"Over the last two weeks I have encountered just such an apocalyptic situation, where I and the Department of Justice have been asked to be part of something that is fundamentally wrong."
(Excerpt from Deputy Attorney General James Comey's draft letter of resignation to President Bush, dated March 16, 2004, which Comey did not in the end send.)
"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull"
(George Orwell: 1984)
I: Main Core and PROMIS
Suppose that the United States Government, or more likely an unaccountable privatized intelligence colossus empowered by the reaction to the 9/11 attacks and fueled by the rampant cronyism of a system long ago gone rotten had a surveillance tool capable of peering into the most private aspects of American lives on a whim. Now suppose that the new growth industry of a previously unthinkable futuristic police state was already in place, is fully operational and has in fact been online and has been actively utilized for illegal domestic spying purposes for years, and that it was being used well before those two airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center.
The 'terrorist' attacks were then and have been used as the justification for every unconstitutional reigning in of civil liberties ever since that heinous September morning seven years ago when the reset button was hit on two and a quarter centuries of American history and we all stepped forth into the brave new world of perpetual war, fear, suspicion and vengeance into a parallel reality in a place that would come to be ominously known as The Homeland. What if this surveillance industrial complex was in possession of a database that was so large and so powerful that not only could it instantly process and retrieve the most minute or intimate aspects of a citizen's lives but was also able to utilize extremely sophisticated artificial intelligence capabilities to actually predict likely patterns of future behavior.
Such a huge database would be able to use cutting edge technology funded with taxpayer dollars and awarded to unaccountable private corporations largely through ‘business as usual’ no bid contracts to create the most invasive tool of oppression this country has ever seen. This database would rely on software that was capable of performing social network analysis based on block modeling technology to monitor all forms of electronic communications, all internet searches, all debit and credit card transactions, all travel arrangements, all library records, all bank activity and all telephone records. It would then be able to use the data to not only find links between persons who already know and interact with each other but to categorize each individual into a particular group that possess similar behavioral and purchasing habits. These groups could then be further divided into subgroups and further analyzed in order to determine under some loosely defined and largely unknown guidelines whether they could potentially represent a threat. While all of this may sound like some sort of futuristic dystopian nightmare straight out of Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report and "Precrime" it is very real and it goes by the name of Main Core. For example, if you are selling a bicycle and run an advertisement in your local newspaper and you happen to receive a call from a Muhammad who is interested in your bicycle and Muhammad happens to have certain friends who have relationships with an organization that is determined by some unknown criteria to be a potential terrorist organization then the call that you received from Muhammad would then in all likelihood place you in the database and subject to an increased level of scrutiny at best and at worst in jeopardy of being picked up and held indefinitely without any sort of judical review.
This techoology is being used today absent any form of legitimate oversight, with a Constitution that has been eviscerated by the Bush-Cheney-Rove Axis of Evil, a vast gulag network of top secret prisons and 'detention facilities' and the decidedly anti-American new phenomenon of state sanctioned torture. Throw in an overworked, systematically dumbed-down populace that has been propagandized by the corrupt institution that is the corporate media machine with it's clever use of fear and loathing and scientific development of advanced mind control techniques who despite the infinite wisdom of our forefathers would gladly sacrifice their liberty for the any sort of temporary safety (no matter that it is fleeting) and there exists today in 'The Homeland' a perfect petri dish for an authoritarian fascist society.
It is though a very sophisticated form of fascism unlike more outwardly obvious regimes that we have known in the past. Author Bertram Gross published a book back in 1980 that was entitled Friendly Fascism, Jim Garrison once said that "fascism would come to America in the name of national security", and author Kevin Phillips in his 1983 book Post-Conservative America warned of the potential of an "apple pie authoritarianism" and a coming society in which: "the Star Spangled Benner would wave with greater frequency and over many more parades; increased surveillance would crack down on urban outbreaks and extreme political dissidents". This very accurately describes post 9/11 America where any semblance of reason has been abandoned for cheap flag-waving pimped off as patriotism, criticism of authority has made into potential treason by the highly paid shills for neoconservative doctrine, sloganeering and demagoguery have replaced discourse, critical thinking is becoming extinct and just as George Orwell so accurately predicted Big Brother is now watching over us, protecting us and ensuring that we understand that war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength.
But I digress...
Main Core has received attention in two recent articles, one a piece by investigative journalist Christopher Ketcham entitled The Last Roundup (which also looks at Continuity of Government programs but more on that in a little while) and Tim Shorrock entitled Exposing Bush’s Historic Abuse of Power. Both articles tie Main Core to the now legendary PROMIS software, an extremely advanced program designed to aid federal prosecutors in case management tracking. PROMIS could pull and put together a wide range of data from disparate sources into a single record. The PROMIS software was created by INSLAW Inc., a company owned by a former NSA intelligence officer named William Hamilton. PROMIS was to have been licensed to the U.S. government in the early 1980’s before the technology boom became widespread but was then stolen by the seamy officials in Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department. The software was modified for espionage purposes to include a ‘back door’ that could be used for spying on those that it was sold to and in a detail that should be especially relevant with the economic crisis that threatens to crash the global financial system, the software could also be used to track in real time (in order to manipulate?) stock market transactions, once can certainly speculate as to how such a tool could have contributed to an economic catastrophe as we are now facing if it were used for such a thing. It is important to keep in mind the period when PROMIS was stolen in the early 1980's and the fact that the techology boom was still years in the future which should give one an idea to just how far advanced and therefore how important that it was to those who would use it in order to promote a sinister agenda.
Mr. Shorock's piece goes into the relationship between PROMIS and Main Core in some detail:
According to William Hamilton, a former NSA intelligence officer who left the agency in the 1970s, that description sounded a lot like Main Core, which he first heard about in detail in 1992. Hamilton, who is the president of Inslaw Inc., a computer services firm with many clients in government and the private sector, says there are strong indications that the Bush administration's domestic surveillance operations use Main Core.
Hamilton's company Inslaw is widely respected in the law enforcement community for creating a program called the Prosecutors' Management Information System, or PROMIS. It keeps track of criminal investigations through a powerful search engine that can quickly access all stored data components of a case, from the name of the initial investigators to the telephone numbers of key suspects. PROMIS, also widely used in the insurance industry, can also sort through other databases fast, with results showing up almost instantly. "It operates just like Google," Hamilton told me in an interview in his Washington office in May.
Since the late 1980s, Inslaw has been involved in a legal dispute over its claim that Justice Department officials in the Reagan administration appropriated the PROMIS software. Hamilton claims that Reagan officials gave PROMIS to the NSA and the CIA, which then adapted the software -- and its outstanding ability to search other databases -- to manage intelligence operations and track financial transactions. Over the years, Hamilton has employed prominent lawyers to pursue the case, including Elliot Richardson, the former attorney general and secretary of defense who died in 1999, and C. Boyden Gray, the former White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush. The dispute has never been settled. But based on the long-running case, Hamilton says he believes U.S. intelligence uses PROMIS as the primary software for searching the Main Core database.
Ed Encho is a free lance writer, activist and consultant who resides in West Central Florida and author of the upcoming "A Monolithic and Ruthless Conspiracy".
It was brought to my attention that an investigation into a mass murder in Riverside County California very likely has links to the PROMIS saga, in fact it goes back to its genesis in the desert where the stolen software was modified in a spook nest set up on an Indian Reservation.
Secret Government Program Linked To Local Murders?
Posted: July 31, 2008 11:21 AM EDT
By Nathan Baca News Channel 3
There are new developments in a year-long News Channel 3 investigation.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department is looking into possible connections between a triple murder in 1981, and murders-suicide in 2005 that claimed 6 lives.
We have internal documents from the Cold Case Division of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department showing the depth of the investigation.
We will not reveal the investigators' identity at this time since the documents show their lives may be in danger.
Now, we are learning the murders may be a cover up for one of the federal government's most secret computer programs.
"PROMIS" is the name of one of the government's most secret computer database programs.
Computer programmer Michael Riconosciuto wrote in an affadavit that major modifications to the program were made in Indio.
On July 1, 1981, Fred Alvarez, his girlfriend Patty Castro and friend Ralph Boger were shot to death on Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage. There was a house here that has since been bulldozed. Nobody was ever arrested for the shooting.
Family friends say Cabazon Band of Mission Indians Vice Chairman Fred Alvarez was going to blow the whistle on
documents from the early 1980's showing a business partnership between defense contractor Wackenhut Services and Cabazon Manager John Phillip Nichols to form "Cabazon Arms."
One of their alleged projects was the PROMIS computer program. Database and pattern recognition software was a new source of information and power in the early 1980s.
It starts when the program's designers, Inslaw Corporation, accused the U.S. Justice Department of stealing the software for their own foreign policy purposes.
This programmer testified he altered the program to create what's called "a back door" to allow government spying.
This happened while working on Cabazon Indian Sovereign land.
"The parties that were involved in the distribution of this software were involved in covert operations. They were involved in Nicaragua and Central America. And they were involved in operation in the Middle East," said Riconosciuto in an 1993 interview.
A U.S. Justice Department memo from 1985 shows the PROMIS software was being sold to Middle Eastern arms dealers and wanted "no paperwork or customs inspections" to interfere.
Even TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" got on the case when the last journalist to investigate this spy scandal was found dead in his hotel room.
Danny Casolero's wrists were slashed in 1991. It was ruled a suicide.
But his reporter notes disappeared, and the book on the conspiracy he was to title "Indio" was never finished.
Congressional hearings were held in 1992.
"The report involves the committee's investigation into serious allegations that high level Department of Justice officials were involved in the criminal conspiracy to force Inslaw, a small company, out of business." stated Rep. Jack Brooks at the opening of the hearings.
The hearings ended inconclusively.
The PROMIS software was allegedly altered on tribal land in Indio with the lack of federal oversight. Just like Microsoft Windows, the database program kept up with the times, upgraded several times over the years.
But PROMIS came back to haunt America in ways never imagined.
As Brit Hume reported in an October 2001 FOX News newscast, "A disturbing indication that Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent accused of spying for the Russians in what officials said at the time of his arrest was a 'massive security breach' ended up helping Osama bin Laden. Correspondent Carl Cameron reports Hanson sold the Russians an extremely sensitive piece of U.S. Technology. And they in turn sold it to Al Qaeda's terrorist network."
From an office in Indio, to foreign capitals all over the world; several murder investigations are connected to this spy scandal. Whether answers can still be found 27 years later remains in the hands of the Sheriff's Cold Case squad.
The internal documents we've obtained and confidential interviews we've done reveal the Riverside County Sheriff's Cold Case squad is investigating whether DA Investigator David McGowan was on this 27 year old murder case before his 2005 death. News Channel 3 is still looking into whether they've concluded that angle of their questioning.
The Cabazon Indian Tribe has still not responded to our questions about this cold case being reopened.
If you've missed any part of this 31-part exclusive investigation, more than a year in the making, click on the right hand side of the KESQ.com homepage on "Special Reports" and then the icon that says "Inside the DA's Office and DHS Police."
This is something that has been going on for a long time now, god only knows what this database is capable of or who is in it.
by
Dennis Roller (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Friday, October 3, 2008 at 1:29:38 PM
I still believe that the Main Core/PROMIS story will, if exposed, tell the sad legacy of an incredible ideal of governance that focused on freedoms subverted by an ideal of institutionalized theft focused on cronism, power mongering, and pure greed. From my blog: MAIN CORE: The Story of the Century?
I think "Main Core" may well be the story of the century.
Ed. this is a great article and your timing is incredible. The bailout bill passed but only because Bush --the tyrant and mass murderer --blackmailed the nation. It was a matter of passing Bush's bill OR get martial law.
Congress fucked up big time! We have martial law already! Bush need only deem you a terrorist and the protections of the Constitution no longer apply.
Keep up the great work, my friend!
See you at the revolution.l
by
Len Hart (134 articles, 175 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 554 comments)
on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 11:16:10 AM
The senior Bush is probably the 'brains' behind it all. Senior was and probably remains a CIA operative. He was, in fact, in the CIA and in Florida supervising the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Later, he was photographed hanging around the Texas School Book depository on Nov 22, 1963. He looked pensive --like he was waiting for something to happen. Like he was waiting for a signal that his people were in place. I know Bush Sr. The picture IS him.
Bush has always lied about his involvement in the murder of JFK, claims he does not recall being in Dallas that day. Everyone I know who was alive that day remembers PRECISELY where they were on November 22, 1963. ONLY Bush, it seems, is afflicted by such a selective memory.
Bush had repeatedly lied about the FACT that he was a high-ranking CIA official at the time of JFK's death. I can't find any evidence that he has ever ceased being a CIA agent.
Bush allowed the escape of a convicted terrorist from prison to go to work for him as an undercover CIA asset in Iran-Contra and. as President, released another convicted terrorist. Guess what! Both of these TERRORISTS were in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963 --the same time that George Bush Sr was photographed hanging around, waiting for a signal , in fron of the School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza on November, 22, 1963.
The terrorists freed by Bush were convicted for killing 73 people by blowing up an airliner. Of course he would 'free' them. He was a personal friend. Both Bush and the terrorists he freed were involved in the Iran/Contra affair --and ACT OF HIGH TREASON BY REAGAN, BUSH and numerous other members of the Reagan administration.
As a leading CIA official, Bush has played important roles in structuring/organizing these terrorists in effective organizations.
Lest you think this is all 'coincidental', check out the FBIs own stats re: TERRORISM. Summed up: TERRORISM IS ALWAYS WORSE UNDER GOP REGIMES since World War II.
That's because the regimes of Ronald Regan and George W. Bush WERE terrorist regimes. Bush IS a terrorist. It is unclear whether his TERRORIST activities are those of a double agent or if his CIA is simply a 'cover'. Given the the CIAs, I am inclined to classify the CIA as the world's NUMBER ONE TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. It puts the mythical Al Qaeda to shame.
Secondly, TERRORISM IS WORSE UNDER GOP REGIMES because --not only Bush Sr but Ronald Reagan promoted terrorism. Again, check the FBIs own statistics published by Brookings. There were at least three times the number of terrorist attacks against US interests under Reagan as there were under Bill Clinton. Worth repeating: TERRORISM IS ALWAYS WORSE UNDER GOP REGIMES. It's a verifiable fact, confirmed by the government's own statistics.
by
Len Hart (134 articles, 175 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 554 comments)
on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 11:40:04 AM
Thanks Cowboy, you are getting after the varmints pretty good yourself sir as always. You bet that Poppy Bush is involved in all of this and I am going to be taking a look at he and his Nazi cronies as well as the rise of the fascist Shadow Government that suffered a setback when General Smedley Butler blew the whistle on the fascist coup attempt against FDR but rose out of the ashes of WWII with the OSS/CIA and the alliance with Nazi war criminals such as the Gehlen Organization who were smuggled out of Europe after the war ostensibly to be used against the demon communism but were actually assimilated into our intelligence, military, aerospace and medical research institutions.
A group of these fascists built a network that the 'suicided' journalist Danny Casolaro called The Octopus. This story is huge, it is the biggest story of all time because it is the very nexus of evil that has subverted democracy and is on the brink of their ultimate goal of a flag swaddled, god kissed, full blown fascist dicatatorship in the Homeland USA.
Keep up the good fight my man
EE
by
Ed Encho (8 articles, 19 quicklinks, 57 diaries, 396 comments)
on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 12:16:58 PM
It is tied into every conceivable data base both here and abroad so it has the potential of having a billion names in it. Using the latest in mathematics to track individuals and tie them to group ]behaviors. [Watch the tv series "Numb3rs" to get a real world application of it.] Turned against us to control us and make sure to take down the most obvious trouble makers to make a point to the rest of us when needed.
The 'Shadow Gov't' was mentioned once on corporate news (CMSM) talked about how it is running scenarios constantly with stand in officials in 2001. Anyone see it? No mention of cost or who are the major figures involved. I always suspected it was Cheney who is our 'shadow president' in more ways than one! He could be our next vp after McCain is selected and then falls ill and Pale Palin takes over the titular spot and Cheney or some other Naci* takes over as the puppet master for the cabal of Dominionists.
This talk of a 'black uprising' if Obama isn't elected sounds just what they would want to invoke to clamp down on us as an excuse.
*Naci- National Corporatist Industrialist
by
nightgaunt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 322 comments)
on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 2:27:45 PM
Main Core is very dangerous and the lack of any semblance of oversight on how it is being used makes it one hell of a tool for a fascist government that has subverted democracy. Not only are they using this as a form of pre crime and most likely for blackmail (see the feckless Democrat sheep once again fall in line) purposes but when you look back to the Shadow Government programs under Reagan (I will be looking at these in part two) you will find not only REX84 but Operation Cable Splicer and Operation Garden Plot which deal with roundups of troublesome individuals who would be placed in internment camps. Now not to excuse FDR's roundup of Japanese Americans during WW II (a deplorable and shameful part of our history) but at least that was undertaken during a real war and the ginned up phony war on terror that the neocons have used to consolidate their power in the executive branch and have NSPD51 ready to pull the trigger on at any time. In the case of Cable Splicer former Attorney General Edwin Meese was involved as well, he was also involved in the original theft of the PROMIS software and has been involved in both Continuity of Government programs as well as the extremist and highly secretive Council For National Policy which recently vetted Sarah Palin who could prove quite an effective face for American fascism once McCain croaks or is croaked.
I would strongly recommend that people take this post and the comments very seriously and do their thing as independent investigators and bloggers to dig further into this which is the Rosetta Stone for all that has gone wrong in this country over the past half century.
EE
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Ed Encho (8 articles, 19 quicklinks, 57 diaries, 396 comments)
on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 4:10:02 PM
I find some republican voters are waking up since this bailout mess. I do believe the only way to stop all these atrocities done by this administration and the DLC and RNC, is for the ppl to UNITE. The great divider-decider tore us apart more than ever. We divided so far from each other. However, many that HATED the liberal faction are waking up to what has been going on and this will help us get the word out about this "shadow Gov't" and spying, etc.
Funny how money manages to get a rise out of ppl when nothing else seems to do it. Therefore, what should we do with the Tea? Or what should the Tea be? It's well over due and ppl are hot and angry.
I like your articles Mister Encho. I enjoy your posts as well.
by
shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 433 comments)
on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 9:46:16 PM
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