PROMIS SOFTWARE: A Tale of Government Corruption, Part 2

In 1982, Earl Brian, acting for the Justice Department, seemed to have agreed to lease William Hamilton's PROMIS software for $10 million over three years. It was initially a very sophisticated data base that prosecutors could use to keep track of cases. Reagan=s Attorney Generals William French Smith and Ed Meese wanted it to fight domestic crime, but it was soon put to other uses. Hamilton's basic mistake was probably not selling the firm to a friend of Meese. But he refused and was told " We have ways of making you sell." Soon Justice Department and Hamilton later disagreed over what services were to be provided. Justice stopped payments and seized the program, forcing Hamilton=s Inslaw Corporation into bankruptcy. Meese became attorney General in 1985 after much of the damage was done.

Much later, Congressman Jack Brooks investigated whether Meese was trying to force Hamilton to sell to Hadron, a rival firm led by Dr. Earl W. Brian and several other ranking Republicans. Brian had lent Meese money and Mrs. Meese was an investor in the firm. Inslaw would retain the services of attorney Elliot Richardson, who pursued the matter for ten years. A serious blow to his efforts occurred when the Justice Department was robbed on April 27, 1991. The bandits trucked away many filing cabinets with information on the Inslaw case. He won twice, only to be eventually overruled on a technicality. The case would cost one judge his job and get one Justice Department whistle blower his job. IBM subsequently bought Inslaw. This facility was used by Oliver North to track people he claimed to be potential terrorists. Earlier, CIA director Bill Casey had sought an executive order giving the CIA power to spy on American citizens within the United States. The proposal caused an uproar and was dropped. The desire of conservatives to keep track of what other citizens are thinking and doing has a long history. Attorney General--later Chief Justice-- Richard Rehnquist told a Senate committee that the government had the Aright to collect whatever information it want on anybody.@ In August, 1971, Richard Nixon was considering a play to wire house, boats, and other facilities on America. He decided it was unnecessary because the existing surveillance system was pretty efficient.


PROMIS was soon made available to the Israelis and Wackenhut Corporation. Wackenhut provides security at sensitive military bases, and is filled with former CIA and NSA people. Some say Wackenhut is the “CIA’s CIA.” CIA Director Bill Casey had once been its outside counsel. The Justice Department claimed that the FBI did not use the software, but Director William Sessions has refused to give that guarantee. At a 6,100 square foot command center on the 6th floor of Department of Justice headquarters was created for the use of PROMIS.

Wackenhut sent PROMIS to its computer laboratories on the Cabazon Indian Nation=s Reservation in Indio, California, where weapons and ammunition was also being manufactured for the Contras. This nation, which claims sovereign immunity, had less than thirty members, but all sorts of companies were located thereB almost all of them fronts for covert operations. In some ways, the alliance with this small nation gave Wakenhut and the intelligence community the advantage of having a small country located on Interstate 10, in the middle of California. Wakenhut, of course, had very close ties to the CIA and has a number of former CIA people in high positions. The CIA used other sovereign Indian reservations for money laundering and drug and gun running. Among them were Minominee of Minnesota and Arizona's Papago rese4rvations. The Cabazon, as a minority, had the ability to front and receive government contracts. The Indians appeared to be under control of CIA veteran and mobster “Dr.” John Phillip Nichols ( 1924-2001), who operates a casino with them. His son Mark worked with him and took over control of the reservation upon his father’s death. The reservation was a favorite visiting shot for Saudi sheiks, mob leaders, politicians, military officers, and foreign intelligence people. Two important visitors were Dr. Earl Brian, a businessman with long CIA ties and Peter Videnieks, who managed the Department of Justice=s interest in PROMIS. Brian had many transactions through BCCI and banks in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.