Author : Harry Martin
Date : 04/05/91
Desc : Federal Corruption Series Part VI

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HOUSE JUDICIARY INVESTIGATORS SEEK NEW DECLARATION
By Harry V. Martin
Sixth in a NEW SERIES
(c) Copyright Napa Sentinel, 1991
April 5, 1991
Reprinted with permission of the Napa Sentinel


Congressional investigators have flown to Tacoma, Washington, to
interview Michael Riconoscuito--a key witness in the INSLAW case.
Riconoscuito provided a damaging statement against the U.S. Justice
Department in the stolen software case that potentially could become
another Watergate.

Riconoscuito stated in his declaration that the U.S. Justice
Department had threatened to have him arrested should he cooperate with
the House Judiciary Committee investigation into the U.S. Justice
Departments role in the INSLAW case. Two federal judges have ruled that
the U.S. Justice Department stole INSLAW's PROMIS software and used
"trickery and deceit" in the the case. One of those judges was not re-
appointed to the bench after his ruling. The House Committee has
already heard testimony that accuses the U.S. Justice Department of
attempting to interfere with the courts in an effort to have INSLAW
declared insolvent. Instead, the courts awarded INSLAW $6.8 million in
damages.

Within eight days of Riconoscuito's declaration he was arrested and
held without bail. Drug Enforcement Agency agents made the arrest. On
Wednesday a Federal Grand Jury indicted Riconoscuito on one count of
distribution of methanphetamines. He is still being held without bail.
Whether or not the U.S. Department of Justice retaliated against
Riconoscuito's willingness to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary
Committee, the House investigators are questioning Riconoscuito at
Kitsap County Correctional Center. One member of the investigation
stated that the House Committee is deeply concerned with the timing of
Riconoscuito's arrest, particularly after he signed an affidavit
stating he was threatened with arrest if he did testify.

The Judiciary Committee is investigating allegations that top Justice
Department officials under former Attorney General Edwin Meese engaged
in a criminal conspiracy to steal software developed by INSLAW and then
furnished it to other countries including, Iraq, Libya, South Korea,
Israel and Canada.

Congressman Jack Brooks, chairman of the Committee, has accused the
Justice Department of a cover-up by withholding more than 200 documents
in the INSLAW case. A U.S. Bankruptcy judge ruled in 1987 that
officials of the Justice Department stole the sensitive computer
software--used to track criminals and also military movements--"through
fraud, trickery and deceit." The ruling was later affirmed by another
federal Judge.

Riconoscuito has a previous drug conviction for manufacturing PCP
aboard a Seattle houseboat 18 years ago. Riconoscuito's declaration
states that he was hired to modify INSLAW's PROMIS software so that it
could be sold to Canada and other customers. During the time of
modification, Riconoscuito was working on a joint venture with a
private security firm and the Cabazon Indians in Indio, California. The
joint venture also included military equipment and biological and
chemical warfare weapons for use and/or sale in Central America and the
Middle East.

One Indian and two companions who were opposed to these operations
and who alleged that tribal money was being filtered into foreign
banks, were found slain execution style in Ranch Mirage. No one has
been arrested in the case. The sister of one of the slain men reported
the Indian ties with the Iran-Contra scandal and the software
modification. That report was delivered to a New York television studio
seven years ago. She is now preparing all of it in declaration form and
supplying it to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee investigation.

In other related matters, another affidavit was filed in the INSLAW
case which reports that a man bought U.S. Justice Department computers
and court computers for salvage and found the pirated PROMIS software
program in the surplus computer. The General Accounting Office has
expressed grave concern over the salvaged computers, noting that the
U.S. Justice Department has sold surplus computers without first
erasing sensitive information from the memory banks. "The error may
have put some informants, witnesses and undercover agents in a `life-
and-death' situation," the GAO states. The data could include the names
of government informants, federally protected witnesses and undercover
agents, grand jury proceedings, sealed indictments, confidential FBI
investigations and personal data about Justice Department employees.
These computers were sold by the Justice Department for as little as
$45. The man in Lexington, Kentucky, who found the pirated PROMIS
software in the U.S. Justice Department surplus computer also found
sealed grand jury indictments.

Charles Hayes was the man who bought the equipment in July 1990 for
$45. He has now been sued by the U.S. Justice Department for the return
of the computers, stating that the memory bank had not been erased. The
U.S. Justice Department did not go after Hayes until after he signed an
affidavit about the protected PROMIS software. It is not certain
whether the U.S. Justice Department wants the sensitive material back
or they want the computers to block them from being used as evidence
against them in the INSLAW case. Hayes did return the equipment. This
was not an isolated case. Another U.S. Attorney Office notified federal
agents that once again sensitive data that could potentially identify
agents and witnesses may have been lost.
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