textfiles-politics/src-xml/inslaw4.xml

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      <p>Article 11143 of alt.activism:
Xref: bilver alt.activism:11143 alt.conspiracy:5176
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: more on <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>
Keywords: Hitler's rise to power succeeded through the use of private ar-mies
<info type="Message-ID"> 1991Oct15.160142.29417@odin.corp.sgi.com</info>
Date: 15 Oct 91 16:01:42 GMT
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 180</p>
      <p> The <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> Corporation: the maturation of "private" government.</p>
      <p> <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>'s Director of Special Investigations Service Wayne Black
told the "Washington Times"' Deanna Hoagin earlier this year: "We
are similar to a private <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>." The company's board of directors
reads like a who's who of the intelligence community.</p>
      <p>from "The First Stone" column of the Sept. 18-24 1991 issue of "In These
Times":</p>
      <p>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scandal Gates
By Joel Bleifuss</p>
      <p> As <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> Director-designate Robert Gates pleads ignorance to knowledge
of <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> misdeeds before the Senate Intelligence Committee this week,
the lawmakers might do well to remember his sworn testimony of March
March 6, 1986. At the time, <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> Director William Casey had
nominated Gates for the number-two position at the agency. In an
effort to impress the senators considering his nomination, Gates
said: "[Casey] and I have consulted extensively, even in my present
position [as deputy director for intelligence] in all areas of
intelligence policy including not just analysis and estimates but
also organization, budgeting and covert action. I will now have a
formal role in all of these areas."
If Gates really had "a formal role in all of these areas"--which
appears likely--he certainly knows more than he has let on. And
someone should ask Gates what he knows about the <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>
Corporation of Coral Gables, Fla.
As the <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> letterhead puts in, the company provides
"security systems and services throughout the world." As
<ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>'s Director of Special Investigations Service Wayne Black
told the "Washington Times"' Deanna Hoagin earlier this year: "We
are similar to a private <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent>." The company's board of directors
reads like a who's who of the intelligence community. In 1984, for
example, former Deputy <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> Director Bobby Inman, currently one of
Gates' main boosters in Washington, was a director of the company.
And among those on the 1983 board were two former <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> special
agents, one retired Air Force general, one former commander in chief
of the <ent type='LOC'>North Command</ent> (NORAD), one former
director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, former <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> Director
William Rabor, Nixon-appointed <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> Director Clarence Kelly and
former <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> Deputy Director Frank Carlucci (who would later become
Ronald Reagan's national security adviser). Further, the 1983 board
included Robert Chasen, a former <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> special agent who was Carter's
commissioner of customs until 1980, when he became a vice president
of <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>. Also in 1980, soon-to-be <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> chief William Casey
served as <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>'s outside legal counsel--the same year he
managed the Reagan-Bush election campaign.</p>
      <p> ON THE RESERVATION: It was in 1980 that <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> began working
closely with Southern California's Cabazon <ent type='NORP'>Indians</ent> and their tribal
administrator John Philip Nichols. The "San Francisco Chronicle"'s
Jonathan Littman reported this month that Nichols, a white American
who spent years in South American, has boasted to friends about
working on the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro and the
successful assassination of Salvador Allende.
The Cabazons hired Nichols as their administrator in 1978.
Littman reports that thanks to Nichols' connections and
grantsmanship, "federal and state agencies are helping to finance
nearly $250 million worth of projects on the 1700-acre reservation"
belonging to the 30-member Cabazon tribe. According to Littman,
these projects include a HUD and mafia-financed casino, a 1800-unit
housing complex and a $150 million waste incinerator/power plant
that was built with tax-exempt state bonds.
But most intriguing is the <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>/Cabazon joint venture, which
began in 1980 when the tribe was asked to design a security system
for Crown Prince Fahd's palace in Tiaf, Saudi Arabia. This was
followed by <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>/Cabazon joint venture proposals to develop
biological weapons for the Pentagon and assemble night-vision
goggles for the Guatemalan and Jordanian governments.
Why was a security firm so interested in working with a small
tribe of native Americans? One good reason can be found in a May
26, 1981, inter-office memo from <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> executive Robert Frye to
the above-mentioned Robert Chasen. Frye described an 11-day
business trip with Nichols "to explore the apparent potential for
the Cabazon-<ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> joint venture." Frye wrote that the
reservation has "several key ingredients necessary" for a weapons
plant, including "lack of opposition by adjacent governing bodies
and 'irate citizens' over the siting of such a facility."
John Philip Nichols is no longer officially running the
reservation. According to Littman, son Mark Nichols is the tribal
administrator while the elder Nichols serves as a "mental-health
counselor to Cabazon reservation employees." John Philip Nichols
lost his job because federal law prohibits convicted felons from
running casinos.
In January, 1985, Nichols was sentenced to four years in prison
for capital solicitation of murder. He served 19 months. No one
was killed in that murder-for-hire scheme. However, in 1981, Alfred
Alvarez, a Cabazon <ent type='NORP'>Indian</ent> tribal vice president, and two non-<ent type='NORP'>Indians</ent>
were murdered execution style. Alvarez's sister Linda Streeter
Dukic says her brother and his friends died because they were about
to expose mismanagement on the Cabazon reservation. Mike Kataoka of
the Palm Springs "Press-Enterprise" reports that in 1985, when
Nichols was arrested for hiring the hitman, the U.S. Justice
Department was investigating his possible involvement in those 1981
deaths. No charges were ever filed.</p>
      <p> ANOTHER MURDER? The Cabazon/<ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> connection was of particular
interest to Danny Casolaro, the Washington-based journalist who was
found dead in the Martinsburg, W. Va., Sheraton on August 10 (see
"The First Stone," Sept. 4 [an earlier post in this on-line
series]). Casolaro's friends, family and professional associates
fear he was murdered--and that the crime was related to his
investigations into a series of corporate and governmental scandals.
Casolaro's brother, Anthony, told the Washington-based "Corporate
Crime Reporter," "Danny was trying to track monies <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> spent
and what Danny found was that [<ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>] had ear-marked a half
million dollars for what they call 'research.'"
Anthony Casolaro said that the money "ties in <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> with this
<ent type='NORP'>Indian</ent> reservation and organized crime and <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> guys . . . Those
same people showed up with <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> and one of them shows up in the
October Surprise."
The "October Surprise" was the alleged campaign deal between Iran
and the 1980 Reagan campaign to delay the release of the U.S.
hostages held in Tehran (see "In These Times," June 24, 1987, Oct.
12, 1988 and April 27, 1991).
"<ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> was <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> Inc. of Washington D.C.--a firm that has
brought suit in federal court, charging that the Reagan Justice
Department stole the company's Promis case-management software
program. Two judges has thus far ruled in the company's favor. The
suit is still in the courts (see "In These Times," May 29, 1991
["Software Pirates," an earlier on-line post in this series]).
Earlier this year, <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> further alleged that the Justice
Department turned the stolen software over to Earl Brian, a friend
of both former President Ronald Reagan and former Attorney General
Edwin Meese. <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> charges that the software was a payback for
Brian's help in arranging the October Surprise. Former Israeli
intelligence agent Ari Ben-Menashe alleges that Brian--now the head
of United Press International--was directly involved in arranging
the 1980 deal. Ben-Menashe claims that Brian "worked very closely"
on the deal with Robert Gates, who was then a top <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> official.</p>
      <p> NO JUSTICE: <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> is also linked to the <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> scandal.
Michael Riconosciuto--a weapons-systems designer and software
specialist--was director of research for the <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>/Cabazon joint
venture in the early '80s. In a March 1991 affidavit for the <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent>
case, Riconosciuto claimed that "in connection with [Riconosciuto's]
work for <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent>," he modified the stolen Promis software for
foreign sales. "Earl W. Brian made [the software program] available
to me through <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> after acquiring it from Peter Videnieks, who
was then a Department of Justice contracting official with
responsibility for the Promis software."
Videnieks, a former Customs Service official under Commissioner
Chasen, served in the Justice Department from 1981 through 1990. In
his affidavit, Riconosciuto said Videnieks had threatened to
retaliate against Riconosciuto if he cooperated with a House
Judiciary Committee probe of the <ent type='ORG'>Inslaw</ent> case. Seven days after
filing the affidavit (which was not, technically, part of the
committee investigation), Riconosciuto was arrested on drug-selling
charges. He is now in a Seattle jail awaiting trial.</p>
      <p> PRIVATE SPIES The 1980s were a decade of privatization. As a for-profit intelligence service, <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> appears to have taken on the
kind of work that in earlier years the <ent type='ORG'>FBI</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>CIA</ent> would have done
(and still do), albeit illegally.
On the environmental-crime front, <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> is now the object of
an investigation by the House Interior Committee. Early in 1990,
the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., a consortium of seven oil
companies that run the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, hired <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> to
spy on environmentalists, whistleblowers and other oil company
critics. <ent type='ORG'>Wackenhut</ent> tactics included setting up a phoney
environmental organization and having agents pose as reporters. It
is alleged in press reports that the company also monitored Rep.
George Miller (D-CA) whose house subcommittee has been investigating
environmental crimes allegedly committed by the consortium which is
composed of <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> Petroleum, Exxon, ARCO, Phillips, Unocal, Mobil
and Amerada Hess.</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>
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