> [!WARNING] INCOMPLETE RESEARCH > This page needs to be further fleshed out but Bill's time at the NSA and PMMC is obviously murky. William A. Hamilton was born ~1940 and grew up in Laude where he was one of seven (or eight) brothers. He graduated from Notre Dame with an English degree in 1962 and married [[Nancy Hamilton]] in 1963.[^1] Bill worked as an analyst and Vietnamese linguist for the [[National Security Agency|NSA]] for seven years. In 1969, he left and became a management consultant at [[Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co]]. He then responded to a Request for Proposals and won the contract to create what would become [[PROMIS]] under the direction of [[Joan E. Jacoby]] and [[Charles R. Work]] with [[Law Enforcement Assistance Administration|LEAA]] funding through the [[Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia]]. Bill Mitchell was project manager for the program. The experimental software for prosecutors made its debut on January 1, 1971.[^1] Bill, along with his wife [[Nancy Hamilton]], founded [[INSLAW]] in 1973, which took over stewardship of [[PROMIS]]. The [[INSLAW]] company later became embroiled in a significant legal battle with the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] over the alleged theft and pirating of their [[PROMIS]] software.[2] Hamilton was a key figure in the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]], alleging that a version of [[PROMIS]] was pirated and sold to foreign governments, including [[Canada]] and [[Israel]], with a modified "back-door" that allowed the U.S. to eavesdrop on intelligence secrets.[2] He and [[Nancy Hamilton]] sued the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]] for non-payment on a version of [[PROMIS]] called Modification 12 and for the alleged modification and sale of the software.[2] [[Danny Casolaro]], the investigative journalist, began investigating the [[PROMIS]] affair in 1990 after being contacted by Bill Hamilton. Hamilton was in daily contact with Casolaro until about a week prior to Casolaro's death.[2] Hamilton received an affidavit from [[Michael Riconosciuto]] in March 1991, claiming Riconosciuto installed a "back door" in [[PROMIS]] to allow the U.S. to access foreign intelligence data. Riconosciuto later reached out to Hamilton and Casolaro in August 1991 to research [[Michael Abbell]]'s connection to the [[Cali Drug Cartel]], warning that the information might be dangerous. Hamilton, pressed for time, turned this investigation over to Casolaro.[2] Hamilton also received a document in November 2004 from a reliable U.S. intelligence source, dated May 16, 1985, indicating that the [[PROMIS]] software was being provided to an Arab Sheik for resale and distribution, brokered by [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], [[Adnan Khashoggi]], and [[Richard Armitage]]. This document was authenticated by [[William Bradford Reynolds]], who had signed it. Hamilton considered this a very important letter, as all copies were supposed to have been destroyed.[2] Hamilton believed that the main role of the [[Wackenhut Corporation]]-[[Cabazon Indian Reservation]] Joint Venture was connected to government-sanctioned drug trafficking and money laundering by organized crime groups like the [[Gambino Crime Family]] and groups like the [[Contras]]. He speculated that [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s job was to help these groups use [[National Security Agency|NSA]]'s bank surveillance version of [[PROMIS]] to launder drug proceeds, with some funds contributing to covert intelligence operations not authorized by Congress.[2] ### Footnotes [^1]: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/139683581/ [^2]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.