vault backup: 2026-05-13 21:30:09

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Daniel Murphy.md

@@ -1,25 +1,20 @@
 ---
+category: "PROMIS Scandal"
 tags:
   - Person
-  - Military
-  - Admiral
-  - CIA
-  - Intelligence
   - PROMIS
+  - CIA
   - INSLAW
-  - NSA
-  - Defense_Department
-  - Gerald_Ford
-  - Jimmy_Carter
-  - Richard_Nixon
+summary: "In early 1991, INSLAW Counsel Elliot Richardson asked Murphy to review the plausibility of claims about the covert dissemination of PROMIS for intelligence-tracking applications and to give his opinion on whether the claimed intelligence uses could explain Richard Thornburgh's inexplicable failure t"
 ---
+
 [[Daniel Murphy]] was a retired four-star Admiral who served as [[Elliot Richardson]]'s Military Advisor when Richardson was Secretary of Defense under [[Richard Nixon]]. He later held two of the top U.S. intelligence posts: Deputy Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] under [[Gerald Ford]] and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under [[Jimmy Carter]].[^1]
 
-In early 1991, [[INSLAW]] Counsel [[Elliot Richardson]] asked Murphy to review the plausibility of claims about the covert dissemination of [[PROMIS]] for intelligence-tracking applications and to give his opinion on whether the claimed intelligence uses could explain [[Richard Thornburgh]]'s inexplicable failure to enforce federal criminal laws in the [[INSLAW]] case. After reading the affidavits and the [[INSLAW]] lawsuit against Thornburgh, Murphy told Richardson and [[Bill Hamilton]] that there was nothing implausible about any of the claims, including [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s claim that he had modified [[PROMIS]] for U.S. intelligence on an Indian reservation in Southern [[California]]. He also stated that the available evidence made it look like an [[National Security Agency|NSA]] operation, and if it were, it would explain Thornburgh's behavior.[^1]
+In early 1991, [[INSLAW]] Counsel [[Elliot Richardson]] asked Murphy to review the plausibility of claims about the covert dissemination of [[PROMIS]] for intelligence-tracking applications and to give his opinion on whether the claimed intelligence uses could explain [[Richard Thornburgh]]'s inexplicable failure to enforce federal criminal laws in the [[INSLAW]] case. After reading the affidavits and the [[INSLAW]] lawsuit against Thornburgh, Murphy told Richardson and [[Bill Hamilton]] that there was nothing implausible about any of the claims, including [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s claim that he had modified [[PROMIS]] for U.S. intelligence on an Indian reservation in Southern [[California]]. He also stated that the available evidence made it look like an [[NSA|NSA]] operation, and if it were, it would explain Thornburgh's behavior.[^1]
 
-In 2001, Murphy told [[Bill Hamilton]] that an [[INSLAW]] summary of evidence revealed that the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] began misappropriating [[PROMIS]] in 1982 for three separate intelligence projects: [[National Security Agency|NSA]]'s deployment of [[PROMIS]] to banks to track wire transfers, [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence's sale of a trap-door version of [[PROMIS]] to foreign governments, and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s deployment of [[PROMIS]] throughout the [[United States Government|U.S. Government]] as standard database software for intelligence gathering. Murphy told Hamilton that the [[INSLAW]] summary eliminated any doubt about what had happened and that the [[INSLAW]] case needed to be settled. He warned Hamilton that government officials would "regard it as their patriotic duty to look [[INSLAW]]'s lawyer in the eyes and lie."[^1]
+In 2001, Murphy told [[Bill Hamilton]] that an [[INSLAW]] summary of evidence revealed that the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] began misappropriating [[PROMIS]] in 1982 for three separate intelligence projects: [[NSA|NSA]]'s deployment of [[PROMIS]] to banks to track wire transfers, [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence's sale of a trap-door version of [[PROMIS]] to foreign governments, and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s deployment of [[PROMIS]] throughout the [[United States|U.S. Government]] as standard database software for intelligence gathering. Murphy told Hamilton that the [[INSLAW]] summary eliminated any doubt about what had happened and that the [[INSLAW]] case needed to be settled. He warned Hamilton that government officials would "regard it as their patriotic duty to look [[INSLAW]]'s lawyer in the eyes and lie."[^1]
 
-In September 2001, Murphy, who had served as Chief of Staff to Vice President [[George Bush]] during the first term of the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] Administration when the [[PROMIS]] misappropriations began, told Hamilton that he had a "hunch" that there was still another use of [[PROMIS]] that [[INSLAW]] had not yet discovered, that it "involves something so seriously wrong that money alone cannot cure the problem," and that the government might never compensate [[INSLAW]] unless the company discovered that additional use of [[PROMIS]]. Admiral Murphy passed away suddenly on September 21, 2001, and Hamilton was never able to obtain clarification on his hunch.[^1]
+In September 2001, Murphy, who had served as Chief of Staff to Vice President [[George H.W. Bush]] during the first term of the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] Administration when the [[PROMIS]] misappropriations began, told Hamilton that he had a "hunch" that there was still another use of [[PROMIS]] that [[INSLAW]] had not yet discovered, that it "involves something so seriously wrong that money alone cannot cure the problem," and that the government might never compensate [[INSLAW]] unless the company discovered that additional use of [[PROMIS]]. Admiral Murphy passed away suddenly on September 21, 2001, and Hamilton was never able to obtain clarification on his hunch.[^1]
 
 ---
 ### Footnotes