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"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
Tsunami * Iraq-BushChaos * ElectionContest
29 December 2004
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people
tolerate the growth of private power to the point
where it becomes stronger than the democratic
state itself. That in its essence is fascism
– ownership of government by an individual,
by a group or any controlling private power."
– President Franklin D. Roosevelt1) Race to Bury Asia's Dead as Toll Nears 70,000
2) Chaos Iraq Bush US Policy- - CIA Resists Request for Abuse Data
- - Trail of torture leads to Washington
- - U.S., Britain Holding 10,000 Prisoners in Iraq
- - Ramsey Clark To Represent Saddam Hussein
3) Deadline Actions to Contest 2004 Election- - Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence
- - Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas
- - Actions for January 6 Contesting the VOTE
Editor's Notes:A Reuter's article on the massive Tsunami begins this issue. The number of dead is expected to rise above 70,000, about one third - children. And as disastrous as this appears, it may only be the beginning. A more active and destructive earthquake pattern is expected due to Global Warming, the increase of human population, and abundance of nuclear and other toxic materials in harm's way of people and other living beings. Meanwhile US President-select George Bush vacations at his ranch. Item 2 continues on the coverage of the chaos created by the illegal actions of the US-coalition governments' war and occupation of Iraq. This tragedy of more than 100,000 dead civilians and thousands of US and Iraqi soldiers is unnecessary, and can only add to the dangers and incentive for terrorism. This is why item 3 is so important. Right now it looks like on January 6 "Election 2004" will be contested. Your action on this issue is requested. It will either be now or never.. possibly, for a democracy in the US and for turning around the terrorism and warming running rampant across the globe.
"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing"
-- Albert Einstein
1) Race to Bury Asia's Dead as Toll Nears 70,000By Tomi Soetjipto and Dean Yates
[Excerpt]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Thousands of corpses rotted in the sun from India to Indonesia on Wednesday as many who escaped death in the worst tsunami in recorded history faced a fight for survival against hunger and disease.
Rescuers scoured remote coastlines across the Indian Ocean for survivors of Sunday's giant waves that killed more than 67,000. The United Nations mobilized what it called the biggest relief operation in its history.
David Nabarro, who heads the World Health Organization's health crisis team, said up to five million people lacked the basic essentials to survive.
The ocean surge was triggered by a magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake, the biggest in 40 years, off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It spread in an arc of death across the Indian Ocean, striking from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and beyond to Africa.
U.S. scientists said the quake that set off the wall of water had moved tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean by up to 30 meters (98 ft), causing the Earth to wobble on its axis and permanently shortening the day by a fraction of a second.
Survivors told harrowing tales of the moment the tsunami, up to 10 meters (33 feet) high, struck towns and resorts, sucking holidaymakers into the sea, surging through buildings, sweeping cars from roads and smashing a train off its rails.
"The water was just too strong," said Surya Darmar, lying on an army cot outside the emergency ward of a military hospital in Banda Aceh on Wednesday, covered in cuts and with a broken leg.
"I held my children for as long as I could, but they were swept away."
UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said children could account for up to a third of the dead.
Indonesia has suffered the biggest number of victims, with 36,268 known to be dead, although the toll could rise to 80,000 in Aceh alone, the province closest to the quake's epicenter.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono spoke of "frightening reports" from outlying parts of Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Troops and rescue crews reached the town of Meulaboh on Aceh's west coast, about 150 km (90 miles) from the epicenter, to find dead bodies and rubble.
"Today so far 3,400 bodies have been found in Meulaboh. Eighty percent of the buildings are wrecked," Chief Security Minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto told reporters.
But a senior UN official in Indonesia said the toll in Meulaboh could reach 40,000.
Soldiers and volunteers were collecting scattered corpses for mass burial.
..The region has seen huge killer waves before, including one when Krakatoa erupted off southern Sumatra in 1883, but Indian Ocean countries have no tsunami warning system.
For the complete article, including photos and resource links, see:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041229/ts_nm/quake_dc
2) Chaos Iraq Bush US Policy- - CIA Resists Request for Abuse Data
- - Trail of torture leads to Washington
- - U.S., Britain Holding 10,000 Prisoners in Iraq
- - Ramsey Clark To Represent Saddam Hussein
- - Bush Sending the Wrong Message as Chaos Smolders in Iraqby Ronald Brownstein
Published December 27, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
Millions of Americans probably learned about last week's horrific attack on U.S. troops in Mosul while wrapping Christmas presents or stuffing packages into the SUV after a last-minute shopping blitz at the mall.
That jarring juxtaposition may be the perfect symbol for the Iraq war. This grueling, grinding conflict is skittering through American life like a tornado that tears one house to the ground in every neighborhood, while leaving all those around it unscratched.
Bush is leaving a dangerous impression that on Iraq he values loyalty more than performance.
For the military personnel on the front lines — and their families and friends — the war is exacting bitter costs. For all other Americans, even for the officials whose decisions sent the troops into battle and shaped the conditions under which they are fighting and dying, the war is imposing no discernible consequences.
For the complete article, see
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-outlook27dec27,1,1837756,print.column?coll=la-news-a_sectionor
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1227-02.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - CIA Resists Request for Abuse DataPublished December 27, 2004 by the Boston Globe
by Charlie Savage
[Excerpt]
WASHINGTON -- The CIA is refusing to disclose any information about abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, invoking a legal precedent that involved a secret project by billionaire Howard Hughes to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine in the 1970s.
Megan Lewis, a lawyer for the ACLU, said she would file an objection in early January to the CIA's efforts to avoid scrutiny.
The CIA asserts that it is protected according to the submarine case, in which a judge allowed the agency to neither confirm nor deny that it possessed records of a deep-sea mining project thought to be a front to recover a sunken Soviet submarine. The CIA has refused to acknowledge whether it has documents and photographs related to abuse of detainees.
"They're just using [Glomar] to withhold these documents and to protect themselves. And it's very hard for anyone on the outside to pierce that veil. They just said, 'We can't confirm or deny it exists.' "
For the complete article see:
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/27/cia_resists_request_for_abuse_data?mode=PFor
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1227-01.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Trail of torture leads to WashingtonThe Virginian-Pilot (December 26, 2004)
For this article, see:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=79771&ran=226291= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S., Britain Holding 10,000 Prisoners in IraqAgence France Presse
Tuesday 28 December 2004
Over 350 foreigners are among about 10,000 detainees being held in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin Over says..
For the article, see:
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1273053.htmor
www.truthout.org/docs_04/122904Z.shtml= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Ramsey Clark To Represent Saddam HusseinFrom Democracy Now! Headlines for December 29, 2004
In other Iraq news, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has joined the legal defense team for former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. On Tuesday he flew to Jordan to meet with other attorneys representing Hussein. Clark said, "In international law, anyone accused of a crime has the right to be tried by a confident, independent and impartial court." He went on to say "The special court in Iraq was created by the Iraqi governing council, which is nothing more than a creation of the US military occupation and has no authority in law as a criminal court."
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/29/161210
3) Deadline Actions to Contest 2004 Election- - Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence
- - Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas
- - Actions for January 6 Contesting the VOTE
- - Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote EvidenceBy William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
Monday 27 December 2004
[Excerpt]
This afternoon, an attorney representing the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign filed two important motions to preserve and augment evidence of alleged election fraud in the November election. The motions were filed in the matter titled Yost et al. v. Delaware County Board of Elections and J. Kenneth Blackwell (Civil Action No. C2-04-1139) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The document is titled "Motion Of Intervenor-Defendant Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. For A Preservation Order And For A Leave To Take Limited Expedited Discovery."
The purpose of the motions is twofold: A) To preserve all ballots and voting machines pertaining to the Yost matter for investigation and analysis; and B) To make available for sworn deposition testimony a technician for Triad Systems, the company that produced and maintained many of the voting machines used in the Ohio election. The technician has been accused of tampering with the recount process in Hocking County, Ohio, though other counties are believed to have also been involved. Any officers of Triad Systems who have information pertaining to said tampering are likewise subject to subpoena for sworn deposition testimony.
If the judge in this case allows these motions, and these individuals are served with subpoenas for deposition, the information disclosed under oath could have a major effect on the case. Likewise, judicial approval of these motions will open the door to forensic analysis of both the ballots cast and the machines they were counted on. If tampering took place, such an analysis could reveal it..
..The filing by the Kerry/Edwards campaign is significant. The Yost matter deals with a recount of the votes cast in Ohio during the election. In order for a judge to consider such a motion, the plaintiff must be able to prove irreparable harm in the matter at hand, and must also be able to prove a significant chance that the case will succeed on the merits. The stumbling point for the Green Party and Libertarian Party in this matter has been the ability to prove that potential for success, because no recount would deliver an Ohio victory to them. A recount could very well deliver Ohio to Kerry, thus fulfilling the success on the merits requirement.
In the end, this filing amounts to a "Me, too" from the Kerry/Edwards campaign. This case would not exist in any form without the dedicated efforts of Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik. Though the inclusion of Kerry into this matter strengthens the case significantly, Cobb and Badnarik deserve the lion's share of credit for carrying the matter to this point.
Attorney John Bonifaz serves as general counsel for the National Voting Rights Institute, and is co-counsel for Cobb and Badnarik in this matter. Reached for comment on this Kerry filing, Bonifaz said, "We are pleased that the Kerry Edwards campaign has joined our motion to preserve all of the ballots and election machinery in the presidential election in Ohio and to investigate the potential tampering of voting machines by Triad Governmental Systems, Inc, prior to the start of the recount. We welcome the Bush Cheney campaign joining our motion as well. The integrity of this recount is at stake. All candidates ought to join together in ensuring the proper counting of every citizen's vote."
For the complete article, see:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/122804V.shtml= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Election Officials Ducking SubpoenasOhio GOP Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas as Kerry Enters Stolen Vote Fray
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
Published December 28, 2004 by the Columbus Free Press (Ohio)
[Excerpt]
COLUMBUS -- Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell refused to appear at a deposition on Monday, December 27. The deposition was part of an election challenge lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court. Meanwhile John Kerry is reported to have filed a federal legal action aimed at preserving crucial recount evidence, which has been under GOP assault throughout the state.
Richard Conglianese, Ohio Assistant Attorney General, is seeking a court order to protect Blackwell from testifying under oath about how the election was run. Blackwell, who administered Ohio's November 2 balloting, served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign.
James R. Dicks, Miami County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, filed a motion to block a subpoena in his county while Conglianese filed to block subpoenas in ten key Ohio counties.
President George Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney and White House Political Advisor Karl Rove received notice that they will be deposed Tuesday and Wednesday, December 28 and 29. The trio's Ohio attorney, Kurt Tunnell, so far claims his clients have not been properly served. Under Ohio law, the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court is responsible for serving the three with subpoenas.
Meanwhile, the Election Protection legal team has collected new statements under oath describing more voting and vote-counting problems on November 2.
Voters in Trumbull County have testified that on Election Day they received punch-card ballots where holes were already punched for Bush. Meanwhile, a notarized affidavit signed by Angela Greene, who voted at Whitehall Yearling High School in central Ohio's Franklin County, stated that one of the malfunctioning electronic voting machines at her polling place was delivered without a cartridge – meaning votes cast might have gone uncounted.
In Miami County, Blackwell certified a 98.6% turnout in the Concord Southwest precinct, comprised of 520 votes for Bush and 157 for Kerry. This statistically improbable turnout has all but 10 of the 689 registered voters casting their ballots on Election Day. A preliminary canvas by The Free Press of less than half the precinct found 25 registered voters admitting they had not voted, meaning the official tally was almost certainly fraudulent.
The nearby Concord South precinct certified a 94.27% voter turnout, with 468 alleged votes for Bush versus 182 for Kerry. Miami County is included in the election challenge since it somehow reported nearly 19,000 additional votes after 100% of the precincts had reported on Election Day.
In Madison County, where public records requests were filed to obtain voting records, the voting results provided by the Madison County Board of Elections came directly from a private company, Triad Governmental Systems, Inc. An email dated November 29, 2004 from Brandon Sandlin of Triad reads as follows: "Hello to all in Madison County! Attached you will find the cumulative report (oh49unov.pdf) with over and under votes reported as well as the official abstract (oh49abs.pdf). These reports may be printed for your records and then mailed to the state along with your other certification reports." Coming from a private corporation, Triad's letter underscores the barriers to making a reliable independent public assessment and recount of Ohio's presidential tally.
In Mahoning County, the Washington Post reported new affidavits documenting electronic "vote hopping" from Kerry to Bush. This means voting machines highlighted the choice for Bush before the voter recorded a choice of his or her own. The legal team has been told by a computer expert that this may mean the machines were pre-set on a Bush vote as a default. The Free Press has obtained dozens such sworn statements of vote hopping.
The legal team is also exploring new evidence that in Coshocton, Ohio, write-in votes wrongly defaulted to Bush when run through the voting machine.
On December 23, U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to Triad President Brett A. Rapp inquiring whether or not Triad possessed remote access capabilities for any of the 41 counties where its election tabulation software or computers are in use.
Article Truncated - for the complete article, see:
www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1046or
www.truthout.org/docs_04/122904E.shtmlwww.commondreams.org/headlines04/1228-01.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Actions for January 6 Contesting the VOTEUS Citizens - Contact your Senators in support of contesting the 2004 Vote
Please call both your Senators now and pass this along AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE. If you don't know who your Senators are see:
senate.gov Fax#s can be obtained either through
www.senate.gov and by calling their offices. Demand that your Senators take a legal stand and challenge what is most likely a second consecutive coup de etat. Call irrespective of weather your Senators are Dems and/or Repubs & remember to please PASS THIS ALONG AS WIDELY as possible, asking others to do so likewise.
To contact your Senators by telephone, call:
877-762-8762 or 202-224-3121
or visit
www.senate.gov- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Vigil at Senator John Kerry's home in BostonThere will be a daily vigil from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at Senator John Kerry's house at Louisburg Square on Beacon Hill in Boston, starting Tuesday, December 28 - Wednesday, January 5. On New Year's Eve only the vigil will be from 4:00-5:00 p.m.
* We are asking Senator Kerry to OBJECT to the certification of the electoral college vote on January 6, 2005 and to encourage other Senators to object to certification.
* We are asking Senator Kerry to support any other Senators and Representatives who are planning to object to certification.
The mis-allocation of voting machines (especially in Ohio), the abuse of provisional balloting in numerous states, and the refusal and/or inability to conduct the recount in an open and auditable manner in Ohio, in Florida, and in so many other key states, should be cause enough to object pending review to the seating of certified electors.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SIGNS
* Senator Kerry, Object to Certification
* Senator Kerry, Do Not Certify The Electoral Vote
For more info on the issues, visit
Coalition Against Election Fraud or Contact: Sheila Parks, Tel. 617-524-2223; cell: 617-512-5529
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