---
born: 1943-09-25
category: PROMIS Scandal
died: 2021-08-15
summary: Coleman was paid in travelers checks sent from the Luxembourg branch of the
  now-collapsed BCCI.
tags:
- Person
- PROMIS
---

[Lester Coleman](/people/lester-coleman/) is a self-employed freelance writer, editor, and security consultant who also served as a [DIA](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/) covert intelligence officer. He worked for six years with the secret unit Middle East Collection 10 (MC-10) in [Cyprus](/places/cyprus/), running a network of agents in Beirut with the mission to find American hostages held by extremists.[^1]

Coleman was paid in travelers checks sent from the Luxembourg branch of the now-collapsed [BCCI](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/). Two senior MC-10 members, [Matthew Kevin Gannon](/people/matthew-kevin-gannon/) and Major [Charles Dennis McKee](/people/charles-dennis-mckee/), were on [Pan Am Flight 103](/events/pan-am-flight-103/), having just returned from a mission in Beirut, when it exploded over Scotland.[^1]

Coleman claimed that the [DEA](/organizations/dea/), in collaboration with the Cypriot national police narcotics squad, the German BKA police, and British customs, ran a "drug sting operation" code-named "Khourah" through [Cyprus](/places/cyprus/) and European airports, including Frankfurt. This operation involved delivering heroin from the Bekaa Valley in [Lebanon](/places/lebanon/) to the [United States](/places/united-states/). Coleman maintained that Pan Am Flight 103 was being used by the [DEA](/organizations/dea/) as a "controlled delivery" flight.[^1]

After the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103, the Beirut end of MC-10 was reportedly "blown." [Werner Tony Asmar](/people/werner-tony-asmar/), a German Lebanese member of MC-10, was killed in a bomb explosion in Beirut in May 1988. Another MC-10 member, [Charlie Frezeli](/people/charlie-frezeli/), a Lebanese army officer, was shot dead in Beirut in November 1989. Following Asmar's death, the [DIA](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/) ordered Coleman home.[^1]

[Danny Casolaro](/people/danny-casolaro/) contacted Coleman in Sweden on August 3, 1991, seven days before Casolaro's death. They discussed the sale of the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software by the [U.S. Government](/places/united-states/) to foreign governments, the [BCCI](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/), and the [Iran-Contra Affair](/events/iran-contra-affair/). After learning of Casolaro's death, Coleman provided [INSLAW](/organizations/inslaw/) president [Bill Hamilton](/people/bill-hamilton/) with an affidavit in October 1991. In this affidavit, Coleman stated that he became aware that the [DEA](/organizations/dea/) was using its proprietary company, [Euramae Trading Company](/organizations/euramae-trading-company/), to sell [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software to drug abuse control agencies in various Middle Eastern countries, including [Cyprus](/places/cyprus/), [Pakistan](/places/pakistan/), [Syria](/places/syria/), [Kuwait](/places/kuwait/), and [Turkey](/places/turkey/).[^1]

Coleman also stated that the [DEA](/organizations/dea/)'s objective was to augment U.S. drug control resources by enabling the [U.S. Government](/places/united-states/) to access sensitive drug control law enforcement and intelligence files of these Middle Eastern governments. He noted that third-party funds, including from the [United Nations](/organizations/united-nations/) Fund for Drug Abuse Control in Vienna, [Austria](/places/austria/), were generally made available for the purchase of these systems.[^1]

Coleman found the reassignment of [Michael T. Hurley](/people/michael-t-hurley/), the [DEA](/organizations/dea/) Country Attache for [Cyprus](/places/cyprus/), to a [DEA](/organizations/dea/) intelligence position in Washington State prior to [Michael Riconosciuto](/people/michael-riconosciuto/)'s arrest suspicious. He believed Hurley's reassignment was intended to "manufacture a case" against Riconosciuto to prevent him from becoming a credible witness about the [U.S. Government](/places/united-states/)'s covert sale of the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software to foreign governments.[^1]

---

[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.