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