mirror of
https://github.com/nhammer514/textfiles-politics.git
synced 2024-10-01 01:15:38 -04:00
235 lines
13 KiB
HTML
235 lines
13 KiB
HTML
|
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
|
||
|
|
<head>
|
||
|
|
<title>inslaw3</title>
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../CSSstyle.css"/>
|
||
|
|
<!--Fill in your link line for CSS and JS in the XSLT here! -->
|
||
|
|
</head>
|
||
|
|
<body>
|
||
|
|
<h1 id="title-index">Politics-Conspiracies-Project</h1>
|
||
|
|
<nav id="menu">
|
||
|
|
<a href="../index.html">
|
||
|
|
<div class="button">Home</div>
|
||
|
|
</a>
|
||
|
|
<a href="../fulltext2.html">
|
||
|
|
<div class="button">Fulltext</div>
|
||
|
|
</a>
|
||
|
|
<a href="../analysis.html">
|
||
|
|
<div class="button">Analysis</div>
|
||
|
|
</a>
|
||
|
|
<a href="../gallery.html">
|
||
|
|
<div class="button">Gallery</div>
|
||
|
|
</a>
|
||
|
|
<a href="../methods.html">
|
||
|
|
<div class="button">Methods</div>
|
||
|
|
</a>
|
||
|
|
<a href="../about.html">
|
||
|
|
<div class="button">About</div>
|
||
|
|
</a>
|
||
|
|
<a href="../GitHub.html">
|
||
|
|
<div class="button">GitHub <img alt="github icon"
|
||
|
|
src="https://logos-download.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GitHub_logo.png"
|
||
|
|
width="15"/>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
</a>
|
||
|
|
</nav>
|
||
|
|
<h2>inslaw3</h2>
|
||
|
|
<p>Article 11142 of alt.activism:
|
||
|
|
Xref: bilver alt.activism:11142 alt.conspiracy:5175
|
||
|
|
Path: bil-ver!tous!peora!masscomp!usenet.coe.montana.edu!rpi!sci.ccny.cuny.edu!psinnt
|
||
|
|
p!psinntp!sgigate!odin!ratmandu.corp.sgi.com!dave
|
||
|
|
From: dave@ratmandu.corp.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
|
||
|
|
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.conspiracy
|
||
|
|
Subject: the INSLAW case: Murder in the Martinsburg Sheraton?
|
||
|
|
Keywords: when justice is denied one citizen, everyone is in danger
|
||
|
|
<span class="Message-ID"> 1991Oct15.160108.29321@odin.corp.sgi.com</span>
|
||
|
|
Date: 15 Oct 91 16:01:08 GMT
|
||
|
|
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
|
||
|
|
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
|
||
|
|
Lines: 195</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> The House Judiciary Committee has been investigating the scandal
|
||
|
|
since August 1989. After months of foot-dragging, Attorney General
|
||
|
|
Richard Thornburgh, under subpoena by the committee, finally
|
||
|
|
released <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span>-related files. However, according to a source in
|
||
|
|
the House, 15 to 20 files are missing.
|
||
|
|
"Washington Post" columnist Mary McGrory is one of the few
|
||
|
|
mainstream journalists to give the <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> case serious attention.
|
||
|
|
She wrote on August 18, "The man who could have resolved the <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span>
|
||
|
|
case, Dick Thornburgh, resigned as attorney general on the day the
|
||
|
|
West Virginia police came forward with their autopsy [on Casolaro].
|
||
|
|
. . . What was merely sinister has now turned deadly. Thornburgh
|
||
|
|
calls <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> 'a little contract dispute' and refused to testify
|
||
|
|
about it to the House Judiciary Committee. Richardson thinks it
|
||
|
|
could be 'dirtier than Watergate,' and, as a victim of the scandal,
|
||
|
|
he should know. Thornburgh's conduct is the most powerful reason
|
||
|
|
for believing that Danny Casolaro really saw an octopus before he
|
||
|
|
died."</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>from "The First Stone" column of the Sept. 4-10 1991 issue of "In These
|
||
|
|
Times":
|
||
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
Murder in the Martinsburg Sheraton?
|
||
|
|
By Joel Bleifuss</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> For more than a year, Danny Casolaro, a Washington D.C.-based
|
||
|
|
freelance investigator, had been sorting through a web of intrigue-
|
||
|
|
-the S&L debacle, BCCI, Iran-Contra, the contra-connected <span class="ORG">Wackenhut</span>
|
||
|
|
Corp., the <span class="ORG">Wackenhut</span>-connected <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> case, and the <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span>-connected
|
||
|
|
"October Surprise."
|
||
|
|
According to one of his close friends, who asked not to be named,
|
||
|
|
Casolaro began receiving death threats eight or nine months ago.
|
||
|
|
"Brother, just make it quick," Casolaro is reported to have told one
|
||
|
|
of these midnight callers. The last threat came on Monday, August
|
||
|
|
5, according to his brother, Anthony.
|
||
|
|
How quick death came we may never know. On Saturday, August 10,
|
||
|
|
Casolaro was found dead in Room 517 of the Martinsburg, W. Va.,
|
||
|
|
Sheraton. His body was discovered with 12 incisions in his arms in
|
||
|
|
a bathtub of bloody water 17 hours after he had called his mother's
|
||
|
|
house at 6 p.m. Friday to say he was heading home but that he would
|
||
|
|
not make it to his niece's birthday party. On the following Monday
|
||
|
|
Martinsburg authorities notified the family of Casolaro's death, but
|
||
|
|
by then the body had been embalmed and the motel room had been
|
||
|
|
sanitized by a cleaning contractor. Officials are calling the
|
||
|
|
incident an "unattended death" while they continue their
|
||
|
|
investigation. Family and friends say that suicide is out of the
|
||
|
|
question. They maintain that Casolaro was not a depressive type,
|
||
|
|
and that while he did have financial problems, he did not dwell on
|
||
|
|
them.
|
||
|
|
According to family and friends, before leaving for Martinsburg,
|
||
|
|
Casolaro had been ecstatic. The pieces of the puzzle were finally
|
||
|
|
fitting together. He had told them he was going to West Virginia to
|
||
|
|
meet a source who was to help him nail down a last piece of evidence
|
||
|
|
in his investigation into the <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> software-theft case.
|
||
|
|
Those close to Casolaro want many questions answered. Where is
|
||
|
|
his ever-present briefcase? It was not in motel room. Where is his
|
||
|
|
tape deck? It is missing. Where were his notes and the outline of
|
||
|
|
his proposed book, "Behold a Pale Horse," which he had shown to
|
||
|
|
friends days before his death? The documents were not to found in
|
||
|
|
the Sheraton motel room or in the four boxes of his papers that the
|
||
|
|
family turned over to <span class="ORG">ABC</span> News. Why did authorities wait so long to
|
||
|
|
notify the family of his death? His driver's license said he lived
|
||
|
|
in Falls Church, Va., and all the Casolaros listed in the 703 area
|
||
|
|
code are his relatives. Why was his body embalmed before the family
|
||
|
|
was notified? West Virginia law requires family approval prior to
|
||
|
|
embalming. Who was the man who telephoned Casolaro's house on
|
||
|
|
Saturday evening? When a housekeeper picked up the phone, a voice
|
||
|
|
said, "You're dead, you bastard."</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> MOTIVE FOR MURDER? What was Casolaro investigating that could have
|
||
|
|
put his life in such danger? David MacMichael is a former CIA
|
||
|
|
analyst who now directs the Washington office of the Association of
|
||
|
|
National Security Alumni, a watchdog group. MacMichael had talked
|
||
|
|
to Casolaro on the phone on Thursday, the day he left for
|
||
|
|
Martinsburg. Casolaro had made an appointment to meet with him.
|
||
|
|
Says MacMichael, "Providing the death was not a suicide, one can
|
||
|
|
examine three scenarios." First, Casolaro was developing a theory
|
||
|
|
that a group of former intelligence officers were members of a for-profit cabal that Casolaro called "The Octopus." According to his
|
||
|
|
theory, over the past 25 years The Octopus had its tentacles in a
|
||
|
|
number of international scandals. MacMichael doesn't think such a
|
||
|
|
far-fetched-sounding theory would get Casolaro killed. "If you
|
||
|
|
published their names, pictures and documents, what kind of book
|
||
|
|
would you have?" asks MacMichael. It would be dismissed, according
|
||
|
|
to MacMichael, like "a <span class="EVENT">UFO</span> crank book."
|
||
|
|
Second, Casolaro was looking into the October Surprise, the
|
||
|
|
alleged deal between the 1980 Reagan presidential campaign and
|
||
|
|
Iranians. That his death would be connected to this investigation
|
||
|
|
is "nonsense" says MacMichael, who explains that many journalists
|
||
|
|
are now investigating the 1980 deal, making it unlikely that
|
||
|
|
Casolaro had information significant enough to endanger his life.
|
||
|
|
Which leads to the third scenario, that Casolaro was on his way
|
||
|
|
to collect the final evidence needed to wrap up his investigation of
|
||
|
|
a scandal that, as MacMichael put it, involves "real crimes, real
|
||
|
|
people and real money"--the <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> case. (See "In These Times," May
|
||
|
|
29 ["Software Pirates" posted on-line previously].)</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> INSLAW MEETS THE LAW: For eight years, <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> Inc, has been
|
||
|
|
battling the Justice Department for possession of Promis, an
|
||
|
|
innovative case-management software program developed by company
|
||
|
|
owner Bill Hamilton. In 1986 <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> filed suit against the
|
||
|
|
department in federal court, claiming the department had stolen the
|
||
|
|
program.
|
||
|
|
In September 1987, Judge George Bason, the federal bankruptcy
|
||
|
|
judge from Washington, D.C., ruled, "The Department of Justice took,
|
||
|
|
converted, stole Inslaw's enhanced Promis by trickery, fraud and
|
||
|
|
deceit." He also charged, "The failure even to begin in investigate
|
||
|
|
[these charges] is outrageous and indefensible and constitutes an
|
||
|
|
institutional decision by the Department of Justice at the highest
|
||
|
|
level simply to ignore charges of impropriety."
|
||
|
|
The Justice Department appealed the ruling, and in November 1989,
|
||
|
|
Judge William B. Bryant of the U.S. District Court in Washington
|
||
|
|
affirmed the lower court's decision. He ruled, "The government
|
||
|
|
acted willfully and fraudulently to obtain property that it was not
|
||
|
|
entitled to under contract.
|
||
|
|
The Justice Department then appealed Bryant's ruling to the U.S.
|
||
|
|
Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. On May 7 that court
|
||
|
|
overturned the previous court decisions, saying the federal
|
||
|
|
bankruptcy court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. However, the
|
||
|
|
Court of Appeals left the findings of fact undisturbed.
|
||
|
|
Earlier this year, the case took a new twist. <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> went public
|
||
|
|
with allegations that the Reagan Justice Department, after it had
|
||
|
|
stolen the Promis software, turned it over to Earl Brian, a friend
|
||
|
|
of both former President Ronald Reagan and former Attorney General
|
||
|
|
Edwin Meese. In 1974, Brian left then-California Gov. Reagan's
|
||
|
|
cabinet.
|
||
|
|
<span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> alleges that its software was given to Brian as a payback
|
||
|
|
for Brian's help in arranging the arms-and-hostages deal between the
|
||
|
|
1980 Reagan-Bush campaign and representatives of the Ayatollah
|
||
|
|
Ruhollah Khomeini (see "In These Times," July 24, 1987, Oct. 12,
|
||
|
|
1988, and April 27, 1991). According to <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> owner Bill Hamilton,
|
||
|
|
Brian, who runs United Press International, allegedly then marketed
|
||
|
|
Promis to the intelligence agencies of Israel, Jordan, Iraq, <span class="GPE">Canada</span>,
|
||
|
|
South Korea, Libya, Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia,
|
||
|
|
Thailand, Japan, Chile, Guatemala and Brazil. According to Inslaw's
|
||
|
|
scenario, once the software was in use by foreign intelligence
|
||
|
|
services, the U.S. National Security Agency would then be able to
|
||
|
|
infiltrate the computerized intelligence files of these countries.
|
||
|
|
Modifications on the pirated software were allegedly carried out by
|
||
|
|
the <span class="ORG">Wackenhut</span> Corp. of Coral Gables, Fla.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> WHERE IS JUSTICE?: Inslaw's attorney, Elliot Richardson, the Nixon
|
||
|
|
attorney general who resigned rather than participate in the
|
||
|
|
Watergate cover-up, has long asked for the appointment of a special
|
||
|
|
prosecutor to investigate the Justice Department's handling of the
|
||
|
|
case. But to no avail.
|
||
|
|
The House Judiciary Committee has been investigating the scandal
|
||
|
|
since August 1989. After months of foot-dragging, Attorney General
|
||
|
|
Richard Thornburgh, under subpoena by the committee, finally
|
||
|
|
released <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span>-related files. However, according to a source in
|
||
|
|
the House, 15 to 20 files are missing.
|
||
|
|
"Washington Post" columnist Mary McGrory is one of the few
|
||
|
|
mainstream journalists to give the <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> case serious attention.
|
||
|
|
She wrote on August 18, "The man who could have resolved the <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span>
|
||
|
|
case, Dick Thornburgh, resigned as attorney general on the day the
|
||
|
|
West Virginia police came forward with their autopsy [on Casolaro].
|
||
|
|
Excess was the hallmark of the Thornburgh's farewell ceremony: an
|
||
|
|
honor guard, a trooping of the colors, superlatives form
|
||
|
|
subordinates. William P. Barr, his deputy and possible successor,
|
||
|
|
spoke of Thornburgh's 'leadership, integrity, professionalism and
|
||
|
|
fairness'--none of which Thornburgh displayed in his handling of
|
||
|
|
<span class="ORG">Inslaw</span>. What was merely sinister has now turned deadly. Thornburgh
|
||
|
|
calls <span class="ORG">Inslaw</span> 'a little contract dispute' and refused to testify
|
||
|
|
about it to the House Judiciary Committee. Richardson thinks it
|
||
|
|
could be 'dirtier than Watergate,' and, as a victim of the scandal,
|
||
|
|
he should know. Thornburgh's conduct is the most powerful reason
|
||
|
|
for believing that Danny Casolaro really saw an octopus before he
|
||
|
|
died."
|
||
|
|
And in the wake of Casolaro's death, Richardson has repeated his
|
||
|
|
call for a special prosecutor. He told the "Boston Globe"'s John
|
||
|
|
Aloysius Farrell, "It's hard to come up with any reason for his
|
||
|
|
death other than he was deliberately murdered because he was close
|
||
|
|
to uncovering sinister elements in what he called 'The Octopus.'
|
||
|
|
This simply strengthens the case for an in-depth, hard-hitting,
|
||
|
|
thorough investigation."
|
||
|
|
But will there be one? The FBI is treating the death lightly.
|
||
|
|
According to a spokesman in the Pittsburgh office, which has
|
||
|
|
jurisdiction over West Virginia, "There is no federal investigative
|
||
|
|
interest in the matter."
|
||
|
|
As for former Attorney General Thornburgh, he is now running for
|
||
|
|
the Senate in <span class="GPE">Pennsylvania</span>. If Justice is served, perhaps he will
|
||
|
|
also run for cover.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>--
|
||
|
|
daveus rattus</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> KOYAANISQATSI</p>
|
||
|
|
<p> ko.yan.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n. 1. crazy life. 2. life
|
||
|
|
in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating.
|
||
|
|
5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
</body>
|
||
|
|
</html>
|