ustxtxb_obs_1992_10_16_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

PEOPLE Make a world of difference ! We’re proud of our employees and their contributions to your success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. FUTUM P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760-7427 389-1500 COMMUNICATIONS. INC Police. The, Canadian Department of Communications at one time actually sent the Hamiltons a questionnaire about the software, asking for advice on how to employ it most efficiently. Canadian officials at first admitted to the use of Promis, then denied it. When the committee sought to interview officials there, the government refused to cooperate, eventually permitting only a limited deposition. In it, the Canadians said they had used software that was, coincidentally, named Promis, but they had bought it from the Strategic Software Planning Corporation based in Cambridge, Mass., which writes project management software primarily for the construction industry. The report says Massimo Grimaldi, Strategic Software’s president, acknowledged selling a few copies to Canada. \(In an interview, Grimaldi said that since his business was largely through dealers, he didn’t have any precise knowledge Closer to home, Tom Gates, an FBI agent who had spoken to Casolaro several times about the bureau’s entertainment industry probes, said a Justice Department official had warned him that any statement he made to the committee would be reviewed by the department, thereby eliminating any confidentiality and intimidating Gates. The department representative involved later denied she had ever said any’such thing. Then there was the CIA, the blackest of black holes. In response to an initial inquiry in February 1991, the CIA reported that following an “extensive search,” no versions of Promis were found. Then in November of the same year Richard Kerr, the deputy director, reaffirmed the agency’s denial that it had any versions of INSLAW’s Promis, but did admit employing ‘ a software called Promis that the CIA had obtained from the Strategic Software Planning Corporation the same outfit that sold a Promis version to the Canadians. Kerr then said this: “Of course, we have no way of knowing whether any Agency contractors at some point ever acquired PROMIS software, but none did so on behalf of the Agency. Moreover, although we have no indication that any such acquisition took place, we cannot rule out the possibility that an Agency employee acting on his own behalf and without any official authorization or funds acquired PROMIS for his own personal use [italics added].” The committee report draws no conclusions as to Brian’s involvement in the Inslaw case. It did, however, remark on the sim ilarities between the Inslaw dispute and a computer software controversy that arose in California two decades earlier one that also involved Earl Brian. In 1974, according to the committee, Brian was accused of using computer software owned by the state of California for his own personal gain. Citing the Los Angele,s Times, the report says: “During the final days of Governor Ronald Reagan’s administration, computer tapes were given to Dr. Brian under a no-cost contract awarded by then chief deputy director of the state of California Health Department, David Winston. Mr. Winston later became an employee of Dr. Brian’s. After Governor Reagan left office, the new health director, Robert Gnaidza, held a news conference and stated he was canceling the contract, which entrusted the computer tapes to Dr. Brian, because the tapes were of incalculable value as a research tool and handing them to Dr. Brian was in effect ‘a gift of public property for private purposes.’ Dr. Brian apparently acknowledged having obtained the tapes, but he denied that the tapes were a gift to him, and declared, `The entire matter is a blatant political ploy intended to obfuscate the abortive Gestapo raid ordered by the [present] health director.'” The report quotes from Riconosciuto’s sworn statement for the Hamiltons, which claims Brian and the Justice Department contract officer in charge of Inslaw’s installation had both secretly delivered Inslaw’s Promis software to the Cabazon Indian reservation in Southern California a center for arms dealing and contra resupply, according to Riconosciuto for “refitting” so it could be used by intelligence agencies in the U.S. and abroad. Brian flatly denied these claims in his own sworn statement to the committee, and said he had never heard of nor been involved with the so-called Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture. He also claimed he had never met or talked to the contract officer. The committee reached no conclusions as to the facts in the matter, and instead urged further investigation. However, an intriguing footnote raises questions about Brian’s possible role: “According to a law enforcement police report on file with committee, Dr. Brian together with Michael Riconosciuto, among others, attended a weapons demonstration at Lake Chauchilla gun range in Indio, Ca[lif]., during the evening of September 10, 1981.” The footnote cites the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office Special Operations Report, which it has on file but did not make public. According to one Capitol Hill aide who has studied the document, it contains a police report of the event, including license plate numbers of cars at the meeting as well as the names of those who were there. The new questions raised by the committee about the August 1991 death of Danny Casolaro are also intriguing. According to the report, FBI agent Gates “indicated under oath that he had received several calls from Mr. Casolaro, beginning approximately four weeks before his death,” and said he was “very suspicious” about his death for several reasons. To begin with, Casolaro had sounded “upbeat” before his death and not like somebody getting ready to commit suicide. Casolaro had a phone book with Gates’ number in it, which disappeared after his death and has never been found. The Martinsburg police department “told him the wounds to Mr. Casolaro’s arms were ‘hacking’ wounds. Special Agent Gates felt that the amount of injury to the arms of Mr. Casolaro were not consistent with injuries inflicted by an individual who had slit his own wrists. Special Agent Gates said he was told by Martinsburg police investigators that: …he [Casolaro] hacked his wrists … the wrists were cut, but they were cut almost in a slashing or hacking motion …’ ” Gates said he raised these suspicions with the Martinsburg authorities and that he “called the local FBI office and suggested that they investigate because it was possibly related to criminal activity which falls within the jurisdiction of the FBI.” In a footnote, the committee report says, “It should be noted that throughout his deposition, Agent Gates repeatedly connected various strands of his conversations with Casolaro, as well as other aspects of the INSLAW investigation, to a single individual, Robert Booth Nichols. In making certain statements, Gates acknowledged that Nichols had filed a law suit against him because of another crime investigation in which he participated which was centered in Southern California. Nevertheless, Gates maintained that important and highly pertinent information regarding the past history of Nichols existed in sealed wiretap and confidential grand jury investigations….” Nichols has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. This wiretap links figures in the entertainment business to organized crime. Although West Virginia officials concluded Casolaro committed suicide, the autopsy led the committee to ask several questions, including: Why was there a bruise on one arm? How had he suffered a head injury? While individual FBI agents have raised question s about the death, and two agents interviewed Tony Casolaro about his brother’s knowledge of BCCI, the Bureau has never formally indicated its involvement in the case. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11