---
category: PROMIS Scandal
summary: McDade's probe was authorized at the highest level of the RCMP and was well-funded.
tags:
- Person
- PROMIS
- CIA
---

[Sean McDade](/people/sean-mcdade/) was a national security investigator with the [RCMP](/organizations/royal-canadian-mounted-police/) who secretly entered the [United States](/places/united-states/) in February 2000 to investigate evidence that the Canadian Government was using a computer software program called [PROMIS](/programs/promis/), which allegedly allowed the [U.S.](/places/united-states/) to eavesdrop on [Canadian](/places/canada/) intelligence secrets through a modified "back-door." His investigation was code-named Project Abbreviation, and his email handle, "simorp," was [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) spelled backward.[1]

McDade's probe was authorized at the highest level of the [RCMP](/organizations/royal-canadian-mounted-police/) 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 facility in New Mexico, attended by the heads of intelligence divisions from the [U.S.](/places/united-states/) ([CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/)), [Britain](/places/united-kingdom/) ([British Intelligence](/organizations/british-intelligence/)), [Israel](/places/israel/) ([Mossad](/organizations/mossad/)), and [CSIS](/organizations/canadian-security-intelligence-service/), concerning Y2K computer problems. A source suggested that all four allied countries shared the same computer system, possibly [PROMIS](/programs/promis/), due to its mutual integration capabilities. McDade was also informed by another source that the [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/) may have modified the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software to create a "two-way" backdoor, potentially allowing [Israel](/places/israel/) access to top [U.S.](/places/united-states/) weapons secrets at Los Alamos and other installations.[1]

During his investigation, McDade met with [Cheri Seymour](/people/cheri-seymour/), the author of *The Last Circle*, in Southern California on February 19, 2000. He explained that high-ranking Canadian officials might have unlawfully purchased the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software from officials in the [Reagan](/people/ronald-reagan/)-[Bush](/people/george-hw-bush/) administration, and the [RCMP](/organizations/royal-canadian-mounted-police/) had reportedly traced banking transactions supporting this claim. He believed a successful investigation "could cause the entire U.S. Republican Party to be dismantled and more than one presidential administration would be exposed for their knowledge of the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software transaction." [Sue Todd](/people/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](/programs/promis/) case.[1]

McDade spent three days photocopying thousands of supporting documents to *The Last Circle* before returning to [RCMP](/organizations/royal-canadian-mounted-police/) 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](/places/united-states/). He learned that [U.S.](/places/united-states/) predecessors in the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) investigation had faced obstruction from the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/), 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](/people/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 [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) officials.[1]

McDade found himself a target of [ECHELON](/programs/echelon/) technology during his investigation in the [United States](/places/united-states/), forcing him to take extraordinary measures to communicate with [Sue Todd](/people/sue-todd/) and [Cheri Seymour](/people/cheri-seymour/). He stated that the [NSA](/organizations/nsa/) was spying on [Canadian](/places/canada/) citizens while [Canada](/places/canada/) spied on [American](/places/united-states/) citizens, both using [ECHELON](/programs/echelon/) and trading data. Although he reportedly left the [RCMP](/organizations/royal-canadian-mounted-police/) after his investigation was exposed in the *Toronto Star* in August 2000, [Sue Todd](/people/sue-todd/) indicated he ultimately returned to police work in his hometown.[1]

---

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