Danny Casolaro's Death: From INSLAW to Global CIA-Mossad Operations

AUTHOR: Joel van der Reijden | DATE: Sep. 25, 2024 | DEATH LIST

Contents

EXTRA

1. Aug. 15, 1991, UPI, 'Autopsy on journalist inconclusive'
2. Sep. 1, 1991, Washington Post, 'Investigator's Family Believes He Was Murdered'
3. Aug. 31, 1992, Jack Anderson, 'Danny Casolaro: Reporter's death appears tied to probe into Inslaw'
4. Dec. 24, 1993, L.A. Times, Judge Clears City in Man's Defamation Suit (on Robert Booth Nichols)

^^

INSLAW case

1979-: INSLAW - Justice Department dispute over the PROMIS software

The basis of the Danny Casolaro controversy is to be found in the INSLAW scandal. In 1973 William A. "Bill" Hamilton, a veteran of the National Security Agency (NSA), founded the Institute for Law and Social Research (INSLAW). The key software he developed was known as Prosecutors' Management Information System (PROMIS), a program for prosecutors to register and monitor criminal cases. INSLAW started out as a non-profit. It not only was funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA), but also the "liberal CIA" Ford Foundation. 1 In 1981, after congress voted to abolish the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Hamilton continued INSLAW as a for-profit corporation that developed and sold an "Enhanced PROMIS" product.

In 1979 the U.S. Department of Justice first made a limited order with INSLAW for its PROMIS software, installing it at 4 attorney generals' offices. Encouraged by the results, the contract was expanded in 1981. Problems arose though at this point. First, the computer systems at the attorney generals' offices weren't ready for the new 32-bit PROMIS versions, with earlier incarnation having been 16-bit. As a temporary measure, INSLAW allowed Justice to access the service remotely on one of its own computer systemz - about which Justice eventually would complain that INSLAW was overcharging it.

Other problems arose as well. The Department of Justice signed an "unlimited rights" contract, assuming it would receive all the latest updates of the PROMIS software. INSLAW decided to only supply it with an older version, without the updates developed with private funds from 1981 on, which it called "Enhanced PROMIS". Apparently it wasn't able to properly prove either to the Department of Justice which updates exactly it had implemented in this newer version.

All kinds of rows ensued. Once aspect that is peculiar is that the Department of Justice demanded the source code of the program, because it was "concerned about INSLAW's financial condition". That's basically all the carefully-crafted Wikipedia article about the INSLAW affair says about this aspect. INSLAW's position though makes more sense here:

"The Justice Department explained this pressure to obtain immediate delivery of a copy of the proprietary VAX version of PROMIS by a suddenly-professed concern about INSLAW’s financial viability. In response to this professed concern, INSLAW offered to place a copy of the VAX version of PROMIS in escrow in a local bank; that would have been the accepted industry remedy for the professed problem. The Justice Department, however, rejected INSLAW’s escrow offer and insisted on immediately obtaining physical custody of a copy of the proprietary VAX version of PROMIS.

"The Justice Department eventually accomplished its objective of physical custody of a copy of the VAX version of PROMIS through a bilateral modification to the contract in which the Government committed itself, inter alia, not to disseminate the proprietary version of PROMIS outside the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. This was the April 11, 1983 Modification #12 to the PROMIS Implementation Contract. None of the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices had a VAX computer, without which it is impossible to use a VAX version of PROMIS [without the temporary remote solution offered by INSLAW].

"Two lower federal courts found that the Justice Department entered into Modification #12 in order to "steal" the proprietary version of PROMIS "through trickery, fraud and deceit." The House Judiciary Committee independently confirmed those findings in the course of a three-year-long investigation." 2

Similarly the Court of Appeals in 1991 summarized:

"Under Modification 12 of the contract, adopted April 11, 1983, Inslaw ... sent the [Justice] Department computer tapes that contained copies of the source and object codes for the version of enhanced PROMIS it had been providing on a time-sharing basis. ... The Department, in return, made a commitment to bargain in good faith to ... "limit and restrict the dissemination of the said PROMIS computer software to the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and to the 94 United States Attorneys' Offices covered by the Contract ... pending resolution of the issues." ... The [bankruptcy] court also concluded that the Department never intended to keep these commitments." 3

1985: Attorney general Ed Meese-tied Dr. Earl Brian, Jr. tries to buy PROMIS

After the disputes arose in 1982-1983, reportedly Reagan administration and Justice Department officials worked through Hadron shareholder and board member Dr. Earl Brian, Jr. and Hadron CEO Dominic Laiti to get INSLAW to sell its PROMIS software to Hadron. Bill Hamilton refused, with Laiti reportedly threatening, "We have ways of making you sell." 4

In the 1970s, Dr. Earl Brian, Jr. worked under then-California governor Ronald Reagan with future Reagan attorney general Ed Meese. In 1988 his company bought United Press International (UPI), one of two major U.S. wire services next to the Associated Press. At the time worries were expressed that Brian was "an old friend of [1985-1988] Attorney General Edwin Meese III and also is a principal stockholder in a company that last fall won a $40 million Justice Department contract." Brian responded by saying, "I don't have much contact with him any more", except possibly at "large social functions." 5 We'll get back to Dr. Brian in a minute.

1985-87: Justice forces INSLAW into bankruptcy; bankruptcy trustees change testimonies and face reprisals for protecting INSLAW

Concurrent with efforts by Hadron to buy INSLAW, the Department of Justice withheld $1.77 million in payments 6, while holding on to the software; in addition canceling part of the contract, resulting in INSLAW filing for bankruptcy in February 1985. In the process the Department of Justice became one of INSLAW's creditors. Meanwhile, after learning that "between June 24, 1985 and September 2, 1987, the [Justice] Department installed enhanced PROMIS in 23 additional U.S. Attorneys' offices" 7, INSLAW started a case against the Department of Justice for violating Modification 12 and the Chapter 11 "stay" clause, which, among other things, bans creditors from "obtain[ing] possession ... or to exercise control over property" belong to the company in Chapter 11 status.

In this period a call was put through to William White, the trustee in the bankruptcy case, that ""friends in the department" wanted the case converted from a reorganization to a liquidation." White claimed he didn't recall who placed the call. 8 It had been Anthony Pasciuto, the then deputy director of the Executive Office of the United States Trustees (EOUST), which overseas bankruptcy cases, who told the Hamilton couple that the director of the organization, Thomas Stanton, had put pressure on the trustee assigned to the INSLAW case to convert the situation from a chapter 11 (reorganization of the company) to chapter 7 (liquidation). 9 This essentially would have meant that the Department of Justice would have gained full control over the software.

Director Thomas Stanton applied the pressure on Judge White by asking a New York trustee, Judge Cornelius Blackshear, "to send his chief deputy to Washington to convert Inslaw’s bankruptcy reorganization into a liquidation proceeding." In a March 25, 1987 deposition Blackshear testified that he had "refused Stanton’s request because it was improper." In an affidavit a day later though, Blackshear retracted his deposition, explaining he "was confusing Inslaw with another bankruptcy matter." He denied his original deposition again in court. Subsequently Blackshear refused to speak to the media. 10

Meanwhile, whistleblower and deputy director Anthony Pasciuto testified that Blackshear told him, in private, after his recantation, that:

"I felt the easiest thing I could do was recant. ... I thought that by changing my story I would hurt less people." 11

Bizarrely, by the time he ended up in court, and after he had been pressured out of the Justice Department for leaking information to INSLAW 12, Pasciuto too retracted his allegations:

"On the verge of tears in Bason’s courtroom, Pasciuto had testified that he made up the story because he was angry with Stanton about delaying his long-awaited promotion." 13

The "conflicting testimony of Blackshear, White, Stanton and Pasciuto" 14 was ignored by Judge George Bason, Jr. According to Judge Bason:

1. Director Thomas Stanton had tried to ""curry favor" with higher Justice Department officials" 15 by trying to liquidate INSLAW. References were made to INSLAW contract overseer at Justice, C. Madison Brewer III 16, and deputy attorney general D. Lowell Jensen, and certainly also insinuations that the pressure came from attorney general Edwin Meese III himself. 17
2. Director Stanton asked Judge Blackshear to use his "chief deputy" to convince trustee Judge William White in Virginia to convert the case from chapter 11 (reorganization of the company) to chapter 7 (liquidation). 18
3. Judge White refused. As a result, according to Judge Bason, "there was "clear and convincing" evidence that Stanton retaliated by White’s refusal by refusing to expand White’s staff in Alexandria."19
4. Later, Judge Blackshear changed his testimony - now saying he knew nothing of Stanton's pressure to liquidate INSLAW - right after receiving two phone calls from Judge White in which, "Mr. White was trying to persuade Judge Blackshear that Mr. White’s recollection was correct and Judge Blackshear’s recollection was incorrect" 20 - whatever the details of that are.
5. While Judge Bason's ruling on this is not clear to the author, deputy director Anthony Pasciuto also recanted his testimony on the matter as well, after being forced out of the Justice Department. 21

Eventually, after the original trial, in September 1987, Judge Bason ruled, "I believe that Judge Blackshear’s original testimony is accurate" 22, and also:

"14. The acts of [Thomas] Stanton, [C. Madison] Brewer and [Jack Stanley] Rugh that are described above were done in bad faith, vexatiously, in wanton disregard of the law and the facts, and for oppressive reasons — namely, to drive INSLAW out of business and into a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy." 23,

C. Madison Brewer III had been fired as INSLAW's general counsel back in 1976 24, with Judge Bason considering it "a bad idea" by the likes of deputy attorney general D. Lowell Jensen to put Brewer in charge as a supervisor at Justice for the INSLAW contract. 25 Judge Bason also ruled:

"(d) DOJ converted INSLAW's privately-financed proprietary enhancements by trickery, fraud and deceit, and DOJ has unlawfully exercised dominion and control over those proprietary enhancements...

"(e) Various representatives of DOJ, including particularly C. Madison Brewer, Peter Videnieks and Jack Stanley Rugh, among others, were negatively biased against INSLAW..." 26

A few months later, in January 1988, INSLAW was awarded $6.8 million in damages, to be paid by the Justice Department, "for use of enhanced PROMIS, both the portions installed by Inslaw and those installed by the Department", the sum also including "almost $1 million in attorney's fees." 27

1987-88: Judge who ruled in favor of INSLAW fired in months

You would think this was the end of the case. It wasn't though. In long line of recantations and apparent reprisals, on Dec. 28, 1987 George Bason, Jr. was informed that he would not be reappointed to his position when his term would expire in February 1988. In his place, Martin Teel, a Justice Department attorney who had defended the IRS in the INSLAW case, was appointed. 28 As Judge Bason himself wrote to fellow judges and superiors:

"A number of lawyers and others have suggested to me that there may be a more sinister, hidden force behind what has happened. They suggest that somehow the Justice Department has undertaken to influence the judicial selection process as a means of retaliation against me for my recent rulings in INSLAW, Inc. v. United States Department of Justice." 29

As Elliot Richardson explained the situation:

"Soon [after Judge Bason] awarded Inslaw more than $7 million in damages for the stolen copies of Promis ... a panel headed by a former department of Justice] official recommended that Judge Bason not be reappointed. He was replaced by a Justice Department lawyer involved in the Inslaw case." 30

1991: Court of Appeals overturns INSLAW through "lawfare"

Subsequently, in May 1991, after an intermediate "district court upheld the judgments of the bankruptcy court but reduced the damage award by $655,200" 31, the Court of Appeals threw out the INSLAW case. It didn't challenge the key verdicts against the Justice Department. All it concluded was that "such conduct, if it occurred, is inexcusable," 32 but also that it did not matter, as the whole case should from the start have fallen outside the authority of the bankruptcy court. 33 With that, the Department of Justice was off the hook. The Supreme Court subsequently refused to pick up the case.

The thing is, if you read the reasoning of the Court of Appeals to reach the conclusion that the case had to be thrown out, it seems quite clear that they were taking "logic" to serious extremes.

The reasoning of the first two courts is relatively easy to understand: the Department of Justice cannot make and spread copies of the proprietary "Enhanced PROMIS" software and source code, which never were part of any contract negotiation, which hasn't been paid for, which is the whole reason INSLAW remains in bankruptcy, and on top of that pressure high officials to liquidate INSLAW all-together. When it does these things, the Justice Department is breaking various "stay" clauses of the U.S. bankruptcy code, namely Section 362(a): which involves a Chapter 11 "stay", i.e., do not demand payments or otherwise take possession of a company's ("estate's") assets. The copyright clearly belongs to INSLAW, so making unauthorized copies breaks article 362(a)(3): "Any act to obtain possession ... or to exercise control over property of the estate." 34

Subsequently, 3-4 years later, the Court of Appeals argued:

1. The Department of Justice pressuring high officials to convert INSLAW Chapter 11 status to Chapter 7 for its own benefit, with officials changing their testimonies and lying about it, is legal, because courts have recognized that Section 362(a) - a Chapter 11 "stay", i.e., do not demand payments or otherwise take possession of a company's ("estate's") assets - does not apply to actions specifically authorized elsewhere in the bankruptcy code. That is the case here in 11 U.S.C. Sec. 1112(b), which allows motions to convert a Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation. 35 The Court of Appeals does not address the original complaint and ruling in this regard, which highlighted, "without justification and by improper means." 36


2. Proprietary "Enhanced PROMIS" software and source code earlier received by the Department of Justice does not fall under the "possession" of INSLAW - which it apparently agreed with, although in part that would depend on what the Justice Department had or hadn't paid for yet, and what the copyright laws were. However, according to the Court of Appeals, the Department of Justice can make infinite copies of "their" PROMIS software without payment, because copyright ownership falls under "intangible trade secret rights", which effectively is "too broad" an area for a bankruptcy court to deal with.
   
   In addition, the Department of Justice can continue to make PROMIS copies, because of its own (creative) interpretation of Modification 12 between INSLAW and the DOJ. The conflicting interpretation taken by the Justice Department creates a "contract dispute", with debtor INSLAW not being allowed to resolve "contract disputes or otherwise demand assets whose title is in dispute" through the bankruptcy court. 37


3. The bankruptcy court had no authority to ban Department of Justice individuals as C. Madison Brewer, Peter Videnieks and Jack Stanley Rugh, whom it had termed "negatively biased against INSLAW" 38, from additional contract negotiations, because the bankruptcy court is not allowed to use evidence, or "remedy violations", that took place prior to the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy status, despite the fact that there's been an ongoing issue of "the [Justice] Department's failure to cure the fraud." 39

Does this make your head spin or not? Whether or not you believe that technically the Court of Appeals could make the interpretations that it did, all it did effectively was to restore people's faith in the Justice Department by helping it to bury all evidence of corruption. The law is not meant to be used as a terrorist weapon, with interpretations being isolated and taken to extremes. Being "reasonable" is an important aspect of Justice. However, it does appear that taking things to extremes is exactly what was done by the Court of Appeals in May 1991 in the INSLAW case.

List of reasons demonstrating a Judicial cover-up

The recantations of, and reprisals against, high-level personnel in the Justice Department, the firing of Judge George Bason, Jr., and the overturning of the case by the Court of Appeals are suspicious in and of themselves. But there are more points to assume a judicial cover-up was in place with regard to the PROMIS affair. A full list, as far as is known by this author, involves:

1. Judge Cornelius Blackshear changed his testimony, apparently under pressure, that absolved his boss, director Thomas Stanton. 40


2. Deputy director Anthony Pasciuto, after being forced out of the Justice Department, recanted his testimony, absolving director Thomas Stanton. 41


3. Judge William White, after apparently having been retaliated against by not being provided with enough staff 42, gave conflicting testimonies about director Thomas Stanton, only partly confirming there had been pressure on him to forcefully liquidate INSLAW. 43


4. By 1987, the Justice Department was attacked by Judge Bason and others for "removing language from [a] 1986 law that they say prevented the Justice Department from firing without cause a U.S. trustee." 44 In addition, the term of trustee judges, which were appointed by attorney general Ed Meese III at the time, was reduced from 7 to 5 years. 45


5. George Bason, Jr., the judge who ruled against the Justice Department in September 1987, was effectively fired by December 1987 under Justice Department influence 46 and replaced as a judge by a pro-government attorney who was active in the INSLAW case. 47


6. In 1991, the Court of Appeals went to all kinds of extremes to toss out the INSLAW case against the Justice Department.


7. The Senate investigation into the INSLAW affair, which concluded in 1992, reported that the Justice Department "hindered the interrogation of employees ... resisted requests for documents [and] said a volume containing key documents was missing." 48


8. In addition, there were Justice Department employees "who desired to speak to the [Senate] subcommittee, but who chose not to out of fear for their jobs." 49


9. In May 1988, the chief investigator for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ronald LeGrand, said he had a Department of Justice source who claimed that the INSLAW case was "a lot dirtier for the Department of Justice than Watergate had been, both in its breadth and its depth." 50


10. Deputy attorney general Lowell Jensen, "perhaps most disturbing, ... remembered very few details of the PROMIS Oversight Committee meetings" that he chaired, according to the 1991 Senate report, but did admit under oath that he used to keep attorney general Ed Meese "regularly informed of all aspects of the INSLAW contract." 51 After complaints of Elliot Richardson on behalf of INSLAW about Madison Brewer III, the fired INSLAW legal counsel now employed at Justice and assigned to the PROMIS contract, Jensen promised he would "conduct an investigation of the bias charges." Predictably, he soon "concluded that there were no bias problems." 52


11. In May 1991, after the Court of Appeals absolved the Justice Department, and the Supreme Court subsequently refused to accept the case, in December 1991 George H. W. Bush's 1991-1993 attorney general William Barr (and again under Trump 2019-2020; and a CIA analyst from 1970 to 1977) appointed Nicholas Bua as special counsel to once again investigate the INSLAW affair, and its various tentacles. The March 1993 Bua Report fully and totally adhered to the official story, with various key witnesses not being interviewed or put under oath.

With the Bua Report we are getting ahead of ourselves though, as these various tentacles of the INSLAW affair haven't been discussed yet.

^^

Wider "Octopus" network

Attorney general Ed Meese had CIA, Mossad, and Rockefeller-ties during INSLAW affair

In short, the cover up issues that we see in the INSLAW case appear to have been directly the result of the interference of February 1985 to August 1988 attorney general Ed Meese III, a right-wing superclass member. He certainly was fully in the loop of the affair and allowed to to unfold as it did.

Without looking at any of the details of the INSLAW-Casolaro case, let's check ISGP's NGO list for Ed Meese's past affiliations. Here we find Meese having been involved in some of the following NGOs, also during his term as attorney general and during the INSLAW controversy:

1. Present at the June 24, 1984 Jonathan Institute conference in Washington, D.C., together with Yitzhak Rabin, the Rockefeller/Kissinger-allied secretary of state George Shultz, FBI director and future CIA director William Webster, the MI6-tied Pilgrims Society executive Lord Alun Chalfont (chair), and CIA-Mossad-tied neocons as Michael Ledeen, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Charles Krauthammer, Bernard Lewis, Midge Decter, Arnaud de Borchgrave, Jack Kemp, and others. The 1979 Jonathan Institute conference also included notorious CIA veteran Ray Cline 53, whom Casolaro would write down as one of his "Octopus" leaders. Overall, the conference had heavy presence of Cercle Pinay visitors. It is entirely possible that persons as Rafi Eitan were in the crowd.


2. Founding trustee vice chair of the Reagan Foundation from 1985 on. Founding governors not only include "conservative CIA" financier Richard Mellon Scaife and other major right wing financiers and politicians, but also David Rockefeller and close Rockefeller friends Maurice Greenberg, Robert O. Anderson and Brooke Astor.
   
   

   



3. Held the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation since 1988, and became a trustee in 2017.


4. Scholar/fellow Hoover Institution, the long-time home of George Shultz and eventually Henry Kissinger.


5. Member of the controversial, CIA- and Korean CIA-tied George Town Club in Washington, D.C., which led to the 1976 Koreagate scandal.





6. Member of the Council for National Policy (CNP), the right-wing counterpart of the CFR that included Iran Contra veteran Oliver North, chief "conservative CIA" financier Richard Mellon Scaife, and various Cercle Pinay veterans.


7. Signer of the August 20, 1999 Project for the New American Century (PNAC) 'Statement on the Defense of Taiwan' letter.


8. Involved in the Mont Pelerin Society.


9. Co-chair of the Iraq Study Group in 2006.

These, by no means, have been all of Ed Meese's NGO ties. But these are the most important as far as is known. And they certainly make the accusations and the facts in the INSLAW-Casolaro case immediately more credible and understandable.

Wackenhut-Cabazon Indian reserve activities: from PROMIS refitting to Contra supply operations

Eventually the accusation in the INSLAW case became that high level officers in the Justice Department had conspired to steal INSLAW's PROMIS software. As Elliot Richardson explained the situation in October 1991:

"Earl Brian, California health secretary under Gov. Ronald Reagan and a friend of Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d, was linked to a scheme to take Inslaw's stolen software... In Mr. Meese's confirmation fight, it was revealed that Ursula Meese, his wife, had borrowed money to buy stock in Biotech Capital Corporation, of which Dr. Brian was the controlling shareholder. Biotech controlled Hadron Inc., a computer company that aggressively tried to buy Inslaw." 54

As Richardson explained as well in this article, the source for this claim was a certain Michael Riconosciuto, a curious computer, physics, chemist and tech wizard with a history at Stanford who, through his father, was brought into the shady CIA operations of George Wackenhut and Dr. John P. Nichols at the Cabazon Indian Reservation in California. 55 Riconosciuto explained that various types of projects were going on at the reservation, including arms development and tests with chemical weapons and biotoxins, and that Earl Brian had come to this operation to provide the intelligence services with the PROMIS software, so it could be refitted with backdoors and sold to various intelligence and other government agencies overseas.

Already at the time, Casolaro had unearthed an April 12, 1982-signed "service contract" between Michael Riconosciuto and the overseer of the Wackenhut program, Dr. John P. Nichols. So Riconosciuto, despite his oddities, certainly was there. 56 In September 1992 a congressional report on the INSLAW affair explained that Earl Brian too most certainly had been spotted at the Indian reservation in the early 1980s:

"Mr. Riconosciuto has alleged in a sworn statement to the committee [218] that Dr. Brian and Mr. Peter Videnieks secretly delivered INSLAW's PROMIS software to the Cabazon Indian Reservation, located in California, for "retrofitting"? for use by intelligence agencies in the United States and abroad. Mr. Riconosciuto could not provide evidence other than his eyewitness account that Dr. Brian was involved in the PROMIS conversion at the reservation. ...

"Dr. Brian stated that he had never heard of, or was associated with, the so-called Wackenhut/Cabazon Indian joint venture, nor had he ever met, or had conversations with Peter Videnieks [220] — all in direct opposition to the Riconosciuto deposition as well as to certain law enforcement information on file at the committee. [221] ...

"[221] 221 Riverside County District Attorney's Office Special Operations Report, October 10, 1991, pp. 2, 4 (on file with the committee).

"[222] It should be noted that other information was received by the committee relating to whether Dr. Brian was involved with other individuals in various Wackenhut Inc./Cabazon Indian Reservation business ventures in California during the early 1980’s. While any degree of corroborating evidence on this point does not establish whether Dr. Brian was involved in INSLAW-related matters under investigation, it has been cited by others for the proposition that Dr. Brian, contrary to his sworn affidavit, had indeed heard of Wackenhut/Cabazon enterprise thus casting into doubt other assertions. According to a law enforcement police report on file with the committee, Dr. Brian together with Michael Riconosciuto, among others, attended a weapons demonstration at Lake Cauchilla gun range in Indio, CA, during the evening of September 10, 1981. See Riverside County District Attorney’s Office Special Operations Report, October 10, 1991, pp. 2-4 (on file with the committee).

"Further, in an article which appeared in the March 30, 1992, edition of the Washington Business Journal, Art Welmas, the former chairman of the Cabazon Tribe stated that Dr. Brian had been seen on the reservation and that his name was frequently mentioned by Mr. Riconosciuto and Dr. John Nichols, the manager of the reservation’s operations. “Brian must have been involved,” Welmas said in the article. “His name was mentioned and discussed on a daily basis.” See, Washington Business Journal, March 30, 1992." 57

Bill Hamilton and Elliot Richardson of INSLAW provided a few additional details in one of their reports:

"The Indio Police Department conducted surveillance of the September 10, 1981 weapons demonstration and recorded both Earl Brian and Michael Riconosciuto as attending, with Earl Brian arriving as a passenger in a Rolls Royce automobile driven by Wayne Reeder, whom [government debunker] Bua describes as a real estate developer. Bua reports that Wayne Reeder claims that Earl Brian was not present with him on September 10, 1981. ... Reeder was indicted for insurance fraud by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Rhode Island in June 1993. Moreover, Bua apparently did not place Reeder before the grand jury or even under oath." 58

Whether or not Dr. Earl Brian, Jr. actually had been visiting the Wackenhut operation at the Cabazon reserve maybe doesn't even matter that much. What matters is that Casolaro started digging into the peculiar, CIA-tied operations that were going on here. A 1980s police observation, for example, not only spotted Brian at a weapons demonstration at the Cabazon Reserve, but also two Nicaraguan Contra generals, testing rifles and night vision equipment. 59 Coincidentally, a CIA officer named Charles Hayes became an associate of Bill Hamilton and Danny Casolaro some time before the latter's death. Hayes claimed that he had seen "Earl Brian, [General] Richard Secord and [Colonel] Oliver North in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the mid-1980's ... purchasing weapons for the Contras in Nicaragua, and Brian was marketing INSLAW's PROMIS software to the Government of Brazil." 60

Dr. John P. Nichols, who ran the Cabazon operation, with Wackenhut in the background, according to his son, Bobby Moses Nichols, in the 1950s he considered himself "an agent of social change", who organized anti-communist labor unions in the United States, and then labor unions and Indian tribes in places as Brazil and Chile to form voting blocks. From there he was stationed all over the United States and a good part of the world. 61

"For someone who had such a colorful life, he never really reflected on the past. ... He certainly seemed to know a lot of people in the halls of power, but he liked to operate ... in the shadows. ... He was definitely involved in something that was U.S. policy. [After South America] we moved to a small town in south-western Minnesota. Then we moved to right outside of Pittsburgh. I remember, he was also in Belgium trying to sell gold. Then we went to Lexington, Kentucky. [Then] based more around Washington, D.C. Back to South America. We go to Sioux Falls quite a bit. He was working with indigeous people. He was working with software companies. He started working with mental health centers. ... Not that many years later, we moved to California and my dad was working with the Cabazons." 62

Bob Frye, president of Wackenhut Services, added:

"The Indians had, of course, some significant land holdings out there. One of the things we pursued, was setting up an entity on their land out there where we would be the producing source for combustable cartridge cases. These are primarily tank rounds. ... John [Nichols] is a character. He's got a world of contacts, within and without the CIA. He's the guy with the ideas. " 63

Who exactly these CIA and additional "halls of power" contacts were remains a mystery, but according to Daniel Casolaro's surviving notes it appears these involve former CIA director Richard Helms and other top CIA officers as Ted Shackley and Ray Cline. This would make a lot of sense too, as these are familiar names tied to countless CIA controversies.

Eventually a number of deaths were tied to the Cabazon operation. The first was Fred Alvarez, the Cabazon tribe's tribal vice chairman and chief security officer, who had been stolen a bunch of files detailing the exact Wackenhut- and CIA-tied operations at the Cabazon reserve. On July 1, 1981, two of his friends, with whom he was going to visit an attorney they were working with to expose the activities at the Cabazon reserve, found him shot in the head at the back of his home, together with two close friends. In the weeks prior, Alvarez already had told news outlets that his "life [was] on the line", because "there are people out there who want to kill me." Dr. John P. Nichols was immediately suspected by Alvarez's family as the one who gave the order, but, according to friends and family, the local sheriffs "closed it all down. They shut it up." Also homicide detective John Powers, tasked with reopening the case in 2007, thought it was a very peculiar case.64

Paul Morasca was the second to die in what has been termed the "Octopus murders". Riconosciuto and Morasca had known each other since they were teenagers. Riconosciuto was the "tech guy", with Morasca being the "financial guy". Both were involved in the production of methamphetamines, with Morasca having invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Cabazon operation through Bermuda- and Swiss-based entities as the Atlantic Bank and Trust.

Something went wrong with a drug deal or Cabazon finances, and it appears Morasca was questioned and tortured to death in his own apartment. Retired homicide detective Eddie Erdelatz, who worked on the case, explained it was Michael Riconosciuto who had found the body of Morasca, and strangely drove over 500 miles away to Cabazon tribe land before informing the police of the death.

The person everyone points fingers at was Phillip Arthur Thompson. Riconosciuto claimed Thompson was an assassin protected by the FBI, and that Thompson had "bragged to me that what he did to Paul was one of the most horrible things he had ever done. And I believe John Philip Nichols directed him to do it." Morasca's girlfriend said that a certain "Jason Smith", who was a "hitman for the CIA", was the one person Morasca had been extremely afraid of. When homicide detective Eddie Erdelatz went to the FBI to ask who this "Jason Smith" is, the FBI explained it was their informant; real name: Phillip Arthur Thompson. 65

Bizarrely, Thompson does indeed appear to have gotten away with a long string of robbery, kidnapping, rape, murder and attempted murder, considering he served very little time for all these crimes. Already in newspapers of the time, suspicions of FBI protection were voiced: "Sheriff's deputies acknowledge privately that FBI agents approached them about getting Thompson released on making a deal to avoid a trial." 66 A handful of the articles shown in the documentary 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders' can be spotted through newspapers.com or other Californian newspapers.

It's an interesting case, this evidence of the FBI employing and protecting a serial murderer to assasinate persons tied into questionable CIA operations, with the orders apparently coming from the CIA. Certainly quite a bit was going on surrounding the Wackenhut-Cabazon tribe in the 1970s and 1980s, and Danny Casolaro was digging into it. It is no surprise that he went from strictly investigating the theft of the PROMIS software, down into digging into all kinds of additional CIA-tied cover ups.

Feb. 1983: Mossad's Rafi Eitan steals PROMIS software with Reagan-CIA approval?

According to INSLAW owner Bill Hamilton, in February 1983 the Justice department arranged for an Israeli "prosecuting attorney" to receive a demonstration of the PROMIS software. A decade later this visitor apparently turned out to be none other than legendary Israeli spymaster Rafi Eitan, with the Justice Department secretly handing over a copy of the PROMIS software to Israel three months later. Let INSLAW describe the whole affair:

"Three months after the visit, the' Justice Department secretly turned over to a representative of the Israeli Government a copy of the PROMIS software, according to a contemporaneous internal Justice Department memorandum [1] made public by the House Judiciary Committee in its September 1992 Investigative Report, The INSLAW Affair.

"INSLAW followed up on this disclosure by the House Judiciary Committee by contacting the Israeli Ministry of Justice in Tel Aviv about the "prosecuting attorney" who had visited INSLAW ten years earlier in February 1983. After obtaining information from the Ministry about the current location of the prosecuting attorney, INSLAW consulted with two journalists in Tel Aviv. One journalist interviewed the now-retired prosecuting attorney at his home in Jerusalem. The prosecuting attorney bore no resemblance to the visitor to INSLAW and was unfamiliar with some important aspects of the visit to INSLAW, although he claimed to have been the February 1983 Israeli visitor to INSLAW. The other journalist told INSLAW that the prosecuting attorney's name has been used in the past as a pseudonym for Rafi Eitan, a legendary Israeli intelligence official.

"INSLAW employees who had met with the Israeli visitor in February 1983 attempted toidentify the visitor from a police-style photographic line-up. The process was videotaped in thestudio of a national television network. The photographic line-up confirmed that the visitor toINSLAW was neither a prosecutor nor an attorney, but Rafi Eitan. At the time of the visit toINSLAW, Rafi Eitan was Director of LAKAM, a super-secret agency in the Israeli Ministry of Defense responsible for collecting scientific and technical intelligence information from othercountries through espionage. ...

"Among individuals whose companies served as cutouts for the illegal dissemination of PROMIS by Israeli intelligence, according to this author, were Earl W. Brian and the late publisher, Robert Maxwell" 67

Aug. 1990: Danny Casolaro gets involved as a freelance researcher

Danny Casolaro was brought into the INSLAW case in August 1990, after Terry D. Miller, with whom he "had previously worked together on the publication of a newsletter that focused, at least in part, on federal government computer procurement fraud" 68, brought the case to his attention. Miller also was a friend of Bill and Nancy Hamilton, the INSLAW owners.

1990-91: Casolaro's tie to shady CIA man Robert Booth Nichols

After Casolaro accepted the case on a freelance basis, Bill Hamilton put Casolaro in touch not just with his informant Michael Riconosciuto, but also with an associate of Hamilton, Robert Booth Nichols, whom Hamilton described as having "a background in CIA covert intelligence operations." Casolaro would have "100 hours of telephone conversations" over the next 12 months with Nichols 69, who was not related to John P. Nichols.

Robert Booth Nichols definitely had a mixed yakuza, American mafia and CIA background, as various articles already discussed in the 1990s. 70 A 1987 affidavit of FBI special agent Thomas Gates, based on phone taps and FBI field observations, makes it clear that by that time Nichols was working with both alleged yakuza chieftain Harold Okimoto; and senior MCA executive Eugene F. Giaquinto, who was in business with the Gambino crime family, while working under 1001 Club member and early Reagan mentor Lew Wasserman:

"On July 23, 1987 at about 9:53 p.m., GIAQUINTO ... spoke with NICHOLS. ... GIAQUINTO related that ZZZ Best was a money laundering operation for heroin money, it involved restaurants including Splash which was owned by people (LCN [La Cosa Nostra]) in New York, and the record division of MCA. ...

"On July 15, 1987 FBI surveillance agents observed GIAQUINTO exit Le Dome Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard with an unidentified male and walk to GIAQUINTO's automobile. The male retrieved a box from GIAQUINTO's trunk and drove to the Beverly Hills Hotel... The license plate [was] bearing number CAP648. [It] is registered to Wells Fargo Bank with a residential address of 528 Hakaka Place, Honolulu, Hawaii. A utility check of this address indicated that a Harold Tadao Okimoto resides at that address. ...

"NICHOLS at the time of his arrest furnished a telephone number in Hawaii of (808) 734-1213 and an address of 528 Hakaka Place, Honolulu, Hawaii. ... Nichols [also] appears to be the same individual observed that evening by FBI surveillance agents. ... Harold Okimoto [is] believed by intelligence sources to be a high-ranking member of Japan's Yakuza crime syndicate... The method of registration of the aforesaid vehicles leads me to believe that some type of covert activity may be involved." 71

From two decades before these yakuza and American mafia ties, from the age of 22, so from around 1966-1967, Nichols already was working for the CIA. This came out in December 2008 when Robert Booth Nichols was questioned about his ties to wealthy con man Sam Israel III and why he never paid income tax. Also a number of elite ties are noteworthy. In his testimony he basically exposes David Packard and the "liberal CIA" Hewlett and Packard foundations as CIA fronts. He also seems to indicate that "liberal CIA' chieftain George Soros can offer highest level government protection for questionable financial deals.

"I worked for parties that claimed to be with or stated they were with U.S. intelligence [since] when I was approximately 22... One of said the Central Intelligence Agency, another said military intelligence... The first [assignment] was ... to speak with a woman who stayed at the Surf Rider Hotel and find out why she was in Honolulu and who she was seeing and have cocktails with her, if possible. [Later] a trip to Australia to see who ... were [representing] anti-American interest in an area that was formally an R&R location, Sydney, for U.S. Forces. ... Sometimes they gave me 5,000, sometimes 25,000. ...

"I have been told by various people [to not pay] taxes. ... I would be told what to pay taxes on. ... I have discussions with this [about not paying tax] with Adrian Perry, Admiral [in Hawaii]. ... I have had discussions with it with James Hacker, worldwide chief of security, Hewlett-Packard; discussions with David Packard of Hewlett-Packard. I have had discussions with it with multiple other parties. ... All of these people told me that I was to not in any way disclose what I was involved in and the things that I was paid for and that included not filing taxes. ...

"I was told this also by [Director, Institute for Strategic and Innovative Technologies, Dr.] Harry Fair [in] approximately 1983, '84. ... He was with tactical technology, Arlington, Virginia, also DARPA. ... He told me I was involved in projects that were sensitive, of an extremely sensitive nature. He said he did not want these projects nor any of the electronics, engineering or any part of them ever reaching the public and I was -- I would never be ... bothered by the United States government. ...

"Francis Xavier Driscoll. He is an attorney. He represented himself to me as a member of U.S. intelligence. ... I believe he would be with the Central Intelligence Agency, but I have no way of verifying background. ... Driscoll gave me the documents and Frank Carlucci's name was in the body of the documents. ...

"Several hundred thousand dollars [I made]. It was '82 -- I am approximating, '82, '83, '84, that period. These funds were provided by an entity called FIDCO. I was involved with them jointly and several other parties in the development of the fuel air explosive. ...

"Sam Israel [III] was my last employment. ... I met Sam Israel in April of 2004... Approximate at something around $10 million [in] income from the Sam Israel thing. ... From 2004 to today I have basically lived off the funds that I made from Sam Israel. [My job was] to obtain a sealed box ... from the Chinese. ... It had to be a hundred million dollar box [and reportedly involved a $250 million treasury note]... I believe they are obligations... [During the discussions with various henchmen] I said, ... "this type of business could not proceed in any way, I have been told, unless you are dealing at the absolute pinnacle or highest level because of certain measures that are taken for plausible deniability on the obligations, deniability." So he said to me George Soros -- and that's the only name I remember, but several names..." 72

Robert Booth Nichols position as a board member of First Intercontinental Development Corp. (FIDCO) from about 1982 to 1984 also is fascinating, looking at the other partners/board members, who all were tied to the CIA, the Reagan White House, and even 1001 Club elites: 73

• Clint W. Murchison, Jr. A member of an elite Dallas family that has been tied to the CIA, and also was involved in the 1001 Club, alongside the British and French Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the Bechtels, and various European royals.


• Eugene Giaquinto Just cited and mentioned as a senior executive of MCA involved with the Gambino crime family and the yakuza, partly through Nichols. MCA was headed by old Reagan protege and 1001 Club member Lew Wasserman.


• Robert Maheu, Sr.: FBI agent 1941-1947. As a CIA man working under Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell he ran an anti-Castro operation by enlisting mafia bosses Sam Giancana and John Roselli; CEO of Howard Hughes Operations. Vice-president FIDCO.


• Michael A. McManus: White House Communications Director 1984-1985, under Reagan.


• Robert Booth Nichols: Born March 6, 1943. Reportedly grew up as a hitman for the Tong Yakuza in Hawaii. All kinds of evidence exists that Nichols was tied various international mafias.
  
  CEO of R.B.N. Companies International, a holding company for manufacturing and development of high technology electronics, real estate development, construction and international finance. Chairman Meridian International Logistics, which had Eugene Giaquinto and Harold Okimoto on the board (both mafia-tied figures), and had extensive business deals in Japan and Australia. His Meridians Arms maintained a partnership with Wackenhut and the Cabazon Indian Reserve, which developed all kinds of explosives and guns, was involved in arming the CIA-backed Contra armies, and apparently was involved in biological warfare research.
  
  Allan Boyak claimed Nichols' rum importing business was a cover for Golden Triangle heroin import. Reportedly once named "Mr. Big" in Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel. Claimed to have been asked to become minister of state security on Dominica, supposedly because the island was to become a CIA base.


• George K. Pender: Set up the architectural engineering division of General Aerojet Corp. in 1957. Joined Burns & Roe Inc. in Oradell, N.J., as a sales representative in the 1960s. Director of Pacific Ocean area of Burns & Roe, Inc., an international engineering & construction corporation with active projects on all seven continents of the world. Said to be CIA. Founder in 1970 and president and CEO of FIDCO. Most recently was involved in a design and engineering project in Cairo, Egypt. Died in 1999.


• Kenneth A. Roe: Chairman and president of Burns & Roe, Inc., a large international construction company his father founded in 1941. Company involved in Project Mercury and Gemini space programs and built nuclear power plants. Burns & Roe Securacom was focused on security systems of nuclear power plants and embassies.


• Frances T. Fox: Former general manager of L.A. International Airport. Former director of Aviation for Howard Hughes Nevada operations, now called Summa Corporation. City manager of San Jose, California.


• William M. Pender: Licensed contractor, State of California.


• Glen R. Shockley: Consultant to Fortune 500 Companies. Internationally known as financial consultant in funding. Partner in Meridian International Logistics, headed by Nichols. Said to be CIA. Said to have ran Jose Londono of the Cali Cartel.

Aug. 1991: Danny Casolaro dies while digging into CIA secrets

Once Casolaro started following the leads provided by INSLAW owner Bill Hamilton, CIA-mafia liaison Robert Booth Nichols, and Michael Riconosciuto, he just started bumping into CIA operation after CIA operation, with a little Mossad in the background, piecing together a similar story as some of the mainstream and alternative media did with MKULTRA, the JFK assassination, Watergate, the Edwin Wilson affair, the Nugan Hand Bank collapse in Australia, the BCCI affair, Iran-Contra, and CIA crack-cocaine scandals, or the Daniel Sheehan and his Christic Institute with its 'Secret Team' investigations.

Here are some of the surviving hand-written notes of Casolaro mentioning well-known names as Richard Helms, Ted Shackley, Thomas Clines, Edwin Wilson, E. Howard Hunt, and Ray Cline as being key people in his "Octopus". It also lists the name of Jonathan Kwitny, an author on the Nugan Hand Bank affair with his 1988 book 'The Crimes of Patriots: A True Story of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA':

This author has been doing the same thing, in a more encompassing (but analytical) fashion, with its article 'History of CIA-Mossad Operations: Supporting Murderous Dictators, Backing Terrorist Militias, and Training Drug Cartels'. This article is exactly what Danny Casolaro was piecing together as well, the major difference being that he was knocking on people's doors and attempting to bring forth very specific information that has never been discussed previously, and could put very specific people in prison.

For example, Casolaro's leads on Robert Booth Nichols and FIDCO were very unique. As late as 2024 INSLAW's Bill Hamilton was explaining how Casolaro had come to see FIDCO founder George Pender - who otherwise is an extremely obscure character - as one of the major leaders of what Casolaro termed this private CIA network: "The Octopus". 74 The John P. Nichols-overseen Wackenhut operation at the Cabazon Indian Reservation, and its ties to the Contra operations, was another very unique angle to the same network that other media outlets already had been exposing. Robert Booth Nichols and the John P. Nichols, as said, were not related by the way.

Is it strange that Casolaro ended up dead digging into this network? With such fervor? No, not at all. If he threatens the freedom of people in this network, or the fabric of this network as a whole, or potentially public officials, he likely will be stopped. And it appears he was stopped.

CIA-army special forces officer Joe Cuellar chief suspect in death

Casolaro's death may not even have been about the wider network, as "liberal CIA" media outlets, as well as more openly elite-tied newspapers as the New York Times and Washington Post, have been exposing these CIA networks to quite an extent for many decades. It has been one of their favorite tasks to attack these "right wing, imperialist conspiracies".

Casolaro's death seems to converge around Peter Videnieks, the old Justice Department contracting officer for PROMIS, who was among those criticized by Judge George Bason, Jr. in 1987 for trying to destroy INSLAW. In the months before his death, per the testimony of Casolaro's friend, Lynn Knowles, Casolaro struck up a conversation with an army special forces officer named Joseph A. "Joe" Cuellar at one of Casolaro's regular hang-outs, the Sign of the Whale Bar in Arlington, Virginia. Cuellar not only turned out to know a lot of about conspiracies surrounding heroin and arms shipments, but also the INSLAW case, because one of his "best buddies" 75 happened to be Peter Videnieks. In addition, "Cuellar also stated that his ex-wife worked for Ms. Barbara Videnieks in Senator [Robert] Byrd's office." 76

Somewhere on August 9-10, 1991, the day that Casolaro died, he had met "with some employees from the office of Senator Robert Byrd", which also involved Peter Videnieks' wife. 77 Worse, a black-haired man was seen around Danny Casolaro by several witnesses, including a Mary Lehnert, who saw a black-haired man enter the room of Danny Casolaro around the time he could well have been dying in his bathtub. Nothing was done with these testimonies. 78 A composite sketch based on a witness named Kim Waters, who claimed to have seen this person with Casolaro in the hotel lounge just before his death, and wasn't unearthed until 2024 by the creators of the documentary 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', shockingly looks like Cuellar - who would have reason to be with Casolaro due to the scheduled meetings at Senator Robert Byrd's offices with some of Cuellar's best friends.

It doesn't end there. Cuellar also turned out to have given two vastly contradicting testimonies of where he was at the time of Casolaro's death. In one he said he was in Panama. In the other he explained he was in nearby Washington, D.C. Casolaro friend Ann Klenk had a recording in which she explained a last, intimidating phone conversation with Cuellar:

"The last conversation I had with Joe Cuellar, I called to see if he knew what had happened to Danny. And he just got really - he just said, "Stop asking questions. It's strictly business! Do you understand? It\'s business! You have your kids to think about. Go make yourself a cup of hot coco and stop asking questions!" 79

Furthermore, Joe Cuellar's son, Jeff, described his father as follows:

"I'd say he was a hero. Some of the tactics maybe were questionable. But he was always working on behalf of the U.S. government, whether it be during his tenure with the CIA, or special forces. ... He was very athletic. A Golden Gloves boxer. Paratrooper. He spoke 26 languages at one point in time. A lot of missions were in South America and the Middle East. ...

"One thing I'd be careful is part of my dad is counter-intelligence and what he was capable of, was psychological warfare - what he specialized in. The writer could have been getting played. You would never know who is the [inaudible]. Part of what his specialty was, was to be able to infiltrate, or extract information to find out what somebody potentially knows or what they don't know." 80

Apparently already in 1992, Bill Hamilton of INSLAW had been told by a "retired Army Criminal Investigation Division officer" that "Danny was murdered by U.S. Army Special Forces Intelligence Major Joseph Cuellar in the course of a covert intelligence operation." 81 For the time being, that appears to be the case. Even if Cuellar didn't do it, all Casolaro's friends and associates explained he had been threatened via anonymous phone calls in the weeks before his death. Also most of the papers he carried with him were lost. If the assassination took place strictly over what had happened to PROMIS, or if there had been other concerns, is a great question.

^Watch 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders'

In 2024 the 4-part documentary 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders' was released. Seeing it, I was shocked. It's incredible. I cannot remember any other conspiracy expose, and a prominent one at that, that has not been riddled with disinformation and superficial, rehashed fluff. As far as I can see, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders' is an extremely legitimate and thorough research effort, which appears to have actually solved the case: who murdered Casolaro.

I got worried reading in a review of the documentary that a promoter of the 'JFK-was-shot-by-his-driver' promoter was among the witnesses and interviewees. Having watched the documentary, that is the only point in time that I went: "Ugh, disinformation!" But that is not the fault of the creators. The women in question explained that it was Robert Booth Nichols who tried to convince of her that theory, which makes perfect sense looking how closely connected Nichols was to the apparent overseers of the JFK assassination: people as Ted Shackley and Richard Helms. Some of the reporters surrounding Danny Casolaro at the time definitely appear to be "liberal CIA"-type propagandists. The creators of the video, at the end, actually do a great job as well explaining their bewilderment with being continually surrounded by peculiar characters with ungraspable motives, including even INSLAW owner Bill Hamilton. This author has been puzzled about it for forever too, although part of the answer can be found in "liberal CIA" versus "conservative CIA".

I made all kinds of notes about this documentary in July, but when I got back to writing the second half of this article, I had forgotten too many details again to really do that in a short amount of time. Hence, many details are missing, especially with regards to the Wackenhut/Cabazon angle. So, go watch that documentary.

*****

APPENDICES: A NUMBER OF ARTICLES

Autopsy on journalist inconclusive

United Press International (UPI) | Aug. 15, 1991

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- An autopsy on a free-lance journalist who was investigating a series of financial and political scandals, including alleged Reagan administration improprieties, indicates he bled to death from slashed wrists, but authorities Thursday could not say if the reporter was murdered.

The case of Danny Casolaro, 44, an investigative reporter and novelist from Fairfax, Va., has received widespread publicity since his body was discovered Saturday in the bathtub of his room at the Sheraton Inn. Police ruled his death a suicide, but information about his investigative work on high-profile and sinister issues prompted officials to consider the possibility of murder.

State Medical Examiner Dr. James Frost said the cause of death was loss of blood from cuts on Casolaro's wrists and forearms. Frost said it was too early to tell the manner of death and he has not made a final determination.

Frost said the autopsy yielded no other contusions, lacerations, or other trauma to the body to indicate a struggle occurred. Results of toxicology studies are pending but no alcohol was found in the blood, he said.

Martinsburg police said in a statement the investigation will continue, but no evidence has surfaced to change the orginial theory of suicide.

Casolaro was a hard-driving reporter who recently told friends and associates that he had made signficant progress on a series of investigations as part of a book he was working on about a Justice Department scandal known as Inslaw. He said he was going to West Virginia to meet a source with information about his investigation. It has been reported that he received death threats and prior to his trip, he told his brother, Anthony Casolaro, not to believe it if he died in an accident while in West Virginia. But reports indicated that he had no publisher for his book and was deep in debt. Also, Frost said the autopsy showed Casolaro was suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Danny Casolaro was looking into various activities that he called 'The Octopus.' The term referred to several events he believed were loosely connected, including the Inslaw and BCCI banking case, the Iran- Contra scandal and the so-called October surprise, which involves allegations the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign struck a deal with Iran to delay the release of American hostages being held there until after that year's presidential election.

The core of his work involved allegations the Justice Department conspired in 1982 to steal Inslaw Inc. software roughly valued at $200 million and deliver it to a second computer outfit. Washington, D.C.,- based Inslaw further alleges that the Justice Department tried to put it out of business by forcing it into bankruptcy. In affidavits filed in the case, Inslaw alleges that the software, designed to keep track of law enforcement cases, has been sold to foreign governments like Iraq and Lybia.

Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, who left the Justice Department on Thursday, has refused to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the eight-year legal battle involving Inslaw.

The theory that Inslaw is linked to other scandals in unclear, but former Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who represents Inslaw in its battle with the government, has called for a full investigation into Casolaro's death.

Martinsburg police initially concluded Casolaro's death was a suicide and he was embalmed, a procedure that Frost said did not hinder the autopsy.

Police said they found a six-word, unsigned note in the hotel room that said: 'I'm sorry, especially to my son.' However, Anthony Casolaro refuses to believe his brother committed suicide.

If Casolaro were murdered, he would become the second journalist investigating the Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandal to be killed. Free-lance reporter Anson Ng Young was shot and killed in Guatemala City while working on alleged wrongdoings by the rogue international bank, according to Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif.

*****

Investigator's Family Believes He Was Murdered: Probe: Officials have ruled that his death was probably a suicide, preceded by drinking and bouts of despondency.

September 01, 1991 | ROBERT O'HARROW JR. and GARY LEE | THE WASHINGTON POST

[Note: This title seems hopelessly biased in favor of the suicide theory, especially considering friends and family said he was excited and happy - as predominantly discussed in the Spy article.]

Joseph Daniel Casolaro woke from a night of barhopping Aug. 8 and left home for MartinsburgVa. The trip, the Fairfax, Va., writer told friends, was to meet with a key source in his probe into a ring of government corruption.

Two days later, shortly before 1 p.m. on Aug. 10, Casolaro's body was found in his room at the Martinsburg Sheraton in a tub of bloody water.

A retrace of Casolaro's final days indicates that his time in Martinsburg was marked by frequent drinking and moments of apparent despondency and included a meeting with a source that may have been disappointing.

West Virginia authorities--while continuing their investigation--have issued a preliminary finding that Casolaro committed suicide. Casolaro's family disagrees, believing that he was murdered by someone seeking to stop his attempts to establish links between several explosive scandals, including charges that the U. S. Department of Justice stole several million dollars in computer software from the Washington-based INSLAW Co., and "October surprise" allegations that Ronald Reagan's associates helped him win the 1980 presidential election by arranging a delay in the release of hostages from Iran.

The Martinsburg trip would help prove the connection, Casolaro told his brother, Anthony, and others. A source there would help him break the case open, he told them.

William Turner, a Virginia-based engineer, said he met with Casolaro and gave him a sheaf of papers alleging corruption at a local defense plant. If he was the source Casolaro went to meet, Turner must have been a letdown; his material related only vaguely to Casolaro's probe, according to the description Turner gave the Washington Post.

Anthony Casolaro thinks his brother went to Martinsburg to meet someone in addition to Turner. But West Virginia investigators said they have been unable to identify any other contact Casolaro had there.

West Virginia officials have provided some answers to one mystery: why no alcohol was found in the body, even though Casolaro was seen drinking on several occasions during his visit. Sandra Brining, Berkeley County medical examiner, said that if Casolaro stopped drinking by Friday afternoon, his blood would have been cleansed of alcohol by Saturday morning, when it is believed he died.

Traces of codeine from Tylenol III--a prescription painkiller--and of an antidepressant drug were found in blood, urine and other samples taken from Casolaro's body, according to James Frost, West Virginia deputy chief medical examiner. This information suggests that he might have been under treatment for depression, Frost said. Frost said there were not enough drugs in Casolaro's system to have knocked him out. There was also no sign of a struggle in his hotel room, West Virginia authorities said.

Anthony Casolaro, an Arlington, Va., physician, said his brother was not depressed and that his medical records showed that he had not been prescribed medication for depression by his regular doctor. Anthony said his brother was in good health.

Before leaving his three-bedroom house Aug. 8, Casolaro, 44, called Benjamin Mason, an old friend with whom he had been barhopping the evening before. "He was upbeat," Mason said in an interview. "He was enthusiastic about his source in West Virginia."

Much of Casolaro's time in Martinsburg has not been accounted for, even by police. His whereabouts on Friday, Aug. 9, for example, remain publicly foggy. Hotel workers have been ordered not to discuss Casolaro.

Police refuse to discuss details.

A key moment of Casolaro's visit came about 2 p.m. on Friday, when he spoke with Turner.

Turner said he gave Casolaro papers documenting several cases of alleged mismanagement, including one at Hughes and another case involving a Navy officer at the Pentagon. Turner said he also told Casolaro of his own dilemma, which involves charges by the Veterans Administration that he had improperly received benefits, which he denies.

The meeting lasted about 45 minutes. "He seemed enthusiastic, and said this all fit into the other things he had uncovered," Turner said.

Casolaro apparently went to the Stone Crab Inn shortly after his meeting with Turner. A bartender said Casolaro arrived sometime before 2:30 p.m. and started drinking bottles of Bud Lite. He stayed until at least 5 p.m., the bartender said. Casolaro seemed lonely and introspective, the bartender said.

"He was a man with something to say. He was just like, 'Take a minute and talk to me,' " the bartender said. "He told me to keep smiling."

After he left the Stone Crab Inn, there are few reports of Casolaro's whereabouts. His mother said he called from Interstate 81 at about 6 p.m. Friday to say he would be late for a family dinner and might not show up at all. "When the phone rang, we knew it would be Danny," his brother, Anthony, said. "It was like him to show up late or not at all."

A clerk at a convenience store near the hotel told police she sold Casolaro a cup of coffee sometime after 10 p.m.

Casolaro's body was discovered in the bathtub by a hotel maid Saturday shortly before 12:51 p.m., when rescue workers were called. His wrists had been slashed numerous times.

A note was found on the breakfast table next to the bed. It was four sentences long. "It said: 'To those whom I love the most, please forgive me for the worst possible thing I could have done,"' according to a rescue worker. "And the last sentence was: 'I'm sure God will let me in.' "

 

*****

Danny Casolaro: Reporter's death appears tied to probe into Inslaw

Jack Anderson
Washington Merry-Go-Round,
Gadsden Times
August 31, 1992

A draft House Judiciary Committee report details a string of suspicious circumstances surrounding the apparent suicide of a freelance reporter. Joseph Daniel Casolaro was found last August in a hotel room in Martinsburg, W.Va., with his wrists slashed just days after telling friends he was closing in on cracking his year-long investigation into a far-flung government conspiracy that he called the "Octopus".

Casolaro was on the trail of the twisted tale of Inslaw, a small Washington-based computer company embroiled in a six-year legal dispute with the Justice Department. Inslaw charges that Justice conspired to pirate its software and drive it into bankruptcy. Represented by former Attorney- General Elliott Richardson, Inslaw's claims were upheld by two different federal judges, but after a successful appeal by the Justice Department, the case is now headed for a new trial.

In the course of this probe, Casolaro stumbled across evidence that he believed linked the Inslaw dispute to deeper intrigues, including the Iran-contra scandal, the BCCI affair and the pre-Gulf War arming of Iraq.

The Judiciary Committee report, due out soon, concludes:

"Based on the evidence collected by the Committee, it appears that the path followed by Danny Casolaro in pursuing his investigation into the Inslaw matter brought him in contact with a number of dangerous individuals associated with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations. ... As long as the possibility exists that Danny Casolaro died as a result of his investigation into the Inslaw matter, it is imperative that further investigation be conducted."

On Aug. 11, the Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to adopt the report titled, "INSLAW Affair," which recommends that Attorney General William Barr seek the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate potential criminal conduct of current and former Justice officials involved in an alleged conspiracy to steal the PROMIS software system from INSLAW, Inc.

Committee investigators learned that Casolaro was in contact with an FBI agent in the weeks prior to his death. FBI field agent Thomas Gates told the committee that Casolaro sounded very “upbeat” and not like someone contemplating suicide. Casolaro had a phone book containing Gates’ telephone number, which was never located during the police investigation, a fact Gates found unsettling.

During the four weeks they talked, Gates also learned that Casolaro's primary source on the INSLAW affair was an individual Gates himself had accused of maintaining ties to organized crime in an affidavit he had presented to a federal court. Casolaro's colleagues say this individual had subtly warned Casolaro about risks involved with his probe. Thus, when Gates learned of Casolaro's death, it set off an alarm.

Casolaro's death was ruled suicide last January by local authorities after a 1,000 man-hour investigation. But the committee found that investigation to be plagued by irregularities and mishandling, beginning with the fact that Casolaro's body was embalmed before his family was notified, and that the embalming "may have limited the effectiveness of autopsies or toxicological examinations."

The committee report also points out that Martinsburg authorities failed to seal Casolaro's room, which could have invited the contamination of the possible crime scene: "Additionally, it was reported that the room in which Mr. Casolaro was found was cleaned before a thorough criminal investigation could be conducted."

A full copy of Casolaro’s autopsy report also contains details that until now have gone unreported, including the fact that three of Casolaro"s fingernails were missing. While the coroner concludes that Casolaro chewed them off, friends remain skeptical. Areas of skin discoloration were also found on his arms and hips. However, the autopsy report gives no explanation as to the cause, simply referring to them as "discoloration due to embalming or to a contusion."

There are other unanswered questions that are keeping the case open for many of Casolaro's friends and family members. For example, why would Casolaro have put a rolled-up note in his boot that cited key figures from his research – and why have family members never been allowed to independently verify the handwriting on Casolaro's suicide note along with 65 pieces of other evidence?

Martinsburg police, on the other hand, say that Casolaro had plenty of reasons to feel despondent, citing the fact that his third book proposal had been rejected and a $178,790 mortgage payment was due the next day.

*****

Sep. 10, 1992, U.S. Congress: House, Committee on the Judiciary (members included congressmen Dan Glickman, Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Howard L. Berman and Hamilton Fish VI), 'The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report':

p. 70:

"[212.] Telephone interview of Anthony Casolaro, M.D., August 12, 1991. Dr. Casolaro also told committee investigators that on August 5, 1991, Danny Casolaro said to him, “someone else told me I better back off the story.” Dr. Casolaro also said that Olga Mokros, Danny Casolaro’s housekeeper, received a phone call in which the caller said, “you’re dead, you bastard.”

"Olga also told Dr. Casolaro that following Danny Casolaro’s death, she noticed that a stack of typed pages that usually sat on top of Danny Casolaro’s desk was missing. Dr. Casolaro told the Washington Post (January 27, 1992, p. B2) that it was suspicious that none of Mr. Casolaro’s investigative notes or papers were found in his car, hotel room, or at his home after his body was discovered. Mr. Casolaro’s brother thought that this was suspicious because all throughout the time that Mr. Casolaro had been conducting his investigation, he always carried his notes with him. Mr. Casolaro’s brother said:

"“Somebody cleaned out his car and his room. If my brother did that, it seems as though [his papers] should have been found.” Washington Post, January 27, 1992, p. B2."

*****

p. 71:

"[FBI] Special Agent [Thomas] Gates’ ... indicated under oath that he had received several calls from Mr. Casolaro, beginning approximately 4 weeks before his death. [215] ...

"In his conversations with Casolaro, even days before the reporter’s death, [FBI agent Thomas] Gates had felt that Casolaro sounded very “upbeat” and not like a person contemplating suicide.

"Mr. Casolaro had a phone book which contained his (Special Agent Gates’) telephone number. Special Agent Gates said that the phone book had not been located during the police investigation."

*****

p. 70:

"In a sworn statement to the committee, Richard Stavin (a former Department of Justice Organized Crime Strike Force prosecutor) stated:

""I received a call from Danny Casolaro approximately 1 week before he was found dead. He spoke to me about INSLAW. He spoke to me about a group he called, the Octopus. I believe he mentioned Robert Nichols, and possibly also John Phillip Nichols, in this conversation, and was extremely interested, intrigued and frustrated in his inability to get a grasp on what he called the Octopus. He had indicated that he had met with — again I believe it was Robert Nichols on several occasions, that Robert Nichols was extremely talkative to a point, but when Mr. Casolaro would ask specific questions, he [Nichols] would become somewhat evasive." [213]

"[INSLAW head] William Hamilton and Michael Riconosciuto both told committee investigators that Robert Booth Nichols was Danny Casolaro’s primary source of information in his investigation into the theft of the PROMIS software system. In a later telephone interview, Mr. Nichols told committee investigators that he was acting as a sounding board for Mr. Casolaro and providing direction and insight for his investigation into the INSLAW matter. [214] Mr. Nichols would not provide a sworn statement to committee investigators."

*****

pp. 72:

"Mr. Riconosciuto has alleged in a sworn statement to the committee that Dr. [Earl] Brian [a "Reagan crony" and president and chair of Biotech Capital Corporation, which controlled Hadron, which attempted a hostile takeover of INSLAW and threatened its owners to sell] and Mr. Peter Videnieks [a former Customs Service bureaucrat who dealt with Hadron, and fresh Department of Justice bureaucrat who pushed Riconosciuto to not cooperate with the Judiciary Committee -- whose wife was exec. assistant to Senator Robert Byrd] secretly delivered INSLAW's PROMIS software to the Cabazon Indian Reservation, located in California, for “refitting” for use by intelligence agencies in the United States and abroad. Mr. Riconosciuto could not provide evidence other than his eyewitness account that Dr. Brian was involved in the PROMIS conversion at the reservation.

"Dr. Brian flatly contradicts Riconosciuto’s claims [but] according to a law enforcement police report on file with the committee, Dr. Brian together with Michael Riconosciuto, among others, attended a weapons demonstration at Lake Cauchilla gun range in Indio, CA, during the evening of September 10, 1981.

"Further, in an article which appeared in the March 30, 1992, edition of the Washington Business Journal, Art Welmas, the former chairman of the Cabazon Tribe, stated that Dr. Brian had been seen on the reservation and that his name was frequently mentioned by Mr. Riconosciuto and Dr. John Nichols the manager of the reservation’s operations. “Brian must have been involved,” Welmas said in the article. “His name was mentioned and discussed on a daily basis.” See, Washington Business Journal, March 30, 1992."

pp. 3-5:

"I. DID THE DEPARTMENT CONVERT, STEAL OR MISAPPROPRIATE THE PROMIS SOFTWARE?

"With regard to the first question, there appears to be strong evidence, as indicated by the findings in two Federal court proceedings as well as by the committee investigation, that the Department of Justice “acted willfully and fraudulently,” 2 and “took, converted and stole,” [3] INSLAW’S Enhanced PROMIS by “trickery, fraud and deceit.” [4] It appears that these actions against INSLAW were implemented through the project manager from the beginning of the contract and under the direction of high level Justice Department officials.

"Just 1 month after the contract was signed, Mr. C. Madison “Brick” Brewer, the PROMIS project manager, raised the possibility of canceling the INSLAW contract. During an April 14, 1982 meeting of the PROMIS Project Team, Mr. Brewer, and others discussed terminating the contract with INSLAW for convenience ofthe Government. Mr. Brewer did not recall the details of the meeting but said that if this recommendation was made, it was made in jest. Based on notes taken at this meeting by Justice officials, Bankruptcy Court Judge George Bason found that Mr. Brewer’s recommendation to terminate the INSLAW contract,

""... constituted a smoking gun that clearly evidences Brewer’s in-against INSLAW, his single-minded intent to drive INSLAW out of business....” [6] By his own admission, Mr. Brewer became upset when INSLAW claimed that it had made enhancements to the public domain version of PROMIS using private funds. In his view, under the contract all versions of PROMIS were the Government’s property. It is clear from the record that Mr. Brewer and Mr. Videnieks (the PROMIS contracting officer), supported by high level Justice officials continued to confront INSLAW at every turn. ..."

"Over the life of the contract, INSLAW made several attempts toreach an agreement with the Department over its proprietaryrights to the Enhanced PROMIS software. The Department, how-ever, steadfastly refused to conduct any meaningful negotiationsand exhibited little inclination to resolve the controversy. In themeantime, INSLAW was pushed to the brink of financial ruin because the Department withheld at least $1.6 million in critical con-tract payments on questionable grounds, and in February 1985 was forced to file for protection under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in order to stay economically viable. INSLAW at this time had installed PROMIS at the 20 largest U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country as required by the contract. [7] ...

"The Department had earlier canceled installation of PROMIS at the 74 smaller offices. ... In good faith negotiations with INSLAW, Mr. Brewer and Mr. Videnieks, with the approval of high-level Justice Department officials, proceeded to take actions to misappropriate the Enhanced PROMIS software. These officials knew that INSLAW had installed Enhanced PROMIS at the 20 sites. Yet, without notice, and certainly without permission, the Department of Justice illegally copied INSLAW’s Enhanced PROMIS software and installed it eventually at 25 additional U.S. attorneys’ offices. The Department reportedly also brought another 31 U.S. attorneys offices “on-line” to Enhanced PROMIS systems via telecommunications. INSLAW first learned of these unauthorized actions in September 1985, and notified the Department that it must remove the Enhanced PROMIS software or arrange for license agreements. When the Department refused, INSLAW subsequently filed a claim against Justice in the Federal Bankruptcy Court which eventually led to the Bankruptcy’s Court’s finding that the Departments actions “...were done in bad faith, vexatiously in wanton disregard of the law and the facts, and for oppressive reasons to drive INSLAW out of business and to convert, by trickery, fraud and deceit INSLAWs PROMIS software.” When the case was appealed by the Department, Senior District Court Judge William Bryant concurred with the Bankruptcy Court and was very cynical of the Department’s handling of the case."

*****

Jan. 1993, Spy magazine, 'Dead Right'

Detailed article on Casolaro's death: PDF.

*****

Judge Clears City in Man's Defamation Suit

Los Angeles Times

*****

^Notes

---

1. 1976 annual report, Ford Foundation, p. 222: "Institute tor Law and Social Research (Washington, D.C.): $68,000."
2. Feb. 14, 1994, Elliot Richardson, Bill Hamilton a.o., 'Addendum to INSLAW's Analysis and Rebuttal of the Bua Report', p. 2.
3. casetext.com/case/us-v-inslaw-inc (accessed: July 10, 2024): "Nos. 90-5052 to 90-5055. Argued January 17, 1991."
4. May 6, 1988, UPI, 'Congress and the Justice Department are investigating top government...'
5. Feb. 23, 1988, Washington Post, 'Head Of New UPI Group Has Long Acquaintance With Meese'.
6. Oct. 12, 1987, Time, 'The InJustice Of It All'; May 6, 1988, Los Angeles Times, 'Allegations Against Meese, Others in Collapse of Software Firm'.)
7. casetext.com/case/us-v-inslaw-inc (accessed: July 10, 2024): "Nos. 90-5052 to 90-5055. Argued January 17, 1991."
8. Dec. 28, 1987, Chicago Tribune, 'Who's Watching The Court Watchdog?'.
9. May 6, 1988, Chicago Tribune, 'Allegations Against Meese, Others in Collapse of Software Firm: U.S. Probing Possible Perjury in Inslaw Case'.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. casetext.com/case/in-re-inslaw-inc-3 (accessed: July 10, 2024): "Bankruptcy No. 85-00070. Adv. No. 86-0069. ... Final Judgment Order (Counts I, II and III) January 25, 1988. Final Judgment Order (Count IV) February 2, 1988. ... GEORGE F. BASON, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge."
24. Sep. 28, 1987, Washington Post, 'Judge Slaps Justice Dept. INSLAW's software ruled stolen'.
25. Sep. 29, 1987, Los Angeles Times, 'Judge Charges Justice Dept. Drove Firm to Bankruptcy'.
26. casetext.com/case/in-re-inslaw-inc-3 (accessed: July 10, 2024): "Bankruptcy No. 85-00070. Adv. No. 86-0069. ... Final Judgment Order (Counts I, II and III) January 25, 1988. Final Judgment Order (Count IV) February 2, 1988. ... GEORGE F. BASON, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge."
27. casetext.com/case/us-v-inslaw-inc (accessed: July 10, 2024): "Nos. 90-5052 to 90-5055. Argued January 17, 1991."
28. Sep. 1989, U.S. Congress: Senate (Senators John Glenn, Sam Nunn, Joe Lieberman, Ted Stevens, John Heinz and Pete Wilson all involved), 'Staff Study of Allegations Pertaining to the Department of Justice's Handling of a Contract with INSLAW, Inc.', p. 36.
29. Ibid.
30. Oct. 21, 1991, New York Times, 'A High-Tech Watergate'.
31. law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter /F2/932/932.F2d.1467.90-5055.90-5052.html (accessed: July 10, 2024).
32. Dec. 7, 1991, New York Times, 'Justice in the Inslaw Case'.
33. *) Ibid.
    *) Dec. 7, 1991, New York Times, 'Justice in the Inslaw Case'.
34. law.cornell.edu/uscode/ text/11/362 (accessed: Sep. 24, 2024).
35. law.resource.org/pub/us/case/ reporter/F2/932/932.F2d. 1467.90-5055.90-5052.html (Accessed: July 11, 2024): "Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action Nos. 88-00698, 88-00697, 88-00696). ... Decided May 7, 1991. ...
    The bankruptcy court held that the Department violated the automatic stay by contacting the Director of the Executive Office of the United States Trustees in an effort to have Inslaw's Chapter 11 reorganization converted into a liquidation under Chapter 7. 113 B.R. at 806-07; 83 B.R. at 149-50. Here, the literal words of Sec. 362(a) might actually cover a request by the U.S. Trustee to liquidate Inslaw's assets under Chapter 7, since such a request could be characterized as an act to liquidate "property of the estate". For obvious reasons, however, courts have recognized that Sec. 362(a) cannot stay actions specifically authorized elsewhere in the bankruptcy code, such as motions to convert reorganizations to liquidation proceedings, see 11 U.S.C. Sec. 1112(b) (1988). Thus, even if the Department had managed to instigate the filing of a motion to convert (which it did not), as a matter of law there would be no violation of Sec. 362(a)."
36. casetext.com/case/in-re-inslaw-inc-3 (accessed: July 10, 2024): "Bankruptcy No. 85-00070. Adv. No. 86-0069. ... Final Judgment Order (Counts I, II and III) January 25, 1988. Final Judgment Order (Count IV) February 2, 1988. ... GEORGE F. BASON, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge."
37. law.resource.org/pub/us/case/ reporter/F2/932/932.F2d. 1467.90-5055.90-5052.html (Accessed: July 11, 2024): "Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Civil Action Nos. 88-00698, 88-00697, 88-00696). ... Decided May 7, 1991. ...
    The computer tapes containing copies of the source and object codes that Inslaw sent to the Department [of Justice] on April 20, 1983 and (2) the copies of enhanced PROMIS that Inslaw installed on Department hardware between August 1983 and January 1984: As to these, Inslaw held no possessory interest when it filed for bankruptcy on February 7, 1985. ... As Inslaw freely admits, the Department held possession of the copies under a claim of ownership (its view of the contract and Modification 12) and claimed the right to use enhanced PROMIS without further payment. [Through the Bankruptcy Court] debtor [INSLAW] cannot ... liquidate contract disputes or otherwise demand assets whose title is in dispute. ...
    The bankruptcy court ... identified the relevant property as Inslaw's intangible trade secret rights in the PROMIS enhancements [and] that the Department's continuing use of these intangible enhancements was an "exercise of control" over property of the estate.... If the bankruptcy court's idea of the scope of "exercise of control" were correct, the sweep of Sec. 362(a) would be extraordinary..."
38. casetext.com/case/in-re-inslaw-inc-3 (accessed: July 10, 2024): "Bankruptcy No. 85-00070. Adv. No. 86-0069. ... Final Judgment Order (Counts I, II and III) January 25, 1988. Final Judgment Order (Count IV) February 2, 1988. ... GEORGE F. BASON, Jr., Bankruptcy Judge."
39. law.resource.org/pub/us/case/ reporter/F2/932/932.F2d. 1467.90-5055.90-5052.html (Accessed: July 11, 2024): "Extending the expansive mood expressed in its decision on use of enhanced PROMIS, the bankruptcy court found two violations arising from the Department's failure to cure alleged pre-petition misconduct. First, having found fraud in the inducement of Modification 12, it found a violation in the Department's failure to cure the fraud. 83 B.R. at 169. Second, it held that the Department's "failures to act to remedy past acts of bias, impartiality [sic] and harassment against INSLAW also constitute actionable violations of the automatic stay provisions." Id. One of the remedies given by the court for these violations was an order enjoining the Department from allowing three named officials to participate in any further decisions, negotiations or proceedings (including the contract appeals board case) involving Inslaw.
    Here the bankruptcy court appears to have left the words of the statute in the dust. The automatic stay, as its name suggests, serves as a restraint only on acts to gain possession or control over property of the estate. Nowhere in its language is there a hint that it creates an affirmative duty to remedy past acts of fraud or bias or harassment as soon as a debtor files a bankruptcy petition. The statutory language makes clear that the stay applies only to acts taken after the petition is filed."
40. May 6, 1988, Chicago Tribune, 'Allegations Against Meese, Others in Collapse of Software Firm: U.S. Probing Possible Perjury in Inslaw Case'.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Dec. 28, 1987, Chicago Tribune, 'Who's Watching The Court Watchdog?'.
45. Ibid.
46. May 6, 1988, Chicago Tribune, 'Allegations Against Meese, Others in Collapse of Software Firm: U.S. Probing Possible Perjury in Inslaw Case': "Bason, who left the bench earlier this year when his court appointment was not extended."
47. Sep. 1989, U.S. Congress: Senate (Senators John Glenn, Sam Nunn, Joe Lieberman, Ted Stevens, John Heinz and Pete Wilson all involved), 'Staff Study of Allegations Pertaining to the Department of Justice's Handling of a Contract with INSLAW, Inc.', p. 36.
48. Sep. 10, 1992, U.S. Congress: House, Committee on the Judiciary (members included congressmen Dan Glickman, Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Howard L. Berman and Hamilton Fish VI), 'The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report', pp. 5-6.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Sep. 10, 1992, U.S. Congress: House, Committee on the Judiciary (members included congressmen Dan Glickman, Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Howard L. Berman and Hamilton Fish VI), 'The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report', pp. 5-6.
52. Ibid.
53. 1982, Philip Paull (unpublished Ph.D. thesis; San Francisco State University), '"International Terrorism": The Propaganda War', pp. 103-107. List of participants.
54. Oct. 21, 1991, New York Times, 'A High-Tech Watergate'.
55. 2024, Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', episode 3, 8:45, words of Michael "Mike" Riconosciuto. Episode 3, recorded words of Dr. John P. Nichols: "Mike was brought to me originally through his father..."
56. April 12, 1982-signed "service contract" between Michael Riconosciuto and the overseer of the Wackenhut program, Dr. John P. Nichols. (PDF)
57. Sep. 10, 1992, U.S. Congress: House, Committee on the Judiciary, 'The Inslaw Affair: Investigative Report'. Congressmen Hamilton Fish, Jr. (chair), Dan Glickman, Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, and Howard Berman all involved.
58. 1993, Elliot Richardson, Bill Hamilton a.o., 'INSLAW Rebuttal of the Bua Report' (PDF).
59. 2024, Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', part 2, 41:45, words of homicide detective John Powers, who looked into the 1981 triple murder tied to the Cabazon Reserve.
60. 1993, Elliot Richardson, Bill Hamilton a.o., 'INSLAW Rebuttal of the Bua Report' (PDF).
61. 2024, Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', part 2, 25:00, words of homicide detective John Powers, who looked into the 1981 triple murder tied to the Cabazon Reserve.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid., 33:30. Interview recording.
64. Ibid., 37:00.
65. 2024, Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', part 3.
66. Ibid., 20:00. Many newspaper clippings are shown.
67. Feb. 14, 1994, Elliot Richardson, Bill Hamilton a.o., 'Addendum to INSLAW's Analysis and Rebuttal of the Bua Report', pp. 1-2, 4.
68. July 12, 1993, Bill Hamilton and Elliot Richardson for INSLAW, 'Inslaw's Analysis and Rebuttal of the Bua Report'.
69. Ibid.
70. Jan. 1993, Spy magazine, 'Dead Right'. Detailed article on Casolaro's death (PDF).
71. June 25, 1987, affidavit of FBI special agent Thomas Gates, who in 1991 was in touch with Casolaro in the weeks before his death. (PDF).
72. Dec. 16, 2008, United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District Of New York ... Plaintiff, -against- Samuel Israel, III, Defendant, Case No. 05 Cr .1039 (Cm). Robert B. Nichols And Ellen M. Nichols, Petitioners, Bayou Management LLC, Plaintiff, -against- Case No.: 08 Civ. 6036 (Cm). Robert B. Nichols, Ellen M. Nichols, Samuel Israel, III, And John Does 1-5, Defendants: "Videotape deposition of Robert B. Nichols. Taken by plaintiff at the United States Attorney's office, 1 st. Andrew's Plaza, New York, New York, 10007, on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 commencing at 9:50 o'clock a.m."
73. Feb. 5, 2001, Insight on the News, 'The Plot Thickens in PROMIS Affair'. Only article known to this author that mentions FIDCO'board members. Article cited in ISGP's "Conservative CIA" article under the 'Murchison family' entry.
74. Feb. 29, 2024, Opperman Report, interview with INSLAW's Bill Hamilton: "I had introduced him, mentioning Charles Hayes to Danny Casolaro as a potential source. Because [Hayes] is a former CIA contractor, you know. And Hayes called me and he said, "Casolaro is planning to visit a sensitive facility in Washington, D.C." and it'll get him killed. And he's not listening to me. He's being very strong-headed. But if you have any influence with him, you better use it because he'll get killed." And the facility, Hayes never told me where it was in D.C., but I called Danny Kesser on, passed on the warning, and Casolaro said, "It's the facility under the control of George K. Pender."
    And I already knew from Casolaro that George K. Pender was a former senior, CIA clandestine operative, who Casolaro believed was the head of what Casolaro called "The Octopus", a group of former U.S. and Allied and senior intelligence operatives, who primarily for their own personal financial gain, undertook sensitive assignments from U.S. intelligence, sensitive and questionable, you know. ... Intelligence sources told me the facility was in a four story townhouse near the White House on Jackson Place, Northwest, where a covert unit from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the US Army Telecommunications Agency facilitated encrypted and communications access to the main court database, it being administered at a computer center in Northern Virginia by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ostensibly for handoff to the DIA and the US Army in the event of a national catastrophe and the imposition of martial law.
    And, but in the meantime, being accessed by select members of the White House National Security Council through help from DIA covert unit at that townhouse, DIA and the Army telecommunications who were providing encrypted communications so that select members of the National Security Council staff could interrogate the main core database system to get dirt on people they wanted to get for political blackmail.
    You know, it's interesting, this is right around that same period of time with Craig Spence and Henry Vincent and the white, the D.C. call boy, blackmail operation there, all that stuff with Lawrence King, that whole bunch, you know? Was doing that homosexual call boy blackmail stuff, you know?"
75. 2024, Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', part 4, 11:00, words of Casolaro friend Lynn Knowles.
76. 1993, Elliot Richardson, Bill Hamilton a.o., 'INSLAW Rebuttal of the Bua Report' (PDF): "The next day, Tuesday, August 6, 1991, Casolaro telephoned William Turner in Winchester, Virginia, and told him that he would be having a follow-up meeting later in the week in Martinsburg, West Virginia, with some employees from the officeof Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Casolaro described oneof the employees as a relative of Ms. Barbara Videnieks andfurther described that person as his source on INSLAW. Accordingto Turner,Casolaro asked him to remove two numbered and sealed packetsof Casolaro's INSLAW documents from Turner's home safe and bringthem the 20-mile distance to Martinsburg, West Virginia, on theafternoon of Friday, August 9, 1991 so that Casolaro could showthem to Ms. Videnieks' relative. Ms. Barbara Videnieks is theChief of Staff to Senator Robert Byrd. Her husband, PeterVidenieks, was the DOJ Contracting Officer on INSLAW's PROMIScontract. According to Michael Riconosciuto, Peter Videnieks wasalso a close associate of Earl Brian in Brian's allegedinternational sales and distribution of PROMIS. Ms. MargaretWiencek, former Director of Administrative Services at FinancialNews Network (FNN) Headquarters in Los Angeles, claims, in sworntestimony, to have taken telephone messages from Peter Videnieksin 1987 in the office of the FNN Chairman. Earl Brian wasChairman of FNN in 1987. Both Videnieks and Brian have, however,denied under oath even knowing each other."
77. Ibid.
78. 2024, Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', part 4, 21:30, recording with old Casolaro friend Ann Klenk.
79. 2024, Christian Hansen and Zachary Treitz, 'American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders', part 4, 21:30, recording with old Casolaro friend Ann Klenk.
80. Ibid., part 4, 56:00, phone interview with Jeff Cuellar, Joe Cuellar's son.
81. June 17, 2018, CovertAction Magazine, 'Declassified Documents Call Into Question Official Washington Narrative of Danny Casolaro’s Death'.