BEER -- chapters 10 and 23 -- PROMIS (an aside)

[Thomas Eckhardt]

The aspects of PROMIS with relevance to BE (Israeli espionage on the US 
and 9/11) which I addressed referring to various sources are nicely 
summarized by William A. Hamilton here:

http://oraclesyndicate.twoday.net/stories/2945207/

This seems to be authentic. Hamilton is "a computer software specialist, 
former NSA expert and the inventor of PROMIS software; President of 
Inslaw Inc. company in Washington D.C."

For PROMIS aficionados, Hamilton's statement is of particular interest 
because it addresses technical aspects and raises the possibility that 
the FBI failed to track Atta and company in 2001 because it still had to 
cover up the fact that PROMIS had been stolen from Inslaw.

For connaisseurs of Iran-Contra, there is also this:

"Six months before the FBI arrested Pollard for espionage, Assistant 
Attorney General Wm. Bradford Reynolds sent the following May 16, 1985 
letter to William F. Weld, the U.S. Attorney in Boston, about 
arrangements made by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for 
International Security Policy, and two Middle Eastern middlemen who 
later surfaced in the Iran/Contra scandal, for the sale and distribution 
of a trap-door version of PROMIS to governments in the Middle East. The 
Arab broker identified in the letter headed Saudi Arabia’s National 
Commercial Bank. INSLAW received a copy of the letter in late 2004 from 
a U.S. intelligence source, and has since obtained convincing 
indications of its authenticity.

'As agreed, Messrs. Manichur Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, and Richard 
Armitage will broker the transaction of Promise [sic] software to Sheik 
Khalid bin Mahfouz for resale and general distribution as gifts in his 
region contingent upon the three conditions we last spoke of. Promise 
must have a soft arrival. No paperwork, customs, or delay. It must be 
equipped with the special data retrieval unit. As before, you must walk 
the financial aspects through Credit Suisse into National Commercial 
Bank. If you encounter any problems contact me directly.'"

According to Cheri Seymour's "The Last Circle" the letter was 
authenticated to Hamilton by Reynolds himself.

Thomas


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