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---
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aliases:
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- Black Diamond Capital Management, LLC
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- Black Diamond Capital Management, L.L.C.
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- Black Diamond Capital
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- BDCM
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category: "Private Organization"
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tags:
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- Company
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- Finance
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- HedgeFund
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- DistressedDebt
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- CollateralizedLoanObligations
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- FormADV
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- VirginIslands
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- EconomicDevelopmentCommission
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summary: "Black Diamond Capital Management is the credit and distressed-investment adviser founded in 1995 by Stephen H. Deckoff, with a St. Thomas principal office and about 10.7 billion dollars under management."
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location: "St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Stamford, Connecticut"
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relations:
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Stephen Deckoff]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1995
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role: "founder"
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fn: 1
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Stephen Deckoff]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "managing principal (Form ADV Schedule A)"
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fn: 3
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created: 2026-10-08
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updated: 2026-10-08
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---
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Black Diamond Capital Management is a registered investment adviser that manages credit, stressed and distressed debt, collateralized loan obligations, and private equity funds. The firm was founded in 1995 by [[Stephen Deckoff]], who is its managing principal.[^1][^2]
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### Registration and offices
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The firm has been registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission|U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] since August 10, 2010. Its state notice filings are dated August 10, 2010 for Connecticut and April 1, 2013 for the Virgin Islands. Its most recent Form ADV Part 1A was filed on July 13, 2026.[^3]
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The principal office in the filing is 5330 Yacht Haven Grande, Suite 100, in [[St. Thomas]], [[U.S. Virgin Islands]]. The mailing address is in [[Stamford, Connecticut]]. Other offices listed in Schedule D Section 1.F are in [[London]], Stamford (two entries), Addison, Windsor, Santa Clara, and [[Grand Cayman]].[^4]
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### Assets and ownership
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Item 5.F of the filing reports total regulatory assets under management of 10,714,142,774 dollars.[^3] The firm's website, as archived in 2020, stated that it managed over 8 billion dollars.[^1] Forbes reported in 2023 that the Stamford-based company managed some 9 billion dollars in assets.[^2]
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Schedule A lists Deckoff as managing principal and a control person with an ownership code of E, meaning 75 percent or more. It lists [[Mounir Nahas]] as chief operating officer with an ownership code of B, meaning 10 percent to less than 25 percent, and [[Mitchell Goldfarb]] as general counsel and chief compliance officer from May 2026.[^3]
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Schedule B lists [[SD Investments|SD Investments, LLC]], a domestic entity, as a member of [[Black Diamond Capital Holdings]] with an ownership code of E, dated October 2006. It lists Deckoff as a member of SD Investments with an ownership code of E, dated February 1997.[^3] The filing's firm record also lists [[Black Diamond Holdings, LLLP]] and [[Black Diamond Advisors, LLLP]] among the names under which the firm and its relying advisers appear, and a Schedule D ownership table lists Black Diamond Advisors, LLLP as a member with an ownership code of E, dated November 2021, under CRD number 290531.[^3]
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### Affiliates in the Virgin Islands
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The Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority's fiscal 2016 annual report lists Black Diamond Advisors, LLLP and Black Diamond Holding, LLLP among site visits for beneficiaries of the [[Economic Development Commission]] program.[^5] The fiscal 2023 report lists certificate orientations on February 7, 2023 for Black Diamond Advisors, LLC and Black Diamond Holdings, LLC, both recorded as modifications on St. Thomas.[^5] [[Suzanne Carlson]] reported in February 2026 that the two companies had received tax-incentive benefits from the commission since 2012.[^6]
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### PTC Alliance Acquisition, 2009
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In October 2009, [[PTC Alliance]] filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Funds managed by the firm, identified as the pre-petition term lenders, signed an asset purchase agreement to act as stalking horse bidder for substantially all of the company's assets under Section 363. Deckoff, as managing principal, described the proposed transaction as establishing "a new corporation with a stronger balance sheet and lower cost structure."[^7]
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### Schedule 13D filings
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The firm (CIK 0001282197) and Stephen Deckoff filed Amendment No. 3 to a Schedule 13D for [[Consumer Portfolio Services]] (event date March 10, 2022) reporting 4,647,042 shares, 22.05 percent of the class, and an Amendment No. 1 for [[KVH Industries]] (event date February 3, 2023) reporting 3,298,597 shares, 17.20 percent. The KVH filing states that the company's board agreed in a cooperation agreement to nominate Deckoff as a Class III director. The EDGAR index also lists Schedule 13G filings by the firm for [[Hawaiian Telcom Holdco]], [[Viasystems Group]], Saratoga Investment Corp and Canterbury Park Holding Corp, and Form D notices for its funds.[^8]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Black Diamond Capital Management, "About," archived page, Wayback Machine snapshot dated 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/2020/http://www.bdcm.com/about.html
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[^2]: Chang, Richard J. "Exclusive: Billionaire Investor Buys Jeffrey Epstein's Private Islands For $60 Million." *Forbes,* May 2023. U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02810216, copy filed as Exhibit 29 to document 226-30, *Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.,* No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.). https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank,%20N.A.,%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/EFTA02810216.pdf
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[^3]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, firm record for Black Diamond Capital Management (firm ID 154495, Form ADV filing dated July 13, 2026), including Part 1A Items 1.F, 1.G and 5.F, Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule D ownership tables and the firm's other-names list. https://api.adviserinfo.sec.gov/search/firm/154495 and https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/154495/PDF/154495.pdf
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[^4]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Form ADV Part 1A, Schedule D Section 1.F (other offices), firm ID 154495, 2026 filing. https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/154495/PDF/154495.pdf
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[^5]: Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority, *FY 2016 Annual Report,* Table 3, Site Visits, p. 30, https://usvieda.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/2016_EDA_Annual_Report_FINAL.pdf ; *FY 2023 Annual Report,* Certificate Orientations, pp. 24 to 25, https://usvieda.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2023-Annual-Report_Revised-Apr-4-2025.pdf
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[^6]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Still no resort plans for Epstein's islands purchased by Deckoff." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 6, 2026. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/still-no-resort-plans-for-epsteins-islands-purchased-by-deckoff/article_84d776de-8427-4080-a1b5-6cf81418e23d.html
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[^7]: "PTC Alliance Files for Chapter 11 Protection." Association for Iron & Steel Technology, posted October 2, 2009. https://www.aist.org/ptc-alliance-files-for-chapter-11-protection
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[^8]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Schedule 13D/A accessions 0001140361-22-009441 (Consumer Portfolio Services) and 0001140361-23-004863 (KVH Industries), and EDGAR full-text search for "Black Diamond Capital Management," October 8, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1007587/000114036123004863/brhc10047604_sc13da.htm
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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
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- Cali Drug Cartel
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- Cali Cartel
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created: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-08
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category: "Organized Crime"
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tags:
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- Organization
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@ -24,13 +24,15 @@ The cartel laundered its substantial profits through various channels, notably M
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Investigations into the Cali Cartel frequently intersected with U.S. government operations and intelligence activities. [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela]] and [[Jose Santacruz Londono]] were significant targets of a major [[DEA|DEA]] Centac investigation, which led to their indictments in Los Angeles and New York in 1978. However, these cases reportedly did not progress beyond the indictment phase, and the Centac 21 task force was dismantled during the [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[George H.W. Bush]] administrations, leading to suspicions among disgruntled [[DEA|DEA]] agents of a [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] connection.[^1]
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In 1992 Salvadoran authorities arrested members of a group that had taken five 500-pound bombs from a battalion at the San Salvador airport. [[Semana]] reported on April 12, 1992 that the arrested men, among them a Salvadoran army colonel, [[Roberto Antonio Leiva Jacobo]], confessed that they had been hired by members of the Cali cartel, who paid four million dollars for the bombs, and that a Salvadoran government source said the bombs were meant for a plan to kill [[Pablo Escobar]] in the [[Envigado]] prison.[^4] Gary Webb reported that [[Enrique Miranda]] doubted [[Marcos Aguado]]'s boasts of flying weapons to the cartels until a Salvadoran Air Force colonel and his associates were arrested in 1992 for selling bombs and high explosives to Colombian drug dealers.[^5]
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### Connection to the Contras
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The cartel's connection to the Contra drug network ran through Meneses's organization on the [[United States|U.S.]] West Coast and through direct payments to the [[Contras]]. During the [[Manuel Noriega|Noriega]] trial, former [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín]] cartel transportation boss [[Carlos Lehder]] confirmed under oath that the cartel had given the Contras $10 million. Ramon Milian-Rodriguez, a graduate of Santa Clara University, testified before the [[John Kerry|Kerry]] Committee that he used his firm to launder that $10 million donation, which he said was arranged by and paid to former [[Central Intelligence Agency]] agent [[Felix Rodriguez]], a [[Cuba|Cuban]] veteran of the [[Bay of Pigs|Bay of Pigs]].[^4]
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The cartel's connection to the Contra drug network ran through Meneses's organization on the [[United States|U.S.]] West Coast and through direct payments to the [[Contras]]. During the [[Manuel Noriega|Noriega]] trial, former [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín]] cartel transportation boss [[Carlos Lehder]] confirmed under oath that the cartel had given the Contras $10 million. Ramon Milian-Rodriguez, a graduate of Santa Clara University, testified before the [[John Kerry|Kerry]] Committee that he used his firm to launder that $10 million donation, which he said was arranged by and paid to former [[Central Intelligence Agency]] agent [[Felix Rodriguez]], a [[Cuba|Cuban]] veteran of the [[Bay of Pigs|Bay of Pigs]].[^6]
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### Connection to the Dark Alliance Network
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[[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s supplier [[Aparicio Moreno]] was a Colombian with reported ties to both the [[FDN]] and the CIA.[^2] Webb wrote that [[Rafael Cornejo]] was involved in a major cocaine pipeline running from Cali to several West Coast cities. The Meneses organization's supply chain originated with the Colombian cartels.[^4]
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[[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s supplier [[Aparicio Moreno]] was a Colombian with reported ties to both the [[FDN]] and the CIA.[^2] Webb wrote that [[Rafael Cornejo]] was involved in a major cocaine pipeline running from Cali to several West Coast cities. The Meneses organization's supply chain originated with the Colombian cartels.[^6]
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### Intelligence Connections
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@ -52,4 +54,6 @@ Historically, during [[Jimmy Carter]]'s presidency, his human rights foreign pol
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
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[^2]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Prologue: "It was like they didn't want to know"
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[^3]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Cast of Characters
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[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 12: "This guy talks to God"
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[^4]: "¿Bombas contra Escobar?", *Semana*, April 12, 1992, https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/bombas-contra-escobar/17208-3. Sole source for the 1992 bomb-case details; the Cali cartel buyers are Semana's report of the arrested men's confessions and of an unnamed Salvadoran government source.
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[^5]: Gary Webb, *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion* (Seven Stories Press, 1998), Chapter 13, "The wrong kind of friends," and Cast of Characters. Sole source for the passages so cited.
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[^6]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 12: "This guy talks to God"
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@ -1,15 +1,19 @@
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---
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aliases:
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- FIDCO
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- First Intercontinental Development Corp.
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Company
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- FrontCompany
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- NSC
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- NSA
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- PROMIS
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category: "Private Organization"
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updated: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-10-08
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summary: "First Intercontinental Development Corporation was a company whose board of directors included prominent figures with ties to government and intelligence, and it was reportedly a National Security Council cutout."
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---
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[[First Intercontinental Development Corporation|FIDCO]] was a company whose board of directors included prominent figures with ties to government and intelligence, and it was reportedly a [[National Security Council|NSC]] cutout. It figures in [[Danny Casolaro]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" investigation.[^1]
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First Intercontinental Development Corporation (FIDCO) was a company whose board of directors included prominent figures with ties to government and intelligence, and it was reportedly a [[National Security Council|NSC]] cutout. It figures in [[Danny Casolaro]]'s "[[The Octopus]]" investigation.[^1]
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### Board of Directors
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@ -27,11 +31,19 @@ The Board of Directors of FIDCO consisted of individuals with significant backgr
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### Activities and Allegations
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FIDCO was reportedly used as a NSC cutout in [[Lebanon]] to arrange the release of a prisoner. According to Seymour, letters of the summer of 1983 between Michael A. McManus and George K. Pender concerned FIDCO's role in Lebanon. A follow-up letter from George K. Pender to [[Amin Gamayel]], the president of Lebanon, indicated that transactions could be telexed to Robert Booth Nichols' address. The Arab Bank Limited in Amman, [[Jordan]], responded positively to a potential financial transaction of "US$ three billion or more" for the reconstruction of Lebanon.[^1]
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FIDCO was reportedly used as a NSC cutout in [[Lebanon]] to arrange the release of a prisoner. [[Peter Zokosky]] told Seymour in 2001 that FIDCO was an "NSA front corporation used in Lebanon," that its directors "contracted" with Nichols, and that he had been on it "briefly."[^2] According to Seymour, letters of the summer of 1983 between Michael A. McManus and George K. Pender concerned FIDCO's role in Lebanon. A follow-up letter from George K. Pender to [[Amin Gamayel]], the president of Lebanon, indicated that transactions could be telexed to Robert Booth Nichols' address. The Arab Bank Limited in Amman, [[Jordan]], responded positively to a potential financial transaction of "US$ three billion or more" for the reconstruction of Lebanon.[^1]
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[[Michael Riconosciuto]] claimed that FIDCO was a NSC corporate cutout and that he was a technical advisor for the organization. He also stated that FIDCO had a companion company called Euramae Trading, which operated throughout the [[Middle East]] and was involved in the drug trade, allegedly as a NSC-directed operation.[^1]
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Robert Booth Nichols used FIDCO to verify his credibility in proposed arms projects, including the construction of an R&D facility for weapons systems on the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]]. Michael Riconosciuto also claimed that Robert Booth Nichols was involved in illicit activities through FIDCO, including attempting to take embargoed technology out of the United States.[^1]
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### Nevada Charter Record
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The filing index of Nevada charter C417-1961 lists an amendment on August 7, 1984 under the name First Intercontinental Development Corporation, with authorized stock of 10,000,000 shares at one cent par. The same charter's earlier amendments read Nevada Real Estate Investment Corporation (1972), Harbor Resources Incorporated (1979) and Western Smelting & Refining, Inc. (1982); its current record is under the name [[Meridian International Logistics]], Inc., Robert Booth Nichols's holding company, with annual lists filed from 1998 to 2002, a 1992 registered agent in Las Vegas, and the status "Permanently Revoked."[^3] A separate California stock corporation named First Intercontinental Development Corporation (number 0871867) shows Franchise Tax Board suspensions in 1983, 1994 and 2000.[^4]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. Sole source. The company is not mentioned in the House Judiciary Committee's report of 1992 or in the Justice Department's reports of 1993 and 1994 on the INSLAW affair.
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. Sole source.
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[^2]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010, chapter 22, interview of Peter Zokosky, February 14, 2001. Sole source.
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[^3]: OpenCorporates, record and filing list for Meridian International Logistics, Inc., Nevada company C417-1961 (retrieved October 8, 2026). https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_nv/C417-1961/filings
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[^4]: OpenCorporates, record for First Intercontinental Development Corporation, California company 0871867 (retrieved October 8, 2026). https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ca/0871867
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@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ The Wall Street Journal reported on June 21, 2025 that Davis, "for years ... was
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The July 26, 2023 hearing of a subcommittee of the [[House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform|House Oversight Committee]], at which [[David Grusch]] testified under oath to "a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program," names no company in its transcript: the words Lockheed, Skunk Works, EG&G and [[Battelle Memorial Institute|Battelle]] do not occur in it. Asked by Representative [[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]] about "the interactions between defense contractor companies and any UAP-related programs," Grusch answered "the contractors, you know, or the metal benders, so to speak, the ones actually doing specific performance on government contracts"; asked by Representative [[Eric Burlison]] whether there was evidence the recovered aircraft were produced by domestic military contractors, he said "Not to my knowledge. Plus, the recoveries predate a lot of our advanced programs" that he was "waiving off."[^8]
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The [[Department of Defense]]'s [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] stated in February 2024 that it "found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology"; that "The executives, scientists, and chief technology officers of the companies named by interviewees met with the Director of AARO and denied on the record that they have ever recovered, possessed, or engaged in reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology"; and, of a thirdhand account by one interviewee that an unnamed organization held twelve recovered craft and had a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] "partnership with the company that ended in 1989," that it "discovered no empirical evidence supporting these claims." The report does not name the companies. It describes "Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Program organization, also known as 'Skunk Works'" as the developer of the [[P-175 Polecat]] unmanned aircraft (first flight 2005, disclosed at the 2006 [[Farnborough Airshow]]) and the [[RQ-170 Sentinel]], and Lockheed Martin with [[Boeing]] and [[Advanced Research Projects Agency|DARPA]] as developers of the [[RQ-3 Dark Star]], which "Some observers asserted ... resembled a flying saucer with long narrow wings."[^9] A Pentagon spokeswoman, [[Sue Gough]], told the Wall Street Journal that the investigation "has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."[^7]
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The [[Department of Defense]]'s [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office]] stated in February 2024 that it "found no empirical evidence for claims that the USG and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology"; that "The executives, scientists, and chief technology officers of the companies named by interviewees met with the Director of AARO and denied on the record that they have ever recovered, possessed, or engaged in reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial technology"; and, of a thirdhand account by one interviewee that an unnamed organization held twelve recovered craft and had a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] "partnership with the company that ended in 1989," that it "discovered no empirical evidence supporting these claims." The report does not name the companies. It describes "Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Program organization, also known as 'Skunk Works'" as the developer of the [[P-175 Polecat]] unmanned aircraft (first flight 2005, disclosed at the 2006 [[Farnborough Airshow]]) and the [[RQ-170 Sentinel]], and Lockheed Martin with [[Boeing]] and [[DARPA|DARPA]] as developers of the [[RQ-3 Dark Star]], which "Some observers asserted ... resembled a flying saucer with long narrow wings."[^9] A Pentagon spokeswoman, [[Sue Gough]], told the Wall Street Journal that the investigation "has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."[^7]
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[[Ron Blackburn]], a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel then at the Skunk Works, helped [[John B. Alexander]] draw up the invitation list for the [[Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group]] in 1984, according to Alexander (see those pages).
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@ -1,21 +1,129 @@
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---
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Company
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- FBI
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- TheOctopus
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- DrugTrafficking
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title: Meridian International Logistics
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aliases:
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- Meridian International Logistics
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- Meridian International Logistics, Inc.
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- MIL
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- MIL, Inc.
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- Meridian Logistics
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- Meridian Arms
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- Meridian Arms Corporation
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created: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-10-08
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category: "Private Organization"
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summary: "Meridian International Logistics was a holding company associated with Robert Booth Nichols, who was a principal in the organization."
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tags:
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- Company
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- HoldingCompany
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- ArmsTrade
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- TheOctopus
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- PROMIS
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- OrganizedCrimeInvestigation
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- MCA
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- CabazonWackenhut
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- NSA
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- Yakuza
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summary: "Nevada holding company of Robert Booth Nichols, owner of Meridian Arms Corporation, named in a 1987 FBI wiretap file on MCA's home-video chief and in Nichols's 1989 libel suit against FBI agent Thomas Gates."
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location:
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- "Los Angeles, California"
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relations:
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Robert Booth Nichols]]"
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reverse: true
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fn: 1
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- type: owned
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with: "[[Meridian Arms Corporation]]"
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role: "100 percent of the stock, as alleged in the 1989 complaint"
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start: 1989-06-16
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fn: 2
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- type: subject_of
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with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
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start: 1987-09
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role: "organized-crime investigation led by Special Agent Thomas Gates"
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fn: 6
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- type: director_of
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with: "[[Eugene Giaquinto]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "board member, according to Cheri Seymour and Spy; resigned and returned 10,000 shares according to Seymour"
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fn: 8
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- type: director_of
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with: "[[Peter Zokosky]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "board member, asked later to be taken off the board (Zokosky to Seymour, 2001)"
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fn: 13
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---
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[[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]] was a holding company associated with [[Robert Booth Nichols]], who was a principal in the organization. It was under investigation by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] as a suspected "source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances and the allocation and use of the proceeds from its trafficking."[1]
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Meridian International Logistics, Inc. (MIL) was a Nevada corporation with its principal place of business in [[Los Angeles]], controlled by [[Robert Booth Nichols]]; its 1989 complaint against the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Thomas Gates]] described it as doing business overseas, especially in [[Australia]] and [[Japan]], and as the owner of all the stock of [[Meridian Arms Corporation]].[^1][^2]
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|
||||
Reportedly, [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]] functioned as a [[National Security Council|NSC]] cutout, used for the purpose of "funneling money to pay the board of directors." A friend of Nichols, who was once on the board, explained that the [[National Security Council|NSC]] operates as a "profit-making entity" with unlimited funding and no accountability due to national security considerations. This individual further stated that all covert business conducted at that time related to "money and/or drugs," with drugs serving as international currency, often referred to as "gold," due to the high market demand and profitability.[1]
|
||||
### Corporate record
|
||||
|
||||
[[Eugene Giaquinto]], then president of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]] home entertainment division, was a board member of [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]]. Both Giaquinto and Nichols reportedly maintained a close working relationship with the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]], according to wiretaps.[1]
|
||||
The corporation's Nevada charter is file number C417-1961. The [[Nevada Secretary of State]] filing index, as transcribed by OpenCorporates, begins with articles of incorporation on March 27, 1961, and lists amendments whose entries read Nevada Real Estate Investment Corporation (April 20, 1972), Harbor Resources Incorporated (February 12, 1979), Western Smelting & Refining, Inc. (April 20, 1982) and [[First Intercontinental Development Corporation]] (August 7, 1984, with authorized stock of 10,000,000 shares at one cent par). The record now stands under the name Meridian International Logistics, Inc., with annual lists of officers filed in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002, a registered-agent change on March 30, 1992 to Edward G. Marshall of Las Vegas, a registered-agent resignation on August 16, 2006, and a status of "Permanently Revoked."[^3]
|
||||
|
||||
[[Michael Riconosciuto]] was also associated with [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]], serving as Vice President of Meridian Arms, a subsidiary of [[Meridian International Logistics|MIL]]. He claimed that [[Robert Booth Nichols]] was under [[Harold Okimoto]] from the Hawaiian Islands, who was represented as an intelligence person and had worked under [[Frank Carlucci]] for years.[1]
|
||||
Meridian Arms Corporation is a separate California stock corporation (number 0853005), with a registered address at 834 Rose Blossom Drive, Cupertino. Its filings show a [[California Franchise Tax Board]] suspension on December 1, 1986, a revivor on December 17, 1986, and a second suspension on November 1, 2000.[^4] The 1987 continuation affidavit of Gates gives Nichols's employment as Meridian International Logistics at the same Cupertino address.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### The 1987 FBI investigation
|
||||
|
||||
In September 1987 the FBI's Los Angeles Division began an investigation of Nichols, who, "acting through Meridian," was suspected of involvement in organized crime; Special Agent Thomas Gates led it, and learned that Nichols "had potential illegal contacts with individuals in both Japan and Australia," which he pursued through the Japanese and Australian legal attachés.[^6]
|
||||
|
||||
The wiretap record consists of a series of sworn affidavits by Gates submitted to Judge J. Spencer Letts of the [[United States District Court for the Central District of California]] on March 27, May 20, June 25, July 15 and August 3, 1987, and a continuation affidavit, all in the inquiry into [[Martin Bacow]], a labor negotiator, and [[Eugene Giaquinto]], president of the home-entertainment division of [[Music Corporation of America|MCA]]. The continuation affidavit lists Nichols among the persons whose calls were to be intercepted, with a note that California Department of Justice records showed he had obtained several permits to possess and sell firearms, including machine guns. It states that FBI files showed that in 1978 Nichols "was allegedly an international money launderer for money generated through narcotics trafficking and organized crime (LCN) activities," and that he "may have been associated with the Gambino LCN family in New York City." It records a 1985 Honolulu arrest of Nichols for driving under the influence, and FBI surveillance on July 15, 1987 of Giaquinto leaving Le Dome restaurant on Sunset Boulevard with an unidentified male, who took a box from Giaquinto's trunk; Gates wrote that a booking photograph of Nichols appeared to show the same individual.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
In paragraph 5 the affidavit states that there was probable cause to believe that Giaquinto, [[Joseph Garofalo]] "and others as yet unknown" had been committing offenses "involving the sale and possession of controlled substances and a conspiracy to do so" under Title 21 of the United States Code, sections 841, 844 and 846, and that the intercepted conversations would establish, as the fourth item, "The source of funding for the purchasing of narcotics/controlled substances and the allocation and use of the proceeds from its trafficking." The stock-fraud offenses stated in the same paragraph name Giaquinto, Garofalo, Bacow and Nichols; the controlled-substance offenses name Giaquinto and Garofalo.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
Among the intercepts Gates summarized: on July 20, 1987 Giaquinto told Nichols that MCA stock had dropped four points, and Nichols said a "Hawaiian" had made a heavy deal and was of great value to people in a "reporting mode"; on July 23 Giaquinto described to Nichols a conversation about [[ZZZZ Best]] as a money-laundering operation for heroin money, and asked what to do if Nichols's name came up, and Gates rendered Nichols's answer as to tell the truth, that Nichols had written a treatment (a script) and was looking for a production company; on July 27 Nichols told Giaquinto he was leaving the country and gave a Hawaii number where "Harold (possibly Okimoto)" would have a tape put on the answering machine. In the affidavit's list of the Hawaii connections, a vehicle with Hawaii plates seen on July 15 was registered to [[Wells Fargo]] at a Honolulu residential address where a Harold Tadao Okimoto lived, the same address and telephone number Nichols had given at his 1985 arrest, and Gates reported that more than fifty vehicles in Hawaii were registered to Wells Fargo at different residential addresses although the bank had no auto-leasing business there, a method of registration that led him to believe "some type of covert activity may be involved."[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The author [[Dan Moldea]] wrote that the reporter [[Anita Busch]] asked him about "mystery man Robert Booth Nichols, a shadowy associate of Seagal's," meaning the actor [[Steven Seagal]], and that he suggested she call [[Richard Stavin]], the former federal prosecutor "who had investigated him."[^7] [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that Stavin and Gates "conducted the wiretaps relating to Meridian International Logistics"; that Nichols told her on February 13, 1992 that MCA was trying to leverage itself for sale to the Japanese and that Giaquinto was also a corporate partner in his company; and that when the two learned of the FBI investigation Giaquinto resigned from MIL and returned his stock certificates.[^8]
|
||||
|
||||
### Meridian International Logistics v. United States
|
||||
|
||||
On June 16, 1989, MIL sued Gates in Los Angeles Superior Court, in his individual capacity, for libel, slander and interference with contractual relationships, praying for $11,000,000. The complaint, as summarized in MIL's brief to the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]], alleged that Gates had made statements to the [[Australian Federal Police]] in Canberra, to persons in Brisbane and Innisfail, Queensland, and to an individual in Tokyo, that MIL was guilty of a $500,000,000 "share fraud," that MIL and its officers had participated in a Sydney-based confidence scheme in 1982, and that its officers were involved with the [[Gambino Crime Family]] and the [[Yakuza]]; it alleged the statements were false and known by Gates to be false, and that he acted outside his authority.[^2] The brief put to the court the question whether an FBI agent could tell a foreign police force that officers of MIL were involved with the Mafia and the Yakuza.[^2]
|
||||
|
||||
On July 20, 1989 the United States Attorney certified that Gates had acted within the scope of his employment, which removed the case to federal court and substituted the United States as defendant. The government filed declarations from Gates, his supervisor and a [[Department of Justice]] attorney, which the district court sealed and reviewed in camera. MIL filed a declaration from the former FBI special agent [[Ted Gunderson]] that the foreign contacts "would never, under FBI policies, be initiated by an agent assigned to the Los Angeles field office." On September 25, 1989 the district court found that Gates had acted within the scope of his employment and dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. On July 19, 1991 the Ninth Circuit (No. 90-55281, Judge Wiggins) held the sealed ex parte procedure proper on the facts, but reversed because the declarations "only assert generally that Gates' investigation was proper" and did not address the specific allegations about the foreign contacts; it remanded for further documentary proof.[^6] [[Spy (magazine)|Spy]] reported in January 1993 that the suit had recently been dismissed.[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
### Board members and subsidiary
|
||||
|
||||
Seymour wrote, on the basis of her 1992 investigation, that the board of directors of Meridian Arms consisted of Nichols, Peter Zokosky, [[Harold Okimoto]], [[Glen R. Shockley]] and others, that [[Michael Riconosciuto]] had once been vice president of Meridian Arms, and that Giaquinto sat on the MIL board and formally resigned, returning 10,000 shares, after the FBI investigation became known to Nichols; she attached what she described as documentation of the resignation. She also described corporate minutes dated August 26, 1988 that referred to a grant available to a Japanese medical school, and wrote that Nichols, when she asked, said he had facilitated research on cytotoxic T-lymphocytes through five offshore institutes, classified by the sponsoring governments.[^10] Seymour also wrote that Riconosciuto claimed Nichols was under Okimoto of the Hawaiian Islands, who was represented as an intelligence person and had worked under [[Frank Carlucci]] for years.[^11]
|
||||
|
||||
Spy's January 1993 account, by John Connolly, states that by 1981 Nichols and Zokosky, a retired arms manufacturer, had formed the munitions company Meridian Arms, which joined a small California Indian tribe and the [[Wackenhut Corporation]] in a scheme to manufacture arms on the reservation; that Nichols obtained California machine-gun permits, in Meridian's effort to supply guns for the contras, with a recommendation from a CIA official named Larry Curran; that his application listed Okimoto, "believed by intelligence sources to be a high-ranking member of Japan's Yakuza crime syndicate," as a former employer; and that Giaquinto, "then president of the home-entertainment division of MCA," sat on the board of Meridian Arms's parent company. Spy wrote that the taps caught Giaquinto and Nichols discussing possible takeovers of MCA and the effect on stock prices, that the wiretaps showed Giaquinto enjoyed a special relationship with [[John Gotti]], and that before leaving MCA and the board Giaquinto proposed to [[Jack Valenti]] that the [[Motion Picture Association of America]] hire Nichols to coordinate anti-piracy work in Asia. Valenti told Spy, "I didn't feel comfortable with Nichols." Spy also wrote that the investigation "was later quashed by Reagan-administration officials."[^9]
|
||||
|
||||
[[David Corn]] reported in The Nation in October 1991 that, according to legal records, Nichols ran MIL, "a California-based company that does extensive business overseas, especially in Australia and Japan; engages in innovative medical research; markets low-cost earth removal systems; and owns 100 percent of Meridian Arms Corporation." Citing the correspondence of a business associate, Corn wrote that Nichols's company was formed in the 1970s to develop a submachine gun producible for $50 or less, that the State Department's objection to exporting the technology caused difficulties, that production had been planned for Australia in 1983, and that in 1984 Nichols wrote of "enhanced gaseous fuel devices." Riconosciuto, Corn wrote, said he and Nichols had a falling-out in 1984. Corn also reported that a copy of the Gates wiretap request was in [[Danny Casolaro]]'s papers.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Gates and the House Judiciary Committee
|
||||
|
||||
Seymour reproduced reports she attributed to [[John Cohen]], an investigator for the [[House Committee on the Judiciary]], of conversations with Gates. In them Gates is recorded as saying that "high level Department of Justice officials" had a close working relationship with the board of directors of MCA, that he learned this from FBI wiretaps on MCA, and that the wiretaps disclosed "high level DOJ officials were tied to illegal activities of MCA"; that a wiretap conversation between Nichols and a Justice Department official showed Nichols was warned the FBI was investigating him; that the wiretaps showed "a close working relationship between the Board of Directors of MCA, Attorney General Edwin Meese, and the White House"; that Giaquinto told Bacow he would call Meese and have the FBI investigation of MCA stopped; and that the investigation was shut down and sealed by the Department of Justice because the Japanese were interested in purchasing MCA. Gates is further recorded as saying the wiretap "extensively documents Robert Booth Nichols' connection with the highest levels of the U.S. Department of Justice."[^12]
|
||||
|
||||
The House Judiciary Committee's report records that Gates gave a sworn statement on March 25 and 26, 1992; that Gates said Casolaro claimed to have found a link between the Inslaw matter, the activities at the Cabazon reservation and the entertainment-industry organized-crime investigation; that Nichols, "according to documents submitted to a Federal court by the FBI, has ties with organized crime and the world of covert intelligence operations"; and that Gates maintained that pertinent information on Nichols's past existed in sealed wiretap and grand jury records. Stavin provided the committee a 72-page affidavit by Gates, and the committee stated that it took no position on Gates's assertions concerning Nichols except that they were sworn statements.[^13]
|
||||
|
||||
### Cabazon and Wackenhut
|
||||
|
||||
The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report on [[Inslaw]] recorded that in a December 1991 telephone call Nichols said that he and Riconosciuto had worked together at the [[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] in the early 1980s, that he had been hired by [[Dr. John Philip Nichols|John Phillip Nichols]], who worked with Riconosciuto on the joint venture, and that he wanted Zokosky present at any later interview. It concluded: "there have been a number of speculative reports and fragmentary records purporting to link Robert Booth Nichols, through a company called Meridian Arms Corporation, and Michael Riconosciuto to certain covert intelligence activities, including a joint venture between the Cabazon Indian Reservation and Wackenhut, Inc.," and called the continuing intersection of the names of Riconosciuto, [[Earl Brian]], Nichols and the reservation "certainly intriguing and curious asssociations" [sic] without the "causation and factual convergence necessary to draw conclusions."[^14]
|
||||
|
||||
The Justice Department's 1993 report by Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] found the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture was formed in April 1981 to bid on government guard contracts, with John Philip Nichols as tribal administrator negotiating for the tribe; that Zokosky, a former president of Armtec Defense Products, became an advisor to Nichols and the venture on combustible cartridge casings; that Zokosky and others from the venture travelled to [[Picatinny Arsenal]] to meet Dr. Harry Fair; and that no evidence supported Riconosciuto's claims that PROMIS work took place there.[^15]
|
||||
|
||||
### Zokosky's account of the company
|
||||
|
||||
Zokosky told Seymour and the journalist [[Kelly O'Meara]] on February 14, 2001 that he had been asked by Nichols to join the MIL board and had later asked to be removed; that MIL was a "front company" used for "funneling money to pay the board of directors," payments of "five figures"; that the money came from the [[NSA|National Security Agency]], which makes a "profit," and he alluded that some of the money came from drug profits; and that drugs were called "gold" and used as currency. He said John Vanderwerker and Glenn Shockley worked for the CIA and were involved with the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture. He said it was his understanding that Nichols worked for the [[National Security Council]], "everything revolves around the NSC," doing contract work for the NSA and NSC and occasionally for other agencies. He also said that Nichols and Riconosciuto did business in Australia that he thought had something to do with the [[Nugan Hand Bank]], that he and Nichols and others had presented a proposal to develop biological warfare technology at Stormont Laboratories for sale to the Army (to Dr. Harry Fair at Picatinny Arsenal) and to FMC Corporation, and that Nichols had once worked for Okimoto in Hawaii. In the same interview he showed a three-page FBI Los Angeles report dated December 2, 1982, which Seymour summarized as stating that a confidential source had alleged on March 16, 1978 that Nichols was "an international money launderer," that his name was associated with the illegal transportation of narcotics through the "Golden Triangle," and that Nichols "should be considered armed and dangerous."[^16]
|
||||
|
||||
### Casolaro and Nichols
|
||||
|
||||
Bua's report records that after a dinner at a friend's home Casolaro telephoned Nichols at his Los Angeles home from 1:40 to 2:46 a.m. Eastern time, and that Nichols told the investigators Casolaro mentioned planning a trip to the Cabazon reservation to "wrap up" his research. It records that Nichols told a Martinsburg detective on September 30, 1991 that Casolaro had been murdered and that Riconosciuto was probably involved, and states that Nichols was in London on the day Casolaro died. It describes the January 1993 Spy article as suggesting that Nichols had Casolaro killed for fear of being exposed as someone who years earlier had offered to become an FBI informant against the Mafia, and states that the investigators found no evidence he had anything to do with the death. In a footnote Bua stated that Nichols testified on March 11, 1993 that he had been a member of the United States intelligence community for many years, and continued: "No evidence supports that claim. In fact, the CIA informed us that it does not have, nor has it ever had, any employment relationship, contractual relationship or any other association with Mr. Booth Nichols."[^17]
|
||||
|
||||
The House report records that Hamilton and Riconosciuto told its investigators Nichols was Casolaro's primary source, that Nichols in a January 21, 1992 interview said he acted as a sounding board for Casolaro, and that Nichols would not give a sworn statement; Stavin stated under oath that Casolaro had called him about a week before his death and mentioned Robert Nichols.[^18]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
[1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Corn, David. "The Dark World of Danny Casolaro." *The Nation,* October 28, 1991, pp. 511-515 (Nichols "runs Meridian International Logistics ... and owns 100 percent of Meridian Arms Corporation"). https://archive.org/details/Danny-Casolaro
|
||||
[^2]: Appellant's Opening Brief, *Meridian International Logistics, Inc. v. Gates,* No. 90-55281 (9th Cir.), Robinson, Robinson & Phillips, certificate dated June 27, 1990, statement of the case and issues presented (the complaint as filed in Los Angeles Superior Court June 16, 1989, removed as CV 89-4383 RG (Kx) before Judge Richard A. Gadbois, Jr.). Scanned in the Danny Casolaro papers, State Historical Society of Missouri. https://archive.org/details/MeridianV.Gates
|
||||
[^3]: OpenCorporates, record for Meridian International Logistics, Inc., Nevada company C417-1961, and its filing list (retrieved October 8, 2026). https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_nv/C417-1961 ; https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_nv/C417-1961/filings.
|
||||
[^4]: OpenCorporates, record for Meridian Arms Corporation, California company 0853005 (retrieved October 8, 2026). https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ca/0853005
|
||||
[^5]: Affidavit of Special Agent Thomas G. Gates in support of an application to continue interception of wire communications of Martin Bacow, Eugene Giaquinto, Angelo Commito, Edward Sciandra, Michael Del Gaizo, Joseph Garofalo, Robert Nichols and others, before Judge J. Spencer Letts, C.D. Cal. (continuation affidavit citing intercepts through September 1, 1987), paragraphs 3, 5, 9-13, 46, 69, 76, 79 and 84; Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Gates." Seymour, *The Last Circle,* p. 356, paraphrases the narcotics-funding wording as describing MIL as "at that time suspected as a 'source of funding'"; the affidavit places the wording under the controlled-substance offenses of Giaquinto and Garofalo. https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf)
|
||||
[^6]: *Meridian International Logistics, Inc. v. United States,* 939 F.2d 740 (9th Cir. July 19, 1991) (No. 90-55281); the brief at note 2 describes MIL as "a Nevada corporation which has its primary place of business in Los Angeles." https://static.case.law/f2d/939/cases/0740-01.json
|
||||
[^7]: Moldea, Dan E. *Hollywood Confidential: A True Story of Wiretapping, Friendship, and Betrayal,* chapter 1 excerpt. https://www.moldea.com/BPFH-ChapterOne.pdf
|
||||
[^8]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010, pp. 351 and 356. https://archive.org/details/TheInslawAffair . Sole source for the Giaquinto resignation.
|
||||
[^9]: Connolly, John. "The Story That Killed Danny Casolaro." *Spy,* January 1993. https://archive.org/details/SpyMagazine (1992-12-DEC-JAN)
|
||||
[^10]: Seymour, Cheri. "VORTEX," diary dated February 24, 1992, affidavit page notarized October 28, 1992, pp. 11-12; Internet Archive item VORTEXDocument records Seymour's later statement that it was written hurriedly under duress and before she verified its contents. https://archive.org/details/VORTEXDocument
|
||||
[^11]: Seymour, *The Last Circle,* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passage so cited.
|
||||
[^12]: Seymour, *The Last Circle,* pp. 347-349 ("Report No. 5" and "Report No. 6," which Seymour wrote were by John Cohen, from conversations with Thomas Gates). Sole source for the passages so cited. https://archive.org/details/TheOctopusExposed
|
||||
[^13]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair,* H. Rept. 102-857, September 10, 1992, section on Danny Casolaro and notes 212-217. https://archive.org/details/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport
|
||||
[^14]: Same, notes 134 and 222.
|
||||
[^15]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua* (March 1993), section on the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture, pp. 55-58. https://archive.org/details/doj-oip-inslaw-1993
|
||||
[^16]: Seymour, *The Last Circle,* pp. 337-342, interview of Peter Zokosky, February 14, 2001, from Seymour's and O'Meara's notes. https://archive.org/details/TheOctopusExposed . Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
[^17]: Bua report (note 15), pp. 157-159 and note 58 (on p. 159), citing *Booth Nichols v. City of Los Angeles,* No. NCC 31322B, trial transcript, March 11, 1993, pp. 32 et seq.
|
||||
[^18]: House report (note 13), notes 213 and 214 (Stavin sworn statement, March 13, 1992, pp. 23-24; memorandum of interview with Nichols, January 21, 1992).
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
|||
---
|
||||
created: 2025-07-22
|
||||
updated: 2026-06-12
|
||||
updated: 2026-10-08
|
||||
title: Rand Corporation
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
|
|
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
start: 1946
|
||||
location: "Santa Monica, California"
|
||||
summary: "The Rand Corporation is the US Air Force's principal Cold War nonprofit think tank in Santa Monica, founded as Project RAND in 1946 and incorporated in 1948, whose Vietnam-era Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study produced critical findings that were suppressed at the time and later vindicated by Rand's own official history."
|
||||
summary: "The Rand Corporation is the Air Force's principal Cold War nonprofit think tank in Santa Monica, founded as Project RAND in 1946, whose Vietnam-era Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study produced suppressed critical findings."
|
||||
---
|
||||
The Rand Corporation, whose name is an acronym for Research and Development, is headquartered in [[Santa Monica, California]], with a Washington, D.C., office near the [[White House]]. It arose from the partnership between university scientists and the military that developed during the Second World War, established as Project RAND in 1946 with the [[U.S. Air Force]] as its primary institutional sponsor and incorporated as an independent nonprofit in 1948. It is not primarily a psychological research organization; economists and political scientists form the largest part of its staff. In the [[Cold War]] it was among the first institutions to apply systematic psychological and social scientific methods to military problems, including censorship policy, the psychological effects of weapons, propaganda organization, and, most controversially, the morale and motivation of enemy forces during the [[Vietnam War]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Rand produced a classified 1949 conference report on methods for studying the ps
|
|||
|
||||
### The VC Motivation and Morale Study
|
||||
|
||||
In the early 1960s, [[Advanced Research Projects Agency|ARPA]] commissioned Rand to study the motivation and morale of the Viet Cong. The project, known as the Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study (the M&M Study), ran from late 1964 through end of 1968, jointly sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and ARPA. It produced approximately 2,371 interviews totaling over 60,000 pages of documentation, conducted at approximately forty locations across South Vietnam including CIA detention centers and provincial holding facilities. Respondents were Viet Cong prisoners of war, defectors (Chieu Hoi ralliers), refugees, and others with knowledge of VC activities. Respondents were not informed of the interviewer's affiliation or the project's nature.[^1]
|
||||
In the early 1960s, [[DARPA|ARPA]] commissioned Rand to study the motivation and morale of the Viet Cong. The project, known as the Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study (the M&M Study), ran from late 1964 through end of 1968, jointly sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and ARPA. It produced approximately 2,371 interviews totaling over 60,000 pages of documentation, conducted at approximately forty locations across South Vietnam including CIA detention centers and provincial holding facilities. Respondents were Viet Cong prisoners of war, defectors (Chieu Hoi ralliers), refugees, and others with knowledge of VC activities. Respondents were not informed of the interviewer's affiliation or the project's nature.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Phase I: Donnell, Zasloff, and Pauker
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -64,9 +64,14 @@ Rand's Santa Monica headquarters is described in accounts from the period as res
|
|||
|
||||
### Remote Viewing Era References
|
||||
|
||||
In accounts of the 1970s parapsychology research milieu, Rand is noted as larger and more prestigious than the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] among scientific think tanks, and it figures in the early, later-debunked rumors of a [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)|USS Nautilus]] telepathy experiment.[^2]
|
||||
In accounts of the 1970s parapsychology research milieu, Rand is noted as larger and more prestigious than the [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] among scientific think tanks, and it figures in the French accounts of 1959 and 1960 of a [[The Nautilus (Telepathy Project)|USS Nautilus]] telepathy experiment, which the U.S. Navy denied and which a 1975 DIA study called rumors.[^2][^3]
|
||||
|
||||
In Le Matin des magiciens, [[Jacques Bergier]] and [[Louis Pauwels]] wrote that at the beginning of 1957 the Rand Corporation laid before [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Eisenhower]] a report proposing telepathy for communicating with submarines, particularly under the polar ice cap, and that the report had no effect for a year. In the same chapter they list Rand among the organizations with parapsychology study laboratories, and a footnote cites a "Rapport de la Rand Corporation, 31 août 1958" in connection with a statement that the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission proposed in 1958 to use clairvoyants to guess where Russian bombs would fall.[^4] A report to Soviet Defense Minister [[Rodion Malinovsky]] of March 1960, as quoted by [[I. V. Tsykunov]], says that from the end of 1957 Rand, Westinghouse and Bell Telephone had been working intensively on telepathy.[^5]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Peter Watson, *War on the Mind: The Military Uses and Abuses of Psychology*. Basic Books, 1978. pp. 388-394 (Ch. 21), 462-468 (App. II); Mai Elliott, *RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era*. RAND CP-564, 2010; Anthony Russo, "Looking Backward: RAND and Vietnam," *Ramparts*, October 1972; RAND report series: RM-4507/3-ISA (March 1965), RM-4911-2-ISA/ARPA (1966), RM-5446-1-ISA/ARPA (October 1967), RM-5462-1 (November 1969), RM-6131-1 (September 1970).
|
||||
[^2]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
|
||||
[^3]: Maire, Louis F., III, and J. D. LaMothe. *Soviet and Czechoslovakian Parapsychology Research*, DST-1810S-387-75, September 1975, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500420001-2, https://cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000500420001-2.
|
||||
[^4]: Pauwels, Louis, and Jacques Bergier. *Le Matin des magiciens*, abridged and annotated university edition prepared by Yvonne Lenard with Monica Faulkner (Harper and Row, 1967), pp. 136-141.
|
||||
[^5]: Tsykunov, I. V. "От фантазии к реальности: как история «Наутилуса» открыла гонку сверхъестественных вооружений между СССР и США" [From fantasy to reality: how the story of the Nautilus opened the race for supernatural weapons between the USSR and the USA]. Aliter, no. 20 (2023), pp. 34-55. https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ot-fantazii-k-realnosti-kak-istoriya-nautilusa-otkryla-gonku-sverhestestvennyh-vooruzheniy-mezhdu-sssr-i-ssha. Sole source for the passages so cited.
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -16,7 +16,12 @@ summary: "Stanford Research Institute is the Menlo Park research institute, foun
|
|||
start: 1946
|
||||
location: "Menlo Park, California"
|
||||
created: 2025-07-22
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updated: 2026-06-20
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updated: 2026-10-08
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relations:
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- type: contractor_to
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with: "[[DARPA]]"
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start: 2005
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fn: 15
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---
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Stanford Research Institute, known since 1977 as SRI International, is a nonprofit contract research institute in Menlo Park, California, founded in 1946 by trustees of Stanford University as a center of innovation serving regional and global industry. It became independent of Stanford in 1970. Over its history SRI developed bank check automation, the location study for Disneyland, [[Douglas Engelbart]]'s Augmentation Research Center and the 1968 demonstration later called the "Mother of All Demos," the second node of the ARPANET, the Shakey mobile robot, and the speech assistant that became Siri, and it also housed the government-funded parapsychology program run by [[Hal Puthoff]] and [[Russell Targ]].[^1][^2]
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@ -29,7 +34,7 @@ In April 1953 [[Walt Disney|Walt]] and [[Roy Disney]] hired the SRI economist Ha
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### The Augmentation Research Center
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In 1957 the electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart joined SRI, where he pursued a conviction, set out in his October 1962 report *Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework*, that computers should be built to extend rather than replace human reasoning. That report, prepared for the [[U.S. Air Force]] Office of Scientific Research, drew the attention of [[J.C.R. Licklider]], the first director of the Information Processing Techniques Office of the Defense Department's [[Advanced Research Projects Agency]] (ARPA), who funded Engelbart's new Augmentation Research Center in early 1963; [[NASA]] and ARPA support expanded after [[Robert Taylor]] took up the cause, first at NASA and then as IPTO director from 1965.[^3][^4]
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In 1957 the electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart joined SRI, where he pursued a conviction, set out in his October 1962 report *Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework*, that computers should be built to extend rather than replace human reasoning. That report, prepared for the [[U.S. Air Force]] Office of Scientific Research, drew the attention of [[J.C.R. Licklider]], the first director of the Information Processing Techniques Office of the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), who funded Engelbart's new Augmentation Research Center in early 1963; [[NASA]] and ARPA support expanded after [[Robert Taylor]] took up the cause, first at NASA and then as IPTO director from 1965.[^3][^4]
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The center built the oN-Line System, or NLS, a working interactive computing environment running on an SDS 940 timesharing computer that combined the mouse (which Engelbart invented and patented), a chord keyset, bit-mapped screens, hierarchical document outlines, hypertext links, on-screen windows, and real-time collaborative editing among networked terminals. Engelbart's team included researchers such as [[Bill English]], who built the first mouse prototype, and the future [[Xerox PARC]] and Apple lineage of graphical-interface design traces directly to their work.[^3][^4]
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@ -55,6 +60,14 @@ From 1972 to about 1995 SRI hosted a classified, government-funded parapsycholog
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SRI developed several of the core techniques of the field, including [[Coordinate Remote Viewing]] (CRV) and the use of outbounder teams sent to randomly chosen locations for a viewer to describe. The institute's prestige and its heavy reliance on classified government contracts made it a fitting home for the sensitive work, and Puthoff and Targ published some of their results in reputable scientific journals, lending the field a measure of credibility that helped persuade parts of the intelligence community that remote viewing might serve as an intelligence-gathering tool.[^9]
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In February 1983 an INSCOM information paper stated that Dr. [[Jack Vorona]] of the Defense Intelligence Agency "has either obtained or received commitment for $200K from DARPA," the amount he stated was needed to keep SRI intact for fiscal 1983.[^10] An Army memorandum on the [[Center Lane]] funding initiative states that "Contact with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the actual source of the funds, resulted in a decision to move the money covertly through DCSRDA, if approved."[^11] A DIA project report of October 19, 1983 divides the $1,475.5K three-year Grill Flame budget into $962K from DIA, $313.5K from Army INSCOM and $200K from DARPA.[^12] A DIA special access program background document for [[Sun Streak]] describes the research and development link via SRI International as "accomplished via HQ SGRD funding and a DARPA MIPR."[^13]
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Edwin May and Wanda Luke wrote in 1991 that beginning in fiscal year 1986 the Army Medical Research and Development Command began a five-year investigation of anomalous mental phenomena at SRI International, that the Command did not fund the fourth and fifth years, and that the House Appropriations Committee funded the fourth year through DARPA to the Command's contract.[^14]
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### DARPA contracts, 2005 to 2026
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Federal award records list 113 DARPA prime contract awards to SRI International with action dates from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2026, whose award amounts total $462,329,429.73 and whose transactions inside that date range total $423,420,369. The earliest of these awards began on July 25, 2005. The largest is contract HR001106C0023, with performance dates of November 14, 2005 to March 31, 2011 and an award amount of $41,671,826.77.[^15] Award descriptions include supply chain hardware security, machine translation under the BOLT program, semantic forensics, and molecular discovery.[^15]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: "History, Leadership, and Values," About SRI International, on the 1946 founding by Stanford trustees as a center of innovation, the 1970 separation from Stanford, the ERMA and MICR banking work, and the institute's scale. https://www.sri.com/about-us/
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@ -66,3 +79,9 @@ SRI developed several of the core techniques of the field, including [[Coordinat
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[^7]: Lyman, Richard W. "At the Hands of the Radicals," *Stanford* magazine, January/February 2009 (excerpt from *Stanford in Turmoil*), https://stanfordmag.org/contents/at-the-hands-of-the-radicals ; Stanford University News Service releases of April 4 to May 1, 1969, April Third Movement Historical Archive, https://a3mreunion.org/archive/1968-1969/68-69_stanford_releases/68-69_stanford_releases.html ; "May 16 Protest at SRI," same archive, 1968-1969.
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[^8]: Standard accounts of the SRI remote-viewing program, 1972 to about 1995, funded by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency and run by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff with subjects including Ingo Swann and Pat Price, as one strand of the program later known as Project Stargate. See the vault pages on Hal Puthoff, Russell Targ, and Project Stargate.
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[^9]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies.* Dell, 1997, on the SRI psychic-research program, the subjects including Ingo Swann, Pat Price, and Uri Geller, the development of Coordinate Remote Viewing and outbounder protocols, and the publication of results in scientific journals.
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[^10]: INSCOM information paper IAOPS-H-S, "GRILL FLAME," February 21, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100350001-2. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001100350001-2.pdf
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[^11]: Department of the Army memorandum DAMI-ISH, "CENTER LANE DAMI-ISH Funding Initiative," undated, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700180003-3. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700180003-3.pdf
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[^12]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Directorate for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, "GRILL FLAME Project Report," October 19, 1983, Appendix III, CIA-RDP96-00788R001000410001-6. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001000410001-6.pdf
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[^13]: Defense Intelligence Agency, SUN STREAK special access program background, CIA-RDP96-00789R000700260002-5 (same passage in CIA-RDP96-00789R002100260043-4 and CIA-RDP96-00789R001800710001-4). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R000700260002-5.pdf
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[^14]: Edwin C. May and Wanda L. W. Luke, "A Long-Term, Integrated, Basic and Applied Research Plan (U)" (draft), May 10, 1991, CIA-RDP96-00789R003100060001-1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R003100060001-1.pdf
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[^15]: USAspending.gov, prime contract awards (award types A to D), awarding sub-agency Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, recipient SRI International, action dates October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2026, retrieved October 8, 2026. https://www.usaspending.gov/search
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