39 lines
4 KiB
Markdown
39 lines
4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "The Roster"
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date: 2026-10-08
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status: published
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summary: "A 1990 counterterrorism firm's roster, preserved in Danny Casolaro's papers, lists BCCI's defense coordinator, a Wackenhut vice president and a former CIA counterterrorism chief, two years before that coordinator ran the House October Surprise inquiry."
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entities:
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- "[[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]]"
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- "[[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.]]"
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- "[[Carter Cornick]]"
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- "[[Eugene Propper]]"
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- "[[James B. Motley]]"
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- "[[Wackenhut Corporation]]"
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- "[[Danny Casolaro]]"
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- "[[House October Surprise Task Force]]"
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- "[[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]"
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tags:
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- TheOctopus
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- OctoberSurprise
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- BCCI
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- Wackenhut
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---
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# The Roster
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On August 1, 1988, CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P. was filed as a limited partnership in Delaware. The next day [[Carter Cornick]], recently retired from the FBI's terrorism section, and the former federal prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]] announced [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], seeded with about $500,000 from investors they declined to name. [[E. Lawrence Barcella, Jr.|E. Lawrence Barcella]], who had worked with both men on the Letelier and [[Edwin Wilson]] cases, was to advise on extradition.[^1][^2]
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Shortly after the October 1988 indictment of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] in Tampa, Barcella was brought in to coordinate the bank's defense.[^3]
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On September 18, 1989, the partnership registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Its one foreign principal was the Government of Jamaica, from which it reported $25,000 received before registration. Its short-form registrants were Cornick, Propper and Gerald S. Walker.[^4]
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On June 20, 1990, a twelve-page resume packet on the partnership's letterhead went out by fax. Besides Cornick, Propper and Barcella, it lists [[James B. Motley]], vice president for national security studies at [[Wackenhut Corporation|Wackenhut]] Advanced Technologies Corporation since September 1987; [[Francis J. McNeil]], ambassador to Costa Rica from 1980 to 1983; and an unnamed former CIA chief of counterterrorism, a Navy aviator who had run the agency's air and maritime elements from 1974 to 1977 and retired in 1987. A copy of the packet is among the papers of [[Danny Casolaro]], in a folder labeled "Promotional Material" where it follows a Brunswick cover sheet and drawing for the Rifleman's Assault Weapon; the folder opens with a sales sheet of the Chilean arms maker Industrias Cardoen. Casolaro was found dead in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on August 10, 1991.[^5]
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In March 1992 the [[House October Surprise Task Force]] hired Barcella as its chief counsel. The biography printed in its January 1993 report describes him as "presently a partner in the Washington office of Katten, Muchin, Zavis and Dombroff." The report found "no credible evidence" of a deal.[^6]
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[^1]: Delaware Division of Corporations file 2168210, as mirrored by OpenCorporates; District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, entity record 058088 (foreign limited partnership formed in Delaware, filed August 5, 1988).
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[^2]: "A group of top former FBI agents and federal...," United Press International, August 2, 1988, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/02/A-group-of-top-former-FBI-agents-and-federal/9684730900658/.
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[^3]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, The BCCI Affair, S. Prt. 102-140, December 1992.
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[^4]: Report of the Attorney General to the Congress on the Administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, 1988 to 1991, vol. 1, p. 599, registration 4294, https://www.justice.gov/media/910066/dl?inline.
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[^5]: CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P., "Proudly Presents The Resumes of its Associates," fax copy headed "JUN 20 '90," Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Promotional Material," item PM-05, https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks.
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[^6]: Joint Report of the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980, H. Rept. 102-1102, January 3, 1993.
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