PROMIS Land
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/money2.htm
When they hear the term "money laundering," many automatically think
of Miami, London, Hong Kong, or Panama City. How about Arkansas?
According to what Money Laundering Bulletin calls The Greatest Story
Never Told, an "archive of more than 2000 documents . . . allege that
western Arkansas was a centre of international drug smuggling in the
early 1980s--perhaps even the headquarters of the biggest drug
trafficking operation of all time" [12]. Perhaps that is why it was in
Arkansas that modifications were made to the stolen PROMIS software
system to enable it to spy on banking transactions. For where there
are drugs, there must be money laundering, or so one can suppose.
Curiously, however, some of the same set of characters were apparently
involved on all sides: in drug running, money laundering, and also in
the theft and modification of the PROMIS system. (I will leave it to
someone with more money, guns, and lawyers than I have to bring that
part of the story to light, and will not pursue it further here.)
The PROMIS software was created by the Washington, D.C.-based software
company Inslaw for a single purpose: to track people. It was initially
designed for the use of federal prosecutors. Want to know who the
judge was on a particular case? Ask PROMIS. Now want to know all the
similar cases that same judge has heard? Ask PROMIS again. How about
all the accused money launderers a particular attorney has defended?
And so on. But after the Justice Department acquired the PROMIS
software by "trickery, deceit, and fraud," and installed it in most of
its regional offices, the system was modified and sold to foreign
intelligence organizations, then modified again and sold to banks.
snip
But there was more to these sales than the simple desire of the
cronies of Ed Meese and Hillary Clinton to make a fast buck, important
as the latter motive may be. The sale was itself an intelligence
operation. As former Attorney General Elliot Richardson noted, "One
important motive for the theft of Enhanced PROMIS may have been to use
it as a means of penetrating the intelligence and law enforcement
agencies of other governments. The first step in this scheme was the
sale to the foreign government of a computer into which had been
inserted a microchip capable of transmitting to a U.S. surveillance
system the electronic signals emitted by the computer when in use.
Enhanced PROMIS has capabilities that make it ideally suited to
tracking the activities of a spy network. Several INSLAW informants
formerly affiliated with United States and Israeli intelligence
agencies claim that both the United States and Israel have relied on
'cutout' companies to provide ongoing support for the PROMIS software"
[14]. Of course, what can be done with foreign intelligence computers
can also be done with banking computers, and at least one of these
"cutout companies" is a major provider of banking software. [15]
------------
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/part15.htm
Allegations Regarding Vince Foster, the NSA, and Banking Transactions
Spying, Part XV
by J. Orlin Grabbe
The world of money laundering is a difficult one. What are you going
to do when your wire transfers to the Caribbean and other offshore
centers won't go through? What are you going to do when one-third (as
of August 8, 1995) of certain government computers are down with a
virus? Or is it a worm? Or an octopus?
Did the NSA, in its zeal to modify the PROMIS software to spy on
banking and other transactions, create a massive security hole in
computer systems sending wire transfers?
Well, I do hear it is a nice time to go vacationing in the islands,
even for day trips! Perhaps FinCEN could relocate to Havana?
[Note to Julie Franklin: Over here in Reno, we're always last to get
the news. Well, I'm a taxpayer. Please put me on your list. In the
future please fax all computer disconnect info to 702-829-0852.
Thanks.]
Which brings us to the subject of Ed Meese. At the end of Reagan's
second term as governor of California, Meese needed a new job. He
worked at Rohr Industries for a while. But it didn't suit him, so
Richard Mellon Scaife set up the San Diego Center for Criminal Justice
on condition that Ed Meese be its Director, a post Meese held 1977-
1980.
Later, after Ed Meese became Attorney General of the U.S. and the the
people-tracking PROMIS software was stolen by the U.S. Justice
Department using (according to a federal bankruptcy judge) "trickery,
deceit, and fraud", Ed Meese's friend Earl Brian--then owner of
Financial News Network, UPI, and Hadron corporation--proceeded to
market the software all over the world, as well as to U.S.
intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
One agency that acquired the software was FEMA, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, which proceeded to create a data base of political
dissidents to be rounded up in event of a national emergency. (Like
any information, once collected it found multiple uses.) This data
base was called MAINCORE, and the FEMA MAINCORE system was operated
out of the basement of a building in Culpeper, VA.
Journalist Danny Casolaro, with the help of Alan Standorf, was able to
get printouts of this totalitarian application of the PROMIS software
just prior to his demise. (When a member of congress attempted to
question Oliver North about the FEMA MAINCORE data base, he was rudely
shouted down by the chairman of the investigative committee.)
Another agency that put the software to use was the Wackenhut
Corporation. It used the enhanced PROMIS to keep track of critics of
the nuclear industry, an area in which Richard Mellon Scaife has a
vested financial interest.
Now Mellon bank in Pittsburgh finds itself embroiled in very serious
money laundering charges.
Do these facts explain why the Little-Rock connection to the theft and
modification of the PROMIS software for the purpose of spying on
banking transactions is a subject carefully avoided in Scaife-
sponsored political advertisements?
Is this why the Mena-drug-smuggling, Little-Rock-money-laundering
operation allegedly stops with Bill Clinton?
Is this why the connection of Vince Foster both to bank spying and
nuclear espionage has been carefully downplayed?
Do Scaife's investments in the "terrorism industry" have anything to
do with recent media hyping of the imminent threat to the U.S. of
"international" terrorism?
Scaife's exposing of the sins of the Democrats has certainly served a
useful purpose. But don't think the story stops with Bill Clinton.
Perhaps the reason that Mr. Kenneth Starr's independent investigation
into the Whitewater affair has gone so slowly is that Mr. Starr, in
order to nail Bill Clinton, has to also nail a number of high-ranking
Republicans?
---------------
http://www.hotwired.com/collections/hacking_warez/1.01_inslaw1.html
http://www.federal.com/back/mar31-97index.html
-- Heavy Stuff (spooked@silly.com), October 19, 1999.
>> If the plunge protection works and everything turns out hunky dory,
what is the problem? <<
In a market, there are always both sides to consider. There are buyers
and there are sellers. If the government is intervening in the favor
of just one side, then the other side is getting the shaft.
For example, imagine you have studied the market and concluded that a
company listed on the DJIA is overvalued and the price of its stock is
very likely to come down. You take a short position on the stock,
looking to profit from your knowledge.
Sure enough, the stock price goes down the next day. However, the PPT,
seeing the DJIA go down, decides to bolster the average by buying the
stock you shorted. It goes back up. Not only that, the market sees
that the government is buying and it sparks a rally in your stock.
After all, if the game is rigged, why not get on the "right" side of
the manipulation? The stock price goes far above the strike price and
you lose a LOT of money.
If this happened to you, would everything be hunky-dory? Or would it
be a problem for you?
-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), October 19, 1999.