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This file is the abstracts or text of 26 articles with references to the
Justice Department's participation in the Inslaw scandal. There are also
references to Danny Casolaro's mysterious death (spelled murder). The
articles were published in 1991 and 1992.
I've included some background information about Inslaw and its products.
Copyrights belong to the corresponding journals.
Journal: Newsbytes March 5 1992
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Title: Justice Dept. allegedly blocks Inslaw investigation.
Author: McCormick, John.
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Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Investigations).
Topic: Legal Issues
Investigations
Government Agency
United States. Department of Justice
Software piracy
Copyright.
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Full Text:
- ***Justice Dept Allegedly Blocks Inslaw Investigation 03/05/92 WASHINGTON,
DC, U.S.A., 1992 MAR 5 (NB) -- According to a CNN Business report today, the
U.S. Justice Department is harassing individuals who talk with investigators
who are looking into the Inslaw software case. Inslaw, a Washington based
software company, has charged that the Justice Department made illegal copies
of its PROMIS legal case tracking software and sold or gave it to various
countries.
Former Attorney General and defeated Pennsylvania candidate for the U.S.
Senate, Richard Thornburgh, fought a futile battle to keep congressional
investigators from obtaining Justice Department files relating to the case,
and although a spokesperson for the Department of Justice is saying that
current head William P. Barr has ordered Department employees to provide
"full support" to the investigation, CNN reports that Judge Bua said he is
aware of the allegations that Justice is harassing people who talk to his
investigators.
Judge Bua was appointed by Barr in November of 1991 to investigate the
allegations against his Department but there has been some confusion over
just how much authority the retired federal judge has to force cooperation.
The Justice Department says that the Attorney General's office is not aware
of any allegations of harassment, but CNN today carried an interview with
former Justice Department staffer Lois Battastoni who said that she knows
about such cases and that employees are in fear of losing their jobs if they
talk to the investigators.
Courts have already ruled in favor of Inslaw on several occasions, but the $8
million award to the small ($6 million gross) company was overturned on a
technicality.
More recently there have been suspicions voiced that the death of James D.
"Danny" Casolaro, a freelance writer who was investigating the Inslaw case,
was not a suicide as originally reported.
(John McCormick/19920305)
Journal: Government Computer News Feb 17 1992 v11 n4 p10(1)
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Title: Writing is on the wall for the move to open systems. (U.S. Justice
Department Information Resources Management Chief Roger M. Cooper)
(GCN Interview) (Interview)
Author: Quindlen, Terrey Hatcher.
Summary: US Justice Department Information Resources Management (IRM) Chief
Roger M. Cooper has guided the department toward embracing open
systems. Currently, the department is putting together a policy
paper that addresses multiuser systems below the level of
mainframes. Cooper would like systems to comply with Posix and to
use the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile. The
local area network standard will be the 10M-bps twisted-pair
Ethernet servers and the word processing standard will be Word
Perfect Corp's WordPerfect 5.1 software package. Cooper and his
staff are looking for ways to procure equipment and supplies, and
he may investigate working with other agencies. He supports the
General Services Administration's policy of leaving 10 percent of
big procurement contracts for other agencies.
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Descriptors..
Topic: MIS
Standards
Open Systems
System Conversion
Interview
Office Automation
Government Contracts
Equipment Acquisition
Information resources management
Government Officials
Management of EDP
Trends.
Feature: illustration
photograph.
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Full Text:
GCN: You have a reputation for supporting open systems. Have you made any
efforts at the Justice Department to move toward an open environment?
COOPER: We basically have done a lot of work with the IRM directors and the
components in the agencies. We are putting together a policy paper that
covers multiuser systems below the mainframe level, because we've got a lot
of IBM-compatible mainframes.
Systems will be Posix-complaint and use the Government Open systems
Interconnection Profile. The department's default for local area network
transmission media will be 10-megabit/sec, twisted-pair Ethernet servers.
It's a very flexible way to transmit.
For office automation, since everybody uses WordPerfect, we've said you've
got to use WordPerfect or at least have compatibility. We mostly use Version
5.1.
We're also working at bringing some version of Unix up on the IBM-compatible
mainframes.
Justice, like most agencies, is very paperwork-oriented. So we're trying to
come up with standards on how we image documents.
We've got a coordinating group for image standards that's met twice now. The
group focuses on joint procurements because that's a growth industry.
GCN: When you say joint procurements, do you mean with other Justice bureaus
or with other agencies?
COOPER: I mean mostly within Justice. But we're always looking for other
procurement vehicles. I've had lots of discussions with Thomas Buckholtz,
commissioner of the General Services Administration's IRM Service, and Frank
McDonough, the assistant commissioner, about using every vehicle. We were
the first people that called on Desktop IV, I think, to see if we could be on
it. That was before it got protested. But that's the way it goes.
I think GSA's proposed policy of leaving 10 percent of certain big
procurements for other agencies is a good idea. We had a very good
experience at the Farmers Home Administration. We had some AT&T 3B2
computers we got through a big office automation contract. The Air Force's
AFCAC 251 had a similar set of hardware and software. But there was a big
difference in the prices.
So we wanted the Agriculture contractor to change his prices. He wasn't very
responsive until we bought a hundred or so computers from the Air Force
contract. Then he got a lot more responsive.
Procurements are so tough that any time you can leverage back and forth, I
think it's a good idea. So I'm glad GSA's doing it.
The down side is if you've got a tightly integrated system and someone picks
out one part of it and says, "Gee, you can buy a PC cheaper here." Certainly
some of the criticism we've had on our Project Eagle microcomputers is not
fair. It's all bundled up with software and everything.
You've got to be careful that you're not cream-skimming on the whole thing.
It has to be a judgment call. When the guy priced the thing, maybe he
unloaded part of the development costs in the price of the PC.
GCN: When you came to Justice, the department's IRM had been under fire from
many sides, including Congress and the General Accounting Office. What goals
do you have for improving IRM?
COOPER: We have had criticism, but I think a lot of it has not been
justified. Certainly we've had some problems. The press Justice has had is
not commensurate with the level of sophistication of the systems or the
people. I was pleasantly surprised at the competence level at Justice.
One area we're going to work on, and I think we probably did need a little
more work on, is computer security. We have done a tremendous amount of
training and education, and gotten a lot tougher. It has gotten further up
on the list of things we worry about.
I'm proposing putting together a computer security organization reporting
directly to me. We're thinking about it, but I've got union negotiations.
In other areas, we've done some really neat things. On our Eagle system,
every morning when you fire up you PC, the local area network server scans
your hard disk to see if there's any viruses. It takes a little longer.
When you turn the thing on, it is not available for about 5 minutes while the
network interrogates the PC.
We have found some viruses here, as everybody else in town has. What's nice
is, when you find it, you know about it instantly. Somebody doesn't have to
remember to turn the virus program on; it's done automatically. If we get a
new change to the virus protection software, it goes on the system.
Eventually, 15,000 PCs are going to be interrogated every morning for
viruses.
There's a lot of ways they could be introduced. We probably have had less
viruses than most folks, but I'd say in the nine months I've been here, we've
had at least a half-dozen to a dozen instances. A lot of them I don't even
have to worry about, because the system in many cases fixes them
automatically.
GCN: Last year, GAO said the U.S. attorneys' offices were not getting
enough training in security procedures. This year the House Government
Operations Subcommittee on Government Information, Justice and Agriculture
said sensitive data in the Bureau of Prisons Sentry system was not getting
adequate protection. Do you think those situations have improved?
COOPER: I don't necessarily agree with their assessment, but we've improved
those situations. In the U.S. attorneys' officers we've done a massive
education process. A couple of months ago, they had a big computer security
conference here in Washington. They had, I think, 200 people there. We have
had lots of training and have improved awareness in that organization by two
orders of magnitude.
In addition, we're going to be encrypting all the communications between the
U.S. attorneys' offices. Anytime they do communications outside the
controlled area, we're using some encryption. It's not classified data, but
it's certainly very sensitive.
GCN: How do you respond to the recent criticism of the Project Eagle office
automation buy from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee?
COOPER: A great many reports have a particular political spin out there.
I've heard the arguments about the particular spin on the thing, but that's
not unusual. There have been some recommendations, and we will address them
back to the regular channels. We're not getting into some kind of dialogue.
Enough has been said about the whole issue.
Sometimes I think we lose sight of what we're doing here. We get hung up on
the process. The question we ultimately should ask is: Is the customer
getting what he wanted? I think with Eagle, the answer would be a resounding
yes. A lot of systems in town don't have happy customers.
GCN: How is Eagle giving the customers what they want?
COOPER: It's easy to use. It's got great connectivity. It's reasonably
inexpensive. It's modular. It's upgradeable. And it has minimized the use
of proprietary technology. It's been so successful that we've beat our best
projections for installing it. We're talking 12,000 workstations installed
in less than two years. Within six months, we'll probably have them all
talking to each other.
GCN: You said it's inexpensive. One of the things the House report said is
that you could go out in the stores and get computers cheaper than through
Eagle.
COOPER: An analogy would be like saying, "A tank weighs 60 tons and it's made
mostly of steel. I could buy steel at $ 60 a ton."
The federal procurement system says you buy an integrated solution. It
doesn't say you can go out and price the parts individually. That would be
like taking a laptop computer and weighing all the silicon and all the
solder. If you added up a $2,000 lapto with all the raw materials or
component parts, you would not get the value added in there.
GSA publishers a report on PC prices. The Justice Department PC prices,
which are mostly Eagle, are right in the middle of that. They're not the
lowest and they're not the highest.
GCN: Are you still planning an agencywide case management software buy for
the Eagle machines?
COOPER: Well, we didn't get any money, so we're re-evaluating that. We're
taking a look at our options, given no money.
GCN: That's tied in with Inslaw Inc. and the company's Promis case management
software. Have you met with Judge Nicholas J. Bua, the special counsel the
attorney general appointed to investigate Inslaw's claim that Justice stole
copies of Promis and tried to drive the company into bankruptcy?
COOPER: I have not met him. He has not talked to me. Most of the Inslaw
thing happened years and years ago. It has gone to numerous courts. Our
position all along has been that it's a contract dispute that's gotten out of
hand.
The Civil Division is handlign that. The judge will do as the attorney
general wants him to do, and that's fine. I think all of us in the
department would like to get it behind us. It's sort of an albatross.
GCN: What else is Justice doing in IRM?
COOPER: We're trying to work the open systems thing. We're not making
everybody run their PC with Unix. We're not making everybody take the
proprietary system and convert it over. What we're saying is, if you buy
something new, this is what you should do. We're trying to get a rational
move to open systems without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I've been very pleased with the response. Justice has a heavily
IBM-compatible mainframe background, yet I've found great interest in going
to open systems. I think the handwriting is on the wall.
Journal: Government Computer News Jan 20 1992 v11 n2 p4(1)
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Title: Inslaw owners vow to continue software battle. (Inslaw Inc.
battles U.S. Justice Department) (Brief Article)
Author: Quindlen, Terrey Hatcher.
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Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Legal Issues
Law Suit
Software Piracy
United States. Department of Justice
Computer software industry.
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Full Text:
Even though the Supreme Court last week decided not to hear Inslaw Inc.'s
complaint against the Justice Department, the company's owners said they will
not give up their fight over rights to the Promis case management software.
Inslaw owners Nancy B. and William A. Hamilton said they plan to file a new
suit against the Justice Department, probably in the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia. The Hamiltons have alleged that Justice officials
stole versions of the company's Promis software and tried to force Inslaw
into bankruptcy.
"If you don't punish wrongdoing, it's going to come and bite you again,"
William Hamilton said last week at a briefing sponsored by Federal Sources
Inc., a consulting firm in McLean, Va.
Justice spokesman Joseph Krovisky said the department had no comment on the
Supreme Court decision nor on the prospect of more litigation.
In November, Attorney General William P. Barr appointed Nicholas J. Bua, a
retired judge, to act as a special counsel to investigate the Hamilton's
8-year-old charges of wrongdoing by Justice officials.
Hamilton said Justice's primary motivation in stealing Inslaw's software was
money, but surveillance of foreign governments might have been another
motive.
He said he has been told that the Iraqis, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
and British intelligence have had Promis software installed on their
computers.
Hamilton speculated that someone might have sold copies of Promis illegally
to foreign governments. Those copies of the software might have had a hidden
feature that could transmit information to U.S. surveillance systems, he
suggested.
Justice officials have denied these allegations repeatedly.
The Hamiltons' case has been heard in three courts. The U.S. Bankruptcy
Court in 1987 found in Inslaw's favor. The U.S. District Court for D.C.
affirmed that ruling in 1988 and awarded Inslaw $6 million.
Last year, the U.S. Appeals Court for D.C. overturned those rulings, saying
the bankruptcy court did not have the authority to rule on the matter.
Inslaw came out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1988 with a loan from IBM Corp.,
Nancy Hamilton said. The company still sells Promis to state and local
governments, William Hamilton said.
The company also sells software for legal and insurance workload management
as well as Promis.
Journal: Newsbytes Jan 14 1992
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Title: Supreme Court denies Inslaw petition. (court case against US
Department of Justice)
Author: McCormick, John.
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Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Government Agency
Legal Issues
Software Publishers
Court Cases
Fraud
United States. Department of Justice.
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Full Text:
- ***Supreme Court Denies Inslaw Petition 01/14/92 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,
1992 JAN 14 (NB) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to reinstate the
nearly $8 million fine which Inslaw had won against the U.S. Justice
Department in earlier cases.
Inslaw had charged that during the Reagan administration the Justice
Department had stolen the company's legal case-tracking software and sold it
to other agencies in the United States and abroad.
The Supreme Court had been petitioned to reinstate the $7.8 million fine
which had earlier be overturned because of a procedural error in which the
company had sued and won its case, but in the wrong court.
The ball is now back in Inslaw's court and the company has expressed
confidence that a retrial in the correct court will again result in its
winning a major award against the U.S. government. The Justice Department
would not comment on the Supreme Court's decision or Inslaw's statement that
it would continue to pursue the case.
(John McCormick/19920114)
Journal: Newsbytes Dec 6 1991
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Title: Suspect TISOFT contract given Eagle-eye. (United States'
Department of Justice contract)
Author: McCormick, John.
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Descriptors..
Company: TiSoft Inc. (Contracts).
Topic: Investigations
Government Contracts
Government Agency
Competitive Bidding
Computer industry
United States. Department of Justice.
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Full Text:
- ***Suspect TISOFT Contract Given Eagle-Eye 12/06/91 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,
1991 DEC 6 (NB) -- Eagle, a multi- billion dollar computer system being
installed by the U.S. Department of Justice, was apparently a gold-plated
contract, according to a Congressional investigation by Democrat Jack Brooks'
Judiciary Committee. A Virginia-based firm, TISOFT was awarded the contract
for approximately 15,000 workstations despite the fact that it had submitted
not the lowest but the second highest bid.
Among the charges investigated by the committee were a possible relationship
between the Eagle computer system and INSLAW-like software which was
originally specified for the system. CNN reports that investigators contend
the Department of Justice gave the winning bidder, TISOFT, a $200,000 payment
which was allegedly used to pay off losing bidders who would otherwise have
contested the award to TISOFT.
The committee is still holding hearings on the possible INSLAW connection but
it has reported that the $200,000 payment did take place and that, in its
estimation, Justice paid $18 million too much for the Project Eagle system.
In a televised interview seen on Friday's CNN Business Morning, Texas' 9th
District Representative Jack Brooks stated, "We didn't find them stealing any
money, of course - we found ... neglect. It took the Justice Department two
and one-half years to award a contract for equipment that was available in
stores."
As for the special payment, Rep. Brooks said, "It doesn't sound right that
the Justice Department of the United States gave them (TISOFT) $200,000 to
pay off these people."
As for the Justice Department, spokesmen have pointed out that they did
nothing illegal.
According to CNN, Patrick Gallager, president of TISOFT, says that Rep.
Brooks doesn't understand the difference between buying commodity items off
the shelf and purchasing a complete integrated system. He also reportedly
said that the payoffs were legal.
(John McCormick/19911206/Press Contact: Jack Brooks, 202-225-6565 or fax
202-225-1584)
Journal: Government Computer News Nov 25 1991 v10 n24 p60(1)
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Title: Special counsel appointed to review Inslaw claims. (Justice
Department investigation involving Inslaw Corp.)
Author: Quindlen, Terrey Hatcher.
Summary: The Justice Department will investigate allegations by Inslaw Inc
owners, Nancy B. Hamilton and William A. Hamilton, who say that
the Justice Department stole computer software that belongs to
them and tried to push their company into bankruptcy. William P.
Barr, the newly appointed attorney general, has appointed a
special counsel, Nicholas J. Bua, to look into the Hamiltons'
claims. The Hamiltons are skeptical, saying that an investigator
from outside the Justice Department is needed. It is not
reasonable to expect, say the Hamiltons, that the Justice
Department will do an adequate job if it is investigating itself.
Nevertheless, the Hamiltons are pleased that there is renewed
activity and interest in the matter.
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Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Investigations).
Topic: Investigations
United States. Department of Justice.
Person: Hamilton, William A. (Cases); Hamilton, Nancy B. (Cases).
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Full Text:
Inslaw Inc. owners Nancy B. and William A. Hamilton are expecting the worst,
yet hoping for the best out of anew Justice Department investigation into the
couple's allegations that Justice stole Inslaw software and attempted to
drive the Washington company into bankruptcy.
When the newly designated attorney general, William P. Barr, announced this
month that he had appointed a special counsel to check out the Hamiltons'
claims, Nancy Hamilton expressed doubts about the outcome of such an
investigation.
A special prosecutor appointed outside the department is sorely needed, she
said. It is unreasonable "to think that the Department of Justice could
investigate itself," she said.
For nearly eight years, the Hamiltons have been fighting to get compensation
from Justice for the alleged theft of enhanced versions of the company's case
management software, Promis.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1987 found in Inslaw's favor and said Justice
had tried to force the company into bankruptcy. The following year, the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia affirmed the bankruptcy court
ruling and awarded Inslaw $6 million.
But in May, the U.S. Appeals Court for D.C. threw out those rulings, saying
the bankruptcy court had exceeded its authority.
Now Barr has asked Nicholas J. Bua, a retired federal judge for the Northern
District of Illinois, to "review all the information related to the Inslaw
case and advise the attorney general of any further action that may be
required," Justice spokesman Joseph Krovisky said.
Bua, who will serve as special counsel and assistant U.S. attorney, said he
had "no idea at this time" how long his investigation might take.
Hamilton said she was glad for the renewed interest but questioned whether
Bua could accomplish anything. Justice employees who know of wrongdoing will
be reluctant to volunteer information because Bua will report directly to
Barr, she said.
"They are not going to tell someone representing the attorney general of the
criminal misconduct of their superior. It simply won't happen," Hamilton
said.
Barr appointed Bua "in an effort to resolve fairly and conclusively the
ongoing litigation," Krovisky said. Barr gave Bua carte blanche to gather
any information he seeks, Krovisky added.
"We are in the embryonic stage of the matter," Bua said, adding that it was
too early to give a reading on the situation. Bua, a partner in a Chicago
law firm, said he plans to begin looking into the charges in Washington by
early December.
Although the appointment is "a step in the right direction," Hamilton said,
she questioned Bua's ability to bring witnesses forward. "People in law
enforcement know that to uncover official corruption you need subpoena power
and the power of a grand jury," she said.
The special counsel does not have subpoena power now. But if Bua runs into
problems getting the information he needs, he can "lay out what the problem
is and then request subpoena power from the attorney general," Krovisky said.
Meanwhile, the Hamiltons have filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to
consider their case. "We're hoping that there will be a decision sometime
before the end of the year" on whether the Supreme Court will hear the case,
Hamilton said.
On the congressional front, the House Judiciary Committee still has the
record open on its Inslaw investigation. The committee has been seeking
several documents from the department. When Attorney General Richard L.
Thornburgh resigned, several documents relating to Inslaw had not been turned
over. The committee chairman, Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas), has not said how
he will proceed.
Journal: Newsbytes Nov 15 1991
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Title: Special counsel appointed in Inslaw case. (Nicholas J. Bua)
Author: McCormick, John.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Investigations).
Topic: Investigations
Government Agency
Legal Issues
Computer industry
Fraud
United States. Department of Justice.
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Full Text:
Special Counsel Appointed in Inslaw Case 11/15/91 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,
1991 NOV 15 (NB) -- Just a few days after the White House suffered a major
public defeat when its hand- picked Senate candidate for Pennsylvania, former
Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, who had blocked all investigations into
the Inslaw/Justice Department scandal, was defeated by Harris Wofford,
President Bush's Attorney General-designate, William P. Barr, has appointed a
special counsel to look into charges that the Justice Department defrauded
and attempted to bankrupt the Inslaw company.
Allegations surround Inslaw and claims that the Justice Department and
intelligence agencies illegally copied, modified, and sold the law
enforcement-related software PROMIS, which was marketed by Inslaw. One
prominent claim is that the software was modified to allow U.S. intelligence
agencies to penetrate foreign law-enforcement and intelligence computers
running the software through what is called a trap-door, a secret way around
the usual password access permission systems used to prevent such access.
Saying during his confirmation hearing testimony before the Senate Judiciary
Committee on Wednesday, "I want to get to the bottom of this," Mr. Barr went
on to tell the Senate that he had appointed retired U.S. District judge
Nicholas J. Bua (Chicago) to investigate the situation which goes back to
1984. Judge Bua was a Democratic appointee to the bench.
The U.S. House of Representatives tried to investigate the Inslaw case last
year when House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jack Brooks (D-Tex.) subpoenaed
Justice Department documents which former Attorney General Thornburgh only
grudgingly released early this year.
A court had earlier found the Justice Department guilty of "fraud, deceit,
and trickery" and awarded Inslaw $8 million in damages, but that ruling was
overturned on a minor technicality by another court and the case is now being
put before the Supreme Court.
(John McCormick/19911115)
Journal: Newsbytes Sept 24 1991
* Full Text COPYRIGHT Newsbytes Inc. 1991.
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Title: Wackenhut denies Inslaw connection.
Author: McMullen, Barbara E.; McMullen, John F.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: Wackenhut Corp. (Investigations)
INSLAW Inc. (Products).
Topic: Investigations
Legal Issues
Software piracy
United States. Department of Justice
Government Agency
Court Cases.
Person: Riconosciuto, Michael (Investigations).
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Full Text:
- ***WACKENHUT DENIES INSLAW CONNECTION 09/24/91 CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA,
U.S.A., 1991 SEP 24 (NB) -- Wackenhut Corp.'s director of publications,
Patrick Cannan, in a conversation with Newsbytes, has denied any connection
between Wackenhut and the so-called "Inslaw case."
Wackenhut's name has come up consistently in relation to claims made by
Michael Riconosciuto that he, while a research director for a joint venture
between Wackenhut and the Cabazon Indians, modified a stolen copy of Inslaw's
Promis software for sale by Earl Brian to the Canadian government. These
claims, which surfaced most recently in a Village Voice article by James
Ridgeway ("Software To Die For", Village Voice, September 24th), also portray
the joint venture as one which manufactured weapons (including biological and
chemical) for foreign governments, including the "contras."
Cannan told Newsbytes: "When these claims first came up, we did an extensive
check of our records on Riconosciuto and can say, without fear of
contradiction, that he was never an employee of Wackenhut. I believe that he
did make some proposals to the management of the joint venture and, if they
had been accepted, he would have played a role in the project. Things like
this are common in this type of business but his proposals were never
accepted."
Cannan, continued, commenting on the relationship of Wackenhut and the
Cabazon Indians, saying: "We were involved in a joint venture in the early
1980s. The purpose of the venture was to attempt to obtain contracts in our
base business - the security business. The Indians, I guess because of their
minority status, were believed to have good opportunities of obtaining this
type of contract. It turned out that we never got any contracts and, after
two years, the venture was cancelled."
The Inslaw case involves the alleged theft of software by the Justice
Deptartment from the Inslaw Corp. and, has grown from a tile and bankruptcy
case to one that includes allegations of sales of the software to foreign
governments (such as Canada, Iraq, South Korea, Libya and Israel) by such
Watergate figures as Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord.
The case attracted more public attention following the apparent suicide death
of journalist Joseph D. "Danny" Casolaro on mid-August in a Martinsburg motel
room. Casolaro had told friends that he had made connections between Inslaw,
IranContra and the so-called "October Surprise" (allegations that
representatives of the Reagan-Bush campaign team had convinced the Iranian
government to delay release of American hostages until after the 1980 U.S.
elections).
Casolaro also allegedly told his brother, that, if he reportedly had an
accident, it was not to be believed. Former US Attorney General Elliot
Richardson, now attorney for Inslaw, has demanded a federal investigation of
Casolaro's death and has been quoted that Inslaw "is far worse than
Watergate."
Cannan also responded to Newsbytes questions concerning rumors that William
Casey, ex-CIA Director often named in the "October Surprise" allegations was
legal counsel to Wackenhut before joining the government and that former CIA
officials Frank Carlucci and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman were Wackenhut
directors. Cannan said: "Although Casey's law firm represented Wackenhut,
Casey himself never had any connection with us. Carlucci was a director of
the firm -- he is no longer -- but Inman was not. We did have another
director with a similar background to Inman, an admiral who was chief of
naval operations, and that might have lead to the incorrect rumor."
The Wackenhut Corp. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol -
WAK) and is a conglomerate with subsidiaries throughout the world, including
Canada, Liberia, El Salvador, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Australia, and Central
Europe. Its enterprises include the providing of security and investigative
services to business, management of correctional facilities, nuclear material
auditing, training of security and fire and crash rescue personnel, and the
sale of electronic security systems. It also owns a casualty reinsurance
firm, a travel service and an airline services company.
(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19910924)
Journal: The New York Times Sept 3 1991 v140 pA17(N) pD12(L) 27 col in.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: As U.S. battles computer company, writer takes vision of evil to
grave. (the Inslaw case)(Danny Casolaro)
Author: Ayres, B. Drummond, Jr.
Summary: The mysterious death of Danny Casolaro, a novelist and magazine
writer, generates attention to the long-running Justice Department
vs Inslaw Inc court case. Inslaw, a small Washington DC-based
software company, has accused Justice Department officials of
fraud and theft. Officials allegedly schemed to steal Inslaw's
software that was developed for tracking the government's record
of criminal cases, and withheld payments on the pretext of
contract violations, thereby driving Inslaw to insolvency. The
Justice Department denies the allegations. Casolaro, who was
openly investigating the case, reportedly believed the Inslaw case
was part of a government-wide scandal involving Reagan
administration officials. Inslaw's lawyer, Elliot L. Richardson,
has called for an investigation on Casolaro's death and the Inslaw
case.
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Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Court Cases
Software Publishers
Investigations
United States. Department of Justice
Fraud.
Person: Casolaro, Joseph D. (Biography).
Journal: Newsbytes August 27 1991
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Casolaro source charges gov't procurement scandal. (William
Turner; James D. Casolaro died while investigating charges of
government involvement in Inslaw Inc.)
Author: McMullen, Barbara E.; McMullen, John F.
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Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Government Agency
Investigations
Legal Issues
Theft of Equipment
Software Publishers
United States. Department of Justice
Court Cases.
Person: Casolaro, James D. (Biography); Turner, William (Investigations).
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Full Text:
- ***CASOLARO SOURCE CHARGES GOV'T PROCUREMENT SCANDAL 08/27/91 WASHINGTON,
D.C., U.S.A., 1991 AUG 27 (NB) -- "Bill," the mysterious Newsbytes source who
met with investigative journalist James D. "Danny" Casolaro on the night
before Casolaro's death in a Martinsburg, W. VA motel, has come forward on
the August 26th "Inside Edition" television show and discussed his meeting
with Casolaro.
By coming forward, "Bill" identified himself as William Turner, a former
quality assurance manager for Hughes Aircraft. In Turner's previous
interviews with Newsbytes, he had requested anonymity because of both a
commitment to Inside Edition and what he said was the advice of counsel.
Turner has alleged that Hughes Aircraft, with the assistance of U.S.
government personnel, has covered up the deliverance of systems for military
use that were below the procurement specifications.
While Turner's participation on the television broadcast dealt almost
exclusively with his meeting with Casolaro, he told Newsbytes that he had
over three hours of discussion with the show's interviewers on all aspects of
his charges. Casolaro has told Newsbytes that his attempts to call public
attention to what he calls a "procurement scandal" have resulted in his
harassment by the government. He claims that "all of a sudden the Veteran's
Administration found that it had been overpaying my pension. Even after I
agreed with them on a schedule for me to make installment repayment of the
overage, I was sued for the entire amount."
Turner also told Newsbytes that threats have been made against him
personally, resulting in his obtaining of police protection. He said that,
prior to the police protection, his house had been under obvious surveillance
from autos parked near his home. He said that his phone frequently rings
and, when he picks it up, there is an audible "hang-up" from the other end.
He also alleges that his telephone is "tapped" and that his conversations are
often interrupted by clicks and that conversations are terminated.
During his conversation with Newsbytes, at a point when he was discussing the
details of the alleged procurement scandal, a click similar to that of an
extension being picked up was clearly heard and our conversation was cut off.
When Newsbytes called back, Turner said that the interruption had become an
"on-going thing" and that he was "sure that it related to his phone being
tapped."
Turner said that he has had contact with ex-U.S. Attorney General Elliott
Richardson's law firm, which is also representing Inslaw Inc., the firm whose
charges against the Justice Dept. has been a major subject of Casolaro's
investigation. According to Turner, the law firm has advised him to refuse
to discuss the Casolaro death with the Martinsburg, W. VA police who have
been trying to contact him. Turner, who criticized the police investigation
of the death, said that he will discuss his meeting with Casolaro with the
police when his attorneys are present.
Turner told Newsbytes that on the day before Casolaro was found dead of an
apparent suicide, he had met with him and turned over papers documenting his
charges about the Hughes cover-up. He said that he was shown other material
that Casolaro had received -- material that Casolaro felt would substantiate
"Octopus" theory. (According to friends of Casolaro, "octopus" referred to
his belief that there was a connection between the various cases, or
"tentacles," that he was investigating: Inslaw, government procurement,
IranContra, "October Surprise.")
Reports from the Martinsburg death scene did not report the finding of papers
mentioned by Turner and their absence has led to charges that Casolaro met
with foul play. Richardson has called for a federal investigation of the
death, as has Casolaro's brother, a Virginia physician.
Turner also told Newsbytes that he has additional copies of the documentation
supporting his charges secure in a safe place and that the "truth will come
out even if something happens to me."
The so-called "Inslaw Case" involves charges by Inslaw, Inc. that the Justice
Department purposely drove it into bankruptcy so that it could steal Inslaw's
Promis software. While bankruptcy counts on two decisions found the
allegations to be factual and fined the Justice Dept., saying that the
government agency had practiced "trickery, fraud and deceit," the U.S. Court
of Appeals on May 7, 1991 overturned the award, saying that the courts had
overstepped their jurisdiction. The appeals court said, at the time, that
Inslaw CEO William Hamilton was free to pursue his claims in the proper
federal court and that the Justice Department's "conduct, if it occurred, is
inexcusable."
During the appeal process, Inslaw broadened its charges to claim that Iran
Contra figures Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord had played a role is
disseminating the software to intelligence agencies of Israel, Libya, Iraq,
South Korea, and Canada. These charges, substantiated by Ari Ben-Menashe,
who claims to be a former Israeli intelligence officer, Iranian arms dealer
Richard Babayan, and Michael Riconosciuto, who said that he was hired to
modify the software for use in law enforcement and intelligence agencies
worldwide, led to a investigation of the case by the House Judiciary
Committee and a confrontation between committee chairman Jack Brooks and
Attorney General Richard Thornburgh over the release to the committee of
material relating to the case. The investigation continues at this time.
Turner told Newsbytes that he has confidence in Casolaro's theory of a
connection between Inslaw and his charges concerning Hughes.
(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19910827)
Journal: Newsbytes August 22 1991
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Inslaw "source" speaks to Newsbytes.
Author: McMullen, Barbara E.; McMullen, John F.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Court Cases
Government
Purchases
Software packages
Investigations.
Person: Casolaro, James D. (Crimes against).
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Full Text:
INSLAW "SOURCE" SPEAKS TO NEWSBYTES 08/22/91 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1991
AUG 22 (NB) -- "Bill," the person who reportedly met with journalist James D.
"Danny" Casolaro on the night before Casolaro's death in a Martinsburg, W. VA
motel, has confirmed to Newsbytes that he provided Casolaro with evidence of
U.S. government malfeasance in the procurement of technology.
Bill, speaking to Newsbytes under the promise of anonymity, said that
Casolaro found this information to be related to Casolaro's year- long
investigation of accusations made by the Inslaw, Inc. against the United
States Department of Justice. Casolaro had told friends shortly before his
death that he had taken to calling the investigation the "Octopus" because of
connections that he had allegedly found between the Inslaw case and such
things as "IranContra," the "October Surprise," investigation and Bill's
charges.
Bill, who is now scheduled to "go public" with his charges in an appearance
on the television show "Inside Edition" on Monday, August 26th, told
Newsbytes that he had promised the producers of the show that he would make
no statements to the media on these matters until Tuesday, August 27th. He
additionally said that he had discussed this commitment with Inslaw, Inc.
attorney Elliot Richardson who also advised him to make no public statements
until that date.
Bill further told Newsbytes that the Martinsburg police investigators are
aware of his identity and have attempted to interrogate him concerning his
conversations with Casolaro. He, to this date, has refused to meet with them
and stated that this decision was also made in consultation with Richardson's
firm. He also told Newsbytes that he has reason to believe that he is under
surveillance, saying, "There are many more cars on my street than usual and I
am sure that my phone is tapped. I'm getting calls at all hours of the night
and, when I pick up the phone, the caller hangs up. They are not only
watching me but are trying to scare me off. They won't succeed, however; I
will get the truth out. I have copies of the documentation in a safe place
and it will come out even if something happens to me."
Another Inslaw-related allegation came to light when a Newsbytes source said
that Casolaro had told her/him that a person that was about to furnish him
with important documentation had been murdered last January 31st. According
to the source, Casolaro had identified ex-National Security Agency (NSA)
employee Alan David Standoff, found at Washington National Airport in a car,
as a contact tied to the case. According to investigators, Standoff had been
murdered by beating with a blunt instrument at some other location and then
transported to the airport. He, according to the Newsbytes source, had
resigned from the NSA on December 19th (effective 01/14/91) because of his
call-up by his National Guard unit.
Casolaro's death, initially ruled a suicide, has been referred to as possibly
a murder by friends and relatives as well as by Richardson who has called for
a federal inquiry. The so-called "Inslaw Case" involves charges by Inslaw,
Inc., that the Justice Department purposely drove it into bankruptcy so that
it could steal Inslaw's Promis software. While bankruptcy counts on two
decisions found the allegations to be factual and fined the Justice Dept.,
saying that the government agency had practiced "trickery, fraud and deceit."
The U.S. Court of Appeals on May 7, 1991 overturned the award, saying that
the courts had overstepped their jurisdiction. The appeals court said, at
the time, that Inslaw CEO William Hamilton was free to pursue his claims in
the proper federal court and that the Justice Department's "conduct, if it
occurred, is inexcusable."
During the appeal process, Inslaw broadened its charges to claim that Iran
Contra figures Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord had played a role is
disseminating the software to intelligence agencies of Israel, Libya, Iraq,
South Korea, and Canada. These charges, substantiated by Ari Ben-Menashe,
who claims to be a former Israeli intelligence officer, Iranian arms dealer
Richard Babayan, and Michael Riconosciuto, who said that he was hired to
modify the software for use in law enforcement and intelligence agencies
worldwide, led to a investigation of the case by the House Judiciary
Committee and a confrontation between committee chairman Jack Brooks and
Attorney General Richard Thornburgh over the release to the committee of
material relating to the case. The investigation continues at this time.
(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/1991082)
Journal: Newsbytes August 19 1991
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Inslaw death investigation continues. (death of reporter Joseph D.
Casolaro investigating Inslaw Inc.'s suit against government)
Author: McMullen, Barbara E.; McMullen, John F.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Product: Promis (Office automation software) (Cases).
Topic: Government Agency
Investigations
United States. Department of Justice.
Person: Casolaro, Joseph D. (Biography).
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Full Text:
- ***INSLAW DEATH INVESTIGATION CONTINUES 08/19/91 MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA,
U.S.A., AUG 19 (NB) -- The Sheraton Inn in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the
scene of the death of Washington, D.C. journalist Joseph D. "Danny"
Casolaro, has received more press attention than ever before in its history
as reporters from ABC-TV, Newsbytes News Network, and the Washington Post
roamed the halls interrogating bell-hops, waitresses, and desk clerks for
information regarding the death of Casolaro.
Employees, supposedly under the cloak of Sheraton-forced silence, told
Newsbytes that, while some prospective guests have specifically requested the
room in which Casolaro died, their instructions have been to leave the room
vacant for an unspecified time.
Casolaro, 44, had been investigating the "Inslaw" case, a rather tangled web
of allegations relating to the charges brought by Inslaw Inc., that the
Justice Department had first stolen its software product, "Promis," and then
driven the firm into bankruptcy. Casolaro had told friends and family that
he was about to receive material that would provide him with documentation
linking Inslaw to other alleged incidents of Reagan-Bush administration
wrong-doing. Casolaro was said to have referred to the alleged conspiracy as
the "Octopus" and stated that there were links between the Inslaw theft, the
"October Surprise," and Iran- Contra allegations.
The "October surprise" refers to allegations that representatives of the
Reagan-Bush campaign team, through meetings with Iranian representatives,
delayed the release of the hostages in Iran until after the 1980 elections.
These charges are currently being investigated by Congressional committee.
Casolaro was found dead, an apparent suicide, in Room 517 of the Sheraton on
Saturday, August 10th, two days after his arrival in Martinsburg. He was
found in the bathtub at approximately 1:00 pm with both wrists slashed. His
body was released within three hours to a local funeral parlor for embalming,
an action that Berkeley County Medical Examiner Sandra Brining was quoted as
saying was normal in the case of a suicide. "Everything was consistent with
a self-inflicted wound."
When Casolaro's family became aware of his death on Monday, August 14th, it
immediately called for an expanded investigation and his brother, Dr. Anthony
Casolaro, an Arlington, Virginia physician, was quoted as saying, "In my
heart I remember Danny telling us that in case of an accident, don't believe
it." Dr. Casolaro also discounted statements made by his brother in a letter
to a publisher in which he seemed financially strapped and despondent. Dr.
Casolaro attributed Casolaro's remarks to a desire to convince the would-be
publisher of the importance of extending a book contract to him. Casolaro
had been immersed in the Inslaw case for over a year and had been
unsuccessful in two proposals to the publishing firm of Little, Brown & Co.
The clamor for a fuller investigation caused an autopsy to be subsequently
performed on Casolaro, an action that Assistant Berkeley County prosecutor
Cynthia Gaither said was not hindered by the previous embalming.
Casolaro was buried on Friday, October 16th after a funeral service at St.
Ann's Catholic Church in Arlington, Virginia attended by over 100 people.
At a press conference held on Thursday, August 15th, Dr. James Frost,
assistant West Virginia medical examiner, said that, while the results of the
examination bore out the preliminary findings of suicide, the investigation
would be continued. Brining and Gaither also participated in the hour-long
press conference held in the meeting room of the Martinsburg City Council.
Newsbytes has obtained conflicting reports on the state of Casolaro's mental
condition. A California free-lance journalist, Virginia McCullough, with
whom Casolaro had allegedly shared information, told Newsbytes, "It is
ludicrous to think that Danny took his life. He was excited about his new
contact and said that 'For the first time I really believe that the
government was involved.'" McCullough, herself, claims to be the victim of a
government action that drove her electronics firm into bankruptcy and she is
presently writing a book on her case and other similar cases, including
Inslaw.
McCullough's comments on the unlikelihood of a Casolaro suicide were echoed
in quotes from Pat Clawson, president of Washington- based Metrowest
Broadcasting Co., and Richard O'Connell, editor of the Washington Crime News,
a newsletter published in Arlington, VA. Nancy Hamilton, vice president of
Inslaw, also took issue with the suicide finding telling the Martinsburg
Morning Journal, "We don't accept that. They are saying that here is a man,
totally sober, mutilating himself."
Martinsburg residents interviewed by Newsbytes paint a slightly different
picture and depict Casolaro as seemingly depressed and drinking pitchers of
beer by himself in a local Pizza Hut on the Thursday evening before his death
(although a wine bottle was found in his room, there was no evidence of
alcohol found in the body by the autopsy). Additionally, a Washington Post
piece of Saturday, August 17th by Gary Lee and Robert O'Harrow, Jr., shows
Casolaro to be debt-ridden and despondent. According to the Post report,
"Casolaro had no independent means of income and had invested heavily in the
book project for at least eight months, financing several trips to the West
Coast and long-distance telephone calls."
The Post article also revealed that Casolaro's sister had committed suicide
in California 20 years ago. While confirming the sister's suicide and his
brother's financial difficulties, Dr. Casolaro said that these facts still
did not support a conclusion of suicide for his brother. He told the Post,
"Danny was the sort of guy who was always broke but he knew that he had a lot
of resources for money in the family if he needed it."
Dr. Casolaro also told the Post that he had received a call from a man who
purported to have met with Casolaro in Martinsburg on the day before the
death and turned over documents relating to computer hardware thefts. Dr.
Casolaro said that the man was willing to meet with investigators under the
cloak of anonymity. Newsbytes has confirmed, from multiple sources, the
existence of the contact, a man called "Bill," but has not yet obtained
information concerning the content or the validity of the purported
documentation.
The so-called "Inslaw Case" began in 1982 when Inslaw signed a $10 million
contract to provide an enhanced version of its case tracking software to the
U.S. Department of Justice. According to Inslaw, shortly after it rebuffed
attempts by a company owned by Earl Brian, a close friend of former US.
Attorney General Edwin Meese, to buy Inslaw, the government stopped its
contract payments and eventually forced the firm into bankruptcy. In January
1988, a federal bankruptcy judge upheld the claims of Inslaw President
William Hamilton and awarded Inslaw damages of $6.8 million, saying that the
Justice Department has stolen the Promis software by "trickery, fraud and
deceit." A second federal judge later upheld the ruling.
The Justice Dept. continued to appeal the verdicts and, on May 7, 1991, was
successful when the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the bankruptcy court
had claimed extraordinary and improper jurisdiction in the case. The court
said that Hamilton was free to pursue his claims in the proper federal court
and that the Justice Department's "conduct, if it occurred, is inexcusable."
During the appeal process, Inslaw broadened its charges to claim that Iran
Contra figures Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord had played a role is
disseminating the software to intelligence agencies of Israel, Libya, Iraq,
South Korea, and Canada. These charges were substantiated by Ari
Ben-Menashe, who claims to be a former Israeli intelligence officer, Iranian
arms dealer Richard Babayan, and Michael Riconosciuto, who said that he was
hired to modify the software for use in law enforcement and intelligence
agencies worldwide.
Riconosciuto, who was arrested in March of this year and is being held in the
state of Washington, also claimed to be involved in a now-defunct joint
venture between the Wachenhut Corp. of Coral Gables, FL and the Southern
California Cabazon Indian tribe. According to Riconosciuto's affidavit, the
joint venture developed sophisticated weapons for the Contras. McFarlane and
Brian have denied all charges.
There have also been reports that the software, allegedly used by the foreign
intelligence services for maintaining dissidents, contained a "Trojan horse"
that would allow U.S. security agencies to have undetected access to the
computer system of the foreign agency. It was also revealed during this time
that Inslaw President Hamilton is a former employee of the National Security
Agency (NSA).
As the long appeal process continued, the House Judiciary Committee under
Chairman Jack Brooks (D-Tex.) began its own investigation of the case and
became embroiled in a year-long battle with then Attorney General Richard
Thornburgh who refused to turn over Justice Department documents to the
committee. Shortly before Thornburgh's departure to run for the Senate from
Pennsylvania, an agreement was reached between the committee and the Justice
Department on the release of certain documents and the investigation is now
continuing. During the controversy, another former U.S. Attorney General,
Elliot Richardson, now serving as counsel for Inslaw, said, "Evidence of the
widespread ramifications of the Inslaw case comes from many sources and keeps
accumulating. It remains inexplicable why the Justice Department refuses to
pursue this evidence and resists cooperation with the Judiciary Committee of
the House of Representatives."
On Wednesday, August 14th, Richardson called for a federal investigation of
Casolaro's death and was quoted as suspecting murder in the case.
In an interview with Newsbytes, an investigative reporter who has been
tracking Inslaw and related cases for a few years said that he had met with
Casolaro within the last six months and that Casolaro had no material at that
time that the investigative reporter deemed as new. The reporter, speaking
to Newsbytes under the promise of non-attribution, also said, "I believe that
the Justice Department stole Inslaw's software. I have not seen, however,
compelling evidence to support the charges that it was linked to the
so-called 'October Surprise.'"
(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19910819)
Journal: Computergram International August 16 1991 n1742
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Minigrams.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
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Full Text:
Remember the InsLaw Inc case - well it looks set to blow up into a high
profile and potentially far-reaching scandal: InsLaw is a tiny Washington DC
company that was awarded a $10m contract with the US Justice Department for
software designed to make it easier for the police and the authorities to
track cases and keep tabs on dissidents, and in 1983, it sued Justice
claiming that theer ain't no such thing and that the Department had stolen
its software; a House of Representatives judiciary subcommittee is still
investigating the case, but meantime Joseph Casolaro, an investigative
reporter of Fairfax, Virginia who had been working for a year researching a
book on the InsLaw case, was found in a hotel bathtub with both wrists
slashed; a suicide note was found nearby, but an autopsy has been ordered
after suspicions were aroused that the death was a murder disguised to look
like suicide after the family told police he had no reason to kill himself.
Journal: Newsbytes August 15 1991
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: "Suicide" of Inslaw reporter questioned. (Joseph D. 'Danny'
Casolaro may have been murdered during investigation of Inslaw
suit against U.S. Justice Dept.)
Author: McMullen, Barbara E.; McMullen, John F.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Legal Issues
Law Suit
United States. Department of Justice
Investigations
Computer Crimes.
Person: Casolaro, Joseph D. (Investigations).
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Full Text:
"SUICIDE" OF INSLAW REPORTER QUESTIONED 08/15/91 SUNOL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.,
1991 AUG 15 (NB) -- The verdict of suicide in the death of reporter Joseph D.
"Danny" Casolaro on Saturday, August 10th has been challenged by friends and
relatives.
Casolaro, 44, of Fairfax, Va., had been, according to reports, involved in an
investigation of the allegations surrounding government activities in the
Inslaw software case.
Casolaro was, according to reports, found dead in the bathtub of his
Martinsburg, West Virginia hotel room Saturday with his wrists cut. Dr.
James Frost, an assistant state medical examiner was quoted as saying: "The
wounds are consistent with being self- inflicted, but that doesn't mean that
someone else couldn't have done this if he were not able to defend himself."
Virginia McCullough, a freelance journalist and friend of Casolaro, told
Newsbytes that Casolaro was working for over a year on a book concerning the
allegations by Inslaw president William Hamilton that the Justice Department
first broke a $10 million contract with his firm, then stole the firm's
software and subsequently sold and donated it to foreign intelligence
agencies.
McCullough said: "It is ludicrous to think that Danny would kill himself. He
had recently told me that he was looking forward to a trip that would give
him the documentation to prove the Justice Department's involvement. He
said: 'For the first time, I've become a real believer that the government
was involved in these things.'"
McCullough went on to say that Casolaro was never depressed in his
conversations with her and that they often spoke, sharing information in
relation to the case. McCullough, herself involved with a company that she
says had very similar experiences to Inslaw, is currently writing a book
detailing what she says have been questionable acts by government agencies in
the use of bankruptcy proceedings to stifle the development of technology.
Casolaro's brother, Dr. M. Anthony Casolaro, was quoted by news services as
also doubting the suicide reports. He said that police told him a
handwritten note saying: "I'm sorry, especially to my son," was found at the
scene.
The House Judiciary Committee is presently investigating the Inslaw charges
and had announced in April of this year that the Justice Department, after
long delays, has agreed to turn over documentation relating to the case.
The case began in 1985 when Inslaw filed for bankruptcy claiming that the
Justice Dept. had stopped payment on a 1982 contract for the installation of
Inslaw's legal case management software, "Promis" into 97 U.S. Attorney's
offices. Inslaw claimed that the government contract represented 70 percent
of Inslaw's income and that the government action forced it into bankruptcy.
Inslaw was successful and a bankruptcy judge found that the department "took,
converted and stole" the company's property "by trickery, fraud and deceit"
and further said that the government's conduct demonstrated "bad faith,
vexatiousness, wantonness and oppressiveness."
The Justice Department appealed the ruling and, in 1989, U.S. District Court
Judge William Bryant upheld the decision and ordered the government to pay
Inslaw $8 million plus attorney's fees.
The Justice Department continued to appeal the case and, on May 7, 1991, was
successful when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
reversed the bankruptcy rulings saying that the bankruptcy court's rulings
were too broad and inappropriate for a bankruptcy ruling.
The court said that, while Inslaw is entitled to go to another court to press
its claim,. the U.S. Bankruptcy Court lacked jurisdiction. Commenting on
Inslaw's allegations of misbehavior, the court said: "Such conduct, if it
occurred, is inexcusable."
During the appeals, stories of illegal sales of the allegedly stolen software
to foreign governments including Iraq, Libya, South Korea, Israel and Canada,
and involvement of Reagan Washington and California appointees Earl Brian,
Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord in the transactions have caused the House
Judiciary Committee to seek involvement -- an involvement that the Justice
Department has resisted.
Elliot Richardson, former United States Attorney General who now represents
Hamilton, was quoted during the appeal process as saying: "Evidence of the
widespread ramifications of the Inslaw case comes from many sources and keeps
accumulating."
"It remains inexplicable why the Justice Department consistently refuses to
pursue this evidence and resists co-operation with the Judiciary Committee of
the House of Representatives," he added.
The case took still another turn when witness Ari Ben-Menashe reportedly
testified that the owner of Inslaw, William Hamilton, is a former employee of
the National Security Agency (NSA) and that the software was modified into a
"Trojan Horse" in order to allow the NSA and the Mossad to listen in on the
transactions of other intelligence services.
The attraction of the case management software to these intelligence agencies
was, according to witnesses, that, rather than its intended use of tracking
case witnesses and legal opinions, it lent itself to the tracking of
dissidents and foreign agents.
(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19910815)
Journal: Government Computer News August 5 1991 v10 n16 p1(2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Thornburgh bows on Inslaw papers. (Attorney General Richard
Thornburgh turns over to House Judiciary Committee documents on
the Justice Department's dealings with Inslaw Inc.)
Author: Seaborn, Margaret M.
Summary: Attorney General Richard Thornburgh submitted to the House
Judiciary most of the 456 subpoenaed documents concerning the
Justice Department's dealings with Inslaw Inc, a software
publisher. Thornburgh had been threatened with a
contempt-of-Congress charge if he did not turn over the documents.
Inslaw and the Justice Department have been locked in lawsuits
over Inslaw's case management software, Promis. Justice has been
accused of stealing later versions of the software and attempting
to force the company into bankruptcy. The House committee,
chaired by Rep John Brooks, has been investigating the case for
two years but Brooks said that Thornburgh has stalled its progress
by withholding documents. Justice officials have declared 51
documents lost but have reconstructed most of them.
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Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Product: Promis (Office automation software) (Cases).
Topic: United States. Department of Justice
United States. Congress. House
Software Piracy
Court Cases
Investigations.
Person: Thornburgh, Richard L. (Cases).
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Full Text:
Threatened with a contempt-of-Congress charge, Attorney General Richard
Thornburgh last week turned over to House investigators several hundred
subpoenaed documents concerning the Justice Department's dealings with Inslaw
Inc.
Last Tuesday night, Thornburgh handed over most but not all of the 456
documents. Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, had warned that if the department failed to hand over the
documents by Wednesday, he would ask Congress to act to hold Thornburgh in
contempt.
After the partial delivery, Brooks said the contempt proceedings were "merely
suspended." He said he expects Thornburgh to turn over the remaining
documents by Sept. 11, when Congress reconvenes after its summer holiday.
The missing documents are from one file of the chief litigating attorney in
the Inslaw case. Justice officials have been telling the committee since May
that the department had misplaced 51 of that attorney's documents.
Justice reconstructed most of these documents, but at least 12 still are
missing, Brooks said, adding that the committee has not been able to assess
the thoroughness of the reconstructed material. Also, Brooks said, at least
another 40 documents submitted last week are incomplete.
Justice said in a letter that it had searched "meticulously" for the missing
documents. Brooks said the department has been unable to explain to the
committee how the records were misplaced.
"By the department's own admission, these documents are highly sensitive. I
hope they are not lost somewhere," he said last week. "I remain concerned
that no action has been taken [by the department] to investigate the
possibility that this material was destroyed, stolen or shredded in order to
obstruct the committee's investigation."
For the past several years, Justice and Inslaw, a small Washington software
company, have been battling in courts over the company's case management
software, Promis. Inslaw first provided its software to Justice through a
1982 contract.
Brooks' committee has been investigating allegations that Justice stole later
versions of the software and tried to force the company into bankruptcy. But
Brooks said Thornburgh has stalled Judiciary's two-year investigation by
denying committee investigators access to documents.
Finally, late last month, the Judiciary Subcommittee on Economic and
Commercial Law voted 10 to 6 to subpoena the Inslaw files from Thornburgh.
Although the department had promised repeatedly to supply the missing
documents, Brooks said, the subpoena was necessary because Justice had
reneged at least three times.
"At this rate, the investigation could drag on for another two years," Brooks
said. "I simply cannot permit legitimate oversight to be forestalled by
dilatory or evasive steps."
To hold Thornburgh in contempt of Congress, Brooks would have to gain the
votes of a majority of the full House. If the House were to approve such a
charge, theoretically the sergeant-at-arms would be empowered to arrest the
attorney general and hold him in a one-room cell in the Capitol.
Justice officials tried to avoid the subpoena by making an 11th-hour promise
last month to provide the documents. Brooks said Thornburgh had assured him
on six occasions that the department would cooperate. But Brooks said he no
longer would accept such assurances, and the subcommittee went ahead with the
subpoena.
The Judiciary Committee's relationship with Thornburgh has grown increasingly
testly during the past few weeks, culminating with the Inslaw subpoena.
Thornburgh refused to appear at an earlier committee hearing concerning
Justice's 1992 budget request [GCN, July 22]. Brooks has said the committee
may cut finding for several Justice programs, including its massive Project
Eagle office automation initiative, if that is what is necessary to get the
department's attention.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has denied
Inslaw's petition for a rehearing by the 11-judge bench.
An appeals court panel in May ruled that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court did not
have jurisdiction in 1988 when it concluded that Justice attempted to drive
Inslaw out of business.
Nancy Hamilton, Inslaw vice president, said the company plans to petition the
Supreme Court to hear its case.
Journal: Computerworld July 29 1991 v25 n30 p12(1).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Inslaw papers subpoenaed. (Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House
of Representatives issues subpoena to access records thought to be
important in case between Inslaw Inc. and the U.S. Department of
Justice)
Author: Anthes, Gary H.
Summary: The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee issued a
subpoena to the US Justice Department to turn over records thought
to be relevant to the on-going dispute initiated in 1983 between
the Justice Department and Inslaw Inc. The Judiciary Committee is
investigating charges that the US Justice Department stole
software and tried to force Inslaw out of business. The subpoena
asked Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to release 456 documents
thought to be connected to the case. Thornburgh has promised to
release the documents on several occasions, but he has not done
so. The Justice Department now claims that several of the
requested documents are missing, and no explanation has been
offered to explain their absence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Legal Issues
United States. Department of Justice
United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary
Law Suit
Bankruptcy
Government Agency
Investigations.
Journal: Government Computer News July 22 1991 v10 n15 p76(1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Inslaw asks court to reinstate $6M judgement against Justice.
(Inslaw Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia,
Department of Justice)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: United States. Department of Justice
United States. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit
Court Cases
Bankruptcy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Full Text:
Inslaw Inc. has asked the 11-judge bench of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia to reinstate a lower court's decision to award
Inslaw $6 million in damages from the Justice Department.
For several years, the small Washington software company has alleged that
following a dispute over a 1982 contract, Justice officials tried to force
Inslaw into bankruptcy and to steal enhanced versions of the company's case
management software, Promis.
In 1987, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court substantially upheld these arguments.
The U.S. District Court in Washington then affirmed the bankruptcy court's
ruling and awarded Inslaw more than $6 million in damages, which Justice
never paid.
An appeals court panel in May said the bankruptcy court had no jurisdiction
to rule that Justice used "trickery, fraud and deceit" to drive Inslaw out of
business.
Inslaw's petition for reconsideration said the appeals court decision
"rejects the well-accepted authority of a bankruptcy court to hear actions
that directly affect the administration of a bankruptcy estate."
In reversing the ruling, the appeals court said it was not ruling on the
validity of Inslaw's allegations and suggested the company file its
complaints anew in a court other than bankruptcy court.
Journal: PC Week June 10 1991 v8 n23 p130(1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: The verdict on Cal? he's 'a nice fellow,' but the jury's still
out. (Rumor Central) (column)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Text:
As the Furry One maneuvered his Winnebago into a rest area off I-95, Cal
pulled out a copy of In These Times, which last month told of alleged
injustices by the U.S. Justice Department. As the story goes, the Feds
asked a company called Inslaw to develop a case-tracking database called
Promis, which Inslaw then developed. The Feds rejected the package on
technical grounds --but then used it anyway, selling it to several foreign
nations without cutting the vendor in on the profits.
"I don't believe a word of it," Spencer harrumphed. "It's a matter of public
record. Look it up," responded Cal.
Journal: Government Computer News May 13 1991 v10 n10 p3(2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Appeals Court tosses finding that Justice stole from Inslaw.
(Department of Justice)
Author: Seaborn, Margaret M.
Summary: A federal appeals court has dismissed the ruling of a lower court
that the Department of Justice stole case management software from
Inslaw Inc. The District of Columbia US Court of Appeals ruled
that the federal Bankruptcy Court overstepped its jurisdiction in
1987 when it ruled that the Justice Department used fraud,
trickery and deceit to force the Washington-based software company
out of business. The US District court affirmed the bankruptcy
ruling and awarded Inslaw a $6 million judgement which the Justice
Department never paid. The appeals court suggested that Inslaw
start over in the federal court system after five years of legal
actions stemming from a contract awarded by Justice to Inslaw for
the development of case management software. The court's decision
said the Justice Department was brought into the Bankruptcy court
because Inslaw filed for bankruptcy and the company succeeded in
convincing the court to adjudicate the contract, though the court
had no jurisdiction to do so. The court did not rule on the
validity of the charges and criticized the bankruptcy court for
its ruling.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: United States. Department of Justice
Legal Applications
Software Packages
Bankruptcy
Court Cases
Legal Issues
Copyright
National Government.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Full Text:
A federal appeals court last week threw out a lower court's findings that the
Justice Department had stolen case management software from Inslaw Inc.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court had overstepped its jurisdiction in 1987 when it ruled
Justice used "trickery, fraud and deceit" to drive the small Washington
software company out of business.
A U.S. District Court later affirmed the bankruptcy ruling and awarded
Inslaw $6 million. Justice never paid the money.
After five years of legal actions stemming from a contract Justice awarded to
Inslaw in 1982 for development of case management software, the appeals court
suggested that Inslaw start over in the federal court system.
The appeals court's decision said Justice was "hauled in front of the
bankruptcy court simply because Inslaw filed for bankruptcy, and Inslaw has
succeeded in convincing the bankruptcy court to adjudicate its contract . .
. disputes although the court had no basis to do so."
The court did not rule on the validity of the Inslaw charges and criticized
the bankruptcy court for its "extraordinary" ruling. "Such conduct, if it
occurred, is inexcusable," the appeals court said of Inslaw's complaints
against Justice. But, "offensive as lawless conduct by one branch of
government may be, however, it does not justify another's lawlessness."
The reversal also means Justice need not comply with a discovery ruling last
month in which an appeals court judge ordered Justice to turn over
information about whether the software, Promis, was being used at several
Justice bureaus.
Inslaw vice president Nancy Hamilton said the company "will fight to the
end." She said Inslaw either will file a new suit or appeal the decision.
The company has gathered more evidence against Justice since it filed the
original suit, she said.
Stuart M. Gerson, assistant attorney general in charge of Justice's Civil
Division, said the department was "gratified" by the court's dismissal of
Inslaw's complaint.
Gerson said it "vindicates the position the government has taken from the
outset -- that notwithstanding the intensity of the underlying dispute
between Inslaw and the department, this is fundamentally a . . .
contractual disagreement."
Inslaw president William A. Hamilton said, "The Justice Department has
consistently hidden behind technical defenses to avoid its duty to enforce
the laws in regard to the misconduct of its own officials against Inslaw."
Meanwhile, a congressional investigation of the Inslaw-Justice dispute is
continuing. After months of stalling, Attorney General Richard Thornburgh
has agreed to make several hundred documents about the department's dealings
with Inslaw available to House Judiciary Committee investigators.
The committee was allowed access to the materials only after agreeing to
several stipulations Thornburgh laid out last month in a letter to the
committee chairman, Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas).
Judiciary investigators agreed to review the documents on Justice's premises,
formally request copies and, at least initially, withhold the documents from
the public.
Since last July, Brooks had been trying to obtain some 200 department
documents his committee investigators said pertained to the legal dispute.
It now appears the committee will examine many more than 200 documents. The
first of 15 sets of documents, which investigators began reviewing May 1,
alone contained 193 items.
The committee considers access to the documents a major breakthrough in its
investigation.
The issue of access to the documents came to a head late last year. Brooks,
frustrated by Justice's continual delays in providing the materials to his
committee, threatened to issue subpoenas and said he would use whatever means
necessary to force Justice to turn over the documents.
Subsequently, Thornburgh assured Brooks he would give him the documents and
the department would cooperate fully.
Journal: Federal Computer Week May 6 1991 v5 n12 p4(1).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Justice screens Inslaw document release. (Department of Justice
limits access to documents in conspiracy case)
Author: Sweeney, Shahida.
Summary: The Department of Justice limits House Judiciary Committee access
to papers relating to an investigation of government conspiracy
against software developer INSLAW. The Justice Department claims
that releasing all documents would jeopardize its appeal against
INSLAW. The House Judiciary Committee is investigating the
Justice Department's award of a $212 million office automation
contract to TiSoft Inc. House investigators are being allowed by
the Justice Department to view relating papers, but may only take
notes from them for future reference or permission to obtain
copies. INSLAW is granted permission to examine Department of
Justice tapes in order to ascertain if the agency is illegally
using copies if INSLAW's Promise office automation software.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Investigations)
TiSoft Inc. (Contracts).
Product: Promis (Office automation software) (Investigations).
Topic: Software Piracy
Investigations
Office Automation
Legal Applications
United States. Department of Justice
United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary
Court Cases.
Journal: Newsbytes April 29 1991
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Washington Post calls for Inslaw progress. (software publisher's
case against the justice Department)
Author: McMullen, Barbara E.; McMullen, John F.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: United States. Department of Justice
Legal Issues
Court Cases
Government Agency
Software Publishers
Theft of Equipment
Government Contracts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Full Text:
WASHINGTON POST CALLS FOR INSLAW PROGRESS 04/29/91 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A.,
1991 APR 29 (NB) -- The Washington Post, in an April 27th editorial, has
criticized the Justice Department for the lengthy lack of progress in
cooperation with the House Judiciary Committee's investigation of the Inslaw
case.
Recalling that it had editorially praised Attorney General Dick Thornburgh a
year ago for agreeing to cooperate, the Post said, "We wrote too soon. The
department continued to resist the committee's request for some documents,
and the investigation has been hamstrung while lawyers argued over what
should be shared and what should remain secret. This week agreement was
finally achieved - or so we think - and after seven years of stonewalling the
department has pledged full cooperation."
Inslaw, a small computer software firm signed a contract in 1982 to supply
all 94 U.S. attorney's offices with "Promis" software it had developed to
track the progress of cases and compile information about caseloads.
According to the Post story, the government contract accounted for 70% of
Inslaw's business and, when the Justice Dept. stopped payment and terminated
the contract in 1984, the firm went into bankruptcy.
William Hamilton, Inslaw owner, brought suit against the Justice Dept.,
claiming that it had stolen the firm's software and willfully driven the firm
into bankruptcy. Hamilton was successful in his suit and a judge in the
initial case found that the department "took, converted and stole" the
company's property "by trickery, fraud and deceit" and further said that the
government's conduct demonstrated "bad faith, vexatiousness, wantonness and
oppressiveness."
The Justice Dept. appealed the ruling and, in 1989, U.S. District Court
Judge William Bryant upheld the decision and ordered the government to pay
Inslaw $8 million plus attorney's fees. Bryant's decision has since been
appealed.
During the appeals, stories of illegal sales of the allegedly stolen software
to foreign governments including Iraq, Libya, South Korea, Israel and Canada,
and involvement of Reagan Washington and California appointees Earl Brian,
Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord in the transactions have caused the House
Judiciary Committee to seek involvement -- an involvement that the Justice
Dept. has resisted. Elliot Richardson, former United States Attorney
General who now represents Hamilton, was quoted recently as saying, "Evidence
of the widespread ramifications of the Inslaw case comes from many sources
and keeps accumulating. It remains inexplicable why the Justice Department
consistently refuses to pursue this evidence and resists cooperation with the
Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives."
The Post editorial concludes, "The House Judiciary Committee has been more
insistent, and now Chairman Jack Brooks' (D-Tex.) persistence has paid off.
The attorney general will let committee investigators see every document,
though it is understood that some material sensitive to the litigation will
be treated in confidence. This simple arrangement should not have taken
nearly so long. The breakthrough is welcome. We hope it is for real this
time."
(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen//19910429)
Journal: Government Computer News April 15 1991 v10 n8 p6(1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Panel questions Justice Dept. on Inslaw. (House Judiciary
Committee investigates Inslaw Inc. accusation that Justice Dept.
illegally used and distributed Promis case management system)
Author: Seaborn, Margaret M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Product: Promis (Office automation software) (Usage).
Topic: Law Suit
Licensing
Copyright
Investigations
United States. Department of Justice
United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Full Text:
Panel Questions Justice Dept. on Inslaw
Despite the Justice Department's recent appointment of an IRM chief, the
House Judiciary Committee continues to question the department's ability to
keep its ADP house in order, especially where it concerns Inslaw and Project
Eagle.
Next month Judiciary Chairman Jack Brooks (D-Texas) intends to ask Justice
officials in a hearing to justify their $35.2 million fiscal 1992 request for
Eagle. The committee first raised questions about the office automation
project last year and voiced concerns about general ADP oversight.
Justice last month took steps to address some of these management issues when
it named longtime IRM veteran Roger M. Cooper as the first deputy assistant
attorney general for IRM. But Cooper has said he needs some time on the job
before outlining his priorities.
Meanwhile, committee investigators are continuing to prod Justice to provide
them with information for their continuing review of the Inslaw case, in
which Justice is accused of using proprietary software without a license.
Recently the department also has been accused of distributing the product to
other organizations.
Although Brooks has threatened to issue subpoenas, investigators might
piggyback on the subpoena power recently won by Inslaw Inc. president William
A. Hamilton.
The committee's investigation has been hamstrung by Justice's unwillingness
to turn over some 200 documents concerning Promis, the case management system
Hamilton alleges Justice officials stole from his company. The committee
anticipates these documents will raise more questions and will point to its
next move, a congressional staff member said.
The committee is conducting its investigation independent of information
Inslaw uncovers, but if the company's discovery process turns up evidence
that would be useful, "we will certainly look at it," he said.
Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson of the U.S. District Court granted Inslaw
limited discovery authority this month. It will allow the small Washington
software company to subpoena information from certain Justice bureaus to
determine whether the department illegally distributed Promis.
Robinson gave Justice 30 days to respond to the subpoenas.
Inslaw will subpoena information from the Drug Enforcement Administration,
the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the Immigration
and Naturalization Service and the Justice Management Division, Hamilton
said.
Before granting the motion, Robinson said, "This case has had so many
skirmishes, I don't know whether you will ever get to the major battle." He
also said the court should not have to monitor Justice continuously to ensure
it obeys the law.
At Hamilton's request, Robinson last month agreed to take over the case from
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Hamilton said Inslaw may request more subpoenas
if the discovery process shows that Justice violated a court injunction
against distributing Promis beyond the 44 copies to which it is entitled
under a 1982 contract.
Justice officials continually have denied Inslaw's allegations of wrongdoing.
Robinson noted Justice's argument that some of Inslaw's affidavits include
"second- or third-hand hearsay."
But Inslaw attorney Charles Work said, "I've got a lot of proof that
something is going on. I don't have linkage, but if I did I wouldn't be
asking for discovery."
Although Brooks has not resorted to subpoenaing Justice officials, he made it
clear in December that he would force Justice to produce the documents he
seeks. Brooks has threatened Justice with subpoenas as well as ADP funding
cuts.
Last year, Brooks recommended that Eagle's fiscal 1991 funding be cut back to
the previous year's spending level. Instead, the House Appropriations
Committee restricted Eagle installations to management and litigating
agencies and cut funding by $6.1 million to $16.9 million.
Journal: Computerworld April 1 1991 v25 n13 p1(2).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Spies linked to software scam. (former national security adviser
Robert C. McFarlane implicated)
Author: Anthes, Gary H.
Summary: Small software developer Inslaw Inc has been fighting since 1983
to prove that the US Department of Justice misappropriated its
product, but the case has taken a new twist with the revelation
that former national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane might be
linked to case-tracking software allegedly fraudulently obtained
from Inslaw. A former Israeli intelligence officer has alleged in
a sworn statement filed in the US Bankruptcy Court that McFarlane
gave the software to the Israeli government. Inslaw claims
officials of the Justice Department and their friends stole its
Promis law-enforcement case-tracking software for use in a complex
series of business arrangements. Federal bankruptcy judge George
Bason Jr ruled in favor of Inslaw in 1987, but the Justice
Department has filed a series of appeals in the intervening years.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Software Piracy
Government Officials
United States. Department of Justice
Fraud.
Journal: Government Computer News April 1 1991 v10 n7 p66(2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Inslaw head says software passed like a hot potato. (Department of
Justice accused of stealing software)
Author: Seaborn, Margaret M.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptors..
Company: INSLAW Inc. (Cases).
Topic: Legal Issues
Court Cases
Bankruptcy
United States. Department of Justice
Government Agency
Theft of Equipment
Software Publishers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Full Text:
Inslaw Head Says Software Passed Like a Hot Potato
Saying four federal judges have passed its Promis software case around like a
"hot potato," Inslaw Inc. has persuaded the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to allow
the U.S. District Court to consider an unsettled discovery motion.
The small Washington company had wanted senior District Court Judge William
B. Bryant to decide a discovery motion filed last September. In 1989, Bryant
agreed with a 1987 bankruptcy court ruling that Justice Department officials
stole 44 copies of enhanced Promis from Inslaw.
In February, Judge James F. Schneider, the bannruptcy judge who had handled
the case for the past two and a half years, recused himself from the case
citing potential conflicts of interest.
"Now some six months after Inslaw initially asked for limited discovery to
determine whether the injunction had been violated... Inslaw still has had
no ruling on its motion, and worse still, has no judge to hear it," Inslaw
said in an emergency motion filed last month.
If a court granted Inslaw's motion for discovery, the company could subpoena
information to determine whether Justice had violated an injunction against
distributing copies of Promis beyond what the department acquired through a
1982 contract.
Inslaw officials said they want to withdraw the motion from the bankruptcy
court and resubmit it to the district court because the discovery request is
not a bankruptcy question.
Inslaw president William A. Hamilton said he now believes Promis has been
illegally distributed to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense
Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI.
Meanwhile, Inslaw has submitted to the bankruptcy court an affidavit from
regional sales manager Patricia Hamilton that claims Canadian government
officials told her their government was using pirated copies of Promis in as
many as 905 locations. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police could be using
Promis in 900 of those locations, she said.
A former Israeli intelligence officer alleged in a second affidavit that Earl
W. Brian, a friend of former Attorney General Edwin Meese, told him that U.S.
and Israeli intelligence agencies were using Promis. The Israeli, Ari
Ben-Menashe, also said in the affidavit he had learned that Brian sold Promis
to Iraqi military intelligence.
Brian has denied these allegations.
Schneider is the third judge to recuse himself from the case, which has been
pending almost five years. A fourth judge and the first to hear the case,
Judge George F. Bason Jr., "has come to believe that his failure to be
reappointed to the bench was due to the opinions he rendered in this case,"
Inslaw said.
The emergency motion said, "Judge Bryant remains the only sitting judge who
has not removed himself and has knowledge of the facts of the case."
Bryant awarded Inslaw more than $6 million in 1988. Justice is appealing the
U.S. District Court judge's 1989 affirmation of the bankruptcy court's
ruling and has not paid Inslaw any of the awarded money.
Product: Docketrac
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company: INSLAW, Inc.
Address: 1125 15th St., NW, Ste. 300
Washington, DC 20005
800-221-3187; 202-828-8600
FAX: 202-659-0755
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Software, Applications
Legal Services
Specs: Pricing: $40,000-$150,000
Number sold: 18
Release date: 1983
Application: Legal Services-Docket Scheduling
Compatible with: IBM 9370, 30XX, 43XX/DOS, OS, MVS, CICS; DEC
VAX/ULTRIX; Wang/VS; Unisys; AT&T 3B/UNIX System V; HP/HP-UX
Minimum RAM required: 2 MB
Source language: COBOL
Customer support: Maint. fee 12% of licensing fee per yr.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: On-line docketing and calendaring. Trial court information
system. Tracks cases, litigants, case parties, causes of action
and charges from filing to disposition. Debt Collection module.
Descriptors: scheduling
Product: Jailtrac
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company: INSLAW, Inc.
Address: 1125 15th St., NW, Ste. 300
Washington, DC 20005
800-221-3187; 202-828-8600
FAX: 202-659-0755
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Software, Applications
Government/Public Administration
Specs: Pricing: $30,000-$125,000
Number sold: 14
Release date: 1982
Application: Law Enforcement/Emergency Services
Compatible with: IBM 9370, 30XX, 43XX/DOS, OS, MVS, CICS; DEC
VAX/ULTRIX; Wang/VS; Unisys; AT&T 3B/UNIX System V; HP/HP-UX
Minimum RAM required: 2 MB
Source language: COBOL
Customer support: Maint. fee 12% of licensing fee per yr.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: Arrest booking and jail management. Tracks arrestees, inmates and
cases. On-line data entry, updating and retrieval. Produces
user-defined forms. Includes inmate tracking, cell assignment,
property, inmate accounting, visitor control, scheduling, inmate
history, medical information and release date calculation.
Tailorable.
Descriptors: scheduling
Product: Modulaw Corporate/Lawfirm Public
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company: INSLAW, Inc.
Address: 1125 15th St., NW, Ste. 300
Washington, DC 20005
800-221-3187; 202-828-8600
FAX: 202-659-0755
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Software, Applications
Legal Services
Specs: Pricing: $30,000-$125,000
Number sold: 15
Release date: 1983
Application: Legal Services-Practice Management
Compatible with: IBM 9370, 30XX, 43XX/DOS, OS, MVS, CICS; DEC
VAX/ULTRIX; Wang/VS; Unisys; AT&T 3B/UNIX System V; HP/HP-UX
Minimum RAM required: 2 MB
Source language: COBOL
Customer support: Maint. fee 12% of licensing fee per yr.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: Performs claims/matter tracking, attorney timekeeping, outside
counsel tracking, work product retrieval, docket control and
calendaring, corporate secretary management, person/organization
tracking, law library management, legislation tracking, loan
recovery and records management. User designed screens, forms and
reports.
Descriptors: scheduling; personnel; office automation; professional time
accounting
Product: Modulaw Insurance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company: INSLAW, Inc.
Address: 1125 15th St., NW, Ste. 300
Washington, DC 20005
800-221-3187; 202-828-8600
FAX: 202-659-0755
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Software, Applications
Legal Services
Specs: Pricing: $30,000-$125,000 per office
Number sold: 13
Release date: 1986
Application: Legal Services
Compatible with: IBM 9370, 30XX, 43XX/DOS, OS, MVS, CICS; DEC
VAX/ULTRIX; Wang/VS; Unisys; AT&T 3B/UNIX System V; HP/HP-UX
Minimum RAM required: 2 MB
Source language: COBOL
Customer support: Maint. fee 12% of licensing fee per yr.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: On-line information system. Supports claims litigation tracking,
claims evaluation, reserve tracking, party and expert witness
cross referencing, outside counsel management, docket control and
scheduling, staff workload management, staff timekeeping and
document and issue indexing.
Descriptors: scheduling; professional time accounting
Product: Promis
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Company: INSLAW, Inc.
Address: 1125 15th St., NW, Ste. 300
Washington, DC 20005
800-221-3187; 202-828-8600
FAX: 202-659-0755
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Software, Applications
Government/Public Administration
Specs: Pricing: $30,000-$125,000
Number sold: 75
Release date: 1980
Application: Law Enforcement/Emergency Services
Compatible with: IBM 9370, 30XX, 43XX/DOS, OS, MVS, CICS; DEC
VAX/ULTRIX; Wang/VS; Unisys; AT&T 3B/UNIX System V; HP/HP-UX
Minimum RAM required: 2 MB
Source language: COBOL
Customer support: Maint. fee 12% of licensing fee per yr.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: Tracks cases, defendants and charges in public prosecutor's
office. Data entry, updating and retrieval. Produces
user-defined forms. Defines reports for ad hoc or periodic
production.
Company: INSLAW, Inc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address: 1125 15th St., NW, Ste. 300
Washington, DC 20005
800-221-3187; 202-828-8600
FAX: 202-659-0755
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: Gross annual sales: $6,000,000
No. of employees: 55
Year established: 1972
Chairman/CEO/President: William A. Hamilton
Controller: Bellie Ling
Marketing Dir.: Edward M. Durham
Personnel Dir.: Elizabeth Davis
Marketing/Comm. Mgr.: Evelyn L. Millhouse
VP Product Development: Marian Holton
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category: Software, Applications
Government/Public Administration
Legal Services