vault backup: 2026-09-22 19:33:49

40 - EVENTS/CONTRA_WAR/Boland Amendment.md

@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ The Boland Amendments were a series of congressional provisions, named after Mas
 
 ### First Boland Amendment (1982)
 
-The first Boland Amendment was passed on Christmas Eve 1982 by a vote of 411–0, prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds "for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua or provoking a military exchange between Nicaragua and Honduras." It was triggered by a Newsweek cover story, "America's Secret War: Target Nicaragua," which exposed the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration's covert war. Congressman Tom Harkin had proposed a complete funding cutoff, calling the Contras "vicious, cutthroat murderers" and urging Congress to "end our involvement with this group." Boland, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee and knew about the secret CIA project, persuaded Harkin to accept a weaker amendment.[^1]
+The first Boland Amendment was passed on Christmas Eve 1982 by a vote of 411–0, prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds "for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua or provoking a military exchange between Nicaragua and Honduras." It was triggered by a Newsweek cover story, "America's Secret War: Target Nicaragua," which exposed the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration's covert war. Congressman Tom Harkin had proposed a complete funding cutoff, calling the Contras "vicious, cutthroat murderers" and urging Congress to "end our involvement with this group." Boland, who chaired the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence|House Intelligence Committee]] and knew about the secret CIA project, persuaded Harkin to accept a weaker amendment.[^1]
 
 The amendment was largely a fraud. Internal government memos show the CIA, White House, Defense Department, and Contras' congressional supporters knew the Contras had no hope of defeating the [[Sandinistas]]. Since there was no way the Contras would overthrow the Nicaraguan government, supporters reasoned they could continue spending CIA funds despite the amendment. If the Contras received money for one purpose, arms interdiction, and used it for another, "that wasn't the CIA's fault."[^1]
 

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ location: "Washington, D.C."
 
 Kerry's subcommittee investigation began in 1988, predating BCCI's July 1991 shutdown by three years. The subcommittee was originally focused on drug trafficking and money laundering when it first encountered BCCI through its investigation of [[Manuel Noriega]]'s Panamanian bank accounts and the [[Medellín Cartel]]'s financial infrastructure. [[Amjad Awan]], BCCI's manager for [[Latin America]] and Noriega's personal banker, became a key witness after his arrest in Tampa in October 1988 as part of a U.S. Customs sting.
 
-The investigation expanded dramatically after Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] brought BCCI evidence to Kerry's attention, and after [[Jack Blum]], a former Kerry subcommittee investigator, continued developing sources within and around BCCI independently. The [[Bank of England]]'s forced closure of BCCI in July 1991 and the simultaneous international criminal indictments gave the investigation new impetus.[^1]
+The investigation expanded dramatically after Manhattan District Attorney [[Robert Morgenthau]] brought BCCI evidence to Kerry's attention, and after [[Jack Blum]], a former [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee|Kerry subcommittee]] investigator, continued developing sources within and around BCCI independently. The [[Bank of England]]'s forced closure of BCCI in July 1991 and the simultaneous international criminal indictments gave the investigation new impetus.[^1]
 
 ### Principal Findings
 

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/PROMIS Software Scandal.md

@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Bason's non-reappointment in 1988, when his four-year term expired after he soug
 
 The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) examined the INSLAW matter in 1989 and found "no proof" that [[Lowell Jensen]] and [[Edwin Meese]] had conspired to ruin INSLAW or steal its product, and "no proof of any connection between [[Earl Brian]] or [[Hadron]] and the Department with regard to the INSLAW contract." The Senate report did find, however, that DOJ official Thomas Stanton had "improperly tried to get special handling for Inslaw's bankruptcy" and criticized the Department for placing Brewer, a former INSLAW employee, in charge of the implementation contract.[^3]
 
-The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], conducted a three-year investigation from 1989 to 1992. Its September 10, 1992 report (House Report 102-857) reached substantially more damaging conclusions. The committee found "strong evidence...that the Department of Justice 'acted willfully and fraudulently,' and 'took, converted and stole,' Inslaw's Enhanced PROMIS by 'trickery fraud and deceit.'"[^1] The report cited an admission from Deputy Attorney General [[Arnold Burns]], who told DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility investigators in 1986 that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was "legitimate" and that the government "would probably lose the case in court on this issue" - yet DOJ continued litigating against INSLAW.[^1]
+The [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]], chaired by Representative [[Jack Brooks]], conducted a three-year investigation from 1989 to 1992. Its September 10, 1992 report (House Report 102-857) reached substantially more damaging conclusions. The committee found "strong evidence...that the Department of Justice 'acted willfully and fraudulently,' and 'took, converted and stole,' Inslaw's Enhanced PROMIS by 'trickery fraud and deceit.'"[^1] The report cited an admission from Deputy Attorney General [[Arnold Burns]], who told DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility investigators in 1986 that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was "legitimate" and that the government "would probably lose the case in court on this issue" - yet DOJ continued litigating against INSLAW.[^1]
 
 The House Committee specifically examined the roles of Lowell Jensen and Edwin Meese in the affair. Jensen had developed DALITE (District Attorney's Automated Legal Information System), a competing case management software, while serving as Alameda County District Attorney; he was a member of the contract oversight committee at INSLAW's inception and later became Associate Attorney General and then Deputy Attorney General under Meese. The Committee found it "incredible that the Department, having made this determination [that INSLAW's proprietary rights claim was legitimate], would continue to pursue its litigation."[^1] Meese had served alongside Earl Brian in Governor [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan's]] California cabinet; Meese's wife purchased stock in a Brian-controlled company; Meese reportedly recused himself from PROMIS matters upon becoming Attorney General in February 1985, leaving Jensen to handle the issue.[^4]
 
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ A distinct body of allegations, separate from the Brian conspiracy theory, held
 
 British media proprietor [[Robert Maxwell]], who had maintained intelligence relationships with Mossad since his association with [[Yitzhak Shamir]] in the early 1960s, allegedly served as the primary commercial distributor for the modified software through his Israeli company [[Degem]] and a network of international holdings. According to accounts drawing on Israeli intelligence sources, Maxwell sold PROMIS-derived software to agencies in Britain, Australia, South Korea, Canada, Jordan, Poland, the Soviet Union, South Africa, and numerous other countries, with total sales alleged to exceed $500 million.[^5][^6] INSLAW alleged that Maxwell had contributed $600,000 from a joint U.S.-Israeli intelligence slush fund to have INSLAW's lead counsel dismissed, preventing the company from fully litigating its proprietary claims against the U.S. government.[^1]
 
-The House report itself never adopts the back door as a finding: it records that "the Hamiltons claim the modification of Enhanced PROMIS was an essential element of the enterprise, because the software was subsequently distributed by Dr. Brian to intelligence agencies internationally with a 'back door' software routine," and elsewhere that the modifications "possibly allowed for the creation of a 'back door,'" attributing the claim to the affidavits of Ben-Menashe and Riconosciuto; Riconosciuto's own affidavit of March 21, 1991, speaks of "modification" and "implementation," not of a back door. The Canadian thread, from the 1991 inventory error that put INSLAW and the committee on the trail of the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] to the RCMP's own [[Project Abbreviation]] of 2000, is set out on its own page. The Bua Report found "no credible evidence" supporting any of these international distribution allegations and concluded that only public-domain versions of PROMIS had been distributed abroad.[^2] The September 1994 DOJ review by Assistant Associate Attorney General John C. Dwyer reached identical conclusions.[^7]
+The House report itself never adopts the back door as a finding: it records that "the Hamiltons claim the modification of Enhanced PROMIS was an essential element of the enterprise, because the software was subsequently distributed by Dr. Brian to intelligence agencies internationally with a 'back door' software routine," and elsewhere that the modifications "possibly allowed for the creation of a 'back door,'" attributing the claim to the affidavits of Ben-Menashe and Riconosciuto; Riconosciuto's own affidavit of March 21, 1991, speaks of "modification" and "implementation," not of a back door. The Canadian thread, from the 1991 inventory error that put INSLAW and the committee on the trail of the RCMP to the RCMP's own [[Project Abbreviation]] of 2000, is set out on its own page. The Bua Report found "no credible evidence" supporting any of these international distribution allegations and concluded that only public-domain versions of PROMIS had been distributed abroad.[^2] The September 1994 DOJ review by Assistant Associate Attorney General John C. Dwyer reached identical conclusions.[^7]
 
 ### Danny Casolaro and The Octopus
 
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 report noted that Casolaro had "encountered
 
 ### Hanssen and bin Laden
 
-On June 14, 2001, the Washington Times reported that "accused spy [[Robert Hanssen]] gave secret U.S. software to his Russian handlers that later went to terrorist Osama bin Laden," the software "believed to be an upgraded version of a program known as 'Promis,'" sold on, unnamed officials said, for 2 million dollars; the same sources said the FBI's [[FOIMS]] and COINS systems, which the criminal complaint against Hanssen showed he had used extensively, "are believed to be upgraded versions of the Promis software program." [[Bill Hamilton]] told the paper that government sources had told INSLAW a modified PROMIS had been the "standard on-line database software" of the intelligence agencies since the mid-1980s. On October 16, 2001, Fox News reported that Hanssen had been "tasked with helping allies like Germany and England with the installation and use of their versions of the Promis program," that "Germany stopped using Promis software just last week," that Britain had begun closing it down and Canada had investigated tampering, and that "all we can get from the U.S. government is that they are no longer using Promis software"; FBI and Justice Department spokesmen said only that the department "has discontinued use of the program." In January 2003 Hamilton asked the national commission on the September 11 attacks to consider whether the department's misappropriation of PROMIS was "linked indirectly to pre-September 11 performance problems of U.S. intelligence," and said FBI Director [[Robert Mueller]] had acknowledged to INSLAW's lawyer [[C. Boyden Gray]] in late 2001 that the bureau's system was based on "the Inslaw software," a statement reported only through Hamilton; by then the government's position was a denial that it had used PROMIS or that Hanssen had delivered it. The Justice Department inspector general's 2003 review of the Hanssen case, which examines his use of the FBI's Automated Case Support system at length, does not mention PROMIS or FOIMS.[^9]
+On June 14, 2001, the Washington Times reported that "accused spy [[Robert Hanssen]] gave secret U.S. software to his Russian handlers that later went to terrorist Osama bin Laden," the software "believed to be an upgraded version of a program known as 'Promis,'" sold on, unnamed officials said, for 2 million dollars; the same sources said the FBI's [[FOIMS]] and COINS systems, which the criminal complaint against Hanssen showed he had used extensively, "are believed to be upgraded versions of the Promis software program." Bill Hamilton told the paper that government sources had told INSLAW a modified PROMIS had been the "standard on-line database software" of the intelligence agencies since the mid-1980s. On October 16, 2001, Fox News reported that Hanssen had been "tasked with helping allies like Germany and England with the installation and use of their versions of the Promis program," that "Germany stopped using Promis software just last week," that Britain had begun closing it down and Canada had investigated tampering, and that "all we can get from the U.S. government is that they are no longer using Promis software"; FBI and Justice Department spokesmen said only that the department "has discontinued use of the program." In January 2003 Hamilton asked the national commission on the September 11 attacks to consider whether the department's misappropriation of PROMIS was "linked indirectly to pre-September 11 performance problems of U.S. intelligence," and said FBI Director [[Robert Mueller]] had acknowledged to INSLAW's lawyer [[C. Boyden Gray]] in late 2001 that the bureau's system was based on "the Inslaw software," a statement reported only through Hamilton; by then the government's position was a denial that it had used PROMIS or that Hanssen had delivered it. The Justice Department inspector general's 2003 review of the Hanssen case, which examines his use of the FBI's Automated Case Support system at length, does not mention PROMIS or FOIMS.[^9]
 
 ### Court of Federal Claims and Final Resolution
 

40 - EVENTS/INTELLIGENCE_SCANDALS/Watergate.md

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The burglars and their supervisors were drawn from the intersection of the [[Cen
 
 ### Investigation and Resignation
 
-Reporting in the *Washington Post*, an FBI investigation, and the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] revealed a secret taping system in the [[Oval Office]] and a fund used to buy the burglars' silence. After the Supreme Court ordered release of the tapes, which confirmed Nixon's role in the cover-up, the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment and Nixon resigned. The scandal directly preceded the [[Church Committee]] and Pike Committee investigations that exposed the broader history of intelligence abuses.[^1]
+Reporting in the *Washington Post*, an FBI investigation, and the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] revealed a secret taping system in the [[Oval Office]] and a fund used to buy the burglars' silence. After the Supreme Court ordered release of the tapes, which confirmed Nixon's role in the cover-up, the [[House Committee on the Judiciary|House Judiciary Committee]] approved articles of impeachment and Nixon resigned. The scandal directly preceded the [[Church Committee]] and Pike Committee investigations that exposed the broader history of intelligence abuses.[^1]
 
 ### Footnotes
 

40 - EVENTS/MODERN_INCIDENTS/Cybertruck Trump Hotel Bombing.md

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ summary: "On January 1, 2025, active duty Army Special Operations soldier Matthe
 date: 2025-01-01
 location: "Las Vegas, Nevada"
 ---
-On January 1, 2025, active duty [[U.S. Army]] [[Special Operations Group|Special Ops Soldier]] [[Matthew Livelsberger]] parked a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada. The truck was filled with firework mortars and gas canisters and was detonated at approximately 8:39am injuring seven bystanders.[^1] Livelsberger allegedly shot himself in the head seconds before the explosion. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] is still deciding whether to classify this as an [[act of terrorism]].
+On January 1, 2025, active duty [[U.S. Army]] [[Special Operations Group|Special Ops Soldier]] [[Matthew Livelsberger]] parked a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel [[Las Vegas]] in Paradise, Nevada. The truck was filled with firework mortars and gas canisters and was detonated at approximately 8:39am injuring seven bystanders.[^1] Livelsberger allegedly shot himself in the head seconds before the explosion. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] is still deciding whether to classify this as an [[act of terrorism]].
 ### Detailed Timeline
 - The truck was rented in Colorado using [[Turo]] on December 28[^2]. Livelsberger texted a girlfriend that he felt like batman or “halo.”
 - December 30, Livelsberger drove to Monument, Colorado and purchased two handguns