askSam is Chosen by the Special Court of Sierra

Leone to Help Prosecute War Crimes

By Phillip Rodokanakis

I began using askSam in 1990. At the time I was working as a criminal investigator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (they administer our foreign aid programs). Our investigations usually involved complex fraudulent schemes that required dealing with and organizing large volumes of data and paper documents. A computer application that was designed to handle text in a free-form format became essential in allowing us to pursue the type of white-collar crimes we were investigating.

In the late 1980's, I began using a software package called Lotus Agenda. This was a DOS based application that was designed to create text-based databases. However, as the Windows Graphical User Interface began to take hold, Lotus decided to abandon Agenda. Although Agenda continued working under a Windows DOS session, it became more and more clear to me that I would have to find a suitable Windows-based replacement in the near future.

Unfortunately, there are not many database products available that cater to the needs of those that have to deal with large volumes of text and need a free-form database to handle their requirements. About this time, I attended a computer presentation and heard that the Senate investigators that pursued the Iran-Contra allegations had used askSam as their database application. I was told that askSam had enabled them to organize, catalog, and present the volumes of evidence they had gathered during their investigation and subsequent Senate hearings. I figured if askSam was good enough to meet the needs of such a complex investigation, it should be good enough to play a key role in organizing our investigative documents.

Over the last 12 years I have used askSam on a number of different investigations and other organizational projects. After retiring from the Federal Government in 1991, I was elected to become the Chapter President of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Washington Metropolitan Chapter. In lining up speakers for our bi-monthly meetings, I had contacted askSam in hopes of getting one of their representatives to come and speak at one of our hosted events. To make a long story short, following this initial contact I ended up joining askSam as a consultant and Reseller.

The Special Court

Soon after signing up with askSam, I was contacted by a former colleague who had recently been appointed as the lead investigator to the Special Court for Sierra Leone. This small country in Africa, recently concluded a very violent and bloody civil war. A peace agreement was finally brokered and the UN entered into negotiations with the new Government to bring to justice those responsible for committing atrocities and other war crimes against humanity. Accordingly, the Special Court to Sierra Leone was established pursuant to a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing the U.N. Secretary General to enter into negotiations with the Government of Sierra Leone to establish a Special Court. The purpose of the Special Court is to prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law since November 30, 1996. The agreement finalized between the U.N. and the Government of Sierra Leone was executed on Jan 16, 2002.

My former colleague knew first hand of my extensive computer experience and that during my career with the federal government I had participated in designing a number of management information systems for use by investigative organizations. Therefore, the question he raised was what software application I would recommend for the Special Court. After listening to him outline a number of essential prerequisites, my unhesitating response was: “askSam!”

I was later invited to give a number of presentations on the capabilities of the askSam suite of software products, first to select representatives of the Special Court and later to various additional representatives of the Special Court as well as other international organizations that had participated in prior war crime tribunals and were assisting the Special Court in setting-up shop. A while later I was asked to submit a formal written proposal, outlining the entire line of askSam products as well as specialized consulting services in terms of designing customized templates and training their investigative staff and other users.

My understanding is that the representatives of the Special Court reviewed a number of software solutions provided by other vendors, but did not find another product that met their specifications. Of particular concern to the Special Court was the preservation of evidence and the ability to distribute their data to those with a need to know. askSam's ability to store attachments (the Special Court plans on scanning documents and other evidence which will be used to build their database documenting war crimes) that cannot be altered in the original file was considered essential. Another important need of the Special Court was a strong search utility that would allow them to quickly correlate and retrieve unrelated pieces of evidence that could be used in the prosecution of those that committed these war crime atrocities. Obviously, askSam's indexing and search capabilities on this front are unparalleled.

Soon after submitting my proposal to the Special Court, I was informed that askSam was selected as the vendor of choice to provide database software and consulting services. The Special Court plans on using the askSam software to build an investigative database that will enable the investigators and the prosecutors of the Special Court to amass evidence on the subjects alleged to have committed crimes against humanity. It is envisioned that large volumes of physical and electronic evidence will be collected. askSam will be used to electronically catalog the physical evidence as well as for storing any digital evidence gathered during the investigation. Obviously, all evidence gathered and catalogued in the askSam databases will have to be preserved and made available for quick retrieval. The Special Court also plans to publish some of their data on the Web and/or electronically. askSam's Web Publisher and Electronic Publisher allow for the easy distribution of askSam databases either by publishing them on a Web server or distributing them on CD-ROM disks.

Although the Special Court had planned on being fully operational by late September, they have faced some unavoidable delays in shipping and setting up their computer systems. Accordingly, the development and deployment of the askSam databases have been delayed pending the installation of the Special Court's computer network. In the meantime, I am collaborating with representatives of the Court in identifying the various data elements that will have to be captured and tracked in their databases in order that we can expedite and facilitate the template development.

I am confident that in the near future the Special Court will have a robust database system in place that will enable them to track down and prosecute those responsible for committing the many atrocities that killed and maimed thousands of citizens of this small country, located on the West Coast of Africa. In this regard, askSam will play a key role in bringing war criminals to justice. I doubt that the askSam programmers had envisioned that their lines of code would eventually be used for such a noble and important effort.

Phillip Rodokanakis, CFE

Consultant and Authorized Reseller

askSam Systems, Inc.

Tel.: 703-766-0500

FAX: 703-736-0817

Email: philr@askSam.com

Mr. Rodokanakis resides in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. He is available to provide consulting and training services to askSam users in Washington, DC metro area as well as the States of Maryland and Virginia. For additional information please contact Mr. Rodokanakis directly.