[CTRL] Fwd: Globe-Intel #79 - ROBERT MAXWELL, PROMIS SOFTWARE PEDDLER

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Title: **Globe-Intel**

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Click here now: http://click.topica.com/caaal24a2iZZ7a36O8Ab/consumercreditcounseling ============================================================ **Global News Net**   NEWSBREAKS…ANALYSIS… COMMENTARY     Number 79 May 22, 2002     ROBERT MAXWELL, PROMIS SOFTWARE PEDDLER --UNTIL HE OVER-STEPPED HIS BOUNDS   EXCERPT FROM SEEDS OF FIRE  BY GORDON THOMAS*   Maxwell was no ordinary run-of-the-mill millionaire.  Physically a Falstaffian figure, Maxwell had a gargantuan appetite for everything:  food, wine and women.  Unwilling to enter into any permanent affair, he chose to satisfy his sexual needs through high-priced prostitutes.  In every city he visited, his aides had call girls on hand to satisfy his needs.  Like many despots, he worked anti-social hours, waking exhausted aides in the small hours to execute some minor whim that had come into his head.  His chauffeur once had to drive half-way across London to bring Maxwell a brand of ice cream that he fancied.  On other occasions he would arrive in the newsroom of his flagship tabloid, the UK-based Daily Mirror, and terrorize the night staff by taking charge of production.  He sacked people without warning, rewarded others with unexpected gifts.  Unpredictable, volcanic in temper, he ruled by fear from which no one was safe.  His own sons were publicly abused by him and his wife treated as a drudge. But to the rich and powerful his lack of manners, his sexual peccadilloes, his unsavory eating habits, his often shambolic dress style:  all these were of little consequence because of the power he wielded through his global publishing empire.  Like William Randolph Hearst, he strode the newspaper world like an emperor; like Hearst, Maxwell had a xenophobia, in his case a dislike of the United States.  Maxwell was a Zionist.  He believed that the United States had not done enough to help the Jews flee from the Nazis in the run-up to World War II.  He also resented what he saw as an attempt to Americanize post-war Europe.  But, like so much else about him, Maxwell kept such views secret. All his life, Maxwell had cultivated the rich and famous to help him promote his publishing interests and political aspirations.  In Britain in 1964, his contacts with its government had seen him return as a Labor Member of Parliament.  His election had opened doors for him in Washington.  He became a frequent visitor to the White House.  Among those he came to know was Senator John Tower.  Tower had regaled Maxwell with stories of how he had helped to get George Herbert Bush into Congress. On a visit to Israel, it was to Rafi Eitan [who, for a quarter of a century, had been deputy director of operations for Mossad, Israel’s legendary secret intelligence service] that Maxwell revealed his own dislike of America.  Eitan, who had no such antipathy, noted the tycoon’s feelings and decided that “one day that could be useful to know.”               The call had come on February 10, 1983, to the offices of Inslaw, a small company [William] Hamilton and his wife [Nancy] co-owned.  The caller was Madison “Brick” Brewer, a senior official at the Justice Department.  Inslaw developed software programs in its offices on Washington’s 15th Street NW.  Ernest Midwesterners, there was something endearingly old-fashioned about [the Hamiltons] in their soft drawls, courtesy and quiet determination to see if their latest invention would secure for them what Bill called “at last our place in the world.”           Their expectation was based on how they had transformed a software program, Promis—Prosecutors Management Information Systems—into something very different.  It was now called Enhanced Promis and it had the potential to turn the Hamiltons into multi-millionaires.           Their creation of Enhanced Promis also seemed to them the perfect way to repay their patriotism—and make a fair profit from their hard work.  They wanted the United States government to be their first client.  This decision exemplified their own unassailable belief in the Constitution and those it served.  They spoke of their creation with an excitement usually seen in new parents for their child.           On that February day in 1983 the call to William Hamilton from Brewer thrilled the Hamiltons.  As the Justice Department Project Manager, Brewer had considerable power over the future of Enhanced Promis.  In one of the many twists the story was about to assume, Brewer had once worked for Inslaw.  Bill Hamilton had fired him because of “good cause.” A circumspect man of few words, Hamilton had never elaborated in public his feelings towards Brewer.  For his part, Brewer had maintained a stoic silence.  But on that February day all was cordial between both men.           During the call, Hamilton was to recall Brewer had said that the Justice Department would have no objection to Inslaw going into “all necessary detail” to how Enhanced Promis worked to the visitor that Brewer was going to send over by cab from the Justice Department.  His name was Dr. Orr and he was from Tel Aviv.           To Bill Hamilton his forthcoming visitor was potentially further proof that “Justice was going to go on playing it fair and square.”           Bill Hamilton had written a letter to the Department of Justice detailing the improvements made to the original, public-domain Promis, asking the Department to waive rights it “might claim to the Enhanced version.”           On August 11, 1982, a Justice lawyer replied:  “To the extent that other enhancements (beyond the public domain Promis) were privately funded by Inslaw, and not specified to be delivered to the Department of Justice under any other contract or agreement, Inslaw may assert whatever proprietary rights it may have.”           The Hamiltons saw the letter as clear-cut:  Enhanced Promis was their creation to profit from.  They would later be comforted by the clarification offered by the then deputy attorney-general Arnold Burns, that “our lawyers (at DOJ) are satisfied that Inslaw’s lawyers could sustain the claim in court that we had waived those proprietary rights.”           Completely reassured that profits that would accrue from the considerable sums they had invested in Enhanced Promis were theirs alone, Bill and Nancy Hamilton had constantly updated Enhanced Promis.  In his submission to the Justice Department, Bill Hamilton had eloquently argued that the need for such software was all too evident:           “The United States government, the most powerful government in the world, has internal information systems which are mired in the archaic technology of the 1960s.  There is a Department of Justice database, an Attorney General’s database, and an IRS database.  Every arm of government has its own database.  But none of them can share information.  That makes tracking offenders almost always difficult and building cases against them a long and bureaucratic task.”           Hamilton acknowledged that in the past efforts had been made to deal with the problem when Inslaw had been a non-profit corporation funded entirely through government grants and contracts.  Its prime client in those days had been the Law Enforcement and Assistance Administration, LEAA.  Through public funding Inslaw had developed the original program, calling it Promis.           When President Carter closed down the LEAA, the Hamiltons bought and converted Inslaw to a for-profit corporation.  They set to work using their own money to continue to upgrade the original Promis.  So significant had been the many improvements made that the Hamiltons had renamed the software Enhanced Promis.             The technically-minded at the Department of Justice readily understood how significant the changes had been to create Enhanced Promis…. everyone at the Department of Justice grasped that Enhanced Promis had a staggering 570,000 lines of computer code, allowing it to integrate with innumerable databases without a need to reprogram.            In essence, Enhanced Promis could convert data into priceless information on a scale never before imagined.  Hamilton, long accustomed to the ways of the government, knew that “anyone in Washington will tell you that information, when wielded with finesse, is power—and Enhanced Promis is the most powerful of computer tools.” No one at the Justice Department disagreed with him.             … The Hamiltons had heard disquieting tales of how government officials would casually ruin a career over a late drink at an embassy or slyly tarnish a reputation over dinner.  But none of this had touched them personally and therefore they never had to question their relationship with the Justice Department.  Enhanced Promis would guarantee their own future; just as other discoverers of great inventions had been honored and remembered.  It was a touching conceit for a couple who had none of the airs and graces of Washington. On almost every occasion he telephoned, project manager “Brick” Brewer had some nugget to impart.  Attorney General Edwin Meese III had praised Enhanced Promis.  Deputy Attorney General Lowell Jensen had called it “one of the great discoveries of this century.”  Brewer himself had said that the Hamiltons should be proud of what they had achieved. Now, on that bleak February morning in 1983, he had more good news.  The Hamiltons would have a chance to show off Enhanced Promis.  Would the Hamiltons give Dr. Orr a demonstration of how Enhanced Promis worked?  Very likely, added Brewer, Dr. Orr would go back to Israel not only impressed with what he would have seen, but also ready to urge his own ministry to buy the software to keep track of Israeli criminals. The Hamiltons were elated.    … Flanked by Bill and Nancy, Dr. Orr was taken on a tour of the offices where Enhanced Promis had been patiently created—chip by chip, microcircuit by microcircuit.  Bill Hamilton’s office had been chosen for the formal presentation.  He explained to his visitor how an Enhanced Promis disc could select from myriad alternatives the one that made most sense; how it eliminated deductive reasoning because, as Bill put it, “there are too many correct but irrelevant matters to simultaneously take into account for human reasoning.  Our software can be programmed to eliminate all superfluous lines of enquiry and collate data at a speed beyond human capability.” It was virtually the same presentation that had hooked the senior staff of the Justice Department. Dr. Orr’s questions were few and the sort the Hamiltons expected to be asked.  Could Enhanced Promis be adapted to different languages?  It could.  Had Inslaw patented it?  Of course:  it was the first thing its inventors had done.  Was it expensive?  Yes, relatively so.  But it was worth the price. Bill Hamilton remembered that Dr. Orr had given another of his quick smiles that never left his lips.  Then, as swiftly as he appeared, the man from Tel Aviv had gone, driving away in a cab down 15th Street. It was only then that Nancy Hamilton remembered they had not asked Dr. Orr how and where he could be contacted.   Not for a moment did they suspect he was the world’s leading spymaster.  His real name was Rafi Eitan and, for a quarter of a century, he had been deputy director of operations for Mossad, Israel’s legendary secret intelligence service.    [To be continued]     * Seeds of Fire, by Gordon Thomas ISBN 1893302547. Copyright, 2001, all worldwide rights exclusively reserved. Published by Dandelion Books, Tempe, Arizona, www.dandelion-books.com . No portion of this excerpt may be reproduced or translated into any language or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.   For archived Global News Net issues, click on www.topica.com/lists/gordonthomas/read   For a new review of SEEDS OF FIRE, click on www.freedommag.org/English/vol34il/page15.htm   To invite others to subscribe to Global News Net, have them click here: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   To purchase Seeds of Fire: China and the Story Behind the Attack on America, click on http://www.dandelionbooks.net/cart/   For an autographed First Edition of Seeds of Fire, call toll-free 1-888-609-5006.     Global News Net is published by Dandelion Enterprises, Inc., Tempe, Arizona… Editor-in-Chief: Carol Adler… Contributing Writers… Mark Dankof…David McGowan… Joseph Ehrlich…John Kusumi… Tariq Saeedi…Takashi “Thomas” Tanemori       ============================================================ Bring digital video to your work with a free trial of Adobe Premiere. 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