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| 2024-04-26 | 2024-04-30 | Bill Hamilton |
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William A. Hamilton worked as an NSA analyst and linguist, later joining PMMC. He led the creation of PROMIS software for prosecutors, funded by LEAA. In 1973, he and his wife founded INSLAW to manage PROMIS. |
[!WARNING] INCOMPLETE RESEARCH This page needs to be further fleshed out but Bill's time at the NSA and PMMC is obviously murky.
William A. Hamilton was born ~1940 and grew up in Laude where he was one of seven (or eight) brothers. He graduated from Notre Dame with an English degree in 1962 and married Nancy Hamilton in 1963.1
Bill worked as an analyst and Vietnamese linguist for the National Security Agency for seven years. In 1969, he left and became a management consultant at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. He then responded to a Request for Proposals and won the contract to create what would become PROMIS under the direction of Joan E. Jacoby and Charles R. Work with Law Enforcement Assistance Administration funding through the Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia. Bill Mitchell was project manager for the program. The experimental software for prosecutors made its debut on January 1, 1971.1
Bill, along with his wife Nancy Hamilton, founded INSLAW in 1973, which took over stewardship of PROMIS. The INSLAW company later became embroiled in a significant legal battle with the United States Department of Justice over the alleged theft and pirating of their PROMIS software.[2]
Hamilton was a key figure in the PROMIS Software Scandal, alleging that a version of PROMIS was pirated and sold to foreign governments, including Canada and Israel, with a modified "back-door" that allowed the U.S. to eavesdrop on intelligence secrets.[2] He and Nancy Hamilton sued the United States Department of Justice for non-payment on a version of PROMIS called Modification 12 and for the alleged modification and sale of the software.[2]
Danny Casolaro, the investigative journalist, began investigating the PROMIS affair in 1990 after being contacted by Bill Hamilton. Hamilton was in daily contact with Casolaro until about a week prior to Casolaro's death.[2]
Hamilton received an affidavit from Michael Riconosciuto in March 1991, claiming Riconosciuto installed a "back door" in PROMIS to allow the U.S. to access foreign intelligence data. Riconosciuto later reached out to Hamilton and Casolaro in August 1991 to research Michael Abbell's connection to the Cali Drug Cartel, warning that the information might be dangerous. Hamilton, pressed for time, turned this investigation over to Casolaro.[2]
Hamilton also received a document in November 2004 from a reliable U.S. intelligence source, dated May 16, 1985, indicating that the PROMIS software was being provided to an Arab Sheik for resale and distribution, brokered by Manucher Ghorbanifar, Adnan Khashoggi, and Richard Armitage. This document was authenticated by William Bradford Reynolds, who had signed it. Hamilton considered this a very important letter, as all copies were supposed to have been destroyed.[2]
Hamilton believed that the main role of the Wackenhut Corporation-Cabazon Indian Reservation Joint Venture was connected to government-sanctioned drug trafficking and money laundering by organized crime groups like the Gambino Crime Family and groups like the Contras. He speculated that Michael Riconosciuto's job was to help these groups use National Security Agency's bank surveillance version of PROMIS to launder drug proceeds, with some funds contributing to covert intelligence operations not authorized by Congress.[2]