From: seraphim@ais.org (Henry Hardy)
Subject: The Inslaw affair still raises a stink around Washington
Followup-To: alt.conspiracy
Summary: House Judiciary to call for special prosecuter; Casolaro tortured?
Keywords: Casolaro,Inslaw,Kilpatrick,Hamilton,Bua,Thornburgh,Brooks,House Judiciary Committee,special prosecutor,corruption,murder,USA,computer,PROMIS,software
Organization: none
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 17:20:16 GMT

The Inslaw Affair still raises a stink around Washington


James J. Kilpatrick

The Inslaw affair began to smell five years ago. Recently, the stink got
worse.

In the latest development in this bizzare business, the U. S. House Judiciary
Committee filed a 230 page report finding that "high-level" officiials in the
Department of Justice had engaged in an ugly conspiracy. They had conspired
to steal the property of Inslaw, Inc., a small computer manufacturer of 
computer software, and to drive the company into bankruptcy.

The report has not yet been officiially released. Republican members of the
committee asked that it be held up for a few days so they could spruce up the
facts with dissenter's deodorant spray. It won't help. Even without the
text of the committee's report, we now have a reasonably clear picture of
what happened -- and what happened cannot be condoned.

For those who just came in, it should be said that the story began 10 years
ago, when Inslaw won a $10-million contract to install its software in the
officies of U. S. attorneys. For a brief period, everything seemed fine.
Then an inexplicable rash of complaints arose. The Department of Justice
withheld payments. The company ran out of cash. In 1987, Inslaw filed for
bankruptcy.

William Hamilton, Inslaw's president, charged in court that this was a sham
contrived by Justice Department officiials who hoped to steer contracts to
friends of the Reagan administration. Hamilton accused officiials of "computer
piracy" on a grand scale. The bankruptcy judge agreed. He brought in a
blistering decision in which he found certain officials guilty of lying,
cheating and stealing. He awarded Inslaw $7 million in damages.

A U. S. district judge in 1989 affirmed the judgement. There was "convincing,
perhaps compelling support for the findings set forth by the bankruptcy 
court." On the government's further appeal, a circuit court set aside the
7-million judgement, not on its merits, but on a technical point.

While all this was going on, Attorney General Ed Meese had departed, and
Dick Thornburgh had come on the scene. A Senate committee attempted to
ferret out the truth of the Inslaw affair, but the committee got nowhere.
The Justice Department raised a stonewall of executive privilege.

Then the House Judiciary Committee, headed by Jack Brooks, D-Texas, launched
the three-year investigation that concluded earlier this month. Brooks also
ran into a stonewall. He accused Thornburgh of refusing to supply critical
documents that might establish the truth. Thornburgh replied blandly that
the documents were "sensitive documents relating to ongoing litigation."
He refused to release them.

One of the mysteries is why Thornburgh acted in this obdurate fashion. The
alleged conspiracy occurred on Meese's watch, not his. Thornburgh's refusal
to cooperate served only to fan the flames of suspicion, and as the months
passed the flames grew higher. Allegations arose that the software had
turned up in Canada and Israel.

Another mystery involves a freelance reporter, Danny Casolaro, who was working
on the Inslaw story. He died in a West Virginia motel room last year, an
apparent suicide, but friends believe he was murdered. The San Francisco
Chronicle says the House report cites a recently disclosed autopsy on
Casolaro. Strangely, "three of Casolaro's fingernails were missing." The
autopsy turned up unaccountable bruises. There were none of the hesitant
cuts that usually precede suicide by slashing one's wrists.

Some months ago, after Thornburgh resigned, the stench arising from the
Inslaw affair became so noisome that Attorney General William P. Barr
asked a retired federal judge, Nicholas J. Bua of Chicago, to look into
the whole story. He has been on the job for almost a whole year. Reportedly
he has been presenting witnesses to a grand jury.

It is no reflection on Judge Bua to say that under the circumstances, his
report to Barr won't quiet the uproar. It will be said, no matter what the
judge does, that he was a fox put in charge of the henhouse. Democrats on
the committee have asked for a wholly independent special counsel to get
responsibly to the truth at last. This makes sense.

As matters stand, two courts and a House committee have sustained charges of
appalling misconduct. This would be bad enough for any agency of the
government, but the Department of Justice is something special. Attorney
General Barr should understand that until the tangled allegations are
resolved, the stink won't go away.

Universal Press Syndicate

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Copyright (C) Detroit Free Press, August 24, 1992, p. 7A.
Reposted for journalistic or educational fair use only.
-- seraphim@ais.org
***