The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is an organizational unit within the Criminal Division of the [[United States Department of Justice|DOJ]]. Its publicly declared mission is to locate and deport Nazi war criminals. In February 1994, [[Inslaw Corporation|Inslaw]] alleged for the first time that OSI was, in fact, the DOJ's own covert intelligence agency, with functions unrelated to its stated mission. These allegations claimed that OSI was at the center of various conspiracies, including the illegal dissemination of the proprietary version of [[PROMIS]] and the murder of [[Danny Casolaro]]. Inslaw asserted that OSI's Nazi war criminal program was a front for this secret intelligence service. Inslaw also claimed to have obtained a "Criminal Division Vendor List," which, according to their intelligence community informants, was actually a list of commercial organizations and individuals serving as "cutouts" for this secret agency. These charges were repeated in an Inslaw press release.[^1] The Special Counsel's investigation found these charges to be "fantasy" and "wholly unsubstantiated," lacking any credible corroborative evidence. The report noted that Inslaw relied solely on unnamed "reliable sources" and anonymous "senior Justice Department career officials," none of whom came forward for interviews. The Special Counsel interviewed [[Mark Richard]], Deputy Assistant Attorney General, whom Inslaw suggested oversaw OSI's covert operations. Richard stated that Inslaw's charges were "ridiculous" and that OSI was only involved in its stated mission and related projects. He categorically denied any involvement by OSI in covert operations, the dissemination of PROMIS, or the death of Mr. Casolaro, calling Inslaw's allegations slanderous. The investigation also found no evidence during its tenure that OSI engaged in the types of activities alleged by Inslaw.[^1] Regarding the vendor list, the Special Counsel showed it to [[Robert Bratt]], Executive Officer for the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Bratt confirmed that the list was exactly what it purported to be: a list of vendors used by the Criminal Division for its automated procurement system, PROCURE. The Special Counsel concluded that the vendor list was nothing other than what it claimed to be, and that the theory that large companies like AT&T, Canon, IBM, and Xerox were fronts for OSI's covert operations was unsupported. The allegations concerning OSI's involvement in Danny Casolaro's death were also dismissed as absurd and lacking corroborating evidence, as the investigation found no credible evidence that Casolaro's death was anything other than a suicide.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993. (Hereafter, "Bua Report")