I read a few old email messages I had and stumbled over some interesting material relating to NSA, CIA and one Michael Riconosciuto among other things. I followed up on the info and did some surfing on the subject and got quite interested. I also did some searches in my cypherpunk mail folder and got no hits. Surely this must have been up in the list? Can someone give me some links please? There were also some talk about some PROMIS software somewhere and modifications being made to illegally obtained copies of proprietary software. This software was then sold by the US gov to be able to spy on Canadian authoritites. Is this also true? I found the below text saved here locally, if I'm correctly informed Mr. Michael Riconosciuto went to jail for this affidavit. Can someone verify if this really is true. (It sounds bizarre but maybe this can happen in Amerika?) I am told that Michael Riconosciuto has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and many delays in diagnosis and treatment have occurred and people say it's becaus the US gov wants him dead because he knows too much. It's also rumoured that he never received a fair trial and that two of his lawyers were murdered. Because the US government does not admit anything about PROMIS he has been relegated as a nut and serious efforts to isolate him have been going on for more than a decade. A friend of mine sent me this info on the case:

Michael Riconosciuto was asked by Bill Hamilton, the proprietor of Promis, to sign an affidavit about his alterations to the software. A week before he signed, Michael was threatened. There had already been deaths around him and Michael informed his family that he was about to be murdered or jailed and that whatever the family was going to be told about him, it wasn't true, he was being framed for telling the truth. A week after signing the affidavit, Michael ended up in jail on fraudulent charges of running a drug lab.

Can someone give me some more info on this? Thank you AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO The INSLAW CASE: AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA In Re: INSLAW, INC., Debtor. CASE NO. 85-00070 (Chapter 11) ________________________________ INSLAW, INC., Plaintiff v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Defendants. CASE NO. 85-00070 Adversary Proceeding NO. 86-0069 AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO STATE OF WASHINGTON) I, MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO, being duly sworn, do hereby state as follows: 1. During the early 1980's, I served as the Director of Research for a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation of Coral Gables, Florida, and the Cabazon Band of Indians in Indio, California. The joint venture was located on the Cabazon reservation. 2. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture sought to develop and/or manufacture certain materials that are used in military and national security operations, including night vision goggles, machine guns, fuel-air explosives, and biological and chemical warfare weapons. EXHIBIT 1 3. The Cabazon Band of Indians are a sovereign nation. The sovereign immunity that is accorded the Cabazons as a consequence of this fact made it feasible to pursue on the reservation the development and/or manufacture of materials whose development or manufacture would be subject to stringent controls off the reservation. As a minority group, the Cabazon Indians also provided the Wackenhut Corporation with an enhanced ability to obtain federal contracts through the 8A Set Aside Program, and in connection with Government-owned contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities. 4. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture was intended to support the needs of a number of foreign governments and forces, including forces and governments in Central America and the Middle East. The Contras in Nicaragua represented one of the most important priorities for the joint venture. 5. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture maintained close liaison with certain elements of the United States Government, including representatives of intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies. 6. Among the frequent visitors to the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture were Peter Videnieks of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and a close associate of Videnieks by the name of Earl W. Brian. Brian is a private businessman who lives in Maryland and who has maintained close business ties with the U.S. intelligence community for many years. 7. In connection with my work for Wackenhut, I engaged in some software development and modification work in 1983 and 1984 on the proprietary PROMIS computer software product. The copy of PROMIS on which I worked came from the Department of Justice. Earl W. Brian made it available to me through Wackenhut after acquiring it from Peter Videnieks, who was then a Department of Justice contracting official with responsibility for the PROMIS software. I performed the modifications to PROMIS in Indio, California; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Miami, Florida. 8. The purpose of the PROMIS software modifications that I made in 1983 and 1984 was to support a plan for the implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. Earl W. Brian was spearheading the plan for this worldwide use of the PROMIS computer software. 9. Some of the modifications that I made were specifically designed to facilitate the implementation of PROMIS within two agencies of the Government of Canada: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Earl W. Brian would check with me from time to time to make certain that the work would be completed in time to satisfy the schedule for the RCMP and CSIS implementations of PROMIS. 10. The proprietary versions of PROMIS, as modified by me, was, in fact, implemented in both the RCMP and the CSIS in Canada. It was my understanding that Earl W. Brian had sold this version of PROMIS to the Government of Canada. 11. In February 1991, I had a telephone conversation with Peter Videnieks, then still employed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Videnieks attempted during this telephone conversation to persuade me not to cooperate with an independent investigation of the government's piracy of INSLAW's proprietary PROMIS software being conducted by the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives. 12. Videnieks stated that I would be rewarded for a decision not to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee investigation. Videnieks forecasted an immediate and favorable resolution of a protracted child custody dispute being prosecuted against my wife by her former husband, if I were to decide not to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee investigation. 13. Videnieks also outlined specific punishments that I could expect to receive from the U.S. Department of Justice if I cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee's investigation. 14. One punishment that Videnieks outlined was the future inclusion of me and my father in a criminal prosecution of certain business associates of mine in Orange County, California, in connection with the operation of a savings and loan institution in Orange County. By way of underscoring his power to influence such decisions at the U.S. Department of Justice, Videnieks informed me of the indictment of these business associates prior to the time when that indictment was unsealed and made public. 15. Another punishment that Videnieks threatened against me if I cooperate with the House Judiciary Commitee [sic] is prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice for perjury. Videnieks warned me that credible witnesses would come forward to contradict any damaging claims that I made in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, and that I would subsequently be prosecuted for perjury by the U.S. Department of Justice for my testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT. [Signed]: Michael J. Riconosciuto Signed and sworn to before me this 21st day of March, 1991. John M. Rosellini Notary Public My Commission Expires: Sept 19, 1993