Archive for month: October, 2010

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How & Why We Have Filed Racketeering Charges Against Karl Rove’s Election Operations

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
October 29, 2010

Ohio election attorney Cliff Arnebeck has filed a two-count complaint against The Partnership for Ohio’s Future, an affiliate of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

Arnebeck charges that the Partnership is “…not truly independent, but rather has been coordinated with the Republican candidates, their agents, committees, parties and their de facto coordinated national campaign being directed by Karl Rove.”

He also charges that when the Partnership claims in its advertising that it’s “not authorized by a candidate or a candidate’s committee” that they are making an illegal “false statement.”

Arnebeck is lead attorney in the on-going King-Lincoln-Bronzeville class action lawsuit stemming from the theft of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. We are co-counsel and plaintiff in this lawsuit. On Sunday, October 24, Rove was served with a subpoena agreed to by Ohio’s Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, in conjunction with that lawsuit.

The new complaint was filed at the Ohio Election Commission in downtown Columbus on Thursday, October 28.

The complaint reads that “…we identified Karl Rove as the principal perpetrator in an Ohio racketeering conspiracy.” The complaint goes on to explain that: “in the current election cycle the election corruption enterprise of Rove and [Tom] Donahue [head of the US Chamber of Commerce] is being manifested through the influx of billionaire/global corporate money where the actual source of the funding and speech is concealed.”

Arnebeck wants the Election Commission to find that there is probable cause to believe that “…this secret money is an in-kind contribution to these campaigns.” Arnebeck hopes that the finding of probable cause from the Commission “will enable private parties seeking to uphold the integrity of the election process to conduct discovery to prove their case which under the Ohio racketeering statute must be done as a pre-requisite to an assertion of criminal liability.”

The filing has resulted in the scheduling of a hearing at 9am Monday, November 1, in Columbus. If the Commission grants Arnebeck’s probable cause request, it would open Rove and the Chamber of Commerce to widespread discovery that, according to Arnebeck, could lead to criminal prosecution based on charges of racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy.

According to Arnebeck, the United States Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision allows independent contributions from wealthy private and corporate donors. Coordinated activities between partisan candidates and groups like the Chamber of Commerce’s Partnership for Ohio’s Future and Rove’s American Crossroads are illegal.

The complaint also discloses new information about the December 19, 2008, air crash death of Michael Connell, Rove’s computer guru. Connell was deposed one day prior to the November, 2008, presidential election. He has been linked to construction of a computer apparatus that was tied directly to Rove and was capable of election manipulations. These activities have been at the center of the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville lawsuit. We will report further on this matter in an upcoming story.

“Tom Donahue, head of the United States Chamber of Commerce, has been quite outspoken and proud of his accomplishments in delivering vast sums of money to Karl Rove and to Karl Rove’s operation, often through non-profit corporate entities, the names of which conceal the identity and character of the actual contributors,” Arnebeck says.

Arnebeck’s complaint suggests there may have been illegal contributions from a foreign corporation. “In a meeting I had with Lloyd Mahaffey, of the United Auto Workers,” Arnebeck writes, “he told me that when representatives of Daimler-Chrysler were confronted by the union concerning their expenditures to influence the Ohio Supreme Court race in 2000, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, their representatives assured Mahaffy that the decision to make that contribution was made in Germany.” Such a decision-making process for contributing funds to a U.S. political campaign would be clearly illegal.

Arnebeck asserts that he has “…a confidential source who personally witnessed Karl Rove and Tom Donahue coordinating their activities to determine the outcome of a state Supreme Court election.” Such coordination would also be illegal under state and federal election laws.

The injection of huge sums of cash into partisan election operations has re-defined the process of American democracy in this and several previous election cycles. This filing with the Ohio Election Commission is a critical step in testing the legalities of these coordinated efforts.

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Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman have co-authored four books on election protection and are co-counsel and plaintiff in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville class action lawsuit. Contributions to this suit can be made through http://www.freepress.org, where the FITRAKIS FILES can be found. HARVEY WASSERMAN’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is at http://www.harveywasserman.com.
Original article here:
https://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2010/3981

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Visualize Karl Rove’s Election Theft Subpoena

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
October 26, 2010

Election woes got you down?
Imagine the look of contempt on Karl Rove’s face this past Sunday as he swaggered toward his star turn on CBS’s Face the Nation only to be served with our subpoena sanctioned by the Secretary of the State of Ohio.

The federal subpoena orders Rove to testify in deposition. Our attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, intends to ask Mr. Rove about his role in the theft if the 2004 election, and to discuss his orchestration of tens of millions of corporate/billionaire dollars in the one coming up on November 2, 2010.

As co-counsel and plaintiff in the on-going King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal lawsuit, we have fought for six years to win justice and full disclosure in an election that Rove stole for George W. Bush.

In the course of this civil rights federal suit, we have seen the illegal destruction of hundreds of thousands of paper and electronic ballots that were supposedly protected by federal law.

We have seen 56 of 88 Ohio counties destroy most of their poll records, making a full recount of the 2004 vote an impossibility. Some of this destruction was done in defiance of federal law and a federal court order, for which no one has been prosecuted.

We have also seen the very mysterious and disturbing death of Michael Connell, Rove’s former chief computer guru. Rove used Connell to establish the electronic tools and architectural framework through which the vote count manipulations that shifted the election from John Kerry to Bush were accomplished.

An experienced professional pilot, Connell died improbably in a fiery crash at his home airport in Canton in December, 2008. Connell had been deposed the day before the November 2008 election. Attorney Arnebeck was in the process of preparing for another round of questioning when Connell’s life was ended.

Our subpoena is aimed at letting Rove explain all he did to give himself, Bush, and Dick Cheney another term in the White House.

But there is much more. With the US Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens United decision, the floodgates have opened to an unprecedented wave of cash coming from corporations and billionaire donors such as the Koch Brothers. By many accounts at least $150 million in corporate/billionaire lucre is being laundered through Rove’s American Crossroads.

Under Rove’s orchestration, this money is being used to wipe Democrats out of Congress and to take control of the apportionment process at the state level throughout the country.

“Rove is the de facto head of a coordinated Republican national campaign in which Tom Donahue of the Chamber of Commerce is a senior partner, while the Republican National Committee has been relegated to junior partner status,” says Arnebeck.

“Rove has filled the airwaves with high-priced attack ads funded by the mega-corporations and billionaires that stand to benefit most from another assault on the public trust and treasury.

“He and the Koch Brothers have also funneled large bundles of cash to a Tea Party astroturf organization meant to give the Republican campaign a grassroots veneer.

“From the fiasco of Florida 2000 through the theft of Ohio 2004 to the present, there has been no significant federal reform of the electoral process or curtailment of the use of easily manipulated electronic voting machines,” adds Arnebeck. “With the added tsunami of cash from Citizens United, Rove’s role as the principal perpetrator of a racketeering conspiracy, as defined by the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act, has been vastly enhanced.”

“Our lawsuit stemming from the widespread ‘irregularities’ that defined the 2004 election has never been settled,” concludes Arnebeck. “With the approval of the out-going Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, we have served Mr. Rove with a legally binding requirement that he answer a few questions.”

Stay tuned.

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Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman are co-counsel and plaintiff in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal lawsuit, and have co-authored four books on election protection at Free Press where donations to this lawsuit can be made via the CICJ election protection at the on-line store, where the Fitrakis Files also appear. Harvey Wasserman’s History of the US is at Harvey Wasserman

Original Article posted @ https://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2010/3977

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Free Press And Drexel Theater present: The Elephant in the Living Room

The Free Press Fourth Tuesday Film Night and the Drexel Theater present:
“The Elephant in the Living Room”
TUESDAY NIGHT Oct. 26 – 7:30 p.m.
Admission for FREE PRESS members is $5 — All they have to do is mention FREE PRESS at the box-office!
Meet director Mike Webber and Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, who will participate in a Q&A about the issue of exotic animal laws in Ohio.
A film about the controversial world of exotic animal ownership within the suburbs of the United States. The film offers an unprecedented glimpse into the fascinating subculture of trading and raising the most deadly and exotic animals in the world as common household pets.
The film focus’ on Tim Harrison, an Ohio law enforcement officer who makes it his job to protect exotic animals in Ohio, and Terry Brumfield, of northern Ohio, who owns a male and female Lion and keeps them in his backyard. The film also features actress and animal rights activist Tippi Hedren.

To see audience reaction from the film, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/ElephantLivingRoom#p/f/0/_MZIGOt3lX0To view a trailer and see all of the awards and reviews, visit the official movie website at www.theELEPHANTintheLIVINGROOM.com

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Ghoulish And Secretive Biowarfare Expert William C. Patrick III Dead

Bob Fitrakis
October 17, 2010

The New York Times reported on October 11 that one of America’s leading bioweapons experts, William C. Patrick III, had died on October 1. The 10-day delay in the report of his death is in keeping with the secret nature of Patrick’s life. The Times reported that Patrick “…made enough germs to kill everyone on Earth many times over.”

The frightening and ghoulish nature of Patrick’s work is fit for reflection this Halloween season. In 2001, the so-called “Amerithrax” attacks rocked the United States. Initially, an FBI agent in Columbus, Ohio told the Columbus Free Press that Patrick was being investigated as a possible suspect in the anthrax attacks which occurred through the U.S. mail system. In all, five people died and 17 others were infected.

As I reported in the Columbus Alive immediately following the anthrax attacks, Columbus-based Battelle Memorial Institute was involved in developing a new and stronger strain of the weaponized anthrax at its West Jefferson, Ohio labs. Patrick worked as a consultant for Battelle, along with Kanatjan Alibekov, the former number two man in the Soviet chemical and biological warfare division. Alibekov, now going by the name Ken Alibeck, was identified in a 1998 New Yorker article as working jointly with Patrick on an anthrax project.

Alibeck arrived in the U.S. in 1992, and the Washington Post would later report that he was “learning to be a capitalist.”

“Hadron Advanced Biosystems, Inc., Alibeck’s company, sports an unusual provenance for a biotechnical venture. No other company, doing any kind of work, can claim to be headed by a former No. 2 man in a vast program aimed at turning anthrax, plague, smallpox, tularemia, and many other germs into weapons of war,” noted the Post article.

While at Battelle, Patrick was reportedly working on Operation Jefferson. The project involved the military uses of anthrax, according to the New York Times. Battelle contracted Patrick specifically to conduct a risk assessment study concerning the dissemination of anthrax powder through the U.S. postal system. The Times also confirmed that the CIA was also involved with its own top secret anthrax project at the time, called by its code name “Clear Vision.”

In February 1999, Patrick issued a 28-page report on the possibility of anthrax attacks through the mail. A few mainstream news accounts mentioned Battelle’s dominant role in the production of U.S. military grade anthrax.

Interestingly, Battelle was in partnership with the Michigan-based Bioport during the time of the attacks and the joint operation had a virtual monopoly over all vaccines for military grade anthrax attacks. Both U.S. and British news sources identified one of Bioport’s owners as a top secret British biowarfare consortium, Porton Down.

During the first Gulf War, Porton Down reportedly made huge profits off vaccines related to possible anthrax attacks.

On August 1, 2008, Dr. Bruce E. Ivins died from an apparent suicide. Ivins was a U.S. biodefense researcher working at Fort Detrick. The Associated Press identified Ivins as a suspect in the anthrax attacks, who was about to be charged by the FBI. Earlier, the FBI had focused on Dr. Steven J. Hatfill as a person of interest. Why the FBI never followed up on its initial interest in Patrick remains a puzzle.

“He lived in Frederick for decades, his home atop a wooded hill, not far from where he once made anthrax. A single gallon of the concentrated agent contained enough spores to kill every person on the planet,” the Times noted in Patrick’s obituary. The Times failed to mention his ties to Battelle or his role in assessing the use of anthrax through the mail.

—

Bob Fitrakis is the author of The Fitrakis Files: Star Wars, Weather Mods and Full Spectrum Dominance, which has more information about the anthrax attacks. Originally published by https://freepress.org.
@ https://freepress.org/columns/display/3/2010/1857

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Bob Bytes Back Archives: 12/11/1996 Guilt By Location

12/11/1996
by Bob Fitrakis

Prior to the Chief James Jackson controversy, I can count on my middle finger the number of times I’ve supported Mayor Greg Lashutka in a political battle. The only other time concerned the building of Tuttle Mall in Columbus. Since I detest malls and that whole culture, I half-heartedly sided with the mayor’s position that a mall and its tax revenue would benefit the city more than the suburbs. Yet, on the Chief Jackson issue, I enthusiastically endorse the mayor’s inquiry. Hell, I believe the Big Guy’s showing some guts and character for the first time in his political career.

Now that an obscene gesture has been turned into a peace or victory sign, let me say that I think the mayor is ill-advised in his vilification of Gwendolyn Rogers, the head of Columbus’s Equal Business Opportunity Office. Lashutka’s voice has been joined by city council member Jennette Bradley, a fellow Republican who must live in a glass house. Bradley, who was quoted in Tuesday’s Columbus Dispatch as calling for a thorough investigation of Rogers’ office, must be forgetting the cloud of disgrace under which she left the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. The Dispatch extensively reported mismangement and waste at CMHA while she was executive director of the agency.

As strongly as I believe the Jackson investigation is not racially motivated, I believe just as strongly that the media campaign against Rogers—led by the Dispatch—is racist. The Columbus Dispatch, I contend, is punishing Rogers because she refused to play the role of Good House Negress. During the last three weeks, Professor Vincene Verdun, an African-American law professor at OSU, has been questioning the legality of Mayor Lashutka “waiving” the Title 39 statute that set goals for the city purchasing goods and services from minority- and female-owned businesses.

Rogers has been doing her job in questioning how the mayor received sole power to waive a statute, particularly since she drafted the original statute that had the term “joint” power in the ordinance language. Simply put, the City Council and the mayor may be acting illegally.

Not surprisingly, no front-page stories appeared in the Dispatch on this dispute, unlike Rogers’ trip to Hawaii. The Dispatch’s coverage of Rogers’ trip amounts to guilt by location. The trip was to Hawaii, it must be illegal!

Make no mistake, Rogers is being McNeal-ed. This is a time-honored Dispatch technique, perfected first in the Soviet Union by another daily monopoly, Pravda. Associated in central Ohio with the Dispatch’s campaign against Palmer McNeal, being McNeal-ed means you’re tried and condemned by the multi-millionaire Wolfe family, their editorial lapdogs and their executioners masquerading as “objective journalists.”

Let’s analyze the initial hatchet job that appeared as the lead story in the Metro section last Wednesday, December 4. Reporter Barbara Carmen’s third paragraph reads, “‘Aloha,’ Rogers said when the phone rang.” The Dispatch editorialists make this seem equivalent to Rogers saying, “I kidnapped and murdered the Lindbergh baby.”

The article tells us that the 10th anniversary Conference on Counseling and Treating People of Color, “according to the registration brochure…is for administrators, social workers, physicians, nurses, dentists, health and mental health workers, and other professionals.” This insinuates, of course, that Rogers had no business being there. Let’s see. Rogers easily falls into the categories of “administrators” and “other professionals.”

To really appreciate Carmen’s character assassination of Rogers, you’ve got to go to the seventh paragraph. Here, the article says: “Rogers’ office is responsible for developing programs that help small companies sell goods such as backhoes, computer software, construction contracts and cleaning services to the City.” The last, obviously, isn’t a “good,” it’s a “service,” a term that Carmen must avoid at all cost.

Now, to understand what the Disgrace is doing, let me rewrite the paragraph for you as if it concerned a lackey politician that the Dispatch wished to protect: “Rogers’ office is responsible for developing programs that help small companies sell goods and services such as medical supplies, computer software for health care providers, mental health service contracts, and diversity training programs to the City.” Ever heard of the city Health Department? Rogers is responsible for making sure that diversified small businesses have an opportunity to sell goods and services to that department, a fact intentionally ignored by the Dispatch in its quest to publicly spank Rogers. “Backhoes,” indeed.

By Friday, the Rogers story had jumped to the front page—signaling that the Dispatch was organizing a public print media lynching. Council President John P. Kennedy in the second paragraph blusters, “This is not good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.” Oh? Kennedy’s never had to account in the Dispatch pages for what he might know about legislation that benefited those close to him. What about T & R Properties, John? (see Columbus Alive November 13, page four) Was that good stewardship?

Mayor Lashutka should know better than to open a two-front war in the black community. Particularly against an administrator whose main offense seems to be being “too uppity.”

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2010 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OBSERVANCE Mourning Walk from the City of Columbus City Hall

2010 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OBSERVANCE
OCTOBER 12, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY
Mourning Ceremony6 (@ City Hall, Broad Street Steps, with the Mourning Walk converging at the Santa Maria “Slave Ship” Replica.)
Located at Marconi Blvd. and Broad Street
The Indigenous Peoples Day, October 12, 2010, will begin with a Mourning Walk from the City of Columbus City Hall, 10:30 a.m. and will converge at the Santa Maria Replica in the Scioto River. A Fast for Justice will be broken at this time. The People of the Land historically have experienced occupation, invasion, discovery, encounter, torture, imprisonment, decimation, devastation, globalism, slavery, and resource exploitation. Today, The People of the Land face ongoing cultural isolation, political silence, and economic degradation. Join neighbors, friends, and David Rovics at this annual commemoration of the day when Colonialism made it to the American Hemisphere.
THE EVENT WILL COVER CULTURAL IMPERATIVES, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES, AND UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS
CONTACTS:
Mark Welsh, 614-443-6120, naicoo@aol.com or Mark D. Stansbery, 614-517-7237, walk@igc.org
and
Dave Rovics in Concert! – OCTOBER 12 from 5-9pm
Carabar, 115 N. Parsons
Dave sings “Songs of Social Significance” including Halliburtons’s Boardroom Massacre and odes to Cindy Sheehan and Hugh Thompson. No cover, donations welcome. Tuesday is “Dollar Tacos” night at the Carabar!! Sponsored by the Free Press.
253-2571, truth@freepress.org

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Free Press Second Saturday Salon Saturday, October 9, 2010

You are invited to the Free Press Second Saturday Salon
40th Anniversary “Halloween” Salon

Saturday, October 9, 2010
6:30pm-midnight

Celebrate 40 years of struggle, solidarity, social justice, and successes. The Free Press first hit the streets in October 1970 as a reaction from the OSU activist community to the Kent State killings. Ever since then it has been at the forefront of the great moral issues of our day.

This salon will have the usual food, drink, music, and will feature the three-dimensional art of Jim Beoddy.

This is also a Halloween salon — costumes preferred, but not necessary.

Please join us to mark our 40th anniversary commemorative celebration!

1021 E. Broad St., side door, parking in rear.
253-2571 truth@freepress.org

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Free Press Second Saturday Salon, Oct 9

Second Saturday Salon 6:60- Midnight. Come in costume! Meet Christine O’Donnell in her “I’m not a witch” costume, along with her African-American friend, Sarah Palin. 1032 E Broad Street. Be there, be scared!!

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In the Spirit Of Woody Guthrie, Dave Rovics Tuesday, October 12, 5-8pm Carabar, 115 Parsons

In the 1930s, Woody Guthrie liked to write “This machine kills fascists” on his guitar. It was a period when folk musicians stood with the people against corporate greed. This is one of the reasons that folk musicians were attacked and blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

But they rose again as the reporters that offered the soundtrack for the civil rights movement in the mid to late 50s. Phil Ochs told us more about what was going on in Mississippi than scholars and intellectuals.

Today, if you want to know what’s going on in the world, you want an accurate report on where injustice is being done and people are being oppressed, the best single source of news is David Rovics. I consider him one of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time. In the same way many people watch The Daily Show over the corporate for-profit news shows, Rovics albums give us a far more insightful view on what’s really going on in the world today.

Not only that, if you want a truly factual rendition of U.S. history, Rovics is also your source. His ballad regarding Hugh Thompson is my personal favorite. Hugh is an often overlooked but genuine American hero. Many have heard of Lt. Calley and the My Li massacre, but its Rovics who celebrates Thompson, who stood Calley and his men down and stopped the war crimes in Vietnam.

I can’t wait to hear Rovics’ new songs. Their titles themselves speak volumes about what we can expect at his concert in Columbus. We look forward to hearing: Halliburton Boardroom Massacre, Paul Wolfowitz, New Orleans, How far is it from here to Nuremberg, Tsunami, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home.

Join us for a Dave Rovics experience:
Tuesday, October 12, 5-8pm
Carabar, 115 Parsons
253-2571
truth@freepress.org
No cover, but donations requested.
Also, Carabar offers Dollar Tacos on Tuesday nights!

Dave Rovics Songs

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Bob Fitrakis Official Site