MICHAEL RICONOSCIUTO: The Math/Science Wizard Who Said TOO Much, Part 2

Among the other tribes that provided bases for covert operations were Minominee of Minnesota , Arizona's Papago reservations, and the Jicarilla Reservation in Dulce New Mexico 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 operated a casino with them. His son Mark worked with him and eventually took over control of the reservation upon his father’s death. Journalist Virginia McCullough insists the Nichols family had mob connections.

Riconscuito’s operation on the reservation included weapons development and testing. The Indians manufactured night vision glasses , laser-sighted assault weapons, 9 mm machine pistols, 120mm combustible cartridge cases, 9mm machine pistols, , sniper rifles, portable rocket systems, and biological weapons for the Contras. Riconscuito worked on a new, high tech machine gun for use in Central America. Robert Booth Nichols, no relation to the other two, headed Meridian International Logistics (M.I.L.), a California-based company that conducted extensive business in Australia and Japan. M.I.L. also controlled Meridian Arms Corporation of which Riconosciuto was briefly Vice President. These joint projects were also tied to the government=s efforts to assist the Contras in Nicaragua, and it have been suggested that some of the profits from the sale of PROMIS software, which was enhanced there, were used to finance the Nicaraguan Contras. highly implausible. He also claimed that the US had developed a gene-specific biological weapons that attacked people with certain DNA. Eight years after he made this claim, evidence turned up that such a weapon existed.

Robert Booth Nichols, a CIA agent who headed Meridian International Logistics, was a business partner of Riconosciuto and associated with him for about twenty years. Bob Nichols was not related to Dr. Nichols. Their relationship probably began in 1967 when Michael was sent to Lebanon as part of a drug sting operation. Nichols was also tied to Music Corporation of America. He testified that Riconosciuto was frequently in contact with Admiral Bobby Inman, who was at different times head of the National Security Administration and Assistant Director of the CIA. According to Bobbie, Michael’s wife, Bob Nichols was a long-time friend of Bill Hamilton, the ex-NSA man from whom Justice stole the PROMIS software. This tie probably had something to do with Michael’s eventual decision to help Hamilton seek redress in the federal courts. However, his critics say he knew nothing about the Hamiltons until 1990, when a Lyndon La Rouche follower introduced him to them.

Michael and Nichols began to fall out in the eighties over Booth’s insistence that they take embargoed cargo to Australia in 1984 for further development to fill a large contract for FIDCO, a NSA cutout. . Michael had accompanied Nichols to the secret facility at Alice Springs in Australia, which was a “city of sorts” with very sophisticated labs, but he was troubled that it was privately owned rather than a US government asset. He thought moving the manufacturing to Australia placed him in danger of being terminated. This must be a reference to the top secret Pin Gap facility, jointly operated by Australia and the CIA. His reference to it being privately owned is curious.


The other problem was the Lockerbie crash of Pan Am 103 in 1988. Nichols and Riconscuito knew that a bomb was likely to be planted on that flight, and Nichols promised Mike that he would get Major Charles McKee to cancel the reservations for his team. They had come upon evidence that suggested a rogue drug operation involving some CIA people and perhaps DEA agents. Mike was furious when he learned that his friends had been on that flight.

Earlier, in the 1960s, he spent some time in Lebanon working on communications equipment and involved in some way in either a drug bust or drug selling scheme. It is likely that he was also involved in CIA, Wackenhut, Mossad drug activities in California.

Michael has been credited with developing several highly effective explosives. One was a sort of super bomb in which chemicals in a gaseous cloud were blown into the air and infused by means of a rocket carried wire with a large electronic charge and then detonated (Multiple Explosives Transitional Container). The resulting fuel-air mix produced something almost as powerful as a small nuclear explosion. He was also involved in another sub-atomic weapon called “blue lightening.” The latter leaves a residue of Tritium, which some claim was found at the Oklahoma City site. When Riconosciuto was brought before a special federal Grand jury investigating federal corruption in Chicago, retired Judge Nicholas J. Bau forbade any mention of “blue lightening ” and made prejudicial comments about Riconosciuto.

While working at the reservation and other places, he became involved in many intelligence activities. He developed advanced weapons for the Nicaraguan Contras and met some of their leaders. He spent much time on developing communications and encryption equipment for the intelligence community. He developed chemical warfare weapons and improved night vision goggles. At Lear in Nevada, he learned technology of enhanced fuel-air explosive weapons and did some work in that area along with Gerald Bull of Space Research Corporation. Bull also developed the “Giant Gun” of Saddam Hussein which an Israeli Mossad team took out before our first war with Iraq. Bull was eliminated by a Mossad-CIA operation. Michael managed to save enough Wackenhut correspondence to prove his expertise in weapons making, even though the company has said he was just a “hanger on.”

Riconosciuto had developed considerable expertise laundering money, and he told House Judiciary Committee investigators that he was involved in routing the $40,000, 000 down payment to Iranian leaders as part of the GOP’s deal to have them hold 52 hostages until after the US election of 1980 was over. Allegedly, Maurice Stans produced the money that was routed to the Iranians through a Mexican bank. There is no longer any question about the deal or the $40,000,000 down payment, but Michael’s involvement cannot be independently established.

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, a Customs lawyer on loan to Justice who Michael said managed the Department a software system. Brian was said to have had many transactions through BCCI and banks in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. According to both Mike and Bob Nichols, Videnieks was involved with them and Dr. Earl Brian in Hadron Corporation, which tried to buy Inslaw, producer of PROMIS software. Hadron also manufactured lasers. Nicaraguan Contra leaders visited it because weapons were being manufactured there for their use.