Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
If you’ve never heard of King Lincoln v. Blackwell, don’t be too surprised. Project Censored calls the outsourcing of the 2004 Presidential elections in Ohio “one of the most censored stories in the world.” Originally filed on August 31, 2006 in Ohio, King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell is an ongoing civil case to decide if the the Ohio Secretary of State at the time, Kenneth Blackwell, violated the Civil Rights Act (42 USC §§ 1983 and 1984) and the 1st, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution by conspiring to “deprive and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote and have, in fact, deprived and continue to deprive Ohioans of their right to vote by, in a selective and discriminatory manner, unfairly allocate election resources (such as voting machines), institute a system of provisional ballots, purge voter registrations, and broke the bi-partisan chain of custody ballots”. The vote at the heart of the issue is the 2004 Presidential election where, in defiance of exit poll data, there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.
New filings include a revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell died shortly after giving his deposition in a small plane crash that is described as “suspicious”*. In life, Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and their personal minister of propaganda, Karl Rove. Connell ran a private IT firm called GovTech that created the controversial electronic voting system that Ohio used during the election. GovTech’s system transferred Ohio’s vote count late on election night to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by a company called SmarTech. That is when the alleged vote shift happened that led to Bush’s unexpected victory.
The filing also contains a copy of the contract signed between Kenneth Blackwell and GovTech Solutions as well as a graphic architectural map of the Secretary of State’s election night server layout system. In a possible indication that the system was designed with fraud in mind, the contracts and maps had never been made public until this filing. The lead attorney on the case, Cliff Arnebeck, consulted with IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore about the network setup. Specifically, Arnebeck asked Spoonamore whether or not SmarTech had the ability to alter the results of the election. “Yes. They would have had data input capacities. The system might have been set up to log which source generated the data but probably did not,” Spoonamore responded, further explaining that SmarTech would have had “full access and could change things when and if they want.”
Spoonamore went on to conclude that “SmarTech was a man in the middle. In my opinion they were not designed as a mirror, they were designed specifically to be a man in the middle.” For those of you not computer savvy, a mirror site is like a back back-up. It works when the main computer system fails. In contrast, a “man in the middle” is a deliberate computer hacking setup (and a violation of U.S. wiretapping statutes) in which a third party sits in between computer transmissions where they can illegally alter or steal the data. In an even more revealing statement by Spoonamore during the course of the e-mails with Arnebeck, he claims that he confronted then-Secretary of State Blackwell at a secretary of state IT conference in Boston. Blackwell’s response? “Blackwell freaked and refused to speak to me when I confronted him about it long before I met you,” Spoonamore wrote to Arnebeck. In a previously submitted affidavit, Spoonamore testified, “The SmarTech system was set up precisely as a King Pin computer used in criminal acts against banking or credit card processes and had the needed level of access to both county tabulators and Secretary of State computers to allow whoever was running SmarTech computers to decide the output of the county tabulators under its control,” and that “…the architecture further confirms how this election was stolen.
Contrary to any contention that SmarTech’s servers operated simply as mirrors and that a system failure was behind the transfer of data to the Republican partisan firm, the late Michael Connell swore under oath that, “To the best of my knowledge, it was not a fail-over case scenario – or it was not a failover situation.” This is also confirmed by Bob Magnan, the state IT specialist for then Secretary of State Blackwell during the 2004 election. Magnan further claims that the control of the system was in the hands of private contractors at the time. Magnan was unexpectedly sent home at 9 p.m. on election night.
For those of you already suspect of electronic voting and the election of 2004, these new revelations are a smoking gun and a road map to how the election in Ohio was rigged in favor of George W. Bush. King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell may be a civil case, but this newly introduced evidence merits a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.
What do you think?
Source: TruthOut.org
* Commenter Otteray Scribe did the heavy lifting on locating more information about the crash, which as it turns out, is not very suspicious at all. His detailed and thorough post of the NTSB report is here. Thanks for the assist, Otteray Scribe!
~Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
The subversion of elections has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt in some Kentucky election cases involving judges and other officials.
Ironically, the federal government prosecutor advanced a criminal “conspiracy theory” in the indictments.
Conspiracy theories, they are not just for nuts any more.
They, the republicans, were desperate to regain control in ’10… lots to of stuff to cover up. Lots of eyes on them too.
funny about small plane crashes – Sen Carnahann, Sen. Wellstone, this guy. I’m not a believer in conspiracy theories but if I may quote Auric Goldfinger:”Once is accident, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action.”
@Howington
“The vote at the heart of the issue is the 2004 Presidential election where, in defiance of exit poll data, there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.”
Giggle. Now the vote tallies have to comport with exit poll sampling?
If republicans are going to commit voter fraud, they should just do it the old fashion way the way Democrats still do it in big cities.
Another great story Gene. Two in a row. You keep it up it might be time for your own blog.
kderosa,
“Now the vote tallies have to comport with exit poll sampling?”
That would be your improper inference. You seem to have a general problem with that process. Just like your improper inference that I’m a partisan. If you’re upset that your boys the Republicans got caught in this instance, I suggest you take it up with them. I’m for prosecuting criminals on a strictly non-partisan basis.
Sorry folks. As much as we might be suspicious, the crash occurred in bad weather with icing conditions. Collins apparently had a case of “get-home-itis,” which is an itch that has killed many pilots and their passengers over the years. Having accidentally flown into icing myself, it is one of the scariest things any aviator can experience. I have lost good friends to icing and in almost every case, they were simply too eager to get home.
This report is long (sorry ’bout that), but here is the full NTSB Narrative Report. It reads like a clinic on all the things a pilot should not do.
Gene – thats the problem. Clowns like kdreadful are only interested in furthering the interests of their masters. That means it OK if a Republican does it. Crimes can only be committed by Democrats just like terrorism can only be committed by Muslims, not by Christian white guys like Timmy McVey.
Normal people want all criminals prosecuted, paid trolls want to pretend their masters don’t commit crimes and when they get caught the other side does it.
Klownderosa, if this voter fraud is so wide spread how is it that there are not more prosecutions? Is every DA, every State AG, every investigator in on it?
@Geney
“Just like your improper inference that I’m a partisan.”
Giggle.
OS,
Thanks for the updated information! I was just out looking for information on the crash and you just saved me a ton of work. I’ll add a note to the story referencing this post.
You boys seem to have already ruled before the court has. That’s convenient. Will you cry that it is jury rigging if there is no liability found?
kderosa,
As usual, your statement is a distortion. Saying that new evidence in a civil case merits opening a criminal investigation is not the same thing as ruling before the court has on the civil matter. I’d ask if you realize that civil and criminal process are two distinct processes that are not predicated on the finding of the other, but clearly you don’t. You should ask OJ about this. Even he knows better.
You are welcome, Gene.
We have had a couple of crashes at our local regional airport due to similar icing conditions. One of them killed NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki. Ice and airplanes do not go well together.
Electoral shennanigans have been a hallmark GOPer electoral politics since shortly after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 with the result that the old slavers and segregationists of the Old South moved solidly into the GOP and brought their christianist allies with them to the Grand Old Party. I rememeber here in Orange County, California when the Prince of Orange hired armed guards to provide security at polling places here in OC that had heavy latino populations or at least latino names. None of these guards were dispatched to polling places like the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach or other majority anglo and GOP strongholds. Nothing much has changed over the decades since that shift occured. I suppose the inevitable questions needs to be asked: is liberty and democracy (or more correctly the march toward liberty and democracy for all) dead in this Nation. Are we being governed by fascist oligarchs? Is this Great Experiment over?
Voter suppression is another one of their tactics. Look at all the laws passed by the republican legislatures and signed by their governors in 2010. Voter suppression also happened in Ohio in 2004. Blackwell was gone by 2008.
Great story Gene! It is a scary thought that W. might have stolen two elections in a row.
rafflaw, I think he did steal two elections in a row. Now here comes Perry.http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/26/Perry-expected-to-join-2012-race-soon/UPI-52141311658682/?dailybrief
@GeneH/Buddha
“I’d ask if you realize that civil and criminal process are two distinct processes that are not predicated on the finding of the other, but clearly you don’t.”
Stop being such an idiot with your loaded statements.
They are at it again. Scott Walker has a new ploy to keep Democrats from voting. He just signed a new law making voter ID mandatory to prevent “voter fraud.” Then he shut down a number of DMV offices in mostly Democratic leaning districts, but increased the number of DMV employees in mostly Republican districts. Then look what happens when a mother and her son take a hidden camera into the DMV to get a voter ID. The boy is denied a card because his bank account is “not active enough.” Yes, you read that right. Rest of the story and video at the link below.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/26/998944/-VIDEO:-WI-DMV-Tells-Boy-His-Bank-Account-Doesn%E2%80%99t-Show-Enough-%E2%80%9CActivity%E2%80%9D-To-Get-a-Voter-ID?detail=hide
OS,
I saw that story and I just shook my head. The good news is that his Senators are running behind in the recall elections and I suspect that Gov. Walker will be taking a hike come January.
The right wing trolls here are conflating “election fraud” with “voter fraud” as usual.
Likewise having failed to educate themselves about the science of exit polling, they attack exit polling with the straw man question “official election results must match exit polls?”
These are sure signs of a neoCon agenda operative.
raff:
Walker is doing his damnedest to make sure that does not happen if he can keep supporters of his opponents from voting.
kderosa,
I didn’t ask you a question. I made a statement in the form of a rhetorical question. That the Juice knows more about procedure than you do is your cross to bear.
Otteray Scribe,
Thanx for that Kos link. What a perfect example Republican underhandedness.
@Gene/Buddha
See this is why you have made so many enemies with your dishonest shenanigans.
I said: “Stop being such an idiot with your loaded statements.”
Note the bolded part.
Here is your dishonest response:
“I didn’t ask you a question. I made a statement in the form of a rhetorical question.”
Huh???
Very typical of your history of changing your opponents’ premises and arguing against strawmen. It flows so naturally.
Then you added a gratuitous pesonal insult much like your old persona Buddha would. The mask continues to slip.
Gene H.,
kderosa: “See this is why you have made so many enemies with your dishonest shenanigans.”
Remember this: A man without enemies is a man without character.
Elaine,
Excellent comment. Is it yours?
“if the the Ohio Secretary of State at the time, Kenneth Blackwell, violated the Civil Rights Act (42 USC §§ 1983 and 1984) and the 1st, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution”
The 13th Amendment?
“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Seriously?
OS,
My father was a senior FAA Medical Examiner and a few of his patients (pilots) were witnesses to the TWA 800 disaster. I recall they didn’t accept the official explanation for the explosion.
I never found enough interest to follow up on their claims but I was wondering what you knew about that controversy.
@Elaine, no one is denying that he doesn’t have “character.”
Bob,
That’s what the complaint says.
kderosa,
OJ is on line one waiting to speak to you.
@GeneH/Buddha, I must admit to being bafled by your idiotic persistence in maintaining your position despite how foolish it makes you look.
Gene,
See paragraphs 47-48.
Like I said; seriously?
Bob, thanks for the question. My son is also a former FAA aviation medical examiner (he gave it up because got tired of dealing with the bureaucracy). We have discussed the case and both of us are inclined to believe that the center tank blew up. It had little or no fuel in it, but was full of a mix of highly explosive fuel vapor and air. It was an accident waiting for a place to happen. When evaluating a controversy, I tend to use Occam’s Razor as a yardstick. That is one of the most investigated accidents in history, and the investigation was done publicly. Lots of experts weighed in on the findings. I know a lot about perspective and visual illusions in poor light and at night, so the official findings ring true with me.
Bob,
I know, I know. I didn’t draft the thing.
kderosa,
I must admit to thinking that you’re quite used to being confused. I think that’s what OJ wants to talk to you about. That or he wants his memorabilia back.
If/when OHbama gets nervous that a Texan may bring “change some believe is a good idea” in 2012, then maybe there will be more efforts to
prevent voter/election fraud next year.
@Bob, Esq, you are raining on Gene’s parade, his entire argument is based on this nutty brief.
@GeneH/Buddha, Yes, your multiple personalities do tend to confuse the unwary.
kderosa,
Apparently you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a claim being upheld in part and denied in part too. Did your law school sell frozen steaks out of the back door in parking lots?
Bob’s not raining on my parade. I’m just reporting the news, not making it. As I said, I didn’t draft the brief. I happen to agree that a 13th Amendment argument is a stretch. That doesn’t mean the rest of the claim lacks validity.
All I;m saying geneH is that good lawyers know that it’s seldom best to bring every nutty claim they can dream up. Legal briefs are all about credibility. Sounds like plaintiff’s lawyer lacks such good judgment and credibility. And,apparently so do you.
OS,
I never had a problem with the official story. But I gotta tell you those pilots were incredibly adamant about what they saw.
Otteray Scribe,
Both NTSB and the FBI eventually agreed that the probable cause was a mechanical flaw that had indeed ignited the Boeing 747′s central fuel tank on Flight 800.
The operative word is … probable.
Bob Esq,
As were others who saw the same thing from an entirely different perspective.
A rigged elections….
Blouise, in the case of an official accident report, the word “probable” means “to a reasonable scientific certainty.” That is good enough for introduction of evidence in a criminal proceeding. Civil proceedings only require the lesser standard of “preponderance,” which means 51% percent or more. Reasonable scientific certainty generally refers to confidence at the .05 level on a two-tailed test.
No official report will EVER be to a 100% certainty, and no responsible researcher will go that far in rendering an opinion.
“good lawyers know that it’s seldom best to bring every nutty claim they can dream up. Legal briefs are all about credibility. Sounds like plaintiff’s lawyer lacks such good judgment and credibility.”
For what the complaint alleges, it’s incredibly thin. I”m wondering if anything was dismissed for failure to state a cause of action.
Otteray Scribe,
Exactly
The lack of verifiable voting results was ushered in with HAVA, the Help America Vote Act. An easily hackable, stackable and just plain faulty electronic voting has been the norm ever since. That we spent 8 years under the rule of a regime that was not elected comes as no surprise. That Wisconsin is now saddled with a Supreme Court Judge that was not elected is just one of many elections stolen with the help of the HAVA. The Congress needs to get rid of HAVA. If Obama hadn’t won with such a wide margin in 2008 that the numbers couldn’t be fiddled we would have John McCain as president today IMO. HAVA needs to go.
And everybody needs to periodically visit The Brad Blog for voting and election news:
http://www.bradblog.com/
Lottakatz,
Noted, but I regularly do as you referenced that site a while ago.
SB5 and the teabaggers anti-healthcare issue are both going to be on the November ballot here in Ohio. It’s going to be one hell of an election … and a lot of fun.
The teabaggers are hoping that their anti healthcare issue will allow Ohio to opt out of providing healthcare to all but most legal experts have said the amendment would not override Ohioans’ responsibility to comply with federal law.
It really is going to be a hell of a good time.
Blouise and Elaine,
That is a great website.
rafflaw,
“Excellent comment. Is it yours?”
It is now! Possession in nine-tenths of the law, doncha know?
rafflaw 1, July 26, 2011 at 12:23 pm
I suspect that Gov. Walker will be taking a hike come January.
Raff,
You mean like on the on the Appalachian Trail,
with Mark Sanford????
rafflaw,
“That is a great website.”
What website are you talking about?
Elaine,
I think he meant to address that to lotta
kderosa,
Are you saying that Cliff Arnebeck lacks good judgment and credibility?
Bob, I know exactly what kinds of things the pilots you refer to may think they saw. The problem is at night, there is no depth perception, lights that look as if they are moving may be stationary and lights that are stationary may look as if they are moving. Things going up may look as if they are descending and vice versa. Night plays far more tricks on the eyes than daylight.
I once flew along for fifteen minutes keeping an eye on the landing light of an aircraft that appeared to be on a collision course with me. I was getting quite anxious about it, since I could not get a good fix on our rate of closure. Then I realized I was looking at Venus.
Is that what I said, GeneH, or are you making things up again?
kderosa,
You said referring to King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell: “Sounds like plaintiff’s lawyer lacks such good judgment and credibility.” at 3:20 PM. http://jonathanturley.org/2011/07/26/dead-men-do-tell-tales-of-rigged-elections/#comment-252520
Being that plaintiff’s counsel is named Cliff Arnebeck, that exactly what you said and any reasonable person would interpret your statement as saying such.
You also said that in a forum frequented by members of the legal community and having an international audience I might add.
Then I guess I did then.
Gene H – Before you conclude that the crash was “not very suspicious at all”, (which it may or may not be), as based solely on the NTSB report, I would point you to British journalist Simon Worrall’s investigative report in Maxim: http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/86265/mysterious-death-bushs-cyber-guru.html, the newest points about which I highlight (and link to) in my advance preview of the article with background context, right here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7652
FWIW, I was awarded a Project Censored award for my coverage of the Connell case, which I had been on long before (and long after) his sudden and disturbing death. So if I can help with anything here, please feel free to give me a shout. And thanks otherwise for picking up the story and sharing it with Turley readers!
We have important guests with us tonight. Thanks for stopping by Mr. Friedman.
OS,
I think you need to lay off the Mad Dog when you are flying at night!
Based on what Otteray Scribe has presented, I’d say Connell’s death must still be regarded as suspicious – though suicide is more plausible than homicide, and accident due to icing does seem the most likely explanation. If I were investigating this case, I’d want to know if Connell was the kind of man who’d risk flying in bad weather. If not, then why did he? Suicide under circumstances that indicate accidental death is a way to make sure insurance benefits get paid to survivors. It also protects those survivors from the emotional damage associated with suicide, and leaves the deceased’s good name unstained.
If suicide, then why? Absent depression one must look for evidence that the deceased was being pressured and concluded he had no better way out. Here one enters the realm of shadowy conspiracy theories, and one must demand convincing proof before entering that thicket. But Connell was apparently a man who knew too much, and perhaps was threatened: silence yourself, or – your family is left penniless; or they die too. In any case the untimely death of a witness must always raise the question, cui bono? (who benefits?) and suspicion must be cast in that direction until evidence rules it out.
Otteray Scribe 1, July 26, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I once flew along for fifteen minutes keeping an eye on the landing light of an aircraft that appeared to be on a collision course with me.
OS,
Like they say, as long as it doesn’t get any bigger, it won’t hit ya.
That goes for daylight too.
Isn’t it phenomenal how your eyes (and my ears — engine sounds) can
play havoc with you at night?
Bruce, the chances of suicide are very low. I do a kind of profiling called “psychological autopsy” and none of the key indicators are present. I would have to be shown a lot more evidence than has emerged so far to be convinced. Also, keep in mind that the NTSB crash investigators are pros and would have taken those indicators into consideration.
Collins flew into known icing, with pilots making that approach ahead of him reporting icing. He was way off the glide slope, which is not a good sign. That indicates some lack of skill, since he was making a precision instrument approach and should not have been drifting off the glide slope that far. He did not get the full briefing when he called for a wx briefing. If a pilot is going to fly into bad weather, you want the full meal deal. The radio transmissions are consistent with a guy who is pressing on despite the whole situation deteriorating and finally when the ice load got too bad, the plane ‘departed;’ that is, stalled and went in. The last words recorded by ATC in such cases are typically consistent with the last words from Collins–something you cannot print in a family newspaper.
I think the conspiracy theorists are straining at gnats. In the case of a crash like this, the first thing law enforcement and investigators do is secure the scene and remove the wreckage to a hangar as soon as possible. As soon as the body or bodies are removed, get the thing on a flatbed truck and into a secure hangar before looters have a chance of stealing something potentially important. As I said earlier, this whole situation reads like a clinic on what not to do.
Bud, when flying over a trackless swamp filled with alligators, especially at night, the engine goes to automatic rough.
OS,
exactly.
Brad Friedman,
You’re welcome and thank you for the links. I always find deviations from investigative procedures . . . interesting. Great job over there at BradBlog. Keep up the good work. As this story evolves, I’ll keep an eye open for opportunities to cooperate on it.
“It’s not who votes that counts. It’s who counts the votes.” – Stalin
The discussion of the plane crash is useful to a degree, but this case (potential large-scale vote rigging/alterations) really hinges on IT Security issues, and that aspect isn’t being discussed here,
For anyone who’s interested, the phrase “man in the middle” is an important phrase in IT security. If you’re interested a search for “man in the middle attack” will turn up good explanations like the one on Wikipedia.
I’m no IT security expert, but passing the data through a third party (Smar-Tech) seems pretty strange at best. Even if no data was altered, if Smar-Tech isn’t certified in some way, it would be a serious problem to transfer data to them.
Thanks for the visit and link Brad! FWIW, you should also receive an award for the sustained, in-depth coverage of the Chamber of Commerce plan to target, for disinformation and dirty tricks, influential bloggers, other journalists and public figures. That you were on their list (as was Velvet Revolution, a voting rights coalition you helped found) is a badge of honor worthy of being considered an award in and of itself.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8351
The problem with calling the death of someone like Mr. Collins an accident is that it fails to factor in a couple of principles that we are not used to discussing (or acknowledging) in a way that gives them the weight they should have. Those principles are that we have a government(s) that kills people surreptitiously and that the political value of murdering someone goes up commensurate with that persons ability to threaten the government or IMO, private interests.
Mr. Collins was in a position to reveal who the players were in a machine designed to rig an election, how the machine worked, how to determine if it was used and he probably had first hand knowledge of it being used. Mr. Collins could have brought down the Presidency and the political allies that planned and implemented it being a rigged election.
IMO the possibility of it actually being an accident would have been akin to the Bush Administration winning the lottery, the triple crown and the Irish sweepstakes on the same day. Mr. Collins was a high value target.
Likewise the death by suicide of Dr. David Kelly, the leaker that told the BBC that the Blair government “sexed up” WMD reports regarding Iraq. In that regard one needs look no further than our own Vice President and his cronies to see what a valuable lie WMD’s in Iraq was and the lengths a government would go to to protect them. Joe Wilson is lucky to be alive IMO. The British are more quick to demand resignations of Prime Ministers than we are to make the same demands of our Presidents. Kelly was a higher value target than Wilson was on those grounds. I have read more that one place that a friend of Dr. Kelly stated that Kelly said that if he turned up dead it would be a murder, not suicide or an accident.
The entire inquiry into the anthrax attacks essentially died with Dr. Bruce Ivins ‘suicide’. That he was named as the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks was controversial from the very beginning and the more reporting done about the FBI’s proof that was disclosed the shakier the case against him became. Between 911 and the anthrax attacks the Constitution has been destroyed and the power of the government has become virtually absolute under the banner of national security. Ivins was a case that needed to be closed as quickly as possible with no real examination of the government’s case (in court) taking place.
The consolidation of a revolution wherein power migrated from the citizen to the government and business took place on the foundation of responding to 911 and the anthrax attacks. That is high value gain and if Ivins death put an end to questions about the anthrax attacks then the cost was miniscule in comparison.
I also put the DC Madame in the high value category. She was another person that told a friend that suicide was not her style but ended up dead of suicide. She probably couldn’t have brought down the government but she probably could have ended the career of a lot of politicians and prominent insiders and businessmen. There could have been a dramatic reordering of the status quo if she talked. Again, high gain for little risk.
Governments and powerful people have been killing whistleblowers for centuries, why would one think it suddenly stopped being a tool in the later half of the 20th century?
FRIDAY, AUG 1, 2008
Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News
BY GLENN GREENWALD
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html
A good examination of the evidence against Ivins in the Free Republic. I saw these arguments in various places but this article does a good job of pulling them all together, whatever one may think about Free Republic. Remove spaces:
www. freerepublic . com/focus/f-news/2071633/posts
Dr David Kelly
“The official story of Dr David Kelly is that he took his own life in an Oxfordshire wood by overdosing on painkillers and cutting his left wrist with a pruning knife.
He was said to be devastated after being unmasked as the source of the BBC’s claim that the Government had ‘sexed up’ the case for war in Iraq.
A subsequent official inquiry led by Lord Hutton into the circumstances leading to the death came to the unequivocal conclusion that Kelly committed suicide.”
http://levantnotes.blogspot.com/2010/07/david-christopher-kelly-cmg-14-may.html
lottakatz,
Your comments made me think of William Colby’s death…
http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/colby.htm
WHO MURDERED THE CIA CHIEF?
William E. Colby: A Highly Suspicious Death
By Zalin Grant
This was Saturday, April 27, 1996. William Colby, a former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, was alone at his weekend house across from Cobb Island, Maryland, 60 miles south of Washington, D.C. Colby, who was 76 years old, had worked all day on his sailboat at a nearby marina, putting it in shape for the coming summer.
After he got home from the marina, Colby called his wife, Sally Shelton, a high-ranking State Department official who was in Houston, Texas, visiting her mother. He told her that he had worked hard all day and was tired. He said he was going to steam some clams, take a shower, and go to bed.
Colby made the call at 7 p.m. He was seen a few minutes later by two sets of witnesses in his yard watering a willow tree. One of the witnesses was his gardener who dropped by to introduce his visiting sister. His two next-door neighbors saw him at the same time from their window. After he finished watering his trees, he went inside and had dinner.
The witnesses saw him at 7:15 p.m. The sun set at 7:57—42 minutes later.
When he was found dead in the water nine days later, it was said that he had gone out paddling his canoe at nightfall and drowned. I was in Paris when I read the story in the International Herald Tribune. I knew William Colby. And I didn’t believe that for one second. (end excerpt)
“Conspiracy theories, they are not just for nuts any more.” -Dredd
Well said, Dredd.
anon nurse, William Colby’s death was a mystery to me. I thought upon hearing of it that I couldn’t think of anything that was going on at the time that he could illuminate that would be threatening. Our involvement in encouraging the overthrow of the Soviet Union was ongoing, no secrets there. Likewise, what he knew about Vietnam and the torture/murder program we had going on there via the CIA (on his watch) was old news. I didn’t really know that he had written a book; maybe he was planing another?
It’s a fascinating article by Mr. Grant. That tow rope (and sand) is certainly suspicious, no?
To quote Richard Feynman:
“I have approximate answers and possible beliefs in different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything…”
Here are both of the NTSB links on the Michael Connell crash. (The information from the second link was supplied by Otteray Scribe earlier in this thread.):
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20081223X12815&key=1
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20081223X12815&ntsbno=CEN09FA099&akey=1
From the first NTSB link (and referring to Michael Connell, the pilot):
The pilot reported a total flight time of 510 hours on his October 2007 FAA medical application, of which 50 hours were accumulated in the past 6 months. The pilot’s total and recent instrument flight experience could not be determined. The pilot had a history of seasonal allergies, treated with prescription medication that was reported to the FAA. While an over-the-counter sedating antihistamine was found in the pilot’s blood during postaccident toxicology testing, the investigation was unable to determine if the pilot was adversely affected by impairment.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
The pilot’s inappropriate control inputs as a result of spatial disorientation, which led to an aerodynamic stall and loss of control. Contributing to the accident were the pilot’s decision to conduct flight into known icing conditions, ice accumulation that reduced the airplane’s aerodynamic performance, and the pilot’s failure to initially intercept and establish the airplane on the proper approach course. (end of excerpt)
Statistical Evidence that the 2004 Election was Stolen
http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/2004-election-fraud-analysis-confirmation-of-a-kerry-landslide/
Election Fraud Analysis: Confirmation of a Kerry Landslide
Richard Charnin (TruthIsAll)
http://richardcharnin.com/FurtherConfirmationOfaKerryLandslide
Introduction: To Believe Bush Won…
1. When Decided
2. Bush Approval Ratings
3. The Final 5 Million Recorded Votes
4. The Final Exit Poll: Forced to Match the Vote
5. Within Precinct Discrepancy
6. New Voters
7. Party ID
8. Gender
9. Implausible Gore Voter Defection
10. Voter Turnout
11. Urban Legend
12. Location Size
13. Sensitivity Analysis
14. Did Kerry Win 360 EV?
15. Election Simulation Analysis
16. Exit Poll Response Optimization
17. Florida
18. Ohio
19. New York
Appendix
A. Election Model: Nov.1 Projection
B. Interactive Monte Carlo Simulation: Pre-election and Exit Polls
C. 1988-2004 Election Calculator: The True Vote
D. The 2000-2004 County Vote Database
E. Statistics and Probability: Mathematics of Polling
(Edit)
I had said this nearly 4 years ago….See what has happened in KY and rigged elections for the GOP….
Just an afterthought. On Democracy Now, he was described as “an experienced pilot.” IMHO, 510 hours total flight time does not qualify you as an “experienced pilot,” especially not for the purposes of flying into instrument conditions with reported known icing.
If he were truly an experienced pilot, in the common usage the term implies, he would have gotten the full pilot briefing before departing, rather than an abbreviated briefing. His airplane had no de-icing equipment at all, yet he took off into conditions where icing had been reported by other pilots. When he got to his destination, he failed to intercept the glide slope properly and was a mile and a half off-course on a precision approach. IMHO, no “experienced pilot” would have made those major errors of judgement and skill.
A lot of people think that ice brings an airplane down because of weight. It does not. Ice can build up amazingly fast on the leading edges of the wings and tail. That thin layer of ice changes the shape of the flying surfaces so the air does not flow smoothly and generate lift. An airplane that normally stalls at 55 or 60 miles per hour may suddenly have a stall speed in excess of a hundred miles per hour. It may take full power just to maintain level flight. When the airplane can no longer maintain flight, the wing will stall; that is, quit flying.
Single pilot IFR is demanding even under optimum conditions. It can give a whole new meaning to the term, “multi-tasking.” When the normal heavy workload of IFR is combined with trying to get the plane back on the glide slope, combined with icing, he experienced spatial disorientation. As the report says, the control inputs were incorrect for continued level flight. That is what appears to have happened to Collins.
As for the investigation, the crash was just a happy accident as far as those who allegedly stole the election were concerned. I am sure there were a number of dirty tricks operatives who breathed a sigh of relief when Collins died.
Here is a demonstration of some new training equipment that can simulate icing. There are a couple of very short commercial ads inserted in the middle, but just go past them to continue the demonstration. The view out the “windshield” is what the approach might look like in clear weather, but the computer is configured to simulate icing. This is approximately what Mr. Collins was facing on that approach to the airport, but he was in the soup and there was no visibility outside the cockpit. He was relying on instruments. One other thing ice does. It can cover the pitot tube and static openings, which means that he could have lost his airspeed indicator and other vacuum operated instruments at just the wrong time.
OS,
Two interesting points.
1. The NTSB narrative does not indicate whether he had an operational autopilot. It is always useful flying single pilot IFR.
2. I think you’ll agree that almost all accidents occur after a series of mistakes and very rarely occur because of one single situation.
Bud, yes on both counts. One would think he had at least a wing leveler, but if he lost his pitot and static ports, the autopilot would be useful only as a door stop. Also, as the second video illustrated, ice loading could overpower even an operational autopilot. Note in the second video, the pilot ran out of trim and was having to muscle the controls.
The issue of his “experience level” level aside, the bottom line is that we’ll probably never know the answer, IMHO. Clearly, the “icing conditions” can’t be ignored and, as has been repeated in this thread, are the “probable cause.” Having said this, the NTSB report clearly states:
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
“The pilot’s inappropriate control inputs as a result of spatial disorientation, which led to an aerodynamic stall and loss of control. Contributing to the accident were the pilot’s decision to conduct flight into known icing conditions, ice accumulation that reduced the airplane’s aerodynamic performance, and the pilot’s failure to initially intercept and establish the airplane on the proper approach course. (end of excerpt)”
So the NTSB”s conclusion is that the icing conditions contributed to the accident…. Who in the hell really knows what happened, but it’s essential to, at least, consider “the totality of the circumstances.”
A couple of years ago, I saw a story about prior issues with his plane.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Killed_GOP_pilot_suspected_plane_had_1222.html
GOP consultant killed in plane crash was warned of sabotage: report
John Byrne, David Edwards and Stephen Webster
Published: Monday December 22, 2008
Excerpt:
Without getting into specific details, 19 Action News reporter Blake Renault reported Sunday evening that 45-year-old Republican operative and experienced pilot had been warned not to fly his plane in the days before the crash.
“Connell…was apparently told by a close friend not to fly his plane because his plane might be sabotaged,” Renault said. “And twice in the last two months Connell, who is an experienced pilot, cancelled two flights because of suspicious problems with his plane.” (end excerpt)
To echo Dredd again, “Conspiracy theories, they are not just for nuts any more.”
Gene H., Another excellent posting.
OS,
Excellent vids.
It’s a shame he didn’t have ice protection.
Bud, yes it is too bad. I had de-icing boots on the propellers of my twin, but that was all, aside from a heated pitot tube. As you know, very few general aviation planes have de-icing equipment. The best de-icing equipment is located between the pilot’s ears. In case of known icing: STAY PUT UNTIL THE WX IMPROVES!!
OS,
What is meant when you say “ran out of trim”?
Os,
The best de-icing equipment is located between the pilot’s ears.
LOL…. Ain’t it the truth…
That’s interesting. Are you talking hot props or alcohol?
I won’t come within a country mile and a half of ice my friend..
Hate it like thunderstorms.
“The pilot’s inappropriate control inputs as a result of spatial disorientation,..”
—–What does that mean in terms of the physical interaction between pilot and plane? are there switches to be toggled or what. I’m interested in the mechanics of the errors. Can icing cause a situation where the correct moves were being made but incorrect readings were being received on the pilots control panel or vice versa?
Lottakatz,
Re: “I didn’t really know that he had written a book; maybe he was planing another?” (in reference to Colby)
Maybe. I wish we knew… I do know that some in our government are participating in some pretty wicked stuff… and there are plenty of secrets that people won’t tell… because they’re well paid to keep them… and they see what happens to people who dare to tell the truth.
Re: “It’s a fascinating article by Mr. Grant. That tow rope (and sand) is certainly suspicious, no?”
I agree. On both counts. I found the following to be interesting:
“In fact, Sally Shelton had absolutely no problem identifying Colby. But the medical examiner’s office demanded dental records as a matter of required procedure. She phoned CIA four times and asked for his dental records. They ignored her calls. When the CIA director phoned to offer his condolences, he asked if there was anything he could do for her.
“Yes, get your guys to answer my calls,” she said. She was still steamed about this when I talked to her. Both the CIA and FBI ignored Colby’s death and let a county sheriff’s office run the investigation.”
Bud, those were heated boots on the props. I am convinced they degraded the performance of the propellers, but would rather have them than not.
*************************************************
Lottakatz: Spatial disorientation means that the pilot may not be able to tell which way is up. It is sort of like vertigo, but without the dizziness. You may be flying straight and level, but be convinced you are turning, diving or climbing. Then when you try to correct for what you THINK you are experiencing, you get the aircraft all out of shape.
When a pilot who is not current on instruments or is not instrument qualified gets into instrument conditions, the pilot has about 180 seconds to live once spatial disorientation sets in. This instructional video illustrates the kinds of spatial disorientation to which I was referring. This is a chilling video, and all too factual.
OS,
I have honestly never heard of a boot on a prop..
Sorry. Boots on the wing yes, boots on the tail.
but, not a prop. Every time you expand it, your
airspeed is going to drop by 10 or so knots I would
guess depending on what kind of aircraft it is.
Bud, those were electrically heated, not pneumatic. I am not even sure you could install pneumatics on a prop.
There is a photo in the linked article. I had a pair of ammeters on the panel to show current when the heat was turned on.
OOPS, forgot the link. Here is is.
http://www.flightlearnings.com/anti-ice-and-deice-systems-part-two/836/
OS,
That makes sense. They were electric heated props.
If I am not mistaken the old Beech – 18 and DC-3′s
used alcohol on the props and windows.
I remember as a kid hearing the ice smashing on the side of
a DC-3. It sounded like the plane was coming apart. LOL
Otteray Scribe:
Your defense of the official story is admirable. But the story is not about ICE. It’s about Election Fraud. You could have just linked to your source and spared us the bandwidth. If your goal was to misdirect away from the real story, you succeeded. But surely that was not your intent, yes? This story won’t go away.
Richard Charnin:
I am not a conspiracy theorist and I think all the wild-assed theories in the world will not make facts go away. A low time pilot with questionable instrument experience decides to get an abbreviated weather briefing, then take off into IMC with known icing conditions. He was off the glide slope by a mile and a half on a precision approach. Missing a glide slope by that much tells the experienced pilot he was disoriented and was going to have to make a missed approach and go around. Missing the approach by that much will get you failed on the flight test for an instrument rating. He was in icing conditions with failing aircraft performance, not to mention being in a situation above his skill level. He died as a result.
Collins died from a combination of errors in judgement on his part. I have been flying airplanes since I took my first lesson in 1950. I have several ratings, including multi-engine and instrument. I looked at the weather for that night and even with my experience, I would NEVER have taken off to make that flight, not even in the twin-engine airplane I used to own. And that airplane had deicing boots on the propellers and an autopilot.
I agree there was election fraud, but it is chasing shadows to blame Collins’ crash on anyone but him. As I said above, I suspect there were many who breathed a great sigh of relief when the news of his death was announced. Spend the energy, time and money on catching the bad guys rather than imagining something that did not happen.
Explanation: IMC = Instrument Meteorological Conditions
Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) apply for intentional flight into IMC.
OS,
Your response to Richard Charnin is based on facts, logic, and extensive
experience.
I wish I could relate the facts as directly and fairly as you have.
It is truly a pleasure to read to writings.
Bud, thank you for the kind words.
Do you realize that as far off the glide slope he had gotten, he would have missed, not only the runway, but the entire airport?
OS,
I still have to go with the crash itself wasn’t very suspect. The way they handled the investigation was though. It’s almost as if they were looking for something he had with him more than they were attempting to cover evidence of any messing with the plane.
OS,
He just about missed the state.
Remember we spoke of the ice on the pitot tube and static source earlier???
Is it possible that the ice had played a greater role in giving him false readings for heading and VSI, and altitude. Even before he may have known or detected it?
I mean it’s wild that ATC had to tell him that he was that far from the localizer… The ILS would indicate how far off he was, but for some reason he either didn’t believe it or maybe trust it?
Gene, I cannot quibble with that. However, in a high profile crash, investigators try to get the remains of the aircraft removed to a secure hangar as soon as bodies are removed and all the photos and measurements taken. There is always the problem of looters in any crash, not to mention further damage by wind and the elements. The weather was awful, so I do not see it as unusual the plane was put on a truck and hauled off to a secure hangar fairly quickly.
You can bet his personal effects were scoured thoroughly. If he had any USB drives or diskettes on him, they probably sprouted legs. The NTSB guys probably do not care about stuff like that. They would have been looking for logbooks, medicine bottles, and medical certificates in his personal effects.
Bud, he was a low time pilot. It is not clear from the report if he was even current on instruments. It is damn hard to hit the localizer on the button when you are in ordinary IFR, let alone in some serious shit with probable icing problems.
Based on my own experience way back when I was still in a learning mode, I suspect he just got behind the airplane. It was way further down the glide path than his eyes and mind were telling him. The work load must have been overwhelming at that point, especially if he was down to partial panel. That can sneak up on even an experienced pilot. It takes a ton of practice on the simulator to even recognize when you have lost vacuum, especially if you forget to include the vacuum gauge in your scan. Loss of vacuum or pitot pressure is insidious and easy to misread.
Gene H,
The accident investigation leaves some unsettled thoughts with me as well.
I can not say specifically that any of the investigation team did anything
incorrect or inappropriate, but, the witness that saw the aircraft crash did not report any freezing precipitation at the time of the crash. The tower said they did not have any reports of freezing precipitation in the area at the time that N9299N initially contacted them. The Tower at that time would have told N9299N that they were experiencing freezing precip or they physically looked out the window and saw it (in other words too new to be in the latest report from the Met office).
1. That does not mean that there was no freezing precip. But, if there was no one reported it.
2. It also doesn’t mean there wasn’t any freezing precip where the aircraft actually was slightly prior to the crash.
OS,
That is where my thinking was heading..
If for some reason he was down to a partial panel… WOWWW
You gotta pretty sharp and fast.
That is a great point about the vacuum gauge. I honestly hardly ever
look at it. (except at run up). Even if he was scanning with the size of vacuum gauge and everything else that was going on he might not or probably would not have a noticed an abnormality, and (I am guessing) was getting all kinds of wrong indications.
I hate to second guess a professional accident investigation but I have a million questions, thoughts and ideas.
Temperature drops 3.75 degrees Fahrenheit for every thousand feet up. There does not have to be freezing precipitation, and quite often there is not. Water can stay in liquid form below 32 degrees Fahrenheit if in cloud or fog form, but the instant it is disturbed, it turns to solid form and sticks to whatever disturbs it. It is common to have a layer of icing, with a warmer layer both below and above it. That is why pilots are told to climb when ice is first encountered in order to get above the freezing layer.
Frozen precipitation in the form of snow or sleet tends to NOT stick to airplanes because it is already in solid form and cannot stick.
OS,
See that’s the difference between you and I.
You got a lot more experience…
The timing of the crash was very interesting and I agree with Gene that the investigation seemed a little weird, but I am no expert when it comes to crashes and investigations. OS, you have that field sewed up. Well done.
The problem with this report is the source, which cannot be trusted. I have no doubt there is voter fraud occurring, as well all do, but when a story comes from a biased left-wing source, one must ignore it and move on, and truthout.org has proven themselves to be a biased left-wing site.
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2596.html
now that’s funny
The problem with this report is the source is a filing made in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division.
Oh, wait. That’s not a problem at all. That’s a public record.
@GeneH, filing a report from an untrustworthy source in a U.S. District Court doesn’t convert it into a trustworthy source. Also, the fact that it is a public record doesn’t change anything either.
The real objection is that an untrustworthy source is really an ad hominem, alogical fallacy. Why don’t you make that objection or are you too concerned you’d lose that arrow in your rhetorical quiver, since you shoot it so often.
Rafflaw asks:
**********************************
The trim tab is a small secondary control mounted on the trailing edge of control surfaces. In small airplanes, usually the only moveable trim tab is on the elevator/ The elevator is the control on the horizontal tail that makes the nose move up and down. The purpose is to relieve stick pressure as the weight and balance of the plane changes. Properly trimmed, a plane can be flown straight and level hands off. The tab can only be moved a few degrees up and down, so if the loads are too great, it is said you have run out of trim. The most I ever ran into was about a hundred pounds of pressure on the control yoke with the trim control against the stop. I had to ask the pilot in the right seat to grab the controls to help me with the tremendous stick load until we could get it back on the ground.
A humorous instructional video from the UK:
This is undoubtedly way more than you wanted to know, but is the shortest explanation I could come up with.
kderosa,
I’ll speak for myself.
The source of the story are the pleadings.
The article isn’t about the plaintiffs credibility. They had standing and their credibility isn’t at issue, only their ability to meet the burden of proof to back their claim. The article is about the evidence being introduced to the trial. The trial is a matter of public record.
If you, like camelriders, want to try to distract from that evidence by attacking the news outlet or, as in your case, directly attacking the plaintiffs and their counsel, that only speaks your desire to distract people from considering the evidence.
Which of course raises the question of why you, allegedly an office of the courts, would want to keep evidence from being considered?
It couldn’t possibly be a political or paid political stance.
@GeneH
Another strawman argument.
Camelriders brought up the credibility issue.
You attempted to sanctify the credbility/trustworthiness of the plaintiff by arguing that filing the report as a court pleading and that it was a public record.
I pointed out that neither filing the report as a court pleading nor that it was a public record affects the credibility/trustworthiness of the source.
I am not arguing that the source is not credible/trustworthy, camelrider is. In fact, as I pointed out, the credibility/trustworthiness of the source is irrelevant. (Thought making a 13th amendment claim was foolish and will impact the perception of credibility of plaintiff and plaintiff’s counsel.) What am merely arguing is that your reasons for justifying the credbility/trustworthiness of the source are improper and insufficient.
The rest of your comment is merely conspiracy theory nonsense which you commonly employ as a thinly veiled ad hominem. You should instead focus on strenthening the merits of your argument instead of pursuing such unfruitful and childish tactics.
Rollover.
Good dog.
Thanks for that concession, Buddha/Gene
Maybe your next argument will be more defensible and you’ll be able to see it through to the end without having to make the mebarrassing concession you just made.
Good luck with that.
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