111 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
111 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 10 Num. 51
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=======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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THE OCTOPUS
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===========
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(*The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny
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Casolaro* by Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith. Portland: Feral House,
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1996. ISBN: 0-922915-39-3)
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In a correspondence with Kenn Thomas, co-author of this book, I
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exclaimed, "It's about time someone wrote a book about it!"
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"It" is the story of how high-power persons in "our" government
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stole the sophisticated PROMIS (Prosecutor's Management
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Information System) software from a company named Inslaw, how
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journalist Danny Casolaro began investigating the case and (from
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all appearances) was murdered when he got too close to hot
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information, and how this whole case is a "Rosetta stone"
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unlocking American "deep politics."
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*The Octopus* takes its title from Casolaro's term for what he
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had uncovered. Like the tentacles of that sea creature, this
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case reaches far beyond just theft of software. Thomas and
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Keith's book follows a labyrinthine trail, encountering dark
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characters such as Michael Riconosciuto and Robert Booth Nichols,
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unusual places like Area 51 and the Cabazon Indian Reservation,
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and strange deaths such as that of Vincent Foster and Paul
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Wilcher. All these tentacles lead back to The Octopus, an
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amalgam of secret societies, Mafia families, CIA operatives,
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sub-basement bureaucrats and top-floor finaglers.
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In a conversation with a friend, I mentioned I was reading Thomas
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and Keith's book. "How is it?" asked my friend. How is it?
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*Excellent.* This book, as noted, is long overdue; there ought to
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be ten books out there by now on the Inslaw case. The authors
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have got the ball rolling with this effort, and hopefully more
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books on this subject will be written.
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And that brings me to critiques I have of *The Octopus*. My hope
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that more books will be written on the Inslaw case underscores my
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disappointment that Thomas and Keith's book was not longer. It
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runs to more than 170 pages and covers a lot of ground therein,
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but does not go into as much depth as I would have liked.
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Paradoxically, this same generality of focus recommends the book
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to the average reader who is only looking for an overall
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acquaintance with the subject.
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Other niggardly nitpicking I have on this book would be some of
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the sources it cites, such as the "Com-12" document. I hate to
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break it to you, Kenn and Jim, but there are certain supposed
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"intellectuals" out there who look down their noses at such a
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source. Of course you and I know that, in an investigation of
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this nature, one *has* to utilize fringe sources: the mainstream
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press is notorious for closing their eyes and refusing to
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adequately cover certain stories, and that means you've got to
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take what you can get where you can get it. And, too, your "Note
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on Sources" *does* cover this area of possible criticism, so
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forget what I just said.
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Another minor point: you write that the gashes on Casolaro's
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wrists "were too deep to be self-inflicted." Other facts you
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point out *do* support the contention that Casolaro was murdered,
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but in this detail you never explain why "too deep gashes" cannot
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be self-inflicted.
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The only other critique I have of *The Octopus* are the chapters
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taken from Casolaro's original draft of his work-in-progress.
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Reading them, I at first thought, "Uh-oh. Thomas and Keith could
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have used a proof-reader." But then I figured it out: "Oh yeah,
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this is from Casolaro's draft, so of course there are
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mis-spellings." Maybe you should have had a sentence in the
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"Note on Sources" warning the reader that those chapters were
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unaltered and included the original mis-spellings.
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I know, I know: "Nitpicking!" You're right. This book, *The
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Octopus*, has been too-long unwritten. Thomas and Keith have
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performed a necessary task by getting the story, "In the
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record." Let's hope that more books detailing the Inslaw case
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will be written. Prospective authors are encouraged to use *The
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Octopus* as their road map.
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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