[[Sean McDade]] was a national security investigator with the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] who secretly entered the [[United States]] in February 2000 to investigate evidence that the [[Canadian Government]] was using a computer software program called [[PROMIS]], which allegedly allowed the [[United States Government|U.S.]] to eavesdrop on [[Canada|Canadian]] intelligence secrets through a modified "back-door." His investigation was code-named [[Project Abbreviation]], and his email handle, "simorp," was [[PROMIS]] spelled backward.[1] McDade's probe was authorized at the highest level of the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] and was well-funded. He was deeply committed to ascertaining whether the [[Canadian Government]]'s computer system had been compromised. He learned that a meeting had been held in December 1999 at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos facility]] in [[New Mexico]], attended by the heads of intelligence divisions from the [[United States|U.S.]] ([[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]), [[United Kingdom|Britain]] ([[MI6]]), [[Israel]] ([[Mossad]]), and [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service|CSIS]], concerning Y2K computer problems. A source suggested that all four allied countries shared the same computer system, possibly [[PROMIS]], due to its mutual integration capabilities. McDade was also informed by another source that the [[Mossad]] may have modified the [[PROMIS]] software to create a "two-way" backdoor, potentially allowing [[Israel]] access to top [[United States|U.S.]] weapons secrets at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory|Los Alamos]] and other installations.[1] During his investigation, McDade met with [[Cheri Seymour]], the author of *The Last Circle*, in Southern California on February 19, 2000. He explained that high-ranking [[Canadian Government|Canadian]] officials might have unlawfully purchased the [[PROMIS]] software from officials in the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]-[[George Bush|Bush]] administration, and the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] had reportedly traced banking transactions supporting this claim. He believed a successful investigation "could cause the entire [[United States Republican Party|U.S. Republican Party]] to be dismantled and more than one presidential administration would be exposed for their knowledge of the [[PROMIS]] software transaction." [[Sue Todd]], a Police Detective from Hercules, California, accompanied McDade to this meeting, as they had discovered they shared the same source and Todd's investigation into a double homicide was connected to the [[PROMIS]] case.[1] McDade spent three days photocopying thousands of supporting documents to *The Last Circle* before returning to [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] headquarters in [[Ottawa]] to set up a "war room." His probe evolved into an eight-month saga of interviews with former investigators, witnesses, undercover informants, and law enforcement personnel across the [[United States]]. He learned that [[United States|U.S.]] predecessors in the [[PROMIS]] investigation had faced obstruction from the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], with some investigators being fired, suspended, or quitting when directed to cease their inquiries into drugs and money laundering.[1] McDade also described [[Scott Lawrence]]'s deep-cover drug investigation, code-named [[THE INDO-CHINA PROJECT]], on the Maine/Canadian border. Lawrence's investigation was abruptly shut down after he and his supervisor, [[John (Tim) Kelly]], requested to impanel grand juries to depose [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] officials.[1] McDade found himself a target of [[ECHELON]] technology during his investigation in the [[United States]], forcing him to take extraordinary measures to communicate with [[Sue Todd]] and [[Cheri Seymour]]. He stated that the [[National Security Agency|NSA]] was spying on [[Canada|Canadian]] citizens while [[Canada]] spied on [[United States|American]] citizens, both using [[ECHELON]] and trading data. Although he reportedly left the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|RCMP]] after his investigation was exposed in the *Toronto Star* in August 2000, [[Sue Todd]] indicated he ultimately returned to police work in his hometown.[1] --- ### Footnotes [1] Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.