Post by Steve Gardner on Mar 23, 2008 23:02:44 GMT
I'm not sure what to make of this, though I do think it's worth having a record of.
This letter was written by Michael Riconosciuto to his attorney in February 2001. It includes this claim:
According to Ted Gunderson, whom Ricinosciuto engaged as an independent investigator...
Another very interesting aspect of the relationship between Ricinosciuto and Gunderson is that they are both said to have been present at a meeting with Osama bin Laden, who at the time had been touring American defence facilities under the codename Tim Osman.
This needs more research but is nonetheless an intriguing subject.
TRANSCRIPT
This letter was written by Michael Riconosciuto to his attorney in February 2001. It includes this claim:
Things have now come to a head! I now have contact with an operative that is in an Arabic group known as The Base. They are presently engaged in preparation for a major attack in the US.
According to Ted Gunderson, whom Ricinosciuto engaged as an independent investigator...
...Mr. Riconosciuto also furnished information that 6 planes were to be hijacked by 30 terrorists, and the targets, other than those hit on September 11, 2001, were the Capitol Building, the Statue of Liberty and the White House. He also furnished information about a false identification ring in Montreal, Canada and New Jersey, and advised that he could furnish the true names and false identities of the 30 terrorists who had been chosen for actions inside the United States, if he and his contacts were given immunity. (source: www.lists.opn.org/pipermail/org.opn.lists.poclad/2004-April/000063.html)
Another very interesting aspect of the relationship between Ricinosciuto and Gunderson is that they are both said to have been present at a meeting with Osama bin Laden, who at the time had been touring American defence facilities under the codename Tim Osman.
This needs more research but is nonetheless an intriguing subject.
TRANSCRIPT
Don,
I have written to the editor of Insight magazine to request a copy of the Wackenhut letter, and the taped telephone conversation transcript. The Wackenhut letter makes reference to Dr. Harry Fair, describing me as a potential national resource because of certain of my technical abilities. Dr. Fair is the former head of tactical technology research for DARPA. At the time Dr. Fair made this characterization of me, he was in this position. This is a very strong statement for a govt. agency department head to go on record with. It is also significant that the govt. prevented this type of information from being in front of the jury in my case! The motion in liminal filed by the govt, and granted by the judge, contains some of the most bizarre legal reasoning I have ever encountered. The taped conversation was a telephone call I had with an FBI agent to make a pretrial proffer. One of the significant things about my pretrial proffer is that every single detail of it turned out to be true. The only fault in its accuracy is that my proffer was an understatement. Even as such, the US Attorney in charge of drug prosecutions stated that my pretrial proffer was, "a lot of garbage and delusional"! The US Attorney in charge of drug prosecutions actually testified at my trial, so these remarks are part of the actual trial record. My detailed and specific proffer was given almost five years prior to some of the parties I named were indicted on the same charges I outlined in my proffer.
The material contained in my pretrial proffer (the Abell/Cali cartel connection), had it been acted on in a timely manner by the govt., would have led to the interdiction of over 200 tons of cocaine. Most of the bad acts charged in the indictment against Abbell et. al., occurred a significant time after my original proffer. A question that needs to be addressed is the legality of the US Attorney interfering with my proffer.
To facilitate my pretrial proffer, I did the following:
1) I had Ted Gunderson as an investigator to help independently corroborate key points of my proffer.
2) I had Alan Boyak, an attorney and former DEA agent, prepare the pretrial proffer. Alan also had direct knowledge of some of the key points in my proffer because he had worked cases against some of the targets when he was a DEA agent.
3) The head of the intelligence unit of the Tampa Bay Fla. Police Dept. offered to be the intermediary for the deal.
The govt. reacted to my proffer by:
1) Threatening Ted with arrest and banning him from visiting me in the county jail before and during my trial.
2) Refusing to allow Alan Boyak to attend any of the pretrial proffer meetings with my other attorneys.
3) Formally demanding that the Tampa Bay P.D. refrain from interfering with a case outside of their jurisdiction.
4) Filed a motion with the court for 4141 and 4142 competency hearings. This go vt. motion questioning my competency was based in part on the govt's stated position that my proffer was delusional.
5) The AUSA prosecuting my case flew to Los Angeles from Seattle and presented Robert Booth Nichols with a copy of my pretrial proffer where I had named Nichols and his associates as targets.
I would have been declared incompetent had not the series of articles appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle outlining the bio warfare projects at the Wackenhut /Cabezon joint venture. My claim to have been involved in bio warfare work was cited, by the govt, in the motion for the competency hearing These clearly documented my claim concerning bio warfare work. When the forensic evaluation was sent to the court, it established that "...some of my most unlikely sounding claims turned out to be true upon checking with collateral sources. The govt. response was that so what if it is true, it is not relevant to their case in chief which is a drug case.
My proffer was never reconsidered by the govt after the determination of my competency. The fact of the matter is that I have a solid established record of reliability in the counterintelligence field. This is clearly documented in my central file. The US Attorney handling my pretrial proffer certainly had this information available to him at the time. The glaring question is why did the AUSA reveal the details of my pretrial proffer to potential targets!?
As I have stated to you in past letters,and telephone calls, I have been attempting to proffer against Nichols and his crew. The DOJ/BOP [Department of Justice/Bureau of Prisons] has consistently interfered with all of my attempts in this proffer. I have stated that I need you to facilitate my communication with other parties that have direct knowledge against Nichols et. al.
Things have now come to a head! I now have contact with an operative that is in an Arabic group known as The Base. They are presently engaged in preparation for a major attack in the US. [..blacked out words..] currently represents the Abuhouran brothers, two of the brothers are incarcerated in the US. The third is a fugitive facing 15 years jail time in the US. We have an insider to this group that handles fake ID and passports for the group's operations. I also have contact with one of the parties that supplies explosives materials to this group. I am deliberately keeping myself with a paucity of specific details until the govt issues an immunity agreement with my contacts. If the govt will not issue the immunity agreement, no more details of these ongoing activities will be forthcoming from anybody. My bonafides are:
1) I have family members in the SPLA leadership (Sudanese People Liberation Army) a Christian militia group
2) Thirty-four days before the two US Embassy bombings in East Africa happened, I notified the FBI in Miami! Two days before these bombings occurred, I made an emergency request of BOP staff at FCI Coleman to make an overseas telephone call to ECOMAG security headquarters to warn African officials. The BOP categorically turned me down on this call. I have the documentation on all of this.
3) In the 1980's, Ted Gunderson , myself, and Ralph Olberg were involved in negotiations with the Afghan Mujahadeen on behalf of the US govt. Ted will verify that we had these meetings and that OSAMA BIN LADEN was present in the US under the name of TIM OSMAN. Mr. Osman was taken to special demonstrations at US military bases.
4) I have an exemplary track record in the counter intelligence field.
Mr. Robert Caddell is flying out to visit me this week. This letter is my authorization for you to discuss the details of all my written and oral communications with him. The Abuhousan Brothers are writing similar letters to their attorneys: [..blacked out words..] to authorize them to speak to both you and [..blacked out words..] on this matter. This authorization will also include your access to documents.
As soon as we learned that an actual attack was in the works, we realized we can't fool around with this. On the other hand, we don't want to get screwed by the govt.
Mike Riconosciuto
P.S. Somebody just got certiorari on the PLRA exhaustion of Administrative remedy requirements. Notice on this enclosed.
