vault backup: 2026-09-22 17:42:28

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Church Committee.md

@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ location: "Washington, D.C."
 
 The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, known as the Church Committee after its chairman Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), was constituted on January 27, 1975, following the Seymour Hersh exposés of December 1974 revealing systematic CIA domestic surveillance activities under [[Operation CHAOS]]. The committee ran through April 1976, producing the most comprehensive congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence activities ever conducted. Its final report (S. Rept. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, April 26, 1976) and the fourteen volumes of accompanying staff reports constitute the foundational primary documentary record of postwar U.S. intelligence abuses.[^1]
 
-The committee was constituted in the same period as the Rockefeller Commission (Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, chaired by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller), which issued its report in June 1975. The Church Committee's scope and independence were substantially greater than the Rockefeller Commission's.
+The committee was constituted in the same period as the [[Rockefeller Commission 1975|Rockefeller Commission]] (Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, chaired by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller), which issued its report in June 1975. The Church Committee's scope and independence were substantially greater than the Rockefeller Commission's.
 
 ### Triggering Events
 

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee.md

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ created: 2026-09-21
 updated: 2026-09-22
 ---
 
-The Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, chaired by [[Manfred Gale]] of the Army staff and known in the program as the Gale Committee, reported in December 1979 on the Defense Department's parapsychology work: the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] remote-viewing research, the psychokinesis contract of the Army Missile Command (MICOM) at [[Redstone Arsenal]], the replication trials of the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]], and the [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|INSCOM]] unit at [[Fort Meade]] ([[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]). "In June 1979 it was suggested by Dr. [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]], then Under Secretary of the Army, that a Scientific Evaluation Committee be appointed to review the Army's parapsychological activities. In early July 1979, Dr. [[Ruth Davis]] recommended that because of the special interest of the Secretary of Defense, that the Committee review the total DOD posture and report directly to the GRILL FLAME Oversight Committee." Its mission was "to review the parapsychological research, investigations, and applications within DOD and the intelligence community," "to assess the validity of claims made for the alleged existence of the PSI phenomena," and "to recommend a course of action for DOD." Members "were carefully screened to avoid any persons with preconceived notions for or against the subject under investigation"; "since 1972, the combined funding for DOD and the intelligence community was less than a total of $1.5M." The report's security guide stated that "all connection between official U.S. Government interest or participation in the generic field of Parapsychology is classified a minimum of SECRET, caveat NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION," and that "future security planning for GRILL FLAME includes making it totally a special access program."[^1]
+The Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee, chaired by [[Manfred Gale]] of the Army staff and known in the program as the Gale Committee, reported in December 1979 on the Defense Department's parapsychology work: the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] remote-viewing research, the psychokinesis contract of the Army Missile Command (MICOM) at [[Redstone Arsenal]], the replication trials of the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]], and the [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command|INSCOM]] unit at [[Fort Meade]] ([[STARGATE PROJECT|Grill Flame]]). "In June 1979 it was suggested by Dr. [[Walter LaBerge|LaBerge]], then Under Secretary of the Army, that a Scientific Evaluation Committee be appointed to review the Army's parapsychological activities. In early July 1979, Dr. [[Ruth Davis]] recommended that because of the special interest of the Secretary of Defense, that the Committee review the total DOD posture and report directly to the GRILL FLAME Oversight Committee." Its mission was "to review the parapsychological research, investigations, and applications within DOD and the intelligence community," "to assess the validity of claims made for the alleged existence of the PSI phenomena," and "to recommend a course of action for DOD." Members "were carefully screened to avoid any persons with preconceived notions for or against the subject under investigation"; "since 1972, the combined funding for DOD and the intelligence community was less than a total of $1.5M." The report's security guide stated that "all connection between official U.S. Government interest or participation in the generic field of Parapsychology is classified a minimum of SECRET, caveat NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION," and that "future security planning for GRILL FLAME includes making it totally a special access program."[^1]
 
 ### Membership and Visits
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ The roster printed as annex 1: [[Douglas Tang]], chief of biostatistics and math
 
 ### The Chronology
 
-The report's own history, which it said was "not attributable to the Committee's action," ran from the SRI work of 1971 through [[Ingo Swann]]'s magnetometer trial of 1972 and [[Pat Price]]'s readings of 1973 to 1975: the West Virginia site, where Price "spoke out classified codewords he 'read' from file folders"; the Urals crane, of which "CIA analysts concluded that either Remote Viewing had taken place, or Price had intimate knowledge of the URDF-3"; the embassy code rooms; an in-house CIA trial of the fall of 1974 that produced "what could only be a SA-5 missile training site" in [[Libya]]; and the guerrilla training site of July 1975, "the same month Price tragically died of a heart attack." "Since July 1975, CIA interest has remained minimal and unofficial. The Agency claims to have stopped all work," the "primary reason for abandoning the effort" being, in a phrase the scan garbles, "of winning a 'Golden Fleece Award.'" On the Army side, MICOM let "a one-year $80K contract" in August 1977 "under the innocuous title, 'Investigation of Unconventional Discrimination Techniques'"; in July 1978 DIA "sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which Swann, given the coordinates of "a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow," "passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel," entering "a command and control room" whose "floors are paved in 'white tiles'"; in August 1978 Vorona chaired the first meeting toward "a coordinated DOD program"; INSCOM's selection criteria of the autumn of 1978 were "above average intelligence, outgoing personality, adventuresome, open-minded, mature, artistic nature, and successful life career." The Grill Flame steering committee first met on February 13, 1979, with "all Service ACSI's, Dr. Ruth Davis, Dr. LaBerge, and Dr. Vorona (standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]])." Of the Navy: "Suspicion lingers among Army project personnel that Navy may have nevertheless kept a tightly compartmented effort going. Navy representatives attend all DOD meetings, but remain uncommitted and literally silent." Funding to date: "CIA, 1972-78: $240K. DIA, 1979: $100K. USAF, 1976-79: $300K. Army, 1977-79: $490K."[^1]
+The report's own history, which it said was "not attributable to the Committee's action," ran from the SRI work of 1971 through [[Ingo Swann]]'s magnetometer trial of 1972 and [[Pat Price]]'s readings of 1973 to 1975: the [[West Virginia]] site, where Price "spoke out classified codewords he 'read' from file folders"; the Urals crane, of which "CIA analysts concluded that either Remote Viewing had taken place, or Price had intimate knowledge of the URDF-3"; the embassy code rooms; an in-house CIA trial of the fall of 1974 that produced "what could only be a SA-5 missile training site" in [[Libya]]; and the guerrilla training site of July 1975, "the same month Price tragically died of a heart attack." "Since July 1975, CIA interest has remained minimal and unofficial. The Agency claims to have stopped all work," the "primary reason for abandoning the effort" being, in a phrase the scan garbles, "of winning a 'Golden Fleece Award.'" On the Army side, MICOM let "a one-year $80K contract" in August 1977 "under the innocuous title, 'Investigation of Unconventional Discrimination Techniques'"; in July 1978 DIA "sponsored a series of four unique experiments" in which Swann, given the coordinates of "a Soviet strategic missile field east of Moscow," "passed through a silo cover, 'traveling' down until reaching a connecting tunnel," entering "a command and control room" whose "floors are paved in 'white tiles'"; in August 1978 Vorona chaired the first meeting toward "a coordinated DOD program"; INSCOM's selection criteria of the autumn of 1978 were "above average intelligence, outgoing personality, adventuresome, open-minded, mature, artistic nature, and successful life career." The Grill Flame steering committee first met on February 13, 1979, with "all Service ACSI's, Dr. Ruth Davis, Dr. LaBerge, and Dr. Vorona (standing in for LTG [[Eugene Tighe|Tighe]])." Of the Navy: "Suspicion lingers among Army project personnel that Navy may have nevertheless kept a tightly compartmented effort going. Navy representatives attend all DOD meetings, but remain uncommitted and literally silent." Funding to date: "CIA, 1972-78: $240K. DIA, 1979: $100K. USAF, 1976-79: $300K. Army, 1977-79: $490K."[^1]
 
 ### Findings
 

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/October Surprise.md

@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ The House Task Force found Ben-Menashe's testimony "totally lacking in credibili
 
 [[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed that he and Earl Brian traveled to Iran in 1980 and paid $40 million to Iranian officials to delay the hostage release past Reagan's inauguration, directly linking the PROMIS theft to the 1980 deal.[^4]
 
-Ari Ben-Menashe stated after Danny Casolaro's death in August 1991 that two FBI agents from Lexington, Kentucky -- including one named E.B. Cartinhour -- were en route to Martinsburg, West Virginia, to deliver evidence that the FBI was illegally using PROMIS, and that one agent was disaffected because his superiors had refused to indict senior Reagan officials for their October Surprise role.[^3]
+Ari Ben-Menashe stated after Danny Casolaro's death in August 1991 that two FBI agents from Lexington, Kentucky -- including one named E.B. Cartinhour -- were en route to Martinsburg, [[West Virginia]], to deliver evidence that the FBI was illegally using PROMIS, and that one agent was disaffected because his superiors had refused to indict senior Reagan officials for their October Surprise role.[^3]
 
 ### Connection to Iran-Contra
 

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Project Abbreviation.md

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ created: 2026-09-22
 updated: 2026-09-22
 ---
 
-Project Abbreviation was the code name of a [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] national security investigation, conducted through 1999 and 2000 by the investigator [[Sean McDade]], whose email handle was "simorp," into whether software used by Canadian federal agencies, including the RCMP itself and the [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]], was a version of [[INSLAW]]'s [[PROMIS]] fitted with a "trap door" giving American and Israeli intelligence access to Canadian data. The Toronto Star disclosed it on August 25, 2000; Reuters reported the same day that "Canadian police are investigating whether U.S. and Israeli spies used rigged computer software to hack into Canada's top secret intelligence files," and that the Mounties "had interviewed a number of people linked to the Promis affair." The same day the RCMP spokesman Staff Sergeant Mike Gaudet told the Globe and Mail that the inquiry, under way for "several months," had produced "absolutely nothing to date to indicate national security has been compromised in any way," adding that the force had to investigate every allegation of the kind. The CSIS spokesman Dan Lambert said the service had conducted "its own in-depth review in 1991 and found that it had no copies of Promis, bootlegged or otherwise, and never had." A later report that the RCMP closed the file on September 16, 2000, with a statement that it had never held any version of the software rests on secondary accounts.[^1][^2]
+Project Abbreviation was the code name of a [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] national security investigation, conducted through 1999 and 2000 by the investigator [[Sean McDade]], whose email handle was "simorp," into whether software used by Canadian federal agencies, including the RCMP itself and the [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]], was a version of [[INSLAW]]'s [[PROMIS]] fitted with a "trap door" giving American and Israeli intelligence access to Canadian data. The *Toronto Star* disclosed it on August 25, 2000, in a report by Valerie Lawton and Allan Thompson; Reuters reported the same day that "Canadian police are investigating whether U.S. and Israeli spies used rigged computer software to hack into Canada's top secret intelligence files," and that the Mounties "had interviewed a number of people linked to the Promis affair." The same day the RCMP spokesman Staff Sergeant Mike Gaudet told the Globe and Mail that the inquiry, under way for "several months," had produced "absolutely nothing to date to indicate national security has been compromised in any way," adding that the force had to investigate every allegation of the kind. The CSIS spokesman Dan Lambert said the service had conducted "its own in-depth review in 1991 and found that it had no copies of Promis, bootlegged or otherwise, and never had." On September 16, 2000, the Star reported the end of the inquiry, with Gaudet stating: "We're saying today that we do not have Promis software."[^1][^2]
 
 ### The 1991 Origin
 
@@ -27,12 +27,12 @@ The Canadian trail began with a survey. On November 5, 1990, Marc Valois of the
 
 ### The 2000 Investigation
 
-McDade's inquiry, authorized at the top of the force, took him secretly into the United States in February 2000, to [[Cheri Seymour]] and the Hercules, California, detective [[Sue Todd]], to the files behind Seymour's book on [[Danny Casolaro]], and to former investigators of the PROMIS and Cabazon matters, and back to a "war room" in Ottawa; the account of the investigation from his side is on his page. [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s affidavit of March 21, 1991, had sworn that "some of the modifications that I made were specifically designed to facilitate the implementation of PROMIS within two agencies of the Government of Canada: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS)," and that "the proprietary version of PROMIS, as modified by me, was, in fact, implemented in both"; the special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] had found him "totally unreliable." A second Canadian witness, the former Nesbitt Thomson broker [[John A. Belton]], told the department's 1994 reviewers that CSIS had bought 10 to 12 million dollars of PROMIS in 1984 and that [[Earl Brian]] had sold it to the Bank of Montreal for 2 million dollars in May 1987, without producing any document; they found him "unbelievable." Fourteen months after the Star's disclosure, on October 16, 2001, Fox News reported that "Canada has actually investigated potential tampering with its Promis programs" as a live example in its story on [[Robert Hanssen]] and Osama bin Laden. The Canadian government's Access to Information index lists a request for RCMP records "mentioning 'PROMIS,' 'INSLAW,' 'PROJECT ABBREVIATION,' or 'PROMIS software' and by RCMP investigator Sean McDade" from 1991 to 2001.[^1][^4][^5]
+McDade's inquiry, authorized at the top of the force, took him secretly into the United States in February 2000, to [[Cheri Seymour]] and the Hercules, California, detective [[Sue Todd]], to the files behind Seymour's book on [[Danny Casolaro]], and to former investigators of the PROMIS and Cabazon matters, and back to a "war room" in Ottawa; the account of the investigation from his side is on his page. The Star's reports of August 2000 quoted the RCMP spokesman Sergeant Marc Richer ("I cannot either confirm or deny what you're looking into"); Louis Buffardi, Riconosciuto's lawyer, who said RCMP officers had interviewed his client "eight or nine months" earlier and were "probing a possible breach of Canada's national security"; the former Justice Department PROMIS project manager [[C. Madison Brewer]], who called the allegations "fantasy"; and McDade: "I kind of get a chuckle out of how something so small has been blown out of proportion." [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] told the paper that Canadian authorities had questioned him about PROMIS seven years earlier, during the security screening for his citizenship. On August 26 the Star reported, from unnamed sources, that the inquiry also concerned allegations that [[Robert Maxwell]] "may have acted as a middleman in selling the rigged software to Canada," and that a second former Israeli spy, "now living in New York," had been interviewed. [[Bill Hamilton]] said he had spoken with the chief investigator "probably dozens" of times and that his sources put the sale to Canada at 31 million dollars in 1983. After the closure Hamilton said McDade had earlier told him that the RCMP acquired PROMIS "from a company in Massachusetts" and that it "was modified by a Toronto firm," and Seymour told the Star: "(McDade) said that they had a paper trail on the Promis software being purchased by the RCMP. He told me that." The Star described McDade as "an Ottawa-Carleton regional police officer on secondment to the RCMP" who had refused its requests for an interview.[^2] [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s affidavit of March 21, 1991, had sworn that "some of the modifications that I made were specifically designed to facilitate the implementation of PROMIS within two agencies of the Government of Canada: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS)," and that "the proprietary version of PROMIS, as modified by me, was, in fact, implemented in both"; the special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] had found him "totally unreliable." A second Canadian witness, the former Nesbitt Thomson broker [[John A. Belton]], told the department's 1994 reviewers that CSIS had bought 10 to 12 million dollars of PROMIS in 1984 and that [[Earl Brian]] had sold it to the Bank of Montreal for 2 million dollars in May 1987, without producing any document; they found him "unbelievable." Fourteen months after the Star's disclosure, on October 16, 2001, Fox News reported that "Canada has actually investigated potential tampering with its Promis programs" as a live example in its story on [[Robert Hanssen]] and Osama bin Laden. The Canadian government's Access to Information index lists a request for RCMP records "mentioning 'PROMIS,' 'INSLAW,' 'PROJECT ABBREVIATION,' or 'PROMIS software' and by RCMP investigator Sean McDade" from 1991 to 2001.[^1][^4][^5]
 
 ### Footnotes
 
 [^1]: Reuters, "Canada investigating computer hacking by U.S. and Israel spies," CNN.com, August 25, 2000; Sallot, Jeff, "Mounties probe software allegations," *The Globe and Mail,* August 26, 2000.
-[^2]: The September 16, 2000, closure is reported in Ruppert, Michael C., "Bin Laden's Magic Carpet," *From The Wilderness,* October 26, 2001, citing the Toronto Star; the Star's own texts of August 25 and September 16, 2000, were not examined. Seymour, Cheri, *The Last Circle,* TrineDay, 2010, for McDade's side.
+[^2]: Lawton, Valerie, and Allan Thompson, "Spy computer 'trap' probed," *Toronto Star,* August 25, 2000; Thompson, Allan, and Valerie Lawton, "RCMP admit they're investigating 'trap'," *Toronto Star,* August 26, 2000; Lawton, Valerie, "American claims pirated software sold to Canada," *Toronto Star,* August 27, 2000; Lawton, Valerie, and Allan Thompson, "Mounties end probe of Promis," *Toronto Star,* September 16, 2000; texts as forwarded to the CTRL mailing list, https://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg49408.html, msg49544.html and msg50988.html. Seymour, Cheri, *The Last Circle,* TrineDay, 2010, for McDade's side.
 [^3]: Hamilton, Patricia C., affidavit, February 1991, Exhibit 1, *INSLAW, Inc. v. United States,* Adv. Proc. No. 86-0069 (Bankr. D.D.C.), archive.org item "INSLAW-Canada"; House Judiciary Committee investigative file "INSLAW - Canada (HOUSE)," memorandum of Ned M. Friece and interviews of March 23, 1991, archive.org item "INSLAW-CanadaHOUSE" (the House report gives the interview date as March 22).
 [^4]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair,* H. Rept. 102-857, September 10, 1992, section on Canada; U.S. Department of Justice, *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report,* September 27, 1994, "The Alleged Distribution of Enhanced PROMIS to Canada" and the Belton interview.
 [^5]: Riconosciuto's affidavit as reproduced in U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua,* March 1993, pp. 44-45; Fox News, *Special Report with Brit Hume,* October 16, 2001, Carl Cameron segment, transcript as reproduced at Boing Boing, October 17, 2001; Government of Canada, Open Government, Access to Information summary d596fa1b822b7eed3421bcabd4cf9fd5 (not opened).

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Rockefeller Commission 1975.md

@@ -7,12 +7,14 @@ tags:
   - USA
   - ColdWar
   - FamilyJewels
+aliases:
+  - Rockefeller Commission
 summary: "The Rockefeller Commission (officially the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States) was convened by President Ford in 1975 under Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to investigate CIA domestic abuses, but its membership was stacked with individuals who had participated in or benefited from the programs under review."
 created: 2026-06-05
 updated: 2026-06-05
 ---
 
-The Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (commonly called the Rockefeller Commission after its chair, Vice President [[Nelson Rockefeller]]) was established by President [[Gerald Ford]] on January 4, 1975 to investigate CIA domestic abuses, in the context of investigative reporting by [[Seymour Hersh]] in the New York Times and the parallel congressional investigations of the [[Church Committee]] and [[Pike Committee]]. Critics immediately noted that Rockefeller, as chairman of the [[NSC Special Group]] under Eisenhower, had personally overseen and approved at least one [[MKULTRA]] project, making his chairing of the commission to investigate the same programs a direct conflict of interest. The commission's membership was stacked with individuals connected to the Rockefeller family network or to the programs under review.
+The Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (commonly called the Rockefeller Commission after its chair, Vice President [[Nelson Rockefeller]]) was established by President [[Gerald Ford]] on January 4, 1975 to investigate CIA domestic abuses, in the context of investigative reporting by [[Seymour Hersh]] in the New York Times and the parallel congressional investigations of the [[Church Committee]] and [[Pike Committee]]. Critics immediately noted that Rockefeller, as chairman of the [[NSC Special Group]] under Eisenhower, had personally overseen and approved at least one [[MKULTRA]] project, making his chairing of the commission to investigate the same programs a direct conflict of interest. The commission's membership was stacked with individuals connected to the [[Rockefeller family]] network or to the programs under review.
 
 ### Establishment
 
@@ -32,7 +34,7 @@ The composition of the commission drew criticism for the conflicts of interest a
 
 [[John T. Connor]]: Director of [[David Rockefeller]]'s [[Chase Manhattan Bank]], former commerce secretary in the Johnson administration, and chairman of [[Allied Chemical]], in which the Rockefellers held $52 million in stock.[^9]
 
-[[Erwin Griswold]]: Former [[Harvard Law School]] dean who, as Johnson-appointed U.S. solicitor general, had argued against the New York Times publishing the [[Pentagon Papers]] and had argued that Army surveillance of Vietnam War protestors did not violate First Amendment rights. The [[White House]] later suppressed a footnote Griswold had written in the commission's final report recommending public disclosure of the CIA's budget.[^10]
+[[Erwin Griswold]]: Former [[Harvard Law School]] dean who, as Johnson-appointed U.S. solicitor general, had argued against the New York Times publishing the [[Pentagon Papers]] and had argued that Army surveillance of [[Vietnam War]] protestors did not violate First Amendment rights. The [[White House]] later suppressed a footnote Griswold had written in the commission's final report recommending public disclosure of the CIA's budget.[^10]
 
 [[Ronald Reagan]]: Former actor and California governor. Reagan attended only eleven of the commission's 26 sessions, which irritated Rockefeller, who as a liberal Republican regarded Reagan as a political rival. Rockefeller's counsel [[Peter Wallison]] later said Rockefeller considered Reagan "a lightweight who was not taking his responsibilities seriously."[^11]