A WIDER CONSPIRACY

Crisman associate Michael Riconosciuto had been a gifted child with special skills in electronics and communications technology, and Crisman knew him when working for his father’s advertising agency in the mid-1960s. It has been suggested that in the 1970s, when Crisman was involved in the local politics of Tacoma, the then teenage Riconosciuto helped sweep for (and plant) bugging devices to help further Crisman’s political aims. Riconosciuto went on to work in various capacities, mainly as an engineer in California, ultimately leading him to serve as an anti-government witness in the Inslaw case in 1991. He claimed he had been involved in reprogramming Inslaw’s ‘Promis’ software with a ‘back door’ to allow for the clandestine tracking of individuals and had subsequently been threatened by Justice Department officials.

As an ‘inconvenient’ witness, Riconosciuto was eliminated from the Inslaw case in the most extreme way: he was arrested (and later convicted) on suspicion of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine. He claimed this was a clear frame-up on behalf of government forces and that his ‘home lab’ was for the extraction of precious metals, not the manufacture of meth.

Riconosciuto, then 43, was jailed; but this did not remove him entirely from the conspiracy field. In February 2001, he alleged, through his lawyers, that terrorists within the US had plans to hijack aircraft to target American sites. In return for information on this plot he requested immunity to prosecution and his freedom. His request was denied and the information apparently ignored. When Riconosciuto attempted to contact the press, he was moved from Allenwood Federal Prison to a stricter facility in Springfield, Missouri, where he was cut off from the outside world. Within seven months, the entire world would be aware of the events of 9/11.