PROMIS: A Tale of Government Corruption, Part 4

In 1991 Riconcuiuto signed a deposition for Hamilton, an old NSA hand, in his efforts to recover lost profits. Riconcuito was then arrested before he could testify in person. His written testimony and subsequent interviews with Brooks Committee attorneys included information of Waackenhut double billing, how Iran was paid for retaining the 52 hostages past the 1980 election, the mechanics of CIA money laundering including the listing of dead drop accounts in the West Indies, how highly sensitive technology was sold to Red China through third parties. Riconoscuito tied Reagan Justice Department attorney Michael Abbell to the Cali cartel and confirmed CIA drug operations in the Bekaa Valley.

He is now in prison for operating a meth lab and has been in prison ever since. In the litigation, there was testimony that Riconcuito helped launder $40 million for the Bush-Quayle campaign; however, only one government source has supported this claim.

. Ari Ben-Menashe testified that he was present when Brian made a presentation of the program to the Israeli government in 1987. In his affidavit, he said Israel bought the program and that all US intelligence agencies were using it by then. He further stated that Israel helped Brian sell the software to Iraqi intelligence and that he was present in Brian=s Santiago, Chile office when the deal was consummated. A British Air Force officer who was present was later found hanged. The death was ruled a suicide. Brian acquired the nickname ACash@ in Brazil where he sold the software to that government. But before concluding the sale, Brazilians said he placed a call to Attorney General Edwin Meese. President Joao Figueiredo gave a deposition to this effect in 1992 and was supported by a CIA agent who was present. However, the NSA redacted the agent=s testimony.

The Israelis and Americans developed plans to quietly sell the software to intelligence agencies all over the world. Senator John Tower, with long experience in the covert arms trade, helped the US and Israelis develop a working arrangement. Israel used firms connected with Robert Maxwell=s Macmillan publishing empire and the United States worked through Earl Brian=s Hadron, Inc. Using a firm called SCT, Brian tried to purchase Inslaw. It is likely that Brian was operating CIA fronts, but one can assume that he was sharing in the profits. Some speculate that this was his payoff for handling the financial side of the October, 1980 Surprise, in which Bill Casey, he, and others made a deal with the Iranians to hold 52 hostages until after the American presidential election. Brian was eventually convicted of ten counts of financial fraud in matters apparently not related to Inslaw.

A modified version of the software was spread throughout the defense industry by 2000. Eventually, PROMIS was used by major banks and many kinds of enterprises. One of the first banks to have the software was BCCI, which was used my the CIA, NSA, and intelligence agencies friendly to the US. BCCI would serve as the front for arming Iraq in the late eighties, and of course people connected with it helped the shaky enterprises of George W. Bush. Since 2002, the French, Germans, and a committee of the European Parliament have suggested PROMIS is used for economic and industrial espionage against them.