123 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
123 lines
6.8 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: FEDERAL CORRUPTION FILE: UFO2773
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART 6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filename: Harry6.Art
|
|
Type : Article
|
|
Author : Harry Martin
|
|
Date : 04/05/91
|
|
Desc : Federal Corruption Series Part VI
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATORS SEEK NEW DECLARATION
|
|
By Harry V. Martin
|
|
Sixth in a NEW SERIES
|
|
(c) Copyright Napa Sentinel, 1991
|
|
April 5, 1991
|
|
Reprinted with permission of the Napa Sentinel
|
|
|
|
|
|
Congressional investigators have flown to Tacoma, Washington, to
|
|
interview Michael Riconoscuito--a key witness in the INSLAW case.
|
|
Riconoscuito provided a damaging statement against the U.S. Justice
|
|
Department in the stolen software case that potentially could become
|
|
another Watergate.
|
|
|
|
Riconoscuito stated in his declaration that the U.S. Justice
|
|
Department had threatened to have him arrested should he cooperate with
|
|
the House Judiciary Committee investigation into the U.S. Justice
|
|
Departments role in the INSLAW case. Two federal judges have ruled that
|
|
the U.S. Justice Department stole INSLAW's PROMIS software and used
|
|
"trickery and deceit" in the the case. One of those judges was not re-
|
|
appointed to the bench after his ruling. The House Committee has
|
|
already heard testimony that accuses the U.S. Justice Department of
|
|
attempting to interfere with the courts in an effort to have INSLAW
|
|
declared insolvent. Instead, the courts awarded INSLAW $6.8 million in
|
|
damages.
|
|
|
|
Within eight days of Riconoscuito's declaration he was arrested and
|
|
held without bail. Drug Enforcement Agency agents made the arrest. On
|
|
Wednesday a Federal Grand Jury indicted Riconoscuito on one count of
|
|
distribution of methanphetamines. He is still being held without bail.
|
|
Whether or not the U.S. Department of Justice retaliated against
|
|
Riconoscuito's willingness to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary
|
|
Committee, the House investigators are questioning Riconoscuito at
|
|
Kitsap County Correctional Center. One member of the investigation
|
|
stated that the House Committee is deeply concerned with the timing of
|
|
Riconoscuito's arrest, particularly after he signed an affidavit
|
|
stating he was threatened with arrest if he did testify.
|
|
|
|
The Judiciary Committee is investigating allegations that top Justice
|
|
Department officials under former Attorney General Edwin Meese engaged
|
|
in a criminal conspiracy to steal software developed by INSLAW and then
|
|
furnished it to other countries including, Iraq, Libya, South Korea,
|
|
Israel and Canada.
|
|
|
|
Congressman Jack Brooks, chairman of the Committee, has accused the
|
|
Justice Department of a cover-up by withholding more than 200 documents
|
|
in the INSLAW case. A U.S. Bankruptcy judge ruled in 1987 that
|
|
officials of the Justice Department stole the sensitive computer
|
|
software--used to track criminals and also military movements--"through
|
|
fraud, trickery and deceit." The ruling was later affirmed by another
|
|
federal Judge.
|
|
|
|
Riconoscuito has a previous drug conviction for manufacturing PCP
|
|
aboard a Seattle houseboat 18 years ago. Riconoscuito's declaration
|
|
states that he was hired to modify INSLAW's PROMIS software so that it
|
|
could be sold to Canada and other customers. During the time of
|
|
modification, Riconoscuito was working on a joint venture with a
|
|
private security firm and the Cabazon Indians in Indio, California. The
|
|
joint venture also included military equipment and biological and
|
|
chemical warfare weapons for use and/or sale in Central America and the
|
|
Middle East.
|
|
|
|
One Indian and two companions who were opposed to these operations
|
|
and who alleged that tribal money was being filtered into foreign
|
|
banks, were found slain execution style in Ranch Mirage. No one has
|
|
been arrested in the case. The sister of one of the slain men reported
|
|
the Indian ties with the Iran-Contra scandal and the software
|
|
modification. That report was delivered to a New York television studio
|
|
seven years ago. She is now preparing all of it in declaration form and
|
|
supplying it to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee investigation.
|
|
|
|
In other related matters, another affidavit was filed in the INSLAW
|
|
case which reports that a man bought U.S. Justice Department computers
|
|
and court computers for salvage and found the pirated PROMIS software
|
|
program in the surplus computer. The General Accounting Office has
|
|
expressed grave concern over the salvaged computers, noting that the
|
|
U.S. Justice Department has sold surplus computers without first
|
|
erasing sensitive information from the memory banks. "The error may
|
|
have put some informants, witnesses and undercover agents in a `life-
|
|
and-death' situation," the GAO states. The data could include the names
|
|
of government informants, federally protected witnesses and undercover
|
|
agents, grand jury proceedings, sealed indictments, confidential FBI
|
|
investigations and personal data about Justice Department employees.
|
|
These computers were sold by the Justice Department for as little as
|
|
$45. The man in Lexington, Kentucky, who found the pirated PROMIS
|
|
software in the U.S. Justice Department surplus computer also found
|
|
sealed grand jury indictments.
|
|
|
|
Charles Hayes was the man who bought the equipment in July 1990 for
|
|
$45. He has now been sued by the U.S. Justice Department for the return
|
|
of the computers, stating that the memory bank had not been erased. The
|
|
U.S. Justice Department did not go after Hayes until after he signed an
|
|
affidavit about the protected PROMIS software. It is not certain
|
|
whether the U.S. Justice Department wants the sensitive material back
|
|
or they want the computers to block them from being used as evidence
|
|
against them in the INSLAW case. Hayes did return the equipment. This
|
|
was not an isolated case. Another U.S. Attorney Office notified federal
|
|
agents that once again sensitive data that could potentially identify
|
|
agents and witnesses may have been lost.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
|
|
********************************************** |