Author : Harry Martin
Date : 03/22/91
Desc : Federal Corruption Series Part III

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BANKRUPTCY, JUSTICE SCANDAL COULD EQUAL WATERGATE
By Harry V. Martin
Third in a NEW SERIES
(c) Copyright Napa Sentinel
March 22, 1991
Reprinted with permission of the Napa Sentinel


As if things weren't getting hot enough for the federal bankruptcy
court system, but now the INSLAW case is becoming another Watergate.
INSLAW was a Washington, D.C.-based computer firm that sold a highly
technical tracking software program to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal judges have upheld INSLAW's contention that the Justice
Department, under Attorney General Edwin Meese, stole INSLAW's computer
program.

A bankruptcy judge that made the ruling was not re-appointed to a 14-
year term. Several Justice Department officials have since been fired
or quit over the case.

Now a U.S. House Subcommittee is investigating the case and putting a
lot of heat on the Justice Department. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh
has been placed in an awkward position because of the case. Though he
was not Attorney General at the time the INSLAW scandal broke, he was
the man who investigated it and cleared the Justice Department of wrong
doing.

Testimony has come forward that the Justice Department, under Meese,
pressured the bankruptcy courts to declare INSLAW insolvent, forcing
the company to release its assets--including the critical software.
INSLAW was once threatened if it didn't sell its company to a close
Meese associate. After the threat, INSLAW's life was made miserable by
the Justice Department. When INSLAW sued the Justice Department it was
awarded $6.8 million. The judge who made the award was fired and
replaced with a newly appointed judge--the man who prosecuted the case
for the Justice Department. A second judge upheld the first judge's
ruling.

The House subcommittee is accusing Thornburgh of stonewalling the
Committee's request for hundreds of documents involved in the INSLAW
case. Two years ago, the same stalling tactics by the Attorney
General's office played havoc with a Senate investigation of the same
problem. But Texas Congressman Jack Brooks is putting the heat on the
Justice Department to turn over its records on INSLAW-- Brook's
committee controls the purse strings of the Justice Department and has
more clout than did the Senate Committee.

The protected software has been pirated to the Canadian government.
Those who were found responsible for the pirating were close associates
of Meese. "No sooner had the piracy been confirmed in Canada than an
Israeli intelligence officer alleged that PROMIS (INSLAW's software
program) was being used illegally by the CIA and other U.S.
intelligence agencies," states James J. Kilpatrick in the March 15
edition of "The Miami Herald."

After the re-appointment of the federal bankruptcy judge was halted
because of his ruling on the INSLAW case, almost every bankruptcy judge
that is handed the case declines to have anything to do with it.
"Nobody wants to touch the case," states Chief District Judge Aubrey
Robinson.

According to Brooks, the Justice Department is now ready to turn over
the documents, states the "Legal Times" of Washington, D.C. The scandal
touches many high officials in the Justice Department or formerly
associated with the Department. They include:

* Edwin Meese, former Attorney General.

* Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.

* U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens.

* Justice Department Watchdog Michael Sheheen, Jr.

* Gerald McDowell, chief of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity
Section.

* Lawrence McWhorter, head of the Executive Office of the U.S.
Attorney's Criminal Division.

* Bankruptcy Judge Cornelius Blackshear.

* North District of California Federal District Judge D. Lowell
Jensen, who was a former Deputy Attorney General and once chief
competitor to INSLAW in California.

The Brooks Committee has also learned that the Justice Department's
computer system is "all botched up" and has also learned that there is
a lot of sensitive data within the Department of Justice computer files
that is not secure. The INSLAW program was to organize everything and
track cases all over the country.

The Justice Department is the prime law enforcement agency in the
United States. A scandal there could rock the nation in a similar
fashion as Watergate did during the Nixon Administration.

The Justice Department oversees the Federal Bankruptcy Court and the
Trustee system. The Justice Department is investigating the Federal
Bankruptcy Court and the Trustee System. The Justice Department has
been caught using the Bankruptcy System for their own interest. In
other words, the Justice Department is investigating the Justice
Department's Bankruptcy System for potential wrongdoings by the Justice
Department.

But is there really justice in this land?
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