INSLAW DEATH INVESTIGATION CONTINUES 08/19/91 MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA, U.S.A., AUG 19 (NB) -- The Sheraton Inn in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the scene of the death of Washington, D.C. journalist Joseph D. "Danny" Casolaro, has received more press attention than ever before in its history as reporters from ABC-TV, Newsbytes News Network, and the Washington Post roamed the halls interrogating bell-hops, waitresses, and desk clerks for information regarding the death of Casolaro. Employees, supposedly under the cloak of Sheraton-forced silence, told Newsbytes that, while some prospective guests have specifically requested the room in which Casolaro died, their instructions have been to leave the room vacant for an unspecified time. Casolaro, 44, had been investigating the "Inslaw" case, a rather tangled web of allegations relating to the charges brought by Inslaw Inc., that the Justice Department had first stolen its software product, "Promis," and then driven the firm into bankruptcy. Casolaro had told friends and family that he was about to receive material that would provide him with documentation linking Inslaw to other alleged incidents of Reagan-Bush administration wrong-doing. Casolaro was said to have referred to the alleged conspiracy as the "Octopus" and stated that there were links between the Inslaw theft, the "October Surprise," and Iran- Contra allegations. The "October surprise" refers to allegations that representatives of the Reagan-Bush campaign team, through meetings with Iranian representatives, delayed the release of the hostages in Iran until after the 1980 elections. These charges are currently being investigated by Congressional committee. Casolaro was found dead, an apparent suicide, in Room 517 of the Sheraton on Saturday, August 10th, two days after his arrival in Martinsburg. He was found in the bathtub at approximately 1:00 pm with both wrists slashed. His body was released within three hours to a local funeral parlor for embalming, an action that Berkeley County Medical Examiner Sandra Brining was quoted as saying was normal in the case of a suicide. "Everything was consistent with a self-inflicted wound." When Casolaro's family became aware of his death on Monday, August 14th, it immediately called for an expanded investigation and his brother, Dr. Anthony Casolaro, an Arlington, Virginia physician, was quoted as saying, "In my heart I remember Danny telling us that in case of an accident, don't believe it." Dr. Casolaro also discounted statements made by his brother in a letter to a publisher in which he seemed financially strapped and despondent. Dr. Casolaro attributed Casolaro's remarks to a desire to convince the would-be publisher of the importance of extending a book contract to him. Casolaro had been immersed in the Inslaw case for over a year and had been unsuccessful in two proposals to the publishing firm of Little, Brown & Co. The clamor for a fuller investigation caused an autopsy to be subsequently performed on Casolaro, an action that Assistant Berkeley County prosecutor Cynthia Gaither said was not hindered by the previous embalming. Casolaro was buried on Friday, October 16th after a funeral service at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Arlington, Virginia attended by over 100 people. At a press conference held on Thursday, August 15th, Dr. James Frost, assistant West Virginia medical examiner, said that, while the results of the examination bore out the preliminary findings of suicide, the investigation would be continued. Brining and Gaither also participated in the hour-long press conference held in the meeting room of the Martinsburg City Council. Newsbytes has obtained conflicting reports on the state of Casolaro's mental condition. A California free-lance journalist, Virginia McCullough, with whom Casolaro had allegedly shared information, told Newsbytes, "It is ludicrous to think that Danny took his life. He was excited about his new contact and said that 'For the first time I really believe that the government was involved.'" McCullough, herself, claims to be the victim of a government action that drove her electronics firm into bankruptcy and she is presently writing a book on her case and other similar cases, including Inslaw. McCullough's comments on the unlikelihood of a Casolaro suicide were echoed in quotes from Pat Clawson, president of Washington- based Metrowest Broadcasting Co., and Richard O'Connell, editor of the Washington Crime News, a newsletter published in Arlington, VA. Nancy Hamilton, vice president of Inslaw, also took issue with the suicide finding telling the Martinsburg Morning Journal, "We don't accept that. They are saying that here is a man, totally sober, mutilating himself." Martinsburg residents interviewed by Newsbytes paint a slightly different picture and depict Casolaro as seemingly depressed and drinking pitchers of beer by himself in a local Pizza Hut on the Thursday evening before his death (although a wine bottle was found in his room, there was no evidence of alcohol found in the body by the autopsy). Additionally, a Washington Post piece of Saturday, August 17th by Gary Lee and Robert O'Harrow, Jr., shows Casolaro to be debt-ridden and despondent. According to the Post report, "Casolaro had no independent means of income and had invested heavily in the book project for at least eight months, financing several trips to the West Coast and long-distance telephone calls." The Post article also revealed that Casolaro's sister had committed suicide in California 20 years ago. While confirming the sister's suicide and his brother's financial difficulties, Dr. Casolaro said that these facts still did not support a conclusion of suicide for his brother. He told the Post, "Danny was the sort of guy who was always broke but he knew that he had a lot of resources for money in the family if he needed it." Dr. Casolaro also told the Post that he had received a call from a man who purported to have met with Casolaro in Martinsburg on the day before the death and turned over documents relating to computer hardware thefts. Dr. Casolaro said that the man was willing to meet with investigators under the cloak of anonymity. Newsbytes has confirmed, from multiple sources, the existence of the contact, a man called "Bill," but has not yet obtained information concerning the content or the validity of the purported documentation. The so-called "Inslaw Case" began in 1982 when Inslaw signed a $10000000 contract to provide an enhanced version of its case tracking software to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to Inslaw, shortly after it rebuffed attempts by a company owned by Earl Brian, a close friend of former US. Attorney General Edwin Meese, to buy Inslaw, the government stopped its contract payments and eventually forced the firm into bankruptcy. In January 1988, a federal bankruptcy judge upheld the claims of Inslaw President William Hamilton and awarded Inslaw damages of $6800000, saying that the Justice Department has stolen the Promis software by "trickery, fraud and deceit." A second federal judge later upheld the ruling. The Justice Dept. continued to appeal the verdicts and, on May 7, 1991, was successful when the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the bankruptcy court had claimed extraordinary and improper jurisdiction in the case. The court said that Hamilton was free to pursue his claims in the proper federal court and that the Justice Department's "conduct, if it occurred, is inexcusable." During the appeal process, Inslaw broadened its charges to claim that Iran Contra figures Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord had played a role is disseminating the software to intelligence agencies of Israel, Libya, Iraq, South Korea, and Canada. These charges were substantiated by Ari Ben-Menashe, who claims to be a former Israeli intelligence officer, Iranian arms dealer Richard Babayan, and Michael Riconosciuto, who said that he was hired to modify the software for use in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. Riconosciuto, who was arrested in March of this year and is being held in the state of Washington, also claimed to be involved in a now-defunct joint venture between the Wachenhut Corp. of Coral Gables, FL and the Southern California Cabazon Indian tribe. According to Riconosciuto's affidavit, the joint venture developed sophisticated weapons for the Contras. McFarlane and Brian have denied all charges. There have also been reports that the software, allegedly used by the foreign intelligence services for maintaining dissidents, contained a "Trojan horse" that would allow U.S. security agencies to have undetected access to the computer system of the foreign agency. It was also revealed during this time that Inslaw President Hamilton is a former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA). As the long appeal process continued, the House Judiciary Committee under Chairman Jack Brooks (D-Tex.) began its own investigation of the case and became embroiled in a year-long battle with then Attorney General Richard Thornburgh who refused to turn over Justice Department documents to the committee. Shortly before Thornburgh's departure to run for the Senate from Pennsylvania, an agreement was reached between the committee and the Justice Department on the release of certain documents and the investigation is now continuing. During the controversy, another former U.S. Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, now serving as counsel for Inslaw, said, "Evidence of the widespread ramifications of the Inslaw case comes from many sources and keeps accumulating. It remains inexplicable why the Justice Department refuses to pursue this evidence and resists cooperation with the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives." On Wednesday, August 14th, Richardson called for a federal investigation of Casolaro's death and was quoted as suspecting murder in the case. In an interview with Newsbytes, an investigative reporter who has been tracking Inslaw and related cases for a few years said that he had met with Casolaro within the last six months and that Casolaro had no material at that time that the investigative reporter deemed as new. The reporter, speaking to Newsbytes under the promise of non-attribution, also said, "I believe that the Justice Department stole Inslaw's software. I have not seen, however, compelling evidence to support the charges that it was linked to the so-called 'October Surprise.'" (Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19910819) Journal: Computergram International August 16 1991 n1742