(US) 5/06 - Defense Contractors, Jim ...

Author Message   Mike Copass Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Votes_with_paper Post Number: 36 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2006 - 4:05 pm:        "More troubling, the backers of the act and the manufactures of e-voting machines are a rat's nest of conflicts ..... Why are major defense contractors like Northrop-Grumman and Lockheed-Martin mucking about in the American electoral system?" http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Election_Reform/Voting_Machines_Wild.html As Ms Beverly Harris reported in her work "Black Box Voting," there is involvement from major US defense contractors in, of all things, voting technology, both in terms of design, testing, lobbying, law, and more. Officers, board members, and personal connections intertwine both defense sectors and voting reform areas. Some of the names you might recognize are Lockheed Martin, CSC-DynCorp, SAIC, Titan, more. What on earth are they doing there? Helping us? What are all the many areas that these companies are involved in -- take SAIC for example: http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=51 As Lyn Landes uncovered, SAIC is connected to voting, to Robert Gates, Bill Owens, Carlucci, Carlyle group... http://www.opednews.com/landes_voting_machine_fiasco.htm Consider the connections with James Baker, of Baker-Botts. Points if you can name 4 things Baker has done related to voting. http://www.hereinreality.com/baker.html Clearly, since Jan 2001, and particularly since September 11, 2001 -- many of these companies have gained literally BILLIONS of dollars in contracts. Clearly, war and defense is big business. The biggest government expenditure. And who controls going to war and defense-related spending, all those million and billion dollar contracts? Why, Congress, and the executive branch -- who we place in office through voting. Are we naive enough to think that business people atop the defense sector would leave something as business-critical as public elections to CHANCE - to the whim of the citizenry? It's heartbreaking to consider, and surely many will respond with denial, but I begin to wonder sometimes if the Rise of the Voting Machines and our current state of Endless War is not a pure coincidence. Need more evidence? Investigate the players and follow the money. Check the stock charts. Balance sheets. Insider trades. Moves between boards, public to private sector, among these firms and the Pentagon, and even into voting arenas. You can learn a lot by asking "who benefits" --- at one small level, it's the Diebolds, ES&S, sure. At another level, there are billions upon billions of dollars being made. Certainly an angle worth investigating. (Message edited by votes_with_paper on May 18, 2006) (Message edited by votes_with_paper on May 18, 2006)   Catherine Ansbro Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Catherine_a Post Number: 2486 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2006 - 10:59 pm:        Thanks for the link to this background article from Jan. 2004. Does anyone know whatever happened to its author (Mark Lewellen-Biddle)? I wonder what he'd have to say now.

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