Fresh start from commit 85df488cc66fa4934e54d62f1eaeffd274743b7a

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Aharon Yariv.md

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+---
+created: 2025-07-22
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Aharon Yariv
+tags:
+  - person
+  - military
+  - intelligence
+  - Israel
+---
+
+Aharon Yariv was a Brigadier General and the head of military intelligence in [[Israel]]. He was one of the high-profile Israeli figures who took an interest in [[Uri Geller]]'s purported psychic abilities. Newspapers in Israel reported that Geller had met privately with Yariv[^1].
+
+This meeting highlights the interest of Israeli intelligence in Geller's capabilities, similar to how other nations' intelligence agencies, including the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], explored the potential military and intelligence applications of [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]][^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Algie A. Wells.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Government Official
+  - USA
+---
+Algie A. Wells was the director of international affairs for the [[Atomic Energy Commission|AEC]] in mid-1958. He suggested that [[Lewis L. Strauss]] might have ignored his statutory responsibility as AEC chairman for trivial reasons, rather than his Jewishness, when it came to informing [[John A. McCone]] about [[Dimona]]. Wells believed that if McCone was surprised to learn about the reactor in late 1960, "he shouldn't have been," as any government official who chose to do so could have learned about [[Israel]]'s nuclear reactor.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 7.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Allan Thompson.md

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+[[Allan Thompson]] was a reporter for the *Toronto Star*. He, along with [[Valerie Lawton]], was told by [[Sean McDade]] in August 2000 that there were issues he could not talk about related to his investigation, which centered on [[PROMIS]].[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ardeshir Zahedi.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Politics
+  - Iran
+  - USA
+---
+[[Ardeshir Zahedi]] was the [[Iran|Iranian]] ambassador to the [[USA|U.S.]]. He served as a vital source of information for [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence, reporting directly back to the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah's]] office in the Royal Court. His reports detailed discussions in [[Washington D.C.]] regarding [[Middle East]] policy and [[USA|American]] initiatives with [[Anwar Sadat|Anwar Sadat's]] [[Egypt]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Baruch Weiss.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Legal
+  - USA
+---
+[[Baruch Weiss]] was an Assistant [[USA|U.S.]] Attorney for the Southern District of [[New York]]. He was the prosecutor in the trial of [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] and [[Richard St. Francis]] for conspiracy to sell [[C-130]] aircraft to [[Iran]].[^1]
+
+[[Baruch Weiss|Weiss]] initially classified [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] as dangerous, but later admitted it was a mistake. He signed an agreement with [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] to talk without a lawyer present, granting him immunity for the conversations. [[Baruch Weiss|Weiss]] insisted that [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] was a low-level translator acting for personal profit, but the taped conversations and [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] employment records, including letters of recommendation, contradicted this claim.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Bill Turner.md

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+[[Bill Turner]] was a friend and confidante of investigative journalist [[Danny Casolaro]]. He met with Casolaro in the parking lot of the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, Virginia, on August 9, 1991, the day before Casolaro's death, to deliver some papers. These papers allegedly included two sealed packages that Turner had been keeping in his safe for Casolaro, and a packet of Hughes Aircraft papers belonging to Turner, who had been let go from Hughes for whistleblowing.[^1]
+
+Turner later admitted to police that he met with Casolaro but initially refused to specify the time or describe the contents of the papers. He claimed not to know what was in the sealed documents, which had Casolaro's name written across the seal. It was suggested that Turner might have known who Casolaro was preparing to meet that evening and wanted Casolaro to show the Hughes Aircraft documents to that individual.[^1]
+
+Turner stated he was "scared shitless" about information he had seen connecting [[Oliver North]] and the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]]. He claimed to have seen papers from Casolaro that linked back through the Keating Five and Silverado, a failed Denver Savings and Loan where [[Neil Bush]] had been an officer.[^1]
+
+[[Bill Hamilton]], president of [[INSLAW]], later stated that he had received an affidavit from Bill Turner on "highly classified computer printouts on off-shore accounts that he claimed Casolaro intended to use the night he died in a planned meeting with [[Peter Videnieks]] and [[Joseph Cuellar]] and others."[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Brad Veek.md

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+---
+aliases:
+  - Brad Veek
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Cartographer
+  - Submariner
+---
+# Brad Veek
+
+Brad Veek was a cartographer and career submariner who played a role in [[Project Deep Quest]]. He was responsible for creating a composite map from the individual maps marked up by psychics [[Ingo Swann]] and [[Hella Hammid]] during their [[Map Dowsing]] efforts to locate a shipwreck[^1].
+
+This composite map was then taken by [[Stephan Schwartz]] to the Bureau of Marine Sites of the [[U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey]] for official opinion and verification, helping to narrow down the search area for the *Taurus I* submersible[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Brian Toohey.md

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+[[Brian Toohey]] was a top [[Australia|Australian]] journalist. In 1991, he reported in his *The Eye* magazine that [[Michael Hand]] had a postal drop at a suite in NE Bellevue, Washington State, and that Hand's wife was reportedly living with him there.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Bruce Williams.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - USA
+---
+Bruce Williams was a U.S. Army attaché in [[Israel]]. He accompanied [[Orwin C. Talbott]] during a meeting with [[David Elazar]] in early 1974, where Elazar revealed [[Israel]]'s preparedness to use nuclear weapons against the Syrians if they had broken through during the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]]. Williams recalled Elazar's remarks as revelatory, stating that the message was clear.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar W. Weinberger.md

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+---
+aliases:
+  - Caspar W. Weinberger
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Government Official
+  - Secretary of Defense
+---
+Caspar W. Weinberger (1917–1990) was an American politician and businessman who served as the Secretary of Defense under President [[Ronald Reagan]] from 1981 to 1987. He was a key figure in the Reagan administration's military buildup during the [[Cold War]][^1].
+
+[[William Richard Higgins]], a Marine Lieutenant Colonel who was abducted in [[Lebanon]] in 1988, had served as a military aide to Weinberger from June 1985 until he went to Lebanon in June 1987. Higgins's in-depth knowledge of classified military matters, gained during his time with Weinberger, made him a high-value hostage[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Caspar Weinberger.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Government
+  - Secretary of Defense
+---
+Caspar Weinberger served as the Secretary of Defense under President [[Ronald Reagan]]. Following the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [[Osirak]] in June 1981, Weinberger proposed canceling the F-16 aircraft sale to [[Israel]] as a sanction. However, President Reagan privately disagreed with this course of action.[^1]
+
+---
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Chaim Weizmann.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Zionist
+  - Israel
+---
+Chaim Weizmann was a Russian-Jewish biochemist and prominent Zionist leader. He played a crucial role in the establishment of the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] in [[Rehovot]], [[Israel]]. Weizmann actively sought to bring eminent scientists to [[Israel]], attempting to woo figures like [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] and [[John von Neumann]] as early as 1947 to conduct research there.[^1]
+
+Weizmann was a close friend of [[Ernst David Bergmann]]'s father, one of Berlin's most eminent rabbis. In 1933, when Nazi decrees made it impossible for Bergmann to continue his academic work in Germany, Weizmann arranged for Bergmann to join him on the faculty at Manchester University in England. Weizmann also intervened to help Bergmann find a job in Philadelphia and later in Brooklyn after he left England.[^1]
+
+Weizmann was instrumental in setting up Palestine's first research facility, the [[Daniel Sieff Institute]], in the 1930s. He even approached [[Albert Einstein]], then teaching at Princeton, to recommend a director for the institute.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Charles N. Van Doren.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Government Official
+  - USA
+---
+Charles N. Van Doren was the deputy general counsel of the [[Arms Control and Disarmament Agency]] in the [[Richard M. Nixon|Nixon]] administration. He was convinced that [[Israel]] was the "Achilles heel" of [[America]]'s [[Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty|NPT]] policy, stating, "We were winking at it." Van Doren repeatedly tried to get the NPT on the agenda for talks on the [[Middle East]], but was told there was "too much on the table." He understood the underlying reason: an order had gone out that no nuclear information on Israeli proliferation was to be put out, which he found very frustrating.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Charles R. Work.md

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+Charles "Chuck" R. Work was born June 21, 1940, in Glendale, CA. He is married, has three children, and spent most of his life in Washington, DC[^1] (now retired and living in Naples, Florida).
+
+He graduated from Wesleyan University (B.A., 1962), the University of Chicago Law School (J.D., 1965), and the Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M., 1966). He passed the bar exam in 1965.
+
+In 1966 Work became an Assistant United States Attorney (criminal trial section). In 1969 he moved to to the Superior Court Division, the division responsible for prosecuting all local crime in the District of Columbia, as Deputy Chief and finally Chief until he left in 1973.
+
+In 1973, Work became the Deputy Administrator of the [[LEAA|Law Enforcement Assistance Administration]] (via [[Richard Nixon|Richard Nixon's]] Presidential nomination and Senate confirmation) within the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] until 1975 at which point he became a partner at Peabody, Lambert & Meyers. In 1983 Work moved to McDermott, Will & Emery where he was the Partner-In-Charge of DC through 1997 (now retired).[^2]
+
+Following Nixon’s resignation, Work was close personal friends with one of [[Ford administration|President Ford’s]] speech writers and used that connection to encourage Ford to come out as tough on crime and career criminals (bolstering the LEAA).[^3]
+
+In 1985, [[Reagan administration|Ronald Reagan]] appointed him a member of the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure, the body that reappoints and disciplines the judges of the District of Columbia.
+
+Work has handled civil and criminal matters in state and federal courts as well as matters before various federal agencies, including the International Trade Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of the Independent Counsel. Chuck has on a number of occasions represented former government officials, business executives and trade association executives with respect to employment contract and compensation issues.
+
+He is a former president of the D.C. Bar. In 1978, he received the Rockefeller Public Service Award for Administering Justice and Reducing Crime.
+## Notable Cases
+#### Wesley Jessen Corporation vs. Bausch & Lomb, Inc.
+A patent trial in the U.S. District Court in Delaware involving contact lenses.
+#### United States of America v. Quorum
+A significant health care fraud case in the U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida.
+#### United States of America v. Lockheed Martin Corporation and Northrup Grumman Corporation
+Co-lead counsel on behalf of the Lockheed Martin Corporation in which the United States sued to enjoin the merger of the two companies
+#### Aristotle Publishing, Inc. v. CDB Infotech
+a case involving data rights
+## INSLAW
+Charles R. Work hired [[INSLAW]] to write the first version of [[PROMIS]] for the [[U.S. Attorney's office]]. He appears to have been close to [[Bill Hamilton]] who thanked him specifically and profusely for enabling the PROMIS program to proceed.
+
+Work continued to fund INSLAW during his tenure as Deputy Administrator of LEAA.
+
+During [[Inslaw, Inc., et al. v. The United States]] Work was co-lead counsel.
+## MISC
+Was appointed by the United States District Court as guardian ad litem of the Vietnamese orphans who survived a plane crash in Saigon in 1975.
+
+
+---
+#### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: [Appointment of Charles R. Work as a Member of the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/appointment-charles-r-work-member-the-district-columbia-commission-judicial-disabilities)
+[^2]: [Charles R. Work - Atlantic Legal Foundation](https://atlanticlegal.org/directors/charles-r-work)
+[^3]: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1487081370607576&disposition=inline

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Charles Trombetta.md

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+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Charles Trombetta was identified by [[Lois Battistoni]] as an individual who might have information about the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] and [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]]. However, when interviewed by the Special Counsel, Trombetta stated that he had no direct knowledge of the [[INSLAW]] matter. He did suggest that [[Garnett Taylor]] might possess information concerning Inslaw documents held by the DOJ security office, but he could not provide any further details.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Craig Unger.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Journalist
+  - Author
+  - USA
+---
+[[Craig Unger]] is an [[USA|American]] journalist and author. In October 1991, his article in *Esquire* magazine repeated [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] allegations that [[Robert McFarlane]] had been recruited by [[Rafi Eitan]] and named [[Robert McFarlane|McFarlane]] as "Mr. X" in the [[Jonathan Pollard]] case. [[Robert McFarlane|McFarlane]] subsequently sued the magazine, but the suit was dismissed in June 1994.[^1]
+
+In July 1992, *The Village Voice* printed a long article by [[Craig Unger|Unger]] that quoted [[Moshe Hebroni]], a former colleague of [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]], confirming [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] access to very sensitive material while working for the Foreign Flow desk in External Relations.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Daniel Tessler.md

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+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Daniel Tessler managed a venture capital fund called [[53rd Street Ventures]], Inc., which was formed around 1976 as an investment company. In about 1984, Tessler and his wife, [[Patricia Cloherty]], assumed management of 53rd Street Ventures through their investment management company, [[Tessler & Cloherty]], Inc. At that time, 53rd Street Ventures had a $100,000 investment in [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]], representing less than 1% of the fund's total portfolio. This investment was made around 1982 under the supervision of [[Patricof and Company]], the previous managers, with [[Jonathan Ben Cnaan]] arranging the investment. The investment resulted in 53rd Street Ventures owning about 1.2% of [[INSLAW]].
+
+[[Bill Hamilton]]'s affidavit claimed that in December 1984, shortly before Inslaw's Chapter 11 filing, Tessler came to Inslaw and attempted to induce the Hamiltons to turn over the voting rights of their controlling interest in Inslaw common stock. Hamilton alleged that Tessler stated neither 53rd Street Ventures nor [[Hambro Venture Capital]] would help Inslaw raise capital unless the Hamiltons surrendered their voting rights by the end of the business day. Hamilton's affidavit also suggested a relationship between [[Daniel Tessler]] and [[Alan Tessler]], a partner in a law firm representing [[Earl Brian]] and [[Hadron]], and that Daniel Tessler helped organize Hadron's efforts to "get" Inslaw.[^1]
+
+Daniel Tessler denied these allegations. He stated that he and Cloherty looked into the Inslaw investment after taking over management and determined that Inslaw had serious operating difficulties, was heavily in debt, and could not meet its production obligations. He met with Hamilton in late 1984, and while Hamilton asked about additional investment, Tessler denied ever trying to induce the Hamiltons to turn over their voting rights or giving them an ultimatum. He maintained that he only discussed control in the context of future investments, explaining that investors were unlikely to invest if the company continued to be managed by the same people who led it into financial difficulties. Tessler stated he does not know Earl Brian, [[Edwin Meese]], [[Dominic Laiti]], or [[Lowell Jensen]], and denied any discussions or communications with them or any DOJ officials regarding Inslaw's investment or his conversations with Hamilton. He also denied any dealings with Hadron, Simeon, or Biotech, and denied being related to Alan Tessler or having dealings with Shea and Gould. Tessler stated that to his knowledge, his wife, [[Patricia Cloherty]], had no knowledge of Earl Brian or any connection between Brian and Inslaw, and never claimed to "know all about" Brian's role in the Inslaw matter.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/David Zornow.md

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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Legal
+  - USA
+---
+[[David Zornow]] was an attorney who represented [[Robert Maxwell]] and [[Nicholas Davies]]. He was also part of [[Lawrence Walsh|Lawrence Walsh's]] team that prosecuted [[Oliver North]].[^1]
+
+[[David Zornow|Zornow]] became the attorney for [[Robert Maxwell|Maxwell's]] Mirror group, including [[Nicholas Davies|Davies]], after [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] was imprisoned. He was able to negotiate with the prosecution to ensure that the names of his clients did not come out in open court during [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] trial.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Dennis W. Wright.md

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+> [!WARNING] INCOMPLETE RESEARCH
+> This page is a placeholder and requires extensive additions. 
+
+Worked on the team developing the original 1969 [[PROMIS]] under [[Joan E. Jacoby]], [[Charles R. Work]], and [[Bill Hamilton]].
+
+As of 1974, Dennis was working for [[INSLAW]][^2] directly.
+
+In 1990, Dennis was a Senior Research Computer Scientist working in the [[ICMS]] Re-engineering project within the [[Division of Innovations and Systems Development]][^1] of the [[U.S. Department of Justice]].
+
+---
+#### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: [1990 Annual Report Federal Judicial Center](https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/132273NCJRS.pdf)
+[^2]: [Management of data elements in information processing](https://archive.org/details/managementofdata7446mcew/page/474/mode/2up?q=%22dennis+w.+wright%22)

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Diana, Princess of Wales.md

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+[[Diana, Princess of Wales]] was romantically involved with [[Dodi Fayed]]. The couple died in a car crash in a Paris underpass in the early hours of August 31, 1997.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Don Thrasher.md

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+[[Don Thrasher]] was a ten-year veteran producer for ABC News 20/20. He interviewed [[Ron Williams]], a Secret Service agent, in connection with the "[[Queen's accident]]." Thrasher's interview with Williams corroborated the profile of [[Roderick Sinclair]]'s father as a military attaché to [[Douglas MacArthur]] during [[World War II]] and his role in supervising intelligence training in [[Japan]]. 
+
+Thrasher also learned about Rod Sinclair, Jr.'s education in [[Japan]] and his later work in Army [[Criminal Investigation Division|C.I.D.]][^1].
+
+## Footnotes                                                                      
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Don Walsh.md

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+---
+aliases:
+  - Don Walsh
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Explorer
+  - Naval Officer
+---
+# Don Walsh
+
+Don Walsh is a renowned deep-sea explorer and former naval officer, known for achieving the deepest dive ever undertaken. In 1960, along with a crewmate, he descended to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, a feat that would not be replicated for another fifty-two years[^1].
+
+In the fall of 1976, Walsh, along with fellow deep-sea explorer [[Don Keach]], was running the Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies at the [[University of Southern California]]. They provided [[Stephan Schwartz]] with access to the *Taurus I*, a state-of-the-art submersible, for three days of sea trials. This access was crucial for Schwartz's [[Project Deep Quest]], which aimed to use [[Remote Viewing]] to locate a previously unknown shipwreck on the seafloor[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Dr. D. G. Vinod.md

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+---
+created: 2025-07-23
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Dr. D. G. Vinod
+tags:
+  - person
+  - mystic
+  - scholar
+description: Dr. D. G. Vinod was a Hindu scholar and mystic who Andrija Puharich believed channeled a group of entities called "the Nine Principles and Forces."
+---
+
+Dr. D. G. Vinod was a Hindu scholar and mystic who [[Andrija Puharich]] met in New York City in 1952. Puharich was deeply impressed by Vinod's apparent ability to divine his past and future with remarkable accuracy.[^1]
+
+Puharich brought Vinod to the [[Round Table Foundation]], where Vinod allegedly went into a trance and channeled a group of entities called "[[the Nine Principles and Forces]]." This event had a profound impact on Puharich, solidifying his belief in an external, possibly extraterrestrial, source for psychic phenomena. The séance was attended by several of the foundation's wealthy benefactors, including [[Alice Astor Bouverie]] and [[Marcella Miller du Pont]].[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ed Tompson.md

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+Major General Edmund R. "Ed" Thompson was a key figure in the U.S. Army's psychic research programs, serving as the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence ([[ACSI]]) from 1977 to 1981. Thompson, who had developed an interest in psi after reading Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence, demonstrated considerable enthusiasm for the idea of psychic spying and remote viewing work. He supported getting the [[U.S. Army]] involved in remote viewing without relying too heavily on the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] or [[SRI International]].
+
+His support included approving [[Frederick Atwater]]'s proposal for a psychic spying unit and encouraging its initial progress. Thompson also personally engaged in remote viewing  semi successfully. He augmented the unit’s resources by increasing its budget and allocating positions for three full-time remote viewers. The program evolved from [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]] to "Grill Flame," encompassing both the [[Fort Meade]] unit and [[SRI International]]’s work [i]. 
+
+Later in his career, as ACSI, Thompson expressed concerns about [[Albert Stubblebine]]’s [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|INSCOM]].

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edmund Thompson.md

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+---
+created: 2025-07-22
+updated: 2025-07-22
+title: Edmund Thompson
+tags:
+  - person
+  - military
+  - general
+  - intelligence
+description: Major General Edmund R. Thompson was the U.S. Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) and a key supporter of the Stargate Project.
+---
+
+Major General [[Edmund Thompson]] was the [[U.S. Army]] Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) from 1977 to 1981. He was a key figure in the establishment and early support of the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Stargate Project]], then codenamed [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]] and later [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]. Thompson had a personal interest in [[Psi|psi]] phenomena, having read [[Arthur Koestler]]'s pro-paranormal book *The Roots of Coincidence*.[^1]
+
+Thompson approved [[Frederick Atwater|Skip Atwater]]'s proposal to assemble a remote viewing team, seeing it as an opportunity to involve the Army in psychic spying without relying too heavily on the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] or [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]. He provided minimal initial funding and assigned Major [[Murray Watt|Scotty Watt]] to lead the unit alongside Atwater. His support was crucial in the project's early survival, despite its controversial nature and the skepticism from many within the military and intelligence communities, including his successor, [[William Odom]].[^1]
+
+Thompson even participated in a remote viewing session himself, attempting to remote-view Major Stone's location. Although he initially misidentified the target, he later realized he had accurately perceived a nearby Masonic Temple, which he had mistaken for the Lincoln Memorial. This experience further solidified his belief in the potential of remote viewing. He also briefed Congressman [[Charlie Rose]] on the program, contributing to Rose's staunch public support.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Edward Teller.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Nuclear Physicist
+  - USA
+---
+Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is widely known as the "father of the hydrogen bomb." He and other American nuclear weapons designers understood well before the end of World War II that a far more powerful nuclear device, with fission as merely a first step, was theoretically possible. This new weapon, code-named "Super," was the hydrogen bomb, or fusion device.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Elmo Zumwalt.md

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Elmo Zumwalt
+  - Admiral Elmo Zumwalt
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - US Navy
+---
+Elmo Zumwalt (1920–2000) was an American naval officer who served as the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) from 1970 to 1974. He was a key figure in modernizing the [[U.S. Navy]] during the [[Cold War]][^1].
+
+[[Stephan Schwartz]] served as a special assistant for research and analysis to Admiral Zumwalt. In this capacity, starting in 1971, Schwartz was briefed on the Navy's [[Telepathy|telepathy]] studies and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] efforts in [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] research[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Eugene Wigner.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Physicist
+  - USA
+---
+Eugene Wigner was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. He, along with [[I. I. Rabi]], was asked by the Israelis to visit the still-incomplete reactor at [[Dimona]] sometime early in 1961. They reported seeing no evidence of a weapons facility, and President [[John F. Kennedy]] expressed satisfaction with their conviction that the reactor was designed for peaceful purposes.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ezer Weizman.md

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Politics
+  - Military
+  - Israel
+---
+[[Ezer Weizman]] was an [[Israel|Israeli]] politician and military leader. He served as Defense Minister under [[Menachem Begin 1]] and later became President of [[Israel]].[^1]
+
+[[Ezer Weizman|Weizman]] urged [[Menachem Begin 1|Begin]] to sign the [[Camp David Accords]], which [[Menachem Begin 1|Begin]] reluctantly did under pressure from [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]]. In 1978, [[Menachem Begin 1|Begin]] dispatched [[Ezer Weizman|Weizman]] to [[Pretoria]] to meet [[P.W. Botha|Prime Minister P.W. Botha]] of [[South Africa]] to discuss [[Israel|Israeli]]-[[South Africa|South African]] relations. Despite [[Menachem Begin 1|Begin's]] intentions to downgrade the relationship, [[Ezer Weizman|Weizman]] agreed with [[P.W. Botha|Botha]] on a wartime alliance between the two governments as the price for continuing nuclear tests. This led to the creation of [[SIMWA]] (SADF-IDF Mutual Wartime Agreement).[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Fred Zachariasen.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Fred Zachariasen
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Professor
+---
+Fred Zachariasen was a physics professor at [[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]] and a ranking member of the [[Department of Defense]]'s elite [[JASON Committee]]. He was a member of the new science panel for the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Sun Streak]] program, which was established on January 31, 1986[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Frederick G. Watts.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+
+> [!WARNING] INCOMPLETE RESEARCH
+> Need additional time to complete research.
+
+Assistant [[U.S. Attorney's office|U.S. Attorney, District of Columbia]] that together with assistant attorney [[Charles R. Work]] helped to design the initial version of [[PROMIS]] with criminologist [[Joan E. Jacoby]] from 1969-1971.
+
+Co-wrote a paper with Work about the process entitled “Developing an Automated Information System for The Prosecutor” published in American Criminal Law Quarterly, Vol 9, No 1, Fall 1970[^1]
+
+---
+#### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: [Directory of data bases in the social and behavioral sciences : Sessions, Vivian S](https://archive.org/details/directoryofdatab0000sess/page/56/mode/2up)

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Garnett Taylor.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Garnett Taylor was a former security officer at the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]]. He was identified by [[Lois Battistoni]] and an unnamed senior U.S. Government official (according to [[Bill Hamilton]]) as having information about the [[PROMIS Software Scandal|Inslaw matter]]. Specifically, Hamilton's source alleged that Taylor knew about the destruction of a number of [[INSLAW|Inslaw]] documents by the Justice Department's Office of Security.[^1]
+
+Taylor supervised by [[James Walker]], Chief Security Specialist with the Justice Management Division, for approximately one year before being transferred to Personnel Security. As a control officer, Taylor was responsible for shredding classified documents once a determination was made that they need not be retained. However, he did not review classified files of departing DOJ attorneys to determine retention or shredding; rather, the attorney themselves would make that determination.[^1]
+
+When interviewed, [[Charles Trombetta]] suggested that Taylor might have information concerning Inslaw documents held by the DOJ security office. William Hamilton also stated that Taylor knew that [[Anthony Moscato]], then Acting Director of EOUSA, played an affirmative role on behalf of the DOJ in denying Bankruptcy Judge Bason's reappointment. However, Moscato denied any involvement in the selection of bankruptcy judges and stated he was not familiar with Judge Norma Johnson or the Merit Selection Panel. He also noted that Taylor and he were not social friends or confidants.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/General Torrijos.md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[[General Torrijos]] was a figure in [[Panama]] whose family members were reportedly heavily involved at the highest levels of the world cocaine trade. During [[Jimmy Carter]]'s presidency, the Carter administration was reportedly reluctant to pursue Torrijos due to its determination in 1977 to sign a [[Panama Canal]] treaty with him.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Harry S. Truman.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - President
+  - Government
+---
+Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the [[United States]], serving from 1945 to 1953. He declined [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s offer to send Israeli troops to fight alongside [[United Nations]] forces in South Korea, reportedly fearing it would back him into a security arrangement with [[Israel]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Hartleigh Trent.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-22
+updated: 2025-07-22
+title: Hartleigh Trent
+tags:
+  - person
+  - military
+  - psychic
+  - remoteviewer
+description: Hartleigh Trent was a former Navy petty officer and one of the original remote viewers in the Stargate Project, known for his ability to take directions at a target.
+---
+Hartleigh Trent was a former Navy petty officer and one of the original six remote viewers in the [[STARGATE PROJECT]]. He was recruited into the program, then codenamed [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]], in 1977 by [[Frederick Atwater|Skip Atwater]] and [[Murray Watt|Scotty Watt]].[^1]
+
+Trent was the oldest of the initial group of remote viewers, in his fifties, and had a background as a photo-interpreter. He was described as a "restless tinkerer and inventor," having built a large solar-powered hot-water heater at his home. He was also a close friend of [[Mel Riley]] and [[Joe McMoneagle]].[^1]
+
+As a remote viewer, Trent was noted for his unusual ability to take directions at a target, even in confusing situations. In one instance, when asked to describe what was to his right, left, and front at a Soviet site, he accurately reported seeing a transmission, realizing he was lying under a truck.[^1]
+
+Trent was one of the six most promising members of the team selected to travel to [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI) for further evaluation of their talents. He participated in the intense, round-the-clock remote viewing sessions during the Iran hostage crisis, and was present when [[Jackie Keith]] suffered a fatal heart attack.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Jack Varona.md

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - Intelligence
+  - USA
+---
+Dr. [[Jack Varona]] was the assistant deputy director of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] for technical affairs. He was the head of the [[USA|U.S.]] delegation at an [[Israel|Israel]]-[[USA|U.S.]] intelligence exchange conference in late September 1979.[^1]
+
+[[Jack Varona|Varona]] was criticized by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] for his indifference and lack of understanding regarding the [[Iraq|Iraqi]] threat to [[Iran]]. He was more concerned with obtaining details about [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-made military equipment than with the urgent situation in [[Iran]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Jack Vorona.md

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Jack Vorona
+  - Dr. Jack Vorona
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - DIA
+  - Intelligence
+---
+Jack Vorona was the Assistant Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence at the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] (DIA) and served as the overall manager of the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]] program. He played a crucial role in the continuation and restructuring of the U.S. government's psychic research programs after the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] scaled back its involvement[^1][^2].
+
+In 1981, Vorona contacted [[Dale Graff]] and brought him to Washington, D.C., to help run a classified program called [[Psychoenergetics]]. The main goals of this project were "to evaluate the threat that foreign psychoenergetics achievements might pose to US national security, and to explore the potential of psychoenergetics for use in US intelligence collection"[^2]. Vorona believed that with the resources of the DIA, genuine progress could be made toward a general theory of [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]][^2].
+
+Vorona oversaw the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]] program and later the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Sun Streak]] program, which aimed to train military personnel in [[Remote Viewing]]. He made administrative changes, converting the branch chief and operations officer positions from military to civilian, and reducing training time[^2].
+
+He was also involved in high-priority operational tasks, such as the effort to locate [[William Richard Higgins]], a Marine Lieutenant Colonel abducted in [[Lebanon]], and the tracking of [[Muammar Qaddafi]]'s alleged chemical weapons stockpile. In the latter case, Vorona sat with [[Angela Dellafiora]] in the viewing room at [[Fort Meade]], demonstrating the high-level attention given to her abilities[^2].
+
+Vorona chaired the Remote Viewing Tasking Group for Sun Streak, which included representatives from the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], [[National Security Agency|NSA]], [[State Department]], and various military and intelligence agencies. This group handled targets such as underground tunnels in [[Korea]], [[Silkworm Missile]] launch facilities in [[Iran]], and the errant nuclear-powered [[Cosmos 1900]] satellite[^2].
+
+He received [[Hal Puthoff]]'s sixty-page classified report, "Psychoenergetics Research in the People’s Republic of China (1982)," which confirmed the extensive research into [[Extraordinary Human Body Function|EHBF]] and its military applications in [[China]], driven by [[H. S. Tsien]][^2].
+
+Vorona, along with General [[Edmund Thompson]], briefed Congressman [[Charlie Rose]] on the Grill Flame program in the late 1970s. He accompanied Rose on tours of the remote viewing facilities at both [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] and [[Fort Meade]], and was a staunch supporter of the program, despite the skepticism it faced[^1].
+
+Jack Vorona retired after twenty-five years of service at DIA and was inducted into the DIA's Torch Bearers Hall in 2011[^2].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
+[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Jacques Vallée.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Jacques Vallée
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Computer Scientist
+  - Astronomer
+  - UFOlogist
+---
+Jacques Vallée is a French-born computer scientist, astronomer, and [[UFOlogist]]. He worked at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] and carried a top-secret security clearance, being assigned to the SRI psychic research program as a "de facto unpaid consultant"[^1].
+
+In early 1973, Vallée was working on a classified [[Department of Defense]] contract for [[ARPA]] involving a multiuser military computer network called [[ARPANET]], which later became the [[Internet]]. His expertise in information technology and computer programming, combined with his dedication to the study of [[Unidentified Flying Objects|UFOs]], made him a relatable figure for [[Ingo Swann]][^1].
+
+Vallée observed Swann's frustration with the [[Outbounder-Beacon Experiment|outbounder-beacon experiments]], which Swann felt were a "trivialization of my abilities." Vallée suggested Swann approach the problem from the perspective of information technology, asking, "What do you do [when remote viewing]? Do you move your consciousness around?" Swann replied, "Yes, I can position it anywhere"[^1].
+
+Vallée drew an analogy between long-distance [[Telepathy|telepathy]] and his work on the ARPANET, suggesting that a "virtual addressing" scheme could be applied to [[Remote Viewing]]. This idea, that accessing a virtual address was a means of accessing data beyond sensory grasp, inspired Swann to develop the concept of [[Coordinate Remote Viewing]] (CRV)[^1].
+
+Vallée also commented on the mysterious death of [[Pat Price]], noting that when the [[FBI]] learned Price was a Scientologist, the church became a suspect in his death[^1].
+
+## Publications
+*   *Forbidden Science 2*
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/James Walker.md

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+James Walker is the Chief Security Specialist with the Justice Management Division, having been employed by the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] for eight years. His duties include operating a Sensitive Compartment Information Facility (SCIF), a specially constructed room within the DOJ building for storing classified national security/foreign intelligence documents. Walker supervised [[Garnett Taylor]], a former DOJ security officer, for approximately one year. Walker had no recollection of an incident where he reassigned Taylor and handled document disposition himself. He stated that there were no [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]] or [[PROMIS]] documents in the DOJ Security Department, nor in any of the safes he controlled or knew about.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Jerome B. Wiesner.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Government Official
+  - USA
+---
+Jerome B. Wiesner was President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s science adviser. He was Jewish, but was totally cut out of the intelligence about [[Dimona]], and assumed that [[David Ben-Gurion]] had requested that he not deal with that issue in the White House. Wiesner played a major role on disarmament issues for the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration and had served as a board member of the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]]. He frequently ran into Ben-Gurion on visits to [[Israel]], who would always ask him two questions: "Can computers think? And should we build a nuclear weapon?" Wiesner consistently answered "no" to the latter, which he believed marked him as a liberal in Ben-Gurion's eyes and limited his access.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John L. Wilhelm.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - John L. Wilhelm
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Journalist
+  - Skeptic
+---
+# John L. Wilhelm
+
+John L. Wilhelm was a journalist and a skeptic of [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and other anomalous mental phenomena. He is known for his *Washington Post* article, "Psychic Spying? The [[CIA]], the [[Pentagon]] and the Russians Probe the Military Potential of [[Parapsychology]]," published on August 7, 1977[^1].
+
+Wilhelm's exposé centered on the [[U.S. Navy]]'s top scientist, [[Samuel Koslov]], who publicly expressed outrage about the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] project on ESP, claiming he had demanded its cessation. Koslov told Wilhelm, "If you ask me, ‘Do you think it’s a pile of crap?’ I do, and you can quote me." Wilhelm's article highlighted the public relations nightmare faced by Koslov, especially as the nefarious details surrounding the [[Moscow Signal]] and [[Project Pandora]] had only recently become public[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John Taylor.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - John Taylor
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Professor
+---
+John Taylor was a professor at King's College. He was one of two scientists, along with South African zoologist and anthropologist [[Lyall Watson]], who witnessed [[Uri Geller]]'s demonstrations live on [[BBC]] television's *Dimbleby Talk-In* show. During the broadcast, Geller bent and broke a fork, started a broken watch, and reproduced a drawing hidden in a sealed envelope[^1].
+
+Professor Taylor expressed wonder at Geller's abilities, stating, "I believe this process... I believe that you actually broke the fork here and now." This public endorsement from a scientist contributed to the phenomenon of "conversion moments" occurring on live television, where individuals became convinced of Geller's powers[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John Tower.md

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Politics
+  - USA
+  - Intelligence
+---
+[[John Tower]] was a [[USA|U.S.]] Senator and a prominent figure with connections to [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] circles. He served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.[^1]
+
+[[John Tower|Tower]] was introduced to [[Rafi Eitan]], then counterterrorism adviser to [[Menachem Begin 1]], in 1978. Eitan sought to build a network within the [[USA|United States]] to obtain information about Palestinian terrorists. [[John Tower|Tower]] and his senior aide, [[Robert McFarlane]], developed a close relationship with Eitan, and much information reaching the Senate Armed Services Committee found its way to Eitan's desk.[^1]
+
+[[John Tower|Tower]] was involved in the secret negotiations concerning the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. He was present at a meeting in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], in late 1986 with [[Carlos Cardoen]], [[Robert Gates]], and [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]] (South African Military Intelligence), where the [[USA|U.S.]] reaffirmed its intention to maintain arms channels to [[Iraq]].[^1]
+
+[[Robert Maxwell]] claimed that when [[George Bush]] was head of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] in 1976, [[John Tower|Tower]] approached Maxwell to connect him and Bush secretly with various [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] intelligence people. Maxwell delivered, and [[John Tower|Tower]] became his friend for life, later being appointed a director of Maxwell's [[Macmillan]] publishing company in the [[USA|U.S.]].[^1]
+
+[[John Tower|Tower]] approached [[Robert Maxwell|Maxwell]] to market the [[PROMIS]] software on behalf of the [[Robert Gates|CIA]] group. He also personally gave [[Yitzhak Shamir]] permission to use [[USA|U.S.]] funds as a guarantee for Maxwell's publishing empire.[^1]
+
+After the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] scandal broke, [[John Tower|Tower]] was appointed to head a presidential commission of inquiry into the affair. The [[Tower Commission]]'s conclusions were largely seen as a cover-up, focusing only on a minor part of the sales and making no mention of the ongoing original arms channel. [[George Bush]] later nominated [[John Tower|Tower]] for defense secretary, but he was not confirmed by [[USA|Congress]].[^1]
+
+[[John Tower|Tower]] died in a plane crash in [[Georgia]] in early 1991.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/John Vorster.md

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Politics
+  - South Africa
+---
+John Vorster was the Prime Minister of [[South Africa]]. He had sided with [[Germany]] during World War II. In 1976, he visited [[Israel]], marking the first official state visit by a South African prime minister to [[Israel]]. This visit resulted in a renewal of full diplomatic relations, as well as secret arms transfer agreements that would enable the two countries to work together in defiance of international opinion and [[United Nations]] sanctions.[^1]
+
+[[Shimon Peres]] made at least one private trip to [[Pretoria]] before the Vorster visit to arrange for arms and nuclear cooperation. His agenda included nuclear testing, and he won a commitment in principle from John Vorster for a series of joint Israeli–South African tests in [[South Africa]].[^1]
+
+In 1970, Vorster informed Parliament that [[South Africa]]'s nuclear scientists had developed a unique uranium enrichment process involving jetnozzle enrichment and a sophisticated cascade technique. Within a few years, [[South Africa]] began construction of a pilot plant for the production of enriched uranium, not subject to [[International Atomic Energy Agency|IAEA]] safeguards, at a plant called Valindaba near [[Pretoria]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 19.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Joseph O. Zurhellen, Jr..md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Diplomat
+  - USA
+---
+Joseph O. Zurhellen, Jr. was the replacement for [[William N. Dale]] as deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in [[Tel Aviv]]. He followed Ambassador [[Walworth Barbour]]'s cue and was much less interested in [[Dimona]]. Zurhellen explained that Barbour was not well versed in technical matters and that the embassy's view was that much of the international concern about [[Dimona]] had been deliberately fostered by [[Israel]] as "disinformation."[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 12.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Karl Maria Wiligut.md

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Karl Maria Wiligut
+  - Wiligut
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Nazi Germany
+  - SS
+  - Occultist
+---
+Karl Maria Wiligut (1866–1946) was an Austrian occultist and SS-Brigadeführer who advised [[Heinrich Himmler]] on esoteric matters within [[Nazi Germany]]. Himmler, fascinated with the occult since his college days, hired Wiligut in 1925 to advise him on these subjects[^1].
+
+Wiligut was an expert in runes and Teutonic symbols, and he designed the SS death's-head ring, *Totenkopfring*. He claimed to be a seer, or medium, who could channel a tribe of ancient Aryans from AD 1200[^1].
+
+Elevated to the position of SS-Brigadeführer, Wiligut remained on Himmler's personal staff until SS intelligence officers discovered that he had been committed to a mental institution in 1923 and declared legally insane. In 1936, he was removed from the SS command structure, but Himmler continued to meet with him privately until at least 1941, as indicated in Himmler's diaries[^1].
+
+Wiligut's influence on Himmler contributed to the promotion of quasi-science projects within the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]], particularly through organizations like [[Das Ahnenerbe]], which sought to prove the superiority of Nazi ideology through mystical and occult means[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Karl Zener.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-23
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Karl Zener
+tags:
+  - person
+  - psychologist
+  - parapsychologist
+description: Karl Zener was an American psychologist and parapsychologist known for developing the Zener cards used in ESP experiments.
+---
+
+[[Karl Zener]] was an American psychologist and parapsychologist. He is best known for developing the [[Zener Cards]] in the early 1930s, which became a standard tool for testing [[ESP]] (extrasensory perception) in [[Parapsychology|parapsychological]] experiments. Zener collaborated with [[J. B. Rhine]] at the [[Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory]].[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Leonid L. Vasilev.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Leonid L. Vasilev
+  - L. L. Vasilev
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Parapsychologist
+  - Soviet Union
+---
+# Leonid L. Vasilev
+
+Leonid L. Vasilev was a leading Russian [[Parapsychology|parapsychology]] researcher who played a significant role in the [[Soviet Union]]'s efforts to investigate [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. He is noted for his statements in April 1960, where he claimed that Soviet scientists had conducted extensive, unreported investigations into telepathy under the Stalin regime, predating American efforts[^1].
+
+Vasilev asserted that the publication of articles like [[Jacques Bergier]]'s "Thought Transfer, Weapon of War" and "The Secret of the Nautilus" in French journals stimulated Soviet parapsychology research. He used these reports to advocate for increased Soviet investment in the field, stating, "Today the American Navy is testing telepathy on their atomic submarines. Soviet scientists conducted a great many successful telepathy tests over a quarter of a century ago. It’s urgent that we throw off our prejudices. We must plunge into the exploration of this vital field"[^1].
+
+In a 1963 Kremlin edict, the Soviet minister of defense, R. J. Malinosky, declared [[Telepathy]] to be science- and technology-based, leading to the creation of the Special Laboratory for Biocommunications Phenomena at the University of Leningrad, with Vasilev in charge. The laboratory's goals included establishing "scientific proof of telepathic communications" and identifying the nature of the brain energy that produces it. Vasilev proclaimed that "The discovery of the energy underlying telepathic communication will be equivalent to the discovery of atomic energy"[^1].
+
+Vasilev's work contributed to the Soviet nomenclature around ESP being rewritten to sound technical, severing ties with its occult past. Mental telepathy became "long-distance biological signal transmission," and [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]] was termed "non-ionizing, in particular electromagnetic, emissions from humans"[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Leonid Vasiliev.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-22
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Leonid Vasiliev
+tags:
+  - person
+  - scientist
+  - parapsychologist
+  - SovietUnion
+description: Leonid Vasiliev was a prominent Soviet parapsychologist and chairman of the physiology department at the University of Leningrad, known for his research into remote influencing.
+---
+
+[[Leonid Vasiliev]] was a prominent [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] parapsychologist and chairman of the physiology department at the University of Leningrad. A past winner of the Lenin Prize, Vasiliev was a key figure in the resurgence of Soviet [[Parapsychology|psi]] research following the publication of [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)|"The Secret of the Nautilus"]] article in 1960. He argued that "the discovery of the energy underlying ESP will be equivalent to the discovery of atomic energy."[^1]
+
+By the early 1960s, Vasiliev was heading a well-funded parapsychology laboratory, and his work soon concentrated on "remote-influencing" experiments, such as attempting to telepathically induce sleep in a distant receiver. His efforts, along with those of other Soviet researchers like [[I. M. Kogan]], contributed to the establishment of numerous other psi research centers in the Soviet Union.[^1]
+
+Vasiliev publicly stated in April 1960 that the Soviets had conducted extensive and unreported investigations into telepathy under the Stalin regime, and that they had successfully performed telepathy tests over a quarter-century prior to the alleged U.S. Nautilus tests. He urged Soviet scientists to overcome their prejudices against such research and to explore this vital field, which he believed had the potential to be as significant as the discovery of atomic energy.[^2]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
+[^2]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Leslie Ronald Young.md

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Leslie Ronald Young
+  - Jimmy Young
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Broadcaster
+---
+# Leslie Ronald "Jimmy" Young
+
+Leslie Ronald "Jimmy" Young was a veteran British broadcaster for [[BBC Radio 2]], known for his show *The Jimmy Young Show*, which had a wide audience across England, [[Ireland]], and [[Scotland]][^1].
+
+On November 23, 1973, Young conducted a live on-air experiment with [[Uri Geller]]. Young asked Geller to bend a large key. Geller concentrated, and encouraged listeners across the [[United Kingdom]] to summon their own [[Psychokinesis|psychokinetic]] powers and bend metal in their homes. Live on national radio, Young exclaimed, "It’s bending right in front of me, I can’t believe it!"[^1].
+
+Following the broadcast, the [[BBC]] switchboard was inundated with calls from citizens reporting metal objects in their homes inexplicably bending, and watches restarting. This event, which the [[CIA]] referred to as "secondary consequences," led many people across Great Britain to believe they had bent metal with their own minds[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Leslie Van Meter.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+[[Leslie Van Meter]] was the widow of [[Ron Van Meter]], a deputy in the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. She was notified of her husband's disappearance after his alleged boating accident on Lake McClure. Her home was subsequently ransacked, and her husband's briefcase and diary were seized by the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. She and a few deputies were the only ones who knew the contents of Van Meter's diary. A special life insurance policy taken out by Ron two weeks before his death also went missing after the search.[^1]
+
+On March 23, 1984, [[Leslie Van Meter]] filed a Citizen's Complaint with the Mariposa County Sheriff's Department, alleging negligence and unprofessionalism in the investigation of her husband's disappearance, as his body had still not been found. She requested the case be re-opened. On July 6, 1985, she filed a "Request for Official Inquiry" with the State of [[California]] Department of Boating and Waterways, stating that no satisfactory investigation had been conducted.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Lew Wasserman.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+[[Lew Wasserman]] was the Chairman of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] Corporation. He was a powerful figure in Hollywood and a long-time political supporter of [[Ronald Reagan]]. Wasserman represented Reagan during the actor's early days in Hollywood, and along with [[Jules Stein]], [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]'s founder, negotiated the sale of Reagan's [[California]] properties at hugely inflated prices, which helped make Reagan a millionaire.[^1]
+
+Wasserman was a major contributor to and sat on the board of the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] presidential library, along with [[Edwin Meese]] and others. He was involved in raising $80 million to build it.[^1]
+
+Wasserman was connected to organized crime. He was on the [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] Board of Directors during the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] investigation into alleged mob ties to [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]. [[Edward Sciandra]] reportedly wanted to go to Wasserman and [[Sidney Sheinberg]] (President of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]) and tell them who they were up against.[^1]
+
+[[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Nancy Reagan]] were known to celebrate New Year's Eve with Wasserman and his wife, Edie. [[Howard Baker]] returned to [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]'s board of directors in March 1989, just in time to help Wasserman celebrate his seventy-sixth birthday.[^1]
+
+---
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Llewellyn Thomas.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Llewellyn Thomas
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Diplomat
+  - Ambassador
+---
+Llewellyn Thomas (1903–1972) was an American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the [[Soviet Union]] from 1957 to 1962 and again from 1967 to 1969. He was one of the ambassadors who was subjected to the [[Moscow Signal]], a microwave beam aimed at the [[U.S. Embassy in Moscow]] by the Soviets[^1].
+
+Thomas died of cancer on February 6, 1972, at the age of sixty-seven. His death, along with that of [[Charles Bohlen]] and later [[Walter Stoessel Jr.]], raised concerns about the potential health effects of prolonged exposure to the Moscow Signal[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Louis de Wohl.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Louis de Wohl
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Astrologer
+  - Propaganda
+---
+# Louis de Wohl
+
+Louis de Wohl was a German-born Hungarian astrologer and British citizen who became a key figure in Allied black propaganda during [[World War II]]. He was one of the most high-profile astrologers in the Western world, with admirers including [[Lord Halifax]], Britain's Foreign Secretary, and the Duke of Alba, the ambassador from [[Spain]][^1].
+
+De Wohl's mission in America, in the summer of 1941, was to elevate astrology into the realm of "astro-philosophy" and, more importantly, to influence American public opinion in favor of aiding [[Great Britain]]. His syndicated American column, "Stars Foretell," consistently emphasized the Nazi threat. Starting in June 1941, shortly after the [[Rudolf Hess]] affair, de Wohl's predictions became unusually specific and appeared to come true, such as his foretelling of a "strong collaborator of Hitler who is neither German nor a Nazi will go violently insane," which was followed by reports of Admiral Georges Robert, the Vichy High Commissioner of the French West Indies, going mad[^1].
+
+His escalating popularity led the [[Federal Communications Commission]] to lift its ban against astrologers and air an exclusive interview with him. He was also the first astrologer filmed for a U.S. newsreel. However, de Wohl's successful American career was a product of [[British Intelligence]], specifically through its operational arm in America, the [[British Security Coordination Office]]. His so-called manager was none other than the spymaster [[William Stephenson]], whom [[Winston Churchill]] famously called Intrepid. The [[American Federation of Scientific Astrologers]] and its 1941 convention had been fabricated by [[MI6]]. The British spy agency would first feed information to de Wohl for his column, and then feed this bogus information to the U.S. press, which, unable to fact-check with [[Nazi Germany]], would report it as real[^1].
+
+De Wohl's efforts were effective in swaying public opinion away from U.S. isolationist views. A declassified memo from Stephenson noted that "An ever-growing audience [is] becoming convinced of his supernatural powers"[^1]. This operation was coordinated with [[William Donovan]], who would later head the [[Office of Strategic Services]], the precursor to the [[CIA]][^1]. After the Japanese bombed [[Pearl Harbor]] and the U.S. declared war on Japan, and [[Adolf Hitler]] declared war on the United States, de Wohl returned to England[^1].
+
+For the next few years, de Wohl was used by the Allies as a countermeasure to [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s use of astrology and the occult. Under the direction of master propagandist [[Sefton Delmer]], de Wohl wrote seemingly authentic astrology charts that predicted the demise of certain Nazi admirals and generals, and stated that [[Adolf Hitler]] would be betrayed by his inner circle. These fake star charts and horoscopes were included in near-perfect replicas of a banned German astrological magazine called *Zenit*, intended for underground distribution in Germany. However, these counterfeit magazines were seized by the [[Gestapo]] in [[Stettin]], as detailed by [[Wilhelm Wulff]] in his memoir *Zodiac and Swastika*[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Lyall Watson.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Lyall Watson
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Zoologist
+  - Anthropologist
+---
+Lyall Watson was a South African zoologist and anthropologist. He was one of two scientists, along with King's College professor [[John Taylor]], who witnessed [[Uri Geller]]'s demonstrations live on [[BBC]] television's *Dimbleby Talk-In* show. During the broadcast, Geller bent and broke a fork, started a broken watch, and reproduced a drawing hidden in a sealed envelope[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Malcolm Toon.md

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Diplomat
+  - USA
+---
+Malcolm Toon was the U.S. Ambassador to [[Israel]]. In 1976, after [[Carl E. Duckett]] inadvertently revealed that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] estimated [[Israel]]'s nuclear arsenal to total at least ten warheads, Toon was summoned by [[Yigal Allon]], then Israeli Foreign Minister, to discuss the disclosure. Toon reported that Allon was "very disturbed" and asked rhetorically why the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] had done it. Toon dutifully explained that Duckett's remarks were supposed to have been off-the-record. When Toon asked Allon if Duckett's conclusion was accurate, Allon replied, "It is not true."[^1]
+
+A year later, after [[Jimmy Carter]]'s election, Toon told a delegation of thirteen visiting American senators that he was sure [[Israel]] had the bomb. He complained that it was "indecent for [[Israel]] to keep us out of [[Dimona]]," but recalled the bureaucratic response was "Don't stir up the waters."[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 19.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Manuel Zelaya.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[[Manuel Zelaya]] was the president of [[Honduras]]. On June 28, 2009, he was rousted from his home in Tegucigalpa and exiled at gunpoint to [[Costa Rica]]. He called the action a kidnapping and maintained he was still president. The [[United States]] and other countries condemned the coup.[^1]
+
+Zelaya was ousted by a coup allegedly designed by [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]] and [[Romeo Vásquez Velásquez]], both friends of [[Jimmy Hughes]]. The Honduran Supreme Court reportedly gave the order for the military to detain the president. The Honduran Congress formally removed Zelaya from the presidency and named congressional leader [[Roberto Micheletti]] as his successor.[^1]
+
+[[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]] justified the coup by stating that [[Venezuelan President]] [[Hugo Chávez]] would eventually be running [[Honduras]] by proxy if the military had not acted. Zelaya had been in the process of forming a friendship or alliance with [[Hugo Chávez]], which could have led to the [[United States]] losing its airbase in [[Honduras]] (Soto Cano Air Base), which [[Oliver North]] once used as a base of operations for the [[Contras]].[^1]
+
+---
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Marilyn Titus.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Marilyn Titus worked for [[Simeon]] from September 1982 until January 1984, and then for [[Hadron]] for four years after leaving Simeon. Simeon was a subsidiary of Hadron, Inc.
+
+[[Bill Hamilton]]'s affidavit claimed that Titus, then secretary to [[Paul Wormeli]], stated that the purpose of a 1983 fundraising trip to New York by [[Dominic Laiti]] and Wormeli was to "raise capital to buy the court [i.e. [[PROMIS]]] software."[^1]
+
+Titus, however, denied this. She told investigators that to her knowledge, the only court-related software company Simeon/Hadron ever had an interest in purchasing was a Southern California company called Responsive Design. She stated that she never heard any discussion about Hadron obtaining PROMIS software and did not believe she ever told William Hamilton that the purpose of the 1983 fundraising trip was to acquire PROMIS or [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]]. She also confirmed that she was not present at or a participant in any conversations Simeon or Hadron personnel had about Inslaw, and that no one ever made a statement in her presence indicating that Wormeli and Laiti attempted to raise capital to buy Inslaw, or that Hadron had any interest in acquiring Inslaw or PROMIS. Furthermore, she said no one made any statements in her presence that indicated they were contemplating any unethical or illegal activities to acquire PROMIS.[^1]
+
+The Special Counsel's investigation concluded that Titus's statements did not support Hamilton's claims and that there was no evidence from her or other interviewed individuals that Hadron or Simeon ever had any interest in obtaining Inslaw's software.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mark Thatcher.md

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Business
+  - ArmsDealer
+  - UK
+---
+[[Mark Thatcher]] is the son of British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]]. He is an established arms dealer with significant connections in the international arms trade, particularly with [[Chile]] and [[South Africa]].[^1]
+
+In 1983, [[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher]] introduced [[Gerald Bull]] to [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]], chief of [[South African Military Intelligence]], who then connected Bull with [[South African Arms Corporation|ARMSCOR]] for his "supergun" project.[^1]
+
+[[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher]] was present at a meeting in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], in late 1986 with [[Carlos Cardoen]], [[Robert Gates]], Senator [[John Tower]], and [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]], where the [[USA|U.S.]] reaffirmed its intention to maintain arms channels to [[Iraq]] through [[South Africa]] and [[Chile]].[^1]
+
+[[Carlos Cardoen|Cardoen]] indicated that [[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher]] was involved in his business, and that he had the backing of the [[USA|Americans]] and the Chilean government. [[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher]] also had business dealings with [[South Africa]] for a long time, and was involved in providing military equipment through the [[Carlos Cardoen|Cardoen]] network to the [[Iraq|Iraqis]], including nuclear missile projects.[^1]
+
+In 1988, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] met [[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher]] in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], where [[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher]] presented himself as a private businessman with no connection to the British government, despite his mother's position. He expressed admiration for [[Augusto Pinochet|Pinochet]] and discussed the [[Falklands War]], noting [[Chile]]'s support for [[United Kingdom|Britain]]. He also revealed that [[Carlos Cardoen|Cardoen]] received technology directly from the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] through [[Robert Gates|Gates's]] office.[^1]
+
+[[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher]] was involved in the sale of 48 [[Chieftain tanks]] to [[Chile]] after the [[Falklands War]]. He was also linked to [[Ihsan Barbouti]] and [[Sarcis Sargalian]] in projects supplying [[Iraq]] with military equipment. [[Richard Babayan]], a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] contract agent, also controlled a network providing equipment for [[Iraq]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mike Timpani.md

@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Business
+  - ArmsDealer
+---
+[[Mike Timpani]] was an individual who worked for [[GeoMiliTech]] (GMT), a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]-financed company. He was involved in various arms deals, particularly concerning the sale of C-130 aircraft to [[Iran]].[^1]
+
+In April 1989, [[Mike Timpani|Timpani]] was involved in a deal to sell three C-130s to [[Iran|Tehran]], working with [[Richard St. Francis]] of [[TransCapital]] and [[Joseph O'Toole]]. This deal was intended to be a go-between for [[Israel]] and [[Iran]]. He was slated to make a personal profit of $2 million from this deal.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mordecai Vanunu.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Whistleblower
+  - Israel
+---
+[[Mordecai Vanunu]] was a former technician at a nuclear facility near [[Dimona]], [[Israel]], who became a whistleblower, exposing details of [[Israel|Israel's]] nuclear program to the _London Sunday Times_ in 1986.[^1][^2]
+
+### Background and Early Career
+
+[[Mordecai Vanunu|Vanunu]] was born in [[Morocco]] to a right-wing Jewish family that migrated to [[Israel]] in the early 1960s. He grew up in [[Beersheba]] and was drafted into the military, where he was trained as a technician at the [[Dimona reactor]]. After his military service, he continued to work there as a civilian. He began sympathizing with the Palestinian cause and was horrified by [[Israel|Israel's]] nuclear capabilities.[^1]
+
+### Work at Dimona and Security Breach
+
+Vanunu began working as a technician at [[Dimona]] in August 1977 and spent much of the next eight years assigned to various tasks inside the reprocessing plant, formally known as Machon 2 and informally as the Tunnel. This plant, handling highly radioactive materials, was the most sensitive area at [[Dimona]], with only 150 of Dimona's 2,700 employees working there. A special pass was required for entry, and all movement was theoretically closely monitored. However, Vanunu found that the stringent security existed only in theory.[^2]
+
+Constantly in trouble for his public pro-Arab views, Vanunu was laid off in mid-1985 as part of a government-wide cutback. He appealed through his union and won back his job. It was at this point that he smuggled a camera into the reprocessing plant during an overnight shift and wandered around undetected for some forty minutes, taking fifty-seven color photographs. A few weeks later, he was fired after calling for the formation of a Palestinian state during an Arab rally. Even then, with union help, Vanunu negotiated a settlement from Dimona's management, receiving severance pay and a letter attesting to his good record.[^2]
+
+### Exile and Attempts to Share Information
+
+A combination of factors—disenchantment with his life, distress at the treatment of Arabs in [[Israel]], and what he had learned inside [[Dimona]]—drove him to exile in [[Australia]] and eventually to the _London Sunday Times_. [[Mordecai Vanunu|Vanunu]] first traveled to [[Thailand]] and [[Nepal]], where he converted to [[Buddhism]]. He carried with him photographs and undeveloped film of the inside of the [[Israel|Israeli]] nuclear facility. In [[Nepal]], he contacted the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] Embassy in [[Kathmandu]] and offered them the photographs, but received little in return.[^1][^2]
+
+[[Mordecai Vanunu|Vanunu]] later traveled to [[Australia]], where he preached about the evils of nuclear power and shared his top-secret photos with a church prayer group. He converted to [[Christianity]] and worked as a part-time taxi driver. [[Oscar Guerrero]], a freelance journalist, saw the photographs and proposed publishing them for a fee.[^1]
+
+### Mossad Operation and Capture
+
+[[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence learned of [[Mordecai Vanunu|Vanunu's]] activities and sought to stop him. Copies of some of Vanunu's sensational photographs were made available in [[London]]—before publication of the _Sunday Times_ story—to an Israeli intelligence agent masquerading as an American newspaper reporter. The photographs were sent by courier to the office of Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]], who ordered [[Mossad]] to get Vanunu out of [[London]] and into Israeli custody. [[Cindy Hanin Bentov]], a [[Mossad]] agent, enticed Vanunu to leave for [[Rome]] a few days before publication. Once in [[Rome]], Vanunu was drugged and returned to [[Israel]] by ship to stand trial. He was sentenced in March 1988 to eighteen years in a maximum-security prison for espionage and treason.[^1][^2]
+
+### Impact on American Intelligence
+
+Vanunu's _Times_ interview and his photographs of many of the production units in the Tunnel, or Machon 2, provided the American intelligence community with the first extensive evidence of Israeli capability to manufacture fusion, or thermonuclear, weapons. American intelligence also obtained copies of many of the _Sunday Times_'s interview notes with Vanunu, which provided more specific detail of the inner workings of [[Dimona]]. Senior American officials and nuclear experts uniformly agreed that the unpublished Vanunu notes are highly credible, with one official describing the scope of the operation as "much more extensive than we thought."[^2]
+
+The most exhaustive analysis of the Vanunu statements and photographs was conducted by the Z Division, a special intelligence unit at the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|Livermore Laboratories]]. While Z Division's only debate was over the numbers, as Vanunu claimed [[Israel]]'s nuclear stockpile totaled over two hundred warheads (a number significantly higher than [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] estimates), American nonproliferation experts independently learned of a boost in [[Dimona]]'s cooling capacity, further evidence of Vanunu's credibility.[^2]
+
+### Nuclear Program Timeline and Capabilities
+
+Vanunu's revelations helped American intelligence experts date the progress of the Israeli nuclear arsenal. He revealed that Unit 92 in the Tunnel had been painstakingly removing tritium from heavy water since the 1960s, indicating that physicists at [[Dimona]] had been attempting to manufacture "boosted" fission weapons from the earliest days of production. In 1980, he was assigned to work at a new production plant for lithium 6, another essential element of the hydrogen bomb. In 1984, a new facility (Unit 93) for large-scale production of tritium was opened, suggesting that full-scale production of neutron weapons began then.[^2]
+
+### Dimona Facility Structure
+
+As described by Vanunu, [[Dimona]] includes the reactor (Machon 1) and at least eight other buildings, or Machons, with Machon 2 (the chemical reprocessing plant) being the most essential. Machon 1 is the large silver-domed reactor, sixty feet in diameter, where uranium fuel rods remain for three months and are cooled by heavy water. The steam created is vented into the atmosphere, creating a radioactive cloud. Machon 3 converts lithium 6 into a solid for insertion into a nuclear warhead and processes natural uranium for the reactor. Machon 4 contains a waste treatment plant for radioactive residue from Machon 2. Machon 5 coats uranium rods with aluminum for consumption in the reactor. Machon 6 provides basic services and power. Machon 8 contains a laboratory for testing samples and experimenting on new manufacturing processes, and is also the site of Special Unit 840, where Israeli scientists developed a gas centrifuge method of enriching uranium. Machon 9 houses a laser-isotope-reprocessing facility for uranium enrichment. Depleted uranium is chemically isolated in Machon 10 for shipment to the Israeli Defense Force or sale to arms manufacturers.[^2]
+
+### Production Capacity
+
+The Tunnel (Machon 2) remained in operation around the clock for thirty-four weeks a year, producing a weekly average of 1.2 kilograms of pure plutonium, enough for four to a dozen or more bombs annually, depending on warhead design. This production rate suggests the reactor operates at about 120 to 150 megawatts, more than five times its officially stated output, consuming nearly one hundred tons of uranium ore a year. The precision involved in machining plutonium hemispheres and placing them around gases for boosted nuclear weapons was achieved through advancements in robotics, a field in which [[Aharon Katzir]] was world-renowned for his research at the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]].[^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. _Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network_. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War") [^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Mordechai Tsippori.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - Israel
+---
+[[Mordechai Tsippori]] was the director general of the [[Israel|Israeli]] Ministry of Defense in 1980. He gave the go-ahead for [[Israel]] to develop a hydrogen bomb for testing.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Murray Watt.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-22
+updated: 2025-07-22
+title: Murray Watt
+tags:
+  - person
+  - military
+  - officer
+description: Murray "Scotty" Watt was a U.S. Army Major and the commanding officer of the remote viewing unit in the Stargate Project.
+---
+
+Murray B. "Scotty" Watt was a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and the first commander of the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Gondola Wish]] (later [[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]) remote viewing unit. He was two decades older than [[Frederick Atwater|Skip Atwater]], described as a tall and husky man with a bulbous nose and a Boston accent. Watt had a reputation for a volcanic temper, which was said to have hindered his career progression after an incident in Panama where he struck a fellow officer. He was chosen for this obscure and potentially controversial assignment because it was felt he had "little to lose."[^1]
+
+Watt, along with Atwater, was responsible for selecting and training the initial remote viewers for the program. He handled the bureaucratic aspects of the unit, maintaining contact with the network of Grill Flame customers and ensuring the unit's operations adhered to necessary protocols. He was concerned about maintaining the appearance of scientific rigor and avoiding any perception of cheating within the program.[^1]
+
+Watt was present during many key remote viewing sessions, including the initial session with [[Mel Riley]] where he served as the target. He also played a role in the acquisition of a Soviet T-72 tank, signing for the envelope containing the target information. He was a key figure in the unit's operations during the Iran hostage crisis, where he gathered the team at a motel to conduct continuous remote viewing related to the rescue mission.[^1]
+
+Despite his initial lack of interest in the paranormal, Watt was instrumental in the establishment and early operations of the Army's psychic spying program. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel during his tenure with the unit. He eventually transferred out of the unit, but not before helping to establish it on a firm footing.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Orwin C. Talbott.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - USA
+---
+Orwin C. Talbott was a Lieutenant General and deputy commander of the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). In early 1974, Talbott visited [[Israel]] to discuss lessons learned from the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]]. During a meeting with [[David Elazar]], then Israeli Chief of Staff, Elazar suddenly began talking "out of the blue" about [[Israel]]'s threat to use nuclear weapons in the desperate moments of the 1973 war. Talbott understood the significance of this information and quickly filed a top-secret one-page memorandum for General [[Creighton W. Abrams]], the Army chief of staff, believing Elazar was trying to send a message to [[Washington D.C.]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/P. T. Van Dyke.md

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - P. T. Van Dyke
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Author
+---
+P. T. Van Dyke was a co-author of the Pentagon briefing, "Paranormal Phenomena—Briefing on a Net Assessment Study," published in January 1973. This report discussed the potential military utility of [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]] and [[Psychokinesis|PK]], particularly in the context of [[Uri Geller]]'s alleged abilities[^1].
+
+The study noted that it would not be conceptually difficult to imagine the utility of psychokinesis in disrupting electrical systems, such as those associated with an [[Intercontinental Ballistic Missile|ICBM]]'s guidance program, as displayed by Geller. The report emphasized a serious need for detailed analytical studies of these phenomena by specialists in various scientific disciplines[^1].
+
+Van Dyke and his co-author, [[M. L. Juncosa]], also highlighted the challenge facing anyone working on such studies, noting that the subject matter "tends to be polarized into uncritical acceptance or total rejection" of fact. They lamented that little progress was likely to be made as long as the research field remained a "childish battle between 'true believers' and 'the incredulous [who] dismiss the matter out of hand'"[^1].
+
+## Publications
+*   "Paranormal Phenomena—Briefing on a Net Assessment Study" (1973, co-authored with M. L. Juncosa)
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Patricia Wald.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Patricia Wald was the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She played a direct role in the events surrounding the non-reappointment of [[George Francis Bason, Jr.|Judge Bason]], which became a central point of contention in the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] due to allegations of improper influence by the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]].
+
+On December 28, 1987, Chief Judge Wald informed Judge Bason of the Court's decision not to reappoint him. Subsequently, on January 12, 1988, Judge Bason sent a 14-page letter to Chief Judge Wald (with copies to every judge on the Court of Appeals), in which he raised the allegation that the DOJ may have obstructed his reappointment in retaliation for his rulings in the [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]] case. This letter became a basis for the DOJ's motion to recuse Judge Bason from further proceedings in the [[INSLAW]] case.[^1]
+
+The Special Counsel's investigation found no evidence that anyone tried to influence the selection process improperly. Chief Judge Wald unequivocally denied that the DOJ obstructed or attempted to obstruct the reappointment of Bankruptcy Judge Bason. The investigation concluded that the allegations of improper interference were not supported by credible evidence. The report notes that Judge Bason's allegation was made by himself, a disappointed candidate, and that the great weight of the evidence supports the conclusion that there was no attempt by the DOJ to obstruct his reappointment.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Paul C. Warnke.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Government Official
+  - USA
+---
+Paul C. Warnke served as the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. He was involved in intense pressure on [[Israel]] to sign the [[Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty|NPT]] in exchange for F-4 fighter jets. Warnke directly questioned [[Yitzhak Rabin]], then [[Israel]]'s ambassador to [[Washington D.C.]], about [[Israel]]'s nuclear capabilities, stating, "we are shocked at the manner in which you are dealing with us.… You, our close ally, are building nuclear bombs in [[Israel]] behind our back."[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 14.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Paul Wilcher.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+[[Paul Wilcher]] was a Washington D.C. attorney who investigated the [[October Surprise]] incident based on the claims of his client, [[Gunther Karl Russbacher]]. He was also investigating possible government involvement in a variety of questionable activities, including the [[INSLAW]] case, with his research leading him into areas that [[Danny Casolaro]] had covered earlier.[^1]
+
+On or about May 21, 1993, Wilcher hand-delivered a 100-page letter to [[Janet Reno]], the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]], claiming that holdover [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] employees from the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]-[[George Bush|Bush]] era were responsible for a number of government cover-ups, unbeknownst to the Attorney General and President [[Bill Clinton]]. On or about June 11, Wilcher was interviewed by [[Carl Stern]], her public relations man, regarding the contents of the letter.[^1]
+
+After days of not hearing from him, worried friends contacted the police, who found his decomposing body propped on a toilet in his apartment on June 23, 1993. [[Sarah McClendon]], a [[White House]] correspondent and close friend of Wilcher, wrote that Wilcher believed [[Gunther Karl Russbacher]] to be a political prisoner, persecuted because he allegedly flew former President [[George Bush]] to [[Paris]] to meet with leading Iranians to make a deal to supply [[Iran]] with weapons in exchange for keeping American hostages until after the November election, ensuring [[Ronald Reagan]]'s victory.[^1]
+
+Wilcher was working daily for Russbacher and wanted to ask [[Janet Reno]] to grant immunity from prosecution to Russbacher so he could testify about activities inside the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. McClendon concluded that Wilcher was a "casualty of good citizenship and patriotism." She attempted to obtain his papers and tapes, but his family took them away.[^1]
+
+[[Garby Leon]] wrote a letter to [[Janet Reno]] on July 14, 1993, highlighting the disturbing parallels between Wilcher's death and [[Danny Casolaro]]'s, noting that both were investigating illegal government activities, expressed fears for their lives, and were found dead in bizarre circumstances with missing records and altered corpses. The letter also mentioned the presence of police, [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] at the scene of Wilcher's death.[^1]
+
+---
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Paul Wormeli.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Paul Wormeli was the Vice President in charge of Product Development for [[Simeon]], Inc., a company that was purchased by Hadron in 1982. He remained with Simeon for two years after the acquisition.
+
+Wormeli accompanied [[Dominic Laiti]] on a business trip to New York City in late 1983, which [[Bill Hamilton]] alleged was to raise capital to buy [[PROMIS]]. Wormeli confirmed that the trip was to raise money for Simeon and that he and Laiti met with [[Earl Brian]] and executives from Allen and Company, including [[Mark Kesselman]], to discuss funding. However, Wormeli stated that neither Laiti nor Brian ever discussed the acquisition of PROMIS or [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]] with him, and that Laiti never mentioned PROMIS or Inslaw to him or at any of the New York meetings. Wormeli first became aware of Inslaw's problems with the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] from reading newspaper articles. While sympathetic to Hamilton's view, Wormeli maintained he had no knowledge of a connection between Hadron and Inslaw.[^1]
+
+The Special Counsel's investigation found that Wormeli's testimony did not support Hamilton's thesis that the New York trip was to raise money to buy PROMIS. The investigation concluded that there was no evidence from Wormeli or other interviewed individuals that Hadron or Simeon ever had any interest in obtaining Inslaw's software.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Paul Zalis.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+[[Paul Zalis]] was a staff writer for the *Indio Daily News* (currently known as the *Desert Sun*). He reported on the subsequent killings of [[Fred Alvarez]], [[Ralph Boger]], and [[Patricia Castro]]. Zalis wrote that [[Indio City Manager]] [[Phillip Hawes]] confirmed that [[William Cole]], a Los Angeles-based attorney, had been hired to investigate possible links between the triple slayings and the [[Cabazon Casino]].[^1]
+
+Zalis also reported that [[Fred Alvarez]], [[Joseph R. (Mike) Benitez]], and [[William Callaway]] had previously divulged their findings to him in May 1981, asserting that they were marked for death, but their story never got published.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Tompkins.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-23
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Peter Tompkins
+tags:
+  - person
+  - author
+  - OSS
+description: Peter Tompkins was an American journalist, author, and former OSS officer, known for co-authoring "The Secret Life of Plants."
+---
+
+[[Peter Tompkins]] was an American journalist, author, and former [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] officer. He is best known for co-authoring the 1973 bestselling book, *[[The Secret Life of Plants]]*, which popularized the controversial experiments of [[Cleve Backster]] on plant sentience.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Peter Videnieks.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+[[Peter Videnieks]] was a [[United States Customs Service|U.S. Customs]] contract specialist who was detailed to the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] in the early 1980s to develop the [[PROMIS]] software. He later became a central figure in the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]].[^1]
+
+### Role in PROMIS Software Scandal
+
+Videnieks administered the [[INSLAW]] contract with the government, which involved conducting competitive procurement, negotiating and awarding contracts, and administering them to ensure proper performance. His employment history included work with the [[Internal Revenue Service]], [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration|NASA]], and [[United States Customs Service|Customs]], before and after his tenure at the [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]].[^1]
+
+[[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed that [[Earl Brian]] made a copy of the [[PROMIS]] software available to him through [[Wackenhut Corporation]] after acquiring it from Videnieks, who was then a [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] contracting official with responsibility for the [[PROMIS]] software. Riconosciuto performed modifications to [[PROMIS]] in Indio, California; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Miami, Florida, with the purpose of supporting a plan for its worldwide implementation in law enforcement and intelligence agencies.[^1]
+
+In February 1991, Videnieks, still employed by the [[United States Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]], allegedly attempted to persuade [[Michael Riconosciuto]] not to cooperate with an independent investigation of the government's piracy of [[INSLAW]]'s proprietary [[PROMIS]] software, being conducted by the [[United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]]. Videnieks reportedly offered rewards for non-cooperation and threatened specific punishments, including future inclusion of Riconosciuto and his father in a criminal prosecution related to a savings and loan institution, and prosecution for perjury if he testified.[^1]
+
+During [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s trial in Tacoma, Washington, Videnieks testified about his contact with the [[PROMIS]] software but denied ever hearing of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]-[[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] joint venture or meeting [[Earl Brian]]. He was evasive when questioned about his involvement with Hadron Company, which was owned by [[Earl Brian]] at the time of the court proceedings. Videnieks also refused to discuss "Modification No. 12" of the [[PROMIS]] software until the original [[INSLAW]] contract was produced, and acknowledged that a bankruptcy court had ruled that the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] had "stolen" [[PROMIS]] from [[INSLAW]] through his handling of Modification No. 12, though he noted this record was later erased.[^1]
+
+### Connections to Danny Casolaro's Investigation
+
+[[Danny Casolaro]] was intent on interviewing Videnieks. A week before Casolaro's death, a man named [[Joseph Cuellar]] approached Casolaro, claiming to be a Special Forces operative, and offered to arrange a meeting between Videnieks and Casolaro. Cuellar's connection to Videnieks allegedly came through Videnieks' wife, Barbara, who was the executive assistant to Senator [[Robert Byrd]].[^1]
+
+Despite the allegations and his central role in the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]], Videnieks was never charged with any wrongdoing. [[Scott Lawrence]]'s investigation into corruption within [[United States Customs Service|U.S. Customs]], which involved Videnieks, was abruptly shut down when Lawrence and his supervisor requested to impanel grand juries to depose [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officials.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Philip White.md

@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Philip White was the Director of International Affairs for the Criminal Division of the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]]. He was implicated in allegations surrounding the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and the attempted conversion of [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]]'s bankruptcy case.
+
+According to a source of [[Ronald LeGrand]], White, along with [[John Keeney]] and [[Mark Richards]], knew "all about" [[Lowell Jensen]]'s alleged malfeasance in the Inslaw matter. The source believed that while Richards and White were "pretty upset" about it, they would not disclose what they knew except under subpoena and oath, and that they would not commit perjury.[^1]
+
+White was also the U.S. Trustee assigned to the [[INSLAW]] bankruptcy case. [[Anthony Pasciuto]] alleged that [[Thomas Stanton]], Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Trustees (EOUST), pressured White to convert Inslaw's Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation. [[Cornelius Blackshear]], then a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, initially testified that White had told him of Stanton's pressure. White, however, denied that Stanton had tried to exert any pressure on him to convert Inslaw. He explained that he asked for specific language to be added to a confidentiality order to protect himself from criticism, such as that made by Inslaw's counsel following the [[Jack Rugh]]-[[Gregory McKain]] conversation, by ensuring only personnel in his office would be involved in the case. White's recollection was that Blackshear was mistaken and had confused Inslaw with the UPI case, about which White had told Blackshear that the IRS had pressured him to join a motion to convert.[^1]
+
+The Special Counsel's investigation found no credible evidence to support the allegations against White. When interviewed, White denied any wrongdoing or pressure from Stanton to convert the Inslaw case. The investigation concluded that White's testimony was consistent with that of most other witnesses, and that his explanation for the confidentiality order language was credible. The report also noted that White, being no longer in government, was less susceptible to pressure to tailor his testimony to suit the DOJ's position. The investigation found insufficient evidence to support a finding that the DOJ pressured the U.S. Trustee to convert the U.S. Trustee to convert the Inslaw Bankruptcy case or otherwise improperly interfere with it, or that the DOJ attempted a cover-up.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Pieter Van Der Westhuizen.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - Intelligence
+  - SouthAfrica
+---
+[[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]] was the chief of [[South African Military Intelligence]]. He played a significant role in the arms trade and intelligence cooperation between [[South Africa]] and other nations, including [[Israel]] and [[Chile]].[^1]
+
+In 1983, [[Mark Thatcher]] introduced [[Gerald Bull]] to [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Van Der Westhuizen]], who then connected Bull with [[South African Arms Corporation|ARMSCOR]] for his "supergun" project. [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Van Der Westhuizen]] was also present at a meeting in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], in late 1986 with [[Carlos Cardoen]], [[Robert Gates]], and Senator [[John Tower]], where the [[USA|U.S.]] reaffirmed its intention to maintain arms channels to [[Iraq]] through [[South Africa]] and [[Chile]].[^1]
+
+In November 1988, [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] met with [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Van Der Westhuizen]] in [[South Africa]]. The General claimed that [[South Africa]] had stopped the flow of technology to [[Iraq]] and was interested in resuming nuclear cooperation with [[Israel]]. He also confirmed [[Mark Thatcher|Thatcher's]] long-standing business dealings with [[South Africa]]. However, [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence later confirmed that while [[South Africa]] was not directly dealing with [[Iraq]], it was involved with [[Chile]], which continued to supply [[Iraq]] through the [[Carlos Cardoen|Cardoen]] network.[^1]
+
+[[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Van Der Westhuizen]] was threatened by an [[Israel|Israeli]] counterpart for his continued involvement in supplying missile technology to [[Iraq]] through [[South African Arms Corporation|ARMSCOR]]. The [[South Africa|South African]] government was reportedly considering dismissing him from all official positions.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/R. Gordon Wasson.md

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - R. Gordon Wasson
+  - Gordon Wasson
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Ethnomycologist
+  - Banker
+---
+# R. Gordon Wasson
+
+R. Gordon Wasson was an American ethnomycologist and vice president at J.P. Morgan & Company bank, known for his pioneering research into the use of psychedelic mushrooms in shamanistic rituals. His work became central to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s [[Project MKUltra|MKULTRA Subproject 58]]'s quest for the *teonanáctl* (God's flesh) mushroom[^1].
+
+Wasson and his wife, Valentina, a pediatrician, had been investigating a mushroom cult in Mexico. He had traveled to Mexico twice and was planning a third expedition when he was contacted by [[Andrija Puharich]] and [[Alice Astor Bouverie]]. Wasson explained that the Mexicans believed the mushroom was a pathway to the supernatural and possessed divinatory powers, allowing human consciousness to separate from the physical body[^1].
+
+In August 1954, Wasson shared his information with Puharich, who then briefed his Army superiors on the *teonanáctl* mushroom. The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], however, chose to bypass Puharich and approached Wasson directly through their chemist, [[James Moore]], who posed as a professor[^1].
+
+In June 1955, Wasson, accompanied by photographer Allan Richardson, arrived in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, and became the first white men in recorded history to eat the divine mushrooms. Wasson reported intense hallucinations but no divinatory powers. Upon his return, he sent a cache of mushrooms to Puharich for chemical analysis[^1].
+
+Wasson's work gained widespread public attention when he struck a publishing deal with *Life* magazine and authored a twelve-page account of his experience titled "Seeking the Magic Mushroom." While he omitted any mention of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s involvement, he highlighted the mushroom's alleged ability to access and enhance [[Extrasensory Perception|ESP]]. The article caused a sensation, effectively undermining the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s desire to keep the drug a secret psychic weapon under military intelligence control, as pleasure seekers flocked to Mexico to consume *God's flesh*[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Reuben Yirador.md

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - Intelligence
+  - Israel
+---
+Colonel [[Reuben Yirador]] was a department commander in [[Unit 8200]], an [[Israel|Israeli]] Signals Intelligence (Sigint) unit. He was later replaced by [[Sasson Yishaek|Lt. Col. Sasson Yishaek]] as commander of the department, but remained in [[Israeli Military Intelligence]].[^1]
+
+In 1972, [[Reuben Yirador|Yirador]] was involved in a significant discovery when he decoded a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] intercept (VENONA) that revealed the [[Soviet Union|Soviets]] were bugging the office of [[Golda Meir]], then Prime Minister of [[Israel]]. This discovery, along with [[Golda Meir|Meir's]] meeting with [[Leonid Brezhnev]] and her rejection of a peace settlement, informed [[Anwar Sadat]] and may have prompted the 1973 war.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Reuven Yerdor.md

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Military
+  - Intelligence
+  - Israel
+---
+Reuven Yerdor, also known as Rudi, was an accomplished linguist and a senior officer in [[Israel]]'s Detachment 515 (later redesignated Detachment 8200), which is in charge of signals intelligence and code-breaking. He had cracked a Soviet code, for which he later received [[Israel]]'s highest defense medal. By early 1982, Yerdor had been promoted to brigadier general and was in charge of [[Unit 8200]], the Israeli communications intelligence service.[^1]
+
+Yerdor worked closely with his counterparts in the American [[National Security Agency|NSA]], traveling to [[Washington D.C.]] every three months for liaison meetings. His official title was deputy chief of staff for military intelligence in the [[Israel Defense Forces]]. Over the 1981–82 New Year's holiday, Yerdor was summoned by [[Yehoshua Saguy]], the head of Aman (military intelligence), and given two packets of documents to evaluate: one with highly technical American intelligence describing a Soviet military system in the hands of the Arabs, and the other with daily and weekly summaries of worldwide [[National Security Agency|NSA]] intercepts.[^1]
+
+In February 1982, [[Israel]] learned that the Soviets had decided to upgrade the Syrian air defense command with SA-5 missiles. Yerdor was told that there was very little intelligence available on the system, but two days later, he received full U.S. intelligence on the SA-5, which made it clear it was not as good as feared. In mid-May 1982, three weeks before the invasion of [[Lebanon]], Yerdor's office received an astonishing assortment of invaluable American technical data about the air defense systems in [[Syria]], including detailed information on side-looking radar, electronic maps, and precise frequency of operations for [[Syria]]'s SA-6, SA-8, and advanced SA-3 surface-to-air missile systems.[^1]
+
+Yerdor had little respect for [[Rafael Eitan]] and worried about the long-range implications of Israeli intelligence activities in the [[United States]], its best ally. He was convinced Eitan was driven by personal ambition and a need to settle old scores with [[Yitzhak Hofi]], the head of [[Mossad]], and [[Avraham Shalom]], Shin Beth's director. He also believed that Eitan had recruited two or more Americans, and was dismayed by the fact that [[Jonathan Pollard]]'s material, marked JUMBO, was not supposed to be discussed with American counterparts.[^1]
+
+[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] was aware of Yerdor's distress about the spying, noting that Yerdor was "bitching about the fact that Eitan was compromising [[Israel]]'s relations with the [[United States]]."[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert T. Webber.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - USA
+---
+Robert T. Webber was a physicist who served as the scientific attaché at the U.S. embassy in [[Tel Aviv]], [[Israel]]. He earned a doctorate in physics at [[Yale University]] and shared [[William N. Dale]]'s interest in [[Dimona]]. Webber worked closely with [[John L. Hadden]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] station chief, in clear violation of a [[State Department]] decree forbidding scientific attachés from engaging in intelligence work. He also relied on intelligence gathered by [[Mel Alba]] and encouraged collaboration with British and Canadian counterparts. Webber was eventually replaced as science attaché by someone much less interested in [[Dimona]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 12.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Van de Castle.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+aliases:
+  - Robert Van de Castle
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Psychologist
+---
+Robert Van de Castle was a civilian psychologist who, along with [[George Lawrence]] and [[Ray Hyman]], traveled to [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] to test [[Uri Geller]]'s purported psychic abilities for [[ARPA]]. Their conclusion, later reported in *Time* magazine, was that anyone who believed in Geller's powers was falling for the "ridiculous"[^1].
+
+## Footnotes
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Whitaker.md

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+> [!WARNING] INCOMPLETE RESEARCH
+> This page is a placeholder and requires extensive additions. Difficulties have arisen from how common the name Robert Whitaker is.
+
+Worked on the team developing the original 1969 [[PROMIS]] under [[Joan E. Jacoby]], [[Charles R. Work]], and [[Bill Hamilton]].
+
+There are a huge amounts of Robert Whitakers working in the government, but we can assume that in 1969, Robert was an Executive Officer[^4] of the DC Department of Corrections and in 1970, Executive Assistant to the Director of the Department of Corrections DC[^1]. He seems to have represented the Metropolitan Police Department’s interests in an on-line records management system[^4].
+
+Further records of Robert Whitakers can be found working in the secret service (1982)[^3] and Office of Personnel Management (1985)[^2]. It’s not at all clear if these are related to the Whitaker who worked on PROMIS.
+
+There was an issue of Corrections Magazine in 1974 that mentions a Robert Whitaker, who runs a correction center, used to be a marine[^5]. It’s possible this is the same Whitaker as the Corrections field is fairly small even with a relatively common name.
+
+---
+#### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: [District of Columbia Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1970](https://www.google.com/books/edition/District_of_Columbia_Appropriations_for/4g1EAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22robert+whitaker%22&pg=PA605&printsec=frontcover)
+[^2]: [United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions (1985)](https://www.google.com/books/edition/United_States_Government_Policy_and_Supp/DWli9TlXliQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22robert+whitaker%22+DC&pg=PA224&printsec=frontcover)
+[^3]: [Government direction and support (1982)](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Government_direction_and_support/D6mWWTvqugMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22robert+whitaker%22+DC&pg=PA1182&printsec=frontcover)
+[^4]: [Crime in the National Capital (1969)](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Crime_in_the_National_Capital/gcFFAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1)
+[^5]: [Corrections Magazine Vol 1 1974](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Corrections_Magazine/67lQAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22robert+whitaker%22+DC&dq=%22robert+whitaker%22+DC&printsec=frontcover)

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Robert Whitely.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Robert Whitely was the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]]'s auditor on the [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]] contract. He played a role in the events surrounding the advance payments dispute and the DOJ's demand for a copy of [[PROMIS]].
+
+In November 1982, Whitely informed [[Peter Videnieks]], the contracting officer, that based on his review of Inslaw's financial statements and discussions with Inslaw's accountants, he believed [[INSLAW]] was insolvent. This information contributed to Videnieks' decision to terminate the advance payments provision of the contract. Whitely testified that after reviewing Inslaw's financial statements and meeting with their accountants, he expressed his view that Inslaw was either insolvent or nearly so. The Special Counsel's investigation found that Whitely's testimony was credible and that the evidence supported the DOJ's claim that its employees were genuinely concerned about Inslaw's financial health. 
+
+The report noted that Bankruptcy Judge Bason had dismissed Whitely's testimony as "manufactured solely for use at trial," but the Special Counsel found this assertion to be incorrect, citing Whitely's work papers and deposition testimony as evidence of his consistent concerns about Inslaw's financial viability. The investigation concluded that the DOJ's demand for a copy of PROMIS was made in good faith due to concerns about Inslaw's potential failure, which would leave the government vulnerable.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Rocco Zangari.md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[[Rocco Zangari]] was the first manager of the [[Cabazon Indian Casino]]. He was a former bookie and was later indicted on racketeering charges.
+
+---
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Roger Whelan.md

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+---
+aliases: []
+tags:
+  - Person
+---
+Roger Whelan was the bankruptcy judge who preceded [[George Francis Bason, Jr.|Judge Bason]] in the District of Columbia. He was appointed on February 8, 1984, and his term expired four years later.
+
+Whelan became involved in the controversy surrounding Judge Bason's non-reappointment. He was a practicing bankruptcy attorney and reportedly received complaints about Bason from several of his colleagues. These attorneys, according to Whelan, shared his view that Bason was pro-debtor and too slow in making decisions. Whelan reported these views to the Merit Selection Panel by telephone. The Special Counsel's investigation noted that Whelan's opposition to Bason's reappointment was significant, as it contributed to the perception that Judge Bason was a poor administrator. This perception, whether accurate or not, was made known to the Panel at least by Whelan and almost certainly by others.[^1]
+
+[[Charles Deeter]], an attorney for [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]], reported to the House Committee on the Judiciary that in July 1987, Whelan had threatened to oppose Bason's reappointment because Bason had not ruled on a fee petition filed by Whelan. Deeter alleged that Whelan told him that Senior District Court Judge Irwin Gasch would organize the opposition to Bason's reappointment. Whelan acknowledged that he represented a party in the UPI case and was frustrated by Judge Bason's delay in ruling on an application he had filed. He also acknowledged being a friend of Senior Judge Gasch. However, he denied ever speaking with Charles Deeter about the UPI case or trying indirectly to pressure Judge Bason to rule on his application for compensation in that case. The Special Counsel's investigation did not attempt to resolve this disagreement but noted that the possibility of concerted opposition to Bason by district court judges or others might explain why he was not reappointed.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Romeo Vásquez Velásquez.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+[[Romeo Vásquez Velásquez]] was a Brigadier General and head of the armed forces of [[Honduras]]. He was sacked by President [[Manuel Zelaya]] on June 25, 2009, for refusing to allow the armed forces to help in conducting a referendum on a constitutional change proposed by President Zelaya. He, along with [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]], was identified as a coup leader who ousted [[Manuel Zelaya]] and placed [[Roberto Micheletti]] in office.[^1]
+
+Vásquez Velásquez attended the [[School of the Americas]] (SOA/WHINSEC) at least twice, in 1976 and 1984. He was also mentioned as a friend of [[Jimmy Hughes]] and a member of FGBMFI ([[Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International]]).[^1]
+
+---
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ron Van Meter.md

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+[[Ron Van Meter]] was a deputy in the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. His death on June 24, 1980, in an alleged boating accident on Lake McClure, became a central point of investigation into long-standing corruption, murder, threats, and harassment within the department. Those he confided in believed he was murdered after uncovering and reporting drug trafficking within the sheriff's department.[^1]
+
+Official reports listed his death as a drowning. The search party consisted mainly of three divers: deputies [[Dave Beavers]], [[Rod Cusic]], and [[Gary Estep]]. Sheriff [[Paul Paige]] refused outside help, including additional divers from adjacent counties and a mini-submarine offered by Beavers' associate.[^1]
+
+Van Meter's widow, [[Leslie Van Meter]], was notified of his disappearance. His home was ransacked, and his briefcase and diary were seized by the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. Only she and a few deputies knew what his diary contained. He had taken out a special life insurance policy two weeks before his death, which also went missing after the search.[^1]
+
+On March 23, 1984, [[Leslie Van Meter]] filed a Citizen's Complaint, alleging negligence and unprofessionalism in the investigation of her husband's disappearance. His body had still not been found. Newly elected Sheriff [[Ken Mattheys]] responded by re-opening the investigation, appointing deputies [[Frank McCoy]] and [[Lonnie Hammond]] to handle the internal affairs aspect. In October 1984, Sheriff Mattheys also recruited private investigator [[Raymond Jenkins]] and retired [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Tom Walsh]] to investigate and help clean up the Sheriff's Department. These investigators concluded that Van Meter was murdered after obtaining evidence of drug trafficking within the department.[^1]
+
+Their investigation also led them to [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] (Music Corporation of America), parent company to [[Curry Company]], the largest concessionaire in Yosemite National Park, where a major drug network had surfaced. A park ranger, [[Paul Berkowitz]], testified before the House Interior Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation about drug distribution by Curry Company officials.[^1]
+
+A few weeks prior to his death in 1980, Van Meter had driven to the [[California Attorney General's Office|Attorney General's office]] in Sacramento and reported drug dealing and other forms of corruption within the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. Upon his return, he was confronted by Sheriff [[Paul Paige]], who had been informed by the Attorney General. Van Meter had been photographing and journaling drug activity by deputies at Lake McClure. He was part of a California State Abatement Program involving harvesting and eradicating marijuana fields in Yosemite National Park and adjacent counties. Instead, the harvested marijuana was being stored in abandoned cars and towed out of town by a local wrecker under contract with the sheriff's department, and also distributed at a hidden cove at Lake McClure.[^1]
+
+On June 24, 1980, frustrated and angry at the Attorney General for betraying him, Van Meter borrowed a boat and was on his way to arrest the deputies at Lake McClure himself. He never returned. His body was finally recovered in September 1990 in the shallow waters of Lake McClure, wrapped in a fish net and weighted down by various objects.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Russell Targ.md

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-22
+updated: 2025-07-22
+title: Russell Targ
+tags:
+  - person
+  - scientist
+  - physicist
+description: Russell Targ is a physicist who, along with Hal Puthoff, led the remote viewing research program at SRI.
+---
+Russell Targ is a physicist who, in the early 1970s, joined [[Hal Puthoff]] at [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI) to lead the remote viewing research program. He was a laser physicist who had previously worked at Sylvania Corporation, which manufactured televisions and lightbulbs. The ivory tower atmosphere of SRI seemed to suit him better, as he was described as the "very picture of the intense scientist, the thinker disengaged from prosaic reality." He had a "frizzy and wavy mass of red-brown hair" and a deep, monotonal voice that conveyed a sense of authority. He wore extraordinarily thick, eye-magnifying glasses. His sister had married the chess master Bobby Fischer, and it was easy to imagine some of Fischer's "neurotic cerebrality" had rubbed off on him. He had apparently been having spontaneous psychic experiences since he was a child, which contributed to his interest in the field.[^1]
+
+Targ was responsible for many of the early experiments at SRI, including the development of an ESP "teaching" machine, a primitive computer designed to give subjects feedback on their psychic guesses. He often clashed with [[Ingo Swann]] over the use of this machine, as Swann found it to be a "depressing remnant of old-time parapsychology." He also conducted experiments with other psychics, including [[Pat Price]] and [[Uri Geller]], and explored various psi phenomena such as psychokinesis and telepathy. He was instrumental in developing and refining remote viewing protocols, including "outbound remote viewing" and "coordinate remote viewing" (CRV).[^1]
+
+As a monitor in remote viewing sessions, Targ would prompt psychics with questions and record their impressions. He was involved in the testing of [[Uri Geller]], and while often suspecting sleight of hand due to Geller's hyperkinetic style, he was also impressed by Geller's genuine abilities. He and Puthoff would sometimes search the laboratory rafters and acoustic tiles for hidden audio or video bugs after Geller's sessions, though they never found anything.[^1]
+
+Despite the personality conflicts and the controversial nature of the research, Targ was a key figure in the remote viewing program. He was the co-author, with Hal Puthoff, of a number of influential papers on remote viewing, including a 1974 article in *Nature* and a 1976 article in the *Proceedings of the IEEE*. He eventually became convinced of the reality of remote viewing, even conducting his own informal experiments. He was present during many of Price's most impressive remote viewing feats, including the glider experiment where Price accurately perceived the numbers Kennett was carrying and the "ankh" around his neck, and the precognitive viewing of the Redwood City Marina and the Rinconada Park water tanks.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Santos Trafficante, Jr..md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[[Santos Trafficante, Jr.]] was an organized-crime leader who was contacted by [[Robert Maheu]] in 1960 as part of [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] operations to assassinate [[Fidel Castro]]. Trafficante, Jr., along with [[Sam Giancana]] and [[Johnny Rosselli]], was enlisted to assist in these efforts, which involved Cuban exiles.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Shimon Yiftach.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Scientist
+  - Israel
+---
+Shimon Yiftach was the director of scientific programs for the Israeli defense ministry. He was trained at the [[Argonne National Laboratory]] in [[Illinois]] and was one of [[Israel]]'s leading experts in the chemistry of plutonium. In December 1963, he publicly stated that the advanced reactor at [[Dimona]] would produce plutonium as a by-product, but insisted that the Israeli government had no plans to build a separate plant for chemically reprocessing plutonium. Yiftach knew this was false, as French construction companies had already restarted work on the underground reprocessing plant at [[Dimona]].[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 10.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Sir Hubert Wilkins.md

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-23
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Sir Hubert Wilkins
+tags:
+  - person
+  - explorer
+  - author
+  - parapsychology
+description: Sir Hubert Wilkins was an Australian polar explorer, aviator, and decorated war hero who conducted experiments in mind-to-mind telepathy.
+---
+
+[[Sir Hubert Wilkins]] was an Australian polar explorer, aviator, and decorated war hero. He was the first man to fly from North America to the polar regions of Europe and attempted to reach the North Pole in a surplus World War I submarine. His ashes were later scattered at the North Pole by the [[USS Skate]].[^1]
+
+Wilkins conducted experiments in [[Mind-to-Mind Telepathy]], which he documented in his book *Thoughts Through Space: A Remarkable Adventure in the Realm of Mind*. His work influenced [[Edgar Mitchell]], the Apollo 14 astronaut, who was inspired to conduct his own telepathy experiments during his Moon voyage.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Stanley H. Turner.md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+> [!WARNING] INCOMPLETE RESEARCH
+> Need additional time to complete research.
+
+Doctorate. 
+
+Assistant Director for Research and Analysis at the [[Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia]] underneath [[Joan E. Jacoby]]. Part of the original 1969 [[PROMIS]] team.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Stansfield Turner.md

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-22
+updated: 2025-07-22
+title: Stansfield Turner
+tags:
+  - person
+  - CIA
+  - director
+  - admiral
+description: Stansfield Turner was an American admiral who served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) under President Jimmy Carter.
+---
+Stansfield Turner (1923–2018) was an American admiral who served as the [[Director of Central Intelligence|DCI]] under President [[Jimmy Carter]] from 1977 to 1981. His tenure at the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] was marked by significant changes, including a reduction in [[Human Intelligence|HUMINT]] capabilities, which was seen as being on the wane following a number of scandals in the mid-1970s, including revelations of domestic spying.[^1]
+
+As Director of Central Intelligence, Turner abruptly cut back intelligence liaison with [[Israel]] and other friendly nations as part of a restructuring of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. This move was met with disquiet from the Israelis, who were accustomed to warmer treatment from previous administrations.[^3]
+
+In an interview in 2002, Turner stated, "When I was first introduced to this idea of [[Parapsychology|parapsychology]] I was very skeptical. Then I began to think about it, and we all know of people who seem to have some kind of psychic powers." His acceptance of the phenomena, despite his initial skepticism, was crucial for the continuation of the [[STARGATE PROJECT|Stargate]] program.[^1]
+
+Turner was widely disliked within the Agency for abruptly firing two hundred case officers in [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] stations around the world in October 1977. He seemed to prefer "arm's-length collection techniques," such as satellite photography and communications intercepts, over traditional spy work. This preference for "clean" spying methods inadvertently made psychic intelligence, or [[PSI-INT]], seem like an ideal alternative in the political context of the time.[^1]
+
+Turner was also a member of the board of directors for [[Wackenhut Corporation]], a security firm with extensive ties to government and intelligence agencies.[^2]
+
+During [[Jimmy Carter]]'s presidency, Turner's leadership of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] saw the agency distanced from death-squad interdiction due to Carter's human rights foreign policy in [[Latin America]].[^2]
+
+---
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
+[^2]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
+[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Sue Todd.md

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[[Sue Todd]] is a Police Detective from Hercules, California. She became involved in the investigation surrounding the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] and its broader implications, particularly through her collaboration with [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] national security investigator [[Sean McDade]].[1]
+
+Todd accompanied [[Sean McDade]] during his secret entry into the [[United States]] in February 2000, where they met with [[Cheri Seymour]], the author of *The Last Circle*. Their collaboration stemmed from a shared "source" and Todd's own investigation into a three-year-old double homicide that she believed was connected to the [[PROMIS]] case. During their meeting with Seymour, Todd and McDade were armed with 9mm police guns, indicating the serious nature of their inquiry.[1]
+
+She assisted [[Sean McDade]] in his extensive probe, which involved interviewing former investigators, witnesses, and law enforcement personnel across the [[United States]]. Todd was also a point of contact for [[Sean McDade]] when he found himself targeted by [[ECHELON]] technology during his investigation, forcing him to take extraordinary measures to communicate securely.[1]
+
+Despite the exposure of [[Sean McDade]]'s investigation in the *Toronto Star* in August 2000, Todd indicated that he ultimately returned to police work in his hometown, suggesting a continued commitment to law enforcement despite the challenges faced during the [[PROMIS]] investigation.[1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+[1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Tang Yu.md

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+---
+created: 2025-07-23
+updated: 2025-07-23
+title: Tang Yu
+tags:
+  - person
+  - psychic
+  - China
+description: Tang Yu was a twelve-year-old boy in China who, in 1979, was reported to be able to read with his ears, sparking the Extraordinary Powers Craze.
+---
+
+Tang Yu was a twelve-year-old boy in [[China]] who, in 1979, was reported to be able to read with his ears. His case, which was publicized in the *Sichuan Daily*, sparked the [[Extraordinary Powers Craze]], a period of intense interest in paranormal phenomena in China.[^1]
+
+Tang Yu's alleged ability to perceive written words through his ears was investigated by local and provincial officials, and eventually by the national Science Commission in Beijing. He was one of the first individuals to be identified as possessing [[Extraordinary Human Body Function]] (EHBF), and his case played a key role in the Chinese government's decision to officially sanction research into these phenomena.[^1]
+
+---
+
+[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Ted Gunderson.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+[[Ted Gunderson]] was a former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent who transitioned into private investigation after his retirement from the Bureau. His distinguished career with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] included serving as a Senior Special Agent in Charge (SAC) at headquarters in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Dallas, Texas. Following his tenure with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], he worked for F. Lee Bailey, Esq., before establishing his own investigative agency in Los Angeles County.[1]
+
+Gunderson became deeply involved in the investigation of corruption and drug rings within Mariposa County, California, after being approached by the D.I.G. (Decency in Government) group. His prior work included compiling a comprehensive 700-page report for the Tulare City Council, which meticulously detailed instances of deputies receiving payoffs and distributing drugs in Tulare. His engagement in the Mariposa investigation marked a significant expansion of his efforts into the broader "[[The Octopus]]" inquiry.[1]
+
+His professional network and investigative pursuits were intricately linked with several key figures and clandestine operations. He served as a crucial contact for [[Michael Riconosciuto]], particularly following Riconosciuto's arrest. Riconosciuto initiated contact with Gunderson from jail, and Gunderson subsequently informed [[Cheri Seymour]] about Riconosciuto's ongoing investigation into the Mariposa County corruption and drug ring. Furthermore, Gunderson provided an affidavit and testimony during Riconosciuto's trial, aiming to corroborate Riconosciuto's covert government-sanctioned activities. At one point, Gunderson, Riconosciuto, and [[Robert Booth Nichols]] were colloquially described as being "inseparable, like the three musketeers," highlighting their close association.[1]
+
+His involvement extended to discussions with [[Ralph Olberg]] and [[Tim Osman]] concerning a global support network for the [[Mujahideen]] in [[Afghanistan]]. These discussions encompassed the field testing of novel weaponry and the exchange of arms for drugs, an operation connected to "[[The Company]]," a drug and arms organization comprising former military, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel. Gunderson's affidavit detailed conversations about the modification of Chinese 107 MM rockets and the strategic sanitization of Stinger missiles to prevent the leakage of sensitive information if they were to be captured by Soviet forces.[1]
+
+Despite their past collaboration, Gunderson faced limitations in disclosing numerous activities involving [[Robert Booth Nichols]] during Riconosciuto's trial, as Nichols was concurrently under [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] investigation for alleged involvement in organized crime. Interestingly, Gunderson had previously conducted an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] background check on Nichols, which, to his surprise, indicated Nichols was "squeaky clean," a finding that later contrasted sharply with information suggesting Nichols' deep entanglement in drug trafficking and organized crime.[1]
+
+[[Danny Casolaro]], the investigative journalist, maintained contact with Gunderson during his "[[The Octopus]]" investigation. Casolaro confirmed that [[Ralph Olberg]]'s project to provide arms assistance to the Afghan rebels was legally sanctioned and operated through the State Department and Senator Humphrey's office.[1]
+
+Throughout his career, Gunderson encountered significant challenges and obstruction in his efforts to expose corruption. He observed a "turf battle problem" between [[Ralph Olberg]]'s group and certain factions within the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and their group, MSH (Management Science For Health), concerning the legitimate representation of the Afghan rebel leadership. His attempts to facilitate [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s entry into the Witness Protection Program ultimately proved unsuccessful, as federal agencies, including the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], demonstrated reluctance to fully cooperate or acknowledge Riconosciuto's claims.[1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+[1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Thomas F.X. Dunn.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Legal
+  - USA
+---
+[[Thomas F.X. Dunn]] was a New York-born, Irish-Catholic lawyer who represented [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] during his trial for conspiracy to sell [[C-130]] aircraft to [[Iran]]. Despite his initial lack of knowledge about the Middle East, [[Israel]], or the international intelligence scene, he developed a deep understanding of the complex case.[^1]
+
+Dunn was assigned to [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]]'s case pursuant to the [[Criminal Justice Act]] after [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] had spent 75 days in jail. He worked to prove that [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] was acting on behalf of the [[Israel|Israeli]] government with the knowledge of the [[USA|U.S.]] government, rather than as an illegal arms dealer. He faced challenges due to the [[Israel|Israeli]] government's initial denial of [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] employment and later claims that he was only a low-level translator.[^1]
+
+Dunn successfully used [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] employment records, including performance reports and letters of recommendation from his superiors (Col. [[Pesah Melowany]] and Col. [[Arieh Shur]]), to demonstrate his high-level involvement in [[Israel|Israeli]] government activities. He also called [[Raji Samghabadi]], a *Time* magazine correspondent, as a witness, who confirmed [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] prior knowledge of the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^1]
+
+Through Dunn's efforts, [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] was released on bail after 11 months and three weeks in jail, and ultimately found not guilty. Dunn's summation to the jury highlighted [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe's]] role as a victim of both the [[USA|U.S.]] and [[Israel|Israeli]] governments' stonewalling and denials.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Tim Osman.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[[Tim Osman]] was a figure involved in a worldwide support network for the [[Mujahideen]] in [[Afghanistan]]. He met with [[Ted Gunderson]], [[Ralph Olberg]], and [[Michael Riconosciuto]] in early 1986 to discuss this network, which focused on the Afghanistan Resistance Movement against the Soviets.[^1]
+
+Discussions included the Mujahideen's willingness to field test new and esoteric weapons and return research reports with photos. They also discussed the capture and/or defection of high-ranking Soviet military personnel with sensitive compartmentalized information, and the availability of their briefings. Other topics included a military joint venture in [[Turkey]] to produce specialized ammunition and a lobbying effort to legally obtain Stinger II missiles and their variants.[^1]
+
+[[Ralph Olberg]] and Osman proposed an unprecedented leadership meeting in Washington D.C. to prove that their group represented the full leadership of the Mujahideen, addressing a "turf battle problem" with certain factions of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and their group, MSH (Management Science For Health).[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Timothy Phelps.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Journalist
+  - USA
+---
+[[Timothy Phelps]] was the Middle East correspondent for *Newsday*, based in [[Cairo]]. He visited [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] several times in [[Jerusalem]], where [[Ari Ben-Menashe|Ben-Menashe]] provided him with details about the [[Oliver North|North]] story, which later became known as the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. However, *Newsday* did not print the story.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992. (Hereafter, "Profits of War")

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Tina Sinatra.md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[[Tina Sinatra]] is the daughter of [[Frank Sinatra]]. She was involved in overseeing a slate of projects at [[Joel Silver Productions]], including *The Manchurian Candidate*. She read the draft manuscript of *The Last Circle* and was very interested in meeting [[Robert Booth Nichols]], seeing the Zapruder tape, and reading his script. She was also interested in a potential TV or movie project based on *The Last Circle*.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Tom Walsh.md

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+[[Tom Walsh]] was a retired [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent from Merced. He was recruited by Sheriff [[Ken Mattheys]] in October 1984, along with private investigator [[Raymond Jenkins]], to investigate [[Ron Van Meter]]'s disappearance and help clean up the Mariposa Sheriff's Department. Walsh and Jenkins concluded that [[Ron Van Meter]] was murdered after obtaining evidence of drug trafficking within the department.[^1]
+
+Walsh also provided [[Cheri Seymour]] with a significant piece of information regarding Judge [[Robert E. Coyle]]'s background, alleging that the Judge was once the attorney of record for Curry Company (owned by [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]) in Yosemite National Park.[^1]
+
+---
+## Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.