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Stealing the Election in 2004
Comment
by Larry Ross, July 18, 2004
The following article shows how Bush supporters
will probably steal the next US presidential elections using electronic
voting machines and adjust the results to give Bush a win. The implications
and consequences for the world are devastating. Another vitally important
article: Coup d'Etat in America? by well-known author, Michel Chossudovsky,
gives extensive documentation for his claim that the US elections will
be postponed or cancelled, due to a so-called Code Red "terrorist
attack" which may be enginered by the Bush Administration. This would
be Coup #2, as many feel that a US Coup d'Etat has already taken place,
with the rigging of the 2000 elections which brought George W. Bush into
the White House. see: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO407C.html
Bush Administration - Ongoing Criminal Conspiracy
In his new book "Destroying World Order" by Professor Francis
A Boyle he says: "In international legal terms, the Bush jr. administration
should be viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy under
international criminal law in violation of the Nuremberg Charter, the
Nuremberg Judgement, and the Nuremberg Principles, due to its formulation
and undertaking of war policies which are legally akin to those perpetrated
by the Nazi regime in pre-World War II Germany"
Professor Boyle is a leading American professor
of international law at the University of Illinois. He is a Doctor of
Law Magna Cum Laude as well as a PhD in Political Science, both from harvard
University and author of many books on international law.
His judgements support the action of Peace
Action Network Christchurch, in holding a War Crimes Trial for Bush, Blair
and Howard on August 7, in Victoria Square Christchurch.
Larry Ross
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Via NY Transfer News Collective
*All the News that Doesn't Fit Global Outlook, No. 8, Summer 2004
http://www.globalresearch.ca
11 July 2004
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOO407A.html
Stealing
the Election in 2004
by Steve Moore, Global Outlook,
11 July 2004
George W. Bush has stated: "I don't
plan on losing my job."(1) What the president neglects to mention
is that he is willing to use any means necessary to stay in power, including
stealing the November 2004 election.
Americans will never know the real vote totals because there will not
be a paper trail.
All three black box computer manufacturers are Republican-led corporations
actively involved in Bush's re-election campaign.
Corporations have privatized the election process and now potentially
control the votes.
Plan A is simply to "buy" the election with the multi-million
dollar advertising campaign now in progress.
Plan B is another Orange Code terror alert, similar to the ones manufactured
five times since September 11, 2001. The use of a Red Code alert, which
according to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge "basically shuts
down the country," is also a real possibility. In short, if you can't
"buy" the votes of the American people, you can "scare"
them into voting for Bush, with or without an actual terrorist attack.
2 Plan B, in its most extreme form, involves a military coup (disguised
as emergency measures) and the suspension of the U.S. Constitution. This
is the scenario outlined by retired General Tommy Franks in November,
2003.3 (See Maureen Farrell's article on page. )
Plan C involves what might be described as "a bloodless coup"
by secretly rigging the 2004 election. The new black box computer voting
machines leave absolutely no verifiable paper trail. Hence, there will
be no way to double check a disputed election. Interestingly enough, all
three black box computer manufacturers are Republican-led corporations
actively involved in Bush's re-election campaign.
For example, Walden O'Dell, the CEO of Diebold, is a major fund-raiser
for President Bush. O'Dell personally organized a fund-raising party,
attended by Vice President Cheney, which raised $600,000 for Bush's campaign.
O'Dell also wrote to contributors that he was "committed to helping
Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the President next year."(4)
Ohio, as well as Georgia, Maryland, California and many other states have
Diebold machines.
Independent Computer Experts Defend Democracy
Avi Rubin, a computer-security expert at John Hopkins University claims
the new voting machines are far below the minimal security standards.
John Dill, a Stanford computer scientist says: "I think the risk
of (a stolen election) is extremely high."(5) Writing for the Baltimore
Sun, Avi Rubin comments:
"I still believe that the Diebold machine, and ones like them from
the vendors, represent a major threat to our democracy. We have put our
trust in the outcome of our elections in the hands of a few companies
(Ohio-based Diebold Election systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, which is
based in California and Election Systems & Software in Omaha, Neb.).
They are in a position to control the outcomes of our elections, and there's
no way anyone can know if they, or someone working for them did something
underhanded. And meaningful recounts are impossible with these machines."
(6)
According to the April, 2004 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, 1600 independent
computer science experts, including "200 Ph.D. computer scientists"
agree that black box computers are insecure, subject to internal and external
hacking and place democratic elections at risk. The total number of independent
computer scientists who consider Diebold machines safe, secure and verifiable
is "zero."(7)
Maryland
The State of Maryland paid 55 million dollars for 16,000 Diebold voting
machines. The State asked independent computer security firms to check
the machines. The firms found it "easy to cast multiple votes and
over-ride the machines late-recording mechanisms." Maryland's 16,000
machines all had "identical locks for two sensitive mechanism."
The paid professional hackers found they could have made copies of the
keys from a locksmith in 10 minutes but elected instead to successfully
"pick the locks (in) less than ten seconds."(8) Amazingly, Maryland
is sticking with Diebold.
The Georgia Elections 2002
All of Georgia's voters used Diebold machines for the 2002 elections.
The incumbent Democratic Governor Ray Barnes was ahead of his Republican
challenger Sonny Perdue by 11 percentage points just two days before the
election according to a poll taken by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But, for the first time in 134 years, the Republican won the Governor's
seat.
Similar surprising results happened in the Georgia Senate race. Again,
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported two days before the election
that Democratic incumbent Max Cleland was five points ahead of the Republican
challenger, Saxby Chambliss. Yet Chambliss won by 7 percent, an amazing
12 point shift in 48 hours.(10) Soon after the election results were certified,
Diebold wiped clean all the voting machines. No machine inspection. No
paper trail. This pattern was repeated in surprise Republican Senate race
victories in Minnesota and Colorado (another significant black box State),
giving the Republicans control of the U.S. Senate.
Bev Harris, author of Black box voting: Ballot-tampering in the 21st Century
(available at www.blackboxvoting.org
), found a trove of Diebold program files on the web. One of the folders
was called "rob.georgia." Bev Harris burned all the information
on 7 CD's. As a result of her new knowledge, she was able to gain back
door access and successfully change vote totals if she so desired and
erase any audit trail of her actions. She also found that Diebold's GEMS
central server could "create minus votes." Diebold Spokesman
David Bear also told Vanity Fair: "Yes, negative votes can be entered
into GEMS." (11) Now, why would a computer program designed to add
up the vote want to take away anybody's democratic vote? One possible
answer is to fix an election.
Enter Rob Behler, who serviced Georgia's Diebold during the summer of
2002, just before the Georgia election. Rob claims 25% of the machines
just didn't work. Some machines were replaced. New patches were installed.
Amazingly, "Not one of Diebold's 22,000 patched machines in Georgia
was evaluated by Wyle and Ciber or thus qualified by NASED (State &
Federal certification checkers) to be used in an election in November,
2002." (12) No one knows what new informational programming was contained
in the patches added to the Diebold machines before the election. No governmental
agency carried out any inspection after the patches were installed.
The 2004 Election
These new black boxes are now in 30 States. According to Newsweek they
"will be used by about 28 percent of the country in the November
election." (13) Clearly, enough machines to swing any election! The
State of California will require a paper trail on all voting machines
by 2006. Why not 2004? Congressman Rush Holt (Democrat, New Jersey) and
Senator Hillary Clinton (Democrat, New York) have put forth bills to ensure
a paper trail in all voting machines. But so far l06 Democrats have signed
up for the House bill----and just 8 Republicans. Curious how Republicans
don't want a double check paper trail. Maybe, they got Georgia on their
minds. The Bill isn't going anywhere fast. Congressman Robert Ney, a Republican
from Ohio-Diebold's home State-heads the committee dealing with the Bill.
The Common Sense Solution
Rebecca Mercuri, now at the Kennedy School of Government, has a simple
solution: The actual count should be made not from computers but from
the printed-out ballots. No hacking, no secret codes to company executives
or insider politicians, no back door secret entries and exits. Mercuri
says, "I asked myself if these ballots are used to verify the results
of machines we don't trust, why not us the ballots as actual votes?"
(14) Sounds like common sense, but it's not happening in 2004.
The Future of Democratic Elections in the US
The majority of Americans voted for Al Gore in the 2000 elections. Bush
won. He was appointed by a conservative Supreme Court. The majority of
Americans will probably vote for John Kerry in the coming 2004 election.
Bush may win again! This time, Bush would be appointed by Diebold Elections
Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software and their
backers in the military-industrial complex. And Americans will never know
the real vote totals because there will not be a paper trail. Basically,
national elections have been taken out of the public domain. Corporations
have privatized the election process and now potentially control the votes.
In disputes, State, local and Federal judges will side with the companies
in order to protect their trade secrets. For example, take the case of
a man named Danciu who ran for City Council in Boca Raton, Florida in
March 2002. He expected to win by a landslide and lost by 16 per cent.
Voters complained that the Sequoia machines appeared to be recording votes
cast for Danciu and giving them to his opponents. Of course, Palm Beach
County didn't have the computer codes. Only the company does. It went
to court. The judge denied Danciu's request for the software code. (15)
Apparently, corporate trade secrets are more important than voter's rights.
The 2004 Election
Given the current situation in Iraq, the
sluggish domestic economy and Bush's failures to defend America before
9/11, we can expect Bush to decline rapidly in the polls between now and
November, 2004. A recent poll by U.S. pollster John Zogby found that 44
percent of Americans felt that Bush should be re-elected and 51% per cent
believe that "someone new" should take office. A recent poll
by the Pew Research Center showed only 40% approving the ways he's handling
Iraq---down from 59% per cent in January, 2004. (16)
So all pre-election polls will predict a
Kerry win in 2004; perhaps, by a huge margin of 8 to 10 %. Plan B, Tom
Ridge's October Orange alert, will reduce this percentage only slightly
because Americans are getting used to false alarms. An actual terrorist
attack, unlike Spain, will create a very close election. But regardless
of Kerry's exact pre-election poll lead, the final vote will favor Bush
if the Republican voting machine programmers rig the vote. The result
will be a bloodless coup, the end of democracy and the installation of
an de facto police state. Stealing one election could be called a fluke;
stealing two elections is called a "democratic dictatorship".
Notes:
1.
Sheldon Alberts "Failure Unthinkable Says Bush" Times Colonist,
14 April 2004, p. 1
2.
David J. Rothkopf "Terrorist Logic: Disrupt the 2004 Election"
Washington Post, 23 November 2003, p. B01
3.
Tommy Franks Interview, Cigar Aficionado, December, 2003
4.
Steven Levy "Black Box Voting Blues" Newsweek, 3 November 2003,
p. 69
1. Ibid., p. 69
2.
Avi Rubin "An Insider's View of Vote Vulnerability" Baltimore
Sun. (See www.blackboxvoting.org
, 11 March 2004.
3.
Michael Shnayerson "Hack the Vote" Vanity Fair, April 2004,
p. 179.
4.
Tim Radford & Dan Glaister "Hi-Tech Voting Machines Threaten
US Presidential Poll" Guardian Weekly, Feb. 19-25, 2004, p. 3.
5.
Michael Shnayerson "Hack the Vote" Vanity Fair, April 2004,
p. 168
1.
Ibid., p. 160
1.
Ibid., p. 162
1.
Ibid., p. 168
2.
Steven Levy "Ballot Boxes go Hi-Tech" Newsweek, March 29, 2004,
p. 58
1.
Ibid., p. 62
2.
Elise Ackerman "Electronic Voting's Hidden Perils" San Jose
Mercury News, 1 February 2004, p. 25A
3.
Doug Saunders "Iraq Was has Bush in Trouble" Globe & Mail,
7 April 2004, p. A10.
[Steve Moore is a writer and historian based in British Columbia. He is
a frequent contributor to Global Research and Global Outlook Magazine.]
(c) Copyright STEVEN MOORE 2004.
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