Firm says stolen software helped bin Laden plot 9/11 (PROMIS CHARGES APPARENTLY CORROBORATED)

The Washington Times ^ | January 6, 2003 | Jerry Seper

[aristeides]

The head of a computer firm wants the independent commission named to investigate September 11 intelligence failures to review accusations that his software-tracking program, which he says the Justice Department stole, was diverted to Osama bin Laden.

William H. Hamilton, president of Inslaw Inc., said the commission

[aristeides]

The plot thickens.

[aristeides]

FYI.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping and the post!

I'll ping my list!

[Kerberos]

"The plot thickens."

Is this the company that the government raided about 6-8 weeks ago on the east coast?

[aristeides]

Is this the company that the government raided about 6-8 weeks ago on the east coast?

I haven't heard of such a raid.

[Shermy]

No.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Interesting story bump.

[shadowman99]

"Bin Laden reportedly bought the U.S. intelligence community's version of the Promis database software on the Russian black market, after former FBI Agent Robert P. Hanssen had stolen it for the Russians, and used Promis in computer-based espionage against the United States,"

If this is validated, I think there's enough reason to execute Hanssen for treason. The blood of 3000 is on his hands. Traitor.

[eno_]

How is software that was last worked on 13 years ago going to do anything anymore? I have here the VERY SAME Oracle database software used by many large dot-coms and I can... can... can... do f-all with it! How is a rancid old stolen program going do DO anything except require me to exhume the corpse of a 1980's mainframe to run it on?

Islaw was a hot story once, and I'm sure someone made out in some interesting way, but software tinfoil has a very short shelf-life.

[lelio]

To learn more about PROMIS and Inslaw try and get your hands on the book The Octopus

[Fred Mertz]

"The national commission will need to overcome resistance from the Justice Department, remarkable for both its ferocity and tenacity, to any inquiry that might even imply the existence of the department's improprieties regarding Promis," Mr. Hamilton said.

Does this mean that Janet Ashcroft will participate in the coverup?

[Cicero]

Promis is one of the most outrageously tin-foil-hat paranoia dreams of the decade. Yet seemingly it may be true. Why on earth US intelligence would steal someone's software to use for top-secret activities just defies explanation. But the story just won't go away.

[Lady Jag]

90 bucks! Can you save us a few bucks and tell us about it?

[eno_]

I could readily believe someone stole it in order to get a government contract or something like that, but why would spy agencies that spend billions steal software that took at most a few million to write? Corruption I believe. Bin Laden "using" Promis to "monitor" U.S. LEAs? That's tinfoil.

Maybe - and that's a big maybe - AQ could have hacked in to a Promis database. But that's about as far as credulity stretches.

[aristeides]

If the story was just paranoid nonsense, I don't think Boyden Gray (Bush-41's White House counsel) would be representing Hamilton and Inslaw.

And I've checked out on line that the bankruptcy judge ruled for Inslaw and then failed to be reappointed to a new term. For a bankruptcy judge not to be reappointed (although possible under the law) is, as far as I know, without parallel.

[Nick Danger]

Islaw was a hot story once, and I'm sure someone made out in some interesting way, but software tinfoil has a very short shelf-life.

I wish it did have a short life, but alas, this one does not. The word "Promis" has become a Magic Word in the tinfoil community. This is primitive database software written for PDP-11's in the 1970's (and subsequently ported to many other minicomputer-class machines, now all extinct) that supposedly, in the hands of the intelligence agencies, has become a state-of-the-art Knows All Sees All piece of Internet-aware spyware that can peer into foreign banks and track the movements of bad guys.

Horsefeathers. It's a fill-in-the-blanks, field oriented, application generator. It's like Microsoft Access, except with the feature set of a 1970's ASCII-tube interface, and a flat file system instead of a relational database.

My humble opinion is that all articles about PROMIS that allege use after about 1990 belong in the Art Bell Wing of the Interesting Theories Museum.

[Poohbah]

If the story was just paranoid nonsense, I don't think Boyden Gray (Bush-41's White House counsel) would be representing Hamilton and Inslaw.

Depends. Are Hamilton's and Inslaw's retainer checks still clearing the bank? If so, there's your motive for Gray to take the case.

[Poohbah]

Obviously Hamilton and Inslaw have been releasing upgrades to and new editions of the PROMIS package ever since the software was allegedly stolen and Inslaw went bankrupt.

Right. Sure.

Hanssen got two megabucks for a copy of PROMIS? Damn, I've got some "classified military simulations" (copies of Microprose's Red Storm Rising and F-19 Stealth Fighter for the Commodore 64) to peddle :o)

[Uncle Bill]

"Does this mean that Janet Ashcroft will participate in the coverup?"

You bet.

The first link is the www.archive.org archive of the thread as it is no longer activated on FR. Many of the links within that thread no longer work also. But many of the links can be found via Google or www.archive.org.

THE OCTOPUS - The Tentacles Of Corruption

PAUL WILCHER - The Deadly Pursuit Of The Truth

The Murder of Attorney Paul Wilcher

INSLAW Background Archive

INSLAW: Affidavit of Richard Babayan

BACK DOOR MEN - Outlaws and Inslaw

The Last Circle and Chapter 5 - "Danny Casolaro's body was found at 12:30 p.m. in a bloodfilled bath tub"

OUT-SOURCING BIG BROTHER - Systematics - Alltel - Acxiom - Jackson Stephens

INSLAW: BARRON'S / 1988 / Beneath Contempt: Did the Justice Dept. Deliberately Bankrupt INSLAW? By MAGGIE MAHAR

INSLAW/PROMIS - The following is a Radio Interview between James Norman, formerly Senior Editor of Forbes Magazine and now with Media Bypass Magazine and Jim Quinn, DJ of WRRK 96.9 FM in Pittsburgh.

Bin Laden and Promis Software - Fox News

Software Likely In Hands of Terrorist (Promis/Inslaw) - Washington Times

TALE OF SPIES AND CONSPIRACIES [INSLAW and PROMIS return to the news]

PROMIS Spins Web of Intrigue ~~ (Part IV of IV)
Part III
Part II
Part I

A PROMIS Software---Filegate Connection?

Clinton's Still Haunted By FBI Files Scandal

---

"OCTOBER 5, 1999"

---

U.S. Government Flunks Computer Security Tests
"The U.S. government has earned failing marks for computer security for the second year in a row, according to a report released today by a congressional oversight committee.

More than half of 24 major federal agencies flunked the latest "computer security report card," according to a House Government Reform subcommittee. The Justice, Defense, Energy and Treasury departments earned failing grades; the Department of Transportation received the lowest score."

Here is a list of what grades the GAO assigned to the agencies:

B-minus: Social Security Administration

C-plus: Labor Dept.

C: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

D-plus: Commerce Dept., NASA

D: Education Dept., General Services Administration

D-minus: Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Dept. of Health and Human Services

F: Depts. of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Justice, State, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans' Administration. Also, U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.