Thread by @YDanasmithdutra

FBI confirms it obtained NSO’s Pegasus spyware and that the sophisticated hacking tool was never used.

@DavidManOnFire has been screaming the alarms that the FBI had Pegasus
@ericgarland shared the Inslaw Affair PDF file with me over three years ago.

https://twitter.com/YDanasmithdutra/status/1488912445599105034

🎩@ericgarland

Inslaw Affair

archives.gov/files/research…

Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, plays a huge roll in the infamous story known as the “Inslaw Affair” that I highly suggest you read. This is the birth of NSO’s stolen software Pegasus formally known as PROMIS.

https://twitter.com/ydanasmithdutra/status/1402680181584797700

Sir Robert Maxwell’s FBI file is getting more classified by the minute
The media mogul and alleged spy’s increasingly redacted ties to the PROMIS scandal include tapping a government database on tapping government databases.

muckrock.com/news/archives/…

NSA’s empty PROMISes
Agency’s investigation of the Inslaw allegations was thorough in all the wrong ways

muckrock.com/news/archives/…

According to FBI documents first obtained by William Hamilton of Inslaw Inc., the original creator of the PROMIS software which was stolen by the Justice Department, the FBI was contacted (cont’d)

…the FBI was contacted by employees of Sandia National Laboratories regarding Robert Maxwell and his company’s access to government databases based on information from the National Security Agency.

As a result, the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation to the matter. According to court documents and a FOIA appeal filed by William Hamilton and Inslaw, portions of these documents were suddenly reclassified by the FBI in response to Inslaw’s FOIA request.

In response to a new FOIA request filed by the author, the FBI agreed to release additional materials on Robert Maxwell to their FOIA reading room, which had previously excluded the materials provided to Inslaw.

Robert Maxwell

(1923-1991)

vault.fbi.gov/robert-maxwell

Documents reviewed by the FBI in April 2017, are more redacted and have more withholdings than the versions from 1992, 1994, or even just four years prior in 2013. (Cont’d)

Not only was every mention of the NSA withheld for referral, the entirety of every page which so much as mentioned the NSA was withheld - a stark increase over just a few years prior.

Additional details are withheld on spurious grounds, such as the claim that the Bureau is prevented from disclosing the file number and the subject of the file being released, on the grounds (cont’d)

…on the grounds that its disclosure “would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions … [and] such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.”

FBI continues to delay release of files on the 1981 “Octopus Murders”
More than a year after the initial request, Bureau provides same canned response it had already lost on appeal

muckrock.com/news/archives/…

We know many things about the 1981 triple murder of Fred A. Alvarez, Patricia R. Castro and Ralph A. Boger. We know that the bagman for the hit, Jimmy Hughes, confessed. We know that a 2010 trial was interrupted when charges were abruptly dropped and evidence lost.

We know from witness statements that the murders, which predated Danny Casolaro’s alleged suicide, could be connected to the corruption surrounding Wackenhut and the PROMIS affair. We know from the FBI’s own records that the Bureau looked into the matter.

And most recently, we know that the FBI has not only repeatedly refused to release those files (despite DOJ telling them to do so) but apparently removed the request from their FOIA tracking system.

In early 1981, Fred Alvarez, a tribal vice president with the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, started complained that money from the tribe’s casino was being skimmed.

Witness statements and other evidence reveals that John P. Nichols Sr., who had, in addition to his claims of a CIA affiliation, long-established ties to organized crime, confessed to ordering the hit that resulted in the deaths of the Alvarez and the others in response.

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Subsequent investigations have linked their deaths to a network of corruption that included organized crime, arms trafficking, partnerships with Wackenhut private security, and the government-backed modification and distribution of stolen software.

The Scandal That Wouldn’t Die

The Undying Octopus: FBI and the PROMIS affair Part 1
35 years later, file reveals dropped leads and confirmed allegations in “the scandal that wouldn’t die”

muckrock.com/news/archives/…

FBI file casts doubt on Bureau’s investigation into the suspicious death of journalist Danny Casolaro
Newly released records shows Bureau lied to Congress about the case, and may have interfered in their own investigation muckrock.com/news/archives/…

Danny Casolaro

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Cas…

Danny Casolaro was a journalist who had been working on a complex case involving government corruption stretching from the DOJ and FBI to the CIA and beyond. His death has often been connected to the death of Alan Standorf, who had been one of his sources.

Like Casolaro’s, Standorf’s death is suspicious for a number of reasons. Despite asserting that it was a simple robbery-homicide and unconnected to his work with the Army and NSA, the FBI claims that there is an ongoing law enforcement proceeding regarding Standorf’s death.

Casolaro’s death was ruled a suicide, although those conclusions are challenged both by previously released documents and new materials in the FBI file.

The official report issued by Judge Bua - the ostensible independence of which is questionable - states quite clearly that the motive behind Casolaro’s alleged suicide was financially based.

The FBI’s interviews with sources, however, contradict this conclusion. According to one of the individuals interviewed, Danny wouldn’t have killed himself over money - he “could have borrowed whatever money [he] needed.”

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At the time of his death, Casolaro was investigating a network of corruption that included PROMIS, and the BCCI and BNL banks. From there, his investigation spread to other events. A copy of one of his notes and book proposals on the subject was provided to the Bureau.

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“What may have begun,” Casolaro wrote, “for these few learned men as a utopian response to the harsh post-war realities quickly gave way to what simple men have always known to be the real enemy which is selfishness and its allied forces of fear, greed and power.”

Collectively, the FBI documents which have been released do a great deal to undermine the official narrative of Danny Casolaro’s death and the DOJ’s conclusions. Not only did the Bureau lie to Congress but they dropped leads and may well have interfered in their own investigation

This, combined with the DOJ’s decision to ignore the changing alibi of the main suspect in Casolaro’s death, and the FBI’s sources contradicting what the DOJ said was the motive behind the alleged suicide, casts significant doubt on the Bureau.

Additional materials from his FBI file will discussed in a future article, along with the FBI file on PROMIS, which has been called a forerunner to PRISM. In the meantime, you can read the FBI file embedded below, or on the request page.

cdn.muckrock.com/foia_files/201…

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Using a powerful computer program known as PRISM, the U.S. government has been downloading vast amounts of communications data and mining it for counterterrorism purposes. But these capabilities began more than three decades ago with the controversial PROMIS software.

PRISM’s Controversial Forerunner

consortiumnews.com/2013/07/11/pri…

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DOJ, CIA, NSA and Mossad

Bill Hamilton, developer of the PROMIS software, and his wife Nancy, who founded Inslaw Inc.
Over the ensuing decades PROMIS is reported to have been used by the DOJ, CIA, NSA, and several foreign intelligence agencies including Israel’s Mossad.

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Brooks 1992 report findings: “High government officials were involved individuals testified under oath that Inslaw’s PROMIS software was stolen and distributed internationally in order to provide financial gain and to further intelligence and foreign policy objectives.”

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Regardless of the Inslaw affair, PROMIS is still out there, still tracking whatever its masters require. And still, to this day, no one in government or otherwise has inquired, not about what PROMIS can do, but rather what is PROMIS doing, for whom and why???

PROMIS has been toiling in intelligence caverns for 30 years that’s a lot of data consumption, and a lot of tracking. Where’s the PROMIS data? Compared to 30 years of information gathering/tracking by PROMIS, PRISM could be considered the equivalent of digital binge drinking.

“1982” 👿

Although the Bureau asserts that the software was developed entirely in house, a 1987 issue of Network World reported, after an interview with senior Bureau personnel, that a contract for FOIMS had been awarded in 1982 but that the bidding process had restarted

The issue identifies the project as having been developed by the Systems Development Section within the Bureau’s Technical Services Division. A 1983 GAO Report further muddies the issue stating the development of FOIMS had been assigned outside the Systems Development Section.

“1983 GAO Report”

web.archive.org/web/2017051317…

That same year, Hadron Inc. attempted to buy Inslaw and PROMIS. The company refused, and the DOJ began withholding payments to Inslaw, eventually forcing the company into bankruptcy.

Hadron Inc. was ultimately owned by Earl Brian, a long-time friend of Attorney General Edwin Meese.

Meese, who later served as an advisor for President-Elect Trump, had failed to disclose his wife’s investments in Earl Brian’s companies - investments that had been made with money loaned to Meese’s wife by a close associate of Earl Brian.

Back To Shining Light On Robert Maxwell

Maxwell played a role in Israel’s modification and distribution of the PROMIS software and modified hardware that was being distributed simultaneous to Maxwell’s efforts to globally distribute computers and computer services. (Cont’d)

As previously discussed, CIA and NSA’s early efforts to exploit commercial online databases dated back to the 1980’s. Before even those efforts, Maxwell’s company was working with the U.S. government. According to documents released in CIA’s CREST database, (cont’d)

the Agency had been in touch with Maxwell’s company, Pergamon International, about potentially using their services just days before the FBI opened a counterintelligence into them.

The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy

cia.gov/readingroom/co…

👀🔥🤬🖕🏼

@DavidManOnFire @Standupchai @TeresaCCarter2 @RussellSieg @100FrogLegs @jbadomics

You are going to love all these files.

Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy

cia.gov/readingroom/co…

While it’s unknown what, if anything, came of Pergamon’s offer to let CIA access its information, either on disk or online, the type of material (foreign patents) being offered to CIA was certainly of interest to the Agency.

Last But Not Least

A look into the wrongdoings of the Reagan administration and campaign, including the October Surprise, Debategate, MCA Records, the Inslaw and Wedtech scandals and the Iran-Contra scandal, which has been called Reagan's unchecked abuse of Presidential power.

Iran-Contra, October Surprise and Reagan's Wrongs

muckrock.com/project/iran-c…

The Iran-Contra scandal saw Congress’ restrictions on foreign arms sales circumvented by high level politicians, military and intelligence officers who were aided by smugglers and traffickers. (Cont’d)

Many of the details have never been released. By signing onto a FOIA saying that these documents are in the public interest, you can help change that.

This project will collect new materials with FOIA and examine them to understand who really did what, who knew what and what their motives were.

It will also explore other scandals and allegations involving the Reagan campaign and administration, including the October Surprise, Debategate, Inslaw and Wedtech sandals and the dropped investigation into MCA Records.

Those involved and investigated include:

April 14, 1987 the Village Voice made itself the target of a FBI leak investigation when it published an article based on a leaked memo confirming an Iran-Contra cover-up, amidst leaks/counter-leaks by whistleblowers/politically maneuvering Reagan Administration officials.

FBI investigation shows the DOJ’s surprising tolerance for leaks … when they come from the DOJ
Bureau claimed “There is no written record of the DOJ/OPR investigation other than a pile of handwritten notes.”

muckrock.com/news/archives/…

Although the memo itself wasn’t marked classified, a point that would become crucial later, it contained the names of two individuals doing covert work for the Central Intelligence Agency, John Hull and Joseph Fernandez.

Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. The Bureau’s investigation led to a senior official in the Department of Justice, one who had been a CIA officer and who was then under consideration for a senior position in the Department of Defense.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellige…

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The FBI closed the case on the mostly undocumented investigation, and the suspected leaker was put in charge of the military’s special operations. Immediately after 9/11, they returned to active duty to manage Unconventional Warfare operations in Afghanistan.

The Bureau attempted to redact the name of Kenneth Bergquist, the Deputy Assistant AG (DAAG) for the Office of Legislative Affairs. In several instances, his name is partially/entirely visible. One notable memo to FBI Director William S. Sessions, originally classified SECRET.

Kenneth P. Bergquist (Department of Defense) attended Phillips Academy until March 1960 before transferring to Concord High School, graduating in 1962. Phillips Academy (also known as Phillips Academy Andover, Andover) founded in 1778, 2 yrs after the Declaration of Independence.

Taking a break from this thread. Will be back to finish it out.

Thanks for reading. We have a country to save. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸