25 lines
No EOL
4.1 KiB
Markdown
25 lines
No EOL
4.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Government
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- Canada
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- Intelligence
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category: "Foreign Government"
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summary: "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is Canada's national police force, which became significantly involved in the investigation of the PROMIS Software Scandal."
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start: 1920
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location: "Ottawa, Canada"
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---
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The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] is [[Canada]]'s national police force, which became significantly involved in the investigation of the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]]. In February 2000, [[Sean McDade]], an [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] national security investigator, secretly entered the [[United States]] to investigate evidence that the [[Canadian Government]] was using a modified version of the [[PROMIS]] computer software, which purportedly allowed the [[United States|U.S.]] to eavesdrop on [[Canada|Canadian]] intelligence secrets through a "back-door." His investigation was code-named [[Project Abbreviation]], and his email handle, "simorp," was [[PROMIS]] spelled backward.[1]
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The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] probe, code-named Project Abbreviation, was authorized at the highest levels of the organization and was well-funded. The investigation was prompted by the discovery of an invoice for the purchase of [[PROMIS]] from Strategic Software Planning in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which contradicted earlier denials by [[Canada|Canadian]] authorities regarding the Hamiltons' claims about the pirated software. [[Sean McDade]]'s investigation reportedly traced banking transactions that supported the claim that high-ranking [[Canadian Government|Canadian]] officials might have unlawfully purchased the software from officials in the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]-[[George H.W. Bush|Bush]] administration.[1]
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During his investigation, [[Sean McDade]] learned that a meeting had taken place in December 1999 at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos facility]] in [[New Mexico]], attended by intelligence heads from the [[United States|U.S.]] ([[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]), [[United Kingdom|Britain]] ([[British Intelligence]]), [[Israel]] ([[Mossad]]), and [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]]. The discussion, labeled "Unique Elements," touched upon questions related to Y2K computer problems and a glitch in the British computer system. A source suggested that all four allied countries shared the same computer system, possibly [[PROMIS]], due to its mutual integration capabilities. Furthermore, [[Sean McDade]] was informed that the [[Mossad]] might have modified the [[PROMIS]] software to create a "two-way" backdoor, potentially granting [[Israel]] access to top [[United States|U.S.]] weapons secrets at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos]] and other installations.[1]
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The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] investigation, with assistance from Detective [[Sue Todd]] of Hercules, California, revealed that [[United States|U.S.]] investigators who had previously probed the [[PROMIS]] affair faced significant obstruction from the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]]. Many were fired, suspended, or resigned when their inquiries into drugs and money laundering reached high-level connections. The text highlights that [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] investigators, among others, still feared punitive action for coming forward, even if they were no longer in the public sector.[1]
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The [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]]'s involvement in the [[PROMIS]] investigation also brought to light the use of [[ECHELON]] technology. [[Sean McDade]] himself became a target of [[ECHELON]] during his investigation in the [[United States]], forcing him to take extraordinary measures to communicate securely. He noted that the [[NSA|NSA]] was spying on [[Canada|Canadian]] citizens while [[Canada]] spied on [[United States|American]] citizens, both utilizing [[ECHELON]] and exchanging data.[1]
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Despite the exposure of [[Sean McDade]]'s investigation in the *Toronto Star* in August 2000, he reportedly returned to police work in his hometown.[1]
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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. |