Exclusive: Election Day Worries

[Thetaloops]

Here we go! Bush appointees are already announcing that they are going to stop the elections if there is some kind of attack, from whomever. FEMA - Military State - hold on to your seats - King Bush is on the horizon.


Exclusive: Election Day Worries

NewsweekJuly 19 issue - American counterterrorism officials, citing what they call "alarming" intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the postponement of the November presidential election in the event of such an attack, NEWSWEEK has learned.


The prospect that Al Qaeda might seek to disrupt the U.S. election was a major factor behind last week's terror warning by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Ridge and other counterterrorism officials concede they have no intel about any specific plots. But the success of March's Madrid railway bombings in influencing the Spanish elections—as well as intercepted "chatter" among Qaeda operatives—has led analysts to conclude "they want to interfere with the elections," says one official.

As a result, sources tell NEWSWEEK, Ridge's department last week asked the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to analyze what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the election were an attack to take place. Justice was specifically asked to review a recent letter to Ridge from DeForest B. Soaries Jr., chairman of the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Soaries noted that, while a primary election in New York on September 11, 2001, was quickly suspended by that state's Board of Elections after the attacks that morning, "the federal government has no agency that has the statutory authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election." Soaries, a Bush appointee who two years ago was an unsuccessful GOP candidate for Congress, wants Ridge to seek emergency legislation from Congress empowering his agency to make such a call. Homeland officials say that as drastic as such proposals sound, they are taking them seriously—along with other possible contingency plans in the event of an election-eve or Election Day attack. "We are reviewing the issue to determine what steps need to be taken to secure the election," says Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland spokesman.

—Michael Isikoff

© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.

[AtomHeartMother]

It sounds like they already have a "terrorist attack" planned.

Here's a snip from BBC News:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3885663.stm

The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the Democrats' unspoken fear is that the White House will play on the nerves of Americans as the election nears, hoping to gain support from a nation fearful of any change in course.

It is a difficult strategy for the Democrats to counter.

If they appeared complacent and terrorists did strike, they would be politically destroyed, he says.

No US presidential election has ever been postponed.

Abraham Lincoln was urged by some aides to suspend the election of 1864 - during the US Civil War - but despite the expectation that he would lose, he refused.

"The election is a necessity," Lincoln said. "We cannot have a free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone, a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered us."

A few more details from CNN:
www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/index.html

Officials discuss how to delay Election Day
Talks stem from recent fears of terror attack timed to vote
Monday, July 12, 2004 Posted: 7:35 PM EDT (2335 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.

The department has referred questions about the matter to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, said a spokesman, confirming a report in this week's editions of Newsweek magazine.

Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice tried to put an end to the controversy Monday evening.

"We've had elections in this country when we were at war, even when we were in civil war, and we should have the elections on time. That's the view of the president. That's the view of the administration," she said. "No one is thinking of postponing the elections."

Newsweek said the discussions about whether the November 2 election could be postponed started with a recent letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge from DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The commission was set up after the disputed 2000 presidential vote to help states deal with logistical problems in their elections.

Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset.

Newsweek reported that Soaries expressed concern that no federal agency had the authority to postpone an election and asked Ridge to ask Congress to give his commission such power.

Ridge warned Thursday that al Qaeda terrorists were planning a large-scale attack on the United States "in an effort to disrupt the democratic process." (Full story)

Ridge said he had no specific or credible information about threats to the political conventions. The four-day Democratic convention kicks off July 26 in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Republican National Convention begins August 30 in New York City.

Ridge also said the nation's color-coded terrorist threat level would remain at yellow, or elevated.

Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of California, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that she believes planning for the possibility of postponing Election Day is "excessive, based on what we know."

"Six days ago, the leadership of the House and Senate intelligence committees and leadership of the House and Senate were briefed on these so-called new threats," Harman said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"They are more chatter about old threats, which were the subject of a press conference by Attorney General [John] Ashcroft and [FBI] Director [Robert] Mueller six weeks ago.

"[Ridge] sounded more like an interior decorator talking about what more we can do under the shade of yellow," she said.

The news that such discussions have taken place raised other eyebrows on Capitol Hill as well.

"I don't think there's an argument that can be made, for the first time in our history, to delay an election," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the intelligence committee.

"We hold elections in the middle of war, in the middle of earthquakes, in the middle of whatever it takes. The election is a statutory election. It should go ahead, on schedule, and we should not change it."

But the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Christopher Cox of California, said on "Late Edition" that he sees Ridge's request as part of a prudent effort to plan for "doomsday scenarios."

"We don't have any intelligence to suggest that it is going to happen, but we're preparing for all of these contingencies now," Cox said.

Noting that New York election officials were able to postpone their September 11, 2001, primary election after terrorists slammed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, Cox said "there isn't any body that has that authority to do that for federal elections."

"So what Secretary Ridge has asked the Justice Department to do is, 'Give me a legal memo, tell me what will be necessary. Do we need to go to Congress and get legislation?' "

What has Homeland Security officials worried is that terrorists could attempt to disrupt the election in the same way that train bombings in Madrid created unrest three days before the Spanish general election, the Homeland Security spokesman said.

Although there is no evidence that the bombings influenced the March 11 vote, socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero unseated Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose center-right government supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The country's new government then pulled Spanish troops from Iraq.

[AtomHeartMother]

Bush Administration "Guidelines"
for Postponing or Canceling the November Presidential Elections
by Michel Chossudovsky
www.globalresearch.ca July 2004
The URL of this article is: globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO407C.html

"... Credible reporting indicates that Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process...

"This is sobering information about those who wish to do us harm... But every day we strengthen the security of our nation." (DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, 8 July 2004)



Does this last announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge entail a code red emergency scenario of "closing down the country" (prior to the November elections) as conveyed by Secretary Ridge in a previous statement:

"If we go to Red ... it basically shuts down the country,"  (22 December 2003, emphasis added)

Homeland Security and the White House no doubt have several "scenarios" in mind to "win" the presidential elections in November. (See Steven Moore, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOO407A.html ). Recent developments suggest that Homeland Security is indeed contemplating a code red alert.  (See http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402A.html ).

At the same time, the Bush Administration is also maneuvering cautiously behind the scenes, with a view to embedding formal "guidelines" into federal election procedures, which would allow for the cancellation or postponement of an election in the event of a terror attack.  

To reach their objective, the Bush Administration is using the jurisdiction of one of its bogus federal agencies, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) , established in 2003 under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) .

Concurrent with Homeland Security's statement regarding the possibility of a large scale "9/11 type attack", EAC director DeForest B. Soaries , a Bush appointee, has hinted to the need for:

"establishing guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again".

"Look at the possibilities. If the federal government were to cancel an election or suspend an election, it has tremendous political implications. If the federal government chose not to suspend an election it has political implications... Who makes the call, under what circumstances is the call made, what are the constitutional implications?... I think we have to err on the side of transparency to protect the voting rights of the country... I'm hopeful that there are some proposals already being floated. If there are,! we're not aware of them. If there are not, we will probably try to put one on the table ... The states control elections, but on the national scale where every state has its own election laws and its own election chief, who's in charge?". (quoted in AP, 8 July 2004, emphasis added)

What is important in this new initiative, is that if these so-called guidelines were to be adopted, the Administration would technically be able to postpone or cancel an election, "with the stroke of a pen", and without resorting to far-reaching emergency procedures and/or martial law.

A temporary postponement might be considered by Republican strategists as a (desperate) propaganda ploy, for swinging votes away from the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Whether these guidelines will be accepted prior to November by the Democrats is, at this stage doubtful.

The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is described as a  "clearinghouse of voting information and procedures". The statements and news coverage seem to suggest that if guidelines on the postponement or cancellation of elections are to be formulated, they should emanate from the EAC, which has a (bipartisan) mandate under the US Congress to oversee federal voting systems, rather than the DHS.

But the EAC is an "informal arm" of the Department of Homeland Security. Both the DHS and the White House are indelibly behind the proposed "guidelines" initiative, calling the shots from behind the scenes.

EAC Director Reverand DeForest "Buster" Soaries, a former Baptist minister, is a handpicked appointee. He was New Jersey Secretary of State under   Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who is a political crony of Sec. Tom Ridge, going back to their days as GOP governors of the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Todd Whitman was appointed by the Bush Admistration to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and has since then worked very closely with Tom Ridge in the domestic war on terror.  

The press reports suggest that DeForest "Buster" Soaries took the initiative on his own accord, acting on behalf of a federal governmental body.  He has even complained:  "that he was rebuffed when he wrote to Ridge seeking to discuss election security, including how to handle rescheduling the election if it were to be disrupted by an attack." (Associated Press, 9 July 2004).

Secretary Tom Ridge has said that he is "against the guidelines." What he does not say is that various procedures have already been carefully worked out by Homeland Security analysts, who have simulated precise red code alert scenarios including situations, implying the cancellation or postponement of elections. (See http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402A.html ).

Ridge says that "he doesn't agree with all of the conclusions in Soaries' letter, but the department is working on constitutional and security questions, and Soaries will be involved in the process." (AP, 9 July 2004 )

Homeland Security is intent on establishing entrenched procedures under the EAC. The "guidelines" to postpone or suspend the elections could then be presented as a means to "protecting democracy" in the case of a terror attack.

The setting of so-called "guidelines" at the level of an official body, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), would establish a "trigger mechanism" under the jurisdiction of a federal commission.

A code red alert would contribute to activating the guidelines, although the latter could indeed be activated without resort to "the highest" terror alert level.

CONTINUED:

[AtomHeartMother]

E-Democracy or Electoral Fraud?

The same Bush sponsored body, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which has hinted to the need for "guidelines" in the case of a terror attack, has also been pushing for the establishment in several states of the Diebold electronic voting system .

Diebold is a black box system which very conveniently does not leave a paper trail. In other words, it does not leave a paper record of the vote. In fact: "all three black box computer manufacturers are Republican-led corporations actively involved in Bush’s re-election campaign." (Steve Moore, July 2004, globalresearch.ca/articles/MOO407A.html ).

In June 2004, Diebold Inc, which is backing the Bush campaign, congratulated EAC Chairman DeForest Soaries for assisting Diebold in marketing is E-election system:

We welcome the opportunity to provide input on these important issues and pledge our strong support to the EAC," said Mark G. Radke, director of marketing for Diebold Election Systems, Inc. 'This initiative by Chairman Soaries and the EAC will further increase voter confidence in the election process as election practices and procedures transition to more efficient, accurate technology," said Walden W. O'Dell, chairman and CEO of Diebold, Incorporated, the parent company of Diebold Election Systems." (Diebold News Release, www.diebold.com/news/newsdisp.asp?id=3083 ).

Diebold's CEO Walden O'Dell confirmed in a subsequent interview that:

"he has been a top fund-raiser for the Republican president, but said he intends to lower his political profile and "try to be more sensitive" in light of the national criticism he has faced. ... Because the fund-raising revelations fell closely on the heels of security questions raised about Diebold's machines in a later-questioned Johns Hopkins University study, O'Dell's critics began to suggest that Diebold should not be allowed to be involved in elections. (The Plain Dealer, 16 September 2003),



Michel Chossudovsky is the author of War and Globalization, the Truth behind September 11, Global Outlook, 2004


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Related Articles

E-Democracy, Stealing the Election in 2004, by Steve Moore, Global Outlook, no. 8, Summer 2004 globalresearch.ca/articles/MOO407A.html

Will the 2004 Election Be Called Off? Why Three Out of Four Experts Predict a Terrorist Attack by November, by Maureen Farrell, April 2004, www.globalresearch.ca/articles/FAR404A.html

The Criminalization of the State, by Michel Chossudovsky, globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO402A.html February 2004

Orange Code Terror Alert based on Fabricated Intelligence, by Michel Chossudovsky 3 January 2004. globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO401A.html

Bush's Christmas Terror Alert, by Michel Chossudovsky, 24 December 2003, globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO312D.html

Manufacturing Hysteria: Bogus Terror Threats and Bush's Police State, by Kurt Nimmo, 31 December 2003, globalresearch.ca/articles/NIM312A.html

FBI points finger at the CIA: Terror Alert based on Fabricated Information, 14 February 2003, globalresearch.ca/articles/CRG302A.html

"Homeland Defense" and the Militarisation of America, by Frank Morales, 15 September 2003, globalresearch.ca/articles/MOR309A.html


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