio, was arr ested and ther eby removed as a par ticipant.7 Less than an
hour and a half after a bank robbery in the rural town of Gore, police picked up
Turner and matched him with images fr om the bank ’s security camera. Was
Turner justifed in such actions, steering the police to connect Danny’s death with
Standorf ’s and fleeing into police custody? Turner failed to make two appoint-
ments to discuss this with the authors of the original edition of this book and
thereafter his telephone number became unlisted. O ne person who would sup-
port Turner’s fears was Harry Martin of the NAPA Sentinel. “Basically what we’re
dealing with is Air F orce counterintelligence,” said M artin in an inter view,
“What Casolaro was finding was pr ocurement fraud, manufacturing fraud and
kickbacks. H e didn’t star t out in that dir ection, but that ’s what he stumbled
across. And, of course, that is what did him in... O ne of my contacts in the Air
Force came back from Virginia the same weekend as Casolaro’s death. Of course,
it hadn’t quite been r eported. He came back and his knuckles w ere raw and he
had scratches on them and he talked about beating up this guy in a hotel inWest
Virginia.” “Again,” M artin adds, “I didn ’t hav e Casolar o on my mind at the
time... At the same time the contact indicated that he had gotten ahold of all
these papers fr om this guy and that he destr oyed those papers. When you put
two and two together—the contact had these papers and he dealt with H ughes
Aircraft—-and the fact that the guy had been in West Virginia for two days and
came back like he had been in a fight...”8 Martin declined to give the name of his
contact.
One report had Bill Hamilton providing some support for the scenario: “We
had one meeting with an FBI agent and the First Assistant US Attorney from Los
Angeles on our February submission. And they had questions principally about
material in that submission about the death of the journalist D anny Casolaro.
During the meeting they confirmed to us that something w e had hear d from a
confidential source was true. And that was, a maid at the hotel in M artinsburg,
West Virginia had seen a man coming out of D anny Casolaro’s hotel r oom the
morning he was found dead, but befor e his body was disco vered. Then, subse-
quent to that meeting, the Justice Department attempted to deny that they had,
in fact, confirmed that during the meeting with us. And that effor t to deny it
makes you very uncomfortable, you know?”9
Perhaps Bob B ickell also felt some of that discomfor t. On August 5, Caso-
laro had called Texas oil engineer Bickel, who at one time wor ked as a Customs
Bureau informant, apparently to talk about R obert Booth Nichols and his asso-
ciation with a former Justice official named Michael Abbell and Columbian drug

116
 RIPPLING WAVES

lord Gilberto Rodriquez, both of whom w ere being inv estigated for their con-
nections to the Cali dr ug car tel. B ickel pr eviously had aspir ed to blo w the
whistle on CIA chief Robert Gates’ role in shipping weapons to Iraq in the late
1980s. He had given Casolaro photocopies of one million and four million dol-
lar checks drawn on the BCCI accounts of I ran-contra go-betweens Khashoggi
and G horbanifar. H e also gav e him the passpor t photograph of H assan Ali
Ibrahim Ali, a fr ont man for I raqi weapons sales. (D oug Vaughan traced these
papers back to Richard Brenneke.) The check photocopies had circulated among
researchers for years but when matched with the passpor t it seemed to represent
a great breakthrough to Danny. Was Hassan Ali Ibrahim Ali the “maybe Arab or
Iranian” man that a waitress saw Casolaro with at the Sheridan that night?
Bickell had told Bob M cCoy that Casolar o was tr olling for the head of the
Octopus on his final night, and he later told a writer that “D anny had con-
fronted Robert Booth Nichols about his relationship with Mike Abbell.”10 Writer
Chris S eymour, whose unpublished six hundr ed page manuscript in par t
explored the drug traffic angle of Casolaro’s work, suggested that the dr ug angle
pre-occupied the fifteen phone calls to N ichols found on Casolar o’s phone bill
the month prior to his death. This view supported the report that Casolaro had
been collecting information about Nichols’ various connections to the Gambino
family and the Yakuza fr om former J ustice D epartment pr osecutor Richar d
Stavin. Stavin’s report emphasized that names found in Casolar o’s notes includ-
ed members of FIDCO, the First Intercontinental Development Corporation, a
group in California created to re-construct bombed-out Beirut in Lebanon. The
FIDCO board member list contained the names of Texas oilman Clint Murchi-
son, Jr. and Howard Hughes crony Robert Maheu, names that also had emerged
during Nichols’ pursuit of damages against the L APD for revocation of his con-
cealed w eapons permit in 1993. The list also included N ichols as a senior
vice-president of FIDCO’s Investment Committee.11
Seymour claimed that FIDCO was set up in 1983 to take adv antage of
financial aid then being offer ed to Lebanese pr esident Amin G emayel, aid that
helped smooth out dr ug traffic av enues. Correspondence fr om former R eagan
aide Michael McManus to engineering ex ecutive George Pender, both FIDCO
board members, and to Gemayel, established the influx of over three billion dol-
lars in money and assets into the Lebanese ruins. According to Seymour, the US
Senate Judiciary Committee determined in 1985 that G emayel’s finance minis-
ter super vised the impor tation of Turkish opium into Lebanon, wher e it was
processed into heroin, sent to Italy and eventually exported for sale in the US. A
report in High Times named Gemayel’s brother as an asset to the CIA.12 “Of note
also is the fact that Bekaa (Valley) in Lebanon later became a center for pr ocess-
ing Columbian Car tel cocaine for r e-export to E uropean mar kets.”13 In one

117
THE OCTOPUS

proposal for the Octopus manuscript, Casolaro had indeed asserted that the fuel-
air explosive Michael Riconosciuto developed on Cabazon land was used in the
bomb that killed over three hundred US Marines in Lebanon in O ctober 1983.
Could it have been research along these lines that led to his death?
For his part, Ari Ben-Menashe gave Bill Hamilton another hint about Caso-
laro’s company on the night of his death. B en-Menashe claimed that two FBI
agents fr om Lexington, K entucky had scheduled a meeting with Casolar o in
Martinsburg with pr oof of the illegal sale of PR OMIS to the FBI and M ossad.
One of the agents, E. B. Car tinhour, had a gr udge about the fact that R eagan
teflon had protected administration officials from indictments over the October
Surprise. Ridgeway and Vaughan could not get a response from Cartinhour, but
a colleague insisted that he had nev er heard of Casolar o and could not discuss
Ben-Menashe because it involved classified information. 14
Lester Knox Coleman III, the former Defense Intelligence Agency operative
who swor e in an affidavit about seeing bootleg PR OMIS softwar e at C ypriot
Police headquarters, had y et another theor y. On August 3, Casolar o called him
after reading the affidavit and asked if he could help on the Octopus project with
more information. That Casolar o could track him so easily impr essed Cole-
man—it actually upset him a bit—so he took the opportunity to strike up a deal.
He would tell Casolar o mor e of what he kne w if Casolar o helped him find
information on J ohn McCloskey, a div orce lawyer who had r ecruited him into
the DIA. The lawyer had links to the intelligence community and BCCI, and so
was ripe for Casolar o’s interest as well. The phone call ended with a pr omise to
exchange information.
In nine days, ne ws of Casolar o’s death after a meeting with an unkno wn
informant reached Coleman. Was that final meeting with McCloskey? Coleman
later discovered that McCloskey owned a horse farm down the road from where
Casolaro died, although he had not been seen in the ar ea for a couple of y ears.
When he called McCloskey’s telephone number in M artinsburg, he reached the
Shenandoah Women’s Center and the people ther e had nev er hear d of
McCloskey. Coleman called William H amilton about his suspicions only to
learn about threats Hamilton had received because of PROMIS. The thought of
how quickly Casolaro had tracked him added to Coleman ’s fear that he may be
the next target for “ sanctions” because of his inv olvement with the PR OMIS
affair. He explained as much to S wedish authorities when he petitioned for asy-
lum.15
Coleman and Bickell’s stories came together in an odd way. Coleman’s book
also gave the particulars of a sting operation called “Khourah,” inv olving heroin
shipments from the Bekaa Valley to the US. S eymour notes that two y ears pre-
viously Michael Riconosciuto tried to trade details of the DEA sting to the FBI.

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 RIPPLING WAVES

Notable among Riconosciuto’s claims was that the operation ’s head, DEA man
Fred Ghanem, was related to FIDCO participant Maurice Ghanem.16
The veracity of these contradictor y conspiracy scenarios about D anny Caso-
laro’s death must be measur ed against attempts b y the v arious authors and
characters to associate their r esearch and experience with this famous case. Caso-
laro primarily wor ked b y phone (Ridge way and Vaughan noted that his
“professional life existed on the telephone”), and the tributaries of his research were
labyrinthine. His Octopus metaphor was proved apt before and after his death.

————
1. Ridgeway and Vaughan, “Last Days.”
2. One researcher even suggested that Casolaro sent a final pointer to the presence of the Octopus
by cutting eight slashes—one for each tentacle—to indicate its inv olvement in his murder.
3. “Frequent Drinking Marked Writer Casolaro’s Final Days,” Washington Post, August 25, 1991,
A 19.
4. Ridgeway and Vaughan, p. 41.
5. Ridge way and Vaughan described the authorities in charge of the inv estigation of Casolar o’s
death as nothing more than “aggressive, professional suburban public servants.” The Com-12 Brief-
ing suggested, ho wever, that “ Wackenhut S pecial S ervices Teams, along with NSA officials,
informed the M artinsburg Police Department that they would secr etly conduct the inv estigation
of Casolaro’s death and the police were to maintain this cover,” and that “Casolaro had received 60
pages of whistle-blo wing documentation on a major defense contractor . The material was r epos-
sessed that night by the assignment team from NSA and Wackenhut.”
6. Ridgeway and Vaughan, “Last Days,” p. 42.
7. Russell, Dick, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Carrol & Graf, 1994.
8. Interview with Harry Martin by Kenn Thomas, October 25, 1994.
9. Contact, May 17, 1994.
10. Seymour, Cheri, “Curiosity Killed Freelance Writer,” Spotlight, March 20, 1995.
11. Ibid.
12. Weinberg, Bill, “The Syrian Connection,” High Times, March 1993.
13. Seymour, Cheri, “Drugs, Politics, Foreign Intrigue,” Spotlight, March 27 1995.
14. Ridgeway and Vaughan, “Last Days,” p. 42.
15. Goddard, Donald, with Lester Coleman, Trail of the Octopus: From Beirut to Lockerbie, Blooms-
bury, London, 1993, pp. 247-251 (326 pp.).
16. S eymour, Cheri, “M assive G overnment Co verup E xposed,” Spotlight, A pril 3, 1995; the
Com-12 Briefing also supports these stories in their broad strokes. See Chapter 15, “The Bomb-
ing of Pan Am 103.”

119
 Chapter 19:
V

Inslaw and the Law

Danny Casolaro had been pulled under by the Octopus of his imagining or his
investigations, perhaps both. I n nearb y waters, ho wever, other behemoths
thrashed about for supr emacy in an ev en larger conspiratorial sea—the law .
The legal for ces lined up against I nslaw became visible when the H amiltons
discovered that Associate A ttorney General D. Lo well Jensen had, as D istrict
Attorney in Alameda County, California, promoted DALITE, a rival manage-
ment software, to fifty-eight county California district attorney offices. Larr y
Donoghue, the man responsible for selecting software used by the Los Angeles
office and later named deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County ,
recalled that, “Jensen called me into his office and I w ent away feeling what I
regarded to be unusual and significant pressure to select the DALITE system.”
PROMIS, however, had won the Los Angeles County office and, as Bill Hamil-
ton later r emarked, “... evidently J ensen bor e a gr udge.” H amilton added,
“Jensen was promoted to associate A ttorney General in May or June of ‘83—
and that’s when all the contract disputes came up .” Jensen served as chairman
of the o versight committee in charge of PR OMIS. A dditionally, J ensen had
served with E d Meese for tw elve years in Alameda County while M eese had
been a deputy district attorney . In 1985, M eese promoted Jensen to D eputy
Attorney G eneral. Jensen also came under scr utiny during the S enate’s Iran-
contra investigations when a memo was discovered from him tipping off Oliver
North that the federal pr osecutors were aware of his actions. This from a Jus-
tice Department official charged with pr osecuting the matter.1
There was no misunderstanding in the go vernment’s handling of
PROMIS. The government, or at least a particular segment of it, was out to get
Inslaw, according to Frank Mallgrave, as quoted in Wired:

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 INSLAW AND THE LAW

On a gorgeous spring morning in 1981, Lawrence McWhorter, director of

the Executive Office for USA attorneys, put his feet on his desk, lit an Ital-
ian cigar, eyed his subordinate Frank Mallgrave and said through a haze of
blue smoke: “We’re out to get Inslaw.”

McWhorter had just asked Mallgrave to oversee the pilot installation of

PROMIS, a job Mallgrave refused, unaware at the time that he was being
asked to participate in Inslaw’s deliberate destruction.

“We were just in his office for what I call a BS type discussion,” Mallgrave
told Wired. “I remember it was a bright sunny morning... (McWhorter)
asked me if I would be interested in assuming the position of Assistant
Director for Data Processing... basically working with Inslaw. I told him... I
just had no interest in that job. And then, almost as an afterthought, he said
‘We’re out to get Inslaw.’ I remember it to this day.”2

The position eventually went to C. Madison “Brick” Brewer. Bill Hamilton

had pr eviously fir ed B rewer for poor job per formance. H amilton originally
thought Brewer’s actions against I nslaw were due to B rewer’s personal vendetta,
but that was before revelations concerning Earl Brian, the October Surprise pay-
off and the rest of the sordid mess surfaced.3 The Justice Department determined
that no conflict of interest existed for Brewer in his new assignment. Brewer tes-
tified in federal cour t that he r eceived approval from Deputy Attorney General
Lowell J ensen, whose v ested inter est in the riv al DALITE softwar e had been
damaged b y the contract awar d to I nslaw in the 1970s, for all of his actions
regarding I nslaw. P erhaps r evenge had transformed I nslaw’s contract disputes
into a legalistic attempt to trash the company.
Things could nev er be that simple in I nslaw’s case, ho wever. J oined with
Brewer’s at J ustice was P eter Videniecks, the man who, accor ding to M ichael
Riconosciuto, had thr eatened him to discourage him fr om testifying befor e the
House Judiciary Committee. Videniecks had his o wn incestuous connection to
Inslaw: he had worked in the Customs office maintaining its contracts with Earl
Brian’s Hadron, Inc. systems consulting gr oup. Videniecks and B rewer led J us-
tice to demand that Inslaw turn over PROMIS just in case an alleged impending
bankruptcy made it impossible for the company to live up to its contracts. Inslaw
agreed, but with the stipulation that I nslaw retain all rights to enhancements to
the program and that Justice only provide it to the US A ttorney’s office. Justice,
predictably, r eneged, and made no effor t to determine the v alidity of I nslaw’s
claims of ownership to PROMIS enhancements. The Justice Department began
to withhold payments, making Inslaw’s subsequent forced march into bankrupt-
cy court a self-fulfilling prophecy, and beginning the pr ocess that originally had
attracted Casolar o’s attention. As I nslaw’s pr oblems mounted, Earl B rian’s

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THE OCTOPUS

Hadron, Inc. made a play to take over the company through Dominic “We have
ways of making you sell” Laiti. Another company, SCT, financed by investment
bankers linked to Brian, also attempted a buy-out.
Inslaw ultimately hired Leigh Ratiner of Dickstein, Shapiro and Morin, to file
suit against Justice to the tune of $30 million. Ratiner established the bankr upt-
cy cour t as having jurisdiction in the dispute with the unique argument that
Justice had seiz ed control of PROMIS. As I nslaw’s creditor, this violated a tenet
of the B ankruptcy A ct forbidding cr editors fr om contr olling the pr operty of
debtors.4 The strategy led to J udge George Bason’s favorable ruling for Inslaw in
1987, which also led to B ason’s early r emoval from the bench and, accor ding to
Ari Ben-Menashe, possibly also to Leigh Ratiner’s early retirement by a pay-off to
his law firm.5 Federal district court judge William Bryant upheld Bason’s decision
after an appeal by the Justice Department, and the Supreme Court denied review
in October 1991. A separate appeals court, however, deciding on an appeal made
by the Justice Department, ultimately overturned Bryant on the basis of the juris-
dictional argument. A thr ee member panel of judges determined that federal
bankruptcy court had no jurisdiction in the case. N o judgement was ev er issued
exonerating the Justice Department from its actions in the I nslaw matter.
Casolaro had giv en some thought to other legal dimensions of the I nslaw
predicament. In undated notes, he made an extensive study of computer software
and hardware case law, from the point of vie w of trade secr et protection, trade-
mark pr otection, contract law and patent law and copyright law . F rom that
perspective, he underlined the concept of “ a reverse engineering approach” that
he felt was applicable to the legal status of PR OMIS. Called the “ clean r oom
technique,” it is used as a method of av oiding copyright infringement in the
developing of softwar e products of similar functions. The clean r oom uses two
teams, one receiving and decompiling the protected work legally and “producing
a document setting forth ideas and specifications that are in the unprotected idea
domain.” The second team takes the document and, with no fur ther communi-
cation with team one, creates a new product without infringing on the protected
aspect of the original software. Casolaro noted that such reverse engineering had
been used by many computer manufactur ers to clone A pple and IBM comput-
ers. Apple and IBM never pursued legal action against the clean room technique
because they feared an unfavorable legal action. 6 Perhaps for similar reasons, the
PROMIS problems were never played out in the copyright ar ena.
During these legal maneuv ers, information concerning the illegal distribu-
tion of PR OMIS on the international mar ket continued to come in. O n
January 8, 1991, Communications Canada (AKA the Canadian Workplace
Automation Research Centre, or CWARC) wrote a letter to I nslaw requesting
information on the program, stating that “CWARC is aware that your company’s

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software products ar e being used in federal depar tments and agencies.” I nslaw,
however, had nev er authoriz ed a Canadian sale of PR OMIS. The H amiltons’
daughter P atricia also swor e in an affidavit that an official of the Canadian
Department of Communications informed her that the R CMP w ere using
PROMIS in 900 offices in Canada. 7

In November 1992, Bill Hamilton learned the identity of a potential client

for PROMIS. A man had come to H amilton in February 1983, was wo wed by
the presentation of the software, but never came back to purchase. The customer
had identified himself as D r. B en O rr. Through a photograph identification,
Hamilton discovered that Dr. Ben Orr was the chief of Israel’s anti-terrorist intel-
ligence division under Menachem Begin, and director of LAKAM, the scientific
intelligence gathering unit of the defense ministr y in I srael. He had no doubt
been sent b y the J ustice D epartment to look at war es pr omised.8 Ari B en-
Menashe verified the pseudonym. 9
On June 9, 1993 two plaintiffs, Brenda James-Soulliere and Virginia Welmas-
Nichols, filed a slander suit against enterprises and individuals that had worked to
bring one portion of Casolaro’s research—the murder and malfeasance among the
Cabazons—to a broader audience through broadcast and print media. The court
filing described the plaintiffs as members of the Cabaz on tribe and r esidents of
Riverside County . The defendants included sev eral w ell-known r esearchers,
notably Virginia M cCullough, H arry M artin and D ave E mory, radio stations
KPFK and KFJC, and D ave Emory’s tape ser vice, Archives on A udio. The com-
plaint also listed 600 unidentified “D oes” as responsible for the slander as w ell.
Since 1980, E mory had br oadcast commentary on the influence of fascism
on contemporary life thr ough various radio pr ograms in the S an Francisco Bay
area. Beginning in A pril, 1991, E mory began br oadcasting some of the earliest
and most in-depth reporting about Casolaro, the Cabazons, and the Inslaw scan-
dal. The court filing listed his November 15 and 17, 1992 shows as the offending
programs, along with one fr om November 22, 1993. The November 15 sho w
had featur ed a discussion with NAPA S entinel editor H arry M artin about the
Cabazon involvement with Wackenhut, the modification of PR OMIS, and the
development of biological and chemical w eapons; the N ovember ‘93 br oadcast
included comments by Virginia McCullough regarding the Cabazon/Wackenhut
venture, tribal gambling operations, and connections to the mob . Emory made
tapes of the program available through his tape service, Archives on Audio.
Several interesting documents surfaced as court exhibits for the trial, includ-
ing correspondence between John Philip Nichols and R obert Booth N ichols, a
long letter fr om J ohn N ichols detailing w eapons r esearch dev elopment b y
Cabazon Arms, and inter-office memoranda fr om Wackenhut. A defendant ’s
motion for dismissal was granted b y the court on October 29, 1993. 10

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THE OCTOPUS

Jack Brooks William Barr.

The first congressional investigation of the Inslaw matter came from the Sen-
ate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, headed b y Sam Nunn. During
the course of that inquiry, its chief investigator, Ronald LeGrand, quoted a senior
officer at Justice that he refused to name as saying the Inslaw case “was a lot dirt-
ier for the D epartment of Justice than Watergate had been, both in its br eadth
and its depth.” Although I nslaw lawyer Elliot Richardson later pointed out that
LeGrand “now says he and his friend were only discussing rumors,” he concurred
with the sentiment. Richar dson was one of the fe w people to emerge fr om the
Watergate days as a man of integrity , having lost his job for r efusing to fire spe-
cial prosecutor Archibald Cox at Richar d Nixon’s direction. Richardson would
ultimately call for a special prosecutor for the Inslaw case. “When the Watergate
special prosecutor began his inquir y,” Richardson remarked, “indications of the
President’s involvement were not as str ong as those that no w point to a wide-
spread conspiracy implicating lesser go vernment officials in the theft of I nslaw’s
technology.”11
The Nunn Committee issued a r eport concluding that the J ustice Depart-
ment had victimiz ed Inslaw and, in addition, had intimidated witnesses befor e
the committee—some of them into silence for fear of their jobs; others into
being advised b y the litigation division befor e testifying. J ustice also r efused
access to any r ecords whatsoever, a pr ecursor to the tr eatment the depar tment
would give the next inquiry into Inslaw—the House Judiciary Committee, head-
ed by Jack Brooks.12
Brooks’ committee concluded that “The history of the Department’s behav-
ior in the I nslaw case dramatically illustrates its 1. r eflexive hostility and ‘ circle

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the wagons’ approach toward outside investigations; 2. inability or unwillingness

to look objectiv ely at charges of wr ongdoing by high lev el Justice officials, par-
ticularly when the agency itself is a defendant in litigation; and 3. belliger ence
toward Justice employees with vie ws that r un counter to those of the agency ’s
upper management. The fact that the Department failed to recognize a need for
an independent inv estigation of the I nslaw matter for mor e than sev en years is
remarkable. Failure to do so has effectively shielded officials who may have com-
mitted wrongdoing from investigation and prosecution.”
Despite the stone walling b y the J ustice D epartment—in fact, with special
mention of it—B rooks’ committee r eached conclusions fav orable to I nslaw. It
had reviewed the v olume of legal material and histor y of PROMIS and I nslaw,
the Cabazons and Wackenhut, and their relationships to Michael Riconosciuto,
Robert Booth Nichols, John Philip Nichols and Earl Brian; the sworn statements
of Riconosciuto; the allegations of Ari B en-Menashe, Charles Hayes, and Lester
Coleman; Richardson’s 1989 writ of mandamus filing r equest for independent
investigative counsel; and v arious soft-pedalings and inter ference b y J ustice.
Although the committee did not include D anny Casolaro’s death as par t of its
formal investigation, it did note the irr egular circumstance of his death:
“Mr. Casolaro died on August 10, 1991, and his death was officially r uled a
suicide on January 5, 1992, o ver five months later. The criticism of the inv esti-
gation of Casolar o’s death b y the M artinsburg, WV, police center on the
following ar eas: Prior to any cor oners’ inv estigation and befor e his family was
notified, Mr. Casolaro’s body was embalmed, which may hav e limited the effec-
tiveness of autopsies or to xicological examinations. S ome evidence has also
surfaced indicating that immediately follo wing the disco very of the body , the
room was not sealed by the Martinsburg authorities, potentially allowing for the
contamination of the possible crime scene. Additionally, it was reported that the
room in which Mr. Casolaro was found was cleaned befor e a thorough criminal
investigation could be conducted.”
The committee took a statement fr om Richard Stavin about the natur e of
Casolaro’s O ctopus research and the inv olvement of R obert Nichols and J ohn
Philip Nichols; and another fr om FBI field agent Thomas G ates. G ates men-
tioned that Casolar o’s phone book, containing G ates’ number had not been
located during the police inv estigation. H e also mentioned that M artinsburg
police had found “hacking” wounds on Casolaro’s arms not consistent with them
being self-inflicted. Gates had concluded this was cause to suspect mur der.
The House Judiciary Committee reached three conclusions: that the current
attorney general, William B arr—who had succeeded Richar d Thornburgh the
day Casolaro’s autopsy r eport was r eleased—should immediately settle I nslaw’s
claims in a fair and equitable manner; that J ustice department officials with any

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THE OCTOPUS

prior participation in the Inslaw litigation be excluded from further involvement

except as needed to supply information to futur e investigations as needed; and
that the J ustice D epartment appoint and independently conduct “ a full, open
investigation of the I nslaw allegations of a high lev el conspiracy within the
Department to steal enhanced PR OMIS software to benefit friends and associ-
ates of former A ttorney General Meese, including D r. Earl B rian.” Ancillary to
this last conclusion was a r ecommendation for an inv estigation into D anny
Casolaro’s death.13
Thornburgh had ostensibly r egarded the I nslaw affair as a simple contract
dispute. F aced with intense criticism fr om the J ustice D epartment, ho wever,
Thornburgh’s successor Barr acceded to the r equest for a special pr osecutor. He
appointed a r etired federal judge, N icholas J. B ua, in N ovember, 1991. Unfor-
tunately, and despite the tr emendous momentum to decide things in a way
satisfactory to Inslaw, Bua’s report, filed in March 1993 with Janet Reno as attor-
ney general, did to the case’s legal standing what had been done to Casolar o.
Incredibly, B ua clear ed the J ustice D epartment, the office for which he
worked, of wr ongdoing in the affair .14 News of the r eport did not sur face until
late May because it was being edited to take out information supposedly relevant
to national security.15 According to Bua, the evidence was not sufficient to sup-
port the claim that the Justice Department, specifically Ed Meese and crony Earl
Brian, stole PROMIS from the Hamiltons and sold it illegally to police agencies
around the world. B ua also appar ently complimented M ichael Riconosciuto’s
story-telling abilities (“a historical novel; a tale of total fiction wo ven against the
background of historical facts ”) but pooh-poohed his contention that he modi-
fied the softwar e to giv e it back door access. B ua also maintained that the
removal fr om the bench of judge G eorge B ason, who had originally r uled in
favor of Inslaw, was only a coincidence. A ccording to Bua, Bason had not been
re-appointed because he was an inefficient administrator . Bua added two final
insults to his list of appalling conclusions: D anny Casolaro had committed sui-
cide and ther e was no evidence that the J ustice D epartment attempted to
influence the investigation of his death.
Not mentioned in the r eport was the $25 million B ua had offer ed Elliot
Richardson to settle the case—mor e than triple the amount awar ded in the
first federal ruling for Inslaw. Bua made the offer in a December 1992 phone
call to Richardson and, according to Richardson, they had at least two follow
up calls about it. 16
Bua’s report was deficient in many obvious ways, and Inslaw filed a report on
July 12 , 1993 to point them out. F or instance, B ua failed to do a basic code
comparison between PROMIS and the software currently being used by the FBI,
instead relying on the exper tise of a G eorgetown University professor that such

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a comparison would be a waste of time. B ua also was selectiv e in his choice of

interviewees from Justice Department who had kno wledge of the case, neglect-
ing to talk to them all. The I nslaw r ebuttal also maintained that B ua’s
information on George Bason came in large part from Judge Roger Whelan, the
judge from whom administrative problems were inherited by Bason, or so went
the House Judiciary Committee Testimony of U. S. District Chief Judge Aubrey
Robinson. Whelan at the time also wor ked for AT&T, an Inslaw creditor.17
The July 12 rebuttal contained eighty pages and ten attachments, expanding
the particulars and adding to the documentation perhaps mor e than any other
legal document,18 especially factoring in the twenty-nine page addendum Inslaw
released on February 14, 1994. The last items in this chapter highlight some of
its many revelations.

Robert Maxwell

[Robert] Maxwell’s role as a cutout for a foreign nation’s sale of computer

software has been implicitly acknowledged by the actions of the FBI. Robert
Maxwell’s dissemination of computer software was the subject of an FBI for-
eign counterintelligence investigation in 1984. Ten years later, in January
1994, Inslaw obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), eighteen
pages relating to an investigation on this subject in New Mexico in June 1984.
The FBI furnished the documents to Inslaw in response to a FOIA request for
documents relating to Maxwell’s involvement in the ‘dissemination, marketing
or sale of computer software systems, including but not limited to the
PROMIS computer software product, between 1983 and 1992.’ The FBI
heavily redacted the eighteen pages and ascribed the redactions to the secre-
cy requirements of national security. One month before the FBI released the
documents to Inslaw, it partially reclassified two of the pages that had been
officially declassified in their entirety one year earlier. The FBU redacted the
newly reclassified portions in the copies given to Inslaw.

Robert Maxwell also developed a business relationship during the latter half
of the 1980s with two computer systems executives from the Meese Jus-
tice Department, at least one of whom had responsibilities relating to the
proprietary version of PROMIS. Robert Maxwell set up a tiny publishing
company in McLean, Virginia, in August 1985. That company then hired two
senior computing systems executives from a unit of the Meese Justice
Department that operated the proprietary version of PROMIS. One was the
Director of the Justice Data Center, the Justice Department’s own internal
computer time-sharing facility where the proprietary IBM version of
PROMIS was operating for one of the legal divisions under license from
Inslaw. the Director of the Justice Data Center resigned his estimated
$90,000-a-year Senior Executive Service position to become Vice President
for Technical Services at the six-employee start-up national defense com-
pany owned by Robert Maxwell.

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THE OCTOPUS

Submarines

The Navy confirmed to a reporter for Navy Times that it has a PROMIS soft-
ware system and that it operates its PROMIS on a VAX computer in support
of its nuclear submarines. The Navy’s Undersea Systems Center in Portsmouth,
Rhode Island, furthermore, notified the reporter in writing that its engineers had
locally developed this VAX version of PROMIS; that its PROMIS is installed only
at its land-based facility at Newport, Rhode Island; and that its PROMIS has
never been installed on board any nuclear submarine. Inslaw has, however,
obtained a document published by the same Undersea Systems Center in
1987 that reveals its PROMIS is not only operating at the land-based ‘test facil-
ity’ in Newport, but it is also operational on board both attack class and
‘boomer’ class submarines. The Navy, like the CIA and the NSA, clearly has dif-
ficulty in giving a credible accounting of its PROMIS software.

Danny Casolaro

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 nation-
al security operative of the US 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 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
questions 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 freelance 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 exposure of the
Justice Department and their involvement in the matter. Apparently he
was very close to obtaining that information.

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We do not agree with the consensus of opinion among the reporters who
looked into this matter, that Casolaro committed suicide. Casolaro was mur-
dered by agents of the Justice department to insure his silence. The entire
matter was handled internally by Justice, and our agency was not involved.19
————
1. Mahar, Maggie, “What Really Sparked the Vendetta Against Inslaw?,” Barron’s National Business
and Financial Weekly, April 4, 1988.
2. Fricker, Richard L., “The Inslaw Octopus,” Wired 1.1, Premiere Issue, 1993, p 80.
3. Richardson, Elliot, L., “A High-Tech Watergate,” New York Times, October 21, 1991.
4. Fricker, p. 101.
5. Ben-Menashe, Profits of War, p. 141.
6. Casolaro’s notes.
7. M artin, H arry V., “Canadians B egin Probe O n P irated S oftware From Justice D epartment,”
NAPA Sentinel, April 12, 1991.
8. Wired, p. 77.
9. Bleifuss, Joel, “The Inslaw Affair Continued,” In These Times, December 14, 1992.
10. Brenda James-Soulliere and Virginia Welmas-Nichols, Plaintiffs v. KPFK, Archives on Audio, A
California Business Organization, Dave Emory, An Individual, Harry Martin, An Individual, KFJC,
A California Corporation, Virginia McCullough, An I ndividual, and D oes 1 thr ough 600, I nclu-
sive, Defendants, Los Angeles Superior Court, June 9, 1993.
On other broadcasts, Emory outlined a larger context for the “October Surprise,” and thereby
Earl Brian’s involvement with the PROMIS software. In the 1995 Archives on Audio catalog (POB
170023, San Francisco, CA 94117-0023), Emory explained that, “by 1976, George Bush’s CIA was
actively supporting and grooming the Khomeini forces. The subsequent takeover of the US embassy
in Teheran, the withholding of the US hostages until after President Carter’s defeat was assured, the
Khomeini government itself and the I ran-contra scandal pr oper w ere all outgr owths of this pr o-
found and long-standing r elationship. It should be noted that par ts of this r elationship have been
misunderstood as what has become kno wn as the ‘O ctober Surprise.’ Although ther e was massiv e
collusion between the R eagan-Bush campaign and the Khomeini for ces during the 1980 election
campaign, there was no ‘deal’ cut during the campaign. Rather, the ‘deal’ was part of a covert oper-
ation begun years before and the collusion during the campaign was an outgr owth of it.”
11. Richardson.
12. Martin, Harry V., “Federal Corruption,” Napa Sentinel, March 12, 1991.
13. The Inslaw Affair, Investigative Report By The Committee On The Judiciary, 102nd Congress, 2nd Ses-
sion, House Report 102-857, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, September 10, 1992.
14. Frievogel, William and Casmier, Stephen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 18, 1993
15. Washington Post, May 29, 1993.
16. Bleifuss, Joel, “Inslaw Breakers,” In These Times, August 9, 1993.
17. Bleifuss, p. 12.
18. Richardson, Elliot L., et. al., Inslaw’s Analysis and Rebuttal of the Bua Report, July 12, 1993.
19. Richardson, Elliot L., et. al., A ddendum to Inslaw’s Analysis and Rebuttal of the B ua Report,
February 14, 1994.
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THE OCTOPUS

At the funeral: Danny Casolaro’s sister Linda (far left), Friend Wendy Weaver, brother
John, mother Frances and brother Tony.

130
Close family and friends attended Danny Caso-
laro’s funeral service: his mom, Frances; his
brothers, Tony and John; sister Linda; and girl-
friend Wendy Weaver. All of them were no doubt
preoccupied with their grief and with the unset-
tled question of his murder or suicide. Maybe
they even thought of the dozens of questions
Danny had raised about complex conspiracies
and mysterious people.
None of them, however, recognized two other
figures in attendance: a man in a tan overcoat
and an African-American in Army uniform and
regalia. As the casket was lowered into the
earth, the soldier placed a medal on it and gave
a salute. Then both strangers left in a hurry.
Since Danny had never served in the military
and never researched or wrote about it, his life
had wrought one final mystery.1

————
1. Ridge way and Vaughan, “Last D ays”; B ischoff, D an, “O ne M ore D ead M an,” Village Voice,
August 27, 1991; D anny’s cousin, J im Gualteri pointed out that the family made a videotape of
the funeral, but he could not track it do wn.

131
 Chapter 20:
V

Whitewater Currents

Octopus tentacles ar ose briefly fr om under the r elatively calm waters of a ne w

administration’s first year in office. Danny Casolaro had been dead for two years
and the key players in the investigation he began had ostensibly left po wer after
the 1992 election.
Columnist William Safire reported that Bill Clinton and George Bush struck
a secret deal after Clinton ’s election that the former pr esident would withhold
criticism of the ne w administration for one y ear in ex change for Clinton’s soft-
pedaling of the Iran-contra investigations.1 A month before the end of that deal,
a month before the former Arkansas governor’s first anniversary as president, the
Clinton administration r eopened the I nslaw investigation. In December 1993,
the FBI began again to inter view Casolaro’s close associates and friends with an
eye toward resolving the question of his death—was it a suicide or mur der?
Under the ne w administration, the FBI was not satisfied with the determi-
nation of Judge Bua’s report. It was still concerned with “D anny’s state of mind
at the time of his death,” Casolar o girlfriend Wendy Weaver told the San Fran-
cisco Chronicle. “They said they were going to interview all these people and then
bring the findings back to their exper ts to determine if he was suicidal... I told
them I thought it was mur der.”2 Press reports were silent as to why the case was
being reopened at this time; indeed, few papers other than the Chronicle report-
ed on it at all. O nly the dim political purpose of the coming end to B ush’s year
of silence even suggested an answer. Did the new administration take interest in
this high pr ofile case, touching as it did on the intelligence backgr ounds of
prominent Republican personalities, as protection against Clinton-bashing from
the Bush camp? Or was there more to it?
The r eview of the case had been or dered b y Associate A ttorney G eneral
Webster “Webb” Hubbell, then the third-ranking official at the Justice Depart-
ment (seen b y some as the D epartment’s de facto head), a Clinton family

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 WHITEWATER CURRENTS

friend. I n noting that H ubbell had been assigned to r eview the I nslaw case,
long-time Washington watcher Sarah McClendon also noted that Casolaro had
maintained that additional details about the I nslaw relationship with the J us-
tice Department could be had from employees in the office of S enator Robert
Byrd.3 McClendon affirmed Casolar o’s stor y that he had scheduled an inter-
view with these emplo yees for the F riday preceding his death. S enator Byrd’s
chief of staff was the wife of Peter Videniecks, contracting officer at the Justice
Department during the I nslaw period. McClendon quoted Bill Turner as say-
ing that Casolar o told him that he planned to meet with two members of
Robert B yrd’s staff . M cClendon also noted the H amilton’s complaints that
Hubbell and FBI investigator Scott Erskine had plans to release a report with-
out having talked to impor tant Casolar o associates or inv estigating curious
incidents, including a thr eat against Casolar o made b y a friend of Videnieks,
Joseph Cuellar, who apparently was also trailing the writer.4
Hubbell himself had already been connected to the Inslaw case through the
confessions of Danger Man. In April, 1992, Michael Riconosciuto told Village
Voice’s Frank S nepp of the link betw een guns-and-dr ugs operations at an
airstrip in M ena, Arkansas—a stor y that alr eady loomed as a major Clinton-
era scandal because of Clinton ’s failur e to inv estigate the situation as
governor5—and P ark-On-Meter (POM), a par king meter manufactur er in
Russellville, Arkansas, that figured prominently in making Webb Hubbell one
of the early victims of another Clinton debacle, the Whitewater affair .6
Riconosciuto claimed to hav e worked with Terry Reed, the Mena pilot whose
revelations first br ought the O liver N orth-styled smuggling operation to
national attention.
Riconosciuto also told Mark Swaney, the head of a University of Arkansas
student group responsible for a petition drive to investigate Mena, that he had
been inv olved in dev eloping chemical and biological w eapons in a pr oject
connected to POM—apparently never explicitly that this was also connected
to the work he did on Cabazon tribal lands—and that the company also man-
ufactured external fuel tanks for C-130 transpor t planes. Riconosciuto had
already confided to Alexander Cockburn that he had super vised high-tech
equipment transfers and developed software to help launder money at M ena7
and explained that POM, in conjunction with the infamous Wackenhut and
Stormont Labs in Woodland, California, began pr oduction of the deliv ery
system for the ne w chemical and bio warfare weaponry for use in the contra
war in 1983. Long-range transpor t missions r equire the use of external fuel
tanks, but again Riconosciuto was not explicit in connecting this with his
tales of space aliens or the bizarr e aircraft at Area 51 that had attracted Caso-
laro’s attention. 8

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THE OCTOPUS

Riconosciuto told Cockburn that Park-On-Meter made the tanks for uncon-
ventional guerilla war fare against the contras. POM was to r eceive chemical
agents fr om the 354th Chemical Company of the Army R eserve, located on
property across from the barn housing the POM facilities, for use in explosiv e
devices made with the same equipment POM used to pr oduce parking meters.9
Stormont Labs ackno wledged only discussions with Wackenhut r egarding
biological w eapons, and Wackenhut denied wor king with POM. POM pr esi-
dent, Seth “Skeeter” Ward III, also Webster Hubbell’s brother-in-law, admitted
that the company had some P entagon contracts, but only for “ re-entry nose
cones for the nuclear warheads on the MX missile and nozzles for r ocket
engines,” not chemical or biological weapons delivery systems, although he con-
fessed to not kno wing what kind of air craft par ts POM made for one of its
contracts with M cDonnell Douglas.10 Ward also denied another central charge
made by Danger Man: that POM received the first industrial development loan
made by the Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA), a controversial
state authority co-written b y Webster Hubbell in 1985. B ill Clinton appointed
every member of the ADF A’s governing board and was r equired to appr ove its
every bond issue, apparently with no other legislative means of guaranteeing that
the money would be spent as intended.
The ADF A primarily ser ved two masters: the S tephens, I nc., inv estment
bank that r eceived seventy-eight percent of ADFA’s underwriting fees and sales
of housing and industrial bonds (Clinton had appointed two Stephens associates
to the ADFA board);11 and Clinton crony Dan Lasater, whose Lasater and Com-
pany firm under wrote $664 million in municipal bond issues after the cr eation
of the ADF A.12 Lasater was a par ty animal r enowned for cocaine soir ees at his
Arkansas mansion, who claimed to hav e paid off dr ug debts of the P resident’s
brother R oger. E ven after a police inv estigation of Lasater in 1985 for dr ugs,
Clinton approved a $30.2 million bond issue to o verhaul the state police radio
system. In 1986, Lasater was sentenced to thirty months in prison for the distri-
bution of cocaine (R oger Clinton was an unindicted co-conspirator) and was
pardoned for it by Clinton. He remained connected to the White House through
White House official Patsy Thomasson, manager of Lasater and Company, while
Lasater was in jail. I n this mur ky financial atmospher e, and despite Ward’s
denials, it is pr obable that the ADF A did issue one of its first bond issues to
POM—with Clinton’s required approval.
Mena did not pr ovide the only evidence that the O ctopus swam in White-
water currents, however. Its tentacles also str etched toward the most infamous
scandal of the Clinton era: the Vincent Foster death. POM’s admitted jobs for
the Pentagon and the funny finances of the ADFA remained obscure for the most
part in the media. Webster Hubbell’s representation of POM became the official

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 WHITEWATER CURRENTS

reason for his r esignation from Clinton’s Justice Department, one month after
his r eopening of the I nslaw inv estigation. The R ose Law F irm declar ed that
Hubbell had failed to provide documentation for expenses he had charged to the
firm and that POM lost $1 million in litigation expenses when H ubbell unsuc-
cessfully pursued a patent infringement case he took on a contingency basis for
his brother-in-law “Skeeter” Ward. “Unfortunately, because of public speculation
about me and my former law firm,” Hubbell said in his resignation letter, “I will
have to spend a significant amount of time on an internal matter with my for-
mer partners.”13
In addition to bringing POM out of the Washington spotlight, the resigna-
tion shielded H ubbell fr om other accusations r egarding the Whitewater
Development Corporation r eal estate inv estments. Specifically, Hubbell ser ved
on the Resolution Trust Corporation during its takeover of the Madison Savings
and Loan, owned by Whitewater partner James McDougal and previously repre-
sented by Hubbell. Hubbell failed to inform the RTC of the potential conflict. 14
Unofficially, H ubbell was the second victim of Whitewater, follo wing White
House counsel Bernard Nussbaum’s forced resignation for questionable meetings
with federal r egulators looking into the Whitewater Development Corporation
real estate investments. Nussbaum had been responsible for removing Whitewa-
ter files and a diary from the office of White House aide Vincent Foster less than
three hours after Foster’s death from a gunshot wound. He was accompanied on
that visit by Patsy Thomasson. Foster’s last weekend had been spent in the com-
pany of Webster Hubbell, his wife and another couple—White H ouse counsel
Michael Cardozo and his wife. Hubbell joined the group in Maryland after leav-
ing the meeting that informed William Sessions of his dismissal as FBI dir ector.
After r eturning fr om a H awaiian v acation, B ill Clinton spent the w eekend in
Arkansas dining with David Edwards, a former Stephens Inc. employee and con-
duit for $23 million from the king of Saudi Arabia for the Middle Eastern studies
program at the University of Arkansas. Clinton had one last twenty minute con-
versation with Foster the Monday night before his death.15 Oddly, one of Foster’s
last phone conv ersations on the morning of his death was with B rantley Buck,
the Rose Law Firm partner assigned to investigate Webster Hubbell and POM.16
In 1995, new suspicions arose concerning the use of PROMIS in the world
banking system. O ne post on the I nternet charged (or , rather , sar castically
reported the “ false” charge) that S ystematics, a subsidiar y of Alltech Corpora-
tion comprised of S ystematics Financial Services Inc., Systematics Information
Services I nc. of Little R ock, Ar kansas, and S ystematics Telecommunications
Services Inc. of D allas, Pennsylvania, had modified the PR OMIS software for
sale to private banks, with the attendant back-doors to allow the NSA to spy on
banking operations. The post w ent on to charge that Webster H ubbell had

135
THE OCTOPUS

“helped work out strategies to use S ystematics software to spy on commer cial
and central banks.” The anonymous source encouraged Internet readers to ver-
ify the charge (or “ the utter falsehood of these malicious lies ”), and attached a
long list of bank and financial ser vice addresses, executive names and capsule
histories of their conv ersion to S ystematics softwar e, r eplete with citations in
American Banker.17
The Systematics information and Vince Foster’s last w eekend with Web-
ster Hubbell and Michael Cordoza came together to float the last odd rumors
about the PR OMIS pr ogram. I nstead of the r ecreational affair it was
described as during the Congressional Whitewater hearings, the source of this
new speculation suggested that the Clinton cr onies met to plot damage con-
trol o ver a burgeoning scandal inv olving PR OMIS. N early $3 billion had
been emptied out of S wiss bank accounts belonging to doz ens of high-po w-
ered political types—both D emocrats and R epublicans—by a CIA faction
known during this period as “ the Fifth Column.” The Fifth Column gr oup
served as expert hackers, collecting routine foreign intelligence data, presum-
ably through the PROMIS back-door, when they encounter ed Vince Foster’s
name in the Mossad system. From there, they tracked Foster’s bank trail to the
Banca Della Svizzera Italiana, a small I talian border bank, wher e the I sraelis
deposited $2.73 million. The rumors only speculated about what Foster gave
the I sraelis: high lev el intelligence information; encr yption codes; data on
black operations subcontractors—he was dead befor e it could be figured out.
Whatever it was, the F ifth Column tipped its hand to F oster that he was
under investigation by removing the money, although according to the stor y
his was not the only account raided. M aking another apparently regular one-
day trips to G eneva, Foster discovered the missing money , and later perhaps
someone mentioned to him that he was under inv estigation for espionage,
and thereafter he became suicidal. 18

————
1. Safire, William, “No Wonder Bush Is Quiet About Clinton,” Houston Chronicle, September 10,
1993.
2. Taylor, Michael and Littman, Jonathan, “Death of Conspiracy Investigator Probed,” San Fran-
cisco Chronicle, February 12, 1994.
3. Sarah McClendon’s Washington Report, January 6, 1994.
4. McClendon.
5. The Mena story begins with a drug dealer named Barry Seal who apparently began smuggling
drugs through the airstrip in 1982. The operation continued past Seal’s 1984 drug conviction in
Miami. As Seal began working deals with the D rug Enforcement Agency and O llie North’s net-
work after that conviction—trading under cover wor k against the S andinistas for leniency—a

136
 WHITEWATER CURRENTS

second wave of questionable businesses descended upon Mena. These businesses described them-
selves variously as aircraft and parts delivery services, but stories of dr ug traffic continued.
In 1989, ne w allegations w ere made b y a former inv estigator for the US militar y, G ene
Wheaton, that the airfield was also used for commando training. The Arkansas state police inves-
tigated and r eported to the US attorney , but expected indictments w ere never returned, leading
to the suspicion that the R eagan administration could add one mor e small co ver-up to its tally.
Apparently, Bill Clinton did not become inv olved with the stor y until a pair of students at the
University of Ar kansas—Mark Swaney and Tom Brown—appealed directly to their then-go ver-
nor to investigate. The appeal, and another call for a state grand jury from Arkansas’ deputy state
prosecuting attorney, was stone walled. When Ar kansas r epresentative B ill Alexander met with
Governor Clinton, he was told that $25,000 in state money had been set aside to inv estigate
Mena. The amount was too slight for an effective investigation but even that was never delivered.
The prosecuting attorney in Mena’s Polk County at the time said he never received the offer from
the then-governor’s office.
The IRS began an investigation of Barry Seals’ operation in Mena after Seal was murdered in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana b y Columbian dr ug traffickers, but accor ding to B ill Duncan, a former
IRS investigator, the inv estigators were warned off , causing D uncan to quit and testify befor e a
House committee about all he had learned of money laundering, covert operations and drug smug-
gling in Mena.
The claim that Clinton was r emiss in not investigating Mena was first made public b y Larry
Nichols in a defamation suit against the go vernor. Clinton had hir ed Nichols as marketing direc-
tor for the Arkansas Development Finance Authority but fired him when his alleged contacts with
the contras became too appar ent, citing the charge that N ichols had made unauthoriz ed phone
calls to Central America as a r eason for the firing. I n Nichols’ subsequent lawsuit contesting that
charge, he also first publicized the claims of Gennifer Flowers.
The court case of Terry Reed also added much to the Mena story. In 1988, Reed was charged
with postal fraud for r eceiving insurance money on a false claim. R eed claimed that his airplane
had been stolen as part of an Ollie North-styled project called “Project Donation,” wherein “dona-
tions” to the contra cause w ere filed as lost or stolen with insurance companies and then
reimbursed. A ccording to R eed, he had no awar eness of “P roject D onation” at the time of his
plane’s disappearance, and so r eported it as a legitimate loss. The plane r eappeared after R eed
learned of the Donation project and warned his contacts in the Ollie North network that he would
have no par t of it. R eed told his stor y with co-author J ohn Cummings in Compromised: Clinton,
Bush and the CIA, published by SPI Books/Shapolsky.
The person who first r eported the disco very of what turned out to be R eed’s plane to the
National Crime Information Center was Raymond L. “Buddy” Young, then working for Bill Clin-
ton as security chief and since chosen b y Clinton to head the D allas regional office of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. Federal Judge Frank Theis later said that Young and an associate
“acted with reckless disregard for the tr uth” in their version of how they came to r ealize the plane
was not stolen. Charges against R eed were dropped.
6. Snepp, Frank, “Clinton and the Smuggler’s Airport,” Village Voice, April 14, 1992.
7. Cockburn, Alexander, “Meters and Mortars,” New Statesman, March 27, 1992.
8. In “The Crimes of Mena,” an article published in the July 1995 issue of Penthouse, authors Sally
Denton and R oger Morris report that logs found in the plane flo wn by Eugene Hasenfus—shot
down over Nicaragua in October 1986, beginning the I ran-contra scandal—linked it to Ar ea 51.
The plane was owned by Barry Seal. The Denton/Morris article does much to document the Mena
episode. It was commissioned and later r ejected by the Washington Post.

137
THE OCTOPUS

9. Cockburn.
10. Cockburn.
11. Davis, L. J., “The Name of the Rose,” The New Republic, April 4, 1994.
12. “The Lasater Affair, Ghosts of Carelessness Past,” The Economist, May 7, 1994.
13. Davis.
14. D avidson, J oe, “H ubbell R esigns K ey J ustice P ost I n S urprise M ove,” Wall S treet J ournal,
March 15, 1994.
15. “The Foster Death,” Washington Post, January 14, 1994.
16. Isikoff, Michael, “Conspiracy Theorists Find Foster Case H ard To Resist,” Washington Post,
March 13, 1994.
17. Grabbe, J. O rlin, “Allegations Regarding Vince Foster, the NSA and B anking Transactions,”
published on the Internet and via fax network, March 1995.
18. Norman, James, R., “Fostergate,” Media Bypass, Vol. 3, #8, August 1995. Additional details for
this particular addenda to the PR OMIS story appeared in The Spotlight, August 7, 1995 edition,
which printed a contemporaneous transcript of an inter view with James Norman on Tom Valen-
tine’s Radio Free America program. The transcript was posted to Brian Redman’s Conspiracy Nation
electronic newsletter ([email protected]), August 2, 1995.

138
By August, 1993, Danny Casolaro had been dead for two years. A man
named Gary Eitel testified before a Congressional committee headed by
Rep. Charles Rose (D-NC), which examined the misuse of an “historic air-
craft exchange program.”
As early as 1991, Eitel learned that private air-cargo companies that
contracted with the US Forest Service were using aircraft intended for
firefighting duty on unauthorized overseas missions, some allegedly for
the CIA. The mastermind of this scheme was a former Air Force pilot
named Roy Reagan. After leaving the service, Reagan made a career bro-
kering aircraft deals, and one former military C-130 he had brokered
later crashed and burned on a CIA mission in Angola.
In an interview with the Portland Free Press, Gary Eitel described his
May 23 deposition in federal court as more like an interrogation. Present
were an obviously hostile group of powerful attorneys, including Stuart
M. Gerson, appointed to the Justice Department by George Bush. Gerson
was held over as acting Attorney General in the early Clinton Adminis-
tration, and later represented defendant Roy Reagan.
As Mr. Eitel prepared to testify before Rep. Rose’s congressional com-
mittee, a shocking and suspicious turn of events occurred. Eitel’s friend
and associate from T&G Aviation, Jack Chisum, was run down and killed
by an automobile while walking along a roadside.
As the May 23 deposition progressed in federal court, attorneys for
the companies made repeated references to the fate of Jack Chisum, and
clearly made attempts to reveal Mr. Eitel’s unlisted home address.
Under questioning by former acting US Attorney General, Stuart Ger-
son, Mr. Eitel discussed the fact that public service aircraft require no
certification, when Gerson suddenly blurted out a totally unrelated ques-
tion: “Do you know who killed Danny Casolaro?”
Apparently, Gerson believed that Casolaro was murdered. Mr. Eitel
believed that Gerson’s totally incongruous question was a direct threat.1

————
1. Titus, John, “CIA Airlines Never Die,” Portland Free Press, July/August 1995, pp. 4–5.

139
 Chapter 21:
V

Diana

August 31, 1997: into xicated to some degr ee with alcohol, P rozac and the
sedative Tiapridal, chauffeur H enri P aul took two famous charges, D odi Al
Fayed and D iana, Princess of Wales, on a ride into the P ont D’Alma tunnel
underneath the str eets of Paris. The only person in the S280 M ercedes sedan
to emerge alive from the other end of the tunnel was the accompanying body-
guard, Trevor R ees-Jones. The sedan had passed a white F iat and, after a
blinding flash, 1 it crashed into a concr ete tunnel pillar at some where between
90 and 110 miles per hour . The car ricocheted and then smashed into the
opposite tunnel wall. P aul and the 42-y ear-old Dodi Al Fayad died instantly.
Paramedics gave 34-year-old Diana a blood transfusion at the scene, but her
heart stopped in the ambulance en r oute to the hospital and she died four
hours after the crash.
Diana’s death made an impact in world history similar only to the Kennedy
assassination, which occurr ed in the y ear of D iana’s birth. Just like that ev ent,
the details of ho w she died became a matter of gr eat debate and conspiratorial
theorizing.2 Just as JFK’s death was officially investigated and declared the result
of a single gunman acting alone, the official inv estigation of Diana’s death con-
cluded that it was a simple automobile accident. And just as with JFK, a
preponderance of unlikely coincidences and unansw ered questions left many
people suspicious that the crash in the P ont D’Alma tunnel was an or chestrat-
ed assassination, done for the sake of keeping D iana fr om pursuing her
relationship with Dodi Al Fayad, an Egyptian, a Muslim and the son of power-
ful businessman, M ohamed Al F ayed.3 Some ev en suggested that D iana was
pregnant with Dodi Al Fayed’s child at the time of her death.
While such speculation has become not at all unusual in the affairs of pub-
lic figures, underneath the layers of various competing theories about the death
of D iana lie facts, r umors and ar cane connections that r elate it dir ectly to

140
 DIANA

Danny Casolar o’s O ctopus r esearch. Three y ears after D iana’s still unsettled
death, which occurr ed six y ears after Casolar o’s, the disaster in the P ont D’Al-
ma tunnel brought the story of the Octopus, PROMIS software, and Casolaro’s
world of I ran-contra spies, arms mer chants and corr upt politicos back in the
news. As noted, the shadowy presence of Adnan Khashoggi once again emerged
in the backgr ound of D iana’s death. Khashoggi was D odi Fayed’s uncle and a
well-known broker of military hardware deals involving Saudi Arabia stretching
back to the 1970s.4 Recall that Casolaro had only days left to live when he took
his friend Ben Mason down into his basement and pr oudly showed him sever-
al photocopied pages documenting contra arms transfers inv olving Khashoggi
and a par tner, M anucher G horbanifar, as w ell as the copies of BCCI checks
drawn on Khashoggi’s accounts. Mason later reported that Casolaro was elated
over a sour ce he was about to meet in West Virginia, someone Casolar o
described to Virginia McCullough as being inv olved in guns-and-dr ugs trans-
fers. And, of course, Casolaro had told his fellow hotel guest, Mike Looney, that
he was meeting with an Arab .
No one has suggested that Casolar o planned to meet Khashoggi or ev en a
compatriot, but he was investigating Iran-contra arms dealings and he did place
great importance on that final meeting, and called it something that would wrap
up his O ctopus research. As with all of his r esearch, however, this tributar y led
to others inv olving O ctopus entanglements bey ond I ran-contra and bey ond
PROMIS and Inslaw. Casolaro’s focus on the Khashoggi documents almost cer-
tainly inv olved kno wledge of Khashoggi ’s A pril 1986 meeting with Tony
Rowland, Australian tycoon, publisher of The Observer newspaper and an adver-
sary of M ohammad Al F ayed’s attempt to gain B ritish citizenship.5 Khashoggi,
Gorbanifar and journalist/Israeli foreign adviser Amiram N ir attempted to per-
suade Rowland to join the I ran-contra effort by helping sell arms to I ran. The
attempted alliance bogged down after the meeting, when Rowland inquired into
US circles about covert support for such an effort. It seems very likely that Caso-
laro knew about this alliance betw een Dodi Fayed’s maternal uncle, Khashoggi,
and his father ’s bitter enemy , R owland. The deeper significance, of course,
became clear after Casolaro’s death, and after Diana’s.6
Although Casolar o had appar ently wrapped up , or was going to wrap up
after that final meeting, his r esearch into Iran-contra, he no doubt also took a
strong inter est in possible O ctopus inv olvement in other co vert arms deals
involving Khashoggi. That was no small list. I t included such little and w ell
known brouhahas in the world of international arms traffic as the P etromonde
scandal, the Litton scandal, the Westland Scandal, the Lockheed scandal, the
Northrop scandal, the Lina Al-B assam scandal and, most impor tantly, the cor-
ruption involving the Al Yamamah contracts and Iran-contra.

141
THE OCTOPUS

The amount of attention and detail Casolar o brought to all this parahistor y
remains lost in the accordion file that disappeared at his death. Adnan Khashog-
gi’s r ole in the N orthrop scandal of the early 1970s was w ell kno wn to him,
however. In 1972 and 1973 Khashoggi had served as the middle man in corrup-
tion pay-offs (“commissions” for v arious arms-deals, often inv olving the sale of
sub-standard equipment to the S audis) by the aer ospace firm N orthrop to the
head of the S audi Air Force, General Hashim M. H ashim and to his successor ,
General Asad Zuhair. Northrop, which also made illegal campaign contributions
to Richar d N ixon, paid S audi prince Khaled bin A bdullah o ver $500,000 in
bribes, after Abdullah’s public complaint that “If I get nothing, then I will make
sure Adnan gets nothing.” A Security Exchange Commission investigation of the
situation led only to Northrop’s signing a pledge to no longer conceal the bribes.
The Saudi royal family outlaw ed the commissions, but with laws that w ere
ill-defined and nev er enforced. Extra-contractual “commission” payments con-
tinued to maintain the w ealth of the S audi royals. Khashoggi continued as the
sole House of Saud contact for arms dealers, thr ough a front company incorpo-
rated in L uxembourg, Triad America Corporation, with funds N orthrop
deposited into a Swiss bank for Khashoggi, who continued to funnel much of it
to the S audi r oyals. Although the N orthrop deal ev entually did fall apar t,
Khashoggi continued to use his connections to King F ahd and Prince Sultan to
broker arms deals. 7
Not the least of these deals was the Al Yamamah contract umbrella, a central
contractual arrangement signed in Riyadh in F ebruary 1986, that suppor ted
both the B ritish aer ospace industr y and the corr upt w ealth of the S audi r oyal
family. Through this series of contracts, the S audis turned o ver oil to the B ank
of England, which allowed for its sale thr ough Shell Oil and British petroleum.
Profits from that were turned over to the UK’s defense ministry, which paid the
British Aerospace corporation when it provided military hardware to Saudi Ara-
bia. Like the N orthrop arrangements, the Al Yamamah umbrella comes r eplete
with “commissions” and bribes, and involves the delivery of substandard military
hardware.8
In a sear ch for justice in what he r egarded as the mur der of his son and
Princess Diana, Mohammad Al F ayed returned to the histor y and speculation
about the multinational O ctopus cabal. In the early fall of 2000, Al F ayed filed
a Freedom of Information Act suit against the CIA and sev eral other US intelli-
gence services. He declared his intent to r ecover documents originally sur faced
by a self-proclaimed CIA agent named O swald LeWinter. LeWinter previously
had tried to sell documents to an Al F ayed cohort in A ustria, documents pur-
portedly implicating the B ritish government in the D iana crash. LeW inter was
arrested as a fraud, ho wever, and sentenced in Vienna to four y ears in 1998.

142
 DIANA

LeWinter apparently still holds to the authenticity of the doucments, stating that
“I had a choice at my arr est to identify the documents as genuine or as fakes. I f
I said genuine, I would face charges in the US of high tr eason ... so I said they
were forgeries and was arrested for fraud.”
Only one of LeW inter’s documents sur faced in the B ritish press after being
seized by police in Vienna, the document below.

DOMESTIC COLLECTION DIVISION

Foreign Intelligence Information Report
Directorate of Intelligence

WARNING NOTICE—INTELLIGENCE SOURCES AND METHODS

INVOLVED FURTHER DISSEMINATION AND USE OF THE INFORMATION
SUBJECT TO CONTROLS STATED IN BEGINNING AND END OF REPORT

REPORT CLASS: TOP SECRET

REPORT NO: 00.D 831/173466-97
COUNTRY: France
DATE DISTR: 17 June 1997
SUBJECT: File Overview: Diana Princess of Wales-Dodi
REFERENCES DCI Case 64376
SOURCE: CASParis/CASLondon/COSGeneva/CASKingston/ UK citizen Ken
Etheridge.

1. Relationship initiated between Diana POW and Dodi aF according to reli-

able intel sources in November 1996. Intimacy begins shortly after they
meet. (Report filed)

2. Reliable source reports Palace seriously disturbed by liaison. PM consid-

ers any al Fayed relationship politically disastrous. Edinburgh sees serious
threat to dynasty should relationship endure. Quote reported: “Such an affair
is racially and morally repugnant and no son of a bedouin camel trader is fit
for the mother of a future king,” Edinburgh. (Report filed)

3. Request from highest circles to DEA attache UK for 6 on Dodi re:

Cocaine. See file forwarded to UK embassy DC. (Copy filed)

4. US liaison to MI6 requested by David Spedding for assistance in provid-

ing permanent solution to Dodi problem. Blessing of the Palace secured.
(Twiz filed)

5. WHuse denies Spedding request. Harrison authorized only to arrange

meeting for MI6 representative with K-Team Geneva. (Twiz on file)

6. Meeting in Geneva reportedly successful. (Report filed)

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THE OCTOPUS

7. Al Fayed Mercedes Limo stolen and returned with electronics missing.

Reliable intel source confirms K-Team involved. Source reports car rebuilt to
respond to external radio controls. (Report filed.)”9

Writer Rayelan Allan 10 made the follo wing correlation between the LeW in-
ter document and many of the figur es Casloar o had follo wed as par t of the
Octopus involvement in Iran-contra:
The connection between Al Fayed and the I ran/contra scandal was difficult
to prove, but Richard Taus, former FBI agent states that Al Fayed and Khashog-
gi were connected to the I ran/contra scandal thr ough Castle S ecurities. Castle
Securities was formerly Drexel Company, which was connected to Drexel, Burn-
ham, Lamber t and the junk bonds scandal. Taus states that many people who
were involved in Castle S ecurities part of a gr oup out of F reeport, Long I sland
known as the K-T eam. M ost if not all K-T eam members w ere par t of the
Iran/contra scandal. Taus reported that the K-Team was a CIA operation which
included many infamous names such as Oliver North, Admiral John Poindexter,
Richard Secord, and Adnan Khashoggi...
Lord Earl Spencer (Diana’s father) was the best friend of A dnan Khashog-
gi’s br other-in-law, M ohammad Al F ayed. Al F ayed was connected to the
K-Team and its enterprises thr ough Castle Securities. The ten y ear friendship
between Lord Spencer and Al F ayed eventually lad to the intr oduction of Al
Fayed’s 40-year-old son, E mad ‘Dodi’ Fayed, to P rincess Diana. Mohammad
El Fayed and A dnan Khashoggi had been connected to the K-team thr ough
their business deals. The K-team was/is made up of CIA operativ es who
were/are members of F action 1—the N ew World Order, and F action 2—the
opposition to the NWO. Al Fayed and Khashoggi were connected to the men
who make up Faction 2. 11
The idea of the factional split in the global police intelligence community
had a long life in the Casolaro saga. Danger Man Riconosciuto previously main-
tained that two factions, COM-12 and A quarius, had leaked information to
Casolaro in order to embarass and manipulate each other.
As the accumulation of rumor and speculation continued to move Diana and
the Octopus closer together in the thinking of conspiracy students, Riconsociu-
to emerged again to make a connecting link. The R oyal Canadian M ounted
Police, key players in the original tale of the PROMIS software piracy, reopened
its investigation into the affair in 1999/2000 when it conducted a series of inter-
views with a former stockbroker in Ontario named John Belton. Reporters from
the Toronto Star discovered from Belton that the RCMP had reopened its inves-
tigation into the Canadian r ole in the I nslaw affair and the possible thr eat it
represented to Canadian security. “Belton said RCMP officers have already con-
firmed to him that they do use the PR OMIS software [and the security of the

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RCMP has been compr omised as a r esult of trap doors in the softwar e]....The
chainsmoking Belton unraveled his stor y at the kitchen table of his sprawling,
ramshackle house near O ttawa. The table is stacked with thick binders jammed
with documents detailing his allegations. Cour t documents, detailed notes of
telephone conversations and newspaper clippings are marked up with highlighter
and neatly organiz ed.” The Star quoted B elton as saying, “ You’re not dealing
with paranoid crazies, or the UFO guys. I’ m very serious about this.” 12
Belton’s story affirms details that have long been supplied by arms merchant
and former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menasche, who went on to work as a security con-
sultant in M ontreal. At the time of B elton’s revelations to the Canadian pr ess,
Ben-Menasche reported that r enewed interest in the case had led two Scotland
Yard detectives to fly over and interview him. Their purpose: to discuss meetings
Ben-Menasche had with none other than M ohammad Al Fayed. Details of that
contact have yet to surface, but the Scotland Yard investigators were inexplicably
accompanied by the two RCMP officers working on the (unofficially) r eopened
PROMIS case, Sean McDade and Randy Buffam.13
Investigators also spoke with Riconosciuto ’s lawy er, Louis B uffardi, and
Riconosciuto himself repeated the details of his involvement with PROMIS, but
both made another unexpected connection of it all to a 1997 Octopus-style dou-
ble homicide in Hercules, California. Like members of the Cabazon tribe before
them, the bodies of 12-y ear-old Brendan Abernathy and his 43-y ear-old father
Neal, who o wned a car r epair shop , w ere found bound in their living r oom,
wrapped in electrical cable and shot ex ecution style. A cquaintance with
Riconosciuto may hav e been among the motiv es for their mur der. M ountie
McDade joined H ercules police detectiv e S ue Todd in a prison inter view of
Riconosciuto, but the details of how the Canadian case related to the California
murder, as w ell as its connection to Ari B en-Menasche and M ohammad E l
Fayed, and to the death of D iana, remains unclear.

————
1. An internet posting to the Conspiracy Theory Research List (CTRL) from September 11, 1997
echoed reports that photographs fr om the scene at one point r eveal a motor cyclist ahead of the
Mercedes popping flashbulbs into the ey es of driv er Henri Paul. The motorcyclist/photographer
was not among the paparazzi arrested at the scene. The report of the flash persisted three years later,
as a former MI6 agent named Richard Tomlinsin reported that “Henri Paul was an MI6 informer
paid to spy on D iana and D odi. The Diana crash was chillingly similar to a pr evious MI6 plot.
That plot was to assassinate the S erbian leader S lobodon Milosevic in G eneva using a po werful
laser strobe light—similar to that described b y witnesses to the P aris crash—to blind the driv er.”
The laser strobe, publicized greatly in an English documentary entitled Diana: Secrets Behind The
Crash, was mentioned again b y Dodi Al Fayed’s father Mohammed Al Fayed during a pr ess con-
ference announcing his Freedom of Information Act suit against the CIA and other US intelligence
agencies for documents per taining to the crash. O ne witness, secretary Brenda Wells, made state-
ments strongly discriminating the strobe flash from the paparazzi flashbulbs.

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THE OCTOPUS

2. The following list outlines some suspicious details about the car crash:
- It took an hour and for ty minutes to get D iana to the P itie Salpetiere hospital. F our
other hospitals w ere closer . The White H ouse, and consequently the US intelligence
community, regards the Pitie Salpetriere as the official hospital of choice for officials vis-
iting Paris. (This slowness has been described as part of the French inclination to stabilize
a vicitm before proceding to hospital and as an attempt b y the ambulance to not aggra-
vate Diana’s injuries.)
- Early news reports had Diana up and walking around immediately after the crash. S he
also supposedly was able to speak some wor ds, and r eportedly one photograph of the
scene showed her utterly unbloodied.
- A few weeks prior to the accident, the Mercedes had been stolen from the garage of the
Ritz hotel, where the fatal ride began. P olice recovered the car but found that its instr u-
mentation had been tamper ed with. S hortly ther eafter, the car was r einspected and
reconditioned.
- Contrary to normal procedures for bodyguards, guard Trevor Rees-Jones fastened his
seatbelt before the ride. The others did not. R ees-Jones later claimed amnesia about
the event, not due to trauma but to the drugs he recieved in the hospital for his severe
facial injuries.
- Henri Paul appears sober in video footage taken at the Ritz Hotel just before the fatal ride.
The notion that Paul was severely alcoholic has been challenged b y friends and family.
- A mysterious $200,000 had been deposited in H enri Paul’s bank account just prior to
the wreck. Former MI6 agent Richard Tomlinson claims the money came fr om MI6.
- The French opened up the tunnel r oadway only hours after the crash and neglected to
collect important evidence. Even establishment apologist Gerald Posner acknowledged the
incompetence of the French investigation.
- Seventeen cameras inside the tunnel failed to operate at the time of the crash.
- The papparazzi photographer who may hav e owned the white F iat encountered by the
death car, James Andanson, died under questionable cir cumstances in M ay 2000. Police
discovered Adnandson’s burned body in a charr ed BMW in the A veyron woodland, near
the village of N ant in S outhwestern France. Previously, Andanson’s Paris office had been
burglarized by three masked and well-trained men who wounded a security guard and for
a while kept the office staff hostage. I t took four w eeks for police to identify Andanson ’s
remains from DNA tests. O fficial investigators claim that the white paint of Andanson ’s
Fiat did not match that r ecovered fr om scrape mar ks on the M erecedes, and consider
Andanson’s death a suicide, despite the bizarr e circumstances.
3. Mohammed Al Fayed owns the posh Harrod’s department store in London. He has worked hard
to ferret out government documents held in secret and other information concerning possible plots
in the death of his son D odi and his son ’s lo ver D iana. The UK go vernment has long denied
Mohammed Fayed’s application for B ritish citizenship and has looked askance at the impact his
wealth and influence hav e had on politics in E ngland. The UK government has also deferr ed his
request for a full inquir y into the crash to the official F rench investigation most people find seri-
ously flawed. Mohammed Al Fayed holds the view that Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip,
the Duke of Edinburgh, ordered the deaths of his son and D iana and is now using the CIA, MI5

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and MI6 to cover it up. He has, of course, been dismissed as a conspiracy theor y nutter. The sta-
tus of his lawsuit and any ne w information about his inv estigative effor t can be found at his
website, www.alfayed.com.
4. Khashoggi spent thr ee semesters studying economics at Chico S tate University in California
before starting a business renting his truck to companies doing business in Saudi Arabia. After col-
lege, he developed those contacts into a r ole as a liaison betw een US and S audi corporations and
the Saudi military, primarily under Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. That role, in its various legal and extra-
legal dimensions, br ought A dnan Khashoggi to gr eat w ealth as a br oker of long-term deals
involving militar y har dware. I n the transformation fr om r enting out his tr uck to shepher ding
arrangements for tanks and jet fighters, Khashoggi came to own a dozen estates and a $70 million
yacht docked at Porto Banus, Spain. The yacht, called the Nabila, appears in the James Bond movie
Never Say Never Again. Khashoggi later sold it to his friend, D onald Trump. The 1987 biography
of Adnan Khashoggi, published b y Warner Books and written b y Ronald Kessler, is entitled The
Richest Man In The World.
5. Alex Constantine notes, “ Tiny Rowland was the publisher of London ’s Observer until reporter
Tom Bower researched the financier’s past a few years ago and discovered him to be a former Hitler
Youth Corps leader. Rowland served a spell in an allied detainment camp to ward the end of the
war, then migrated to S outh Africa and found enormous w ealth ther e in the mining industr y.
Thereupon he relocated to the UK to pur chase the Observer and rub shoulders with some of the
most notorious movers in the world business community, including Daniel Ludwig, a hotel mag-
nate who retains a PR agency solely to keep his name out of the ne wspapers.” (10/13/97)
6. Peter Rushton claimed on the alt.politics.org.cia internet list that he had been giv en “a large file
of allegations against R owland” by Francesca Pollard as par t of a counter-offensiv e launched b y
Mohammad Al Fayed against intrique by Arab industrialist Ashraf Marwan, working as a front for
Tiny Rowland, to secure a large number of shar es in the House of Fraser, the company that owns
Fayed’s Harrod’s.
The battle between Roland and Mohammad Al Fayed was fought in part with the help of Nemi
Chand Jain, known also as Chandraswami. The followers of Chandraswami, one of India’s swarm of
gurus for the jet-setting elite, include I ndian Prime Minister Narasimha, Tiny Rowland and Adnan
Khashoggi. At one point Chandraswami cir culated a faked tape of M ohammad Al Fayed admitting
that he acquired Harrod’s with the help of the S ultan of Brunei. He also introduced to Khashoggi a
woman named Pamela Bordes, whose wile apparently helped Khashoggi seal deals. Bordes was quot-
ed as saying she was physically afraid of Khashoggi but mentally afraid of Chandraswami.
7. In 1996, the Committee Against Corr uption in Saudi Arabia (CACSA) reported, “The rever-
berations of Saudi Arabia’s procurement of over eighty Northrop F-SE/F’s are still being felt today,
even as the kingdom seeks to r eplace the top heavy air craft with ne wer, sleeker trainer-fighter
models. Saudi Arabia also bought F-SNB’s from Northrop in 1971, the first phase of the contract,
a few years before they bought the F-5EIF’s. The deal was worth $4.2 billion before they bought
the F-5EIF’s.
“The F-5’s still hav e to be maintained until they ar e replaced. Three years ago, the M inister
of Defense, Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, pressured Northrop to award the maintenance contract
to the Al Salam Aircraft Company, which was described as ‘ poorly managed.’ (Mednews—Middle
East Defense News, April 19, 1993). The joint venture company was established to handle the over-
haul of both Royal Saudi Air Force and Saudia, the commercial carrier aircraft. Al Salam’s facilities
at the Riyadh airport are inadequate because its overhaul hangars are not connected to the runway,
rendering them inaccessible to planes, and because the hangars do not have an adequate power sup-
ply for the maintenance and r epair work Al Salam was set up to do .”

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Khashoggi’s talent at br okering deals emerged again in 2003. I n the New Yorker (“Annals of
National Security, Lunch with the Chairman,” M arch 17, 2003), S eymour Hersh reported that
Khashoggi arranged meetings betw een a w ealthy Saudi industrialist named H arb Saleh al-Zuhair
and Richar d P erle, who ser ved in the B ush administration as chairman of the D efense P olicy
Board, an advisory group to the Pentagon. Perle was also one of the neoconser vative architects of
the administration’s “pax Americana” foreign policy and a strident advocate of invading Iraq. It was
his role as a par tner in a v enture capital firm that caught H ersh’s attention, however. The compa-
ny, Trireme Partners L.P., produced defense and anti-terr orist technologies. It had sent a letter to
Khashoggi stating that war and the fears of terr orism would gr eatly incr ease the demand for
Trireme’s services. Boeing had alr eady contributed twenty million dollars in an attempt to attract
investors like Khashoggi and his friends, accor ding to the letter. It was a shameless attempt at war
profiteering, but also a clear conflict of inter est because of P erle’s government position. After the
Hersh article, Perle was forced to resign as Defense Policy Board chairman, although he continued
to serve on the board (along with the likes of H enry Kissinger). He even threatened to sue Hersh
over the controversy.
8. Information about Al Yamamah comes largely fr om the dissident gr oup within S audi Arabia,
since British Aerospace does not reveal terms of the contract and the British press has been slow to
investigate. The Committee reported that “ The Saudi Arabian government has British Aerospace
wrapped around its finger because r evenues from the al-Yamamah deal sav ed the company fr om
going under. In the early 1990s, it was losing as much as $1.8 billion dollars a year... British Aero-
space agreed to supply S audi Arabia with for ty-eight Tornadoes, thirty Hawks, thirty Pilatus PC
9s, two Jetstream trainers, and a v ariety of missiles and gr ound based equipment in ex change for
oil. Two years later, under Al-Yamamah, the Saudi government ordered forty-eight more Tornados.
In January 1993, immediately after the company r eported one of the worst annual losses of
any British company ev er, Saudi Arabia or dered more Tornados. The focus of the Al-Y amamah
contract is money , not w eapons. I n the wor ds of G eorge G alloway, the S audi go vernemt has
ordered “vast amounts of unusable weapons” which were worth millions of pounds to British aero-
space. The Saudi government does not car e whether the w eapons work. The royal family is using
the al-Yamamah deal as a cover.” (Internet posting, September 19, 1997.)
Researcher DasGoat summarized, “It was in the context of the joint US-B ritish trade in
arms in the Middle East, camouflaged by Operation Desert Storm—that Khashoggi’s brother-
in-law M ohammad Al F ayed appar ently managed someho w to bring do wn the B ritish
government, or rather the conser vatives around Thatcher (and her pr otege John Major) who,
indistinquishable fr om R epublicans ar ound R eagan and B ush, turned their nation ’s tr easury
into a personal slush fund, making their fortunes from investing in corrupt and criminal activ-
ities (whitewashed as covert operations or wars) in the arms and drugs market.” (To CTRL list,
9/11/97.)
9. “Edinburgh” here refers to Prince Phillip; “WHuse” refers to the White House; and David Sped-
ding is the head of MI6.
10. In 1997, Rayelan Allan provided a fanciful but fascinating discussion of the history behind
the fateful crash site, under the psuedonym “R u Mills” via Brian Redman’s Conspiracy Nation:
Princess Diana and her soon-to-be husband, Dodi Fayed, were fatally injured in the Pont
de l’Alma tunnel. The site is ancient, dating back to the time of the M erovingian kings
(ca. 500—751 A.D.), and before. In pre-Christian times, the Pont de l’Alma was a pagan
sacrificial site. Note that in the pagan connotation, at least, sacrifice is not to be confused
with murder: the sacrificial victim had to be a willing par ticipant.

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In the time of the Merovingian kings, the Pont de l’Alma was an underground chamber.
Founder of the M erovingian dynasty was M erovaeus, said to be descended fr om the
union of a sea creature and a French queen. Merovaeus followed the pagan cult of Diana.
In Middle English, “soul” (Alma) has as etymology “descended from the sea.” “Pont” has
as a Latin root “pontifex,” meaning a Roman high priest. (See also pons, pontis—bridge;
passage.) “Alma” comes from the Latin “almus,” meaning nourishing. One translation of
Pont de l ’Alma would be “bridge of the soul.” Another would be “ passage of nourish-
ment.” All tr ue E uropean r oyalty is descended fr om the M erovingians, which ar e
believed to be descendants of Jesus Christ.
During the Merovingian era, if two kings had a dispute o ver property, it was settled in
combat at Pont de l’alma. According to legend, anyone killed there goes straight to Heav-
en and sits at the right hand of G od, watching o ver all his foe was to do . The person
killed in combat was actually considered to be the “winner,” since he became God’s eyes
on earth and could even manipulate events.
The current British royal family are imposters. The House of Windsor is a fraud. But the
lineage of Lady Diana Spencer goes back to Charles II H ouse of Stewart. The House of
Stewart is of “ true” royal blood. D iana’s sons, William and H arry, have three quar ters
true nobility in their blood.
Rayelan Allan developed her thesis that Diana’s death was arranged in order to use her image
to create a world-contr olling religion in the book, Diana, Queen of H eaven, available at the w eb
site www.dianaqueenofheaven.com.
11. Allan, Rayelan, “Diana Was Not The Target,” Paranoia Magazine, Issue 24, Fall 2000.
12. Lawton, Valerie and Thompson, Allan, “Rigged Software Claimed To Hack Intelligence Files,”
Toronto Star, August 28, 2000.

13. Lawton, Valerie, “Spy Trap Probe Now Tied To US and Britain,” Toronto Star, August 29, 2000.

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 Chapter 22:
V

Jim Keith

Jim K eith often sat at a R eno bar, drinking Cor onas with lime ser ved b y his
friend, the bartender Seth Jameson. Some nights he also met with a person S eth
knew as Keith’s Sufi contact.
Seth knew Keith well;1 he knew little of the S ufis. Sufism has origins in the
early Islam of the desert nomads, although the Sufi Order of the West was found-
ed in London in 1910 for the “ transmission of spiritual tr uth in a manner that
is consistent with modern, Western cultur e.”2 For y ears, J im K eith collected
obscure bits of information for v arious zines 3 and books that featur ed his writ-
ing. Unlike Danny Casolaro, whose story so intrigued Keith that he helped write
this book on Casolar o, K eith did not operate in total obscurity . He was w ell-
known, practically a celebrity in the world of marginals publishing. H e lectured
regularly at conspiracy and UFO conferences and had several acclaimed titles to
his credit.4 Keith regaled conspiracy theorists for many years. He was pleased that
he had found such an obscure source from a mysterious, religious/mystical back-
ground, the S ufis. H e had a second column due for a ne w online ne wsletter
called Nitro News.
Keith’s Sufi friend told him of r eturning from a trip to London for Dhikr, a
celebration of Allah that often involved ecstatic trance states. He told Keith that
the ceremony was attended b y the personal physician of D odi Fayed, the man
who died with D iana on the fateful day of the P ont D’Alma tunnel crash. The
doctor, a non-Sufi Muslim, privately revealed a great secret to Keith’s Sufi friend:
Diana was pregnant when she died. The doctor had personally made the exami-
nation and verified the pregnancy.
Keith felt that this was just the thing to follow the Nitro News column he had
written on the possible conspiracy in the plane crash that killed JFK, Jr . A ques-
tion remained, however. What was that physician’s name? Keith hoped he could
get two columns out of this, one asserting the idea of the pregnancy, another giv-

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 JIM KEITH

ing the name of the physician. Nitro News had been slow in paying, so he want-
ed to stretch out the writing chores. The Sufi provided him with the name after
another assurance that his own name would be kept anonymous.
Perhaps Keith thought of Casolar o as he par ted company with the S ufi and
determined to go home and knock out that column. H ome those days was a
trailer outside of Reno. Keith returned to it and wrote this column:

PRINCESS DIANA WAS PREGNANT; FAYED’S PHYSICIAN EXAMINED HER

Recent French findings have not put to rest the suspicion that a conspiracy was
responsible for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, millionaire Dodi Fayed,
and driver, Henri Paul, in Paris on August 31, 1997. The case for conspiracy is
familiar enough to those who delve into the hidden side of world politics.

Diana had crossed the reigning House of Windsor, and had taken on the color
of an enemy to the throne of Great Britain. Born of competing Stuart Royal line,
she had been a thorn in the side of the British Monarchy virtually from the
beginning of her marriage to Prince Charles. She was far more popular than the
aloof Charles, and a perception of unfair treatment by the Royal Family only
added to already numerous calls for the abolition of the Monarchy.

It is fair to think that the House of Windsor may have seen Diana as becom-
ing dangerously powerful, and as a threat to its future. She was also viewed
as a threat to other elements of the British establishment, including the arms
industry, whose lucrative business in death was challenged by her calls for
an international ban on land mines. Diana had already been targeted with
surveillance and wiretaps by Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5,
and through the leaking of her private conversations to the press.

At least two persons close to Diana and Dodi Fayed have told the press that
the couple was planning on marrying. They had been dating for nine
months, and Dodi’s purchase of a quarter million dollar diamond ring for her
provided additional confirmation.

The British establishment would have seen a marriage to Dodi Fayed as an

alliance with the Muslim world, and there was the real possibility that Diana
would convert to the Islamic faith. Equally important, Dodi’s father was bil-
lionaire Muhammad Fayed, related to the Saudi Royal Family. He is alleged
to have compromised many British politicians through the use of his bribes
and other incentives.

Of central importance to the belief that Diana may have been murdered are
unconfirmed reports that she was pregnant by Dodi Fayed at the time of her
death. Certainly, the birth of a child with Egyptian blood, half-brother to
Diana’s sons, would have been seen as a devastating event to the rulers of
Britain. So far, however, no conclusive proof has been offered that she was

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THE OCTOPUS

pregnant. I have now obtained the closest thing to proof that will probably
ever be revealed.

Confirmation of Diana’s pregnancy comes from a unique source: through

the network of the Middle Eastern religious group called the Sufis. The Sufis
are a meditative, mystical offshoot of the Islamic faith, and several members
of this group are friends of the author.

One of my Sufi contacts, who chooses to remain anonymous traveled to

London to participate in Dhikr, a remembrance of Allah. Both Sufis and
orthodox Muslims attended this ritual. My contact reports that while partic-
ipating in this ceremony, he met Dodi Fayed’s personal physician, a man
who is a Muslim, but is not a Sufi. In private conversation, the physician told
him that Diana and Dodi Fayed had planned on getting married, and that he
had personally examined her and determined that she was pregnant.

If this is the case, why has this physician not come forward and told the
press? One can only speculate. Perhaps this information is being kept secret
as part of a larger indictment when Muhammad Fayed finally weighs in with
proof of a conspiracy.

Keith sent the new column to his editors at Nitro News, planning to use the
physician’s name in the next one next. H e planned to do this after a visit to the
Burning Man festival in Black Rock, just north of Reno.5
The lore of the Burning Man attracted Keith. Larry Harvey, Jerry James and
twenty sympaticos star ted the ev ent b y burning an eight-foot stick figur e of a
man on B aker Beach in S an Francisco in June of 1986. H arvey did it to purge
himself of feelings from a romance gone wrong; the others had their own reasons
to create a symbolic break from the past. The stick burning had long been moved
to Black Rock and had become a massiv e 50-foot effigy for o ver 15,000 heavily
dosed revelers. Keith did not have a past to purge, but he did hav e a reputation
to protect and promote as Reno’s top party animal. As a top bar fly on the Reno
scene, especially for his UFO conspiracy talk gr oup at the P lanet 9 bar on East
Fourth S treet, ho w could he not go? B urning M an consisted of intense mass
hedonistic revelry, fireworks and pyr otechnics, thousands of fr ee spirits practic-
ing amateur performance art and drug-abundant celebration.
He eventually found himself on one of the many stages at Burning Man. He
was seen by many in the party atmosphere shaking hands, laughing with the rest
of the crowd, bumping into people. At some point, however, he lost his balance
and fell off the Burning Man stage.
Keith’s long-time friend, Wayne Henderson, later imagined Keith’s situation
the following morning:

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 JIM KEITH

He is disheveled; still wearing most of what he was wearing last night (good
performance; GREAT party) and the first thing he notices is that he’s got a
monumental case of dragonmouth, and a headache. Oh, and his leg hurts.

He rises, goes to the bathroom with a cup of strong coffee in his hand and
some Led Zeppelin on the stereo. The aspirin starts to kick in, the headache
begins to fade. His leg hurts. He gargles, showers. Gets another cup of 40-
weight coffee.

He rummages through a pile of papers on his work desk. Book manuscript

(GOT to finish that intro) e-mails, articles, letters (got to answer that one
from IllumiNet), back issue of Steamshovel Press (his leg hurts), more let-
ters, more e-mails (should get online today, Conspiracy Journal is due),
dog-eared invitation to a party at the Burning Man festival, what was I look-
ing for anyway?

God-all-MIGHTY, what the HELL did I do to my LEG? On the phone, make

arrangements to go to the hospital and have a doctor look at this, put a
splint on the darned thing, I’ve got work to do, for Chrissakes...”6

The pain was such that K eith called paramedics, who deliv ered him to the
Washoe Medical Center in Reno. He balked at the idea of anesthesia and surgery,
but the Washoe doctors explained to him that the tibia fractur e he suffer ed at
Burning Man required both. K eith’s nephew Chris D avis came out to be with
him at Washoe. Keith told him, “I hav e a feeling that if they put me under I’ m
not coming back. I kno w if I get put under , I am going to die.” 7 The doctors
insisted that the surgical procedure was routine.
Keith called his old friend from Planet 9, George Pickard, and told him that
one of the hospital attendants had the same name as someone he debated months
ago on MSNBC. The topic had been black helicopters and this person r epre-
sented the Pentagon in arguing that the choppers just do not exist. 8 Ordinarily
Keith liked these kinds of coincidences. They were fodder for his writing. This
time, he told Piccard, it was getting a bit too w eird. His came out to Washoe to
be with Keith. “I was told that Jim was in room 106, on the first floor,” Pickard
later reported, “When I checked that r oom, 106, I found an elderly lady with a
completely different name. A nurse refused to tell me what happened and direct-
ed me to an unidentified family spokesperson for information.” 9
Somewhere betw een nephe w D avis’ visit and G eorge P ickard’s attempt,
Keith assented, very reluctantly, to the anesthetic and the surgery. He died on the
operating table.
On September 7, 1999, a blood clot traveled from Jim Keith’s leg to his lung
during or shortly after surgery that Washoe Medical Center doctors assured him
was r outine, and killed him. “ There’s no conspiracy her e,” Washoe County

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deputy coroner Steve Finnell later assured a Reno Gazette-Journal reporter, “This
could happen to any one. We see it all of the time. This is consider ed an acci-
dental death.”10
A great outpouring of grief at the passing of this celebrity of the conspiracy
circuit appeared in the form of several memorial web pages, but none of the com-
ments stated the o verriding sentiment at ne ws of J im K eith’s death mor e
succinctly than that of writer J im Hougan:
“A fucking knee operation?” 11
A debate followed for many months about whether or not to r egard Keith’s
death with suspicion. The strange coincidence that Nitro News, which posted
Keith’s column about P rincess D iana to the w eb the day befor e K eith left for
Burning Man, went mysteriously offline for two w eeks just befor e the ne ws of
Keith’s death, fanned the flames of suspicion. H ad Keith’s demise been or ches-
trated b y the O ctopus? H ad someone whacked K eith’s knee at B urning Man?
Did the Pentagon send an assassin to Washoe Medical? As with Danny Casolaro,
a pr oper inv estigation nev er happened and most accepted deputy cor oner
Finnell’s explanation, as disquieting as it seemed to other potential patients in
Washoe County.
Keith himself would hav e noted the coincidences: that he died shor tly after
writing about D iana’s pregnancy, but befor e he named the physician; that ev en
that column mysteriously disappeared from the web; that he died prematurely, at
age 49, under unusual circumstances; the strange coincidence of the name of that
hospital attendant. Death by blood clot in this way is rare, despite the assertions
of the deputy cor oner. It should not hav e happened. That it happened to K eith
was one mor e of those bizarr e coincidences that leav e people scratching their
heads, like all of the deaths surr ounding Danny Casolaro’s research.
Among Keith’s professional associates, news of his death hit R on Bonds the
hardest. Bonds ran IllumiNet Press in Lilburn, Georgia. IllumiNet published the
majority of Keith’s books. Bonds wrote to one memorial site, “He was more like
a partner here. He did all of our pr oofreading, he typed up stuff for me and w e
talked on the phone ev ery day! H e was like a consultant. I t’ll be a r eal drag to
keep on without his help and input.” 12 Keith’s death took a large toll on Bonds
and IllumiNet. Although he continued to publish—he had at least thr ee of the
prolific Keith’s manuscripts on hand 13—he and his wife began making plans to
move into the real estate business.
Bonds began IllumiNet after a brief career as a record producer and promoter
for a Label called Elvis On Drugs, and at one point he started a church called the
Church of B eaver Cleav er. A per verse sense of humor and a S outhern charm
characterized everything that Bonds did. O ne of his early disco veries as a pub-
lisher was Kerry Thornley, the Marine corps chum of Lee Harvey Oswald. Bonds

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 JIM KEITH

had published The I dle Warrior, a no vel Thornley wr ote about O swald long
before the assassination, and The Principia Discordia, a Monty Pythonesque lam-
poon of religion. Bonds also reprinted The Mothman Prophecies, a classic work of
UFO literature by the writer John Keel, was sold as a Hollywood movie, but even
in death, Jim Keith was his top-seller as w ell as his close friend. 14
Bonds carried on half-heartedly for months. Then, on April 7, 2001, he and
his wife Nancy went to lunch at an E l Azteca restaurant near their home in Lil-
burn, Georgia. Later that night, at about 9 PM, Bonds headed to the bathr oom
following an attack of nausea. F or the next six hours, his condition worsened,
with diarrhea and vomiting, and he asked Nancy to call an ambulance before he
collapsed on the floor of the bathr oom. He was unconscious when the ambu-
lance arrived. It took him to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta because it had
a better trauma unit than nearb y DeKalb General. Medical personnel inser ted
tubes through his mouth and nose and into his lungs and intestines, but noth-
ing stopped the sw elling and massiv e bleeding in his stomach and colon. O n
April 8, at 5:30 AM R on Bonds died from the bleeding at age 48. 15
After an autopsy the follo wing day, the F ulton county cor oner, Dr. Hen-
ninger, determined that the bacteria clostridium perfringens caused the swelling,
and that it came fr om contaminated food Bonds ate at the E l Azteca. Health
inspectors were called out and they discovered that the beef served at El Azteca
contained bacteria in ex cess of what could be consider ed harmful to health,
although an acceptable level for many people. Reactions to clostridium perfin-
gens v ary gr eatly among individuals and Bonds had suffer ed fr om chr onic
gastritis. Through credit card receipts, the health inspectors tracked down 118
El Azteca customers from that day. Only seven had diarrhea in the period fol-
lowing their consumption of food at the restaurant, five had cramps and three
vomited. A 1999 study b y the Centers for D isease Contr ol indicated that a
fatal reaction to clostridium perfringens food poisoning occurs in .0005 percent
of cases. 16
The last book Bonds published b y J im K eith was Biowarfare in A merica,
which discussed targeted bioto xins. In it, K eith quoted Larr y Wayne Harris, a
man who had been arr ested by the FBI in F ebruary 1988 for possession of the
anthrax bacterium, as claiming that an attempt was made against his life b y a
needle wielding a cobra venom that induces massive clots to the lungs. 17
Then in N ovember 2001, a half-doz en additional cases of suspicious cir-
cumstances surr ounding knee surger y operations w ere r eported acr oss the
country. The first of these was a 23-y ear-old student in Minnesota named Brian
Lykins, who died fr om a clostridium infection. The other cases also inv olved
variants of the clostridium bacteria, eventually traced to a tissue bank in Atlanta,
near Ron Bonds’ home.18

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THE OCTOPUS

Another strange coincidence: K eith had written specifically about clostridi-

um bacteria previously for FATE, the newsstand digest of paranormal stories. In
typical Jim Keith fashion, he had tied it to another offbeat conspiracy topic, cat-
tle mutilations. “Many mutilated cattle have been found marked with fluorescent
paint,” wrote Keith, “probably to help identify them in the dark. But most telling
is that a large per centage of mutilated cattle hav e also been injected with strains
of clostridium bacteria (a genus that includes bacteria that cause blackleg and
malignant edema). I n a 1970 inv estigation of bacteriological war fare, S enator
Frank Chur ch’s S enate S elect Committee on I ntelligence determined that the
CIA had stockpiled canisters of this same bacteria.” 19
How odd that Keith’s friend and publisher died of poisoning fr om the same
bacteria, that many knee injuries ended in death due to clostridium and that the
clostridium caused “blackleg ” in cattle, a term that r esonated eerily with the
knee injury that claimed Keith’s life.

————
1. Jameson, Seth. E-mail correspondence with author, August 15, 2001.
2. Bowker, John, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 925.
3. Jim Keith’s work as a writer for small cir culation zines included Dharma Combat, published by
Keith himself. Typically, one issue of Dharma Combat (“a magazine about spirituality, metaphysics
and reality” according to its indicia) consisted of 8.5x11 sheets of brightly colored paper, folded in
half and side-stapled. The following issue would be printed on sev eral sheets of 11x17 paper, sta-
pled in an upper corner , with a “Permanent Universal Rent Strike” poster as a back co ver. Article
titles included “ Around Again To Armageddon,” “S ympathy for the R evel,” “ The D ulce B ase,”
“Operation Majority,” “Demolish Serious Culture,” and “H allucinogenic Hypno-Vision and the
Plasmatic Cells of Gaia.” Although Keith’s zine world of the late 1980s and early 1990s for eshad-
owed the conspiracy theorist internet free-for-fall, it had the imprimatur of his unique personality.
It also included many w ell-known personalities of the ongoing info undergr ound, such as G. J.
Krupey, X. Sharks Despot, Wayne Henderson and Len Bracken.
4. Keith graduated from zines to books, eventually producing many well-known titles highly regard-
ed by readers of conspiracy and parapolitical literature. They include The Gemstone File (IllumiNet,
1992); Black Helicopters: Strikeforce for the N ew World Order (IllumiNet, 1994); its sequel, Black
Helicopters II: The Men In Black (IllumiNet, 1997); OK Bomb: Conspiracy and Cover-Up (IllumiNet,
1996); Mind Contr ol—World Contr ol (Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997); Secret and S uppressed
(Feral House, August 1993); Casebook on Alternative Three (IllumiNet, 1997); Saucers of the Illumi-
nati; Mass Control: Engineering Human Consciousness (IllumiNet, 2000); and Biowarfare In America
(IllumiNet, 2001). Keith also co-authored the first edition of The Octopus: Secret Government and
the Death of Danny Casolaro, published by Feral House in 1996.
5. Bad Day At Black Rock is a famous Spencer Tracy movie released in 1955. Wilhelm Reich called
it one of his favorites, in fact, and Keith was great admirer of Reich. Movie reviewers have identi-
fied the location of the to wn of B lack Rock in that mo vie as Ariz ona, California, and “ remotely
western.” The movie includes a character named R eno Smith, however, and it seems likely that it
took place in the same to wn as the Burning Man festival.

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 JIM KEITH

6. Henderson, Wayne, “Dimly Visible Through a Fog of Evasions,” Steamshovel Press #17, 2000, p. 53.
7. Vankin, Jonathan, “Jim Keith: Gone But Not Forgotten,” Conspiracy Currents Number 54, Con-
spire.Com, October 22, 1999.
8. Pickard, George, Erskine Overnight radio program, September 30, 1999.
9. Pickard, George, from a no longer extant memorial w eb page for Jim Keith.
10. Damon, Anjeanette, “Rumors Abound in Death of Conspiracy Theorist,” Reno Gazette-Jour-
nal, September 28, 1999.
11. H ougan’s books include Spooks: The Haunting of A merica—The Private Use of S ecret A gents
(William M orrow, 1978); Secret A genda, Watergate, D eep Throat and the CIA (Random H ouse,
1984); and Kingdom Come, A Novel of Conspiracy (Ballantine, 2000).
12. Ron Bonds on the Steamshovel Press memorial website for Jim Keith, 2000.
13. Powell, Kay, “Ronald Bonds, 48, published conspiracies,” Georgia newspaper, April 11, 2001.
14. Ibid.
15. Comments by Ron Bonds’ widow, Nancy Kratzer, to author, August 2001.
16. Shalhoup, Mara, “Widow sues r estaurant: Rarely fatal bacteria contributed to diner ’s death,”
Creative Loafing, Atlanta, Georgia, August 2001.
17. By the end of 2001, mysterious deaths among micr obiologists specializing in infectious disease
began to accumulate. They included: Dr. Benito Que (11/12/01, attacked by four men, at least one
wielding a baseball bat, in M iami); Don C. Wiley (11/16/01, found dead after jumping, falling or
being pushed fr om a bridge in M emphis, Tennessee); Vladimir Pasechnik (11/23/01); R obert M.
Schwartz (12/10/02, stabbed); and Set Van Nguyen (12/14/01), suffocated in a laborator y airlock.
This list moved from the conspiracy rumor circuit to front page news with the Casolaro-like “sui-
cide” of David Kelly on July 18, 2003. Kelly, a microbiologist, had served as the head of the biological
inspections team in I raq befor e the US inv asion. H e was outspoken about “ sexed up” intelligence
reports concerning Iraq’s biological weapons used by the US and Britain as a justification for the war .
Like Casolaro, Kelly warned of “dark actors playing games” because of what he had researched and dis-
covered before being found dead with a slit wrist not far fr om his Oxfordshire home.
Kelly also had a direct connection with a previous name on the microbiologist death list. In 1989
he had helped debrief the Soviet defector Vladimir Pasechnik. (Fountain, Nigel and Smith, Sarah A.,
“Obituary: David Kelly, Biological weapons expert with a r eputation for thor oughness,” Guardian,
July 19, 2003.)
18. Lykins’ bacterial infection was traced to car tilage taken fr om a cadav er and supplied b y Cry-
olife, a tissue bank outside of A tlanta. M arcus, A dam, “Knee S urgery Suspended in M innesota
After 3 D ie,” Yahoo News, November 20, 2001. M ajeski, Tom, “Knee S urgery Probe Turns To
Cadavers,” Pioneer Press, December 7, 2001.
19. Although the exact issue of Fate in which this appears is unkno wn, it appears with a Fate
copyright on the web at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/cattle003.html.

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 Chapter 23:
V

September 11 Epilogue

Ever expanding and morphing into ne w, mor e sinister applications, the

PROMIS softwar e r emains a thing of legend and fact. Legend has it that the
ECHELON satellite system, which can photograph automobile license plates
from outer space, utilizes some mutation of PROMIS’ extrapolation capabilities
to fill in the visual contents of those long distance photos. 1 Fact has it that the
coming “smart card,” a credit-card-sized surveillance tool that can hold over five
gigabytes of information on its holder , has been pioneer ed in the H ong Kong
transit system under the name, “the Octopus card.”2
Fact and legend about PR OMIS came together after the world-changing
disasters that occurred on September 11, 2001. An I rish nationalist known as
“McGuffin” gave an unsourced report that Osama Bin Laden avoided capture
by the US militar y in the months after the World Trade Tower and Pentagon
crashes by using PROMIS. He asserted that the FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen
passed the version of PROMIS used by British and German intelligence onto
Russia, wher e it pr oceeded to find itself in the hands of the notorious chief
Arab terrorist.3
The J ustice D epartment r eporter for the Washington Times picked up the
story and concluded, “The sophisticated software gives Bin Laden access to data-
bases on specific targets of his choosing and the ability to monitor electr onic
banking transactions, easing money-laundering operations for himself or others.”
The J ustice depar tment’s complaint against H anssen charged that he made
extensive use of FOIMS (F ield O ffice I nformation M anagement S ystems) and
COIN (Community On-Line Intelligence Systems), two of the FBI’s known case
management software systems. The Times quotes sources as saying “FOIMS and
COINS are believed to be upgraded versions of the PROMIS software program.”4
“McGuffin” claimed that I nslaw’s Bill Hamilton told him that O sama Bin
Laden paid the R ussians $2 million dollars for an upgraded v ersion of the soft-

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 SEPTEMBER 11 EPILOGUE

ware, called “E nhanced PROMIS.” The Times quotes H amilton as having no

specific information about Hanssen, but suggested that a technical manual given
by Hanssen to the R ussians accor ding to the FBI, was “ related to the use of
PROMIS as the standard software of the US intelligence community.” “McGuf-
fin” argued that “H anssen, befor e his arr est, had play ed an impor tant r ole in
installing [PROMIS] in MI5, MI6 and [G ermany’s] BND.”5
Michael Riconosociuto himself claimed to have met Bin Laden in the Spring
of 1986 while networ king with r epresentatives of the anti-S oviet mujahadeen.
Danger M an pr oposed to sell shoulder-held missile launchers—called MAN-
PADS, or Man Portable Air Defense Systems—for use against Soviet helicopters.
According to the stor y, B in Laden at the time trav eled under the name “ Tim
Osman,” a pseudonym supplied “b y the CIA for his tour of the U.S. and U.S.
military bases, in sear ch of political suppor t and armaments.” A pparently the
meeting ended when Riconosciuto explained that his faction of intelligence
world connections did not think B in Laden r epresented the tr ue mujahadeen.
The stor y ended with another plea to r elease Riconosciuto fr om his curr ent
prison residence in Springfield, Missouri: “If the war against O sama Bin Laden
(Tim Osman) is not a total fraud, then what is M ichael Riconsociuto doing in
prison? Why doesn’t he have an office next to Colin Powell so he can give realis-
tic advice on Bin Laden’s thinking?”6
Another writer/editor team, Tom F locco and M ichael R uppert, made the
case for the use of PR OMIS in the insider trading deals that pr eceded the Sep-
tember 11 tragedies. They received a non-denial fr om CIA spokesperson Tom
Crispell that “ the CIA had been using PR OMIS bey ond American bor ders to
scrutinize world financial markets for national security purposes,” and one fr om
the FBI claiming that “the FBI has discontinued use of the PR OMIS software.”
Flocco notes that the latter denial “ followed almost seventeen years of denial by
the FBI and the D epartment of J ustice—in cour t and under oath—that they
used the software at all.” N evertheless, Ruppert and Flocco maintain that stock
screening and shor t selling that came in the days befor e the plane crashes 7 were
accomplished with PROMIS, as was the financial tracking of B in Laden’s assets
that happened in the aftermath. 8
Research tributaries leading to PROMIS keep alive Casolaro’s sense of histo-
ry and parapolitics, and his foreboding about the developing world of perpetual
surveillance and war. Despite the push to transform the tragedies of S eptember
11 into simple-minded, war-hungr y patriotism—and whether or not PR OMIS
is ever proven to be a part of the manipulations—many Americans more readily
accept the notion that O sama B in Laden came to po wer under O ctopus-like
funding. Plans to strengthen US military power in Afghanistan, where US “retal-
iation” for 9/11 was felt first, began as early as 1990, when oil was str uck in the

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THE OCTOPUS

eastern por tion of the Caspian S ea, in Kazakhstan. The democracy-warping

results of the American presidential election in 2000 returned to power the same
crew of secret government cronies that Casolaro had tracked thr ough Iran-con-
tra and on back to dr ug traffic in the G olden Triangle of S outheast Asia. The
“anti-terror” war seems mor e about building a pipeline to the Caspian, exploit-
ing the opium crop in Afghanistan and expanding the weapons trade than about
protecting America from terrorists.9

————
1. Internet posting, 12/15/01.
2. Mailloux, Jacqueline, “Octopus Cards Back In Business,” June 17, 1998. A bout four million
Octopus cards had been issued for H ong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway Corporation b y the trans-
port consortium Creative Star. The supplied was exhausted and the consortium at the time planned
to order three million more. It planned another incr ease of seven million increase for the follo w-
ing y ear. This is a r elatively small gr owth pattern due to the fact that “ the O ctopus car d uses
proprietary technology.”
Chow, Tinnie, CNN EbizAsia Correspondent, “Smart Cards Offer Shorter Queues and More
Risks,” February 16, 2001. Chow quotes Mac McGolpin, the CEO of AsiaWebCo, as saying that
the new card uses biometrics to encode “some part of your physical presence or being on the card,”
and notes “new ways of using Octopus cards are being initiated….”
3. “McGuffin” Dispatch 265, received from Lobster publisher Robin Ramsay September 21, 2001.
4. S eper, Jerry, “S oftware likely in the hands of terr orist; FBI’s H anssen seen as pr ovider,” The
Washington Times, June 14, 2001, p. A1.
5. John Judge expressed a cautionar y note about all of this: “ Well, it seems bin Laden has lots of
talents and lots of time on his hands. What the hell would it take to monitor all that information
from all those agencies? On the other hand, if bin Laden is their cr eature, perhaps one agency lets
him know what another is doing against him. Sounds more like an elaborate cover to explain why
we have not caught him or will not. H anssen is a double agent case I think planted to feed disin-
formation into the S oviet hands. H is links to O pus Dei and COINTELPRO make me think he
was really a v ery clev er plant. S o, I’d be cautious with these conclusions. P erhaps he did install
something that would allow US intelligence to track Bin Laden, etc. That would make sense.” Cor-
respondence with author, September 21, 2001.
The issue returned again with the June 2003 resignation of Paul Redmond, the Assistant Sec-
retary for I nformation Analysis for the H omeland Security department. Described by some as a
“legendary spy catcher ”—he had a r ole in the captur e of Aldrich Ames—R edmond resigned for
“health reasons.” Most took that as polite co ver for Redmond’s frustration with under funding of
the department, but others connected it to a rumored secret investigation Redmond was conduct-
ing into Hanssen’s role in delivering PROMIS to Osama. According to this rumor, Redmond had
discovered shockingly long-standing common inter ests between the Bush and bin Laden families
and was forced to resign. PROMIS, in fact, also had been giv en to Saddam Hussein by the senior
Bush in the early 1990s. (Casolar o reported that Iraq was one of the countries that pur chased the
software illegally.) Although the stor y provided an oppor tunity for I nslaw’s story to be discussed
anew in various opinion and editorial pieces, it seemed to trace to a single sour ce. Thomas, Gor-
don, “Riddle As US Spy Chief Quits,” Sunday Express (UK), July 6, 2003.

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 SEPTEMBER 11 EPILOGUE

6. Grabbe, J. Orlin, “When Osama Bin Laden Was Tim Osman,” Laissez Faire City Times, Vol. 5,
No. 46, November 12, 2001. Grabbe’s web site is at orlingrabbe.com. He gives Michael Riconosci-
uto’s current address as 21309-086 Box 4000, US Medical Center, Springfield, MO 65801-4000.
Another web site with information on Riconosciuto’s possible connections to current world events
appears on the web at mindgallery.com/hiddenroom/wizard/index.html.
7. A short selling spree also preceded the Kennedy assassination, as documented in the book Mind
Control, Oswald and JFK (Adventures Unlimited Press, edited by Kenn Thomas).
8. F locco and R uppert’s thr ee par t stor y linking this information to a banking entity called
Deutschebank/A.B. Brown as well as CIA executive A. B. “Buzzy” Krongard, can be found at Rup-
pert’s “From The Wilderness” web site, www.copvcia.com.
9. Even as the war mo ved into the P hilippines, echoes were heard of Casolaro’s cross-connections
between the domestic and the foreign in the global strategy of tension. Adam Parfrey gave the most
detailed and succinct report:
The A CLU wor ked tir elessly on behalf of A braham Ahmed, who the legal organization
claimed was a victim of racist pr ofiling. On the same day as bombing, Ahmed attempted to fly
from Oklahoma City to Amman, J ordan, but was stopped at H eathrow Airpor t after American
Airlines flight security notified the FBI of the M iddle Easterner’s suspicious behavior. Ahmed was
cuffed and returned to the US after his luggage was found to contain such things as two car radios
(the sort used to bomb Pan Am 103), silicon, solder, shielded and unshielded wire, a timing device,
a photo album with pictur es of w eapons and missile, and a blue jogging suit similar to that seen
worn by an Arab suspect in fr ont of the M urrah building on the morning of the blast. P erhaps
prompted by ACLU’s media tirade, the FBI promptly released suspect Abraham Ahmed, and Pres-
ident Clinton apologized to the Arab-American community.
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols had continual contacts with known terrorist entities up
to the day of the Murrah Building blast. Nichols was married to a Filipina woman, and took trips
to Cebu City, Philippines (without his wife) in late ‘92 and early ‘93 to meet with such friendly
folk from the A bu Sayyaf terrorist org as Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, Wali Khan Amin
Shah and several others to discuss the bombing of the OK C building.
Murad was arr ested in 1995 for the initial World Trade Center bombing, and after vie wing
the Oklahoma City Bombing on a N ew York jail television set, he r emarked to a guar d that the
“Liberation Army of the P hilippines”—a group connected to A bu Sayyef, was responsible for the
blast. Later, Abu Sayyaf leader Edwin Angeles corrected Murad for the record: “It was the Palestine
Liberation Army and the Islamic Jihad which Murad was referring to. This army is associated with
Hamas and is based in Lebanon.”
After the Oklahoma City Bombing, S audi intelligence told the FBI that I raq had hired Pak-
istanis to do the Murrah Building job. Edwin Angeles is a Pakistani.”
Parfrey, Adam, “ The O klahoma City Bombing J ihad,” Konformist newswir e, O ctober 10,
2001 (www.konformist.com/911/ok-jihad.htm).

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THE OCTOPUS

Bill and Nancy Hamilton.

162
 Appendix 1:
V

An Interview with
William and Nancy Hamilton

The following interview with Bill and Nancy Hamilton was conducted by Kenn
Thomas at the Inslaw office in Washington, DC on June 8, 1995.

Q: How did you first get in contact with D anny?

Bill Hamilton: You should contact Terry Miller, president of Government Sales
Consultants, which pr ovides advice to companies that sell computer-r elated
products to the United States government.

Q: He worked with Danny Casolaro at Computer Age Publications.

Bill: That’s right. He was an old friend of Danny’s. In August of 1990, he talked
to Danny and suggested that he look into inv estigating this thing. Again, that ’s
the month that Danny contacted us. He contacted us when we were on vacation
at the beach in D elaware. He wanted to come do wn and see us at the beach,
which was not conv enient for us, so it didn ’t happen. B ut that began our con-
versations with him. That lasted for a year until he died in A ugust 1991.

Q: Do you know anything at all about his r elationship with Computer Age at
the time?

Bill: He owned it.

Q: Was he in the process of selling it?

Bill: He had already sold it. I don’t know how many months before this.

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THE OCTOPUS

Q: Did he talk about it at all?

Bill: He talked about it.

Q: Was he disappointed in the terms of the sales?

Bill: I don’t know. That’s his private business. I worked with him mostly on the
investigation of the J ustice D epartment. H e was not a person who exhibited
much inter est in financial matters. I don ’t ev er r ecall much of a conv ersation
about terms of the sale of his ne wsletter.

Q: It goes to the question of whether or not he was suicidal. S ome people have
suggested the poor terms might hav e contributed to that.

Bill: That’s ludicrous. That’s the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.

Nancy Hamilton: In the year of talking to this man, ther e was never any evi-
dence that he was depr essed about anything, much less that. H e nev er
mentioned that he was disappointed in that to my kno wledge. He was excited
about his investigation.

Bill: It was much too serious a matter . He spent a y ear full-time looking into
malfeasance by the government and the government has been unwilling to allow
an independent inv estigation of his death. The malfeasance was in the J ustice
Department and the J ustice department insists that only it will be the judge of
whatever happened do wn there and the local M artinsburg authorities who ar e
not the kind of places y ou’d think about going if y ou were looking for sophisti-
cated investigative capabilities.

Nancy: If anything bothered him, it was what he was finding out about the way
his government worked. He was a person who found it difficult to believ e that
the government was capable of such skulldugger y. He didn’t want to believ e it,
just as w e don’t want to believ e it. B ut when pr esented with fact, y ou have to
accept it. And that is depr essing.

Q: When you first met, at what stage was the case?

Bill: We had already had three weeks of trial in 1987, and this was 1990. We had
already the thr ee hundr ed ninety-nine findings of fact that had alr eady been
upheld by a separate opinion in the U nited States district court.

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAMILTONS

Nancy: It was already under investigation by the House Judiciary committee. It

had already been investigated in part by the permanent subcommittee on inv es-
tigations, which found stone walling, blocking and intimidation at the J ustice
department.

Bill: There had been an extensive public record at that time.

Q: So you were kind of like the stor y behind the story he was pursuing.

Nancy: No, we were the stor y. Terry Miller told him that he should get on this
story, that is was a v ery inter esting stor y. H e then called us to find out mor e
about the story. He was into the Inslaw story. His investigation into Inslaw took
him into other ar eas and at one point he expr essed frustration that he was get-
ting all this information on these other things connecting, he thought, to Inslaw
and was fr ustrated at getting the har d stuff he needed on I nslaw. Just a w eek
before he died he expr essed to differ ent people that he finally got the final evi-
dence on Inslaw, pieces that directly affect Inslaw.

Q: Was he sharing his research on the other topics with y ou as he went along?

Bill: He was willing to. We didn’t really have time to entertain it. We’re trying to
operate a business here and so we had limited interest in BCCI and the rest of it.
Our meetings primarily consisted of telephone conversations with him every day.

Nancy: And asking questions as he w ent about his inv estigation, because as he
picked up information it would raise questions that he needed to ask us. We
would answ er his questions and he would pr oceed with his inv estigation. I f
something puzzled him about what he was told, ho w could this be, y ou know.
That was the main thing.

Q: At any point did he say he had a contract to get published?

Bill: No. He was working on one and he was optimistic. He expressed optimism
about getting one. In fact, he was planning a par ty in the final fe w weeks of his
life. He was planning the guest list of a par ty to celebrate the book contract.

Q: As time went along, you put him in contact with M ichael Riconosciuto.

Bill: Yes. But you have to understand how that works. We gave him lots of con-
tacts. He’d take those contacts and get other contacts of his o wn.

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THE OCTOPUS

Q: How did you know Riconosciuto?

Bill: Riconosciuto called us a few months before Danny came on this case, in May
in 1990, and spoke to us for two and a half hours, talking to us about the Wack-
enhut/Cabazon joint venture, Earl Brian, Peter Videnieks and people like that.

Q: How soon was it after that talk with Riconosciuto that y ou had him talk to
Casolaro?

Bill: August/September, 1990. We had one conv ersation with M ichael

Riconosciuto in May, 1990, and we didn’t hear from him again until almost the
end of that calendar year.

Q: Did you find Riconosciuto believable at that time?

Bill: A lot of what Riconosciuto said w e found hard to believe but we attempted
to find out whether or not it was tr ue. I would say that 75% of it turned out w e
found corroborating evidence about it. So, most of what he told us about during
that first telephone conversation seems to have been true. And we talked to peo-
ple he wor ked with at the Wackenhut/Cabazon joint v enture who expr essed
hostility toward him, disliked and disparaged him but who corr oborated most of
what he said in his affidavit to us. What they did not corroborate was the part of
the affidavit that is most important to Inslaw’s case. And that is that the joint ven-
ture, in addition to pr oducing fuel-air explosiv es and biological and chemical
warfare w eapons, night vision goggles and machine guns, was modifying the
PROMIS software for Earl Brian. They didn’t deny it. They said they didn’t know
about it. Ov er time they hav e admitted, these former colleagues who don ’t like
Riconosciuto, that ther e was an NSA pr oject on the Wackenhut/Cabazon joint
venture and that it ’s extremely highly classified, mor e highly classified than any
other projects. And no one has ev er explained what that project was.

Q: So these people were hostile to Riconosciuto but they were actually saying the
same thing.

Bill: They’re not admitting PR OMIS, but they ar e admitting that a colonel
from NSA flew out to the Cabazon reservation one day and che wed out some
FBI agents who w ere investigating the homicides of the vice-chairman of the
tribe and a couple of other guys, Alv arez and a fe w other guys, and told them
to keep their noses out of the NSA project and that Riconosciuto was involved
in the NSA project. So it seems likely to me that what they’re doing is express-

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ing some healthy fear about violating espionage laws b y affirming some of the
stuff that Riconosciuto was saying about the NSA pr oject. I think the NSA
project is very likely the PROMIS project.

Q: Over time, Casolar o became mor e and mor e skeptical of Riconosciuto

because, in addition to everything that could be verified about what he said, he
said some pretty wild stuff after a while.

Bill: I wouldn’t characterize it that way. He was disappointed when he went out
to see him in jail after he was arr ested. He was not able to get a copy of what
Riconosciuto claimed to hav e, which was a tape r ecording of Peter Videnieks
threatening him. Whether that existed or not, I hav e no way of kno wing. But
a lot of the things that Riconosciuto talks about that are extreme sounding are
things involving the United States intelligence agencies. And most of that stuff
is probably true. US intelligence agencies use people like Riconosciuto .

Nancy: That is very clear from what we have learned over all these years. They
hire people like Riconosciuto . And they ar e the first to say that if y ou bring
Riconosciuto in, look at him, you can’t trust anything he says. But in the Nor-
iega trial, the go vernment brought in just such witnesses. B ut we think what
happens, from what we’ve learned, the government hires these people, they do
things for the go vernment that normally American citiz ens wouldn’t do, and
then they do some things for themselv es that normal American citiz ens don’t
do and the government can’t say anything about it because they ’re their boys.

Q: Let me bring up Robert Booth Nichols’ name. Would he fall into that category?

Nancy: Of having worked for the government? Yeah.

Bill: Oh, yeah.

Q: Now you introduced Nichols to Casolaro as well, right?

Bill: Yes.

Q: Could you go over exactly how that happened?

Bill: We contacted some reporters to see if they ever heard of Riconosciuto. West
Coast r eporters. And N ichols had been inter viewed b y people who contacted
him on the savings-and-loan matter. He talked to us a little bit about the savings-

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THE OCTOPUS

and-loan matter first time. That’s why w e contacted M ary F ricker and S teve
Pizzo, who did this book called Inside Job.

Nancy: ... The Looting of America’s Savings and Loans.

Bill: We got a phone call fr om Michael Riconosciuto and a small par t of what he
told us had to do savings-and-loan. It sounded like he knew a lot about the bilking
of the savings-and-loans, too. Did they ever encounter him? They had interviewed
him and they also had interviewed at least one or two other people that had worked
on that Wackenhut/Cabazon joint v enture. They introduced us to P eter Zokosky,
and w e inter viewed him and he intr oduced us to Bob N ichols. We talked to
Nichols. Nichols and Zokosky both have a low opinion of Riconosciuto but both
verified everything he said in his affidavit ex cept the PROMIS stuff.
We talked a number of times with Nichols and met with him on a couple of
occasions, once here in Washington, once in California when w e were out there
for some other r eason. And he met with D anny here and Danny talked to him
quite a bit. He’s more presentable than Riconosciuto in the sense of looking more
middle-class, and bright, as is Riconosciuto . What he really is, I’m not sure. He
obviously has had extensiv e dealings with intelligence agencies, both in our
country and probably in other countries.

Q: So what was his relationship with Casolaro like?

Bill: He talked a lot to Casolaro.

Q: Did it grow along the same lines as the one with Riconosciuto? Did he accept
everything he said?

Nancy: He did not accept...

Bill: That predicate is wrong. Casolaro did not accept everything that...

Nancy: ... anyone...

Bill: ... Riconosciuto said, that I said, or that N ichols said. What Casolar o
believed about N ichols and Riconosciuto at the end, I don ’t know. I talked to
Danny ev eryday, sometimes sev eral times a day . I was intensely inv olved with
him, but I couldn ’t tell y ou about at the end of his life what he thought about
those two guys. At various times he thought Nichols had been part of his Octo-
pus and had broken away from it. But I’m not at all sure that he still thought he

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAMILTONS

had broken away fr om it at the end. I’ m just not clear . He had a lot of misgiv-
ings about both of them, he found them both useful. They told him things that
you won’t get fr om the J ustice Department, about the J ustice Department. he
never took anything at face v alue.

Q: Is it too far afield not to talk a little about PROMIS and when it first developed.

Bill: That’s already documented. We can give you some documents on the histor y.

Q: Let me ask about the curr ent status of the case. I s there an appeal left?

Nancy: No. We’re back in court

Q: Back in court?

Nancy: The US Congress, the Senate, passed a unanimous Congr essional refer-
ence sending the Inslaw case over to the government courts.

Q: Are you familiar with the fact that Webster Hubbell reopened the investigation?

Bill: He was appointed b y J anet R eno to look into the r esponses to the B ua
report, which was commissioned by her predecessor but released by Reno. So we
dealt with Hubbell.

Q: Didn’t Bua essentially close the investigation?

Bill: Bua was appointed b y William Barr. In December of 1992, B arr recused
himself of I nslaw because he was going back to his old law firm, which in the
meantime had been representing Earl W. Brian in the Inslaw case. Even that was
a little too much for a person like B arr, I guess. I t didn’t look too nice. S o Bua
supposedly didn’t submit the r eport to Barr and then ther e was an interr egnum
between Barr’s departure and the beginning of the Democrat confirmed as Attor-
ney General. During that interr egnum there was a R epublican holdover of the
Attorney General.

Q: Stuart Gerson.

Bill: Why Bua didn’t submit it to Gerson is hard to explain. He supposedly sub-
mitted—I don’t necessarily believe any of this stuff—submitted it to Reno when
Reno was confirmed. G erson was the A ttorney General under Clinton for the

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THE OCTOPUS

first few months because Clinton couldn ’t find an A ttorney General that could
be confirmed. G erson was the acting A ttorney General but H ubbell was r eally
running the department.

Q: What happened to Hubbell’s investigation?

Bill: He didn’t do an investigation. Hubbell did a whitewash.

Q: He just dropped it?

Bill: No, he pretended to do an investigation, focusing on the Danny Casolaro

aspects.
We did a very detailed rebuttal of the Bua report a month after Reno released it
and submitted it for r ebuttal a month after R eno and Hubbell went to the H ouse
and Senate Judiciary committees. Then we met with Hubbell a few months later, in
the fall of 1993, October of ‘93. That was the first and only time.
The rebuttal is striking in its disr obing of the Bua report. The Bua report is
flimsy, on its o wn terms unconvincing, it contradicts the fully litigated findings
of fact of two sitting federal judges and it contradicts the inv estigative findings
of a major committee of congr ess. Just flatly contradicts all of that. S o if y ou
accept the Bua report, you have to accept simultaneously that the legal system is
a joke. That not only can y ou have one set of litigated findings that ar e mean-
ingless, but that you can have two sets of litigating findings that are meaningless,
and a congressional investigation. While that’s possible in theory, it’s unlikely in
practice. It’s also alarming, and if the press had any brains they should have said,
“Wait just a minute!” Because if that’s true, we’ve got real problems.

Nancy: The judges, of course, had sworn testimony fr om both sides, in a cour t
of law, whereas Bua talked only a few minutes to me and Bill. That was the end
of discussion. And no key Justice people were put under oath.

Q: Was there not an offer made befor e the B ua report was issued to make a
settlement?

Bill: Bua will lie about it. You ought to ask him. B ua has denied that he made
an offer, and he ’s a distinguished former judge who pr obably wouldn’t lie. B ut
Bua called Elliot Richardson and said to him, “Have you given any thought to a
global settlement figure?” He did this in November or December of 1992 when
Barr was still Attorney General. And Elliot Richardson explained to him that it’s
hard to come up with a global settlement when y our own Justice Department

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAMILTONS

won’t candidly discuss the scope of what they hav e done. What is the scope of
the damages? What is the relative magnitude of the damages? How many copies
have you made of this software and what else have you done with it?

Q: What was the dollar figure at that point?

Bill: He thought that Attorney General Barr would approve a settlement of $25
million quickly if he would make such a pr oposal. H e also told thr ee differ ent
reporters that he was considering r ecommending this in his r eport. The reporters
were being used as trial balloons for us. In the same time frame, the fall of 1992, he
was considering r ecommending that the D epartment of Justice pay I nslaw twenty
five to fifty million dollars. And when he mentioned $25 million to Elliot Richard-
son, one of the reporters, an investigative producer at CNN, said he means fifty.

Q: So the whole impetus had to come from you. These were just suggestions that
Bua was dropping.

Bill: Elliot said that he was a little surprised that the criminal inv estigator is the
civil negotiator.

Nancy: We had given the evidence of broad malfeasance in the department and
to have the response be, “How much do you want?” we felt was inappropriate for
someone who was supposedly an inv estigator.

Bill: It’s a farce.

Q: Now Bua denies it all.

Bill: He denied it to the pr ess and then E lliot offered to make av ailable these
detailed contemporaneous notes of the v arious conversations and then he shut
up. He didn’t talk about it anymore.

Q: All that happened before the report was issued.

Bill: That’s right.

Q: So the report comes out and that supposedly settles it or was ther e an appeal
after that?

Bill: But it can’t settle it. It’s the Justice Department exonerating itself.

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THE OCTOPUS

Q: What I’m trying to determine is wher e Hubbell tried to focus the inv estiga-
tion, the appeal.

Nancy: Appeal is the wr ong word. This isn’t a cour t. Bua is not a judge. H e’s a
former judge hired by Barr using Justice department lawyers.

Bill: Paid by Barr and reporting to Barr. That’s not a judge.

Nancy: But it gives the coloration of a judicial finding.

Bill: But he is a lawy er for A ttorney General Barr. He cannot put something
down on paper, he can’t do anything without his client Bill Barr. So what hap-
pens is that that report is released by Reno in March and she appoints another
person with the honorific title of judge. J udge Hubbell will no w review any
problems that people hav e with the B ua report. So we submitted our r ebuttal
and we met with them in October. And we acknowledged that there were two
areas of problems with the Bua report. Not problems, but two pieces of unfin-
ished business...

Nancy: Two that r equired fur ther inv estigation, because our r ebuttal made it
pretty clear that this report was ludicrous on its face.

Bill: And the two that he had acknowledged Bua hadn’t done a good enough job
on were Danny Casolaro and whether the FBI was using our softwar e. So that’s
what he initially acknowledged that he would look into .

Q: Did he make a public statement of some sor t?

Bill: Well, he told us.

Nancy: We really don’t want to go into what Hubbell said to us. We don’t think
that we should.

Q: The only reason I ask is that when they originally announced that they w ere
going to reopen the original investigation, very few newspapers reported on it all.

Nancy: Actually, r eopening the inv estigation they didn ’t. They said B ua had
done a good job. And so the only two areas that they would look further at were
the ones we mentioned. On those they ended up siding with the Bua report also.

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAMILTONS

Q: That Danny Casolaro committed suicide and that ther e was no malfeasance
on the part of the FBI.

Nancy: That the FBI software was not our software.

Bill: You have to understand that this is like ... the former J ustice department
lawyer who is in the front page of the New York Times and Washington Post today,
Michael Abell, who has just been indicted for obstr uction of justice with r egard
to the Bolivian Cali cartel. It is no different than for that person to say “I was in
the Justice Department for sev enteen years and I am issuing a r eport that finds
me innocent.” Thank you, Mr. Abell. the Justice Department is the defendant.
The institution is the defendant. It is the same institution that is sitting in judge-
ment on itself and contradicting the results of every single independent review of
its conduct. I n other wor ds, the bankr uptcy cour t, the US D istrict cour t, the
House Judiciary committee, the Senate permanent investigations subcommittee,
all of those independent tribunals ar e wr ong and w e’re right about ourselv es.
We’re blameless. So when you look at it that way...

Q: But when you’re talking about Hubbell’s investigation...

Bill: Hubbell is the Justice Department.

Q: But it’s a whole different set of personnel than these other inv estigations.

Nancy: Not really. Same career people.

Q: One of the most alarming things about the whole business is H ubbell’s con-
nection to Park-On-Meter and how Riconosciuto makes claims to be connected
to Park-on-Meter. It’s all such an inbred thing. The people that were involved in
all this in the first place do seem to be R epublicans—Earl Brian, Ed Meese and
Reagan—and her e, a ne w administration, D emocrats, differ ent people and
they’re all connected to it too .

Bill: Well, if y ou follow Mena, which I’ m sure you have, they seem to hav e
been a kind of partner to Reagan/Bush administration on some of these covert
things.

Q: Did you see a lot of evidence for that connected to y our problems? Did you
know about Park-On-Meter?

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THE OCTOPUS

Nancy: We read about it. B ut you look at the H ubbell-Reno investigation, or

handling of I nslaw, I should say, because it was no r eal investigation, when the
Congress said let’s get it to an independent tribunal. Last fall, Charlie Rose intro-
duced, last summer , actually , that they would send the case to another
independent tribunal and while it was in committee, R eno r ushed a letter to
committee members to vote against it and summarizing their r eport which they
hadn’t even copied and made available. So intense was their effort to keep us out
of court again. You have to ask, why ar e they so intent, if ther e is nothing to it?
What do they to lose b y having people looking at this case again?

Bill: There were two people we knew in the lobbying effort in the House of Rep-
resentatives last fall to tr y to keep us fr om getting back to cour t, Edwin Meese
and Janet Reno, personally.

Nancy: And so when it was re-introduced this spring by Senator Hatch it passed
by the unanimous consent of the S enate.

Q: Is it their point that the softwar e that is being used no w b y I nterpol, the
Mossad, the FBI and so on, is not PR OMIS?

Bill: They do not acknowledge any of this.

Q: I know one of the failur es of the B ua report is that it didn ’t do a code com-
parison. I take it that Hubbell investigation didn’t do one either.

Bill: No.

Nancy: We haven’t been anywhere near the FBI’s software.

Bill: The US Attorney’s stuff, that’s what the court case was about. That’s all we
knew about at the time. The US Attorney’s office have never paid us for the soft-
ware. So we used the subpoena power and got the software and compared it with
our privately financed enhancements, the r ecords of the depar tment, who paid
for it and all that, and w e proved at the time of the trial w e did not kno w that
the software had been disseminated outside the US A ttorney’s office. We didn’t
find that out until subsequent years. First of all, Bua hired a professor at George-
town University, the computer science department, the head of the department.
She’s the one who declined to compar e the code and made a fatuous statement
that PROMIS tracks judicial pr oceedings and the FBI system tracks inv estiga-
tions, so they couldn ’t possible be the same softwar e. Just a fatuous comment.

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAMILTONS

Our software tracks investigations at the state and local level, all over the United
States. That’s a stupid thing to say.
Then Hubbell hired a new professor from MIT, and they offered to have us
attend his examination of the code. B ut they made it clear to us that w e would
not be permitted to look at the code he would look at, the FBI code. We told
them that we were not interested in pretending to support another phony exam-
ination. If there was going to be any cr edibility, the people who dev eloped the
PROMIS code have to be able to see that code. What are you afraid of in letting
us look at it? We don’t mind that you have your own experts there, but we want
to see it. We don’t, frankly, trust the go vernment and w e wouldn’t believe any-
thing the Justice Department said under any administration.

Q: Did they respond to that at all?

Bill: They said no, you can’t look at it. So then they had their MIT professor say
it’s not the same code and who kno ws what he looked at?

Q: Are you familiar with this company in Little R ock, Arkansas called System-
atics, Inc.?

Bill: Yes.

Q: The story there is that someho w PROMIS has been applied to the banking
industry. Do you know anything about it?

Bill: We are fairly confidant that it was installed in the World Bank in 1983 and
the International Monetary Fund. Danny Casolaro introduced us to two former
computer employees at the World Bank who told us all of this. There have been
published ar ticles in the international banking r egulator ne wsletter that inde-
pendently verified that. So if you put it in the World Bank and the International
Monetary fund, it’s not likely that you’ve just put it there. Any effort to take soft-
ware as flexible as it is, you have to really think through how you’re going to use
it in a differ ent application ar ea and think about ho w you’re going to use it in
banking and then just put it in one bank, that doesn ’t make sense. So the hard-
est evidence w e hav e has to do with the World B ank and the I nternational
Monetary Fund, but logic supports the idea that it is much mor e widely used.

Q: You hear a lot of differ ent things about the way PR OMIS has been applied.
There has even been a report that one of its earliest uses was to extrapolate Sovi-
et sub launches out of the Ar ctic ice.

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THE OCTOPUS

Bill: I haven’t heard that one.

Q: You haven’t?

Bill: There was supposedly an application by the military, that it was out on loan
from the Justice Department.

Nancy: The software wouldn’t launch things.

Q: No, the story is that it had the ability to track...

Nancy: It does have that ability. It can track anything.

Q: They apparently had a very difficult time prior to using it, using whatev er it
was they used, tracking submarines thr ough the Ar ctic ice. The Soviets would
just go in there and they would lose track of them.

Bill: We are fairly confidant that they use PR OMIS on the nuclear submarines
to track other submarines. They call it PROMIS.

Nancy: It doesn’t do the tracking. You give it the information to make it keep
track of your information. It has no capacity to do the tracking itself .

Bill: It’s just keeping track of the tracking transactions, wher e you last saw it,
when, the last sighting.

Q: It doesn’t extrapolate from there? That’s the rumor, why PROMIS is so attrac-
tive to people, is that it has gr eat predictive capabilities.

Bill: Not really.

Nancy: It depends on ho w you use the information y ou have. It organizes it

for you and it’s valuable that way, but it’s up to the human being using it to go
from there.

Q: Now you have two brothers in St. Louis, right? And one of them was the sec-
retary to the police board in the early 1970s?

Bill: I don’t know what years anymore. He was secretary of the police board once.

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAMILTONS

Q: He was there at a time when they implemented something called REGIS. I s

that connected to PROMIS?

Bill: No. He created REGIS.

Q: A different kind of software altogether?

Nancy: REGIS isn’t software. It’s an organization.

Bill: Regional Justice Information System.

Q: So you say you have never seen what the FBI uses. H ave you seen a demon-
stration of the software of any of the groups that supposedly have PROMIS, like
the Mossad or the Mounties, or whatever?

Bill: Oh no, no, they won’t let us.

Nancy: We’d love to see a demonstration. Although the demonstration isn ’t...

Bill: You have to look at the sour ce code.

Nancy: That’s what was wrong with the professor at Georgetown, saying, “I just
looked at the screen and I don’t need to see any mor e.” That’s ludicrous.

Q: So do you still own PROMIS? Or does the Justice Department?

Bill: Why would the Justice Department own it? Because they stole it? You think
that’s how it works? If I steal your glasses, they’re mine?

Q: Of course, you’re right.

Nancy: If you make a copy of the Lotus softwar e, you don’t own the softwar e.
You just have a copy.

Q: So you still make PROMIS available to your clients?

Bill: We sell it.

Nancy: We don’t give it away. And the software is always changing. That’s what
we’re about here, is developing new software, adding to it, creating new enhance-
ments to it, keeping up with the times.

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THE OCTOPUS

Q: Does it have a version, like PROMIS 1.7?

Nancy: You can call it that, but it doesn ’t matter.

Q: Who are your clients? If the Justice Department supplying everyone with it...

Bill: We don’t sell it to intelligence agencies. And w e don’t sell to the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund. We sell to state and local courts, prosecutors. We
sell to big corporations. But we don’t sell to US and foreign intelligence agencies.

Nancy: You may be thinking of a smaller pr ogram. It’s five hundred thousand
lines of code appr oximately. So it’s not something y ou easily copy and dissemi-
nate. It’s a complicated, sophisticated system.

Q: Are you familiar at all with Casolaro’s investigation of Hughes Aircraft? That’s
one of the theories, that in investigating Inslaw and the Octopus, he just kind of
brushed up against manufacturing fraud inv olving Hughes Aircraft and that led
to his death.

Nancy: What he brushed up against was someone who was inter ested in Hughes
Aircraft, who used to work for it, Bill Turner. As you may know, when a reporter
works on a stor y, or ev en for I nslaw having a stor y, everybody and his br other
who has some kind of pr oblem think maybe they can handle my pr oblem. So
Bill Turner went to Danny hoping to get Danny interested in Bill Turner’s prob-
lem at Hughes Aircraft. And that’s how he got into that.

Q: You have no reason to believe there was more to it than that?

Nancy: What do you mean by more than that? That’s how he came into Hugh-
es Aircraft. He met with Turner the night befor e he died and Turner had giv en
him, according to Turner, a stack of documents.

Bill: I don’t think there is anything par ticular to Hughes Aircraft. That may all
be tr ue or not tr ue, I don ’t know. But in setting out to inv estigate the J ustice
Department’s theft of PROMIS, this is the point Nancy made, he ended up pick-
ing up stones and finding stuff about BCCI, about the October Surprise, sales of
high technology to Iraq, to Saddam Hussein, before the war, and about Iran-con-
tra, and I think that r eason he did is that some of the same people ar e involved
with all of these things, making money. They don’t say, “Let’s do something bad.
Let’s make some money .” That’s what D anny told me this whole thing was
about, people set out to make money by selling drugs, weapons, stolen software.

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH THE HAMILTONS

Nancy: I think that when he died, a lot of the headlines and ne ws shows said,
“Reporter Investigating BCCI” because BCCI had just br oken on to the scene.
That meant something to someone. B ut what w e’ve told y ou is actually what
happened.

Q: So you are convinced that he was mur dered.

Bill: We think that ther e has nev er been an honest inv estigation of what hap-
pened to him and that ther e ar e all of the indications that w e ar e awar e of
strongly suggesting that he was murdered. But we’re not saying that OK, there—
accept that he was mur dered. We’re saying, get out of the way and let an
independent investigation, by an independent counsel...

Nancy: Who doesn’t have any interest...

Bill: ... who doesn’t have anything to hide, do an investigation. Let it take place.

Nancy: There’s too many questions about his death for any reasonable person to
say, yes, this was suicide. And there’s a lot of misinformation out there that worry
about his finances. We didn’t see it. H e was not a guy who gav e a damn about
his finances. We kno w other things, that his family had money , offer ed him
money.

Bill: Friends offered him money. He didn’t kill himself for that.

Q: So do you believe it was because of his investigation of the Inslaw case, or do

you think that with all these things, it could hav e been anything, therefore, let’s
find out.

Nancy: We can’t know. If we knew, we wouldn’t be wondering any longer . But

he certainly was into a lot of things during his inv estigation. BCCI is a major ,
major scandal.

Bill: And it looks incr easingly convincing to us that the PR OMIS software was
installed throughout the BCCI empir e to keep track of wir e transfers of money
and letters of credit so that NSA could monitor. I believe that the PROMIS soft-
ware was used in all kinds of things. There ar e two things knitting all this
together. One is that the same people ar e making money in all these differ ent
kinds of businesses. And the other thing that is in many instances PROMIS was
the useful way of keeping track of ev erything that was happening.

179
 Appendix 2:
V

Casolaro’s Newsclippings File

The clipping r eferences belo w ar e fr om a database of D anny Casolar o’s

known clippings as compiled b y an intern working at Investigative Reporters
and Editors (IRE).

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY: RESEARCH AND PROCUREMENT

FILE: BULL, GERALD
NO.: PR/AI/BG-02
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: FAME MA GAZINE AR TICLE ABOUT MURDERED BALLISTICS GENIUS GERALD B ULL
WHO ATTEMPTED TO BUILD A SUPER GUN FOR IRAQ.
KEYWORDS: GOLDNER, PROJECT BABYLON, PROJECT HARP, SADDAM HUSSEIN, CHARLES MURPHY

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: BULL, GERALD
NO.: PR\AI\BG-01
YEAR: 81
SUMMARY: MONTREAL GAZET TE PR OFILE OF WEAPONS SCIENTIST B ULL AFTER HIS RELEASE
FROM JAIL FOR SHIPPING WEAPONS TO SOUTH AFRICA
KEYWORDS: SPACE RESEARCH CORP, JOSHUA NKOMO, LES POUDIERES REUNIES BELGIQUE, HARP

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: BULL, GERALD
NO.: PR\AI\BG-03
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: SAN FRANCISCO CHR ONICLE AR TICLE ON HO W MURDERED BALLISTICS GENIUS
SUPPLIED SADDAM HUSSEIN
KEYWORDS: MCGILL UNIVERSITY, HARP, GH N-45, PROJECT BABYLON, ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: BULL, GERALD
NO.: PR\AI\BG-04
YEAR: 91
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST EDIT ORIAL ON AMERICAN NON-INTER VENTION ON BALLISTIC
GENIUS’ DESIGN AND SALE OF SUP ERGUN TO IRAQ
KEYWORDS: MALONE, SPACE RESEARCH CORP, GHN-45, ERFB, VOEST ALPINE STEEL

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: BULL, GERALD
NO.: PR\AI\BG-05
YEAR: 9?
SUMMARY: NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE PROFILE OF MURDERED BALLISTICS GENIUS
KEYWORDS: KEYWORDS:PROJECT BABYLON, MOSSAD, HARP, POUDRERIES REUNIES DE BELGIQUE

180
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: BULL, GERALD
NO.: PR\AI\BG-06
YEAR: 93
SUMMARY: MACLEANS MAGAZINE PROFILE ABOUT “ROCKET SCIENTIST” GERALD BULL
KEYWORDS: CANADIAN ARMAMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ESTABLISHMENT

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: BULL, GERALD
NO.: PR\AI\BG-07
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: UNIDENTIFIED NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ON HOW SUPERGUN DESIGNER WAS FUNDED BY
THE ATLANTA GEORGIA BRANCH OF BANCA NAZIONALE DEL L AVORO
KEYWORDS: FRIEDMAN, BNL, SPACE RESEARCH CORP, HENRY GONZALEZ, TDG, TEG

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-01
YEAR: 88
SUMMARY: L.A. TIMES AR TICLE ON ORIGIN OF BOMBER AND WEAPON USED IN KILLING OF
MARINE BATTALION IN 1983
KEYWORDS: CIA, FBI, HAFEZ ASSAD, SMILING DEATH, HEZBOLLAH, ISLAMIC JIHAD, ALVIN P. ADAMS

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-02
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: JACK ANDERSON COL UMN ON CHILEAN ARMS MER CHANT CARL OS CARDOEN’S
DEALINGS WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN
KEYWORDS: IRAQ, CHILE, CLUSTER BOMBS, CARDOEN INDUSTRIES, GLOBAL HELICOPTER TECH-
NOLOGY INC.

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-03
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: JACK ANDERSON COLUMN ON CARDOEN INDUSTRIES AND MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A
BRITISH JOURNALIST.
KEYWORDS: JONATHAN MOYLE, ANTHONY MOYLE, JORGE OCHOA, IRAQ

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-04
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: VILLAGE VOICE ARTICLE—“GULFGATE: HOW THE US SECRETLY ARMED IRAQ
KEYWORDS: MURRAY WAAS, SARKIS SOGHANALIAN, WILLIAM EAGLETON, HAWK, CIA

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-05
YEAR: 91
SUMMARY: WALL STREET JOURNAL—US CUSTOMS EXAMINE MIAMI DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
FOR ILLEGAL ARMS SALES TO IRAQ.
KEYWORDS: CARLOS CARDOEN, INDUSTRIAS CARDOEN S.A., SWISSCO DE VELOPMENT CO.

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-06
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER—IRAQ BRAGS OF NEW MISSILE AND ARMS INDUSTR Y EVALU-
ATES HUSSEIN’S CLAIM.
KEYWORDS: DON KERR, TAMMUZ MISSILE, FLIGHT INTERNA TIONAL, FUEL-AIR EXPL OSIVE,
ARGENTINA, EGYPT

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-07
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: MIAMI HERALD—PENTAGON DISPUTES REPORT OF NEW IRAQI MISSILES
KEYWORDS: FUEL AIR EXPLOSIVE

181
THE OCTOPUS

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-08
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: ATIN AMERICAN REGIONAL REPOR TS—CHILE’S CARDOEN CL AIMS TO NO L ONGER
EXPORT WEAPONS TO IRAQ
KEYWORDS: ADVANCED FUSE TECHNOLOGY, JONATHAN MOYLE, BELL HELICOPTERS, GEC-MARCONI

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-09
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: TIMES STAFF PROFILE ON CARLOS CARDOEN, CHILEAN ARMS EXPORTER
KEYWORDS: IRAQ, CLUSTER BOMB,

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-10
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—US CONFIRMS THAT IRAQ HAS POWERFUL NEW GAS BOMB
KEYWORDS: FUEL AIR EXPL OSIVE, HENR Y SOK OLSKI (CASOL ARO NO TES JOHN BR ODER-293-4650
MELISSA HEALY 213-237-5000)

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: IRAN/IRAQ PROCUREMENT
NO.: PR\AI\IP-11
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS—ARI BEN MENASHE ACQUITTED OF ILLEGAL ARMS SALE CHARGE
KEYWORDS: ARMS EXPORT CONTROL ACT, RICHARD ST. FRANCIS, C-130E, YITZHAK SHAMIR

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: KHASHOGGI, ADNAN
NO.: PR\AI\KA-01
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: THE HOUSTON POST—NE W YORK JURY CLEARS IMELDA MAR COS AND KHASHOGGI
OF LOOTING AND CONCEALING FILIPINO ASSETS.
KEYWORDS: GERRY SPENCE, OTTO OBERMAIER, PHILIPPINES

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: KHASHOGGI, ADNAN
NO.: PR\AI\KA-02
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: POST ENERGY—KHASSHOGI ANNOUNCES JOINT VENTURE WITH NRG RESOURCES INC.
KEYWORDS: OIL, NATURAL GAS, PHOENIX OIL & GAS CO., BILL TURNEY, JERRY ALLEN

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: KHASHOGGI, ADNAN
NO.: PR\AI\KA-03
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN MAGAZINE—PROFILE ON KHASSHOGI’S ROAD FROM RICHES TO RUIN
KEYWORDS: TRIAD AMERICA CORPORATION, SALT LAKE CITY, EMMANUEL FLOOR, TRIAD INTER-
NATIONAL

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: RESEARCH & MISC.
NO.: PR\AI\RM-01
YEAR: 71
SUMMARY: THE PRESS DEMOCRA T—SONOMA ENGINEERING AND RESEAR CH INC. ANNOUNCES
THEIR FIRM WILL EXPAND
KEYWORDS: RADAR, ARTHUR B. VANE, VERNON E. DUNN, MICROWAVE

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: RESEARCH & MISC.
NO.: PR\AI\RM-02
YEAR: 83
SUMMARY: THE INTERNATIONAL ADVISOR—”TITANIUM: A STRA TEGIC METAL” DESCRIBES MILI-
TARY USES OF THE METAL AND THE THREAT FROM THE USSR
KEYWORDS: PRATT AND WHITNEY, SOVIET UNION, A USTRALIA, SOUTH AFRICA, CONSOLIDA TED
RUTILE LTD.

182
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: RESEARCH & MISC.
NO.: PR\AI\RM-03
YEAR: 83
SUMMARY: BRISBANE COURIER—THE Q UEENSLAND GO VERNMENT GAVE FINANCIAL BA CKING
TO A MUNITIONS FACTORY LINKED WITH CORRUPT “PAINTERS AND DOCKERS”
KEYWORDS: AUSTRALIA, COSTIGAN COMMISSION

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: RESEARCH & MISC.
NO.: PR\AI\RM-04
YEAR: 89
SUMMARY: TIME MAGAZINE—A REVIEW OF INDIA’S ARMS BUILDUP AND ITS CHANGING ROLE IN
WORLD POLITICS.
KEYWORDS: MALDIVES STRIKE, NUCLEAR WEAPONS, BALLISTIC-MISSILES, FIJI, RESEAR CH AND
ANALYSIS WING

SUBJECT: ARMS INDUSTRY

FILE: RESEARCH & MISC.
NO.: PR\AI\RM-05
YEAR: 91
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—NAVY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOUND GUILTY OF SELLING GO V-
ERNMENT SECRETS TO DEFENSE FIRMS
KEYWORDS: OPERATION ILL WIND, DICK THORNBURGH, FBI, MAZLAT LTD., ISRAEL, SPERRY CORP.,
MARTIN MARIETTA

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-01
YEAR: 81
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—OVERVIEW OF CONFLICTS ON THE CABAZON RESERVATION DUE
TO GAMBLING CASINOS AND THE LEADERSHIP OF JOHN P HILLIPS NICHOLS, A NON-
INDIAN
KEYWORDS: PRO-PLAN INTERNATIONAL, MAFIA, HOOPA RESERVATION

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-02
YEAR: 81
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—PROFILE OF SLAIN INDIAN WHO PROTESTED THE MANAGEMENT
OF THE CABAZON RESERVATION BY JOHN PHILLIPS NICHOLS
KEYWORDS: BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, CASINO, GAMBLING, INDIO

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-03
YEAR: 82
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—PHILIP ARTHUR THOMPSON IS HELD IN CONTEMPT FOR REFUS-
ING TO TESTIFY IN A MURDER TRIAL. (CASOL ARO NOTE: THOMPSON WORKED FOR
CIA, ASSOCIATED WITH JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS.

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-04
YEAR: 82
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—PHILIP ARTHUR THOMPSON RECANT S PRE VIOUS TESTIMONY
IMPLYING GUILT OF MURDER DEFENDANT.
KEYWORDS: WILLY WISELY

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-05
YEAR: 82
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—ROBBERY VICTIM OF P HILIP ARTHUR THOMPSON AND WILLY
WISELY HAS HAD LIFE DISRUPTED WITH PROTECTIVE CUSTODY WHILE THE ALLEGED
ROBBERS ARE FREE. FBI ALLEGEDLY INTERVENED ON BEHALF OF THOMPSON TO HELP
HIM AVOID JAIL.
KEYWORDS: ARTHUR SUEL, JOHN ABBOTT, CANADA

183
THE OCTOPUS

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-06
YEAR: 82
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—WISELY CONVICTED OF MURDER AND DECIDES TO FIGHT FOR
LIFE SENTENCE. PHILIP ARTHUR THOMPSON IS FREE ON BAIL.
KEYWORDS: ARTHUR SUEL

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-07
YEAR: 83
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE—A PROFILE OF JOHN P HILIP NICHOLS AND HIS EFFECT ON
THE CABAZON RESERVATION.
KEYWORDS: BINGO, GAMBLING, ALVAREZ, INDIO

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-08
YEAR: 84
SUMMARY: DAILY NEWS, INDIO—FORMER CABAZ ON SECURITY CHIEF SAYS HE HAS BEEN GIVEN
IMMUNITY BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IN EXCHANGE FOR TESTIMONY ABOUT
THREE MURDERS
KEYWORDS: PETER ZOKOSKY, WAYNE REEDER, JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS, COVERT ACTION

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-09
YEAR: 85
SUMMARY: DAILY NEWS, INDIO—JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS ARRESTED FOR SOLICITATION AND CON-
SPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER. FORMER SECURIT Y HEAD ALLEGES THAT NICHOLS
ALSO INVOLVED WITH COVERT ACTIVITIES IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA.
KEYWORDS: HIT MEN, EL SALVADOR, GAMBLING,”THE SHOW AND TELL” EQUIPMENT SHOW

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-10
YEAR: 85
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS ARRESTED FOR SOLICITING MURDER.
KEYWORDS: JOHN PAUL NICHOLS, INDIO, JAMES HUGHES, P ETER ZOKOSKY

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-11
YEAR: 85
SUMMARY: THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE—AN OVERVIEW OF JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS DETRACTORS AND
SUPPORTERS.
KEYWORDS: ARTHUR WELMAS, LINDA STREETER, JAMES HUGHES, P AUL MORASCA, NASA, WACK-
ENHUT, A.R. FRYE, ARMS MANUFACTURE, PAUL MORASCA, CIA, FBI

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-12
YEAR: 85
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER—ALLEGATIONS THAT JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS HELD WEAPONS
DEMONSTRATIONS FOR EDEN PASTORA (THE CONTRAS).
KEYWORDS: COMMANDER ZERO, MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO, PAUL MORASCA, PETER ZOKOSKY

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-12
YEAR: 85
SUMMARY: 20/20 TRANSCRIPT—A GERALDO RIVERA INVESTIGATION INTO GAMBLING AND MUR-
DER ON THE CABAZON RESERVATION.
KEYWORDS: JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS, LINDA STREETER, FRED ALVAREZ, ROCCO ZANGARI

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-13
YEAR: 88
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—V ARIOUS INDIAN RESER VATIONS INCL UDING THE CABAZ ON
RESERVATION, PLAN TO USE A SATELLITE-LINK TO CREATE A GIANT BINGO GAME.
KEYWORDS: GAMBLING, JOHN PAUL NICHOLS

184
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-14
YEAR: 85
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—RESER VATION BINGO PR OFITS ARE GOING TO O THER THAN
NATIVE AMERICANS. MENTIONS CABAZON RESERVATION AND MAFIA INVOLVEMENT.
KEYWORDS: JOHN PHILIP NICHOLS, JOHN PAUL NICHOLS, ROCCO ZANGARI

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-15
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER, ON Z OKOSKY CORP. STATIONARY—PHILIP ARTHUR THOMP-
SON SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR TWO TRUCK HIJACKINGS.

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: CABAZON RESERVATION
NO.: PR\CW\CR-16
YEAR: 91
SUMMARY: YORKSHIRE POST (ENGLAND)—INSLAW COURT DATE WILL REVEAL CABAZON RESERVA-
TION ALLEGEDL Y USED TO DE VELOP FUEL AIR EXPL OSIVES AND O THER MILIT ARY
HARDWARE, SOME USED BY THE CONTRAS. USES MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO AS SOURCE.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, EARL BRIAN, EDWIN MEESE, PETER VIDENIEKS, WILLIAM HAMILTON

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: WACKENHUT CORPORATION
NO.: PR\CW\WC-01
YEAR: 84
SUMMARY: WALL STREET JOURNAL—WACKENHUT CORP. INVESTORS APPROVE BUYOUT PLAN BY
LEVERAGED INVESTORS.
KEYWORDS: GEORGE WACKENHUT, MERRILL LYNCH

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: WACKENHUT CORPORATION
NO.: PR\CW\WC-02
YEAR: 88
SUMMARY: MIAMI TODAY—AN INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE WACKENHUT, FOUNDER OF WACKEN-
HUT CORP.

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: WACKENHUT CORPORATION
NO.: PR\CW\WC-03
YEAR: 89
SUMMARY: THE ASSOCIA TION OF CIT ADEL MEN AL UMNI NE WS—A PR OFILE OF WACKENHUT
WORLDWIDE BY THE CO. ’S DIRECT OR OF CORPORA TE REL ATIONS. MENTIONS
BOARDMEMBERS CL ARENCE KELL Y, FRANK CARL UCCI, ADM. WILLIAM RABORN JR.,
ALL FROM VARIOUS GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENCE GROUPS.
KEYWORDS: FBI, CIA, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: WACKENHUT CORPORATION
NO.: PR\CW\WC-04
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: INVESTOR’S DAILY—WACKENHUT DIVERSIFIES INT O DOING BA CKGROUND CHECKS,
WEAPONS TESTING, AND AN INTERNA TIONAL DETECTIVE A GENCY WHILE UPGRAD-
ING ITS BASIC SECURITY GUARD SERVICES.
KEYWORDS: PRISONS, STATE DEPARTMENT, GEORGE R. WACKENHUT

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: WACKENHUT CORPORATION
NO.: PR\CW\WC-05
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY SUN—COUNTY HIRES WACKENHUT FOR PRISONER TRANSPORT.
KEYWORDS: WACKENHUT CUSTOM PROTECTION DIVISION

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: WACKENHUT CORPORATION
NO.: PR\CW\WC-06
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: FORBES—WACKENHUT GR OWTH IS UP DUE TO INCREASE IN CRIME. CO. HANDLES
PRISON MANAGEMENT IN SE VERAL STATES AND SECURIT Y FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS
FACILITIES.
KEYWORDS: RICHARD WACKENHUT, CORAL GABLES

185
THE OCTOPUS

SUBJECT: CABAZON ARMS AND WACKENHUT

FILE: WACKENHUT CORPORATION
NO.: PR\CW\WC-07
YEAR: 89
SUMMARY: AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN—ARTICLE EXAMINING WHETHER PRIVATE PRISONS ARE
REALLY MORE EFFICIENTLY RUN. WACKENHUT IS ONE OF THE COMPANIES EXAMINED.

SUBJECT: GENETIC RESEARCH

FILE: GENETIC RESEARCH
NO.: PR\GR\GR-01
YEAR: 88
SUMMARY: SCIENCE NEWS—RESEARCH INDICATES THAT A SMALL PART OF THE Y CHROMOSOME
MAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR A CTUAL GENDER DETERMINA TION. BUT ALL A GREE FUR-
THER STUDIES ARE NEEDED.
KEYWORDS: M.I.T.

SUBJECT: GENETIC RESEARCH

FILE: GENETIC RESEARCH
NO.: PR\GR\GR-02
YEAR: 89
SUMMARY: SCIENCE—THE COMMISSION OF EUR OPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNIT Y DECIDES TO
DELAY THE ST ART OF A HUMAN GENOME PR OJECT IN EUR OPE BECA USE THE
RESEARCH PL AN DOES NO T P AY ENOUGH A TTENTION TO ETHICAL AND SOCIAL
IMPLICATIONS OF THE PROJECT.
KEYWORDS: FILIPINO PANDOLFI

SUBJECT: GENETIC RESEARCH

FILE: GENETIC RESEARCH
NO.: PR\GR\GR-03
YEAR: 89
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST HEALTH—AN OVERVIEW OF THE US HUMAN GENOME PR OJECT,
AN EFFOR T TO IDENTIFY E VERY ONE OF THE ESTIMA TED 100,000 GENES IN THE
HUMAN BODY. THE EVENTUAL COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT SHOULD ALL OW SCI-
ENTISTS TO ELIMINATE THE GENETIC ROOTS OF DISEASE.
KEYWORDS: COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY, DNA, ROBERT MAYZIS, LOS ALAMOS

SUBJECT: GENETIC RESEARCH

FILE: GENETIC RESEARCH
NO.: PR\GR\GR-04
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL—SCIENTIST S INSER T A HUMAN GENE LINKED WITH
ARTHRITIS INTO A RAT. THE RAT SUBSEQUENTLY DEVELOPS ARTHRITIC SYMPTOMS.
KEYWORDS: HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE, HAROLD C. SIMMONS, LOCKHEED

SUBJECT: GENETIC RESEARCH

FILE: GENETIC RESEARCH
NO.: PR\GR\GR-05
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: WALL STREET JOURNAL—RESEARCHERS HAVE ISOLATED A SPECIFIC GENE IN HUMANS
AS MAKING THEM HIGHL Y SUSCEPTIBLE TO CANCER. DESCRIBED AS A ST ARTLING
RESULT OF THE NEWFOUND ABILITY TO MAP THE HUMAN GENOME.

SUBJECT: GENETIC RESEARCH

FILE: GENETIC RESEARCH
NO.: PR\GR\GR-06
YEAR: 89
SUMMARY: NEW YORK TIMES—MAJOR TECHNICAL ADVANCES ARE SPEEDING UP THE PROCESS OF
MAPPING THE HUMAN GENOME.
KEYWORDS: DR. JAMES D. WATSON, DR. FRANCIS CRICK, DNA, COLD SPRING HARBOR L ABORATORY

SUBJECT: GENETIC RESEARCH

FILE: GENETIC RESEARCH
NO.: PR\GR\GR-07
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN MAGAZINE—A PROFILE OF JAMES WATSON AND THE HUMAN GENOME PRO-
JECT WHICH WILL ATTEMPT TO MAP ALL THE GENES ON EVERY HUMAN CHROMOSOME
KEYWORDS: CASOLARO NOTE: TO CASOLARO—ARTHUR PALLOTTA 703 524 1021 “DANNY—CANNOT
THINK OF ONE PROJECT SO MASSIVE AND COMPARABLE TO “MAN IN THE MOON.”

186
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: PERSIAN GULF WAR

FILE: GULF WAR
NO.: PR\GW\GW-03
YEAR: 3/15/91
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—PROFILE OF DIPL OMAT APRIL GL ASPIE WHO WAS ACCUSED OF
GIVING THE “GREEN LIGHT” TO SADDAM HUSSEIN’S INVASION OF KUWAIT.

SUBJECT: PERSIAN GULF WAR

FILE: GULF WAR
NO.: PR\GW\GW-02
YEAR: 3/5/91
SUMMARY: VILLAGE VOICE—AN EXAMINA TION OF US POLICY THAT ALLEGEDL Y FOR CED THE
GULF WAR IN ORDER TO ULTIMATELY SECURE THE MIDDLE EAST FOR THE US AND
OTHER GOVERNMENTS.
KEYWORDS: MARGARET THATCHER, KING HUSSEIN, CIA, JIDDA, KUWAIT

SUBJECT: PERSIAN GULF WAR

FILE: GULF WAR
NO.: PR\GW\GW-01
YEAR: 90
SUMMARY: BOOK EXCERPT “SADDAM HUSSEIN AND THE CRISIS IN THE GULF”—CHAPTER 9 ‘ THE
MANUFACTURE OF DEA TH’ DET AILS IRA Q’S ARMS PUR CHASES AND THE GO VERN-
MENT POLICIES THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE. ALSO INCL UDES A L OOK A T HO W IRA Q
MADE NON-MILITARY INVESTMENTS IN US CHEMICAL PL ANTS THAT ACTUALLY SUP-
PLIED THE BUILDING BLOCKS TO ITS CHEMICAL WEAPONS EFFORT.
KEYWORDS: CHRISTOPHER CROWLEY, SAAD 16, WILLIAM H. WEBSTER, PFLAUNDLER CO., NUCLEAR
WEAPONS

SUBJECT: PERSIAN GULF WAR

FILE: GULF WAR
NO.: PR\GW\GW-041
YEAR: 4/1991
SUMMARY: VANITY FAIR—A L OOK AT THE ASSASSINATION OF AB U AYAD, ARAFAT’S SECOND-IN-
COMMAND IN THE P .L.O. ALSO AN EXAMINA TION OF THE P .L.O.’S R OLE IN THE
POST-GULF WAR MIDDLE EAST.
KEYWORDS: YASSIR ARAFAT, HAMZA ABU ZEID, IRAQ, CIA, SADDAM HUSSEIN

SUBJECT: GULF WAR

FILE: GULF WAR
NO.: PR\GW\GW-01
YEAR: 7/30/91
SUMMARY: VILLAGE VOICE—A REPORT THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMER CE FALSIFIED AND
ALTERED 88 IRA QI EXPORT LICENSES SUBPOENAED BY A CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT-
TEE. THE A CTS INCL UDED REL ABELING AN INVENT ORY OF US-MADE MILIT ARY
TRUCKS AS “COMMERCIAL UTILITY CARGO TRUCKS.”
KEYWORDS: SADDAM HUSSEIN, ROBERT GATES, RICHARD THORNBERG, CONSARC

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-01
YEAR: 5/15/90
SUMMARY: CHARLOTTE OBSERVER—THE NUKEM AND THREMALKEN CO. ’S STRESS THAT THEY
HAVE RECEIVED ZERO VIOLATIONS FROM STATE REGULATORY AGENCIES FOR THEIR
INCINERATOR PLANTS.

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-02
YEAR: 8/5/90
SUMMARY: THE SALISBURY POST—AN COMPUTER ENGINEER CHALLENGES THE PLACEMENT OF
A HAZARDOUS WASTE INCINERATOR IN HIS COUNTY
KEYWORDS: NUMEROUS NOTES WITH REGARD TO THE ARTICLE AND THE COMPANY AMERICAN
NUKEM.

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-03
YEAR: 8/9/90
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN P APER—POSSIBLE A CTION MA Y BE TAKEN BY THE DEP ARTMENT OF
HEALTH AND THE E.P.A. A GAINST VIOLATIONS AT A HAZ ARDOUS WASTE INCINERA-
TOR. ALSO: “MAR TIN IS A CCUSED OF PL AYING TWO SIDES”—NOR TH CAR OLINA’S
GOVERNOR SUPPORTS ALABAMA’S BAN ON IMPOR TING OF HAZ ARDOUS WASTE, BUT
ALSO SAYS THAT THEREFORE N.C. MUST BUILD A WASTE INCINERATOR.

187
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SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-04
YEAR: 9/12/90
SUMMARY: THE RALEIGH NE WS AND OBSER VER EDIT ORIAL—CONFLICTS OF INTEREST WITH
CERTAIN STATE OFFICIALS SHOULD NO T DERAIL NOR TH CAR OLINA’S ATTEMPT TO
FIND SAFE WASTE DISPOSAL.
KEYWORDS: SANDOZ CHEMICALS, CHEM-NUCLEAR INC.

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-05
YEAR: 9/29/90
SUMMARY: THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER—AN ENGINEER HIRED BY COUNTIES OPPOSED TO PLAY-
ING HOST TO CHEMICAL WASTE COMPLEXES SAYS THE STATE MANIPULATED DATA IN
SCREENING THE SOIL FOR THOSE COUNTIES, MAKING THE SITES ELIGIBLE FOR
ACCEPTING THE PLANT.
KEYWORDS: WESTINGHOUSE ENVIRONMENTAL AND GEOTECHNICAL SERVICES, PEI ASSOCIATES

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-06
YEAR: 10/14/90
SUMMARY: GREENSBORO NEWS GUEST COLUMN “EXPLORING ALTERNATIVES TO INCINERATION”
KEYWORDS: THERMALKEM, HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT COMMISSION

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-07
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER—AN INCINERATOR NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR JIM MAR-
TIN PREVIOUSLY LISTED AS GOOD HAS PRE VIOUSLY PAID MORE THAN $3 MILLION IN
A SINGLE FINE FOR IMPROPER BURNING.
KEYWORDS: THERMALKEM, PCBS

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-08
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER—AN ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP SAYS A PROPOSED N.C. INCIN-
ERATOR IS OVERSIZED FOR THE STATE’S NEEDS.
KEYWORDS: E.P.A.,NORTH CAROLINA WASTE AWARENESS AND REDUCTION NETWORK

SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS WASTE

FILE: CAROLINA
NO.: PR\HW\C-09
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN NE WSPAPER—WASTE COMP ANY THERMALKEM CONTRIB UTED TEN
THOUSAND DOLL ARS OF FOOD AND ENTER TAINMENT FOR A SOUTHERN LEGISL A-
TOR’S CONFERENCE.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-01
YEAR: 1/20/70, 12/19/70,6/10/72
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE, ALL, “HEALTH CARE CHIEF RESIGNS; EX-ARMY DOCTOR IS NAMED”
—EX-CHIEF TO BECOME A PRIV ATE HEALTH CARE CONSUL TANT. GOV. RON REAGAN
NAMES EARL BRIAN TO THE POST.”SOLON, SOCIAL WORKERS DEMAND OUSTER OF DR.
BRIAN AS MEDICAL PROGRAM HEAD”—ASSEMBLYMEN ACCUSE BRIAN OF SABOTAGING
HEALTH PROGRAM FOR THE POOR.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-02
YEAR: 1/22/70
SUMMARY: THE SA CRAMENTO BEE—A PR OMOTER OF CALIFORNIA ’S STATE HEALTH PROGRAMS
OPPOSES EARL BRIAN’S APPOINTMENT TO DIRECT OR OF THE DEP ARTMENT OF
HEALTH CARE SERVICES.
KEYWORDS: MEDI-CAL, GOV. RONALD REAGAN

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-03
YEAR: 1/29/70
SUMMARY: UNKNOWN P APER, EDIT ORIAL—EARL BRIAN IS DESCRIBED AS INEXP ERIENCED TO
RUN CALIFORNIA’S STATE HEALTH CARE.
KEYWORDS: MEDI-CAL

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-04
YEAR: 3/29/70
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—A PR OFILE OF THEN 28 YEARS-OLD EARL BRIAN AS HE PREP ARES
TO BECOME MEDI-CAL DIRECTOR.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-05
YEAR: 2/6/72
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—A PROFILE OF EARL BRIAN’S TENURE AS DIRECTOR OF THE STATE
HEALTH CARE PROGRAM
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-06
YEAR: 4/29/70
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—EARL BRIAN IS APPROVED AS STATE DIRECTOR OF STATE HEALTH
CARE SERVICES.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-07
YEAR: 1/12/71
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—THE ST ATE BO ARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS REFUSES TO DISCI-
PLINE EARL BRIAN, DIRECT OR OF MEDI-CAL, FOR CUTBA CKS IN THE MEDI-CAL
PROGRAM.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-08
YEAR: 2/22/71
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—THE CALIFORNIA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT SAID THAT
MEDICAL DIRECTOR EARL BRIAN BECAME UPSET WHEN THE CMA BEGAN AD VISING
MEMBERS THAT MEDI-CAL FACED A FISCAL CRISIS.
KEYWORDS: RALPH W. BURNETT

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-01
YEAR: 4/29/71
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—A JUDGE IN A HEARING ADMITS A MEMO CONTRADICTING MEDI-
CAL DIRECT OR EARL BRIAN’S PRE VIOUS TESTIMONY THAT HE HADN’T KNO WN OF
PROGRAM DEFICIT.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-10
YEAR: 6/10/72
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—OUTGOING MEDI-CAL DIRECTOR EARL BRIAN IS SUED IN A CLASS
ACTION SUIT TO RAISE STATE HEALTH CARE REIMBURSEMENTS.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-11
YEAR: 06/30/72
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—PHOTO OF EARL BRIAN NAMED AFTER BEING SWORN-IN AS CALIF.
SECR. OF HUMAN RELATIONS

189
THE OCTOPUS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-12
YEAR: 11/19/72
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—CALIFORNIAN EARL BRIAN NAMED AS POSSIBLE NIX ON WHITE
HOUSE STAFF MEMBER.
KEYWORDS: RICHARD NIXON, RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-13
YEAR: 2/12/73
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—THE NIX ON ADMINISTRATION ATTEMPTS TO LURE CALIFORNIA
BUREAUCRAT EARL BRIAN TO A WASHINGTON POST. CURRENT HE W SECRET ARY IS
CASPAR WEINBERGER.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN, ROBERT CARLESON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-14
YEAR: 9/21/72
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—NO W AN AIDE FOR GO VERNOR R ONALD REA GAN, EARL BRIAN
MAKES RADICAL CHANGES TO THE CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND WELFARE AGENCY.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-15
YEAR: 9/9/73 AND 7/24/77
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE ‘73: GO VERNOR REAGAN URGES EARL BRIAN TO RUN FOR US SEN-
ATE. ‘77: A CALIF. STATE REPORT ON GOV. REAGAN’S LAX HANDLING OF THE NURSING
HOME INDUSTR Y ALSO MENTIONS AN ON-GOING INVESTIGA TION INT O THE
FINANCING OF EARL BRIAN’S ABORTIVE US SENATE CAMPAIGN IN ‘74.
KEYWORDS: BEVERLY ENTERPRISES, RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-16
YEAR: 1/2/74
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—CALIF . HEAL TH AND WELFARE HEAD EARL BRIAN CREA TES A
‘NEWSLETTER FILM’ FOR STATE EMPLOYEES.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-17
YEAR: 1/18/74
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—CALIF. SECRETARY OF HEAL TH AND WELFARE RESIGNS TO R UN
FOR US SENATE AGAINST INCUMBENT ALAN CRANSTON.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-18
YEAR: 1/19/74
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—GOVERNOR REAGAN ANNOUNCES EARL BRIANS’S REPLACEMENT
FOR THE POSITION OF SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND WELFARE. BRIAN IS RUNNING FOR
US SENATE.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN, JAMES E. JENKINS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-19
YEAR: 2/13/75
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—FORMER CALIFORNIA HEAL TH AND WELFARE A GENCY CHIEF
EARL BRIAN IS ANGR Y OVER THE CANCELLATION OF A BRIAN RESEAR CH PROJECT BY
THE NEW BROWN ADMINISTRATION.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN, ROBERT CARLESON

190
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-20
YEAR: 6/22/78
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—AFFIDAVITS BY TWO FORMER US SENA TORS SAY FORMER SECRE-
TARY OF CALIFORNIA HEAL TH AND WELFARE TOOK CAMP AIGN CONTRIB UTIONS
FROM THE NURSING HOME INDUSTR Y IN EX CHANGE FOR INCREASING NURSING
HOME PAYMENTS FROM THE STATE.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-21
YEAR: 2/28/88
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—EARL BRIAN NO W THE CHAIRMAN OF INFO TECH CORP WHICH
HAS AN INTEREST IN COMPANIES SUCH AS FINANCIAL NEWS NETWORK AND UNITED
PRESS INTERNATIONAL.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN, DWIGHT GEDULDIG

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-23
YEAR: 11/28/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—PROFILE OF EARL BRIAN AS EMP IRE B UILDER AND O WNER OF
INFOTECH.
KEYWORDS: HADRON, FINANCIAL NEWS NETWORK, COMTEX SCIENTIFIC

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-24
YEAR: 11/28/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—OVERVIEW OF EARL BRIAN’S PL ANS TO SAVE UPI.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN MEESE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: BRIAN, EARL
NO.: PR\IN\BE-13
YEAR: 2/12/73
SUMMARY: SACRAMENTO BEE—THE NIX ON ADMINISTRATION ATTEMPTS TO LURE CALIFORNIA
BUREAUCRAT EARL BRIAN TO A WASHINGTON POST. CURRENT HE W SECRET ARY IS
CASPAR WEINBERGER.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN, ROBERT CARLESON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INFOTECH
NO.: PR\IN\IT-01
YEAR: 10/25/90
SUMMARY: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL—INFO TECH ASSET FINANCIAL NET WORK NE WS HAS
INSUFFICIENT CASH FLOW TO MEET COSTS.
KEYWORDS: EARL BRIAN, ALAN HIRSCHFIELD, ALLAN TESSLER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INFOTECH
NO.: PR\IN\IT-02
YEAR: 10/29/90
SUMMARY: BARRON’S—FINANCIAL NE WS NET WORK AND INFO TECHNOLOGY ST OCK BO TH
DROPPED IN THE MARKET AND OTHER TROUBLES.
KEYWORDS: EARL BRIAN, SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INFOTECH
NO.: PR\IN\IT-03
YEAR: 11/12/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—AN A CCOUNT OF INFO TECH AND FNN’S A TTEMPT TO
RESTORE THEIR IMAGE.
KEYWORDS: HADRON, INC.

191
THE OCTOPUS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INFOTECH
NO.: PR\IN\IT-04
YEAR: 11/12/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—INFOTECH FIRMS REPORTEDLY TARGET OF CRIM-
INAL FRAUD PROBES RELATING TO INSLAW.
KEYWORDS: F.B.I., S.E.C., CHALLENGER LTD.,

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INFOTECH
NO.: PR\IN\IT-05
YEAR: 11/19/90
SUMMARY: BARRON’S—AN INDEPTH LOOK BEHIND THE PROBLEMS AT FNN AND INFOTECH.
KEYWORDS: HADRON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-01
YEAR: 4/83
SUMMARY: LEGAL TECH—INSLAW, INC. SIGNS AN A GREEMENT WITH EASTERN INFORMA TION
SERVICES IN WHICH INSL AW ACQUIRES AN EIS A CCOUNTING SOFTWARE AND INTE-
GRATES IT WITH INSLAW’S MODULAW, A LAW PRACTICE SUPPORT SOFTWARE.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-02
YEAR: 9/3/83
SUMMARY: THE ECONOMIST—A SHORT SIDEBAR ABOUT INSLAW INC. AND THEIR SOFTWARE.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-03
YEAR: 10/12/86
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—D. L OWELL JENSEN, FORMER NO. 2 JUSTICE OFFICIAL IS
ACCUSED BY THE INSL AW L AWSUIT OF HELP ING FOR CE THE SOFT WARE COMP ANY
INTO BANKRUPTCY.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, WILLIAM HAMILTON, RONALD REAGAN, EDWIN MEESE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-04
YEAR: 12/9/86
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—A FEDERAL BANKR UPTCY JUDGE REFUSES TO DISMISS INSL AW
INC.’S LAWSUIT AGAINST THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: RONALD REAGAN, PROMIS, DALITE, LOWELL JENSEN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-01
YEAR: 6/11/87
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—FEDERAL BANKR UPTCY JUDGE DEL AYS DECISION ON INSL AW
SUIT FOR 2 DAYS.
KEYWORDS: JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON JR.,DEAN COOPER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-06
YEAR: 6/13/87
SUMMARY: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER—US BANKRUPTCY JUDGE GEORGE BASON RULES THAT THE
US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT UNLAWFULLY TRIED TO PUT INSLAW OUT OF BUSINESS AND
THAT TWO DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS GAVE “UNBELIEVABLE” TESTIMONY.
KEYWORDS: LOWELL JENSEN, PROMIS, EDWIN MEESE, THOMAS STANTON, C. MADISON BREWER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-07
YEAR: 6/13/87
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—A US JUDGE R ULES THAT THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT MADE
“UNDUE AND IMPR OPER ATTEMPTS” TO DRIVE THE INSLAW SOFTWARE CO. OUT OF
BUSINESS.
KEYWORDS: JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON JR.,WILLIAM HAMILTON, C. MADISON BREWER

192
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-08
YEAR: 6/22/87
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—INSL AW ATTEMPTS T O REMOVE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S
TRUSTEES FROM THE SOFTWARE COMPANY’S BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-09
YEAR: 9/21/87
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IGNORES US JUDGE GEORGE BASON’S RUL-
ING THAT THEY APPOINT AN INDEP ENDENT OFFICIAL TO REVIEW INSLAW’S LIST OF
ALLEGATIONS.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN MEESE, D. LOWELL JENSEN, JOHN BOLTON, DAVID MARTIN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-10
YEAR: 9/29/87
SUMMARY: ST. LOUIS POST DISP ATCH—A US JUDGE ORDERS THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT TO PAY
INSLAW INC. FOR FIVE YEARS USE AND DUPLICATION OF THE COMPANY’S SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON, GEORGE F. BASON JR., ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-11
YEAR: 9/29/87
SUMMARY: ARIZONA REPUBLIC—US BANKR UPTCY JUDGE GEOR GE BASON JR. R ULES THAT THE
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ENGAGED IN “OUTRA GEOUS AND INDEFENSIBLE” CONDUCT
AGAINST INSLAW INC.
KEYWORDS: ELLIOT RICHARDSON, WILLIAM HAMILTON, D. L OWELL JENSEN, JANIS A. SPOSA TO,
WILLIAM P. TYSON, LAURENCE MCWHORTER, JACK S. RUGH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-12
YEAR: 9/29/87
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—US JUDGE R ULES THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STOLE
INSLAW’S SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: C. MADISON BREWER, PROMIS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-13
YEAR: 9/29/87
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—JUDGE RULES AGAINST JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT AND FOR
INSLAW.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, PATRICK KORTEN, ELLIOT RICHARDSON, JUDGE GEORGE F. BREWER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-14
YEAR: 9/29/87
SUMMARY: NEW YORK TIMES—US JUDGE RULES THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT USED “ TRICK-
ERY, FRAUD AND DECEIT” TO STEAL PROMIS SOFTWARE FROM INSLAW INC.
KEYWORDS: C. MADISON BREWER, PATRICK KORTEN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-15
YEAR: 10/2/87
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON TIMES—A PROFILE OF INSLAW FOUNDER WILLIAM HAMILTON AND HIS
BATTLE WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, PATRICK KORTEN, NANCY HAMILTON

193
THE OCTOPUS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-16
YEAR: 10/5/87
SUMMARY: CRIME CONTROL DIGEST—US JUDGE SAYS D.O.J. USED “FRAUD” TO DESTROY INSLAW
INC. JUDGE ALSO SAYS A NUMBER OF GO VERNMENT OFFICIALS DISPLAYED “COLLEC-
TIVE AMNESIA” WHEN QUESTIONED ABOUT THE CASE.
KEYWORDS: LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATION, PROMIS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-17
YEAR: 10/5/87
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—PR O-INSLAW R ULING REST ORES COMP ANY’S
CREDIBILITY.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON, NANCY HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-18
YEAR: 10/5/87
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—JUDGE GEOR GE BASON JR. R ULES A GAINST THE GO V-
ERNMENT IN THE INSLAW SUIT AND FINDS THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PROJECT
MANAGER FOR THE COMPANY HAD A VENDETTA AGAINST THE OWNERS.
KEYWORDS: C. MADISON BREWER, WILLIAM A. HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-19
YEAR: 10/6/87
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL CALLING FOR AN IMMEDIA TE PUBLIC A CCOUNTING
OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S BEHAVIOR IN THE INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: C. MADISON BREWER, JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-20
YEAR: 10/12/87
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AWARDS HADRON INC. A 40
MILLION DOLL AR CONTRA CT FOR A UTOMATED LITIGA TION SUPPOR T. HADR ON’S
LARGEST STOCKHOLDER IS DR. EARL BRIAN, FORMER CALIFORNIA HEALTH OFFICIAL.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN MEESE, ACUMENICS, BIOTECH, FAIRFAX VA.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-21
YEAR: 10/12/87
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—A PRESTIGIOUS WASHINGTON D.C. L AW FIRM THAT ORIGINALLY REP-
RESENTED INSL AW INC. A GAINST THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT IS A CCUSED OF
CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST.
KEYWORDS: DICKSTEIN, SHAPIRO, AND MORIN, LEIGH RATINER, D. LOWELL JENSEN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-22
YEAR: 10/12/87
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL EDIT ORIAL RECOMMENDING L AWFIRMS TO DO
PRO BONO WORK IN CASES LIKE THE INSLAW SUIT.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-23
YEAR: 10/12/87
SUMMARY: TIME—A SUMMARY OF THE INSLAW CASE TO DATE.

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-24
YEAR: 10/12/87
SUMMARY: THE NA TIONAL L AW JOURNAL—A DET AILED SUMMAR Y OF THE INSL AW CASE AND
THE RULING OF JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON.
KEYWORDS: EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS, PROMIS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-25
YEAR: 12/21/87
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—THE SENATE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS PERMANENT SUBCOMMIT TEE
ON INVESTIGATIONS BEGINS INVESTIGATING THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: SAM NUNN, ALAN EDELMAN, D. LOWELL JENSEN, AMELIA BROWN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-26
YEAR: 1/18/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—FEDERAL BANKRUPTCY JUDGE GEORGE BASON SAYS HE IS
NOT REAPPOINTED DUE TO HIS RULING IN THE INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: S. MARTIN TEEL JR., WESLEY WILLIAMS JR., PATRICIA M. WALD

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-27
YEAR: 1/20/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT CL AIMS JUDGE GEOR GE BASON IS
BIASED AND DEMANDS HIS OUSTER FROM THE INSLAW CASE.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-28
YEAR: 1/23/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT DENIES JUDGE’S CL AIMS OF
RETRIBUTION AGAINST HIM FOR UNFAVORABLE INSLAW RULING.
KEYWORDS: JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON, S. MARTIN TEEL JR.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-29
YEAR: 2/1/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—BANKRUPTCY JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON JR. SET TO DETER-
MINE DAMAGES OWED TO INSLAW BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
KEYWORDS: PATRICIA WALD, DEAN COOPER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-30
YEAR: 2/1/88
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—INSLAW CREDIT OR DR OPS P ETITION TO CL AIM MONE Y O WED FOR
LEGAL FEES
KEYWORDS: DICKSTEIN, SHAPIRO, & MORIN, EDWIN MEESE, NORMAN OLIVER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-31
YEAR: 2/1/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—INSL AW ATTORNEYS SEEK E VIDENCE THAT
AT&T AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE COLL UDED TO DESTROY THE SOFT WARE
COMPANY.
KEYWORDS: KENNETH A. ROSEN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-32
YEAR: 2/2/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—JUDGE GEOR GE F. BASON ORDERS THE JUSTICE DEP ART-
MENT TO PAY INSLAW $6.8 MILLION IN DAMAGES.
KEYWORDS: MCDERMOTT, WILL, & EMORY

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-33
YEAR: 2/15/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON STRUGGLES TO REMAIN
ON THE BENCH AFTER RULING AGAINST THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: S. MARTIN TEEL JR., NORMA HOLLOWAY JOHNSON, JEROME BARRON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-34
YEAR: 2/15/88
SUMMARY: CHICAGO TRIBUNE—SUMMARY/OVERVIEW OF THE INSLAW AFFAIR
KEYWORDS: LEONARD GARMENT, EDWIN MEESE, GEORGE BASON, PROMIS, D. LOWELL JENSEN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-35
YEAR: 2/15/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—INSLAW A CCUSES A T&T A TTORNEY OF CONFLICT OF
INTEREST.
KEYWORDS: ROGER WHELAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-36
YEAR: 2/22/88
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—REMOVED JUDGE GEOR GE F. BASON UR GES PROSECUTOR TO PROBE
EDWIN MEESE’S CONNECTION TO THE INSLAW AFFAIR.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-37
YEAR: 2/29/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT PL ANS TO FIRE AN
EMPLOYEE WHOSE ST ATEMENTS HELP ED INSL AW WIN A R ULING A GAINST THE
DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: ANTHONY PASCIUTO

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-38
YEAR: 2/29/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—IBM AND INSL AW NEGO TIATE A DEAL TO HELP PULL
INSLAW OUT OF BANKRUPTCY.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-39
YEAR: 3/7/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL EDITORIAL RECOMMENDS A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR
TO LOOK INTO THE INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: ANTHONY PASCIUTO

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-40
YEAR: 3/7/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—SENATE EXAMINES JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT PR OPOSALS
FOR AUTOMATION TO SEE IF STOLEN PROMIS SOFTWARE WILL BE USED.
KEYWORDS: PROJECT EAGLE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-01
YEAR: 9/88
SUMMARY: HE WASHINGTON POST—A PROFILE OF US ATTORNEY JAY B. STEPHENS AND HIS ROLE
IN THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: IRAN-CONTRA, OLIVER NORTH, PROMIS, C. MADISON BREWER III

196
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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-42
YEAR: 3/18/88
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NE WS—PROBLEMS WITH JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT OFFICE
MECHANIZATION “PROJECT EAGLE”

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-43
YEAR: 3/21/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—FOLLOWING THE REMOVAL OF PREVIOUS JUDGE
GEORGE BASON, INSLAW BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS REMAIN DORMANT.
KEYWORDS: AT&T, KENNETH ROSEN, S. MARTIN TEEL

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-44
YEAR: 3/21/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL LET TER TO THE EDITOR—BASON SAYS HE NE VER
PERSONALLY BELIE VED HE WAS REMO VED FR OM BENCH FOR HIS INSL AW R ULING,
BUT THAT OTHER BARRISTERS HAVE TOLD HIM THEY THINK HE WAS.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-01
YEAR: 3/22/88
SUMMARY: L.A. DAILY JOURNAL—OVERVIEW OF THE INSLAW CASE
KEYWORDS: PAUL SIMON, CORNELIUS BLACKSHEAR, PROMIS, LEAA, LEONARD GARMENT

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-46
YEAR: 4/4/88
SUMMARY: BARRON’S—AN O VERVIEW THAT EXAMINES MAJOR CHARA CTERS IN THE INSL AW
SCANDAL
KEYWORDS: ANTHONY PASCIUTO, S. MARTIN TEEL, C. MADISON BREWER, EARL BRIAN, HADRON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-47
YEAR: 4/4/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—A SENATE JUDICIARY COMMIT TEE PREPARES TO Q UES-
TION JUSTICE OFFICIALS ON THE INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN MEESE, KENNETH ROSEN, LEONARD GARMENT, ARNOLD BURNS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-48
YEAR: 4/4/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT ASKS COUR T TO DR OP
BARRING OF THREE KEY SOURCES, EMPLOYEES PETER VIDENIEKS, JACK RUGH, AND C.
MADISON BREWER
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, PROJECT EAGLE, JUDGE WILLIAM BRYANT

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-50
YEAR: 4/16/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—EX-WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL JAY B. STEPHENS WAS NOMINATED
FOR US A TTORNEY GENERAL BY PRESIDENT R ONALD REA GAN. IN 1983, STEP HENS
OPTED NOT TO INVESTIGATE BIAS IN THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: OLIVER NORTH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-51
YEAR: 4/15/88
SUMMARY: DATAMATION—AN O VERVIEW OF INSL AW O WNER AND FOUNDER BILL HAMIL TON
AND HIS WIFE AND THEIR STRUGGLE AGAINST THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: AT&T, SOFTWARE AND SERVICES INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

197
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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-52
YEAR: 4/15/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST EDIT ORIAL—JUDICIARY PANELS SHOULD GET TO THE BOTTOM
OF THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON PERMANENT INVESTIGATIONS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-53
YEAR: 4/18/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—PROJECT EA GLE BECOMES CA UGHT UP IN JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT-INSLAW DISPUTE.
KEYWORDS: C. MADISON BREWER III, PETER VIDENIEKS, JACK RUGH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-54
YEAR: 4/25/88
SUMMARY: BARRON’S—LETTER FROM PRESIDENT OF HADRON INC., A COMPANY INVOLVED IN THE
INSLAW AFFAIR THROUGH DR. EARL BRIAN, DENIES CERTAIN PUBLISHED STATEMENTS.
KEYWORDS: DOMINIC A. LAITI

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-55
YEAR: 5/4/88
SUMMARY: RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH—A FOLL OW-UP ON THE CONGRESSIONAL PR OBE’S
LOOK INTO EDWIN MEESE’S ROLE IN THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: CORNELIUS BLACKSHEAR, ANTHONY PASCIUTO, LEIGH RATINER, DOMINIC LAITI

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-56
YEAR: 5/6/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES THAT IT IS INVESTIGAT-
ING DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS FOR POSSIBLE PERJURY DURING THE INSLAW HEARINGS.
KEYWORDS: JOHN RUSSELL, EDWIN MEESE, SAM NUNN, LEONARD GARMENT

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-57
YEAR: 5/6/88
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PROBING POSSIBLE EMPL OYEE PERJURY
IN THE INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: JAMES C. MCKAY

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-58
YEAR: 5/6/88
SUMMARY: US REP. JACK BUECHNER PRESS RELEASE—CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OF EDWIN MEESE
AND QUOTES JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON’S RULING ON INSLAW AND THE ABA CODE OF
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-59
YEAR: 5/7/88
SUMMARY: SUMMARY:WASHINGTON POST—JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT L AWYERS CONCL UDE THAT
THERE IS NO NEED FOR AN INVESTIGA TION INT O ED WIN MEESE’S R OLE IN THE
INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: DICKSTEIN, SHAPIRO, & MORIN, JOHN C. KEENE Y, CHARLES R. WORK

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW A
NO.: PR\IN\IA-60
YEAR: 5/11/88
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL—CALLS FOR A PUBLIC REPORT OF THE EFFORTS OF
INDEPENDENT COUNSEL JAMES MCKA Y IN HIS INVESTIGA TION OF ED WIN MEESE
AND INSLAW.

198
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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-01
YEAR: 5/16/88
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—FORMER INSL AW L AWYER PRESSURES CBS TO A KILL A NE WS REPORT
THAT IT DROPPED INSLAW AS A CLIENT BECAUSE OF JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PRESSURE.
KEYWORDS: DICKSTEIN, SHAP IRO, & MORIN; LEONARD GARMENT ; LEIGH RA TINER; MAR TY
KOUGHAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-02
YEAR: 5/16/88
SUMMARY: DIGITAL REVIEW—OVERVIEW OF INSLAW CASE. INCLUDES TIMELINE OF EVENTS.
KEYWORDS: EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF US ATTORNEYS, PROMIS, EARL BRIAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-03
YEAR: 5/23/88
SUMMARY: BARRON’S—LETTER FR OM JUSTICE OFFICIAL CORRECTING ALLEGED ERR ORS IN A
PREVIOUS ARTICLE.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM P. TYSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-04
YEAR: 5/23/88
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—LETTER FR OM FORMER INSL AW L AWYER DENYING THAT HIS FIRM
TRIED TO STIFLE A CBS NEWS REPORT ON INSLAW.
KEYWORDS: LEONARD GARMENT; DICKSTEIN, SHAPIRO, & MORIN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-05
YEAR: 8/25/88
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—A GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE REPORT FAULTS THE JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT FOR NOT MAKING EMPLOYEES SIGN A FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE ACT.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN MEESE, URSULA MEESE, DICK THORNBURGH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-06
YEAR: 6/13/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—INSLAW A TTORNEY’S TRY TO REMO VE A T&T FR OM THE
SOFTWARE COMPANY’S BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS, CLAIMING CONFLICT OF INTEREST.
KEYWORDS: MICHAEL FRIEDLANDER; JUDGE GEORGE F. BASON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-07
YEAR: 6/13/88
SUMMARY: THE NE W YORK TIMES—AN INDEP ENDENT PR OSECUTOR’S REPOR T WILL DRA W
“UNFLATTERING” CONCLUSIONS ABOUT EDWIN MEESE.
KEYWORDS: IRAQ; E. ROBERT WALLACH; WEDTECH CORP.; ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-08
YEAR: 6/6/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—THE DEP ARTMENT OF JUSTICE DECIDES TO
INVESTIGATE EDWIN MEESE’S ROLE IN THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: JOHN KEENEY; LEONARD GARMENT; OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-09
YEAR: 6/13/88
SUMMARY: BUSINESS WEEK—OVERVIEW OF THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: EARL BRIAN; LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATION; D. LOWELL JENSEN

199
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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-10
YEAR: 6/27/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—JUSTICE DEPARTMENT BLASTS INSLAW CASE VER-
DICT IN A FILED APPEALS BRIEF.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAMS B. BRYANT; CORNELIUS BLACKSHEAR; ANTHONY PASCUITO

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-11
YEAR: 7/18/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—INSLAW SAYS THREE WHISTLE BLOWERS HAVE CORROB-
ORATED THE COMPANY’S CHARGES ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TRYING TO
DRIVE IT OUT OF BUSINESS.
KEYWORDS: MARK M. RICHARD; RONALD L. GAINER; JOHN C. KEENE Y

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-12
YEAR: 8/12/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—EDWIN MEESE ATTEMPTS TO BLOCK TESTIMONY TO A SEN-
ATE SUBCOMMITTEE BY TWO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES, BUT IS REVERSED.
KEYWORDS: SAM NUNN; GEORGE F. BASON; THOMAS STANTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-13
YEAR: 8/25/88
SUMMARY: SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE—THE GENERAL A CCOUNTING OFFICE CRITICIZES THE
JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT’S F AILURE TO REQ UIRE EMPL OYEES TO FILE FINANCIAL DIS-
CLOSURE REPORTS.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM FORD, GERRY SIKORSKI, EDWIN MEESE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-14
YEAR: 9/12/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—INSL AW FILES ANSWER TO JUSTICE DEP ART-
MENT’S APPEAL ON INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: EARL BRIAN, WILLIAMS B. BRYANT

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-15
YEAR: 10/3/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—INSLAW FILES A RESPONSE TO D.O.J. APP EAL ON THE
INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: AT&T, C. MADISON BREWER, WILLIAM BRYANT

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-16
YEAR: 10/24/88
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—AFTER TWO JUDGES RECUSE THEMSELVES FOR CON-
FLICT OF INTEREST , BANKR UPTCY JUDGE JAMES SCHNEIDER TAKES O VER THE
INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: AT&T, HADRON INC., EDWIN MEESE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-17
YEAR: 10/31/88
SUMMARY: NEW TECHNOLOGY WEEK—A SECRET MEMO FROM A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL
TO A SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE COMPARES THE INSLAW CASE TO WATERGATE.
KEYWORDS: D. LOWELL JENSEN, EDWIN MEESE, SAM NUNN, JAMES SCHNEIDER, UNIX, DALITE

200
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-18
YEAR: 11/28/88
SUMMARY: THE NA TIONAL L AW JOURNAL—A MAJOR WASHINGTON L AW FIRM WILL SP EAK
BEFORE A BANKR UPTCY JUDGE ON ALLEGED CONFLICT OF INTEREST WHILE HAN-
DLING INSLAW’S SUIT AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT.
KEYWORDS: SAM NUNN, LEONARD GARMENT, JAMES F. SCHNEIDER, LEIGH RATINER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-19
YEAR: 12/28/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—INSLAW EMERGES FROM BANKRUPTCY REORGANIZATION
WITH HELP FROM IBM, BUT MUST PAY OLD LEGAL FEES TO A L AW FIRM THE COMPA-
NY CLAIMS MISHANDLED THEIR CASE.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-20
YEAR: 2/20/89
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS—JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS ARE CONSIDER-
ING OFFERS FOR ITS “PROJECT EAGLE” OFFICE COMPUTERIZATION PLAN.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-21
YEAR: 7/3/89
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—TWO COMP ANIES PR OTEST THE JUSTICE DEP ART-
MENT’S AWARD OF THE PROJECT EAGLE CONTRACT TO TISOFT INC.
KEYWORDS: PRIME COMPUTER INC., FALCON SYSTEMS INC.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-01
YEAR: 10/89
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—WHILE A WAITING THE BEGINNING OF IT ’S PR OJECT
EAGLE UPGRADE PR OJECT, THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT L OOKS FOR UPGRADES OF
OTHER COMPUTER EQUIPMENT.
KEYWORDS: KRIME COMPUTER INC.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-23
YEAR: 7/10/89
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NE WS—A SHOR T PR OFILE ON TISOFT INC. AND THE
BOOST THE PROJECT EAGLE CONTRACT WILL MEAN FOR THE COMPANY.
KEYWORDS: JOHN A. OAKES, AMICUS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-24
YEAR: 9/30/89
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—A SENA TE SUBCOMMIT TEE CONCL UDES THAT JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS SHO WED “POOR JUDGEMENT ,” B UT THAT THEY COULD
FIND NO EVIDENCE OF A CONSPIRACY TO BANKRUPT INSLAW INC.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-25
YEAR: 10/2/89
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—A SENATE COMMITTEE FINDS NO CONSPIRACY ON THE
PART OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO DRIVE INSL AW INTO BANKRUPTCY BUT SAYS
PERSONAL BIASES DID UNDERCUT THE DEPARTMENT’S INTEGRITY.

201
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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-26
YEAR: 11/23/89
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—A FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE UP HOLDS A BANKR UPTCY
COURT’S RULING THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HARASSED INSLAW AND TRIED
TO DRIVE IT OUT OF BUSINESS.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM B. BRYANT, AMY BROWN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-27
YEAR: 11/23/89
SUMMARY: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH—A US DISTRICT JUDGE AFFIRMED THAT THE DEPARTMENT
OF JUSTICE “ WILLFULLY AND FRAUDULENTLY” SOUGHT TO DRIVE INSL AW INC. OUT
OF BUSINESS.
KEYWORDS: MICHAEL ROBINSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-28
YEAR: 8/7/89
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS—PRIME COMPUTER INC. GIVES UP PROTEST OF JUS-
TICE DEPARTMENT AWARDING PROJECT EAGLE CONTRACT TO TISOFT INC.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-29
YEAR: 12/4/89
SUMMARY: BARRON’S—FEDERAL JUDGE WILLIAM BR YANT UP HOLDS PRE VIOUS INSL AW AWARD
AGAINST THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: GEORGE F. BASON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-30
YEAR: 12/18/89
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—AN O VERVIEW TO DATE OF THE INSL AW CASE AND
THE BEHAVIOR OF THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT. AR TICLE COMP ARES THE INSL AW
SITUATION TO OTHER FORCED-BANKRUPTCIES INVOLVING THE JUSTICE DEPART-
MENT.
KEYWORDS: CAMPAIGNER PUBLICATIONS, CA UCUS DISTRIB UTORS, THE FUSION ENER GY FOUN-
DATION, LYNDON LAROUCHE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-31
YEAR: 12/24/89
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL—SUPPORTS THE RECENT UPHOLDING OF AN AWARD
TO INSLAW FROM THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: C. MADISON BREWER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-32
YEAR: 12/27/89
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—INSL AW SEEKS COUR T-ORDERED PR OBE OF IT S CASE,
CLAIMING THE GOVERNMENT STOLE ITS SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: DICK THORNBURGH, WILLIAM HAMILTON, ELLIOT RICHARDSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-33
YEAR: 12/28/89
SUMMARY: ST. L OUIS POST -DISPATCH—INSLAW ASKS A COUR T TO FOR CE ANO THER JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATION OF IT’S OWN BEHAVIOR WITH REGARD TO INSLAW INC.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON, WILLIAM B. BRYANT, EDWIN MEESE

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 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-34
YEAR: 12/31/89
SUMMARY: THE ATLANTA JOURNAL—INSLAW ALLEGES THAT ATTORNEY GENERAL EDWIN MEESE
CONSPIRED AGAINST THE COMPANY AND ASK A COUR T TO FORCE MEESE’S SUCCES-
SOR TO INVESTIGATE THE MATTER.
KEYWORDS: RICHARD THORNBURGH, URSULA MEESE, EARL BRIAN, HADRON INC.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-35
YEAR: 1/4/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES COMMENTARY—EDITORIAL RECOMMENDS THAT ATTOR-
NEY GENERAL DICK THORNBURGH RECONSIDER HIS REFUSAL TO INVESTIGATE THE
HANDLING OF INSLAW CONTRACTS BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-36
YEAR: 1/6/90
SUMMARY: CHICAGO SUN TIMES, JAMES J. KILPATRICK COLUMN—REVIEW OF INSLAW CASE UP TO
SECOND RULING IN FAVOR OF INSLAW BY JUDGE WILLIAM BRYANT.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, JOHN R. BOLTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-37
YEAR: 1/8/90
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—INSLAW ASKS A FEDERAL JUDGE TO SEEK A PROBE INTO
ALLEGED DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE SOFTWARE COMPANY.
KEYWORDS: RICHARD THORNBURGH, EDWIN MEESE, PROMIS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-38
YEAR: 1/15/90
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER MARKET REPOR T—INSLAW ACTS TO FORCE ATTORNEY GENER-
AL RICHARD THORNBURGH TO APPOINT IMPARTIAL SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO LOOK
INTO ITS CLAIMS OF CONSPIRACY.
KEYWORDS: ELLIOT RICHARDSON, EDWIN MEESE, LOWELL JENSEN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-39
YEAR: 1/15/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—AFTER WINNING A $76 MILLION JUSTICE DEPART-
MENT COMPUTER CONTRACT, TISOFT INC. PUTS ITSELF UP FOR SALE.
KEYWORDS: PROJECT EAGLE, PATRICK GALLAGHER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-40
YEAR: 1/15/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—INSL AW CL AIMS THAT SE VERAL UNFRIENDL Y
TAKEOVER BIDS BETWEEN 1983 AND 1986 WERE ORCHESTRATED BY EARL BRIAN.
KEYWORDS: HADRON INC., URSULA MEESE, PROMIS, SAM NUNN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-41
YEAR: 1/29/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—INSLAW FILES A GOVERNMENT CONTRACT APPEALS
BOARD SEEKING $2 MILLION IN PAYMENTS WITHHELD BY THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN MEESE, RICHARD THORNBURGH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-42
YEAR: 2/5/90
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NE WS—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT ANNOUNCES THAT IT
WILL APPEAL THE FEDERAL COURT RULING THAT IT STOLE SOFTWARE FROM INSLAW INC.
KEYWORDS: DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, PROMIS

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-43
YEAR: 2/2/90
SUMMARY: THE COMPUTER LAWYER—DETAILED LEGAL OVERVIEW OF THE INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS, PROMIS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-01
YEAR: 24/90
SUMMARY: NATIONAL JOURNAL—OVERVIEW OF INSLAW AFFAIR TO DATE.
KEYWORDS: URSULA MEESE, EARL BRIAN, PROJECT EAGLE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-45
YEAR: 3/5/90
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—INSLAW FOUNDER WILLIAM HAMILTON REBUTS A PRE-
VIOUS LETTER FROM A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL WHO CLAIMED THAT INSLAW
HAD MALIGNED THE DEPARTMENT.
KEYWORDS: THOMAS G. DOOLEY

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-46
YEAR: 4/30/90
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NE WS—INSLAW ALLEGES THAT THE JUSTICE DEP ART-
MENT IS TRYING TO SECRETLY CONVERT INSLAW SOFTWARE AND THEREBY STEAL IT.
KEYWORDS: MICHAEL ROBINSON, LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES DIVISION

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-47
YEAR: 4/3/90
SUMMARY: ST. L OUIS POST -DISPATCH—OVERVIEW OF THE INSL AW AFF AIR TO DA TE. INSL AW
FOUNDER SAYS THAT 42 US A TTORNEYS OFFICES CONTINUE TO USE TEST VERSIONS
OF SOFTWARE STILL UNDER DISPUTE.
KEYWORDS: D. LOWELL JENSEN, PROMIS, WILLIAM HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-48
YEAR: 3/5/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT ASKS A FEDERAL
JUDGE TO DISMISS AN INSL AW P ETITION COMP ELLING A PR OBE OF THE DEP ART-
MENT.
KEYWORDS: EARL BRIAN, SAM NUNN, EDWIN MEESE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-49
YEAR: 3/17/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST EDIT ORIAL—QUESTIONS THE RESISTANCE OF A TTORNEY GEN-
ERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH AND THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT TO A FULL
ACCOUNTING OF THE INSLAW MATTER.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW B
NO.: PR\IN\IB-50
YEAR: 4/2/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT SEEKS A COUR T-APPOINTED
MEDIATOR TO QUIETLY SETTLE THE INSLAW CASE.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-01
YEAR: 4/2/90
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK—NETWORK SYSTEMS CORP. SAYS IT HELPED TISOFT INC.
WIN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE “PR OJECT EA GLE” CONTRA CT AND WAS JILTED
WHEN TISOFT PUT ITSELF UP FOR SALE.

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-02
YEAR: 4/16/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—AFTER MONTHS OF RESISTANCE, ATTORNEY GEN-
ERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH A GREES TO ASSIST CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGA TORS
IN THEIR LOOK INTO THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: REP. JACK BROOKS, PROJECT EAGLE, GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-03
YEAR: 4/28/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST EDIT ORIAL—COMMENDS A TTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD
THORNBURGH FOR FINALL Y COOP ERATING WITH A CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT TEE
LOOKING INTO THE INSLAW CONTRACT DISPUTE.
KEYWORDS: JACK BROOKS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-04
YEAR: 4/30/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—INSL AW CL AIMS THAT A JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT
SOFTWARE BUY IS REALLY A SURREPTITIOUS EFFOR T TO CONVERT INSLAW’S PROMIS
SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: CAROL ROTHGEB, MICHAEL ROBINSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-05
YEAR: 5/7/90
SUMMARY: NEWS-PRESS, JAMES J. KILP ATRICK EDIT ORIAL—AN O VERVIEW OF THE INSL AW DIS-
PUTE TO DATE.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-06
YEAR: 5/7/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—INSL AW SUGGEST S THAT THE WINNER OF THE
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S PROJECT EAGLE CONTRACT IS INV OLVED IN A CONSP IRACY
AGAINST THE SOFTWARE COMPANY.
KEYWORDS: TISOFT INC., PAT GALLAGHER, WILLIAM HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-07
YEAR: 5/18/90
SUMMARY: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL—AN O VERVIEW OF THE INSLAW AFFAIR TO DATE WITH
AN ANALYSIS OF PROBLEMS WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S “PROJECT EAGLE,” AN
OFFICE AUTOMATION PLAN.
KEYWORDS: PATRICK GALLAGHER, WILLIAM HAMILTON, JACK BROOKS, TERRY MILLER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-01
YEAR: 5/28/90
SUMMARY: BUSINESS WEEK—A PROFILE OF US ATTORNEY GENERAL DICK THORNBURGH.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM H. GRAY III, DAVID R. RUNKEL, KENNETH W. STARR

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-09
YEAR: 9/10/90
SUMMARY: THE NE W REPUBLIC—AR TICLE RE VIEWS MAJOR E VENTS TO DA TE IN THE INSL AW
AFFAIR AND QUESTIONS WHY ATTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH DOESN’T
LEAD AN INVESTIGATION OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S BEHAVIOR.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, ANTHONY PASCIUTO, CORNELIUS BLACKSHEAR, SAM NUNN

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-10
YEAR: 7/2/90
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—A HOUSE JUDICIAR Y COMMIT TEE PROBE FINDS
IRREGULARITIES IN THE AWARD OF THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT’S “PR OJECT EA GLE”
CONTRACT TO TISOFT INC.
KEYWORDS: JACK BROOKS, ATTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-11
YEAR: 8/6/90
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NE WS—INSLAW’S A CCUSATION THAT THE JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT STOLE IT S SOFT WARE UNDER THE “PROJECT EA GLE” PROGRAM LEAD
THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE TO CUT THE PROJECT’S BUDGET IN HALF PEND-
ING AN INVESTIGATION.
KEYWORDS: JACK BROOKS, WILLIAM HAMILTON, EDWIN MEESE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-12
YEAR: 12/7/90
SUMMARY: THE PRESS DEMOCRA T—HOUSE JUDICIAR Y COMMIT TEE CHAIRMAN JA CK BR OOKS
ACCUSES THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT OF ENGA GING IN A CO VER-UP OF THE INSLAW
AFFAIR BY WITHHOLDING DOCUMENTS FROM THE COMMITTEE.
KEYWORDS: STEVEN R. ROSS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-13
YEAR: 12/5/90
SUMMARY: SAN FRANCISCO DAILY JOURNAL—THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
LOOKING INTO THE INSLAW AFFAIR SAYS HE WILL LOOK INTO WHETHER THE JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT IS WRONG IN CL AIMING “PRIVILEGE” IN WITHHOLDING 200 DOCU-
MENTS FROM THE COMMITTEE.
KEYWORDS: JACK BROOKS, D. LOWELL JENSEN, ATTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-14
YEAR: 12/6/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, MARY MCGRORY COLUMN—QUESTIONS WHY ATTORNEY GENER-
AL RICHARD THORNBURGH WOULD USE “EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE” TO WITHHOLD
DOCUMENTS FROM A HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE LOOKING INTO THE INSLAW DISPUTE.
KEYWORDS: ELLIOT RICHARDSON, WILLIAM HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-15
YEAR: 12/6/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—REP. JACK BROOKS ACCUSES THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF
WITHHOLDING DOCUMENTS TO FRUSTRATE HIS PANEL’S PROBE OF ALLEGED IMPRO-
PRIETIES IN THE DEPARTMENT’S DEALINGS WITH INSLAW, INC.
KEYWORDS: JACK BROOKS, STEVEN R. ROSS, GEORGE FRANCIS BASON JR.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-16
YEAR: 12/8/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, EDITORIAL—SUMS UP INSLAW DISPUTE TO DATE AND QUES-
TIONS WHY A TTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH WOULD REFUSE TO
COOPERATE WITH A HOUSE COMMITTEE PROBING THE MATTER.
KEYWORDS: JACK BROOKS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-17
YEAR: 12/10/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MAY ISSUE SUBPOE-
NAS FOR HUNDREDS OF JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT DOCUMENTS REGARDING DEALINGS
WITH INSLAW INC. THAT THE DEPARTMENT HAS TO DATE WITHHELD.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON, WILLIAM BRYANT, JACK BROOKS

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-18
YEAR: 12/17/90
SUMMARY: BOSTON GLOBE—INSLAW L AWYER ELLIOT RICHARDSON ASKS THE JUSTICE DEP ART-
MENT’S OFFICE OF PUBLIC INTEGRIT Y TO CONTACT 30 WITNESSES TO TESTIFY ON
BEHALF OF INSLAW.
KEYWORDS: ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM WELD

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-19
YEAR: 1/28/91
SUMMARY: FEDERAL COMPUTER MARKET REPORT—A THREE-JUDGE PANEL HAS HEARD THE JUS-
TICE DEPARTMENT APPEAL OF THE INSLAW INC. SUIT. A RULING IS EXPECTED IN THE
NEXT THREE MONTHS.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-20
YEAR: 2/21/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—THE HOUSE JUDICIAR Y COMMIT TEE L OOKS INTO ALLE-
GATIONS THAT INSL AW’S SOFT WARE WAS SOLD ILLEGALL Y TO IRA QI AND ISRAELI
INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES.
KEYWORDS: CIA, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, BIOTECH CAPITAL CORP., EARL BRIAN, ARI BEN-
MENASHE, ATTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-21
YEAR: 2/18/91
SUMMARY: GOVERNMENT COMPUTER NEWS—A SUMMARY OF THE INSLAW DISPUTE TO DATE.
KEYWORDS: MARK B. STERN, MICHAEL FRIEDL ANDER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-22
YEAR: 2/19/91
SUMMARY: THE ST. L OUIS POST-DISPATCH—AFFIDAVITS IN THE INSL AW DISPUTE CL AIM THAT
INSLAW’S SOFT WARE WAS ILLEGALLY SOLD TO THE ISRAELI, IRA QI, AND CANADIAN
GOVERNMENTS.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON, ARI BEN-MENASHE, EARL BRIAN, CIA, CARL OS CARDOEN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-23
YEAR: 2/21/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—A HOUSE COMMITTEE INVESTIGATES ALLEGATIONS THAT
INSLAW’S SOFTWARE IS BEING USED ILLEGALL Y BY VARIOUS FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE
AGENCIES.
KEYWORDS: KISRAEL, CANADA, CIA, BIOTECH CAPITAL INC., PROMIS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-24
YEAR: 2/25/91
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL—EARL BRIAN CALLS AFFIDA VITS STATING HE ILLE-
GALLY SOLD INSLAW SOFTWARE TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS “A TISSUE OF LIES.”
KEYWORDS: INFOTECHNOLOGY INC., DENIS LACHANCE, ARI BEN-MENASHE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-25
YEAR: 2/27/91
SUMMARY: THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE DENIES CHARGES THAT IT DELIVERED STOLEN INSLAW
SOFTWARE TO THE ISRAELI, CANADIAN, AND IRAQI GOVERNMENTS.
KEYWORDS: CARLOS CARDOEN, INFOTECHNOLOGY INC., EDWIN MEESE

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-26
YEAR: 2/15/91
SUMMARY: THE MIAMI HERALD, JAMES J. KILP ATRICK COLUMN—SUMS UP THE INSLAW DISPUTE
TO DATE INCLUDING THE ACCUSATIONS THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SOLD THE
SOFTWARE TO FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE AGENTS.
KEYWORDS: AUBREY ROBINSON, PAUL H. MANNES, MARTIN TEEL, CIA, EDWIN MEESE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-27
YEAR: 3/18/91
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—A DETAILED REVIEW OF THE INSLAW DISPUTE WITH AN EMPHASIS ON
MANY OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INVOLVED.
KEYWORDS: JAY STEPHENS, MICHAEL SHAHEEN JR., CHARLES WORK, ELLIOT RICHARDSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-01
YEAR: 3/24/91
SUMMARY: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH—AFFIDAVITS CHARGE THAT WHITE HOUSE AIDE ROBERT C.
MCFARLANE ILLEGALLY TRANSFERRED INSLAW SOFTWARE TO ISRAELI OFFICIALS.
KEYWORDS: ARI BEN-MENASHE, RICHARD H. BABA YAN, RICHARD SECORD, EARL BRIAN, MICHAEL
RICONOSCIUTO, WACKENHUT CORP., CABAZON INDIANS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-29
YEAR: 3/25/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—THE GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE REPORTS THAT THE
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SOLD SURPL US COMPUTERS WITHOUT FIRST ERASING SENSI-
TIVE INFORMATION FROM THEIR MEMORY BANKS.
KEYWORDS: ROBERT WISE JR., CHARLES HAYES, HOWARD G. RHILE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-30
YEAR: 3/28/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, MARY MCGRORY COLUMN—SUMMARIZES THE INSLAW DIS-
PUTE TO DA TE INCL UDING AFFIDA VITS BY A ENTREPRENEUR THAT EARL BRIAN
SUPPLIED HIM WITH STOLEN INSLAW SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-31
YEAR: 3/31/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—A KE Y WITNESS FOR INSL AW INC. IS ARRESTED IN WASH-
INGTON STATE. MICHAEL RICONOSCIUT O HAD CL AIMED THAT PRIVATE INTEREST S
HIRED HIM TO MODIFY ALLEGEDLY STOLEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPED BY INSLAW.
KEYWORDS: PETER VIDENIEKS, PROMIS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-32
YEAR: 4/4/91
SUMMARY: THE VANCOUVER SUN—INSL AW SA YS THAT THE CANADIAN GO VERNMENT WAS
“DUPED” INT O ILLEGALLY A CQUIRING INSL AW SOFT WARE. US COUR T DOCUMENT S
ALSO SHOW A CANADIAN COMMUNICA TIONS DEPARTMENT ADMIT TING TO USING
THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT AN AUTHORIZED SALE.
KEYWORDS: ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE, EARL BRIAN, RICHARD BABA YAN

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-33
YEAR: 4/5/91
SUMMARY: VANCOUVER SUN—VICT ORIA MP s WANT THE CANADIAN SOLICIT OR GENERAL
GRILLED OVER THE RCMP AND CANADIAN SECURIT Y INTELLIGENCE SERVICE USING
ALLEGEDLY STOLEN INSLAW SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: PIERRE CADIEUX, JOHN BREWIN, WILLIAM BRYANT

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-34
YEAR: 4/5/91
SUMMARY: FINANCIAL TIMES—ARI BEN-MENASHE A CCUSES REA GAN AD VISER R OBERT MCF AR-
LANE OF ILLEGALLY DISTRIBUTING INSLAW SOFTWARE TO THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT.
KEYWORDS: ELLIOT RICHARDSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-35
YEAR: 4/9/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, MARY MCGRORY COLUMN—A PROFILE OF INSL AW LAWYER
ELLIOT RICHARDSON AND HIS EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY.
KEYWORDS: RICHARD THORNBURGH, AUBREY E. ROBINSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-36
YEAR: 4/9/91
SUMMARY: FINANCIAL TIMES—A COURT GIVES INSL AW THIRTY DAYS TO SUBPOENA WITNESSES
AS PART OF AN EFFORT TO SPEED UP AN INVESTIGATION INTO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
BEHAVIOR.
KEYWORDS: ELLIOT RICHARDSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-37
YEAR: 4/27/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, EDITORIAL—A RECAP OF THE INSL AW DISPUTE AND HO W
THE A TTORNEY GENERAL HAS RECENTL Y A GREED TO LET THE HOUSE JUDICIAR Y
COMMITTEE SEE EVERY DOCUMENT PERTINENT TO THE INSLAW DISPUTE.
KEYWORDS: JACK BROOKS, WILLIAM BRYANT

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-38
YEAR: 4/30/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST , MAR Y MCGR ORY COL UMN—ATTORNEY GENERAL DICK
THORNBURGH WILL LET THE HOUSE JUDICIAR Y COMMIT TEE VIEW E VERY JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT DOCUMENT PERTINENT TO THE INSLAW CASE.
KEYWORDS: ELLIOT RICHARDSON, BOB FISKE, ELLIOT RICHARDSON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-39
YEAR: 5/8/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT THROWS OUT A 1988 RULING
AGAINST THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT THAT IT ST OLE SOFT WARE FROM INSL AW INC.
INSLAW CAN STILL PURSUE ITS CLAIMS IN OTHER COURTS.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN MEESE, JUDGE STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-40
YEAR: 5/8/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT WINS AN APP EAL OF A PRE VI-
OUS COUR T DECISION THAT IT HAD “ST OLEN” SOFT WARE FR OM INSL AW INC.
HOWEVER THE THREE-JUDGE APPEALS PANEL SUGGESTS THAT INSLAW FILE IT S SUIT
IN ANOTHER, MORE PROPER FEDERAL COURT.
KEYWORDS: STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW C
NO.: PR\IN\IC-41
YEAR: 5/11/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, EDITORIAL—STATES THAT A RECENT O VERTURNING OF A
PRO-INSLAW RULING WAS BASED NO T ON THE MERITS OF THE CASE B UT THAT THE
ORIGINAL BANKR UPTCY COUR T R ULING WAS OUT SIDE THE JURISDICTION OF THE
BANKRUPTCY COURT.

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-01
YEAR: 3/8/88
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—HADRON INC., AN EARL BRIAN COMP ANY, REPORTS ITS QUAR-
TERLY EARNINGS DOWN FROM THE SAME PERIOD LAST YEAR.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-02
YEAR: 6/16/88
YEAR: LOS ANGELES TIMES—MEMOS FROM A WEDTECH INC. CONSUL TANT TO ATTORNEY
SUMMARY: GENERAL ED WIN MEESE INDICA TE THAT THEY HELP ED L AUNCH A PR OBE OF A
WEDTECH COMPETITOR.
KEYWORDS: E, ROBERT WALLACH, GARCIA ORDINANCE CORP.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-03
YEAR: 6/19/89
SUMMARY: SUMMARY:THE WASHINGTON B USINESS JOURNAL—A PR OFILE OF GL OBALINK, A
COMPUTER THAT TRANSLATES WRITTEN FOREIGN LANGUAGES INTO ENGLISH.
KEYWORDS: DOMINIC LAITI, HADRON INC.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-04
YEAR: 10/28/88
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, EDIT ORIAL—ENCOURAGES LEGISL ATIVE “ WHISTLE BL OW-
ER” PROTECTION.
KEYWORDS: K. WILLIAM O’ CONNOR, JOSEPH WRIGHT, PAT SCHROEDER

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-05
YEAR: 9/12/90
SUMMARY: OPINION, EDITORIAL—AUTHOR BELIEVES THAT A KENTUCKY MAN’S CL AIM OF HAV-
ING FOUND SECRET INFORMATION ON A USED JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT COMPUTER IS
A FRAUD.
KEYWORDS: CHUCK HAYES

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-06
YEAR: 9/18/90
SUMMARY: THE LEXINGT ON HERALD READER—CONGRESS PL ANS TO INVESTIGA TE THE A CCI-
DENTAL SALE OF GO VERNMENT SECRET S IN SURPL US COMPUTER EQ UIPMENT BY
THE US ATTORNEY’S OFFICE IN LEXINGTON, KY.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, CHARLES HAYES, BOB WISE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-07
YEAR: 3/25/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—THE GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE SAYS IT UNCOVERED
A F AILURE BY THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT TO SECURE SECRET COMPUTER FILES
BEFORE SELLING COMPUTER HARDWARE AS SURPLUS.
KEYWORDS: HOWARD G. RHILE, A TTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH, HARR Y H.
FLICKINGER, ROBERT WISE

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-08
YEAR: 3/27/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON TIMES—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT DOESN’T KNO W IF SURPL US
COMPUTER HARDWARE CONTAINED SECRET INFO AND/OR WHO BOUGHT IT.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, ROBERT E. WISE, HARRY H. FLICKINGER

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: INSLAW MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IN\IM-09
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL—AN ARTICLE ON HOW DIFFICULT IT IS FOR SMALL COM-
PANIES TO EMERGE FROM A CHAPTER 11.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
NO.: PR\IN\JD-01
YEAR: 2/5/90
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—A SENATE STAFF REPORT CALLS INT O Q UESTION A JUSTICE DEP ART-
MENT ETHICS OFFICER’S POLITICAL INDEP ENDENCE IN HIS PR OBE OF ALLEGATIONS
AGAINST THE DEPARTMENT OVER THE INSLAW AFFAIR.
KEYWORDS: MICHAEL SHAHEEN JR., ROGER PILON, MATTHEW MYERS

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
NO.: PR\IN\JD-02
YEAR: 3/25/90
SUMMARY: NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE—A CLIPPING FROM A PROFILE OF THEN-PRESIDENT BUSH’S
CABINET. THE CLIPPING FOCUSES ON ATTORNEY GENERAL RICHARD THORNBURGH.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM SAXBE, ED MEESE, JOHN SUNUNU

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-02
YEAR: 4/25/77
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—DATA COLLECTED USING PROMIS SOFTWARE SHOWS THAT MORE
THAN HALF OF THE FELONY ARRESTS IN FIVE JURISDICTIONS A CROSS THE COUNTRY
WERE REJECTED BY PROSECUTORS OR DISMISSED AFTER CHARGES WERE FILED.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-03
YEAR: 5/16/77
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—A STUD Y CONDUCTED BY THE L AW ENFOR CEMENT ASSIS-
TANCE ADMINISTRA TION ( WHICH DESIGNED THE ORIGINAL PR OMIS SOFT WARE)
SHOWS THAT ONLY 8% OF WASHINGTON D.C.’S POLICE OFFICERS MADE MORE THAN
HALF OF ALL ARRESTS THAT LED TO CONVICTIONS IN 1974.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-04
YEAR: 6/10/78
SUMMARY: SATURDAY REVIEW—AN ARTICLE BASED UPON INSL AW DATA AND CRITICIZING THE
US COURT SYSTEM.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-05
YEAR: 12/25/78
SUMMARY: WASHINGTON POST—A CASE STUD Y OF WASHINGTON D.C.’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYS-
TEM FINDS WIDELY DIFFERING SENTENCING PRA CTICES AMONG DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA JUDGES.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON, INSLAW

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-06
YEAR: 2/16/79
SUMMARY: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL—AN EDIT ORIAL BY INSL AW DIRECT OR OF RESEAR CH
BRIAN E. FORST ST ATES THAT MOST ARREST S FOR SERIOUS CRIMES DO NO T END IN
SUBJECT: CONVICTION.
FILE:
NO.: INSLAW
YEAR: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
PR\IN\PS-07
4/23/79
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—AN INSL AW STUD Y RE VEALS THAT P ERSONS WHO HA VE
BEEN ARRESTED FOR B URGLARY, R OBBERY, AND L ARCENIES HA VE A 60 P ERCENT
CHANCE OF AGAIN BEING ARRESTED FOR CRIMES.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-08
YEAR: 8/79
SUMMARY: DISTRICT LAWYER—AN ARTICLE BY INSLAW PRESIDENT WILLIAM HAMILTON SAYS ONE
OF THE TWO MOST COMMON REASONS FOR FEL ONY CASES BEING DR OPPED IS
POLICE FAILURE TO COLLECT SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE.
KEYWORDS: LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATION

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-09
YEAR: 10/14/79
SUMMARY: THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, EDITORIAL—RECOMMENDS PROMIS SOFT WARE AS A WAY OF
MANAGING PROSECUTOR CASELOADS AND STOPPING UP THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SIEVE.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-10
YEAR: 1980
SUMMARY: ‘IMPROVING PROSECUTION?: THE INDUCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INNOVA-
TIONS FOR PROSECUTION MANAGEMENT’ BY DAVID LEO WEIMER—A BOOK EXCERPT
THAT QUESTIONS WHETHER USE OF INSL AW SOFT WARE BY PR OSECUTORS’ OFFICES
INSTEAD OF A RIVAL SOFTWARE WAS THE BEST CHOICE.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, DALITE, D. LOWELL JENSEN, WILLIAM HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-11
YEAR: 3/16/82
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—AN INSLAW SURVEY OF 264 FEDERAL JUDGES SHO WS A WIDER-
THAN-PREVIOUSLY-BELIEVED DISPARITY IN SENTENCING.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-12
YEAR: 4/16/82
SUMMARY: LOS ANGELES TIMES—AN INSL AW STUD Y SUGGEST S THAT THOUSANDS OF L AW-
BREAKERS ARE ESCAP ING PR OSECUTION BECA USE OF JURISDICTIONAL RIV ALRIES
BETWEEN STATE AND FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.
KEYWORDS: ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM FRENCH SMITH

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-13
YEAR: 5/11/82
SUMMARY: WALL STREET JOURNAL—A L OOK AT THE LOS ANGELES CAREER CRIMINAL PR OSECU-
TION UNIT, A LEGAL SP ECIAL TEAM THAT WORKS TO WIN STIFFER SENTENCES FOR
CAREER-CRIMINALS.
KEYWORDS: BARBARA BOLAND, INSLAW

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-14
YEAR: 9/13/82
SUMMARY: THE NA TIONAL L AW JOURNAL—INSL AW STUDIES SHO W THAT CAREER-CRIMINALS
ARE NOT BEING PR OSECUTED BECAUSE L AW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS ARE IGNOR-
ING WAYS TO IDENTIFY THEM. O THER CRIMINALS GO FREE BECA USE L ACK OF
COORDINATION AMONG THOSE OFFICIALS.
KEYWORDS: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S OFFICE OF LEGAL POLICY

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-15
YEAR: 12/29/82
SUMMARY: THE DAILY RECORD (BAL TIMORE)—VARIOUS FORMS OF ELECTR ONIC TECHNOLOGY
ARE BEING BROUGHT TO BEAR IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CRIME.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, INSLAW

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SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-16
YEAR: 1/3/83
SUMMARY: NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE IMPACT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE PR OGRAM INITIA-
TIVES ON DATA REQUIREMENTS AND INFORMATION POLICY—A SPEECH BY JAMES Q.
WILSON QUOTING AN INSL AW STUDY ABOUT WHAT CRITERIA TO USE IN DECIDING
PRIORITY OF PROSECUTING CRIMINALS.

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-17
YEAR: 8/8/83
SUMMARY: LEGAL TIMES—US A TTORNEY’S OFFICES NA TIONWIDE GO ONLINE WITH INSL AW’S
PROMIS SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM HAMILTON

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-18
YEAR: 8/10/83
SUMMARY: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL—A PR OFILE OF NE W YORK’S CAREER CRIMINAL PR O-
GRAM WHICH STRESSES JAILING CRIMINALS WHO COMMIT L ARGE NUMBERS OF
CRIMES, EVEN LESS SERIOUS CRIMES.
KEYWORDS: INSLAW

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-19
YEAR: JUNE-JULY 1984
SUMMARY: JUDICATURE—ARTICLE RECOMMENDS THAT COURTS MAKE BET TER USE OF INFOR-
MATION TECHNOLOGY AND CASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE.
KEYWORDS: PROMIS, DOCKETRAC

SUBJECT: INSLAW
FILE: PROMIS SOFTWARE: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IN\PS-20
SUMMARY: THE JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES—AN ANAL YSIS OF THE ROLE OF THE PROSECUTOR
BASED ON AN INSLAW RESEARCH PROJECT.
KEYWORDS: BILL HAMILTON, BRIAN FORST, WILLIAM LANDES

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IO\CB-01
YEAR: 3/24/72
SUMMARY: NBC NEWS ‘CHRONOLOG’—A TRANSCRIPT OF A TELEVISION REPORT ABOUT A CLAN-
DESTINE ARMY TRAINED, EQUIPPED, ADVISED, AND PAID BY THE CIA AND FIGHTING
IN LAOS.
KEYWORDS: AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, VIET NAM, MUNG

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IO\CB-02
YEAR: 5/17/84
SUMMARY: 20/20—A TRANSCRIPT OF A TELEVISION REPORT ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GEORGE
WEISZ, A MASTER SPY FOR THE CIA
KEYWORDS: BILL HARVEY, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: BACKGROUND
NO.: PR\IO\CB-03
YEAR: 9/27/84
SUMMARY: THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE—THE CIA DENIES AN ALLEGA TION CARRIED BY ABC NE WS
THAT THE A GENCY ENGA GED IN A PL OT TO KILL HONOL ULU INVESTMENT COUN-
SELOR RONALD REWALD WHO CLAIMS HIS FAILED COMPANY WAS A CIA FRONT.
KEYWORDS: SCOTT BARNES

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-01
YEAR: 8/26/91
SUMMARY: NEW YORK TIMES—A TEAM OF EX-GREEN BERET S MAY HAVE BEEN RECR UITED BY A
FORMER CIA AGENT TO TRAIN LIBYAN TERRORISTS.
KEYWORDS: EDWARD P. WILSON, COLONEL QADDAFI

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SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-02
YEAR: 8/30/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—A FORMER CIA A GENT SHIPPED TWENTY TONS OF PL ASTIC
EXPLOSIVES FROM THE US TO LIBYA TO BE USED IN TERRORIST BOMBS.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN P. WILSON, FRANK TERPIL

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-03
YEAR: 9/6/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—A GROUP OF INTERLOCKING BUSINESSES ASSOCIATED WITH
A FORMER CIA A GENT TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT TO THE
MIDDLE EAST.
KEYWORDS: EDWIN P. WILSON, THOMAS G. CLINES, FRANK TERPIL, THEODORE G. SHACKLEY

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-04
YEAR: 9/14/81
SUMMARY: THE NE W YORK TIMES—AN ANAL YSIS OF THE ISSUES BR OUGHT FOR TH BY THE
ACTIVITIES OF EX-CIA AGENTS EXPORTING WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY TO TERRORIST
COUNTRIES.
KEYWORDS: LIBYA, EDWIN P. WILSON, QADDAFI

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-05
YEAR: 9/19/81
SUMMARY: THE NE W YORK TIMES—THE HOUSE SELECT COMMIT TEE ON INTELLIGENCE
MOUNTS A FULL SCALE INVESTIGATION OF THE ACTIVITIES OF EX-CIA AGENT EDWIN
P. WILSON.
KEYWORDS: MUAMMAR EL-QADDAFI, FRANK E. TERPIL

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-06
YEAR: 9/23/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—EX-CIA AIDE SEES “NO WAY” TO BAR RETIRED INTELLIGENCE
OFFICERS FROM DOING BUSINESS ABROAD.
KEYWORDS: VERNON A. WALTERS, EDWIN P. WILSON, FRANK E. TERPIL

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-07
YEAR: 9/30/91
SUMMARY: THE NE W YORK TIMES—THE JUSTICE DEP ARTMENT DECIDES TO BOLSTER IT S
INQUIRY INTO AN INVESTIGATION OF ED WIN WILSON AND FRANK TERPIL, TWO EX-
CIA OFFICERS CHARGED WITH SELLING EXPLOSIVES TO LIBYAN TERRORISTS.
KEYWORDS: WILLIAM H. WEBSTER

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-08
YEAR: 9/13/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—THE F.B.I. IS INVESTIGATING AN ALLEGATION THAT A COM-
PANY OWNED BY EX-CIA OFFICER EDWIN P. WILSON BRIBED A KEY-FEDERAL OFFICIAL.
KEYWORDS: CONTROL DATA CORPORATION, KEVIN P. MULCAHY

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-10
YEAR: 10/11/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—TWO FORMER ASSOCIATES ACCUSE EX-CIA A GENT EDWIN P.
WILSON OF TRYING TO DIVERT AMERICAN ELECTRONIC INTELLIGENCE GATHERING
TECHNOLOGY TO THE SOVIET UNION.

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SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-10
YEAR: 10/13/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—CURRENT AND FORMER EXECUTIVES OF A SMALL CALIFOR-
NIA ELECTR ONICS COMP ANY SA Y TWO FORMER CIA A GENTS TRIED TO MARKET
SENSITIVE AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY ABROAD.
KEYWORDS: FRANK E. TERPIL, EDWIN P. WILSON, STANFORD TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-11
YEAR: 10/24/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—A 10 COUNT INDICTMENT WAS HANDED DOWN AGAINST EX-
CIA A GENTS FRANK TERPIL AND ED WIN P. WILSON FOR SHIPP ING EXPL OSIVES TO
LIBYA AND TRAINING LIBYAN TERRORISTS. THE INDICTMENT ALSO INCLUDED A VIR-
GINIA MAN WITH SUPERVISING THE LIBYAN END OF THE DEAL.
KEYWORDS: DONALD SCHLACHTER

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-12
YEAR: 10/25/81
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—AN ASSASSIN TARGETING A LIBYAN STUDENT IN COL ORADO
IN 1980 FOUND SANCTU ARY AT AN ENGLISH F ARM OWNED BY EX-CIA A GENT EDWIN
P. WILSON.
KEYWORDS: EUGENE A. TAFOYA, FAISAL ZAGALLAI

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: RENEGADES
NO.: PR\IO\CR-13 & 14
YEAR: ?
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE—A TWO-PART ARTICLE ABOUT HOW FORMER CIA
ANALYST KE VIN P. MUL CAHY WAS DUP ED INT O COORDINATING ILLEGAL EXPOR TA-
TION OF TECHNOL OGY AND TRAINING T O LIBYA TERR ORISTS AT THE BEHEST OF
EX-CIA AGENTS FRANK TERPIL AND EDWIN P. WILSON.
KEYWORDS: MUAMMAR EL-QADDAFI

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-05
3/1/90
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—A COSTA RICAN JUDGE SIGNS AN EXTRADITION ORDER FOR AN
ALLEGED CIA OPERATIVE, NOW IN THE US, FOR THE BOMBING OF A NEWS CONFERENCE
GIVEN BY CONTRA EDEN P ASTORA IN 1984.ALSO: THE WASHINGTON POST—A JA CK
ANDERSON COLUMN MAINTAINS THAT CONGRESS IS PROTECTING THE OPERATIVE.
KEYWORDS: JOHN HULL, MAXIMO ESQ UIVEL, PHILIP HOLTZ, TONY AVIRGAN, THE OVERSEAS PRI-
VATE INVESTMENT CORPORATION, JEFFREY FELDMAN

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-04
YEAR: JUNE 1990
SUMMARY: CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ACTION—AN ARTICLE BY A MEMBER OF THE CHRISTIC INSTITUTE
CLAIMS THAT THE CIA HAS HIST ORICALLY USED DR UG DEALERS AND DR UG SMUG-
GLING TO SUPPORT THEIR COVERT WAR EFFORTS.
KEYWORDS: JOHN F. KERRY

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-03
YEAR: 3/26/90
SUMMARY: THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL—SEVERAL CASES WITH RECENT DEVELOPMENTS STEM
FROM THE IRAN-CONTRA AFF AIR INCL UDING A COST A RICAN A TTEMPT TO EXTRA-
DITE FR OM THE US AN ALLEGED CIA OP ERATIVE, THE HARASSMENT OF AN
ANTI-CONTRA A CTIVIST, AND THE APP EAL OF A SANCTION IMPOSED A GAINST THE
CHRISTIC INSTITUTE.
KEYWORDS: JOHN HULL, EDEN PASTORA, JACK TERRELL, F.B.I., JUDGE JAMES L. KING

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SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-02
YEAR: 10/11/87
SUMMARY: THE SACRAMENTO BEE—A LEFT-AND A RIGHT-WING ACTIVIST BOTH CLAIM THE CIA
USES A “SECRET TEAM” THAT RUNS GUNS, SMUGGLES DRUGS, AND CONDUCTS ASSAS-
SINATIONS IN THE NAME OF ANTI-COMMUNISM.
KEYWORDS: THE CHRISTIC INSTITUTE, MIAS, FUL GENCIO BA TISTA, THEODORE SHA CKLEY,
THOMAS CLINES, RICHARD SECORD, JOHN K. SINGLAUB, OLIVER NORTH, TONY AVIR-
GAN, MARTHA HONEY

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-01
YEAR: 2/17/87
SUMMARY: IN THESE TIMES—THIS AR TICLE CONTRADICT S THE WIDELY REPOR TED A CCOUNT
THAT IRANIANS LEAKED THE ARMS-FOR-HOSTAGE DEAL. INSTEAD, THE REPORTERS
MAINTAIN THAT ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE LEAKED THE PL OT TO PR OTECT SOME OF
THEIR OWN AGENTS.
KEYWORDS: AL SHIRR OA, KHOMEINI, ED WIN MEESE, NA TIONAL SECURIT Y COUNCIL, ARIEL
SHARON, SAM EVANS NORTHRUP, CYRUS HASHEMI

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-06
YEAR: 11/5/90
SUMMARY: SOUTH FLORIDA BUSINESS JOURNAL—A YEAR AFTER THE CONNECTION BET WEEN A
TERRORIST/DRUG SMUGGLER AND THE PAN AN 103 BOMBING WAS RE VEALED, THE
DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY DECIDES TO INVESTIGATE.
KEYWORDS: MONZER AL-KASSAR, JUVAL AVIV, CIA, THE CONTRAS, ABU NIDAL

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-07
YEAR: 11/23-30/90
SUMMARY: THE BOST ON P HOENIX—ARTICLE DET AILS THE CO VER-UP OF DR UG TRAFFICKER
BARRY SEAL ’S R OLE IN IRAN-CONTRA AND HIS E VENTUAL ASSASSINA TION BY
MEDELLIN CARTEL GUNMEN.
KEYWORDS: TERRY REED, ARKANSAS, JOHN CA THEY, OLIVER NOR TH, FELIX R ODRIGUEZ, “BL ACK
EAGLE”

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-08
YEAR: 12/17/90
SUMMARY: BARRON’S—A PRIVATE PROBE BY P AN AM ALLEGES A TERRORIST-DRUG LINK IN THE
PAN AM 103 BOMBING AND THAT THE CIA AND DEA. WERE VIRTUAL SPECTATORS TO
THE TRAGEDY.
KEYWORDS: MONZER AL-KASSAR, RICHARD SECORD, MOSSAD

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-09
YEAR: 2/11/91
SUMMARY: THE BOSTON HERALD—A NEW YORK FEDERAL PROSECUTOR WHO WORKED ON THE
IRAN-CONTRA CASE CL AIMS HIS BOOK “OP ENING AR GUMENTS” THAT THE CIA
UNDERMINED THE IRAN-CONTRA PR OBE BY BRIBING SENIOR OFFICIALS IN COST A
RICA AND INTERFERING WITH WITNESS TESTIMONY.
KEYWORDS: JEFFREY R. TOOBIN

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-10
YEAR: 12/2/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—SENTENCING OF IRAN-CONTRA CONSPIRATOR THOMAS G.
CLINES WAS POSTPONED AFTER DEFENSE A TTORNEYS ASK TO RESPOND TO PROSE-
CUTION CLAIMS THAT CLINES FINANCIALLY MISREPRESENTED HIMSELF.
KEYWORDS: PAULA M. JUNGHANS, LAWRENCE E. WALSH, OLIVER NORTH

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SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-11
YEAR: 5/4/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—A FORMER OP ERATIVE IN OLIVER NORTH’S IRAN-CONTRA
NETWORK SAYS GEORGE BUSH WAS NOT WARE OF THEIR OPERATION.
KEYWORDS: FELIX RODRIGUEZ, DONALD GREGG, LAWRENCE E. WALSH, RONALD REAGAN

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: CIA: IRAN-CONTRA/DRUG SMUGGLING
NO.: PR\IO\CI-13
YEAR: 6/5/87
SUMMARY: THE SA CRAMENTO BEE—A B URMESE DRUG WARLORD A CCUSED THE ASSISTANT US
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AND O THERS OF DR UG TRAFFICKING TO FUND ANTI-COM-
MUNIST OPERATIONS.
KEYWORDS: KHUN SA, RICHARD L. ARMITAGE, THEODORE SHACKLEY, JAMES G. “BO” GRITZ

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-01
YEAR: 2/28/92
SUMMARY: A HEARING BEGAN ON THE TRIAL OF A GROUP OF FORMER MILITARY AND POLICE OFFI-
CERS FOR THE ILLEGAL SALE OF WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY TO DRUG RUNNERS.
KEYWORDS: THE COMPANY, LARRY EARL BRYANT, ALVIN SNAPER, ANDREW CARTER THORNTON II

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-02
YEAR: 9/13/85
SUMMARY: THE L OS ANGELES TIMES—A FORMER NAR COTICS OFFICER ONCE LINKED TO A
SOUTH AMERICAN DR UG RING P ARACHUTED TO HIS DEA TH WITH 77 POUNDS OF
COCAINE. (HIS MAIN CHUTE FAILED TO OPEN.)
KEYWORDS: ANDREW CARTER THORNTON II, THE COMPANY

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-03
YEAR: JANUARY 1990
SUMMARY: THE AMERICAN SP ECTATOR—A PROFILE OF THEN-RULER GENERAL MANUEL NORIE-
GA AND HIS PROSPECTS FOR THE NINETIES.
KEYWORDS:

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-04
YEAR: 12/15/90
SUMMARY: THE BOST ON GL OBE—IN L OS ANGELES, TWO INDICTMENT S WERE UNSEALED
AGAINST A BOLIVIAN IMMIGRANT REPUTED TO RIVAL LEADERS OF THE COLOMBIAN
COCAINE CARTELS.
KEYWORDS: JORGE ROCA SUAREZ

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-05
YEAR: 12/19/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—THE DR UG ENFOR CEMENT A GENCY SUSP ENDS RAIDS IN
PERU AS THE RESULT OF INTERFERENCE FROM THE PERUVIAN ARMED FORCES.
KEYWORDS: ROBERT C. BONNER, THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-06
YEAR: 12/19/90
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—A TOP COCAINE TRAFFICKER WANTED IN THE UNITED
STATES, SURRENDERS TO COLOMBIAN AUTHORITIES WITH THE AGREEMENT HE WILL
NOT BE EXTRADICTED TO THE UNITED STATES.
KEYWORDS: FABIO OCHOA VASQUEZ

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SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-07
YEAR: 1/22/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—A DR UG TRAFFICKER WHO SURRENDERED UNDER THE
COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ’S A GREEMENT NO T TO EXTRADITE HIM TO THE UNITED
STATES, IS RELEASED FROM COLOMBIAN PRISON AFTER LESS THAN TWO MONTHS.
KEYWORDS: GONZALO MEJIA, CESAR GAVIRIA, CARLOS GUSTAVO ARRIETA

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-08
YEAR: 2/28/91
SUMMARY: THE NEW YORK TIMES—A SENATE STAFF STUDY AND TESTIMONY AT A SENATE PANEL
REVEALS THAT BRITISH AND ISRAELI MER CENARIES PROVIDED PARAMILITARY ASSIS-
TANCE TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS IN COLOMBIA IN 1988 AND 1989.
KEYWORDS: SENATOR WILLIAM V. ROTH, DAVID TOMKINS, YAIR G. KLEIN

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
NO.: PR\IO\DE-09
YEAR: 5/3/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST, JACK ANDERSON AND DALE VAN ATTA—INVESTIGATIONS BY
A HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE AND THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT’S INSPECTOR GENERAL
ALLEGE THAT CUSTOMS AGENTS FRATERNIZE WITH DRUG DEALERS IN THE MIDWEST.
KEYWORDS: REPRESENTATIVE DOUG BARNARD JR., CUSTOMS COMMISSIONER CAROL HALLETT

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: INTELLIGENCE MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IO\IM-01
YEAR: 1/26/90
SUMMARY: THE BOST ON GL OBE—AN O VERVIEW OF VICTOR OSTR OVSKY, A FORMER MOSSAD
SPY,WHOSE MEMOIR OF LIFE IN THE SPY SER VICE ALLEGES ASSASSINA TIONS, BL ACK-
MAIL, AND INTERNAL INTERFERENCE IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

SUBJECT: INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATIONS

FILE: INTELLIGENCE MISCELLANEOUS
NO.: PR\IO\IM-02
YEAR: 12/5/90
SUMMARY: BOSTON GLOBE—TWO SENIOR RETIRED ISRAELI MILIT ARY OFFICERS CONSP IRED TO
TRAIN AND ARM ASSASSINS FROM THE MEDELLIN COCAINE CARTEL.
KEYWORDS: YAIR KLEIN, JOSE GONZALO RODRIGUEZ GACHA, PINCHAS SHACHAR

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-02
YEAR: 1/20/73
SUMMARY: RICONOSCIUTO IS CONVICTED OF STEALING $3,000 WORTH OF ELECTRONIC EQUIP-
MENT.
KEYWORDS: DAVID F. LADELY

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-03
YEAR: 5/23/73
SUMMARY: SEATTLE POST -INTELLIGENCER—MARSHALL RICONOSCIUT O, F ATHER OF MICHAEL
RICONOSCIUTO, TESTIFIES A T HIS SON MICHAEL ’S TRIAL FOR DR UG TRAFFICKING
THAT HE RAISED $80,000 FOR HIS SON’S RESEAR CH INTO CHEMICAL AND ELECTRON-
IC PRODUCTS.
KEYWORDS: LESTER WOOTEN, JOHN HUTT

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-01
YEAR: 9/15/72
SUMMARY: RICONOSCIUTO AND TWO OTHER MEN ARE ARRESTED AND CHAR GED WITH CON-
SPIRING TO MANUF ACTURE LSD, PCP , AND MDA FOLL OWING A SIX-WEEK
SURVEILLANCE BY NARCOTIC AGENTS.
KEYWORDS: LESTER WOOTEN, STEVEN MICHAEL BERRY

218
 CASOLARO’S NEWSCLIPPINGS FILE

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-04
YEAR: 5/24/73
SUMMARY: RICONOSCIUTO CLAIMS THAT HIS LIFE HAS BEEN THREATENED BY BOTH DRUG DEAL-
ERS WHO WANTED HIM TO MANUF ACTURE ILLEGAL DR UGS AND BY NAR COTICS
AGENTS WHO WANTED HIM TO CONFESS TO DOING SO.

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-05
YEAR: 5/25/73
SUMMARY: RICONOSCIUTO IS FOUND GUIL TY OF MANUF ACTURING AND POSSESSING ILLEGAL
DRUGS BY A SEATTLE FEDERAL JUDGE. THE JUDGE ORDERS A MENTAL EXAMINATION
BEFORE SENTENCING.
KEYWORDS: JUDGE WALTER MCGOVERN

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-06
YEAR: 10/7/73
SUMMARY: RICONOSCIUTO IS SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN PRISON FOR THE ILLEGAL MANU-
FACTURE OF DRUGS AND IS RECOMMENDED TO A FEDERAL PRISON WHERE MENTAL
TREATMENT IS AVAILABLE.

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-07
YEAR: 2/13/74
SUMMARY: SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER—P ART 1 OF AN O VERVIEW OF THE INFORMERS
INVOLVED WITH THE RICONOSCIUTO DRUG BUST AND ANOTHER RELATED CASE.
KEYWORDS: PAUL DESCHAMPS, RICHARD L. TEEFY, IRWIN SCHWARTZ

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-08
YEAR: ?/?/73
SUMMARY: SEATTLE INTELLIGENCER—P ART TWO OF THE E VENTS LEADING UP TO MICHAEL
RICONOSCIUTO’S 1972 DRUG ARREST.

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-09
YEAR: 4/16/81
SUMMARY: MARSHALL RICONOSCIUT O, F ATHER OF MICHAEL AND PRESIDENT OF HER CULES
RESEARCH CORP., ANNOUNCES A POWERFUL ELECTRONIC POWER SUPPLY THAT WILL
POWER A PATENTED HEATING AND COOLING DEVICE.
KEYWORDS: HENRY RANKIN, INTERPROBE, MODULAR ENERGY TRANSFER CATALYZER

SUBJECT: CABAZON/WACKENHUT
FILE: MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO
NO.: PR\CW\MR-01
YEAR: 3/31/91
SUMMARY: THE WASHINGTON POST—MICHAEL RICONSCIUTO IS ARRESTED AND HELD WITHOUT
BAIL IN A RURAL WASHINGTON JAIL FOR UNKNOWN CHARGES. THE PREVIOUS MONTH
RICONOSCIUTO HAD FILED AN AFFIDAVIT IN THE INSLAW CASE SAYING THAT HE HAD
ILLEGALLY MODIFIED INSLAW SOFTWARE AT THE BEHEST OF PRIVATE INTERESTS.
KEYWORDS: PETER VIDENIEKS, WILLIAM HAMILTON

219
 Appendix 3:
V

An Interview with Michael Riconosciuto:

the Maury Island Connection

Michael Riconosciuto ’s link to K ennedy assassination figur e F red C risman

remains one of his most inter esting. Its details are examined in the book Maury
Island UFO (IllumiNet Press), a prequel to The Octopus, for which the following
interview was conducted.

Q: Do you remember Fred Crisman, or Jon Gold? What can you tell me about
him? Are you familiar with his memoir, Murder In The City?

A: Murder In the C ity really wasn’t a memoir for F red Crisman. Murder In The
City was about a political episode in Tacoma that Fred Crisman played a role in.

Q: But it is written by him, right?

A: He’s the author of it, yes. He had a talk show there and there was a big, heat-
ed political battle in Tacoma. My father was on one side and D ave Rollins was
on the other side. These are two guys that grew up together and were rivals.

Q: Who is the other one?

A: Dave Rollins.

Q: This is what’s mapped out in Jon Gold’s, AKA Fred Crisman’s, book.

A: Yes. I had known Fred ever since I was a small boy, probably about eight years
old. And I trav eled all o ver the world with him. I pr obably made tw enty trips
abroad with him.

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

Q: One of the gr ey ar eas with C risman for me is what r ole he play ed in the
Maury Island UFO thing.

A: The Maury Island UFO was an event that he created.

Q: He created it out of whole cloth?

A: I have about almost 1600 pages of handwritten notes b y Fred Crisman.

Q: Oh yeah?

A: Uh huh.

Q: An unpublished manuscript?

A: Yes.

Q: That’s a new one.

A: Fred was working with Mary C. Johnson at Boeing.

Q: What is the name again?

A: Mary C. Johnson. Mary Catrina Johnson. In security at Boeing. And they had
done some tests or something and...

Q: This is late 1940s?

A: Yes. And ther e was a public outcr y over it. Too much public scr utiny into
what was going on. So Fred came up with this co ver story.

Q: The cover story was intended to cover up what was happening at Boeing?

A: Yes.

Q: Which was what?

A: Some sort of test.

Q: Test?

221
THE OCTOPUS

A: Some sort of aircraft.

Q: Aircraft tests at Boeing?

A: Yes. And what happened was that something had gone wrong and some debris
had fallen over Maury Island and they had to get the stuff back. Fred did, in fact,
get the stuff back.

Q: That is my understanding just fr om reading the books on the thing, that he

held on to it. There is no indication that he turned o ver everything he had to
those two investigators that died.

A: Now the two investigators that died were basically in on it. They were out to
investigate the security screw ups at Boeing and the procedures for running their
test program.

Q: I see. So you’re saying this was a test on an advanced but conventional aircraft
that went awry? This is what fell on H arold Dahl and C risman wasn’t actually
part of the actual incident, right? H e comes in later?

A: He comes in later, yes. But the problem is that a dog that belonged to Harold
Dahl died of radiation sickness.

Q: Oh, really?

A: Yes. And there was something...

Q: Dahl’s son was also injured.

A: Yes. There was something radioactiv e on boar d. It was a big scandal, a big
problem. When these Air Force guys died, Fred was absolutely bent out of shape,
and he related that to me.

Q: All of this is in this manuscript that y ou talked about, right?

A: Yes, and personally, he told me what w ent on behind it.

Q: Do you know anything more about that slag that fell on them? Do you know
what it was?

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 AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

A: No. Other than ther e was a r eactor of some sor t on boar d this air craft. It
was an advanced radar platform of some sor t. And Mary C. Johnson has cor-
roborated the stor y many years later, like in 1982 and 1983 and ‘84. I spent
a lot of time with M ary C. Johnson.

Q: Does she still work for Boeing?

A: Oh, no. She’s deceased. She was up there in years.

Q: When you say she corr oborated it, y ou mean corr oborated it to y ou. She
didn’t talk to the pr ess or anything like that?

A: Oh no. She wouldn’t have any reason to. She was a career type person and
she was a kind of mentor to our little group up in Seattle. She and Arlen Bell’s
widow were on the board of directors of one of our companies. I had bought
her home out in Lake Bay, Washington. She used to come out and visit us all
of the time. I spent a lot of time with her .

Q: OK. So, at the time, C risman was working for what, militar y intelligence
or something of that sor t?

A: He was a point man on cleaning up a mess. And it was just a fluke that
those Air Force guys died in that plane crash.

Q: So as far y ou understand K enneth Arnold ’s r ole, for instance, and Ray

Palmer’s role in this, is that C risman helps to inject into the media that this
was some kind of UFO event and Palmer kind of glommed onto that. He has
no direct role in the cover-up, right?

A: Crisman was a master at emotional contagion. An absolute master at it. In

the OSS, o ver occupied territories in E urope where they w ere doing nuclear
research, Crisman had a deal with some guys out in the Army Air Corps, and
they w ere dr opping these do-nothing, sophisticated gizwidgets that w ere in
bombs. The Germans couldn’t ignore them. They looked like high-tech sur-
veillance devices, you know?

Q: How large were they?

A: Oh, probably twelve to fifteen pounds each. And ther e were would be sev er-
al of them in a good-siz e aerial bomb . The German High Command’s attitude

223
THE OCTOPUS

was that they w ere sophisticated somethings and they w ere being dr opped in
their most sensitive areas. The German scientists kept telling them, “No, no, no,
nothing.” And it was one of the... the stor y’s been documented in a book but I
can’t think of the name of it. It was a great brain drain on their nuclear program.
Fred gave me some astronomical figure on how many man years took away from
the scientific effort of their nuclear program at a critical time. And Fred got these
scientists fr om Princeton and the U niversity of Chicago and he got some r eal
eggheads to come up with this scam that he ran on them. F red was a master of
this kind of thing.

Q: We’re still talking about late ‘40s her e, right?

A: Right. In Indochina, Fred had a history of doing that stuff.

Q: These widgets that you’re talking about were just totally fake little things that
they attached to bomb drops?

A: Well, they actually did have some substance. Enough so that they couldn’t be
ignored.

Q: I have a ne ws ar ticle from July 11, 1947 talking about G uy Banister, then
working as a SAC (Special Agent in Charge) for the FBI in Butte recovering what
is reported as a flying disc that’s thirty and a half inches in diameter. I wonder if
there’s a connection there.

A: In post World War II they had a dev elopment phase with these radioactiv e
discs to cloud the film of aerial sur veillance platforms. They used differ ent
schemes and they had a lot of tr ouble recovering them. They had a lot of scr ew
ups.

Q: So these things had a function then?

A: Yes. And extreme raditaion will destroy most films, especially in sensitive aer-
ial photography. Now Fred was very, very close to George Wackenhut.

Q: I don’t know if that’s been established before.

A: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I’ve known of it since 1963, maybe the first time I ever
saw them together. Do you know who Chuck Emmert is?

224
 AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

Q: I haven’t heard the name yet, no.

A: OK. His mother was a w ealthy Florida socialite who financed G eorge Wack-
enhut when he originally stared Wackenhut.

Q: Is that a name that I could do a Lexis N exus search on?

A: I doubt it, H e managed to stay pr etty buried, although his mother—I can ’t
remember her first name—but she was big in southern Florida, with anybody in
social circles down there would be able to steer y ou to her.

Q: Did Crisman ever talk about the Kennedy assassination with you?

A: Yeah, he did.

Q: What about this idea that some people hav e that he was one of the thr ee
hoboes in the railroad yard behind Dealy plaza?

A: Well, I don’t know about that. He gave me his version of what happened.

Q: He did give it to you.

A: Oh, yeah. A mutual friend of ours was a former Treasury Department agent
who, during the Warren Commission, was one of the inv estigators for the com-
mittee

Q: Do you want to name him?

A: His name is Bob. I don’t know where he is now. I lost track of him about ten
years ago.

Q: Do you not want to give a last name?

A: I really don’t. I think he just wants ... he was very, very ill at the time I last saw
him. He was working for us. I was with both he and F red when Fred found out
that he had turned over information to Garrison.

Q: Fred had turned over information?

A: No, this guy Bob.

225
THE OCTOPUS

Q: Bob turned information over to Garrison?

A: Right. What I found astounding was that when Bob was wor king on the
Warren Commission, what the hell was that? Why didn’t he turn that over the
Warren Commission? And one day I asked him and he said he did.They knew
everything.

Q: Now when y ou say that stuff , what exactly ar e y ou r eferring to her e?

Crisman’s story of his role in the assassination?

A: Right. What had gone on.

Q: Is it possible for you to summarize that briefly, or is that in the 1600 page
manuscript you were talking about?

A: Here’s something that happens: everybody says, “Hey, how come you know
about everything?” Every conspiracy that’s ever gone down the pike. It kinda
seems that. I f something happens, hey , Riconoscuito’s got something to say
about it. Well, I can’t help it that I was raised ar ound Fred Crisman. I mean,
I can’t help that cosmic act of fate in my life.

Q: I understand what y ou’re saying, and things r eally are connected. P eople
have trouble accepting that fact at all, that ther e connections to be made.

A: I get treated like I’m delusional. So I find that ar ound certain things, the
less I say, the better off I am because most people ar e not going to take the
time to go check it out. Very few people even know who Fred Crisman is or
what kind of a play er he was. I tried to tell some r eporters from the Village
Voice, “I kne w F red C risman.” They r efused to believ e me. “ There was a
thing written about it.” “ Yeah, y eah, sur e, sho w us the book...” H ow can
show a book when I’m in a jail cell... I have a friend who was a SAC the day
that happened.

Q: The day of the K ennedy assassination?

A: Yeah. I’ll tell you what, I got it mor e than just from Fred.

Q: I’m still curious about exactly what F red Crisman told y ou. Is it possible
to summarize it?

226
 AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

A: I really don’t want to go into that. Calls ar e taped her e. Fred left a momen-
tous…

Q: What about that manuscript?

A: He had it squirreled away and as far as I kno w, it’s safe. The party that has it
is very reliable. At this point in time, it is irr elevant to me getting out of prison.
The things that concern me ar e the things connected to this case. I was just fas-
cinated by the fact that Crisman came up. It seems that Contact magazine found
out that Crisman knew my father and then they found out that he actually knew
me and they just went wild. They made a big deal out of it.

Q: Which magazine?

A: Contact. And UFO Magazine... This Colin B rown was hanging ar ound Ted
Gunderson...

Q: Brown was the guy that wor ked for Technical Consultant magazine.

A: I think so.

Q: And you did an interview with him.

A: Not really. I talked to him on the phone a couple of times and I wanted
some help on my case. I didn ’t want to talk about w eirdness. I was r esearch
director at Wackenhut and at the time I was ther e w e took o ver Ar ea 51 in
Nevada and w e also had the N evada test site and he was pumping me for all
kinds of stuff out of ther e and I just told him, “H ey, I don’t want to get into
that. I’ve got enough pr oblems right no w. I’m facing life in prison on dr ug
charges and it all stems from the Cabazon/Wackenhut joint venture and I just
don’t need to get into this stuff .”

Q: Did Danny Casolaro pump you for information about that?

A: Yeah. Danny found out a lot of stuff. In fact, Danny had a lot of information
on that and I’m surprised you didn’t get it.

Q: The papers that were collected after he died originally w ent to ABC’s Night-
line. By the time they got to me, they had been picked o ver pretty cleanly. But
there are notes in there about Area 51. Some, not a lot.

227
THE OCTOPUS

A: That whole subject matter with Wackenhut is one that I would want to steer
clear of. Again, ther e’s an aura of being delusional and I’ m concerned about
credibility here and the fact of the matter is that Wackenhut is is the only com-
pany that has ev er had the security contract for any of these places, ev en
though they are supposed to go up for open bid. And this is the way it ’s been
since the early ‘50s, when these various agencies in these various places were set
up. Wackenhut was steered right in and I happened to hav e been born into a
situation by virtue of my father’s contacts, my maternal grandfather’s contacts.
I was just around.

Q: You appear in that book, Murder of a City, as wiring your father’s office.

A: Well, no. We ran a cable TV company.

Q: I’m currently trying to track this ar ticle that has a photograph of y ou and it
talks about a child pr odigy, a child genius wor king with various kinds of sound
equipment. It’s really this glo wing piece about what a genius y ou are working
with sound.

A: I was doing commer cial sound as a teenager . I made a lot of money as a

teenager doing commercial sound. I was involved with various rock’n’roll groups
during what is kno wn as the instr umental sound era. M ost of these gr oups hit
the char ts. The Viceroys. The Ventures. The Wailers. P aul R evere and the
Raiders. I don’t know if you’re familiar with any of those gr oups.

Q: Sure. Who wouldn’t be familiar with the Ventures? The guitar gr oups ar e
what you’re talking about.

A: Yeah, the instrumental sound.

Q: And you worked with them?

A: You bet.

Q: Like producing albums and so for th?

A: Kearney Barton and myself.

Q: You did the sound at the gigs or y ou produced albums?

228
 AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO

A: The whole bit. Back then we had Ampex three track recorders. That was the
state of the art at that time. I was doing special effects and things like that. I was
pretty involved and I made a lot of money.

Q: So as a teenager you were working as an entrepeneur?

A: Right. I was building sound systems, building these ne w huge 300 watt tube
amplifiers, transmitting tubes, sound r einforcement systems, you know, PA sys-
tems.

Q: And this was at the time that y our father was involved with Crisman?

A: He knew Crisman ever since he was in high school.

Q: He has his own business going on.

A: Advertising, public relations. My father worked on Kennedy’s campaign staff

when he got elected and he got Governor [Al Rosalini] elected up in the state of
Washington. H e was the point man for former S enator Warren M agnuson,
Scoop J ackson. H e was one of Scoop ’s top advisers. S o this thing with F red
Crisman is kind of an aside her e.

229
 Index
V

Acumedics, 19 Benitez, Joe, 35

Al Yamamah contract umbrella, 142 Ben-Menasche, Ari, 12, 19, 21, 23, 145
Albania, 64, 66, 70, 73, 97 Bickel, Bob, 104, 106, 116–118
Ali & Fahd, 61 Bin Laden, Osama, 158–161
Alvarez, Alfred, 29, 34, 35, 36, 39, 55, 70, Bingo Palace, Inc., 34
89, 166 Bining, Sandra, 114
American Patriot Fax Network, 56, 58, 100 Bittinger, Barbara, xiii, 1
Amin, Idi, 31 Black Rose Organization, 77
Anderson, Jack, 55, 58 Blum, Jack, 46, 85
Angleton, James Jesus, 65 Bonds, Ron, viii, 154, 155, 157
Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean, 74 Brainstorm, 57
Arbenz, Jacobo, 73, 74 Brandt, Daniel, 24, 27
Area 51, 2, 43–46, 105, 133, 137, 227 Brenneke, Richard, 49, 104, 117
Arkansas Development Finance Authority, Brewer, C. Madison, 121
134, 137 Brian, Earl, 10, 11, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25,
Arnold, Kenneth, 45, 223 26, 30, 55, 80, 92, 104, 106, 121, 125,
Aurora, 43 126, 129, 166, 173
Babayan, Richard, 21, 22 Brooks, Jack, 9, 124, 125
Baghdad, Iraq, 21 Brown, Charles, 115
Banca Della Svizzera Italiana, 136 Bua, Nicholas, 126, 127, 132, 169–172, 174
Bani-Sadr, Abolhassan, 88 Buck, Brantley, 135
Banister, Willam Guy, 74, 224 Bull, Gerald, 11, 42, 51
Barr, William, 125, 169–172 Burning Man festival, 152, 153, 156
Bason, George F., 7, 8, 122, 126, 127 Bush, George, 73, 76, 77, 79, 80, 87, 88,
Bay of Pigs, 64, 66, 68, 69, 75–81, 83 94, 95, 97, 129, 132, 139
BCCI, 2, 69, 71, 80, 93, 95–97, 100, 103, Bush, Jeb, 94
104, 108, 117, 118, 141, 165, 178, 179 Bush, Neil, 94
Begin, Menachem, 123 Byrd, Robert, 56, 106, 133
Behold, A Pale Horse, 2, 41, 87 Cabazon Arms, 32, 34, 37, 42, 137
Beirut, Lebanon, 2, 42, 70, 92, 93, 117, 119 Cabazon Indians, 2, 15, 31
Belton, John, 144, 145 Cabell, C. P., 78

230
 INDEX

Canadian Security Intelligence Service Crimes of Patriots, The, 44, 46

(CSIS), 16 Crisman, Fred, 45, 220–222, 225–227, 229
Cardoen Industries, 22 Cypriot Police Force Narcotics Squad, 22
Cardoen, Carlos, 22, 51, 55 D6, 43
Cardozo, Michael, 135 Dahl, Harold, 45, 222
Carlucci, Frank, 33 DALITE, 120, 121
Carter, Jimmy, 2, 67, 83, 87, 88, 96 “Danger Man,” see Michael Riconosciuto
Casey, William, 11, 87 Death of the Poet, 38
Casolaro, Anthony, ix, 111 DEC VAX minicomputer, 6
Casolaro, Trey, 2, 115 Defense Intelligence Agency, 21, 22, 118
Castro, Fidel, 31, 68, 70, 74–76, 80, 99 Degem, 25, 26
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 2, 11, Delahanty, Vali, 56
13, 26, 31, 33, 36, 38, 39, 44, 46, 60, Dellinger, David, 57
64, 65, 72–86, 88–95, 97–99, 113, 117, DeMorenshildt, George, 77
128, 129, 136, 137, 139, 142, 144–147, Dhikr, 150, 152
156, 157, 159, 161 Diana, Princess of Wales, 140–152, 154
Chasen, Robert, 69 Dick, Fred, 44
Chiang Kai-shek, 74 Diem brothers, 80
Chicago’s Citizen’s Committee to Clean Dominica, 59, 60, 67, 68, 76
Up the Courts, 57 Donoghue, Larry, 120
CHIPS, 64 Dulce, New Mexico, 43
Chisum, Jack, 139 Dulles, John Foster, 73
Cicippio, Joseph, 61 East Timor, 44
Cline, Ray, 69, 72, 74, 90, 94 ECHELON, 158
Clines, Thomas, 82, 83, 84, 85, 92, 94 Edgar Allen Poe Society, 109
Clinton, Bill, 96, 132, 133–137, 161, 169 Eisman, Dennis, 54, 56
Clinton, Roger, 134 Eitan, Rafael, 19, 20, 23
Clostridium, 155, 156 Eitel, Gary, 139
Clyde’s, 60 Emory, Dave, 123, 129
COIN (Community Online Intelligence Entezamat, 21
Systems), 158 Fair Play for Cuba Committee, 45
Coleman, Lester Knox III, 22, 23, 118, 125 Fairfax, Virginia, 1, 2, 103
Colson, Chuck, 81 Fayed, Dodi, 140, 141, 144–146, 148,
Com-12, 13, 39, 46, 58, 77, 89, 91, 92, 150–152
98, 100, 119 Fayed, Muhammad, 141, 142, 144–147
Communications Canada, 122 Fifth Column, 136
Computer Age Publications, 5, 163 Financial News Network, 18, 26
Contra War, 70 FOIMS (Field Office Information
Cooper, William, 45, 46 Management Systems), 158
Coral Gables, Florida, 15 Foster, Vincent, 134, 135, 136, 138
Country Party, 44 Frei, Eduardo, 31
Cox, Archibald, 124 Frost, Dr. James, 114, 115
Cranston, Alan, 55 Frye, A. Robert, 34, 35
Crawford, John, 56 Fuel Air Explosives, 51, 59
Credit Suisse, 84 Gable, Clark, see Robert Booth Nichols
Creutzfeldt-Jakob (Mad Cow) Disease, Galloway, George, 28, 148
107, 108

231
THE OCTOPUS

Gambino crime family, 59 Human Genome Project, 2, 105, 107

Garrison, Jim, 45, 78, 225, 226 Hunneycutt, Robert, 8
Gates, Robert, 22, 117 Hunt, E. Howard, 64, 69, 72, 73, 75, 76,
Gates, Thomas, 61–63, 125 78, 79, 81
Gerson, Stuart, 139, 169–170 Hussein, Saddam, 67, 80, 95, 96, 161, 178
Ghorbanifar, Manucher, 83, 103, 117, 141 Illuminati, 2
Giaquinto, Eugene, 61, 62 Indio Daily News, 34
Gig Harbor, 49 Indio, California, 2, 10, 15, 16, 30, 34,
Gold, Jon, 45, 46, 220 35, 41, 42, 84
Goldman, Gary, 62 Infotechnology, 18, 26
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 26 Inman, Bobby, 33
Gotti, John, 61, 62 INSLAW (Institute for Law and Social
Gualteri, Jim, 105, 106 Research), 5–10, 13, 15, 19, 21, 25, 26,
Guatemala, 25, 36, 55, 73, 74 38, 46, 48, 54, 56–58, 64, 87, 88, 103,
Guerrin, Larry, 56 106, 108, 112, 120–129, 132, 133, 135,
Guthrie, James, 54 141, 144, 158, 161, 163, 165, 166, 169,
Hadron, Inc., 18, 19, 25, 121, 122 171, 174, 178, 179
Haig, Alexander, 85, 86 Iran-contra, 21, 56, 71, 85, 108, 117, 120,
Haight-Ashbury, 2, 12 129, 132, 137, 141, 144, 160, 178
Hakim, Albert, 75, 84, 85, 92, 93, 113, 162 Israel Defense Forces (IDF), 19
Haldeman, H. R., 79, 99 Jameson, Seth, 150, 156
Hamilton, Alan, 27 Jason, Robert, 33
Hamilton, William, 5–7, 9–12, 15, 19, 23, Jensen, D. Lowell, 120, 121
25, 27, 40, 48, 59, 63, 64, 102, 106, JM/WAVE, 75, 76
107, 112, 116, 118, 120, 121, 123, Joint Defense Space Research Facility, 44
158, 163, 179 Joshua Tree, 41
Hand, Michael Jon, 90, 91, 92 Judge, John, 74, 160
Hanssen, Robert, 158, 159, 160, 161 Keith, Jim, 72, 150–157
Harris, Larry Wayne, 155 Kelly, Clarence, 33
Hashemi, Cyrus, 36 Kennedy, John F., 69, 73, 78, 79
Hashemi, Manucher, 83 Kerouac, Jack, 2
Hayes, Charles, 24, 25, 125 Kesey, Ken, 105
Helms, Richard, 69, 72, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83 Khashoggi, Adnan, 103, 117, 141, 142,
Henderson, Wayne, 152, 156 144, 147, 148
Hitchcock, William, 105 Khomeini, Ayatollah, 83, 87, 88, 129
Hoffman, Abbie, 53, 57 Killian, Martin, 64
Home and Auto, 2 Kirk, Claude, 32, 33
Honeger, Barbara, 77, 88, 98 Kissinger, Henry, 66, 82, 85, 86, 148
Hoover, J. Edgar, 32, 79 Klenk, Ann, 112, 113
Houghton, Bernie, 90, 91, 92 Korean Central Intelligence Agency
Hubbell, Webster “Webb,” 132–136, 169, (KCIA), 22
170, 172–175 Koresh, David, 56
Hughes Aircraft, 2, 71, 116, 178 Kusnick, Barry, 57
Hughes, Howard, 61, 63, 107, 117 Kuwait, 23, 59, 67
Hughes, Jimmy, 35, 36, 55 Kwitny, Jonathan, 44
Hull, John, 85 La France Specialties, 36

232
 INDEX

Laiti, Dominic, 19, 122 Meese, Edwin, 7, 8, 10, 18, 30, 120, 126,
LAKAM, 123 173, 174
Lane, Mark, 78 Mena, Arkansas, 96, 133
Larouche, Lyndon, 10, 64 Meridian Arms, 61
Larsen, Jonathan, 113 Microsoft, 27
Lasater, Dan, 134 Miller, Terry, 5, 163, 165
Law Enforcement Assistance Mitchell, John, 66, 82
Administration, 5 MJ12, 46
Lazar, Bob, 43, 45 Mohammed, Abu, 21, 22
Lear, John, 44 Moldin, Yuri, 73
Learning Channel, 18 Morasca, Paul, 29, 36, 37, 70
Leary, Timothy, viii, 105 Mossadegh, Mohammad, 82
Ledeen, Michael, 83, 86, 92 Mothman Prophecies, 155
LeGrand, Ronald, 124 Mount San Jacinto, 41
LeWinter, Oswald, 142 Moyle, Jonathan, 55
Lexington, Kentucky, 20, 24, 118 Murchison, Clint, 63, 117
Libya, 22, 48, 73, 82, 83 Murder of a City, 45, 46, 228
Link Systems, Ltd., 23 Nam, Y. H., 22
Looney, Michael, 109, 110, 141 National Enquirer, 2
Lorenz, Marita, 78 National Police Criminal Information
Maheu, Robert, 63, 117 System (NPCIS), 27
Major, John, 28, 148 National Security Agency, 5, 21
Makes Me Think of Tall Green Grass, 3 Ng, Anson, 55, 56
Mallgrave, Frank, 120, 121 Nicaragua, 16, 34, 67, 78, 83, 84, 95, ,137
Manassas, Virginia, 13 Nichols, John Phillip, 30–42, 69, 75, 82,
MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense 89, 94, 123, 125
Systems), 159 Nichols, Mark, 38
Marchetti, Victor, 78, 91 Nichols, Robert Booth, 59–64, 102, 104,
Martin, Harry, 11, 36, 116, 119, 123, 129 112, 116, 117, 123, 125, 167, 168
Martinsburg, West Virginia, xiii, 1, 3, 71, Nidal, Abu, 95
89, 106, 109, 112, 115, 116, 118, 119, Night Vision Goggles, 15, 34, 166
125, 164 Nir, Amiran, 36
Mason, Ben, 103, 105, 106, 141 Nixon, Richard, 26, 69, 75, 79, 81, 97,
Maury Island incident, 45 124, 142
Maxwell, Robert, 25, 127 Noriega, Manuel, 94, 95, 96, 167
May, Alan Michael, 55 North, Oliver, 71, 83–85, 94, 120, 133, 134
McLean, Virginia, 2, 127 Novel, Gordon, 45
McClendon, Sarah, 106, 133 Nugan Hand Bank, 11, 42, 46, 51, 89–92
McCloskey, John, 118 Nugan, Frank, 90
McCoy, Bill, 103, 104, 106, 117 Nunn, Sam, 124
McCullough, Virginia, 34, 39, 46, 54, 71, Nussbaum, Bernard, 135
106, 123, 129, 141 October Surprise, 2, 11, 12, 21, 30, 34,
McDonald, Jeffrey, 54 36, 49, 55, 56, 57, 69, 82, 87, 88, 95,
McDougal, James, 135 104, 113, 118, 121, 129. 178
McFarlane, Robert, 19, 85 On the Trail of an Alliance Gone Awry, 38
McWhorter, Lawrence, 121 On the Trail of An Unlikely Alliance, 38

233
THE OCTOPUS

On the Trail of the Moneycatchers, 38 Reservation Operations, 43

Operation Zapata, 76 Richardson, Elliot, 6, 7, 9, 26, 124, 126,
Orejuela, Gilberto Rodriguez, 102 129, 170, 171
Orr, Ben, 123 Riconosciuto, Marshall, 46
Osman, Tim, see Osama Bin-Laden Riconosciuto, Michael, 9–13, 15, 17–22,
OSS, 72–74, 79, 80, 97, 223 30, 33, 34, 36–38, 44–49, 54–59, 64,
Oswald, Lee Harvey, 45, 74, 77, 78, 79, 70, 71, 74, 89, 102, 103, 105, 109,
154, 155, 161 115, 118-119, 121, 125-126, 133,
P2 Lodge, 77, 78, 83, 86, 97 134, 144, 145, 159, 161, 165–168,
Palme, Olaf, 36 173, 220-229
Palmer, Ray, 45, 223 Rodriguez, Felix, 75, 84
Pan Am 103, 92, 119, 161 Rogue Spies, Big Oil, Organized Crime and
Parfrey, Adam, 161–162 Secret Empires, 38
Park-On-Meter, 133, 173 Rose Law Firm, 135
Pasciuto, Anthony, 7, 8 Rowland, Tony, 141, 147
Pender, George, 69, 72, 117 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP),
Philby, Kim, 65, 70, 73 16, 144
Phoenix Program, 27 Russbacher, Gunther, 56, 58
Pianzio, Dino John, 33 Russell, George, 76
Pickard, George, 153, 157 Sandinistas, 84, 136
Pierce, Judge Lawrence, 7 Santiago, Chile, 22, 55
Pine Gap, 43, 44, 46, 67, 89, 90 SAVAK, 83, 84
Pont D’Alma tunnel, 140, 141, 150 Schalow, Arthur, 12, 50
Profits of War, 23, 27, 129 Seagal, Steven, 62
Project Paperclip, 73 Seals, Barry, 137
PROMIS (Prosecutor’s Management Secord, Richard, 21, 75, 84, 85, 92–94,
Information System), 5, 7, 9–13, 16, 18, 113, 144
27, 30, 48, 55, 57, 69, 71, 105, 112, Sessions, William, 135
118, 120–123, 125–129, 135, 136, 138, Seymour, Chris, 117–119
141, 144, 145, 158, 159, 161, 166–169, Shackley, Ted, 69, 72, 75, 77, 79–85, 88,
174–179 90, 92, 94
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, 45 Silverado Savings and Loan, 31
Providence Journal, 2 Simcon, 19
Provident College, 2 Singlaub, John, 72, 74, 80, 84
Puget Sound, 45, 48, 49, 51 Skolnick, Sherman, 57, 95
Pulaski County, Kentucky, 24 Skull and Bones, 76, 85
Quick, Mary, 29, 37 Smathers, George, 32
Quintero, Rafael “Chi Chi,” 75, 83, 84, 92 Southern California Edison, 38
Rabor, William, 33 Spiro, Ian, 56
Rancho Mirage, 29, 35 SR17 Blackbird, 43
Ratiner, Leigh, 26, 122 Stalling, Danielle, 103
Reagan, Ronald, 18, 34, 67, 87, 173 Standorf, Alan, 13, 56, 115, 116
Reagan, Roy, 139 Stavin, Richard, 61, 63, 117, 125
Reeder, G. Wayne, 31, 94 Stealth, 43
REJIS system, 27 Steinberg, Jeff, 10, 64
Reno, Janet, 56, 88, 126, 169, 174 Stephens, Inc., 96, 134

234
 INDEX

Stich, Rodney, 13, 115 Warren Commission, 73, 77–79, 225, 226
Stone Crab Inn, 109, 111 Washington Crime News Service, 2
Stormont Laboratories, 36, 107 Washington National Airport, 13
Streeter-Duvic, Linda, 39 Washington Star, 2
Strickland, Robert, 62 Watson, James, 107
Sturgis, Frank, 75, 78, 79, 81 Weaver, Wendy, 50, 60, 109, 130, 131, 132
Sufism, 150 Weiss, Brian, 37
Summa Corporation, 61 Welles, Orson, 3
Systematics Information Systems Welmus, Art, 30, 39
Task Force 157 WerBell, Mitchell III, 72, 75
Teel, S. Martin, Jr., 8 Whattley, Richard, 75
The Ice King, 3 White Rose, 77
The Palomino, 62 White, William, 7
Thomas, Edwin, 18 Whitewater Development Corporation, 135
Thomasson, Patsy, 134, 135 Whitlam, Gough, 44, 69, 90
Thornburgh, Richard, 9, 125, 126 Wilcher, Paul, 56, 58, 88, 100
Thyssen, Fritz, 76 Wilson, Edwin, 69, 75, 81, 92, 103, 113
To Fly Without Wings, 3 Windows 95, 27
Tonoma, Nevada, 44 Wisner, Frank, 73
Trail of the Octopus, 22, 26, 119 Women’s Auxiliary of American Legion
Turner, Bill, 56, 71, 106, 110, 111, 114–116, Post 509, 29, 37
133, 178 Woodland, California, 43, 133
Tyson’s Corner, 60 Xonics, 18
U2 Spy Plane, 43 Yakuza, 60, 61, 63, 66, 70, 117
UFOs, 2, 43–46, 74, 145, 150, 152, Yellow Lodge, 43
220–221, 223 Zokosky, Peter, 34, 35, 168
Under Siege, 62
Union Banking Corporation, 76
United Fruit Company, 73
United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse
Control, 23
United Press International (UPI), 26
UNIX, 25
US Justice Department, 5, 15, 95
Valleyfield Chemical Products
Corporation, 34
VCI Neutralization and Identification
System, 27
Videnieks, Peter, 10, 15–19, 34, 55, 56,
103, 104, 106, 133, 166, 167
Viet Cong, 18
Vietnam, 2, 18, 23, 72, 75, 80, 81, 90, 105,
106, 108
Wackenhut, George, 32, 224, 225
Wald, Judge Patricia, 8
Ward, Seth “Skeeter” III, 134

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