--- title: "Promotional Material" date: 2026-10-08 status: published summary: "A folder in Danny Casolaro's papers holds five pieces of sales literature: a Chilean cluster-bomb maker's catalog, a fuel-air munitions page, a Brunswick assault-weapon sheet, a counterterrorism firm's roster and an energy-device brochure." entities: - "[[Danny Casolaro]]" - "[[Industrias Cardoen]]" - "[[Carlos Cardoen]]" - "[[James D. Theberge]]" - "[[Swissco Management Group]]" - "[[Brunswick Corporation]]" - "[[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]]" - "[[Ari Ben-Menashe]]" - "[[Earl Brian]]" - "[[Howard Teicher]]" tags: - TheOctopus - Cardoen - Iraqgate - PROMIS --- # Promotional Material Among the research files of [[Danny Casolaro]], who was found dead in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on August 10, 1991, is a folder labeled "Promotional Material." Its five items are hand-numbered "BD|AI|PM-01" to "PM-05." In the order in which the folder was photographed they run: a sales sheet of the Chilean arms maker [[Industrias Cardoen]], a printed page on fuel-air munitions, a [[Brunswick Corporation]] cover sheet and drawing, the resume packet of [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], and a brochure for an energy-transfer device called the Inter-Probe.[^1] The Cardoen sheet states that the company "initiated the manufacture of military products in 1978" and that "several export transactions have been successfully completed with ally countries." Its product list includes a "Cluster type bomb" in 100-pound and 500-pound sizes.[^1] In October 1991 the [[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]] reported that the CIA had believed Cardoen to be "the primary supplier of cluster bombs to the Iraqi government" between 1984 and 1988. From January 1986 until his death in January 1988 [[James D. Theberge]], ambassador to Chile from 1982 to 1985, sat on the CIA's Senior Review Panel while consulting for [[Swissco Management Group]], "a subsidiary of Cardoen Industries of Chile," a tie he disclosed to the agency in December 1985.[^2] The Brunswick sheet reads "RAW / Rifleman's Assault Weapon / for / Urban Warfare / October 1976," from the company's defense division at Costa Mesa, California, and is marked "PROPRIETARY DATA."[^3] The CTC packet was faxed on June 20, 1990. It lists the BCCI defense coordinator [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.|E. Lawrence Barcella]], a [[Wackenhut Advanced Technologies Corporation]] vice president and an unnamed former CIA counterterrorism chief.[^1] In another folder of the same papers, a *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* clipping of February 19, 1991 reports an affidavit by [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] stating that [[Carlos Cardoen]] told him in January 1989 that he had brokered a sale of [[PROMIS]] by [[Earl Brian]] to an Iraqi military intelligence representative, consummated in Santiago. Brian called the allegations "nonsense."[^4] On May 26, 1993 a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Cardoen, his company and Swissco over zirconium and fuze components exported to Chile for cluster bombs sold to Iraq.[^5] On January 31, 1995 [[Howard Teicher]], who had served on the National Security Council staff from 1982 to 1987, signed a declaration in the case stating that "the CIA authorized, approved and assisted Cardoen in the manufacture and sale of cluster bombs." The declaration was sealed.[^6] Robert Parry reported that the government sealed it as a state secret while attacking Teicher's credibility, and that Teicher was kept from testifying; Consortium News reported that a federal grand jury heard testimony on a complaint over the defense's filing of an affidavit in the case.[^6][^8] On November 8, 1996 the United States served a corrective declaration that Teicher had signed on October 3. In it he wrote that lawyers for Teledyne had drafted the January text, that he had not reviewed his National Security Council files since 1987, and that his statements in paragraphs 15 through 18 were his best memory and belief rather than "categorical statements of fact." He wrote that he was "not aware of any specific evidence that the United States government or any government official or agency took steps to help Cardoen obtain any U.S.-origin components for use in cluster bombs." The corrective declaration does not address paragraph 14 of the January text, which describes the supply of Cardoen's cluster bombs to Iraq as an "extension" of United States policy.[^7][^6] [^1]: Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," items BD|AI|PM-01 to PM-05, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/PromotionalMaterial.pdf. [^2]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Intelligence, *Nomination of Robert M. Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence*, S. Exec. Rept. 102-19, October 24, 1991, section 5, https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-filesations-10219.pdf (PDF pages 186 to 188). [^3]: "RAW, Rifleman's Assault Weapon for Urban Warfare, October 1976," Brunswick Corporation Defense Division, cover sheet hand-marked "BD|AI|PM-03," same folder as note 1. [^4]: *St. Louis Post-Dispatch*, February 19, 1991, "Stolen Software Scattered: Affidavits Allege Sales To Iraqis And Israelis," clipping in the INSLAW folder of the Casolaro papers, https://archive.org/download/casolaro-notebooks/InslawIi_djvu.txt. [^5]: *United States v. Cardoen*, 898 F. Supp. 1563 (S.D. Fla. 1995), No. 93-241-CR, https://static.case.law/f-supp/898/cases/1563-01.json. [^6]: Declaration of Howard Teicher, January 31, 1995, *United States v. Cardoen*, No. 93-241-CR (S.D. Fla.), paragraphs 14 to 18, as transcribed at http://spikethenews.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-teicher-affidavit.html; Robert Parry, "Iraqgate: Confession and Cover-up," *Extra!*, 1995, https://scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0212/S00074.htm. [^7]: Corrective declaration of Howard R. Teicher, October 3, 1996, *United States v. Cardoen*, No. 93-241-CR-Highsmith (S.D. Fla.), https://archive.org/details/utf-893cr-241-de-679. [^8]: Consortium News, "Iraqgate Cover-Up Goes After Defense Lawyers," https://consortiumnews.com/archive/story1.html.