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Last Circle but also provides many new details. ENTER THE MOUNTIES Asked about Mike Riconosciuto for this story, Tyree would say Thanks to a strong push in my direction from Cheri Seymour, only this: "He's very good at what he does. There are very, very the Mounties and Hercules PD homicide detective Sue Todd few who can touch him, maybe two hundred in the whole world. arrived at my door on August 3rd. They had already consumed Riconosciuto's in a class all by himself." most of the FTW website and were well familiar with my writ- Those documents, as later described to me by RCMP investiga- ings. I had let them know, through Cheri, that I did have informa- tor Sean McDade, proved to be "awesome and right on the tion on Promis from Bill Tyree and I would be happy to share it. money". The essence of those documents is that not only had the Before getting into details, we all went out for lunch at a nearby Republicans under Meese exploited the software, but the Chinese restaurant. In setting basic outlines for our conversations Democrats had also seen its potential and moved years earlier. that day, I indicated that as a journalist I viewed our discussions Nowhere was this connection more clearly exposed than in under- as off-the-record. I took no notes and did not tape-record any of standing the relationship between three classmates from the US the discussion. I am recounting the events now, only after corre- Naval Academy: Jimmy Carter, Stansfield Turner (Carter's CIA sponding with McDade and advising him of my intention to write. director), and billionaire banker/presidential kingmaker (and He responded and did not object. I took the same position with Carter's Annapolis room-mate) Jackson Stephens from Arkansas. Detective Todd. I warned the Mounties and Todd at the outset The Tyree diagrams laid out in detail how Promis, after that a sudden termination of their investigations was likely and improvement with AI, had allegedly been mated with the software that they would all become expendable. It happened to me once. of Jackson Stephens's firm, Systematics. In the late 1970s and Over lunch, the Mounties were quite candid about the fact that early 1980s, Systematics handled some 60-70 per cent of all elec- the RCMP had Promis software and that it even went by the name tronic banking transactions in the US. The goal, according to the "Promis". I think they may have also mentioned the name diagrams which laid out (subsequently verified) relationships "PIRS", which is an acknowledged system in the RCMP network. between Stephens, Worthen Bank, the Lippo Group and the They stated that they had been given their version of Promis by drug/intelligence bank BCCI, was to penetrate every banking sys- the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). tem in the world. This "cabal" could then use Promis both to pre- The CSIS broke away from the Mounties in 1984, and was dict and to influence the movement intended to be "purely" an intelli- of financial markets worldwide. gence agency. It was created largely Stephens, truly bipartisan in his with the expertise and assistance of approach to profits, has been a life- . the CIA. All of us understood two long supporter of George Bush, and Clearly, the chief concern of things about that arrangement and we at the same time he was the source of the Mounties was to ascertain discussed them openly. Firstly, there the $3 million loan that rescued a fal- . 4 was a question as to whether or not tering Clinton campaign in early whether or not their version any intelligence service created by 1992. There is a great photograph of of Promis was one that the CIA could be completely loyal to Stephens with a younger George "W" . its native country. Secondly, it was Bush in the excellent BCCI history, was compromised. also understood that there was a rival- False Profits. In the fall of 1997, Bill McCoy, who had recently gone off his heart medication, was found dead in his favourite chair. In the days and weeks before, he had been gang in the US. advised by Tyree that a Pakistani hit man, on an Israeli contract, Clearly, the chief concern of the Mounties was to ascertain had been in the States seeking to fulfill a hit on McCoy. There whether or not their version of Promis was one that was compro- had been other hints that someone closer to McCoy might do the mised. job. McDade also described in detail how he knew that supposedly Tyree recently told FTW that just before McCoy's death he had secure RCMP communications equipment had been compromised given him information on "Elbit" flash memory chips, allegedly by the NSA. The Mounties acknowledged regular meetings with designed at Kir Yat-Gat south of Tel Aviv. The unique feature of | Cheri Seymour, but evinced none of the interest she said they had the Elbit chips was that they worked on ambient electricity in a previously shown in Mossad. With me, their single-minded focus computer; in other words, they worked when the computer was was Bill Tyree, and where and how he obtained his information. ry between the two agencies, similar to the one that existed between the FBI and the CIA or, in a larger con- text, the Clinton gang and the Bush turned off. When combined with another newly developed chip, Sue Todd confirmed for me suspicions that there was an unspo- the "Petrie", which was capable of storing up to six months' worth ken alliance between the RCMP investigators and the FBI. She of key strokes, it was now possible to burst-transmit all of a com- said that during the course of her three years of efforts to solve the puter's activity in the middle of the night to a nearby receiver— double murder in Hercules, she had routinely visited FBI offices say, in a passing truck or even a low-flying SIGINT (Signals and enjoyed access to FBI files relative to both the Promis investi- Intelligence) satellite. According to Tyree, this was the methodol- gation and anything connected to her victims. That information ogy used by Jonathan Pollard and the Israeli Mossad to compro- was obviously being shared with the Mounties, and that implied mise many foreign embassies in Washington. the blessings of the FBI. Within 48 hours of his death, Bill McCoy's body was cremated, In short, a domestic law enforcement officer was sharing and in less than four days all of Mac's furniture, records and per- information with agents of a foreign government. In some cases sonal belongings had been removed from his home by his son, a that could provoke espionage charges, but in this case it was full Colonel in the Army. The house had been sanitised and apparently sanctioned. The Hercules murder victims had no repainted and, aside from the Zen garden in the backyard, there apparent connection to Promis software in any way, except for the was no trace that McCoy had ever lived there. fact that Riconosciuto had possessed knowledge about the Clearly, the chief concern of the Mounties was to ascertain 32 - NEXUS ENTER THE MOUNTIES whether or not their version of Promis was one that was compromised. DECEMBER 2000 — JANUARY 2001