On Democracy Now on October 22, Mark Crispin Miller was interviewed about election fraud. Not the ACORN faux registration fraud that John McCain and his sidekick rant about in their Chicken Little act. But real election fraud perpetrated by the Republicans in 2000 and 2004 and likely to be repeated in 2008.

Miller’s explanation of the who, how, and why of this real election fraud is alarming – all the more so because of the deafening silence of the mainstream media on the subject. Miller said:



“Stephen Spoonamore is a conservative Republican, a former McCain supporter and, most importantly, a renowned and highly successful expert at the detection of computer fraud. That’s his profession. He works for major banks. He works for foreign governments. He works for the Secret Service. Those are his clients. He knows personally the principal players in Bush-Cheney’s conspiracy to subvert our elections through electronic means since 2000, and he has named these principal players. Specifically, he has named a man named Mike Connell. Mike Connell, according to Spoonamore, is Karl Rove’s computer guru. This is the guy who has helped Bush-Cheney fix election results through computers since Florida 2000, in Ohio in 2004, also in the stolen re-election of Governor Don Siegelman in Alabama in 2002, also in the stolen re-election of Senator Max Cleland in Georgia in 2002.”

He went on to explain:



“…basically, they use a kind of architecture that’s called Man in the Middle, and it involves shunting election returns data through a separate computer somewhere else. This is something that computer criminals do all the time with banks. Spoonamore explains that the Man in the Middle setup is extremely effective and basically undetectable as a way to change election results.”



Speaking about Ohio in 2004, Miller said election results were coming into former Secretary of State and co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign, Ken Blackwell’s website, in real time, then



“…The election returns went basically from his website to another computer that was in a basement in Chattanooga, Tennessee, under the control of Spoonamore and a guy with another private company, another evangelical. The data was shunted through that computer and then back to the Secretary of State’s website. Spoonamore says that this Man in the Middle setup has only one purpose, and that is fraud. There’s no other reason to do it. And he believes that such a system is still in place in Ohio, it’s in place in a number of other states. And the crucial fact to bear in mind here, since we’re talking about John McCain attacking ACORN and so on, is that Mike Connell is now working for John McCain.”



On the subject of why, people who claim to be Christian, who assert they are the party of family values, would lie, cheat, and defraud others of their right to vote, Miller said:



“Now, the scariest thing is that Connell told Spoonamore that the reason why he has helped Bush-Cheney steal these elections for the last eight years has been to save the babies. See? We have to understand that there’s a very powerful component of religious fanaticism at work in the election fraud conspiracy. ,…because the majority is a majority of unbelievers. They’re pro-choice. They’re corrupt. They’re evil. They don’t get it. It’s therefore necessary to fix election results in order to prevent the unjust and the unrighteous from taking over.”



Such rationializations are originated by man to nobilize actions that are inexcusable. For those who self-rightously declare themselves to be fighting this battle in God’s name, the question is: Where, in Jesus’ teachings, is there a single instance where he says you may lie, cheat, steal, bear false witness, or commit any other sin in his name?

On the contrary, the Ten Commandments in fact say “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.” While this is generally thought of as taking the name of God in vain, i.e. swearing, rationalizing actions in God’s name that he has specifically condemned is the worst kind of wrongful use of God’s name.

The lack of media coverage on this ongoing election fraud is beyond comprehension. While giving days of coverage to the manufactured ACORN fraud, the real threat to our elections is ignored. Journalists failed in their duty to seek the truth and report it before we invaded Iraq and again when the looming financial collapse surfaced at least two years ago. In both instances, there were a few reports of what was really going on and any reasonable amount of due dilligence on the part of journalists would have led them to the truth. Instead, while these life shattering, world shaking events were taking shape, the media spent its time “reporting” on Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton, and the Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt babies.

Now, with yet another issue, the supremely important integrity of our elections, looming on the horizon, the media must not shirk their duty again. I would ask all those who consider themselves professional journalists to review and act according to their own code of ethics, which begins:



Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues.

(emphasis added)

Please see comments below for information to contact journalists online and urge them to get this issue on the air. To call or write:

NBC News

30 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, N.Y. 10112

212-664-4444

CBS Headquarters

51 West 52 Street

New York, New York 10019-6188

212-975-7171

ABC, Inc.

500 S. Buena Vista Street

Burbank, CA 91521-4551

818-863-7777

_______

Trish Purcell

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Frederick Douglass



About author Trish Purcell writes a political blog for the Paradise Post newspaper in Northern California