128 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
128 lines
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 9 Num. 55
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======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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FOCUS ON CHARLES HAYES
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======================
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The book from which the following is excerpted, The Octopus:
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Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro, by Kenn Thomas
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and Jim Keith, will be available in late November from Feral
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House, POB 3466, Portland, OR 97208.
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One person who might have had a view of how PROMIS works was
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Charles Hayes. Newspapers identified Hayes as a salvage dealer
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in Pulaski County, Kentucky, near the temporary home of Ari Ben-
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Menashe in Lexington, who purchased $45 worth of surplus computer
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equipment from the government in July 1990. The equipment
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included 13 terminals, nine printers, two cartridge module
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drives, 19 backup cartridges and two central memory
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units--equipment that had been used by the US Attorney's office
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since 1983 to maintain information via PROMIS on the witness
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protection program, informants, office employees, and outstanding
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grand jury cases. In August, when federal officials discovered
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that a weak magnetic screwdriver had failed to purge this
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information from the equipment adequately, two FBI agents
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dispatched to make inquiries of Hayes were kicked out.(1) Three
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days later, Hayes began to cooperate with the US Attorney's
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office, denied that he had possession of any information that
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might have been on the equipment, and invited an inspection.
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Inspectors discovered that the serial numbers of the two
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cartridge modules that Hayes claimed were the ones he bought did
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not match the numbers of the modules the Justice Department had
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sold. (2) Hayes then claimed he had sold the modules, but did
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not name the purchasers until after federal officials filed a
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lawsuit.(3) Justice Department attorneys later claimed that Hayes
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had indeed tried to sell the secret information to an undercover
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informant, but criminal charges were never filed. (4) The case
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led to a congressional investigation of computer security; the
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Justice Department now tosses rather than sells its extra data
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storage devices.
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(1) Baker, David L., "Computer Records Accidentally Sold,"
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Lexington Herald-Leader, September 1, 1990.
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(2) Baker, David L., "Buyer Says Agents Didn't Find Computer
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With Secrets," Lexington Herald-Leader, September 5, 1990.
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(3) "Buyer of US Computer Files To Be Disclosed," Lexington
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Herald-Leader, September 6, 1990.
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(4) Baker, David L., "US Says Pulaski Man Tried To Sell
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Secrets," Lexington Herald-Leader, September 22, 1990.
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...and
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With the help of Wackenhut and the Cabazons, according to Ari
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Ben-Menashe, the US developed its own version of the back-door
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and the US and Israel began looking for a neutral company through
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which it could sell the program to foreign intelligence services.
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The company chosen for the task was Degem, a computer firm with
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offices in Israel, Guatemala and the South African Bantustan
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homeland. It had been taken over for the purpose by Robert
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Maxwell, the publishing mogul who drowned under mysterious
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circumstances in 1991. Through Maxwell's Degem, working in
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tandem with Brian's Hadron, the software found a home with the
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military regime in Guatemala, where it tracked leftist
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insurgents. "Even if they traveled under a false name, various
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characteristics, such as height, hair color, age, were fed into
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roadside terminals and PROMIS searched through its database
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looking for a common denominator. It would be able to tell an
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army commander that a certain dissident who was in the north
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three days before had caught a train, then a bus, stayed at a
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friend's house, and was now on the road under a different name.
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That's how frightening the system was." According to
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Ben-Menashe, PROMIS was used in South Africa to track and squelch
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the organizers of a strike among the black coal miners via their
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mandatory identity cards (5). Degem also sold PROMIS to the
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Soviet Union and the system was utilized by its GRU intelligence
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service at least until the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. (6)
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(5) Oddly, a member of a congressional delegation sent on a fact-
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finding tour to Johannesburg at the exact moment the world's
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second largest platinum mine fired 20,000 black workers to end a
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walk-out in January 1986, was Charles Hayes of Chicago. The mine
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was located in the homeland of Bophuthatswana, northwest of
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Johannesburg ("South African Platinum Mine Fires 20,000 Blacks
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Over Strike," Lexington Herald Leader, January 7, 1986.) In
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December of that year, the Charles Hayes, who would later buy the
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loaded Justice Department computers but identified then as an
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attorney, was involved with a gemstone smuggling operation in
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Brazil with links to Kentucky. He represented one of the
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Brazilian corporations indicted by the US over the smuggling.
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(White, Jim, Courier-Journal, September 6, 1990.) (6)
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Ben-Menashe, Profits of War, p. 141.
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Kenn Thomas publishes Steamshovel Press, a journal that regularly
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examines conspiracy theories. Singles issues: $5.50 in USA;
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US$6.50 foreign. SUbscriptions: $22.00 in USA; US$26 foreign.
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Send to Steamshovel Press, POB 23715, St. Louis, MO 63121. On
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the web, Steamshovel can be found at:
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http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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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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