Peter Videnieks
Encyclopedia
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Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid is the senior United States Senator from Nevada, serving since 1987. A member of the Democratic Party, he has been the Senate Majority Leader since January 2007, having previously served as Minority Leader and Minority and Majority Whip.Previously, Reid was a member of the U.S...
for a second two-year term expiring December 31, 2010.
Prior to his appointment, Videnieks served on the staff of Senator Robert Byrd
Robert Byrd
Robert Carlyle Byrd was a United States Senator from West Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959 and as a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 2010...
(D-WV).
Inslaw
Videnieks' wife, Barbara Videnieks, also served on Senator Byrd's staff. During the early-1990s, she was Chief of Staff. On the evening of August 9, 1991, freelance writer Danny CasolaroDanny Casolaro
Joseph Daniel Casolaro was an American freelance writer who came to public attention in 1991 when he was found dead in a bathtub in room 517 of the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, his wrists slashed 10–12 times...
intended to meet in Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...
, with two employees of Senator Byrd's staff. Barbara Videnieks was believed to be related to one of Casolaro's contacts.
Shortly before noon, the following day, Casolaro was found dead in his hotel bathtub, the apparent victim of a suspicious suicide. Casolaro had been researching material for Inslaw Inc. and that material had centered on Inslaw's arguments in a very contentious bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
case against the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
.
Videnieks was the Contract Officer who oversaw Inslaw Inc.'s Promis
Prosecutor's Management Information System
The Prosecutor's Management Information System is a database system developed by Inslaw Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based, information technology company....
contract for the Management Division of the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
. Prior to joining the DoJ, Videnieks had administered three contracts between the Customs Service and Hadron Inc. Hadron was a competitor to Inslaw, and was under the direction of controlling shareholder, Earl Brian
Earl Brian
Dr. Earl Winfrey Brian, Jr. was a decorated combat surgeon with an aerial support unit for the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Vietnam War-era Phoenix Program...
, the former California health secretary under Gov. Ronald Reagan from 1971-3.
At the time of Inslaw's contracts with Justice, Brian had become a venture-capitalist with a suspected connection to Director of Central Intelligence
Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...
William J. Casey
William J. Casey
William Joseph Casey was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the Central Intelligence Agency ....
's covert intelligence operations
Special Activities Division
The Special Activities Division is a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service responsible for covert operations known as "special activities"...
. During investigations surrounding the Inslaw Affair, Brian was accused of receiving a stolen copy of Inslaw's Promis
Prosecutor's Management Information System
The Prosecutor's Management Information System is a database system developed by Inslaw Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based, information technology company....
software from Videnieks.
In a court affidavit filed on March 21, 1991, by Michael Riconosciuto
Michael Riconosciuto
Michael Riconosciuto is an electronics and computer expert who was convicted on seven drug-related charges in early 1992. Riconosciuto professed a defense centered on the Inslaw Affair...
, on behalf of Inslaw's case, Riconosciuto claimed that "the Justice Department stole the Promis software as part of a payoff to Brian for helping to get some Iranian leaders to collude in the so-called October surprise
October surprise conspiracy
The October Surprise conspiracy theory refers to an alleged plot to influence the outcome of the 1980 United States presidential election between incumbent Jimmy Carter and opponent Ronald Reagan ....
." Moreover, Riconosciuto named both Brian and Videnieks as being "among the frequent visitors" to the Cabazon Indian Reservation
Cabazon Band of Mission Indians
The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians is a federally recognized tribe of Cahuilla Indians, located in Riverside County, California.-Reservation:The Cabazon Indian Reservation was founded in 1876. It occupies located seven miles from Indio, California and from Palm Springs...
in Indio, California
Indio, California
Indio is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, located in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies east of Palm Springs, east of Riverside, and east of Los Angeles. It is about north of Mexicali, Baja California on the U.S.-Mexican border...
, where the Cabazon Band of Indians had formed a joint venture with the Wackenhut Corporation of Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami....
, to developed and market munitions "to support the needs of a number of foreign governments and forces, including forces and governments in Central America and the Middle East." By the early-1990s, the joint venture was rumored to be a California extension of the Iranian and Nicaraguan policy objectives
Foreign policy of the Reagan administration
The foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration was the foreign policy of the United States from 1981 to 1989. It was characterized by a strategy of "peace through strength" followed by a warming of relations with the Soviet Union, and resulting in an end to the Cold War when Mikhail...
of President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's White House staff, more commonly known as the Iran Contra Affair.
Riconosciuto was a shady character with equally as shady contacts in black ops
Special Activities Division
The Special Activities Division is a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service responsible for covert operations known as "special activities"...
, according to the Executive Summary of the House Judiciary Investigation on Inslaw. He claimed to have been directed by Brian to reprogram Inslaw's software sometime between 1983–84 so that it could be sold to dozens of foreign governments with a secret "back door" which allowed outsiders to track individuals using the Promis
Prosecutor's Management Information System
The Prosecutor's Management Information System is a database system developed by Inslaw Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based, information technology company....
software. Riconosciuto further claimed that Videnieks in a telephone conversation prior to Riconosciuto's filing of his affidavit threatened Riconosciuto's family with DoJ reprisals if Riconosciuto divulged any of this information in his initial interviews with House Judiciary investigators. Eight days after he filed his affidavit, Riconosciuto was arrested on serious drug charges, then later convicted, and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Soon afterwards, Riconosciuto's wife was arrested on child custody charges; she eventually lost custody of their children. During Riconosciuto's Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, trial in which Riconosciuto claimed that he had been "set up" by the government on fraudulent drug charges, Videnieks denied ever having known Riconosciuto.
To this day, there has never been any reliable or conclusive documentation in support of Riconosciuto's allegations. Riconosciuto claimed to have made three tape recordings of their telephone conversation; however no tapes to corrobrate Riconosciuto's claims have ever surfaced. Additionally, in House Judiciary investigations into the Inslaw Affair both Brian and Videnieks "denied under oath even knowing each other" though the House Judiciary investigating committee received information from Margaret Wiencek and John Schoolmeester in apparent contradiction to both Brian and Videnieks.
Other
Videnieks has been an Internal Revenue ServiceInternal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
(IRS) revenue officer. (One of two Enterprise Computing Centers for the IRS is located in Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...
.)
Education
Videnieks holds degrees from the University of Maryland (B.A. economics) and the George Washington University (M.S.A. with concentration in procurement and contracting).Personal
Videnieks was born in Latvia and lives with his wife Barbara J. Videnieks on a farm in Northern Virginia; they breed show dogs. His language skills are: Latvian, Spanish and German. His wife Barbara has served as the chief of staffChief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
of senator Byrd from at least 1992.