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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Brunswick Corporation.md Normal file
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---
title: Brunswick Corporation
aliases:
- Brunswick Corporation
- Brunswick Corp.
- Brunswick
- Brunswick Defense Division
- Brunswick Technical Group
- Brunswick Defense
created: 2024-04-25
updated: 2026-10-08
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Public
- Defense
- Munitions
- RAW
- CasolaroPapers
- LakeForest
- CostaMesa
summary: "Lake Forest, Illinois manufacturer whose Defense Division, renamed the Technical Group in 1991, kept a Costa Mesa plant that was the last Brunswick defense asset unsold after the 1995 sale."
location: "Lake Forest, Illinois"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Robert C. Sigrist]]"
reverse: true
start: 1988
role: "president of the Technical Group, known as the Defense Division before 1991"
fn: 1
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Department of Defense]]"
role: "sold Technical Group products, including tactical weapons, to the Department of Defense"
fn: 1
---
[[Brunswick Corporation]] is a company headquartered in [[Lake Forest, Illinois|Lake Forest]] whose Defense Division, renamed the Technical Group in 1991, gave its address as [[Costa Mesa, California|Costa Mesa]] on an October 1976 cover sheet for the [[Rifleman's Assault Weapon]] preserved in the [[Danny Casolaro]] papers. The company's annual reports for 1993 to 1995 describe the Technical Group, its divestiture, and a Costa Mesa facility that remained unsold.[^1][^2][^3][^4]
### The Defense Division in the Casolaro papers
The "Promotional Material" folder of Casolaro's research files, published as photographs on the [[Internet Archive]], contains a Brunswick item marked by hand "BD|AI|PM-03." Its first photograph is a cover sheet reading "RAW / Rifleman's Assault Weapon / for / Urban Warfare / October 1976," with the imprint "BRUNSWICK CORPORATION, DEFENSE DIVISION, 3333 HARBOR BLVD. • COSTA MESA • CA 92626 USA" and the legend "PROPRIETARY DATA." The second photograph is a line drawing of a tube-launched weapon on a bipod, which shows faintly through the cover sheet. No other pages of the package were photographed, and the cover's top right corner carries the page marking "01-498."[^4]
The restrictive legend on the cover reads: "INFORMATION AND DATA SET FORTH HEREIN ARE PROPRIETARY TO AND THE PROPERTY OF BRUNSWICK CORPORATION AND SHALL NOT BE DISCLOSED OUTSIDE THE GOVERNMENT OR BE DUPLICATED, USED OR DISCLOSED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FOR ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO EVALUATE THE SAME PROVIDED, THAT IF A CONTRACT IS AWARDED TO THE BRUNSWICK CORPORATION AS A RESULT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SUBMISSION OF SUCH DATA, THE GOVERNMENT SHALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO DUPLICATE, USE OR DISCLOSE THESE DATA TO THE EXTENT PROVIDED IN THE CONTRACT." [^4]
The folder's 21 photographs run in this order: the [[Industrias Cardoen]] sales sheet ("BD|AI|PM-04"), the printed fuel-air munitions page numbered 207 ("BD|AI|PM-02"), the Brunswick cover and drawing ("BD|AI|PM-03"), the [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]] resume packet ("BD|AI|PM-05"), and the Inter-Probe brochure ("BD|AI|PM-01"). The CTC cover page's typed title shows through the back of the Brunswick drawing sheet.[^4]
### Rifleman's Assault Weapon
The U.S. Army hired Brunswick in May 1977 to refine the design of the Rifleman's Assault Weapon (RAW), and the work was done by the company's California-based defense division. The Marine Corps examined the weapon and reportedly fielded it in limited numbers, and Brunswick later sold the rights to the project to the defense contractor L-3.[^5]
### Technical Group and the 1993 divestiture
The company's annual report for 1993 names [[Robert C. Sigrist]] as president of the Technical Group, "known as the Defense Division prior to 1991," and says he had held that post since 1988. The Technical Group, the report states, "manufactures and sells composite structures for aircraft, helicopters, spacecraft, propulsion systems, missiles," and a long list of other products that includes "tactical weapons; flight decoys and target training systems; relocatable and mobile shelter systems; and chemical protective detectors/alarms." The same report says those products "are sold to the [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Department of Defense]]; major defense prime contractors."[^1]
In February 1993 the board approved plans to divest the Technical Group, which the 1993 report calls "the only remaining business in the Company's Technical segment." The company recorded a 26.0 million dollar estimated loss on the divestiture in 1992, and an additional 12.2 million dollar estimated loss in 1993 reflecting offers the company was reviewing.[^1]
### Sale to Technical Products Group, 1994 and 1995
On December 1, 1994, Brunswick executed a contract for the sale of substantially all the assets of the Technical Group, with a closing expected in the first half of 1995. The report for 1994 excludes "the assets associated with the Company's facility in Costa Mesa, California," and says negotiations for those assets were continuing. Item 1 of the same report says the company and the buyer had settled with the government "all issues related to the Federal Grand Jury investigation of the Company's Marion, Virginia facility," while the notes to the financial statements say the company "is finalizing a settlement acceptable to the buyer and the government" of the same issues.[^2]
The sale closed on April 28, 1995, to Technical Products Group, Inc., described in the 1995 report as "a newly formed company controlled by TPG Holdings in Atlanta, Georgia." The buyer took the Marion, Virginia, Lincoln, Nebraska, Camden, Arkansas, and DeLand, Florida operations. The Costa Mesa unit was excluded, and the 1995 report states that its assets were "fully reserved as of Decmeber [sic] 31, 1995" while the company "continues to seek a buyer."[^3]
### Costa Mesa after the sale
The 1995 report records a provision of 11.5 million dollars in the second quarter of 1995 for lower than anticipated selling prices on the businesses sold. The Costa Mesa plant remained with Brunswick after the sale, and the 1995 report describes the unit as one the company still seeks to sell.[^3]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Brunswick Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1993 (filed March 29, 1994), SEC EDGAR, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14930/0000014930-94-000004.txt. Item 4 biographies, Note 5 (Discontinued Operations) and the Item 1 description of the Technical Group.
[^2]: Brunswick Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1994 (filed March 23, 1995), SEC EDGAR, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14930/0000014930-95-000003.txt. Discontinued operations and the Costa Mesa exclusion.
[^3]: Brunswick Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1995 (filed March 28, 1996), SEC EDGAR, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14930/0000014930-96-000002.txt. Sale to Technical Products Group, Inc. and the Costa Mesa reserve.
[^4]: "RAW, Rifleman's Assault Weapon for Urban Warfare, October 1976," Brunswick Corporation Defense Division, proprietary data cover sheet, hand-marked "BD|AI|PM-03," in "Promotional Material," Danny Casolaro papers, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/PromotionalMaterial.pdf.
[^5]: "The US Army's Doomed Plan for a Rocket-Propelled Bowling Ball," Vice, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yp3g3b/the-us-armys-doomed-plan-for-a-rocket-propelled-bowling-ball. Sole source for the May 1977 hiring, the Marine Corps use and the sale to L-3.

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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc..md
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@ -51,21 +51,21 @@ relations:
reverse: true
start: 1990-06
role: "associate"
fn: 15
fn: 26
- type: member_of
with: "[[James B. Motley]]"
reverse: true
start: 1990-06
role: "associate"
fn: 15
fn: 26
- type: member_of
with: "[[Mayer Nudell]]"
reverse: true
start: 1990-06
role: "associate"
fn: 15
fn: 26
- type: represented
with: "[[Government of Jamaica]]"
with: "[[Jamaica]]"
start: 1989-09
end: 1990-04
role: "registrant under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, registration 4294"
@ -86,37 +86,43 @@ A 1990 business book on corporate intelligence quoted Cornick as head of the Was
### Foreign Agents Registration Act registration, 1989 to 1990
The United States Department of Justice FARA registry lists CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., as registration number 4294, registered September 18, 1989 and terminated October 25, 1990, at 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 230, [[Alexandria, Virginia]]. Its one foreign principal is the Government of Jamaica, of Kingston, registered September 18, 1989 and terminated April 15, 1990. Short forms dated September 18, 1989 and terminated October 25, 1990 name three individuals: Cornick, Propper and Gerald S. Walker.[^3] A Col. [[Gerald S. Walker]] of the U.S. Army is listed as director of the School of Attaché Training at the [[Defense Intelligence College]] in the 1987/88 edition of the Government Manual, and the 1988/89 edition lists an acting director in that position.[^4][^5] A U.S. Army Col. Gerald S. Walker is also named in Associated Press and other reports of June 1985 on the Salvadoran investigation of the January 3, 1981 killings at the Sheraton Hotel in [[San Salvador]] of the American land-reform advisers [[Mark David Pearlman]] and [[Michael P. Hammer]] and the Salvadoran official [[Rodolfo Viera]]: a former U.S. defense attaché who served in the defense attaché office in San Salvador and then in [[Panama City]], he and his wife gave depositions that Army Capt. [[Eduardo Alfonso Avila]], whom they had known since 1978, had confessed his involvement to them at their Panama City home.[^6] The State Department's Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts lists a "Ltc Gerald V. Walker" of the Army as defense attaché at the embassy in Panama in its 1983, 1984 and 1985 editions.[^7] Records found do not establish whether this officer is the Gerald S. Walker registered for CounterTerrorism Consultants; the firm's June 1990 resume packet does not list him among its associates.[^8]
The United States Department of Justice FARA registry lists CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., as registration number 4294, registered September 18, 1989 and terminated October 25, 1990, at 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 230, [[Alexandria, Virginia]]. Its one foreign principal is the [[Jamaica|Government of Jamaica]], of [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]], registered September 18, 1989 and terminated April 15, 1990. Short forms dated September 18, 1989 and terminated October 25, 1990 name three individuals: Cornick, Propper and Gerald S. Walker.[^3] A Col. [[Gerald S. Walker]] of the U.S. Army is listed as director of the School of Attaché Training at the [[Defense Intelligence College]] in the 1987/88 edition of the Government Manual, and the 1988/89 edition lists an acting director in that position.[^4][^5] A U.S. Army Col. Gerald S. Walker is also named in Associated Press and other reports of June 1985 on the Salvadoran investigation of the January 3, 1981 killings at the Sheraton Hotel in [[San Salvador]] of the American land-reform advisers [[Mark David Pearlman]] and [[Michael P. Hammer]] and the Salvadoran official [[Rodolfo Viera]]: a former U.S. defense attaché who served in the defense attaché office in San Salvador and then in [[Panama City]], he and his wife gave depositions that Army Capt. [[Eduardo Alfonso Avila]], whom they had known since 1978, had confessed his involvement to them at their Panama City home.[^6] The State Department's Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts lists a "Ltc Gerald V. Walker" of the Army as defense attaché at the embassy in Panama in its 1983, 1984 and 1985 editions.[^7] Records found do not establish whether this officer is the Gerald S. Walker registered for CounterTerrorism Consultants; the firm's June 1990 resume packet does not list him among its associates.[^8]
The Attorney General's report to Congress for 1988 through 1991 lists the registration under Jamaica with activities "None Reported," finances of $25,000.00 received prior to registration on September 18, 1989 and no receipts for the six months ending April 15, 1990, and political propaganda "None Reported."[^9] Lane and Edson, P.C., of 2300 M Street NW, held its own FARA registration (number 3286) from October 8, 1981 to November 8, 1988 for the Republic of Peru, with Propper among its short-form registrants.[^3]
The Attorney General's report to Congress for 1988 through 1991 lists the registration under Jamaica with activities "None Reported," finances of $25,000.00 received prior to registration on September 18, 1989 and no receipts for the six months ending April 15, 1990, and political propaganda "None Reported."[^9] Lane and Edson, P.C., of 2300 M Street NW, held its own FARA registration (number 3286) from October 8, 1981 to November 8, 1988 for the Republic of Peru, with Propper among its short-form registrants.[^3] Sixteen lawyers of Lane and Edson's ninety, led by [[Jack Feder]] of its mergers and acquisitions group, moved to the Washington office of [[Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood]] in September 1988; on January 4, 1989 the *Wall Street Journal* reported that twenty-four Lane and Edson attorneys had been asked to join [[Kelley Drye & Warren]].[^10] The firm's attorneys named in its letterheads of 1983 to 1985 included [[Frederic J. Truslow]], also a short-form registrant for Peru.[^11]
The Jamaican government and its offices were the principal in five other registrations opened between March 6 and September 7, 1989: [[Neill and Company, Inc.]] (March 6), [[Fenton Communications, Inc.]] for the Office of the Prime Minister (March 10), [[Holland & Knight]] for [[JAMPRO]] (March 17), JAMPRO itself (March 29) and Holland & Knight for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (September 7).[^12] Fenton's entry in the Attorney General's report states that it "prepared and disseminated news releases and newsletters to promote a multilateral anti-drug program and to publicize Jamaica's desire for continued relations with the U.S."[^13] [[Galland, Kharasch, Morse and Garfinkle]], registered for [[Air Jamaica]], Ltd., advised United States officials of the airline's efforts "to insure that their aircraft facilities would not be used by third persons in the illicit traffic of narcotics," and reported $285,131.24 for the twelve months ending December 23, 1989.[^14] In August 1988 the Jamaican minister for national security, [[Errol Anderson]], had announced new measures "to strangle drug smuggling" at the Norman Manley and Sangster airports, and [[The Gleaner]] of April 8, 1989 ran the story "Airport security angers travellers."[^15]
The United States and Jamaica signed a [[Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty]] in criminal matters at Kingston on July 7, 1989, seventy-three days before the firm's registration on September 18, 1989; the printed signature page carries the signatures, as legible, of Michael Sotirhos for the United States and A. Carl Rattray for Jamaica. The treaty's text records its transmittal to the [[United States Senate]] on October 25, 1991, the Senate's advice and consent on July 2, 1992, and its entry into force on July 25, 1995.[^16] The State Department's list of chiefs of mission gives July 7, 1989 as the end of Sotirhos's term as ambassador to Jamaica.[^17] On November 6, 1989 the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] and the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control held joint hearings on "Jamaica's proposed comprehensive international anti-narcotics plan," at which Prime Minister [[Michael Manley]] stated that the first of seven points was "some coordinating mechanism for intelligence gathering" and the second was training.[^18] The State Department's 1989 human rights report stated that the Jamaica Constabulary Force was receiving training in police investigative techniques from the Justice Department's International Criminal Investigative Training Program.[^19]
### Corporate registrations
CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P. was filed as a [[Delaware]] limited partnership, file number 2168210, on August 1, 1988, the day before the UPI report of the firm's formation.[^10] It registered in the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]] as a foreign limited partnership, file number 058088, on August 5, 1988. Its registered agent there was CounterTerrorism Consultants, Inc., at 2300 M Street NW, 8th floor. The District record shows a biennial report due April 1, 1989 as not filed, and the registration as revoked.[^11] [[Virginia]] holds foreign registrations for the partnership (M0059578) and for the corporation (F1012691).[^10]
CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P. was filed as a [[Delaware]] limited partnership, file number 2168210, on August 1, 1988, the day before the UPI report of the firm's formation.[^20] It registered in the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]] as a foreign limited partnership, file number 058088, on August 5, 1988. Its registered agent there was CounterTerrorism Consultants, Inc., at 2300 M Street NW, 8th floor. The District record shows a biennial report due April 1, 1989 as not filed, and the registration as revoked.[^21] [[Virginia]] holds foreign registrations for the partnership (M0059578) and for the corporation (F1012691).[^20] OpenCorporates lists the Virginia foreign corporation F1012691 as "COUNTERTERRORISM CONSULTANTS INC." (branch, inactive, business classification "general") and the Delaware partnership 2168210 with an unassigned agent and one officer, whose name the site withholds from non-logged-in viewers; a similarly named "Counterterrorism Consultants, Inc." is listed for Delaware.[^22]
The International Association of Chiefs of Police directory for 1988 lists "Cornick, Jr., L. Carter" as president of Counterterrorism Consultants Inc., 2300 M Street NW, Suite 800, with the telephone number printed on the 1990 packet.[^12] The 1990 edition of Washington Representatives lists the partnership at 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 230, Alexandria, telephone (703) 683-6988, as foreign agent number 4294, with Cornick and Gerald S. Walker as its representatives for the Government of Jamaica.[^13] In January 1990 the Newhouse News Service described Cornick as a former FBI agent who "now heads a counterterrorism consulting company in Alexandria, Va."[^14]
The International Association of Chiefs of Police directory for 1988 lists "Cornick, Jr., L. Carter" as president of Counterterrorism Consultants Inc., 2300 M Street NW, Suite 800, with the telephone number printed on the 1990 packet.[^23] The 1990 edition of Washington Representatives lists the partnership at 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 230, Alexandria, telephone (703) 683-6988, as foreign agent number 4294, with Cornick and Gerald S. Walker as its representatives for the Government of Jamaica.[^24] In January 1990 the Newhouse News Service described Cornick as a former FBI agent who "now heads a counterterrorism consulting company in Alexandria, Va."[^25]
### The resume packet, June 1990
The packet is a fax copy in the Casolaro files, folder "Promotional Material," bearing the archive's handwritten item reference "BD|AI|PM-05." The cover page reads "CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P." and "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," with the preprinted footer "Suite 800, 2300 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037, (202)775-1364, Fax # (202) 293-3083." The fax header of the first page reads "JUN 20 '90 16:53" and "141 P01"; later pages carry the same counter with times of 16:54 (P03), 16:57 (P06), 17:00 (P11) and 17:01 (P12).[^15]
The packet is a fax copy in the Casolaro files, folder "Promotional Material," bearing the archive's handwritten item reference "BD|AI|PM-05." The cover page reads "CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P." and "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," with the preprinted footer "Suite 800, 2300 M Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037, (202)775-1364, Fax # (202) 293-3083." The fax header of the first page reads "JUN 20 '90 16:53" and "141 P01"; later pages carry the same counter with times of 16:54 (P03), 16:57 (P06), 17:00 (P11) and 17:01 (P12).[^26]
The packet describes seven associates. Cornick is co-founder and chief executive officer, responsible for the oversight of all operations; the entry states that he retired from the FBI on June 1, 1988, that he had headed the bureau's Terrorist Research and Analytical Center, and that he was the FBI representative to the Hostage Locating Task Force at the [[White House]]. Propper is the firm's co-founder, advising clients on criminal prosecutions, extradition, expulsion and the formulation of statutes and prosecutorial guidelines, and is described as head of the trial division at Lane and Edson. Barcella is an associate advising on the same subjects, described as the government's lead prosecutor in the [[TWA Flight 847]], [[Achille Lauro]] and TWA flight 840 cases and the Wilson-Terpil terrorism investigation, as co-counsel in the Letelier prosecutions, and as a partner at Laxalt, Washington, Perito & Dubuc.[^15]
The packet describes seven associates. Cornick is co-founder and chief executive officer, responsible for the oversight of all operations; the entry states that he retired from the FBI on June 1, 1988, that he had headed the bureau's Terrorist Research and Analytical Center, and that he was the FBI representative to the Hostage Locating Task Force at the [[White House]]. Propper is the firm's co-founder, advising clients on criminal prosecutions, extradition, expulsion and the formulation of statutes and prosecutorial guidelines, and is described as head of the trial division at Lane and Edson. Barcella is an associate advising on the same subjects, described as the government's lead prosecutor in the [[TWA Flight 847]], [[Achille Lauro]] and TWA flight 840 cases and the Wilson-Terpil terrorism investigation, as co-counsel in the Letelier prosecutions, and as a partner at Laxalt, Washington, Perito & Dubuc.[^26]
A further associate entry, which carries no name, describes a former senior-level [[Central Intelligence Agency]] operations officer responsible for planning strategies for governments to deter and respond to terrorism and for intelligence data bases. It states that until his retirement and return from abroad in 1987 he represented the CIA overseas on international planning bodies connected with [[NATO]] organizations; that previously he was the agency's chief of counterterrorism, managed "the United States' first special intelligence team reactions to terrorist incidents overseas" and was its principal counterterrorism representative on White House, State Department and [[National Security Council]] committees; that for three years before that he was chief of a CIA facility in Europe and before that deputy in charge of the element responsible for paramilitary activities worldwide, overseeing air, maritime and ground paramilitary activities and an element monitoring worldwide crisis and instability situations; and that he was chief of the CIA air and maritime elements from 1974 through 1977. It adds that he was certified as a naval aviator and instructor pilot with the [[United States Navy]] before joining the agency and holds a B.A. in Business Administration from [[Adelphi University|Adelphi College]].[^15]
A further associate entry, which carries no name, describes a former senior-level [[Central Intelligence Agency]] operations officer responsible for planning strategies for governments to deter and respond to terrorism and for intelligence data bases. It states that until his retirement and return from abroad in 1987 he represented the CIA overseas on international planning bodies connected with [[NATO]] organizations; that previously he was the agency's chief of counterterrorism, managed "the United States' first special intelligence team reactions to terrorist incidents overseas" and was its principal counterterrorism representative on White House, State Department and [[National Security Council]] committees; that for three years before that he was chief of a CIA facility in Europe and before that deputy in charge of the element responsible for paramilitary activities worldwide, overseeing air, maritime and ground paramilitary activities and an element monitoring worldwide crisis and instability situations; and that he was chief of the CIA air and maritime elements from 1974 through 1977. It adds that he was certified as a naval aviator and instructor pilot with the [[United States Navy]] before joining the agency and holds a B.A. in Business Administration from [[Adelphi University|Adelphi College]].[^26]
[[Francis J. McNeil]] is described as ambassador to [[Costa Rica]] from 1980 to 1983, three times deputy assistant secretary of state, and from 1984 senior deputy for intelligence and research; a handwritten note in the margin of that page reads "State Dept."[^15] [[James B. Motley]] is described as vice president for national security studies and programs at [[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]] ("WATCO"), advising CTC clients in cases involving low-intensity conflict.[^15] [[Mayer Nudell]], with the handwritten margin note "FSO," is described as a veteran foreign service officer who held posts in El Salvador and Nicaragua, served in the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs and Office of Counterterrorism and Emergency Planning, and was formerly executive director of the Institute on Terrorism and Subnational Conflict; the packet states that he advises CTC clients on contingency planning and crisis management.[^15] The 1986 attendee list of a conference on car-bomb attacks gives Nudell as executive director of that institute, at 400 Timber Lane, Falls Church, Virginia.[^16]
[[Francis J. McNeil]] is described as ambassador to [[Costa Rica]] from 1980 to 1983, three times deputy assistant secretary of state, and from 1984 senior deputy for intelligence and research; a handwritten note in the margin of that page reads "State Dept."[^26] [[James B. Motley]] is described as vice president for national security studies and programs at [[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]] ("WATCO"), advising CTC clients in cases involving low-intensity conflict.[^26] [[Mayer Nudell]], with the handwritten margin note "FSO," is described as a veteran foreign service officer who held posts in El Salvador and Nicaragua, served in the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs and Office of Counterterrorism and Emergency Planning, and was formerly executive director of the Institute on Terrorism and Subnational Conflict; the packet states that he advises CTC clients on contingency planning and crisis management.[^26] The 1986 attendee list of a conference on car-bomb attacks gives Nudell as executive director of that institute, in Falls Church, Virginia.[^27]
State Department records place Nudell in the Office for Combatting Terrorism in January 1984 and list a June 1984 resignation from that office; the department's Newsletter lists his transfers from San Salvador to Managua (1978) and from Managua to Inter-American Affairs (1980).[^28]
### The 1985 symposium
The proceedings of the tenth annual Symposium on the Role of Behavioral Science in Physical Security, held at Springfield, Virginia, on April 23 and 24, 1985, list Cornick as a supervisory special agent of the FBI, Barcella as senior litigation counsel in the United States Attorney's Office presenting "Terrorism: The Law as an Effective Deterrent," and Motley as director of terrorist research and low-intensity conflict studies at the [[National Institute for Public Policy]]. Motley asked the panel whether a multinational military, paramilitary or law enforcement force would enhance international cooperation against state-sponsored terrorism.[^17]
The proceedings of the tenth annual Symposium on the Role of Behavioral Science in Physical Security, held at Springfield, Virginia, on April 23 and 24, 1985, list Cornick as a supervisory special agent of the FBI, Barcella as senior litigation counsel in the United States Attorney's Office presenting "Terrorism: The Law as an Effective Deterrent," and Motley as director of terrorist research and low-intensity conflict studies at the [[National Institute for Public Policy]]. Motley asked the panel whether a multinational military, paramilitary or law enforcement force would enhance international cooperation against state-sponsored terrorism.[^29]
### Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation
WATCO was a wholly owned subsidiary of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] at Reston, Virginia. The corporation's annual reports for 1985 and 1986 describe it as a technical consulting firm offering advanced security and engineering services to government and industry, with a Security Programs division selected to design the security system for the Department of Energy's nuclear device assembly facility at the Nevada Test Site, and a Systems division engaged in security systems for high-level installations.[^18] A Wackenhut newsletter states that WATCO specialized in applied research and development in nuclear safeguards and security policy, programs and systems.[^19] The packet gives Motley's tenure there as beginning in September 1987.[^15]
WATCO was a wholly owned subsidiary of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] at Reston, Virginia. The corporation's annual reports for 1985 and 1986 describe it as a technical consulting firm offering advanced security and engineering services to government and industry, with a Security Programs division selected to design the security system for the Department of Energy's nuclear device assembly facility at the Nevada Test Site, and a Systems division engaged in security systems for high-level installations.[^30] A Wackenhut newsletter states that WATCO specialized in applied research and development in nuclear safeguards and security policy, programs and systems.[^31] The packet gives Motley's tenure there as beginning in September 1987.[^26]
### Neighboring items in the Casolaro files
The packet is item PM-05 of the folder. The adjacent hand-numbered items are a brochure for the Inter-Probe modular energy transfer catalyzer (PM-01), a printed page numbered 207 on fuel air munitions (PM-02), a [[Brunswick Corporation]] defense division data package for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon for urban warfare dated October 1976 (PM-03) and a sales sheet of the defense division of [[Industrias Cardoen]] of Chile (PM-04).[^15] The same Casolaro papers include a folder of newspaper material on [[Frank Terpil]] and Edwin Wilson and the Wackenhut newsletters and reports.[^19]
The packet is item PM-05 of the folder. The other items in the folder carry hand numbers PM-01 through PM-04: a brochure for the Inter-Probe modular energy transfer catalyzer (PM-01), a printed page numbered 207 on fuel air munitions (PM-02), a [[Brunswick Corporation]] defense division cover sheet and drawing for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon for urban warfare, October 1976 (PM-03), and a sales sheet of the defense division of [[Industrias Cardoen]] of Chile (PM-04).[^26] In the order of the photographed PDF the Cardoen sheet comes first, then the fuel-air page and the Brunswick cover and drawing, then this packet, and last the Inter-Probe brochure; the packet's typed title shows through the back of the Brunswick drawing sheet. The same Casolaro papers include a folder of newspaper material on [[Frank Terpil]] and Edwin Wilson and the Wackenhut newsletters and reports.[^31]
### Footnotes
@ -129,13 +135,25 @@ The packet is item PM-05 of the folder. The adjacent hand-numbered items are a b
[^7]: U.S. Department of State, *Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts*, Panama (E) entry, "ODA: Ltc Gerald V. Walker USA," editions of 1983, 1984 and 1985 (https://archive.org/details/keyofficersoffo1984wash_1 and https://archive.org/details/keyofficersoffor1985wash); the 1986 edition lists Col. Allen C. Cornell, USA, as ODA. The printed middle initial in these editions is V.
[^8]: See the resume packet footnote and the resume packet passage above (Cornick, Propper, Barcella, an unnamed former CIA officer, McNeil, Motley and Nudell).
[^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Report of the Attorney General to the Congress on the Administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, for the Calendar Years 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991, Volume 1, Jamaica section, entry "CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., #4294 (T90)," p. 599, https://www.justice.gov/media/910066/dl?inline.
[^10]: OpenCorporates, company records us_de/2168210 (CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., Delaware), us_va/M0059578 and us_va/F1012691 (Virginia), mirroring the Delaware Division of Corporations and Virginia State Corporation Commission registries, https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_de/2168210 ; Bizapedia, "Counterterrorism Consultants, L.P.," https://www.bizapedia.com/us/counterterrorism-consultants-lp.html (Delaware filing date August 1, 1988).
[^11]: District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Business One Stop Shop entity record 058088, Counterterrorism Consultants L.P., viewed October 8, 2026, https://boss.dc.gov.
[^12]: The Police Chief, vol. 55 (1988), p. 93, membership directory of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
[^13]: Washington Representatives (Washington: Columbia Books, 1990), pp. 94 and 771 (the directory prints Cornick's name as "McCormick, L. Carter, Jr.").
[^14]: Hugh Vickery, "Airport bomb detectors' efficiency queried," Newhouse News Service, in The Times (Trenton, New Jersey), January 4, 1990, p. 41, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1196585158/.
[^15]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," fax copy with header "JUN 20 '90," pages marked 141 P01 to P12, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material" (photographed by Christian Hansen), Internet Archive item casolaro-notebooks, file PromotionalMaterial.pdf, https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^16]: *Conference on Car-Bomb Attack*, May 15 to 17, 1986, attendee list, Defense Technical Information Center ADA290884, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA290884.
[^17]: *Supplemental Proceedings of the 10th Annual Symposium on the Role of Behavioral Science in Physical Security: Outthinking the Terrorist, an International Challenge*, Springfield, Virginia, April 23 to 24, 1985, program, participant list and discussion, Defense Technical Information Center ADA161669, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA161669.
[^18]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual reports for 1985 and 1986, sections on Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^19]: Wackenhut newsletter, undated issue, passage on The Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Newsletters," and folder "CIA Frank Terpil Renegades," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files.
[^10]: *The Wall Street Journal*, September 28, 1988, https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_5aAAAAYAAJ; *Plant Shutdowns Monitor*, 1988, https://books.google.com/books?id=a9RYAAAAYAAJ; *The Wall Street Journal*, January 4, 1989, p. B4, https://books.google.com/books?id=pv5aAAAAYAAJ.
[^11]: Letterheads of Lane and Edson, P.C., in *Governmental Lease Financing Reform Act* (1983), https://books.google.com/books?id=L63PFff8BXkC; U.S. Department of Justice, FARA public bulk file of short forms, "Truslow, Frederic J.," registration 3286, terminated November 8, 1988, https://efile.fara.gov/bulk/zip/FARA_All_ShortForms.csv.zip.
[^12]: Foreign Agents Registration Act public bulk files, FARA_All_ForeignPrincipals.csv (registrations 3320, 3857, 3718 and 4232; principal "Government of Jamaica," "Government of Jamaica (JAMPRO)" and "Government of Jamaica, Ministry of Foreign Affairs"), https://efile.fara.gov/bulk/zip/FARA_All_ForeignPrincipals.csv.zip; FARA_All_Registrants.csv, https://efile.fara.gov/bulk/zip/FARA_All_Registrants.csv.zip; Attorney General's report 1988 to 1991, Volume 1, Jamaica section, pp. 599 to 604, 607, https://www.justice.gov/media/910066/dl?inline.
[^13]: Attorney General's report to Congress for the calendar years 1988 to 1991, Volume 1, entry "Fenton Communications, Inc., #3857," p. 599, https://www.justice.gov/media/910066/dl?inline.
[^14]: Attorney General's report 1988 to 1991, Volume 1, entry "Galland, Kharasch, Morse & Garfinkle, P.C., #4006," principal Air Jamaica, Ltd., p. 600, https://www.justice.gov/media/910066/dl?inline.
[^15]: "Two decades of airport-security issues," The Gleaner (Kingston), April 22, 2009, recounting the August 3, 1988 story "Tough new measures coming" and the April 8, 1989 story "Airport security angers travellers," https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090422/lead/lead5.html.
[^16]: U.S. Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts Series 95-725, Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the United States of America and Jamaica, signed at Kingston July 7, 1989, front matter and signature page (PDF page 24), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-S-PURL-gpo234503/pdf/GOVPUB-S-PURL-gpo234503.pdf.
[^17]: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Chiefs of Mission for Jamaica (Michael Sotirhos, November 12, 1985 to July 7, 1989), https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/chiefsofmission/jamaica.
[^18]: U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary and Caucus on International Narcotics Control, joint hearings, 101st Congress, November 6, 1989, January 18 and March 27, 1990, S. Hrg. 101-1228, p. 8 (Manley), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017881326.
[^19]: U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1989, Jamaica, https://www.ecoi.net/en/document/240817.
[^20]: OpenCorporates, company records us_de/2168210 (CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., Delaware), us_va/M0059578 and us_va/F1012691 (Virginia), mirroring the Delaware Division of Corporations and Virginia State Corporation Commission registries, https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_de/2168210 ; Bizapedia, "Counterterrorism Consultants, L.P.," https://www.bizapedia.com/us/counterterrorism-consultants-lp.html (Delaware filing date August 1, 1988).
[^21]: District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Business One Stop Shop entity record 058088, Counterterrorism Consultants L.P., viewed October 8, 2026, https://boss.dc.gov.
[^22]: OpenCorporates, https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_va/F1012691 and https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_de/2168210 (viewed October 8, 2026).
[^23]: The Police Chief, vol. 55 (1988), p. 93, membership directory of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
[^24]: Washington Representatives (Washington: Columbia Books, 1990), pp. 94 and 771 (the directory prints Cornick's name as "McCormick, L. Carter, Jr.").
[^25]: Hugh Vickery, "Airport bomb detectors' efficiency queried," Newhouse News Service, in The Times (Trenton, New Jersey), January 4, 1990, p. 41, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1196585158/.
[^26]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," fax copy with header "JUN 20 '90," pages marked 141 P01 to P12, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material" (photographed by Christian Hansen), Internet Archive item casolaro-notebooks, file PromotionalMaterial.pdf, https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^27]: *Conference on Car-Bomb Attack*, May 15 to 17, 1986, attendee list, Defense Technical Information Center ADA290884, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA290884.
[^28]: U.S. Department of State, *State*, no. 263-273 (1984), August-September 1984 issue, "Resignations (June)," p. 81, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435066730094; *Newsletter*, no. 197-207 (1978), p. 46, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435066730037; *Newsletter*, no. 219-229 (1980), p. 28, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435066730052.
[^29]: *Supplemental Proceedings of the 10th Annual Symposium on the Role of Behavioral Science in Physical Security: Outthinking the Terrorist, an International Challenge*, Springfield, Virginia, April 23 to 24, 1985, program, participant list and discussion, Defense Technical Information Center ADA161669, https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA161669.
[^30]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual reports for 1985 and 1986, sections on Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^31]: Wackenhut newsletter, undated issue, passage on The Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Newsletters," and folder "CIA Frank Terpil Renegades," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files.

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---
title: GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp.
aliases:
- GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp.
- GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp
- GeoMiliTech Consultants Corporation
- Geomilitech Consultants Corporation
- GeoMiliTech
- Geomilitech
- GMT
created: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-08
category: "Arms Dealers & Brokers"
tags:
- Organization
- GeoMiliTech
- IranContra
- Contras
- ArmsTrade
- BarbaraStudley
- JohnSinglaub
summary: "Washington arms-trading company created by Barbara Studley that handled a 1985 Soviet-bloc arms shipment to the Nicaraguan contras and, in 1986, quoted weapons to CIA Director Casey over John Singlaub's signature as consultant."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Barbara Studley]]"
reverse: true
start: 1984
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[John Singlaub]]"
reverse: true
role: "consultant"
start: 1986
fn: 8
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Iran-Contra Affair]]"
start: 1985
end: 1987
fn: 7
---
GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp. (abbreviated GMT) was a Washington arms-trading company, with offices at 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300, that [[Barbara Studley]] created after moving to the capital as a radio broadcaster; [[John Singlaub]] signed its correspondence as "Consultant." It handled a 1985 shipment of Soviet-bloc arms to the [[Contras]], proposed a conduit for such weapons to [[Oliver North]] and [[William J. Casey]], and is named in the 1987 deposition record of the congressional Iran-Contra committees.[^1][^2]
### Formation
The Hartford Courant wrote in 1992 that Studley, a former conservative radio talk-show host, created GeoMiliTech "to break into the arms business."[^1] [[Daniel O. Graham]], a retired Army lieutenant general and head of the [[High Frontier]] campaign, testified on May 26, 1987 that he met Studley around 1977 when she was a broadcaster in [[Miami]] and invited him onto her radio talk show, that she later came to Washington (committee counsel dated her arrival to about June 1984), and that all he knew of GeoMiliTech was that she ran it and that it was "an international trading firm in high-tech items."[^2] Graham said he took no part in forming the firm, received no money from it and held no title in it.[^2]
### The June to July 1985 shipment
The Hartford Courant reported that Singlaub and Studley arranged a private shipment of Soviet-bloc rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers to the contras in the summer of 1985, which it put at $5 million.[^1] Studley's memorandum to North dated October 30, 1985 refers to a shipment that left on June 20, 1985.[^3] Graham's questioner stated that the Studley and Werner Glatt arms transaction was consummated in May 1985 with delivery in July, and Graham agreed that it was early in 1985.[^2] The congressional report states that a purchase Singlaub arranged for [[Adolfo Calero]] and the FDN through a European arms dealer arrived in Central America on July 8, 1985, and the Washington Post reported in 1987 that Singlaub helped the contras buy $5.3 million of East Bloc weapons shipped through [[Honduras]].[^4][^5] Singlaub testified in 1987 that the delivery went from [[Poland]] to Honduras and that Swiss banks handled the transfers.[^1]
### The Barcella opinion
The Courant reported that the shipment was cleared by a legal opinion from [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.]], then an assistant United States attorney in Washington. Barcella said that someone in government came to him, that he contacted the State Department's Office of Munitions Control and the Justice Department's office of internal security, that "I orally passed that back to the person that had made the request of me," and, asked why the person came to him, that there was "a very logical reason that is none of your business." The United States attorney, [[Joseph diGenova]], said he never authorized any such opinion.[^1] In a deposition taken by the New Haven lawyer [[William M. Bloss]] in 1991, Studley said the shipment was "approved in writing by the justice department before we shipped it" and "Larry Barcella signed it"; her lawyer, [[Frank Koszorus Jr.]], said he was "not at all certain that she was ever issued a written opinion."[^1] Studley was not called to testify before the congressional committees.[^1]
### Werner Glatt and the Graham deposition
Graham testified that he recommended [[Werner Glatt]], whom he called a combination of a sheep farmer and arms trader with farms in Virginia and Scotland, to Studley as an honest broker; he said that he had talked briefly with Colonel [[Norman Blaylock]] about Glatt, that he knew not all arms dealers were honest, and that he did not want to see "Jack and Barbara Studley squander other people's money." He said he gave Glatt's name to Studley only and never to Singlaub, arranged a lunch for Studley and Glatt at a Washington hotel (he thought the Carlton), stayed about ten minutes, and was never in the same room with Glatt and Singlaub.[^2] Graham added that he had told Casey at Langley in late 1983 or 1984, in a meeting on the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]], that Casey would be better off dealing with Glatt than with most arms dealers.[^2]
Graham testified that Studley told him after the delivery that people who were not part of the deal showed up when the ship arrived; the questioner asked "This would be Mario Dellamico?" and the transcript records Graham answering "Okay," and then saying he did not know their names. Graham said that this sounded strange enough that he told her to inform Casey and arranged a meeting among himself, Studley and Casey at Langley toward the end of 1985 (counsel suggested December 20, 1985), at which Studley left documents including the bill of lading; Casey said he would look into it and admitted no connection to anyone she named.[^2] Singlaub testified in 1987 that he, not Graham, set up the December 1985 meeting between Casey and Studley.[^1]
### The October 30, 1985 memorandum, Ron Martin and Mario Dellamico
Graham Exhibit 1 is a memorandum from Studley to North dated October 30, 1985, which opens with a telephone call received at 4:00 a.m. on October 29 from her source, identified only as "W." It states that "W" was questioned about a shipment that went out on June 20, 1985 and denied that his ship was intended for the contras; that a man named Mario Dellamico, described as working for the arms dealer Ron Martin, had walked in two weeks earlier asking for help in selling Martin's company's arms to the contras and was told absolutely not because it would be against "their law"; that Dellamico then handed over a copy of GeoMiliTech's packing list showing the receipt of the shipment, an itemized inventory, the ship's name and date of departure, and the signature of its representative; that "W" said to tell North the ship was the first of five he was expecting, and that the ship later sailed; and that "Martin's company still has copies of our documents." It asks North to stop Martin and Dellamico and closes: "General John K. Singlaub has been advised of this information."[^3]
Graham said he had heard Martin's name in connection with "the discrepancies or problems involved in the landing of that cargo," that friends in Miami told him Martin was an arms dealer, and that he had not heard of threats made against Singlaub by Dellamico on Martin's behalf. Asked whether Martin or Dellamico had a relationship with the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], he answered that he had heard "nothing but speculation."[^2] The Independent Counsel's report describes Ron Martin as a Miami-based dealer accused of consorting with drug-runners; the congressional report quotes North that Martin was "setting up [a] munitions 'supermarket'" in Central America and that Casey told North there should be no further transactions with the broker until the source of the money for the stockpile was resolved.[^4][^6]
### The Singlaub-Studley conduit memorandum
A memorandum prepared by Studley and found in North's safe proposed a "conduit" for a "continuous flow of Soviet weapons and technology" in support of "Freedom Fighters" in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia and elsewhere, through a three-way trade that would let the United States dispense arms without "the consent or awareness of the Department of State or Congress." The congressional report calls it the Singlaub-Studley plan, states that Singlaub presented it to North and Casey in 1985, and records North acknowledging receipt and dismissing it; [[George Shultz]] called it "a piece of junk."[^7] Graham testified that he had never seen the document and had never discussed the concept with Studley or Singlaub.[^2]
### The 1986 quotation and the Casey letter
Graham Exhibit 2 contains a letter on GeoMiliTech letterhead, addressed "Dear Bill" to Casey and signed by Singlaub as "Major General, U.S. Army (RET)" and "Consultant," which committee counsel dated to August 1986. It encloses a list "Quoted 28 July 1986" including SA-7 sets, 60 12.7mm machine guns at 9,380 each, 20 twin-mount 14.5mm machine guns at 34,000 each, 300 RPK rifles, 60mm and 82mm mortars, RPG-7 launchers and 10,000 AKMS rifles at 185 each, and the list is marked "NO EUC REQUIRED." The letter says the items were developed in conjunction with a member of the NSC aware of the needs of the United Nicaraguan Opposition, that congressional funds would not be available until after September, and that a Swiss bank would lend for six to twelve months against a letter of credit from Casey's bank.[^8] Graham said he had no knowledge of the matter and had not discussed it with Casey.[^2]
### Robert Schweitzer and 1986-1987 contracts
Committee counsel stated in the Graham deposition that Lieutenant General [[Robert Schweitzer]] was hired by GeoMiliTech in late August or early September 1986, was interviewed by Singlaub, met North with Singlaub on or about December 2, 1986 on company matters, and left in early 1987; Graham said he had no role in the hiring and that Studley had come to have little confidence in Schweitzer's advice. Counsel also asked Graham about efforts by [[Ray Cline]] in 1987 to obtain CIA contracts for the company, which Graham said he knew nothing of.[^2] [[Charles Allen]], who became National Intelligence Officer for Counterterrorism in October 1986, was asked whether he discussed with Schweitzer his employment with "Geomilitech Consultants Corporation" or Schweitzer's efforts to obtain covert procurement contracts for it; he answered no to both.[^9]
Graham Exhibit 3 holds Studley's papers on the Pia Vesta, a vessel loaded with arms and seized at the [[Panama Canal]] in 1986, including notes of conversations with Dan Cummings and David Duncan; the notes state that Duncan had been to the White House and met a person named Vince at the NSC, and that General [[Manuel Noriega]] had agreed to release the shipment.[^10] A letter to the House committee's assistant counsel [[Kenneth Ballen]] dated April 28, 1987, from the Washington firm of [[Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey|Finley, Kumble]] on the "Barbara F. Studley/GMT" matter, refers to a telephone conference between Ballen and [[Paul L. Perito]] and encloses Studley's memorandum on North.[^11]
### Claims from Ari Ben-Menashe
[[Ari Ben-Menashe]] writes that a 1985 contra deal brokered through GeoMiliTech was itemized at $3,242,000 paid to the [[Ora Group]], against $5 million that he says the company's books showed received from the American side, a difference of about $1.76 million.[^12]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hartford Courant, "Head of Iran Hostage Probe Linked to Arms Deal," May 29, 1992. https://www.courant.com/1992/05/29/head-of-iran-hostage-probe-linked-to-arms-deal/
[^2]: Deposition of Daniel O. Graham, May 26, 1987 (Senate Select Committee, Hart Senate Office Building; examined by Charles Kerr), Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (H. Rept. 100-433, S. Rept. 100-216), Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
[^3]: Graham Exhibit 1 (memorandum from B. F. Studley to Lt. Col. Oliver North, October 30, 1985, with an attached report of Studley's agent), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
[^4]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 2, pp. 50-51 (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=74).
[^5]: Benjamin Weiser, "Singlaub Suggested an Earlier Fund Diversion," Washington Post, March 20, 1987 (date as printed on the clipping); CIA CREST CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040014-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000707040014-2
[^6]: Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, vol. I, Part I, "The Underlying Facts" (Ron Martin passage). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm
[^7]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 15, "The Diversion," p. 269 and note (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=293).
[^8]: Graham Exhibit 2 (cover memorandum from Studley to North and a letter from John K. Singlaub to William Casey with enclosed list quoted July 28, 1986, bearing the GeoMiliTech letterhead, 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 300), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234; the scan is partly illegible).
[^9]: Deposition of Charles E. Allen, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, vol. 1 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0228), examination on Robert L. Schweitzer and "Geomilitech Consultants Corporation."
[^10]: Graham Exhibit 3 (Studley papers on the Pia Vesta, with notes of conversations with [[Dan Cummings]] and [[David Duncan]]), in the Graham deposition, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
[^11]: Letter from the firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, Washington, to Kenneth Ballen, Assistant Counsel, House Select Committee, April 28, 1987, "Re: Barbara F. Studley/GMT," in the Graham deposition exhibits, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
[^12]: Ari Ben-Menashe, Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network (Sheridan Square, 1992). Sole source for the itemization; the figures are as reported on the Ora Group page of this vault.

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---
title: Industrias Cardoen
aliases:
- Industrias Cardoen
- Industrias Cardoen S.A.
- Industrias Cardoen Limitada
- Cardoen Industries
- Industrias CARDOEN
- Cardoen Division Defensa
- Industrias Cardoen Division Defensa
- INCAR
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Private
- ArmsDealers
- Munitions
- ClusterBombs
- Iraq
- IraqGate
- Zirconium
- PROMIS
- CasolaroPapers
summary: "Chilean munitions company of Carlos Cardoen whose sales sheet in the Casolaro papers offers cluster bombs, mines and armored vehicles, and whose zirconium imports from Teledyne were the subject of a 1993 Miami indictment."
location: "Santiago, Chile"
created: 2024-04-25
updated: 2026-10-08
relations:
- type: owned
with: "[[Carlos Cardoen]]"
reverse: true
role: "owner of the company and co-defendant with it in United States v. Cardoen"
fn: 2
- type: owned
with: "[[Swissco Management Group]]"
role: "described by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as a subsidiary of Cardoen Industries"
fn: 7
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Iraq]]"
start: 1984
end: 1988
role: "cluster bombs sold to Iraq, as found by the Eleventh Circuit"
fn: 10
---
[[Industrias Cardoen]] is a Chilean manufacturer of munitions, mines, and armored vehicles owned by [[Carlos Cardoen]]. Its sales sheet dates its military manufacture to 1978, and the company was named in a twenty-one count indictment returned in [[Miami]] on May 26, 1993, over zirconium and fuze components exported to [[Chile]] for cluster bombs sold to [[Iraq]].[^1][^2]
### Product line and self-description
A bilingual sales sheet titled "Industrias CARDOEN, Division Defensa" is one of the items in the "Promotional Material" folder of [[Danny Casolaro]]'s papers. Its English text reads: "CARDOEN Industries initiated the manufacture of military products in 1978 as a contribution of private enterprise to the DEFENSE OF CHILE." The sheet adds that "the variety, high quality, and low prices of these products has created a growing international demand, and several export transactions have been successfully completed with ally countries."[^1]
The product list includes demolition charges, Bangalore torpedo charges, hand grenades, the M-18 and M-19 antipersonnel and antitank mines, a programmable anti-submarine charge, the PJ-1 manual aircraft bomb, a "Cluster type bomb" of 100 lb (50 kg) and one of 500 lb (250 kg), the MK-81, MK-82 and MK-83 "war bomb" series, remote-control blast systems, night-vision goggles, the VTP-1 and VTP-2 transport vehicles, and two MOWAG-CARDOEN Piraha armored vehicles in 4x4 and 6x6 versions. The sheet is marked by hand "BD|AI|PM-04."[^1]
### Miami arrest, 1983
[[Kenneth R. Timmerman]] wrote that on August 2, 1983, [[U.S. Customs]] officers arrested Cardoen in Miami over night-vision goggles bound for Chile, and that the case ended in a plea bargain with a fine of 100,000 dollars on his company. In the same account, [[James Guerin]] of [[International Signals Corporation]] and Cardoen reached an agreement "to split the world cluster bomb market in two."[^3] A sworn declaration by [[Howard Teicher]], a former [[National Security Council]] staff member, dates the arrest to 1983 in Miami in a sting operation concerning the smuggling of night-vision goggles to Cuba and Libya, and states that the highest levels of the U.S. government, including the NSC staff and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], were well aware of it.[^4]
### Iraqi sales and the Israeli approach
According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], whose book is the sole source for the passages so cited, Cardoen obtained a brokering license from [[ARMSCOR]], the South African state arms maker, after an application to [[SIBAT]], the [[Israel|Israeli]] foreign defense sales office, was refused in 1979. By 1985 Cardoen was selling arms to Iraq with the help of Armscor and of individuals connected to the CIA, among them [[Alan Sanders]] of [[ITICO]], who supplied cluster-bomb blueprints.[^5]
Ben-Menashe also wrote that in 1985 he approached Sanders to buy cluster bombs for Israel and was told that Cardoen would sell to anyone who paid. He wrote that in September 1988 he was sent to Chile to offer Cardoen a license to produce [[Uzi]]s and [[Galil assault rifles]] in exchange for ending the Iraq trade, and that Cardoen introduced him to [[Mark Thatcher]] during the visit.[^5]
[[Alan Friedman]] described the same network in *Spider's Web*. In Friedman's account, Cardoen's [[Iquique]] plant turned out about a thousand cluster bombs a month, the first Iraq shipment worth 21 million dollars reached Iraq early in 1984, and Iraq took about three quarters of the company's arms exports of 100 million dollars a year. A former Cardoen agent for Iraq, [[Nasser Beydoun]], later sued for 30 million dollars in commissions. Friedman quotes a Cardoen statement: "I'll have to build [[Jimmy Carter]] a statue," and a Cardoen associate, Robert Johnson, who said that he saw [[Robert Gates]] arrive at Cardoen's house near Miami in the summer of 1986. The White House said in July 1991: "The whole story is unfounded. There never were any sales, overt or covert, to Iraq or Iran through a third country. Mr. Gates never met with Carlos Cardoen."[^6]
Timmerman wrote that Beydoun offered [[Saddam Hussein]] the Chilean cluster bomb in March 1984 at about 7,100 dollars apiece, that Cardoen made eighteen deliveries to Iraq during the summer of 1984, and that the cluster bomb sales earned Cardoen a total of 467 million dollars.[^3]
### Swissco Management Group and James D. Theberge
The [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]], in its October 24, 1991 report on the nomination of Robert Gates as director of central intelligence, recorded that during its inquiry into alleged relationships between the nominee and Cardoen it received information about a relationship between Cardoen Industries and a former part-time senior CIA employee, which "may have constituted a conflict of interest and security concerns at worst, or an awkward appearance at best." The report states that the CIA employed [[James D. Theberge]] as a member of its Senior Review Panel from January 1986 to January 1988, that during much of that period he was a consultant to [[Swissco Management Group]], "a subsidiary of Cardoen Industries of Chile," and that he had been U.S. ambassador to [[Nicaragua]] in the 1970s and ambassador to Chile from 1982 to 1985.[^7]
The report continues: "Between 1984 and 1988, Cardoen Industries was of significant intelligence interest to CIA, which believed Cardoen was the primary supplier of cluster bombs to the Iraqi government, and an important supplier of other categories of ordnance to Iraq and other Middle Eastern states." It names [[William J. Casey]], Deputy Director [[John McMahon]] and Executive Director [[James Taylor]] as the officials involved in Theberge's recruitment, states that there was no evidence that Gates took part in it, and records that Theberge disclosed the Swissco consulting and its Cardoen parentage in the personal history statement he submitted to the CIA in December 1985. It also states that Theberge served until his death in January 1988 and that the committee found no evidence the CIA identified or acted upon the potential conflict.[^7]
In the same section the report records that [[Richard Babayan|Richard H. Babayan]] had alleged that Gates sought to transfer cluster bomb technology to Cardoen, that Cardoen denied meeting the nominee in a letter of July 16, 1991 to the U.S. ambassador in Chile, and that the committee had been presented with no credible evidence to support the allegations after the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and the CIA inspector general reviewed them. Swissco Management Group, Inc. was one of the eight defendants named in the 1993 indictment.[^7][^2]
Timmerman quotes a CIA statement of July 16, 1991 that "the CIA has never had a relationship of any type with Carlos Cardoen."[^3]
### Helicopter project and Moyle
Friedman also wrote that the British journalist [[Jonathan Moyle]], who was inquiring into Cardoen's helicopter project, was found dead in a Santiago hotel on March 31, 1990.[^6]
### PROMIS software and the Ben-Menashe affidavit
The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] to the Attorney General (March 1993) records that [[INSLAW]] submitted two affidavits by Ben-Menashe to the bankruptcy court, the first dated February 17, 1991, and that in the first Ben-Menashe claimed that in 1989, in Chile, he was told by Carlos Cardoen that Cardoen had brokered a sale of [[PROMIS]] by [[Earl Brian]] to a representative of Iraqi military intelligence. The report spells the name "Carduen" and states that Ben-Menashe made "a number of extraordinary claims, most of which are not subject to corroboration."[^8]
Among the newspaper clippings in the INSLAW folder of the Casolaro papers is a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* report of February 19, 1991 on documents filed the day before in the bankruptcy litigation. It states that Ben-Menashe's affidavit said that in January 1989, while serving as a special consultant for intelligence affairs in the Israeli prime minister's office, he was told by Cardoen that Cardoen had brokered a deal between Brian and an Iraqi military intelligence representative for the use of PROMIS. The article reports that the sale was consummated in [[Santiago]], where Industrias Cardoen S.A. had its headquarters, and that "Until recently, Iraq was that company's biggest customer." In a separate item of the same report, Ben-Menashe is described as saying that one of his last assignments in 1989 was to try to stop Cardoen's company from selling chemical arms to Iraq, and that he failed.[^9]
The article reports Brian's answer. Brian called the allegations "nonsense," said he had never been to Santiago or [[Tel Aviv]], did not know of Cardoen or Ben-Menashe, and had never heard of INSLAW or PROMIS before press accounts. The same article describes Brian's position that he had acquired the property rights to the software and sold it to Israel in 1987.[^9]
### The Miami indictment
On May 26, 1993, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a twenty-one count indictment. The court's order describes the charges as arising "from the exportation of zirconium and fuze components to Chile, which were allegedly destined for the manufacture of cluster bombs later sold to Iraq." The eight defendants were Carlos Cardoen, [[Franco Saffa]], [[Jorge Burr]], Industrias Cardoen Limitada (also called INCAR), Swissco Management Group, [[Edward A. Johnson]], [[Ronald W. Griffin]], and [[Teledyne Wah Chang Albany]] (Teledyne Industries, Inc.).[^2]
The court record places the indictment on May 26, 1993. A Ben-Menashe account places the charges in April 1992, filed by the United States Customs Service.[^5][^2] The court's order also records that the five defendants who had not appeared (Cardoen, Saffa, Burr, INCAR and Swissco) were not before the court, and that the court noted Cardoen's "present fugitive status."[^2]
On March 22, 1994, the court dismissed Counts II through VI against Teledyne on statute-of-limitations grounds. On April 25, 1994, it severed the ten zirconium counts from the eleven fuze-component counts. The zirconium counts were set for trial in February 1995, with Count I charging conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. section 371 against Cardoen, INCAR, Swissco, Johnson and Teledyne.[^2]
### Zirconium and Teledyne Wah Chang Albany
The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] described the export chain in its 1998 opinion in the case of Edward A. Johnson. Between 1983 and 1988 the Albany unit of Teledyne Wah Chang exported over 3.5 million dollars worth of zirconium to Chile. The court wrote: "The zirconium was sold to Carlos Cardoen, an international arms merchant based in that country. The zirconium was used as an incendiary agent in cluster bombs that Cardoen was selling to Iraq for use in the [[Iran-Iraq War|Iran-Iraq war]]." The opinion adds that Cardoen supplied the exporter with false end-use statements describing the zirconium as a booster material in industrial explosives for the mining industry.[^10]
Johnson, a Teledyne sales manager, was convicted by a jury on four counts: criminal conspiracy, false statements, and two counts of exporting zirconium compacts under the Arms Export Control Act. The appeals court wrote that Johnson had visited Cardoen's cluster-bomb factory in Chile in 1987 and witnessed burn testing of zirconium compacts supplied for the MK 83 and MK 84 bombs. The court affirmed the verdict.[^10]
On January 26, 1995, according to a [[State Department]] notice published in the Federal Register, Teledyne Industries "entered a guilty plea to conspiring to violate and violating the AECA" in the Southern District of Florida, and on January 27, 1995 it entered a second guilty plea in the District of Columbia on a separate indictment concerning zirconium compacts exported to [[Greece]] for reexport to [[Jordan]]. The notice describes the Florida indictment as charging an illegal export of "United States origin ordnance-grade zirconium to Chile, for use in cluster bombs and other munitions for Iraq."[^11]
### The CIA question in the trial record
Defendants Johnson and Griffin asserted four defenses before trial, among them CIA actual authority and the claim that Cardoen was an alleged agent of the United States government. The court held a hearing under the Classified Information Procedures Act in November 1994 (an order issued December 28, 1994 and reissued in unclassified form in 1995). Its order records that a witness identified as "Linda C." of the CIA Directorate of Operations, who had reviewed the agency file on Cardoen covering 1984 to 1993, testified that Cardoen "was not an agent or source of intelligence for the United States government; on the contrary, Cardoen was a target; that is, an individual of intelligence interest to the government."[^2]
The court also admitted into evidence the defendants' proffer of a portion of the Senate Executive Report on the Gates nomination, which the court quotes. The court wrote that the report "corroborates Witness Linda C.'s assessment" that Cardoen was a target of intelligence interest, and adopted her conclusion for purposes of the hearing, limited to whether the defendants had met their burden of showing the agent theory as a predicate for introducing classified information.[^2][^7]
The district court found no evidence supporting the theory that the CIA had secretly arranged to supply Cardoen with zirconium. The appeals court, after its own review of the classified materials, agreed that the government had not withheld evidence supporting that theory.[^10]
On January 31, 1995, Howard Teicher signed a declaration under penalty of perjury in case No. 93-241-CR, captioned for Judge Highsmith. It states that he was on the NSC staff from 1982 to 1987, that "the CIA authorized, approved and assisted Cardoen in the manufacture and sale of cluster bombs," and that CIA Director Casey directed the secretaries of State and Commerce on the necessary licenses. The declaration opens by stating that nothing in it is classified. [[Robert Parry]] reported that Teicher named Casey and his deputy Gates as having "authorized, approved and assisted" the delivery of cluster bombs to Iraq, that the defense attorney [[Gerald Houlihan]] angered prosecutors by publicly filing it, that the government sealed it as a state secret while attacking Teicher's credibility, and that Teicher was blocked from testifying and his statements kept from the jury on grounds of relevance. [[Consortium News]] added that a federal grand jury had begun hearing testimony on a related complaint over the submission of a defense affidavit.[^4][^12][^13]
### Extradition, 2019 and 2020
The [[International Consortium of Investigative Journalists]] reports that the United States did not formally request extradition until March 2019, 26 years after the indictment, and that the [[Chilean Supreme Court]] rejected the request in March 2020 on the grounds that too many years had passed since the charges and that the alleged conduct had no equivalent offense under Chilean law. The same report quotes Cardoen as saying that he was made a scapegoat after Iraq invaded neighboring [[Kuwait]].[^14]
A Chilean press report of August 24, 2020 gives a different account of the court action: the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the extradition on August 24, 2020, confirming a first rejection in March 2020 by the instructing minister Carlos Aranguiz, on the grounds of dual criminality and prescription. It reports that Cardoen's lawyers argued the company's activities were known and supported by the United States and that the United States had repeatedly said it would not pursue the case (translated from the Spanish).[^15]
### Casolaro papers
The sales sheet is one of five items in the "Promotional Material" folder, a single 21-page photographed PDF published on the [[Internet Archive]]. In the order of the photographs the items run as follows: the Cardoen sheet (two photographs, hand number PM-04), the printed fuel-air munitions page numbered 207 (two photographs, PM-02), the [[Brunswick Corporation]] Rifleman's Assault Weapon cover sheet and a line drawing (two photographs, PM-03), the packet of the resumes of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]] (eleven photographs, PM-05, fax headers June 20, 1990), and a four-page Inter-Probe energy transfer brochure (PM-01). One photograph of the Inter-Probe brochure shows the Cardoen sheet lying beneath it.[^1]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Industrias CARDOEN, "Division Defensa," bilingual sales sheet, undated, hand-marked "BD|AI|PM-04," in "Promotional Material," Danny Casolaro papers, photographs published as casolaro-notebooks, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/PromotionalMaterial.pdf (PDF pages 1 and 2 of 21; the order of items checked against all 21 pages).
[^2]: *United States v. Cardoen*, 898 F. Supp. 1563 (S.D. Fla. 1995) (Highsmith, J.), reissued order on hearing under section 6 of the Classified Information Procedures Act, No. 93-241-CR, decided August 29, 1995 (original order December 28, 1994; hearing November 18 and 23, 1994), https://static.case.law/f-supp/898/cases/1563-01.json.
[^3]: Kenneth R. Timmerman, *The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), pp. 166-170. Sole source for the passages so cited (1983 arrest and plea, Guerin agreement, Beydoun's 1984 offer, 1984 deliveries and earnings, the CIA statement of July 16, 1991).
[^4]: Declaration of Howard Teicher, executed January 31, 1995, *United States v. Cardoen*, No. 93-241-CR-HIGHSMITH (S.D. Fla.), paragraphs 14 to 18, as transcribed at http://spikethenews.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-teicher-affidavit.html (January 2016). Sole source for the wording; the transcription has not been checked against the court file, where the declaration was reported sealed.
[^5]: Ari Ben-Menashe, *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network* (New York: TrineDay, 1992). Sole source for the passages so cited, including the 1979 SIBAT refusal, the 1985 Sanders contacts, the 1988 Chile visit and the April 1992 charge date.
[^6]: Alan Friedman, *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq* (New York: Bantam, 1993), pp. 46-54, 64. Sole source for the Beydoun, Johnson and Moyle passages and the quoted White House statement.
[^7]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, *Nomination of Robert M. Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence*, S. Exec. Rept. 102-19, 102d Cong., 1st sess., October 24, 1991, section 5, "Allegations Relating to CIA's Relationship with Carlos Cardoen," https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-filesations-10219.pdf (PDF pages 186 to 188).
[^8]: Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States regarding the allegations of INSLAW, Inc. (March 1993), pp. 73-74 (the affidavit of February 17, 1991).
[^9]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis" and the sidebar "Colorful Characters, Prized Product Lend Spice To Case," clipping in the INSLAW folder of the Casolaro papers, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt. Sole source for the affidavit's contents as reported there.
[^10]: *United States v. Edward A. Johnson*, No. 95-5021 (11th Cir. Apr. 28, 1998) (published opinion, Tjoflat, Birch and Roney, JJ.), on appeal from No. 93-241-CR (S.D. Fla.), https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/19955021.OPN.pdf.
[^11]: Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls, Public Notice 2206, "Rescission of Suspended Exports Regarding Teledyne Wah Chang Albany," 60 Fed. Reg. 30151 (June 7, 1995), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-06-07/pdf/95-13834.pdf; Public Notice 2207, 60 Fed. Reg. 30150, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-06-07/pdf/95-13835.pdf.
[^12]: Robert Parry, "Iraqgate: Confession and Cover-up," *Extra!* (FAIR), 1995, as reposted at https://scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00074.htm.
[^13]: Consortium News, "Iraqgate Cover-Up Goes After Defense Lawyers," undated, https://consortiumnews.com/archive/story1.html. Sole source for the grand jury passage and for Houlihan's filing as reported.
[^14]: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, "Most wanted Chilean arms dealer concealed ties to companies with help from Panama's offshore industry," September 2022, https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2022/09/most-wanted-chilean-arms-dealer-concealed-ties-to-companies-with-help-from-panamas-offshore-industry/.
[^15]: "Suprema rechaza extradición Cardoen," Emol, August 24, 2020, https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2020/08/24/995884/Suprema-rechaza-extradicion-Cardoen.html.

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---
aliases:
- Lane and Edson
- Lane and Edson, P.C.
- Lane & Edson
- Lane & Edson, P.C.
- Lane & Edson P.C.
- Frosh, Lane & Edson
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- LaneAndEdson
- FroshLaneEdson
- LawFirm
- Washington
- PeruAntiquities
- ForeignAgents
- Housing
- CounterTerrorismConsultants
- KelleyDrye
- ForeignAgentsRegistrationAct
summary: "Washington law firm first recorded in 1971 as Frosh, Lane & Edson, registered for Peru's antiquities recovery from 1981 to 1988, and partly absorbed by Kelley Drye & Warren in 1989."
location: "Washington, D.C."
created: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-08
relations:
- type: founded
with: "[[Bruce S. Lane]]"
reverse: true
start: 1971
role: "founding partner; counsel to the Council of State Housing Agencies (1975)"
fn: 7
- type: founded
with: "[[Charles L. Edson]]"
reverse: true
start: 1971
role: "partner (1973), former chief of the public housing section of the Office of General Counsel, HUD"
fn: 5
- type: represented
with: "[[Peru|Republic of Peru]]"
start: 1981-10-08
end: 1988-10-08
role: "foreign principal, FARA registration 3286; activities on the recovery of stolen archaeological property"
fn: 11
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Eugene Propper]]"
reverse: true
start: 1983
role: "attorney, later partner (1989 directory); named on the firm letterhead in 1983, 1984 and 1985"
fn: 23
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Frederic J. Truslow]]"
reverse: true
start: 1979
end: 1988
role: "attorney; short-form registrant under FARA registration 3286"
fn: 22
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Jack Feder]]"
reverse: true
end: 1988
role: "head of the mergers and acquisitions group; left with about sixteen lawyers for Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood"
fn: 26
---
Lane and Edson, P.C., was a Washington law firm first recorded in 1971 as Frosh, Lane & Edson, with a practice in federally assisted housing and real estate finance. It registered under the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]] as agent of the [[Peru|Republic of Peru]] from October 8, 1981 to November 8, 1988. In 1988 a group of its corporate lawyers left for [[Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood]], and in 1989 twenty-four of the remaining attorneys were asked to join [[Kelley Drye & Warren]]. Its address at 2300 M Street NW is also the address printed in 1988 for [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], in which [[Eugene Propper]] of the firm said he was a full partner.[^1][^2]
### Founding and housing practice, 1971 to 1980
A witness identified as a partner of Frosh, Lane & Edson testified before a Senate Banking Committee subcommittee on housing legislation in 1971.[^3] The firm's address that year was 1025 Connecticut Avenue NW.[^4]
[[Charles L. Edson]] had been chief of the public housing section in the Office of General Counsel of the [[United States Department of Housing and Urban Development]] and deputy chief counsel of the Housing Assistance Administration before he became a partner.[^5] A 1972 guide to low and moderate income housing published by the [[Bureau of National Affairs]] lists Edson and Lane among the firm's partners, and the firm's practice in 1972 was in federally assisted housing.[^6]
In 1975 [[Bruce S. Lane]] appeared before the Senate Finance Committee as legal counsel to the Council of State Housing Agencies.[^7] A 1985 contributor note for Lane of Lane and Edson, P.C., gives a [[Harvard University|Harvard Law School]] LL.B. of 1955 and a practice in tax, securities and real estate matters.[^8] A 1978 trade article described the firm as specializing in real estate matters, including financing.[^9]
The firm's address moved from 1800 M Street NW, in a 1977 directory and in the Attorney General's reports for 1981 to 1983, to 2300 M Street NW in the report for 1984.[^10]
### Republic of Peru, 1981 to 1988
The firm's initial registration statement, filed in October 1981, described services to the Peruvian embassy aimed at legislation that would implement the United Nations Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Stolen Property, implement an executive agreement between Peru and the United States for the recovery and return of stolen archaeological, historical and cultural properties, and otherwise limit the importation into the United States of objects illegally exported from Peru.[^11] The same objectives appear in the annual reports for 1982 through 1986.[^12][^13][^14][^15][^16] The report for 1988 to 1991 describes the registrant's work as general legal services in connection with the recovery of pre-Columbian artifacts and antique art objects illegally exported from Peru, and services to assist the government of Peru in obtaining favorable legislation or administrative regulations on the importation of items from Peru.[^17]
The Attorney General's reports record the receipts for each twelve-month period ending October 8: $19,778.00 for 1982, $15,513.00 for 1983, $37,281.71 for 1984 and $23,758.89 for 1985, a total of $96,331.60. The entries for 1981, 1986 and the 1988 to 1991 report record "None Reported" for finances.[^11][^12][^13][^14][^15][^16][^17]
Frederic J. Truslow, an attorney with the firm, is quoted in *The International Trade Law Journal* in 1981 as saying that scores of archaeological sites had been stripped to feed between 40,000 and 80,000 pieces a year into the American art market.[^18] In 1982 the *Stolen Art Alert* described him as a Washington lawyer retained as counsel to Peru and reported his comments on Peru's priorities in stopping the flow of antiquities out of the country.[^19] He published "Peru's Recovery of Cultural Patrimony" in the *New York University Journal of International Law and Politics* in 1983.[^20] In 1986 *ARTnews* quoted him as calling preposterous the notion that Peru would file blanket suits against American museums and individuals claiming title to Peruvian antiquities.[^21]
The registration of the firm was terminated on November 8, 1988, the same date on which the short-form registrations of Propper and Truslow ended.[^22]
### Partners and lawyers
Lane and Edson letterheads printed in congressional hearing records of 1983 list the lawyers Frederic J. Truslow, Kenneth G. Hance Jr., Martin Klepper, Barry R. Schenof, Eugene M. Propper, Jack M. Feder, Daniel C. Smith, Bonnie S. Temple and Frank H. Henneburg.[^23] A letter on the firm's letterhead from Edson to Donna Denman, president of the [[National Leased Housing Association]], dated February 25, 1985, and printed in the record of Senate housing authorization hearings, lists Lane, Edson, Truslow, Hance, Klepper, Robert C. Zimmer, Schenof and Propper, among others.[^24]
A 1989 *Anuario Hispano* directory lists Truslow with Lane & Edson at 2300 M Street NW.[^25] A roster of counsel in the record of 1988 hearings lists him with Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood.[^26] The firm's listing in the 1987 Catholic University alumni directory gives 2300 M Street NW.[^27]
### Mergers and publications
In 1988 the trade press reported that Jack Feder, who headed the firm's mergers and acquisitions group and had been a lawyer for the [[Wesray Capital Corporation]], was taking sixteen lawyers from the firm's ninety to the Washington office of Dewey, Ballantine.[^26] Bruce Lane, identified as a founding partner, told a 1988 publication that the firm was discussing merger possibilities; the publication reported that six more lawyers left a week after the sixteen to join another firm.[^28] On January 4, 1989 the *Wall Street Journal* reported that twenty-four Lane and Edson attorneys had been asked to join Kelley Drye & Warren, subject to the approval of that firm's partners, according to two members of Kelley Drye's executive committee.[^29] A 1991 *Washingtonian* article states that the firm became part of Kelley Drye & Warren.[^30] The Who's Who in American Law entry of a Washington lawyer gives Lane & Edson, P.C., 1979 to 1989, followed by Kelley Drye & Warren, 1989 to 1993.[^31]
The firm's lawyers also contributed to *The Art of M&A*, a 1989 guide written with [[Stanley F. Reed]], to which Propper contributed substantially to the due diligence chapter.[^32]
### Footnotes
[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice, Foreign Agents Registration Act public bulk files, registrant 3286 (Lane & Edson, P.C., 2300 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037; registered October 8, 1981, terminated November 8, 1988), https://efile.fara.gov/bulk/zip/FARA_All_Registrants.csv.zip.
[^2]: *The Police Chief*, vol. 55 (1988), p. 93, membership directory of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, listing Counterterrorism Consultants Inc., 2300 M Street NW; District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, entity record 058088, registered agent CounterTerrorism Consultants, Inc., 2300 M Street NW, 8th floor, https://boss.dc.gov; "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," UPI, August 2, 1988, stating that Propper, "now an attorney with the Washington firm of Lane and Edson, said he is a full partner in CTC but holds no title."
[^3]: U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, hearings on housing and urban development legislation, 1971, testimony headed "Partner, Frosh, Lane & Edson," https://books.google.com/books?id=zzU4AAAAIAAJ.
[^4]: "Digest of Seminars," INBEX, 1971, listing "Frosh, Lane & Edson, 1025 Connecticut Ave.," Washington, https://books.google.com/books?id=_UE9AAAAMAAJ.
[^5]: Charles L. Edson, "Introduction," in *Dealing with State Housing Agencies: The Emerging Force in Development* (Washington: Bureau of National Affairs, 1973), author note: "Partner, Frosh, Lane & Edson, Washington, D.C. Formerly Chief, Public Housing Section, Office of General Counsel, and Deputy Chief Counsel, Housing Assistance Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development," https://books.google.com/books?id=NB26AAAAIAAJ.
[^6]: Bureau of National Affairs, *A Practical Guide to Low- and Moderate-Income Housing* (Washington: Bureau of National Affairs, 1972), partners listed as Frosh, Lane & Edson, https://books.google.com/books?id=_ddDAQAAIAAJ; *AIA Journal*, 1972, describing Frosh, Lane & Edson as "a law firm in the nation's capital with extensive practice in federally assisted housing," https://books.google.com/books?id=-1kqAQAAMAAJ.
[^7]: U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Finance, *Tax Reform (Administration and Public Witnesses)*, hearings, 1975, statement introducing "our organization's legal counsel, Mr. Bruce S. Lane, of the Washington law firm of Lane and Edson," https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOMEQ8jg2VQC.
[^8]: *Preservation Law Reporter*, 1985, contributor note for Lane, "Lane and Edson, P.C., Washington, D.C. LL.B., Harvard Law School, 1955. Mr. Lane specializes in tax, securities, real estate matters," https://books.google.com/books?id=3h9DAQAAIAAJ.
[^9]: "Lane & Edson specializes in real estate matters, including the financing," *National Journal*, 1978, https://books.google.com/books?id=M6kvAAAAMAAJ.
[^10]: *Directory of Law Teachers*, 1977, listing "Lane & Edson, P.C., 1800 M St., Wash., DC 20036," https://books.google.com/books?id=TSg7AQAAIAAJ; U.S. Department of Justice, Report of the Attorney General to the Congress on the Administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, calendar year 1983, entry "Lane and Edson, P.C., #3286" (1800 M Street, N.W., Suite 400 South), https://www.justice.gov/media/910081/dl; calendar year 1984, same registrant (2300 M Street, N.W.), https://www.justice.gov/media/910076/dl.
[^11]: Report of the Attorney General, calendar year 1981, Peru entry "Lane and Edson, P.C., #3286," quoting the initial registration statement filed in October 1981, "Finances: None Reported," https://www.justice.gov/media/910091/dl.
[^12]: Calendar year 1982 report, Peru entry, $19,778.00 for the twelve months ending October 8, 1982, https://www.justice.gov/media/910086/dl.
[^13]: Calendar year 1983 report, Peru entry, $15,513.00 for the twelve months ending October 8, 1983, https://www.justice.gov/media/910081/dl.
[^14]: Calendar year 1984 report, Peru entry, $37,281.71 for the twelve months ending October 8, 1984, https://www.justice.gov/media/910076/dl.
[^15]: Calendar year 1985 report, Peru entry, $23,758.89 for the twelve months ending October 8, 1985, https://www.justice.gov/media/910111/dl.
[^16]: Calendar year 1986 report, entry "Lane and Edson, P.C., #3286," "Finances: None Reported," https://www.justice.gov/media/910106/dl. The calendar year 1987 report lists "Lane & Edson, P.C., Peru" in its appendix of registrants, https://www.justice.gov/media/910101/dl.
[^17]: Report of the Attorney General for calendar years 1988 to 1991, Peru entry "Lane & Edson, P.C., #3286 (T88)," "Finances: None Reported," https://www.justice.gov/media/910056/dl?inline.
[^18]: *The International Trade Law Journal*, 1981, article on the antiquities trade quoting "Frederick J. Truslow of the law firm of Lane & Edson, who represents the Peruvian Government in U.S. courts," https://books.google.com/books?id=rV-ALrT7l3MC.
[^19]: *Stolen Art Alert*, 1982, describing Frederick J. Truslow, "a Washington lawyer who has been retained as counsel to Peru," https://books.google.com/books?id=f6zrAAAAMAAJ.
[^20]: Frederic J. Truslow, "Peru's Recovery of Cultural Patrimony," 15 N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics 839 (1983), cited in *Tulsa Journal of Comparative & International Law*, 1996, https://books.google.com/books?id=F9JKAQAAIAAJ.
[^21]: *ARTnews*, April 1986, article on Peru and the antiquities trade, quoting Truslow, https://books.google.com/books?id=NAROtwXJjVMC.
[^22]: U.S. Department of Justice, Foreign Agents Registration Act public bulk files, registrant 3286 and short forms "Propper, Eugene M." and "Truslow, Frederic J." (both terminated November 8, 1988), https://efile.fara.gov/bulk/zip/FARA_All_ShortForms.csv.zip and https://efile.fara.gov/bulk/zip/FARA_All_ForeignPrincipals.csv.zip.
[^23]: Letterheads of Lane and Edson, P.C., printed in *Governmental Lease Financing Reform Act* (1983), https://books.google.com/books?id=L63PFff8BXkC, and in *Section 8 Rent Adjustments, Elderly Housing, and Other Assisted Housing Issues* (1984), https://books.google.com/books?id=HQwRxaYIvskC.
[^24]: Letter to Donna Denman, President of the National Leased Housing Association, from Charles L. Edson of Lane & Edson, P.C., February 25, 1985, printed in Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs, *Housing, Community Development, and Mass Transportation Authorizations, 1986*, hearings of March 22, 25 and April 15, 1985 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1985), https://books.google.com/books?id=pfCKEE1NeD0C; letterhead also in *Structuring Real Estate Investments in the Mid-eighties* (1985), https://books.google.com/books?id=EEY-AQAAIAAJ.
[^25]: *Anuario Hispano*, 1989, listing "Truslow, Lane & Edson, 2300 M St. NW, Wash., DC 20037," https://books.google.com/books?id=SPC6AAAAIAAJ.
[^26]: *The Wall Street Journal*, September 28, 1988, digest entry: Jack Feder "is also bringing 16 lawyers with him to Dewey from 90-lawyer Lane & Edson," https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_5aAAAAYAAJ; *Corporate Practice Series*, Bureau of National Affairs, 1988, on Feder, "a key player in friendly takeovers as lawyer for William Simon's Wesray organization," who "recently led a defection of corporate lawyers" from Lane & Edson to the Washington office of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood, https://books.google.com/books?id=Xb49AQAAIAAJ; roster of counsel in *United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement*, hearings, 1988, listing "Frederick J. Truslow" under Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood, https://books.google.com/books?id=ub0FAAAAIAAJ.
[^27]: Catholic University of America, *Alumni Directory*, 1987, listing "Lane & Edson PC, 2300 M St NW, Washington, DC 20037," https://books.google.com/books?id=TtlKAAAAYAAJ.
[^28]: *Plant Shutdowns Monitor*, 1988, "Lane & Edson is discussing merger possibilities, says Bruce Lane, founding partner. Sixteen of its 90 lawyers left with Mr. Feder, who headed the firm's mergers-and-acquisitions group. And last week, six more left to join," https://books.google.com/books?id=a9RYAAAAYAAJ.
[^29]: *The Wall Street Journal*, January 4, 1989, p. B4, digest entry: "Lane & Edson attorneys have been asked to join Kelley Drye & Warren, subject to the approval of Kelley Drye's partners, according to two Kelley Drye executive committee members"; a later digest line reads "Twenty-four Lane & Edson attorneys have been asked to join," https://books.google.com/books?id=pv5aAAAAYAAJ.
[^30]: *The Washingtonian*, 1991, article on Washington firm mergers: "Lane & Edson became part of New York's Kelley Drye & Warren," https://books.google.com/books?id=tvVNAQAAIAAJ.
[^31]: *Who's Who in American Law*, 2007, entry giving "Lane & Edson, P.C., Washington, 1979-89, Kelley Drye & Warren, Washington, 1989-93, Nixon Peabody LLP, Washington, 1993-," https://books.google.com/books?id=Ido6AQAAIAAJ.
[^32]: Stanley F. Reed and Lane & Edson, P.C., *The Art of M&A* (1989), as cited in *Business Information Sources* (1993), https://books.google.com/books?id=ps7UaqHktLkC, and the 2009 edition of *The Art of M&A*, note stating that Propper "contributed substantially to the due diligence chapter in the original (1989) edition," https://books.google.com/books?id=02XSV9j541EC.

11
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Ora Group.md
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@ -15,20 +15,23 @@ summary: "The holding company that, in Ari Ben-Menashe's account, the Israeli Jo
start: 1981
location: "Tel Aviv and London"
created: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-10-08
---
The Ora Group exists in the record almost entirely through [[Ari Ben-Menashe]]. In his account, the Israeli Joint Committee that ran the arms channel to [[Iran]] after 1980 needed "a flagship to hold the slush fund" that was accumulating from a covert procurement office on John Street in [[New York City]], which shipped American electronics under end-user certificates for [[Israel]] and diverted them to Iran. "When the Joint Committee was trying to decide what to call this mother company, the name 'Ora' came to my mind," he writes; the name means light in Hebrew, and was that of a woman in his Tel Aviv office. "Thus was born the Ora Group, which was to handle billions of dollars in the next few years." Israel's arms companies "were all run under our mother company, Ora"; Bank Melli of Iran would issue a letter of credit on behalf of one of them, guaranteed through the foreign transfers department of the National Westminster Bank in [[London]]; where Israel sold American weapons on the Americans' behalf, the money went to a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] account at the International Bank of Luxembourg, and when funds were needed for [[Yitzhak Shamir]]'s Likud, "Maxwell's companies were used to bring the money out again" to accounts in Luxembourg and Geneva.[^1]
### London
The [[Daily Mirror]]'s foreign editor [[Nicholas Davies]] "was called in only if we needed to use our 'London office,'" Ben-Menashe writes; when a request came from the Iranians, Davies "would call dealers or the supplier and introduce himself as a representative of the Ora Group, an Israeli company based in London," as in a 1983 sale of 4,000 TOW missiles. [[Rupert Allason]]'s parliamentary motion of 1991 named the company as [[Ora Limited]], incorporated at 41 Becmead Avenue and 1 Trafalgar Avenue, London; Ben-Menashe's book uses only "the Ora Group." A 1985 deal for the [[Contras]] brokered through [[GeoMiliTech]], the Washington company of General [[John Singlaub]] and Barbara Studley, is itemized in the book at 3,242,000 dollars paid to Ora, against 5 million dollars that he says the company's own books showed received from the American side.[^1]
The [[Daily Mirror]]'s foreign editor [[Nicholas Davies]] "was called in only if we needed to use our 'London office,'" Ben-Menashe writes; when a request came from the Iranians, Davies "would call dealers or the supplier and introduce himself as a representative of the Ora Group, an Israeli company based in London," as in a 1983 sale of 4,000 TOW missiles. [[Rupert Allason]]'s parliamentary motion of 1991 named the company as [[Ora Limited]], incorporated at 41 Becmead Avenue and 1 Trafalgar Avenue, London; Ben-Menashe's book uses only "the Ora Group." Ari Ben-Menashe writes that a 1985 deal for the [[Contras]] brokered through [[GeoMiliTech Consultants Corp.|GeoMiliTech]], the Washington company of [[Barbara Studley]] on which General [[John Singlaub]] served as a consultant, was itemized at 3,242,000 dollars paid to Ora, against 5 million dollars that he says the company's own books showed received from the American side.[^1] The *Hartford Courant* reported in 1992 a private shipment of Soviet-bloc rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers to the contras in the summer of 1985, which it valued at $5 million and attributed to Singlaub and Studley, and did not mention Ora.[^2] Calero's deposition to the congressional committees puts payments for shipments arranged by Singlaub at $2 million on April 26, 1985 and $3.3 million in May,[^3] and the *Washington Post* reported in 1987 that Singlaub helped the contras buy $5.3 million of East Bloc weapons shipped through Honduras.[^4]
### PROMIS
Ben-Menashe writes that he saw a cable to the Joint Committee from the United States requesting "a 600,000 dollar transfer from the Israeli slush fund" to [[Earl Brian]]'s [[Hadron]], to be forwarded to [[Leonard Garment]]'s firm [[Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin|Dickstein Shapiro]] "to be used to get one of the [[INSLAW|Inslaw]] lawyers, Leigh Ratiner, off the case." The special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] wrote that "we see no reason to reopen our investigation because of this implausible claim"; the bankruptcy court had found INSLAW's related charge that the firm was pressured to abandon it "built upon supposition, suspicion and uncorroborated hearsay." A second witness, the Canadian former stockbroker [[John A. Belton]], told the Justice Department's 1994 reviewers, without producing documents, that "ORA is allegedly the Israeli half of a multi-billion dollar slush fund made up of Israeli and U.S. funds" used to finance arms sales to [[Iraq]], and that "Trans World Arms in Montreal and ORA" had sold [[PROMIS]] to a nuclear facility in [[New Mexico]] in 1983; the reviewers found him "unbelievable."[^1][^2]
Ben-Menashe writes that he saw a cable to the Joint Committee from the United States requesting "a 600,000 dollar transfer from the Israeli slush fund" to [[Earl Brian]]'s [[Hadron]], to be forwarded to [[Leonard Garment]]'s firm [[Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin|Dickstein Shapiro]] "to be used to get one of the [[INSLAW|Inslaw]] lawyers, Leigh Ratiner, off the case." The special counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] wrote that "we see no reason to reopen our investigation because of this implausible claim"; the bankruptcy court had found INSLAW's related charge that the firm was pressured to abandon it "built upon supposition, suspicion and uncorroborated hearsay." A second witness, the Canadian former stockbroker [[John A. Belton]], told the Justice Department's 1994 reviewers, without producing documents, that "ORA is allegedly the Israeli half of a multi-billion dollar slush fund made up of Israeli and U.S. funds" used to finance arms sales to [[Iraq]], and that "Trans World Arms in Montreal and ORA" had sold [[PROMIS]] to a nuclear facility in [[New Mexico]] in 1983; the reviewers found him "unbelievable."[^1][^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network,* Sheridan Square, 1992, ch. 8, "The Ora Group," and ch. 9, "Promis." https://archive.org/details/profits-of-war-1992-ari-ben-menashe ; Allason's motion as quoted on [[Nicholas Davies]].
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua,* March 1993, and *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report,* September 27, 1994, section on John A. Belton. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport ; *In re Inslaw, Inc.,* 97 B.R. 685 (Bankr. D.D.C. 1989), as quoted in the Bua report.
[^2]: Bixby, Lyn. "Head of Iran Hostage Probe Linked to Arms Deal." *Hartford Courant*, May 29, 1992. https://www.courant.com/1992/05/29/head-of-iran-hostage-probe-linked-to-arms-deal/
[^3]: Deposition of Adolfo Calero, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Appendix B, vol. 3, transcript p. 95 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0235).
[^4]: Weiser, Benjamin. "Singlaub Suggested an Earlier Fund Diversion." *Washington Post*, March 20, 1987; CIA CREST CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040014-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000707040014-2
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua,* March 1993, and *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report,* September 27, 1994, section on John A. Belton. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport ; *In re Inslaw, Inc.,* 97 B.R. 685 (Bankr. D.D.C. 1989), as quoted in the Bua report.

180
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,180 @@
---
aliases:
- Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation
- Wackenhut Advanced Technologies
- Wackenhut Advanced Technology Corporation
- WATCO
- Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center
- Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc.
- WATC
- NUSAC, Incorporated
- NUSAC, Inc.
- NUSAC
- Nuclear Surveillance and Auditing Corporation
category: "Private Organization"
tags:
- Organization
- Private
- Wackenhut
- WATCO
- NUSAC
- NuclearSafeguards
- NevadaTestSite
- DefenseSystemsAnalysis
- DeviceAssemblyFacility
- JamesBMotley
- RalphECaudle
- CounterTerrorism
summary: "Nuclear safeguards consultancy founded in 1968, bought by Wackenhut in 1978 and renamed in 1984 under Ralph E. Caudle, former head of the Department of Energy Office of Safeguards and Security."
start: 1968-01-01
end: 1994-08-26
location: "Reston, Virginia"
created: 2026-10-08
updated: 2026-10-08
relations:
- type: owned
with: "[[Wackenhut Corporation]]"
reverse: true
start: 1978-12
end: 1993
role: "wholly owned subsidiary; the 1992 Fourth Circuit opinion describes the Center as a subsidiary of Wackenhut International, Inc."
fn: 8
- type: head_of
with: "[[Ralph F. Lumb]]"
reverse: true
start: 1975
end: 1984
role: "president of NUSAC"
fn: 3
- type: head_of
with: "[[Ralph E. Caudle]]"
reverse: true
start: 1984
end: 1987
role: "president of Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation"
fn: 14
- type: head_of
with: "[[Joseph A. Navarro]]"
reverse: true
role: "president, Fairfax, Virginia, per the annual report for 1989"
fn: 22
- type: director_of
with: "[[George R. Wackenhut]]"
reverse: true
start: 1979
role: "chairman of the NUSAC board"
fn: 9
- type: director_of
with: "[[Richard Wackenhut]]"
reverse: true
start: 1991
end: 1993
role: "director, Florida annual reports for 1991 to 1993"
fn: 2
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Nuclear Regulatory Commission]]"
start: 1982
end: 1985
role: "material accounting statistics system and security-during-emergency studies"
fn: 12
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[Department of Energy]]"
start: 1985
end: 1986
role: "conceptual and then detailed security design for the nuclear device assembly facility at the Nevada Test Site"
fn: 18
- type: contractor_to
with: "[[United States Army]]"
start: 1989
role: "Defense Systems Analysis Group clients named as the Belvoir Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Army Survivability Management Office"
fn: 22
---
Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, called WATCO in the parent's reports, was a technical consulting subsidiary of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] at [[Reston, Virginia]] and later [[Fairfax, Virginia]]. Its Florida corporation was filed on December 29, 1978, the day after Wackenhut announced the purchase of NUSAC, a nuclear safeguards consultancy founded in 1968 as the Nuclear Surveillance and Auditing Corporation; the corporation took the name WATCO in 1984 and Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc. in 1990, and the state dissolved it in 1994.[^1][^2]
### Nuclear Surveillance and Auditing Corporation, 1968 to 1978
[[Ralph F. Lumb]], president of the Nuclear Surveillance and Auditing Corporation, announced in 1975 that its stockholders had voted to change the name to NUSAC, Inc. He described the company as established in 1968 to provide surveillance and auditing services during fuel fabrication and reprocessing, with activities by then that included representation at the gaseous diffusion plants of the [[Energy Research and Development Administration]] on uranium hexafluoride procurement, quality assurance during fuel fabrication, and assistance on licensing matters including physical security. Its offices were at 7777 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, Virginia.[^3] Lumb had been the first chairman of the [[Institute of Nuclear Materials Management]] and had chaired the [[Atomic Energy Commission]] ad hoc committee on safeguarding special nuclear materials.[^4]
Papers by Lumb and [[Douglas E. George]] in 1972 give the corporation's address as Rockville, Maryland. In December 1973 the corporation, by then at Falls Church, was the originator of two draft standard formats for license applications for fuel reprocessing and certain special nuclear material facilities, one on the physical protection section (report number TID-26635) and one on the special nuclear materials control and accounting section (TID-26634).[^5]
A winter 1974 notice announced that [[Lawrence D. Low]] had been named a vice president for services in materials and plant protection. He had retired from the Atomic Energy Commission in June 1972 after 25 years, during which he had directed the Division of Compliance and, before 1960, the Division of Security at the commission's operations office in Aiken, South Carolina, during the design, construction and initial operation of the Savannah River plants.[^6] [[David G. Schofield]] joined in 1976 on leaving government service and by spring 1980 was senior vice president over the Security Programs and Computer Security Divisions, whose clients the company listed as including the [[Nuclear Regulatory Commission]], the [[Department of Energy]] and the [[United States Navy]]. [[Wilkins R. Smith]] joined in 1976 from [[Combustion Engineering]] and [[United Nuclear Corporation]].[^7]
### Purchase by Wackenhut, December 1978
An announcement datelined Coral Gables, Florida, December 28, stated that the Wackenhut Corporation had purchased for an undisclosed sum the assets of NUSAC, Inc., and that a newly formed wholly owned subsidiary, NUSAC, Incorporated, would be a Florida corporation with headquarters remaining at McLean, Virginia. [[George R. Wackenhut]] was quoted as saying "NUSAC is and will remain an independent firm," and Lumb continued as president.[^8] The Florida filing for the new corporation, document 599071, is dated December 29, 1978; its principal address is the Wackenhut headquarters at 1500 San Remo Avenue, [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]].[^2]
The NUSAC board in late 1979 consisted of George R. Wackenhut as chairman, Lumb, [[Myron S. Malkin]], then director of the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] Space Shuttle program, and [[Robert E. Miller]], executive vice president of [[Resource Science Corporation]]; the geographer [[Brian J. L. Berry]] of [[Harvard University]] was then elected to it.[^9] Staff appointments announced in 1979 included [[James P. Duffy, Jr.]], as manager of a computer security division, who came from the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], where he had managed data processing operations, and [[Jack E. Pevenstein]] as marketing director, from [[Planning Research Corporation]].[^9] The parent's annual report states that in 1979 NUSAC added an Environmental Assessments Division.[^10]
[[Dale A. Moul]] managed the Security Programs Division in 1981; he held a law degree from the University of Maryland and was responsible for NUSAC's security services for nuclear plants, reprocessing facilities, fuel fabrication plants and engineering laboratory facilities.[^11] A 1983 paper by Lumb, Messinger and Tingey describes work for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in which NUSAC visited seven nuclear fuel fabrication facilities to evaluate their handling of material accounting data, and the parent's annual report states that under contract to the commission NUSAC completed an Automated Material Accounting Statistics System and was testing it at seven commercial fuel fabricators. The annual report lists the commission and the [[Defense Nuclear Agency]] among NUSAC's clients.[^10][^12] A 1984 study by a NUSAC team for the commission's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research examined security actions during safety-related emergencies at nuclear power plants.[^13]
### Reorganization as WATCO, 1984
The Florida corporation changed its name from NUSAC, Incorporated, on May 8, 1984.[^2] The Journal of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management reported in spring 1984 that [[Ralph E. Caudle]], formerly director of the Department of Energy Office of Safeguards and Security, had been named president of Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, a newly created subsidiary based at Reston. Four Wackenhut services were merged into it: the Systems Division, the Advanced Technologies Division, the Security Programs Division and NUSAC, Incorporated, described as a former subsidiary producing quality assurance and approved training programs for the nuclear industry.[^14] Caudle, a retired Air Force colonel, had joined the Department of Energy in 1975 as director of the Division of Operations in the Office of Military Application and in 1981 became head of the Office of Safeguards and Security, responsible for protection of nuclear weapons materials and facilities and classified information.[^14] His obituary gives his years as president of WATCO as 1984 to 1987.[^15]
[[Brookhaven National Laboratory]] and WATCO were the performing organizations for a March 1985 report, NUREG/CR-4093, on safety and safeguards interactions during safety-related emergencies at nuclear power reactors, whose authors were Moul, [[M. K. Pilgrim]], [[R. L. Schweizer]] and [[J. E. McEwen, Jr.]][^16] A paper by [[M. B. Seaton]] in 1988 carries the affiliation Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, Fairfax, Virginia.[^17]
### Work in 1985 and 1986
The 1985 annual report describes WATCO as a wholly owned subsidiary at Reston and as a technical consulting firm offering a broad range of advanced security and engineering services to government and industry. Its services covered sensor design, signal processing, systems integration, robotics and mobile intrusion detection systems, special weapons systems security and technology transfer.[^18] The NUSAC division was described as a leader in nuclear material control and accounting, in its fifteenth year, providing quality assurance engineering and quality control to the power and energy industry, commercial and military manufacturers, regulators and government agencies.[^18]
The Security Programs Division was selected in 1985 to formulate the conceptual design for the security system of the nuclear device assembly facility to be built at the [[Nevada Test Site]] of the Department of Energy. The 1986 report states that the division was then selected to provide the design and engineering for that security system.[^18][^19] The division's work in 1985 included vulnerability analyses, risk analyses, security program conceptual design, training and qualification plans, contingency and emergency plans and cost effectiveness studies.[^18] The Systems Division worked on requirements analyses, system design, systems engineering, systems integration and training for advanced systems at high-level security installations.[^18] In 1986 the company was also selected for the security system conceptual analysis and design engineering of the National Training Center of the [[Foreign Service Institute]] of the [[United States Department of State|Department of State]], and completed a turnkey integrated perimeter and access control system for the federal government at an overseas location.[^19]
The Wackenhut annual report that covers 1984 states that the Department of Energy chose Wackenhut that year to establish and operate a Safeguards and Security Central Training Academy at Albuquerque, New Mexico, under a three-year, $5 million contract that [[Wackenhut Services, Inc.]] won against 92 companies. The same report states that Wackenhut had guarded the Nevada Test Site since 1965.[^20]
*[[Spy]]* magazine reported in 1992 that Wackenhut received contracts to guard the Nevada test site after the law firm of Senator [[George Smathers]] helped it find a loophole in the Pinkerton law. The magazine also reported that surveillance equipment found in an investigation by the Energy Department's inspector general's office was sent to a Department of Energy training center at Albuquerque, which it stated Wackenhut operates.[^21]
### The Applied Technologies Center, 1989 and 1990
The Florida corporation took the name Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc. on January 9, 1990.[^2] The annual report for 1989 lists the Center at Fairfax, Virginia, with [[Joseph A. Navarro]] as president, and describes four groups.[^22] The Systems Engineering and Integration Group supplied engineering, software and hardware integration for physical and electronic security systems. The Physical Security Concepts Group conducted surveys, wrote implementation plans and set safeguards standards for clients including the [[General Services Administration]], utility companies and the Department of Energy. The Safeguards Group provided quality assurance and quality control to the nuclear power industry. The Defense Systems Analysis Group studied the effectiveness and survivability of military systems, built models and simulations for military application, performed threat and mission analyses, conducted arms control studies and crisis management planning, provided testing and evaluation support and forecast the impact of technology on future weapons systems.[^22]
The report names the [[United States Army]] Belvoir Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Army Survivability Management Office among the Group's clients. It states that the Center's staff "apply their skills and background in military operations, requirements and intelligence to support the Department of Defense," and that the Center is located in the national capital region.[^22] In the same report Timothy P. Cole is listed as president of Wackenhut Services, Inc.[^22]
A 1989 Department of Defense technical report, "Guide to Camouflage for Developers, Volume 1" (114 pages, project number 170-002), lists as authors [[William Schilling]], [[Donald Farrar]], [[Robert D. Carpenter]], [[Stanley Johnson]], [[Champlin Buck]] and [[Nicholas Smith]], and its performing organization as Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, 10530 Rosehaven Street, Suite 500, Fairfax.[^23] The same address, with Robert D. Carpenter as addressee, appears for the Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center in the distribution list of a later Defense Technical Information Center report, "Survey of Vulnerability Methodological Needs."[^24]
In December 1989 [[Collins International Service Company]], the facilities manager of a United States government building at Reston and a subsidiary of [[Rockwell International]], asked [[Wackenhut International, Incorporated|Wackenhut International, Inc.]] for a proposal for the building's security system, and Wackenhut International assigned the resulting hardware subcontract with [[Sygnetron Protection Systems]] to the Center in March 1990. The client rejected the Center's proposal on June 18, 1990. A jury awarded the Center $100,000 in compensatory damages against Sygnetron and its parent [[De La Rue]] and $1,000,000 in punitive damages against De La Rue, which the district court reduced to $350,000 under Virginia's statutory cap; the Fourth Circuit affirmed on November 10, 1992, describing the Center as a subsidiary of Wackenhut International.[^25]
### Divestiture
The parent's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 1995, states that the Wackenhut Monitoring Systems and Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center divisions were sold or discontinued in 1993, and that the combined operating losses of the Center and Wackenhut Monitoring Systems, Inc. were approximately $2 million in that year. The subsidiary schedule in that filing does not list the company.[^26]
The Florida record shows annual reports filed on June 25, 1991, July 8, 1992 and May 1, 1993, and an administrative dissolution for failure to file an annual report on August 26, 1994.[^2] The last annual report lists George R. Wackenhut (title C), [[Richard Wackenhut]], [[Alan B. Bernstein]] and [[Timothy P. Cole]] (title D), [[Michael A. DiGregorio]] (treasurer) and [[Paul N. Brownell]] (assistant treasurer), with [[James P. Rowan]], the parent's vice president, general counsel and assistant secretary, as registered agent since November 3, 1987.[^2][^22] A Virginia entry for the Center, number F0346389, is listed by OpenCorporates as inactive.[^27]
### Newsletter notices and personnel
An undated Wackenhut newsletter describes WATCO as specializing in applied research and development in nuclear safeguards and security policy, programs and systems, and as working through its Security Programs Division with the [[Wackenhut Training Institute]]. It describes a Touchscreen Station that replaced multiple keystroke entries with single touch commands for alarms, access control, closed-circuit television and response forces, with [[Walt Chrobak]] as project manager.[^28] A notice in the newsletter congratulates [[Roy S. Lombardo]], [[Timothy S. McCune]] and [[Robert L. Schwaizor]] on earning Certified Protection Professional status and states that all three were former United States Army officers with law enforcement and other security-related experience.[^29]
From September 1987 the vice president for national security studies and programs at WATCO was [[James B. Motley]], a retired Army colonel. According to his resume in a June 1990 packet of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], he directed operational analyses and assessments of national security issues, with a primary interest in terrorism, special operations and low-intensity conflict.[^30]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Nuclear Materials Management (Journal of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management), vol. 4, no. 1 (Spring 1975), item "NUSAC" (name change announced by Ralph F. Lumb); vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1979), "Wackenhut Corporation Purchases NUSAC, Inc." https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_04/V-4_1.pdf and https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_08/V-8_1.pdf
[^2]: Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, "Detail by Entity Name" and "Name History," document 599071, Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc. (FEI 58-1346230; filed December 29, 1978; name change amendments of May 8, 1984, old name NUSAC, Incorporated, and January 9, 1990, old name Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation; annual reports 1991 to 1993; administrative dissolution August 26, 1994; officer and director list as shown on the detail page). https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResults/EntityName/WACKENHUT%20ADVANCED/Page1
[^3]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 4, no. 1 (Spring 1975), item "NUSAC." https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_04/V-4_1.pdf
[^4]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1979), "Wackenhut Corporation Purchases NUSAC, Inc." https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_08/V-8_1.pdf
[^5]: Office of Scientific and Technical Information catalog records: R. F. Lumb, "Safeguards issue," INMM annual meeting, Boston, May 31, 1972 (OSTI 4459698); D. E. George, "Contributions to National and International Safeguards Programs by Independent Technical Auditors" (OSTI 4694701); Nuclear Surveillance and Auditing Corp., Falls Church, drafts Report No. 139 and Report No. 141, December 1973 (OSTI 4257532 and 4283735). https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4459698
[^6]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 2, no. 4 (Winter 1974), "Low Named NuSAC Vice President." https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_02/V-2_4.pdf
[^7]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1980), announcement of appointments by Lumb as president of NUSAC, Incorporated, McLean, Virginia. https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_09/V-9_1.pdf
[^8]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1979), "Wackenhut Corporation Purchases NUSAC, Inc." and "Steve Barrett Joins NUSAC, Inc." Sole source for the quoted statement is the announcement issued in the parent's name. https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_08/V-8_1.pdf
[^9]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 8, no. 3 (Fall 1979), "Three NUSAC Appointments"; vol. 8, no. 4 (Winter 1979-1980), item on the election of Brian J. L. Berry to the NUSAC board. https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_08/V-8_3.pdf and https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_08/V-8_4.pdf
[^10]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual reports of about 1979 to 1982, sections on NUSAC, Incorporated, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^11]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 1981), "Personnel" (Dale A. Moul; Darrell A. Hyde of Union Carbide Nuclear Division joining NUSAC effective May 1). https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_10/V-10_1.pdf
[^12]: R. F. Lumb, M. Messinger and F. H. Tingey, "Observations concerning licensee practices in error propagation" and "Augmented Automated Material Accounting Statistics System (AMASS)," INMM annual meeting, July 1983 (OSTI 6647869 and 6647870). https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6647869
[^13]: D. A. Moul, "Security during safety-related emergencies at nuclear power plants," NUSAC, Incorporated, Reston, July 1984 (OSTI 6470439). https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6470439
[^14]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1984), "Ralph E. Caudle Heads Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation." https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_13/V-13_1.pdf
[^15]: Obituary of Ralph E. Caudle, Sr., Colonel, USAF (Ret.), January 5, 1927 to October 26, 2007, Pumphrey Funeral Homes, Rockville, Maryland. https://www.pumphreyfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Ralph-E-Caudle-Sr-COL-USAF-Ret?obId=2465865
[^16]: D. A. Moul, M. K. Pilgrim, R. L. Schweizer and J. E. McEwen, Jr., "Safety/safeguards interactions during safety-related emergencies at Nuclear Power Reactor Facilities," NUREG/CR-4093, BNL-NUREG-51848, March 1985 (OSTI 5714785). https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5714785
[^17]: M. B. Seaton, "Security force effectiveness and technology," conference paper CONF-880631, 1988 (OSTI 6463677). https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6463677
[^18]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual report for 1985, sections on Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, NUSAC and the Security Programs and Systems divisions, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^19]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual report for 1986, same sections, same folder.
[^20]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual report covering 1984, passages on the Safeguards and Security Central Training Academy and the Nevada Test Site, same folder.
[^21]: John Connolly, "Inside the Shadow CIA," *Spy,* September 1992, pp. 46-54. Sole source for the passages so cited. https://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm
[^22]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual report in the same folder, pages on the Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center and the lists of officers and major subsidiaries. The report's last pages carry the 1989 results and a first-quarter 1990 interim report; it is placed here as the 1989 report. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^23]: Defense Technical Information Center, accession ADA216700, "Guide to Camouflage for Developers, Volume 1," 1989, citation and search record (authors; performing organization Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corp., Fairfax, Virginia; 114 pages). https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA216700
[^24]: Defense Technical Information Center, accession ADA243669, "Survey of Vulnerability Methodological Needs," distribution list. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA243669.pdf
[^25]: *Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc. v. Sygnetron Protection Systems, Inc.,* 979 F.2d 980 (4th Cir. 1992), Nos. 91-1656 to 91-1657, decided November 10, 1992. https://static.case.law/f2d/979/cases/0980-01.json
[^26]: The Wackenhut Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 1995, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 23, 1995, management's discussion of 1994 and 1993 results and Exhibit 21. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/104030/0000912057-95-001626.txt
[^27]: OpenCorporates, Virginia entry F0346389, Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center Inc., status inactive. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_va/F0346389
[^28]: Wackenhut newsletter (titled *Pipeline* in the scan), undated issue, passages on The Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation and the Touchscreen Station, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Newsletters," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^29]: Same newsletter, notice "New CPP's at WATCO." The third name is printed as "Robed L Schwaizor" in the scan text. Same folder.
[^30]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," fax copy with header "JUN 20 '90," pages 141 P10 and 141 P11 (Motley entry), Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.

47
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Wackenhut Corporation.md
View file

@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ relations:
- type: owned
with: "[[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]]"
role: "wholly owned subsidiary at Reston, Virginia"
fn: 36
fn: 39
---
Wackenhut Corporation is a security and investigative firm founded in 1954 by [[George R. Wackenhut]] and three other former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] Special Agents. Initially named [[Special Agent Investigators]], it expanded to physical security and was renamed Wackenhut Corporation in 1958. Headquartered in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], [[Florida]], Wackenhut grew to become one of the world's largest security and investigative firms, with operations across the United States and internationally. The [[San Francisco]] Chronicle described it as being "led by former officials of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, Defense Department and federal law enforcement."[^1][^2]
@ -120,13 +120,17 @@ Wackenhut was very active in [[El Salvador]] during the Contra war, providing em
A particularly controversial aspect of Wackenhut's operations was its joint venture with the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation|Cabazon Indian tribe]] in Indio, California. Formalized on April 1, 1981, this partnership aimed to leverage the sovereign nation status of the Indian reservation to bypass federal jurisdiction and congressional prohibitions on arms exports. The venture, known as "[[Cabazon Arms]]," sought to establish a production facility for high-tech armaments and explosives for export to third-world countries, including the [[Contras]] in Nicaragua and nations in the [[Middle East]]. The firm was using the Cabazon reservation's tax-exempt status and its freedom from federal oversight to gain a competitive advantage in soliciting federal weapons projects.[^1][^2]
[[Dr. John Nichols]], the Cabazon tribal administrator and a former CIA agent who claimed experience going back to the Chilean destabilization program in the 1970s, secured a [[Department of Defense]] secret facility clearance for the reservation. He then proposed to Wackenhut the manufacture of various weapons systems, including 120mm combustible cartridge cases, 9mm machine pistols, laser-sighted assault weapons, sniper rifles, and portable rocket systems. The venture also explored the development of biological weapons. [[Michael Riconosciuto]] served as the Director of Research for this joint venture, and was involved in meetings with figures like [[Robert Frye]] (Wackenhut VP), [[John P. Nichols]], and [[Peter Zokosky]], and [[Dr. Harry Fair]] of the U.S. Army's Railgun Project at Picatinny Arsenal, where Riconosciuto's scientific expertise was noted.[^1]
[[Dr. John Nichols]], the Cabazon tribal administrator and a former CIA agent who claimed experience going back to the Chilean destabilization program in the 1970s, secured a [[Department of Defense]] secret facility clearance for the reservation. He then proposed to Wackenhut the manufacture of various weapons systems, including 120mm combustible cartridge cases, 9mm machine pistols, laser-sighted assault weapons, sniper rifles, and portable rocket systems. The venture also explored the development of biological weapons. [[Michael Riconosciuto]] stated in a March 21, 1991 affidavit that he was Director of Research for this joint venture; the Bua report found no evidence that he was employed by Wackenhut or the joint venture.[^33][^34] He described meetings with figures like [[Robert Frye]] (president of Wackenhut Services, Inc.), John P. Nichols, and [[Peter Zokosky]], and [[Dr. Harry Fair]] of the U.S. Army's Railgun Project at Picatinny Arsenal, where Riconosciuto's scientific expertise was noted.[^1]
Spy reported in 1992 that Bruce Berckmans, assigned to the CIA station in Mexico City, left the agency in January 1975 "(putatively)" to become a Wackenhut international-operations vice president and left Wackenhut in 1981. According to Spy, Berckmans joined other senior Wackenhut executives in 1981 to form the company's Special Projects Division, which linked up with Nichols at the Cabazon reservation.[^35] Spy also reported that [[Eden Pastora]], seen at a night-vision test at a firing range near the reservation with Nichols and a Wackenhut executive, identified that executive, Robert Frye, as "the man from the CIA," and that Pastora later said in a conversation that he did not know Frye.[^35]
The 1993 report of Judge [[Nicholas J. Bua]] for the Department of Justice states that Frye, then president of Wackenhut Services, Inc., responded for Wackenhut when the Cabazon Security Corporation solicited capability statements in early 1981, that the April 1981 joint venture agreement was signed by Frye and by Tribal Chairman Arthur Welmas, and that the joint venture had no employees. It states that the only individual employed by Wackenhut was Frye and that the investigators found "no evidence to support Riconosciuto's claim that he and Earl Brian were employed by Wackenhut or by the joint venture."[^33] The report also states that the firms Michael Riconosciuto named in a call to the Hamiltons, Wackenhut Research, Inc., and Wackenhut Security, Inc., "do not exist."[^33] Riconosciuto's March 21, 1991 affidavit, which the report summarizes, states that he was director of research for the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture and that he modified PROMIS software for Wackenhut in 1983 and 1984.[^34]
### PROMIS Software Modification
Within the Cabazon Joint Venture, Michael Riconosciuto claimed to have modified the proprietary [[PROMIS]] computer software. This modification, allegedly spearheaded by [[Earl Brian]] and made available through [[Peter Videnieks]] of the [[Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]], was intended to facilitate the worldwide implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Riconosciuto's affidavit detailed his work on the software, including specific modifications for the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] and the [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]] in [[Canada]]. This alleged pirating and modification of the PROMIS software became a central component of the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]].[^1]
It was here that the "trap door" was built into the U.S. version of PROMIS, based on [[Israel|Israeli]] information. This operation was conducted by a small CIA group, headed by [[Robert Gates]], who sought to keep it secret from the NSA due to interagency competition.[^33]
It was here that the "trap door" was built into the U.S. version of PROMIS, based on [[Israel|Israeli]] information. This operation was conducted by a small CIA group, headed by [[Robert Gates]], who sought to keep it secret from the NSA due to interagency competition.[^36]
### Danny Casolaro Investigation
@ -138,15 +142,19 @@ Beyond the Cabazon venture, Wackenhut was also implicated in other international
### Epstein
On July 13, 2009, [[Story Cowles]] wrote to [[Jeffrey Epstein]]: "Would you like to meet the wackenhut security candidates at your house, FSF or Jacks office. Friday is best for them." Epstein replied: "jacks off."[^34] A 24-page set of security officer reports on forms headed "G4S Wackenhut" covers the post at "358 El Brillo," Epstein's house in [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]]; one report, for the night shift of November 16, 2009, marks the officer as armed and records hourly perimeter checks, an office door found ajar and a gym door open, and the officer monitoring the main entrance.[^35]
On July 13, 2009, [[Story Cowles]] wrote to [[Jeffrey Epstein]]: "Would you like to meet the wackenhut security candidates at your house, FSF or Jacks office. Friday is best for them." Epstein replied: "jacks off."[^37] A 24-page set of security officer reports on forms headed "G4S Wackenhut" covers the post at "358 El Brillo," Epstein's house in [[Palm Beach, Florida|Palm Beach]]; one report, for the night shift of November 16, 2009, marks the officer as armed and records hourly perimeter checks, an office door found ajar and a gym door open, and the officer monitoring the main entrance.[^38]
### Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation
[[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]] (WATCO) was a wholly owned subsidiary at Reston, Virginia, which the corporation's annual reports for 1985 and 1986 describe as a unique technical consulting firm offering advanced security and engineering services to government and industry, including sensor design, signal processing, systems integration, robotics and mobile intrusion detection systems, special weapons systems security and technology transfer. It contained the NUSAC division (nuclear material control and accounting, quality assurance), a Security Programs division and a Systems division.[^36] The 1985 report states that the Security Programs division was selected to formulate the conceptual design of the security system for the nuclear device assembly facility to be built at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site; the 1986 report adds selection for the security system conceptual analysis and design engineering of the new National Training Center of the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute, and completion of a turnkey integrated perimeter and access control system for the federal government at an overseas location.[^36]
[[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]] (WATCO) was a wholly owned subsidiary at Reston, Virginia, which the corporation's annual reports for 1985 and 1986 describe as a unique technical consulting firm offering advanced security and engineering services to government and industry, including sensor design, signal processing, systems integration, robotics and mobile intrusion detection systems, special weapons systems security and technology transfer. It contained the NUSAC division (nuclear material control and accounting, quality assurance), a Security Programs division and a Systems division.[^39] The 1985 report states that the Security Programs division was selected to formulate the conceptual design of the security system for the nuclear device assembly facility to be built at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site; the 1986 report adds selection for the security system conceptual analysis and design engineering of the new National Training Center of the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute, and completion of a turnkey integrated perimeter and access control system for the federal government at an overseas location.[^39]
A Wackenhut newsletter describes WATCO as specializing in applied research and development in nuclear safeguards and security policy, programs and systems, places it beside Stellar Systems, Inc., of Santa Clara, California, and states that its Security Programs Division worked with the Wackenhut Training Institute. WATCO developed a Touchscreen Station, a security station replacing multiple keystroke entries with single touch commands for alarms, access control, closed-circuit television and other sensors, and the newsletter notes that three WATCO officers, each a former Army officer with law enforcement or security experience, earned Certified Protection Professional status in the same year.[^37] A Wackenhut nuclear services brochure in the same papers also lists a Wackenhut Anti-Terrorism and Crisis Management Division.[^38]
The Florida corporation behind it, document 599071, was filed on December 29, 1978, the day after the corporation announced that it had bought the assets of NUSAC, Inc., a nuclear safeguards consultancy founded in 1968 as the Nuclear Surveillance and Auditing Corporation and headed by [[Ralph F. Lumb]]. It was renamed Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation on May 8, 1984, Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc. on January 9, 1990, and dissolved administratively on August 26, 1994.[^40][^41] In spring 1984 the Journal of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management reported that [[Ralph E. Caudle]], formerly director of the Department of Energy's Office of Safeguards and Security, had been named WATCO's president and that the Systems Division, Advanced Technologies Division, Security Programs Division and NUSAC had been merged into it.[^42]
From September 1987 WATCO's vice president for national security studies and programs was [[James B. Motley]], a retired Army colonel who in 1984 and 1985 had been director of terrorist research and low-intensity conflict studies at the [[National Institute for Public Policy]]. A June 20, 1990 resume packet of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], the Washington firm of the former FBI counterterrorism supervisor [[Carter Cornick]] and the Letelier prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]], lists him as an associate of that firm and states that at WATCO he directs operational analyses and assessments of national security issues.[^39]
The Wackenhut annual report covering 1984 states that the Department of Energy chose Wackenhut that year to establish and operate a Safeguards and Security Central Training Academy at Albuquerque under a three-year, $5 million contract that Wackenhut Services, Inc., won against 92 companies, and that Wackenhut had guarded the Nevada Test Site since 1965.[^43] An annual report for 1989 lists Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc., at Fairfax, Virginia, with Joseph A. Navarro as president and with a Defense Systems Analysis Group serving the Army's Belvoir Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Army Survivability Management Office.[^44] A Defense Technical Information Center record lists the Fairfax company as the performing organization for a 1989 "Guide to Camouflage for Developers."[^45] The Fourth Circuit described the Center in 1992 as a subsidiary of Wackenhut International, Inc.[^46] The corporation's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 1995, states that the Wackenhut Monitoring Systems and Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center divisions were sold or discontinued in 1993, with combined operating losses of about $2 million that year.[^47]
A Wackenhut newsletter describes WATCO as specializing in applied research and development in nuclear safeguards and security policy, programs and systems, places it beside Stellar Systems, Inc., of Santa Clara, California, and states that its Security Programs Division worked with the Wackenhut Training Institute. WATCO developed a Touchscreen Station, a security station replacing multiple keystroke entries with single touch commands for alarms, access control, closed-circuit television and other sensors, and the newsletter notes that three WATCO officers, each a former Army officer with law enforcement or security experience, earned Certified Protection Professional status in the same year.[^48] A Wackenhut nuclear services brochure in the same papers also lists a Wackenhut Anti-Terrorism and Crisis Management Division.[^49]
From September 1987 WATCO's vice president for national security studies and programs was [[James B. Motley]], a retired Army colonel who in 1984 and 1985 had been director of terrorist research and low-intensity conflict studies at the [[National Institute for Public Policy]]. A June 20, 1990 resume packet of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], the Washington firm of the former FBI counterterrorism supervisor [[Carter Cornick]] and the Letelier prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]], lists him as an associate of that firm and states that at WATCO he directs operational analyses and assessments of national security issues.[^50]
### End of Wackenhut
@ -186,10 +194,21 @@ The Wackenhut/Cabazon Joint Venture was terminated on October 1, 1984, following
[^30]: Golrick, Philip D. Memorandum to David G. Marwell, "Phone Conversation with Joseph Oster," January 19, 1996, and letters and subpoena to Southern Research Company, Assassination Records Review Board electronic files of Philip G. Golrick (OSTER.WPD, SOURES.WPD); Central Intelligence Agency, report of investigation, September 13, 1960, JFK record 104-10109-10379, p. 14; Orleans Parish Grand Jury, testimony of Arthur Bidderson, January 9, 1969; Assassination Records Review Board, file inventory (082395.WPD). All consulted at the Mary Ferrell Foundation archive.
[^31]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Intelligence Division, informative note, April 14, 1967, JFK record 124-10369-10048; Assassination Records Review Board, public hearing transcript, testimony of James DiEugenio, p. 89; FBI Miami, memorandum of May 10, 1967, headquarters file 62-109060, section 129, p. 166.
[^32]: Osborn, Howard J. Memorandum for the record, November 8, 1967, JFK record 104-10133-10076.
[^33]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
[^34]: Epstein, Jeffrey, reply to Story Cowles, "Re: Wackenhut," email, July 13, 2009, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01829732. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01829732.pdf
[^35]: G4S Wackenhut, Security Officer Reports, client facility "358 El Brillo," November 2009, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01157725. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01157725.pdf
[^36]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual reports for 1985 and 1986, sections on Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^37]: Wackenhut newsletter (titled *Pipeline* in the scan), undated issue, passages on The Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, WATCO's Touchscreen Station and "New CPP's at WATCO," Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Newsletters," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^38]: Wackenhut Corporation, nuclear services brochure, undated, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut - Newsletters," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files.
[^39]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," fax copy dated June 20, 1990, pages 141 P10 and 141 P11, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^33]: United States Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, report of Judge Nicholas J. Bua on the INSLAW matter (1993), section on the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture, printed pp. 55 to 58 and footnotes 32 and 35. Official finding, placed as the position of the body that issued it. https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/DOJ-OIP-INSLAW_1993.pdf
[^34]: Report of Judge Nicholas J. Bua on the INSLAW matter (1993), printed pp. 42 to 43 (March 21, 1991 affidavit, paragraph 44 as quoted).
[^35]: John Connolly, "Inside the Shadow CIA," *Spy,* September 1992, pp. 46-54. Sole source for the Special Projects Division passage and the Pastora identification and retraction. https://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm
[^36]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
[^37]: Epstein, Jeffrey, reply to Story Cowles, "Re: Wackenhut," email, July 13, 2009, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01829732. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01829732.pdf
[^38]: G4S Wackenhut, Security Officer Reports, client facility "358 El Brillo," November 2009, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01157725. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01157725.pdf
[^39]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual reports for 1985 and 1986, sections on Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^40]: Nuclear Materials Management (Journal of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management), vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1979), "Wackenhut Corporation Purchases NUSAC, Inc."; vol. 4, no. 1 (Spring 1975), "NUSAC" (company established 1968 as the Nuclear Surveillance and Auditing Corporation). https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_08/V-8_1.pdf and https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_04/V-4_1.pdf
[^41]: Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, "Detail by Entity Name" and "Name History," document 599071. https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResults/EntityName/WACKENHUT%20ADVANCED/Page1
[^42]: Nuclear Materials Management, vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1984), "Ralph E. Caudle Heads Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation." https://resources.inmm.org/system/files/jnmm/vol_13/V-13_1.pdf
[^43]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual report covering 1984, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (passages on the Safeguards and Security Central Training Academy and the Nevada Test Site).
[^44]: The Wackenhut Corporation, annual report placed as 1989, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-CompanyReportsannualQuarterly," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (the last pages carry 1989 results and a first-quarter 1990 interim report), pages on the Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center and the list of major subsidiaries.
[^45]: Defense Technical Information Center, accession ADA216700, citation record. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA216700
[^46]: Wackenhut Applied Technologies Center, Inc. v. Sygnetron Protection Systems, Inc., 979 F.2d 980 (4th Cir. 1992). https://static.case.law/f2d/979/cases/0980-01.json
[^47]: The Wackenhut Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 1995, filed March 23, 1995. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/104030/0000912057-95-001626.txt
[^48]: Wackenhut newsletter (titled *Pipeline* in the scan), undated issue, passages on The Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation, WATCO's Touchscreen Station and "New CPP's at WATCO," Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut-Newsletters," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
[^49]: Wackenhut Corporation, nuclear services brochure, undated, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Wackenhut - Newsletters," https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files.
[^50]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," fax copy dated June 20, 1990, pages 141 P10 and 141 P11, Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.