From: jad@ckuxb.att.com (John A Dinardo)
Subject: Part VII, The Casolaro Murder --> The Feds' Theft of Inslaw Software
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Keywords: CIA = Murder Inc.,  CIA desecrates the People's Constitution
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 22:37:14 GMT

       The Following excerpts are from  
       the WASHINGTON REPORT On Middle East Affairs, October 1992,
       P.O. Box 53062, Washington, D.C. 20009    1(800) 368-5788.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
             BOOKS
            ~~~~~~~
            "October Surprise: American Hostages in Iran,
             and the Election of Ronald Reagan"
                By Gary Sick.  Random House, Inc., 1991.

   Reviewed by Andrew Killgore, former U.S. ambasssador to Qatar
   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

It was a traumatic year for President Jimmy Carter. His secret 
attempt in April 1980 to rescue fifty-two American diplomatic
hostages imprisoned in Tehran had failed disastrously. Of eight
rescue helicopters sent, three had been destroyed by accident, 
along with a C-130 aircraft. Eight airmen had been killed and no
hostages were rescued.

The president's full public assumption of responsibility for the 
embarrassing fiasco did little to save him from growing charges of
general fecklessness, especially in the face of an economy that 
seemed to be faltering. With Carter's re-election uncertain, the 
prize of the White House suddenly seemed attainable for the 
Republican Party.

As a matter of principle, Carter refused to provide arms to Iran
in exchange for the hostages. He also rejected Israel's proposals
that it be allowed to ransom the hostages with U.S. arms. 

Carter did, however, negotiate with Iran over the release of
Iranian assets frozen in the U.S. when the American hostages were
seized. The dread possibility that this negotiation might be
successful, releasing a surge of popular enthusiasm that might 
win Carter the election when the hostages came home, haunted 
Ronald Reagan's campaign organization. They worried about such
an "October Surprise" right up to the November day when Americans
went to the polls and elected Reagan president.

The hostages, held prisoner for four hundred and forty-four days,
were finally released at 12:05 P.M. on January 20, 1981, FIVE
MINUTES after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as President
of the United States. The curious timing of the release caused 
some to wonder from that moment on whether the Reagan campaign
and the Iranians had made a secret deal to delay the hostage
release until after the presidential election. 

Such a TREASONABLE delay by PRIVATE operatives to thwart official
U.S. Government efforts to free the hostages would amount to
American political corruption of a cosmic level. Though morally
indefensible, the political significance of such a deal would
depend, to a large extent, on WHO made it.

Did the candidate HIMSELF know?  Or was it done behind his back
by some amoral well-wisher?  If there was a crime, the question,
as in a classic mystery thriller, was WHO did it?

OCTOBER SURPRISE author Gary Sick, a National Security Council 
staffer under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and, briefly,
Ronald Reagan, and the principal White House aide for Iran during
the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis, wasn't much of a 
detective at first. A retired Naval captain, he was simply too
decent a man to contemplate that ambition for power by the Reagan
campaign could lead it to betray America's diplomatic hostages,
and indeed, the United States.

As late as 1985, when he wrote his book, ALL FALL DOWN: America's
Tragic Encounter With Iran, Sick still had not accepted that Jimmy
Carter's political death might not have been solely from natural
causes.  Then two critical bits of information suggested that his
basic trust had been misplaced.

First, a single sentence in the New York Times showed that Reagan
campaign manager and CIA Director-to-be William Casey had been
outside the United States on critical dates when his associates
had claimed that he was not.
Second, a single date on an affidavit suggested that the Reagan
Administration was trying to cover its tracks immediately after
the inauguration.
          (discontinuation of excerpted book review)
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

       When Fred Alvarez wrote that letter to Ronald Reagan containing
       "specific" details of the Reagan-Bush gang's treasonous "October
       Surprise" caper -- and when Ronald Reagan thoughtlessly wrote Fred
       back with a signed reply, that letter became a deadly blackmail
       card lying face-up on the playing table of political intrigue.

       Now when the gang found out about the incriminating Reagan letter,
       they probably said: "Why wasn't someone watching the old fool more
       carefully? That letter could hang all of us."  CIA Director, then-
       private citizen and now President of the United States George Bush
       likely had his eyes peeled and his gears spinning as to how to
       handle Fred Alvarez.  Now eventually, Fred became irate over the
       Wackenhut/Iran-Contra crew's misappropriation of proceeds from the
       Cabazon Indian gambling casino. So, in indignation, he started to
       go public on them.  He gave interviews to the Desert Sun in which
       he stated: "As I speak, I'm a dead man."  (and indeed, a brave man) 
       (Would someone like to look up those Fred Alvarez interviews in 
       back issues of the Desert Sun, and post them to the net?
       Photocopies can probably be obtained by your local library 
       through the nationwide library network.)
    
       They shot Fred Alvarez in the head, execution-style. 
       But there was still another loose cannon rolling around on deck:
       It was Paul Marosca.  Marosca and Alvarez originated the realization
       that Reagan-Bush were setting themselves up for eventual blackmail
       in cutting the "October Surprise" surprise double-cross with the 
       viciously hostile Iranian fundamentalist regime. Marosca probably
       had a copy of Reagan's signed self-incriminating letter. 
       So they executed Paul Marosca too.  Slowly strangled to death.

       Now Marosca's friend, Michael Riconosciuto was onto them. He had
       discovered Paul's body.  The gang was feeling relentless heat from 
       the unshakable threat that hung over their heads: that letter. 
       It seemed like it was being passed on, like a baton, from one dead man 
       to the next.  They were extraordinarily "stresed out and pushy" in
       trying to keep Riconosciuto from finding out. But he found out anyway.
       Now they had to silence him too.

       But Riconosciuto had created his own trump card designed to ward off
       the executioners. He had set a time-bomb, engineered to go off upon
       his death. It was that letter again.  With his death, the letter 
       would automatically be disseminated to many journalists who were not 
       inclined to just sit on it. Among all these suspicions of mine is the
       suspicion that Danny Casolaro was one of those journalists. But Danny
       couldn't wait for the time-bomb to be triggered. He was going to
       detonate it himself with his planned book: "Indio".

       They had to deal with Riconosciuto in a different way -- 
       for the time being. But ultimately, the one and only failure-proof 
       method -- the dead-men-tell-no-tales method would have to be used.
       When Riconosciuto defied their warning not to cooperate with the
       Congressional investigating committee, that did it. They set him up
       on drug charges and jailed him.  They're now probably trying to 
       figure out how to de-fuse his time-bomb so they can dispose
       of this remaining threat. 
       
              John DiNardo


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