Up next in Senate recount: Which ballots to count

The Minnsota Star-Tribune reports:

All must agree on absentee votes; result could tip scales.

Beginning a critical new stage in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount, the campaigns of Sen. Norm Coleman and Al Franken are expected to spend today and Sunday identifying absentee ballots that they believe were improperly rejected and should now be counted.

Click to read more

John Lennon Has an Important Message For You

Ohio TV Station: Was GOP "IT Guru" Crash Accident Or Murder?

"Ohio TV Station: Was GOP "IT Guru" Crash Accident Or Murder?"
The story of whistleblower, key witness about to testify that 04 election was stolen, GOP IT guru, threatened by Rove, warned of his safety thru sabotage & feared for his life Connell who died in a fiery plane crash has finally been picked up by TV's MSM.

http://digg.com/politics/Ohio_TV_Station_Was_GOP_IT_Guru_Crash_Accident_Or_Murder?OTC-em-st1

DN!: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Calls for Independent Counsel to Investigate Cheney and Rumsfeld for Violating Torture Laws

Susan Wilk has sent you a story from Democracy Now!, a daily independent radio and TV news program:

Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York has urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and other senior Bush administration officials for violations of the law relating to the torture of prisoners in US custody. Nadler is the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. [includes rush transcript]

To read, listen to, or watch the whole story:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/23/rep_jerrold_nadler_d_ny_calls

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Video: Steven Spoonamore Named Connell

Rove Threatened Blackmail - Background

More Background
http://thejournal.epluribusmedia.net/index.php/state-news/ohio-news/34-ohio-news/127-rove-threat-to-blackmail-gop-it-mastermind-triggers-immunity-request-to-ohio-ag-by-election-lawyers

Thrown Under the Bus

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 PRNewswire-USNewswire

Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution ("VR"), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell's activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would "throw [him] under the bus."

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayRel...

Connell Had Cancelled Previous Flights

Connell had canceled at least two previous flights on fear of sabotage.

The man who knew too much

An article in the Telegraph (UK):

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3885913/George-Bush-aide-dies-in-plane-crash.html

Scott Horton's take:

A Troubling Black Box Death
By Scott Horton

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004069

Michael Connell was well-known to those who follow the "black box" voting drama. A voting technology expert from Akron, Ohio, Connell faithfully served the Republican Party, and in particular its chief electoral guru, Karl Rove-faithfully, that is, up until a few months ago. Under subpoena and court order, Connell was compelled to testify about his role in managing the 2004 election tabulations in Ohio. In that race, Connell both served as information technology consultant to the Bush-Cheney campaign and, under contract with the state of Ohio, managed the vote tabulation from servers he maintained in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He emerged as the focal witness in the current controversy over voting machine manipulation in Ohio. In 2004 exit polls put Kerry on top, but official results in black box districts, strongly at variance with the exit polls, gave the state, and the race, to Bush. After Connell was reportedly threatened by Karl Rove, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the litigation appealed to Attorney General Mukasey for protection late last summer. Now Connell is dead, the victim of a crash on the approach of his plane to the Akron airport on Friday. The Akron Beacon Journal reports:

Mr. Connell, founder and chief executive of New Media Communications in Richfield, died instantly when the single-prop airplane he was piloting crashed into a vacant house about three miles short of the Akron-Canton Airport. State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard said Mr. Connell's plane was in communication with the airport control tower just before the crash, but he could not detail whether the radio transmissions were calls for help. "We have no reason to believe at this point it was anything other than an unfortunate crash," Sheppard said.

Connell had recently come into public view in connection with a lawsuit raising allegations of vote fraud in 2004:

Šthe lawsuit alleges that by 9 p.m. on Election Night 2004, the results were switched from the state server to one set up by Connell's, in the former Pioneer Bank Building in Chattanooga, Tenn. It is alleged the same server was used to bundle and remove White House e-mails regarding the 2005 federal prosecutor firing scandal. Mr. Connell tried to fight the subpoena, but a judge ruled against it and he gave a deposition on Nov. 3. It was through the fight over the subpoena that attorneys who brought the case learned that Mr. Connell and his wife had allegedly been threatened with federal prosecution by Rove.

Bob Fitrakis, one of the Columbus attorneys who filed the lawsuit, a former Green Party candidate for president and a political blogger known for his conspiracy theories on election stealing in Ohio, said word of Mr. Connell's death ''sent a chill down my spine."

Larisa Alexandrovna also links Connell to another important technology controversy: the "disappearance" of millions of emails connected with Karl Rove from the White House servers. The emails had been repeatedly subpoenaed and the White House had claimed they were "lost," a response which few are buying.

Mike Connell set-up the alternate email and communications system for the White House. He was responsible for creating the system that hosted the infamous GWB43.com accounts that Karl Rove and others used. When asked by Congress to provide these emails, the White House said that they were destroyed. But in reality, what Connell is alleged to have done is move these files to other servers after having allegedly scrubbed the files from all "known" Karl Rove accounts.

Connell may very well have died as a result of an innocent accident, but the circumstances are such that some observers will never believe that. He will be viewed as "the man who knew too much."

NYU professor and Harper's Magazine contributor Mark Crispin Miller discusses the case on today's Democracy Now.

Connell was warned not to fly

This detailed piece by Wayne Madsen is based on information from reliable sources.

MCM

Mike Connell was warned not to fly before plane crash

Mike Connell was warned not to fly before plane crash
By Wayne Madsen

Online Journal Contributing Writer

Dec 22, 2008, 00:27

(WMR) -- WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources in Ohio that Republican Party computer networking guru Mike Connell was warned not to fly in anonymous warnings conveyed to principals in the ongoing federal civil lawsuit of King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell, stemming from GOP-engineered vote fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential election, as well as a potential Ohio racketeer-influenced criminal organization (RICO) criminal proceeding against former Bush White House aide Karl Rove and Blackwell, in the conspiracy to illegally steer Ohio's 20 electoral votes to the Bush column in 2004.

Connell's Piper Saratoga single-engine plane crashed during the evening of December 19 in Uniontown, Ohio, as it was preparing to land at Akron-Canton airport. There were no other passengers and Connell was killed in the crash. Connell had flown to College Park, Maryland, the previous day. Connell, who lived in Akron with his wife Heather and four children, often flew to Washington for activities related to his IT businesses.

Connell's name surfaced as a key player in Rove's election fraud conspiracy after this year's July 17 Columbus news conference hosted by Cliff Arnebeck, the Ohio attorney who has been representing plaintiffs in the federal civil suit against former Republican Secretay of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. On the phone at the conference was John McCain campaign adviser and computer security specialist Stephen Spoonamore who identified Connell as a key player, as well as potential trial witness, in the GOP's conspiracy to flip Ohio votes in the 2004 election.

Spoonamore and Connell had reportedly worked together on foreign elections in programs sponsored by the International Republican Institute (ISI) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Both had traveled abroad together on special election projects to ensure "fair voting" procedures.

For the first time, WMR has learned that the GOP vote flipping conspiracy was in place earlier than the November 2004 general election and was used to deny votes to Democratic candidates John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich in the March 2, 2004, Democratic primary. John Kerry won the primary with 52 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Edwards and 9 percent for Kucinich.

After Connell was identified as a potential witness in the civil case against Blackwell and a possible criminal Ohio RICO case against Rove, Blackwell, and perhaps others, the plaintiff attorneys received a tip from a high-level source in the McCain presidential campaign that Rove had issued a threat against Connell. Connell had worked for the 2008 McCain presidential campaign on the development of its web pages.

WMR has learned from our Ohio sources that five threats against Connell were conveyed to the election fraud plaintiff attorneys with the last tip being "Connell is in danger." One of the threats reportedly made by Rove to Connell was that Connell could forget about a pardon from President George W. Bush if he did not "take the fall" in the event criminal charges were brought and that his wife Heather, who was used as a majority stockholder for one of Connell's web design companies, GovTech Solutions, would be prosecuted for illegal lobbying. Connell's other company is New Media Communications, Inc.

We have also learned that one additional tip was relayed to Connell's wife and it was to the effect that Connell "was in danger and he should not fly his plane."

Connell's firms received contracts to place its servers behind the House of Representatives firewall courtesy of then-House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-OH), later jailed for his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying-influence peddling scandal. Connell also designed and ran the web sites for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee. WMR has learned that through effective GOP control of these web sites, the Bush White House was able to monitor all committee e-mails and documents, including planning documents for House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

We have also learned that Connell's IT firm did classified web site development work for the CIA.

Based on the threats against Connell, the federal judge hearing the civil suit King Lincoln v. Blackwell,conveyed to Connell that the court would protect him if he came forward. On October 17, 2008, Connell's attorneys attempted to quash an October 8, 2008, plaintiff subpoena for his court appearance. On October 31, U.S. Judge Solomon Oliver denied the motion to quash the subpoena and ordered Connell's deposition to proceed on November 3, the day before Election Day. WMR has learned that on Friday, October 31, Connell was nervous and "beet red" during the hearing to quash the subpoena. On Monday, November 3, Connell was composed and it is believed that his top shelf law firm had been selected by Rove to represent Connell for the deposition. Rove's intent was to ensure that there would be no deposition from Connell before the November 4 election.

WMR has also learned that Connell was prepared to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the election fraud in Ohio and other states but that the offer of testimony was not acted upon senior staffers for House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). A source in Columbus told us that some of Conyers' senior staffers on his committee and in is office are not to be trusted on issues related to election fraud.

In addition, Rove and the Bush White House attempted to forestall testimony by election officials in Mahoning County and Youngstown, Ohio, on election fraud in 2004 by promising to have former Rep. James Traficant (D-OH), who is currently imprisoned after being convicted of corruption, released early in return for their silence. Traficant is not scheduled for release from federal prison until Sept, 2, 2009.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2008 WayneMadenReport.com

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required). 

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