Nexus - 0212 - New Times Magazine-pages

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think ... phone lines, where someone calls to, which is very impor- tant. Other than tapping him, now you can also have a written tecord of all the telephone numbers he or she dials. So if you want Mr. Joe Smith and everything he does, it’s the only program that can bring all this data from everywhere ... GK: Globally? B-M: Globally, yes, onto one screen! It's a very sophisticated program. I mean, this is the biggest infringement of privacy on anybody, anything. Is there any privacy? I mean, the government agencies would be able to monitor anybody’s activities as they wish. Very quickly too. Once they have this information, who knows what they do with it. GK: How quickly can Promis assimilate information and pro- vide a dossier on a person? B-M: If its hooked up correctly, a matter of seconds. It is a bet- ter information collection system than any other. I mean, I think it put the satellites out of business. : GK: Have you seen this in operation? B-M: Oh yeah. You know, this program makes George Orwell’s '1984' look like ... (nervous laugh). George Orwell was modest. Promis initiative, the article quotes one of Kashmeri’s Canadian Intelligence sources: “Some of our allies, such as Australia, are furious after they found out from the revelations of the Inslaw Case that they were sucked into buying Promis.” Kashmeri confirmed to one of my colleagues that he has had a twelve year relationship with the two intelligence sources who supplied the information for the article and that they had always proved reliable in the past. It is the most sophisticated computer database that has ever been developed in the world. You can essentially get everything about anybody you want to know. a At the time I interviewed Ben-Menashe, it proved very hard to authenticate all his claims. Although Israeli Intelligence denied all knowledge of him for some time, I was informed by a helpful con- tact within the Austalian Democrats that he had indeed worked there for them, and, was given copies of various personal refer- ences that supported the claim. After later interviewing Bill Hamilton, the director of Inslaw Inc., the company that wrote the program, and other individuals familiar with the case, I felt quite confident that Ari Ben-Menashe knew exactly what he was talking about. On 1 September 1992, an investigative committee of the US Congress released an investigative report on the Inslaw Case, which outlines the controversial history of the Promis software. It took three years of investigation to complete the report, due in part to the withholding of evidence by government agencies connected to the theft, modification and distribution of the program, as well as the intimidation of important witnesses. In order to slow down and mislead the investigation there have been arrests, on false charges, of individuals informing the judicial committee, as well as the sus- picious death (read: murder) of journalist Danny Casolaro, who had been investigating the Inslaw Case and its links to the October Surprise, Iran-contra Affair, and BCCI bank collapse. Far from answering all the questions, the report concludes that a far more thorough and far-reaching investigation must be urgently undertak- en What this program can do, the only one in the world that can do this, is first of all make sure when you're talking about “Harry Smith" it's the same "Harry Smith", because there could ten "Harry Smith's". It would compare notes, check common denominators, and it would find Harry Smith. His water usage, his electric usage, how many times he has travelled abroad, what does he do with his credit cards, his car licence number, all sorts of stuff. Put it togeth- er, and there you go. You have everything you want to know about this person. The first version was ready in 1979/80. In ‘81 he (Bill Hamilton) offers it to the Justice Department, because it’s also good for law It is a better information collection system than any other. | mean, | think it put the satellites out of business, a enforcement. He offers it, and then suddenly the National Security Agency has it. It’s given to the Israeli’s in ‘82, and it’s being mar- keted around the world, given to allies and non-allies. The reason being, it was bugged as well. What you would do is basically set it up for one government, and without letting that government know, have a phone tap on that computer and can pull out information for yourself also. They bugged their allies as well! The committee's report confirms many of Ari Ben-Menashe's claims. He was, in fact, one of the key sources of their informa- tion. I put the following questions to him when we met in 1991: GK: What is Promis? B-M: It is the most sophisticated computer database that has ever been developed in the world. Computers are very widely used by the intelligence community; it’s the main source of information about people. You can essentially get everything about anybody you want to know. GK: To what extent would it be used by the intelligence com- munity to collect information about the civilian population? B-M: It’s quite widely used, all over the world, to collect infor- mation about dissidents, opposition leaders, and so on. What does it do? I'll give you an example which is very inter- esting. You have a computer, put this program on it, and connect this computer to the water company, to the electric company, to IATA (International Air Travel Association), to credit card compa- nies, to the tax department, bank accounts, to anything you like to I’ll give you an example. The Americans sold it on our behalf (Israel) to some Arab countries. Jordanian Military Intelligence had it in ‘82 and they were collecting data on the Palestinians. The Palestinians were threatening the king (Hussein) as well. We were also sharing that information mwah them. GK: Without their knowledge? B-M: Of course, without their knowledge. Now, the two coun- tries that marketed, the two security forces that marketed this pro- gram, one was Israel and one was the United States. Israel did it 12¢NEXUS FEBRUARY-MARCH ‘93