Special Report: Terrorism and the election

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http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/071504Madsen/071504madsen.html

 

Special Report

 

Terrorism and the election: No postponement, just

bedlam at the polls and a low turnout on the West

Coast is Bush's plan for 'victory'

 

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By Wayne Madsen

Online Journal Contributing Writer

 

July 15, 2004—You have to give the right-wingers

credit. The fear tactics they learned from arch-Nazi

propagandist Joseph Goebbels remain at the front of

their political playbook. First, they put out the

notion that in the event of a terrorist attack around

the time of the November 2 election, a postponement of

the vote may be necessary. Second, they start talking

about the federal government's response to such a

scenario. It's the second item we must all be focused

upon.

 

The idea of terrorism affecting the election was first

proffered by the Reverend DeForest B. Soaries, Jr, the

Bush-appointed chairman of the U.S. Election

Assistance Commission. Soaries is a right-wing former

New Jersey Republican Secretary of State who has been

living under the small " fanatics only " revival tent of

the Christian fundamentalist crowd for some time.

Soaries's job is to ensure that there is no repeat of

the 2000 Florida fiasco. However, he and his friends

in the Bush administration (read that as Karl Rove and

Tom DeLay primarily) may have their eyes set on

causing a major West Coast electoral disruption in

2004 that will make Florida 2000 look like a minor

glitch by comparison.

 

As expected, suspecting a Bush conspiracy to cancel

the election and remain in power until a determination

would be made by Homeland Fuhrer Tom Ridge that an

election was safe, the moderate, liberal, progressive,

and libertarian communities cried foul. Postponing an

election without a constitutional amendment would be a

major breach of the Constitution (not that Bush has

ever worried about his constitutional oath) and that

would be impossible with only a little over three

months before Election Day. Those who respect our

Constitution pointed to the fact that President

Abraham Lincoln did not cancel the 1864 presidential

election during the Civil War—a war which saw this

nation more at danger than it is during the current

cable news bite-driven and somewhat sensationalist

" Global War on Terrorism. "

 

The right wing had a different take on the possibility

of an election postponement. Neo-fascist babble

mongers like Rush Limbaugh said, " No! " to a

postponement of the election. They argued that if a

terrorist alert or attack were to occur, the election

should go on and only those votes cast should be

counted. Bingo! The plan for a second Bush

administration became clear as day. And that plan's

target is California, with its whopping 54 electoral

votes, and possibly Washington State's 11 electoral

votes, at stake.

 

In 2000, Bush and the election fraud cabal that

included his brother, Florida Governor " Jebbie " Bush,

and Jebbie's old flame, Florida Secretary of State

(now Congresswoman) Katherine Harris and Fox News

election analyst John Ellis (Bush's first cousin),

engineered Bush's phony Florida " win " using a

combination of scrubbed electoral rolls that

disenfranchised almost 100,000 African-Americans,

confusing " butterfly ballots, " an early Fox projected

Bush " win " in the Sunshine State, and voter

intimidation at mainly rural polling places. As with

Osama bin Laden and his band of zealots, the Bush team

never uses the same tactic twice. Therefore, all eyes

should shift from Florida this Election Day, to

California, where one of Bush's new minions, the

Nazi-admiring Arnold Schwarzenegger, engineered a

gubernatorial coup d'état with the help of Enron's Ken

Lay and his Texas oil cronies, to seize control of the

governorship from the reelected Democrat Gray Davis.

 

Clues to Republican motives are found back during that

awful day in 2001. On September 11, the day of the

terrorist attacks, New Yorkers were heading to the

polls to vote in their mayoral primary. Under the

direction of the outgoing incumbent mayor, Rudolph

Giuliani, city election officials quickly postponed

the election. Giuliani, one who never misses an

opportunity to emulate the former Italian dictator

Benito Mussolini, toyed with the idea of amending New

York City's term limits law so that he could run for

mayor for a third consecutive term. Another Giuliani

plan would have postponed the primary and regular

mayoral election for one year, giving him at least one

more year in office with the possibility of a change

in the city law to allow him to run for a third term.

Another plan would have made Giuliani a write-in

candidate. Wary of Giuliani's various proposed

election contrivances and his intention to use the

attack on the World Trade Center for his own political

advantage, New York's City Council and the New York

State Legislature quickly put the kibosh to Giuliani

postponing the election indefinitely, extending his

term for one year, or amending the city's term limit

statute. The mayoral primary took place on September

25, two weeks after the terrorist attack, and the

general election occurred on schedule on November 6.

Michael Bloomberg was sworn in as the new mayor on

January 1, 2002.

 

After having Tom Ridge drop the media bomb that an

election cancellation was a possibility and then

having National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice

declare that no such plan existed, the cat was out of

the bag. No, do not expect an election cancellation

but be prepared for a terrorist " event " during the

election. That is what the Bush White House and their

media prostitutes are spinning.

 

Here's the scenario we must be all be prepared for:

 

If the pre-election internal tracking polls and public

opinion polls show the Kerry-Edwards ticket leading in

key battleground states, the Bush team will begin to

implement their plan to announce an imminent terrorist

alert for the West Coast for November 2, sometime

during the mid afternoon Pacific Standard Time. At

2:00 PST, the polls in Kentucky and Indiana will be

one hour from closing (5:00 PM EST–the polls close in

Indiana and Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST). Exit polls in

both states will be known to the Bush people by that

time and if Kentucky (not likely Indiana) looks too

close to call or leaning to Kerry-Edwards, the

California plan will be implemented. A Bush problem in

Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST would mean that problems could

be expected in neighboring states and that plans to

declare a state of emergency in California would begin

in earnest at 3:00 PM PST.

 

The U.S. Northern Command, which has military

jurisdiction over the United States, will, along with

the Department of Homeland Security and

Schwarzenegger's police and homeland security

officials in Sacramento, declare an " imminent "

terrorist threat–a RED ALERT—affecting California's

major urban areas.

 

Although the polls in California will not be closed as

a result of the declaration, the panic that sets in

and the early rush hour will clog major traffic

arteries and change the plans of many voters to cast

their ballots after work.

 

That terrorist emergency declaration could be made

around 5:00 PM PST and with only three hours left for

voting throughout the state, a number of working class

voters in urban centers will either be caught up in

California's infamous freeway traffic and be too late

to get to their polling places or be more concerned

about their families and avoid voting altogether.

 

Without a doubt, many Democratic voters might simply

opt to pick their kids up from day care centers or

relatives and then go home without voting. These would

tend to be the lower and middle income Californians

and the Democratic base. The affluent voters in

California who vote Republicans and can easily vote

early (and be late for work) or have the option of

leaving work at any time during the day to vote will

have likely already cast their ballots. Therefore, the

recipe of a White House-induced California terrorist

alert and a low Democratic turnout could toss 54

electoral votes into Bush's lap, especially if the

scare tactics affect the turnout in such urban and

typically pro-Democratic vote-rich areas as Los

Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento.

 

At 7:00 PM EST (4:00 PM PST), the polls will close in

Florida (except for the Panhandle in the Central Time

Zone), Georgia, New Hampshire, South Carolina,

Vermont, and Virginia. A half hour later, they close

in North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. If

Kerry-Edwards wins Florida and that is coupled with

similar pickups in Ohio, West Virginia and

too-close-to-call races in Virginia and maybe North

Carolina, the Bush team may seek to extend the terror

alert to other Western or even Midwestern states,

particularly Washington State (since Oregon votes by

mail, it would be largely immune from any polling

manipulation on Election Day). A terrorist alert for

the Seattle area after 5:00 PM PST would result in a

similar situation to that of California's, with the

exception that many potential voters could be trapped

on Seattle's commuter ferries. Washington's polls

close at 8:00 PM PST (11:PM EST). A low Democratic

turnout in the vote-rich Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area

could be offset by a large Republican turnout in

eastern Washington, thus possibly throwing the state's

11 electoral votes to Bush—a net pick up of 65

electoral votes from the West Coast, adding those

votes to California's. If Kerry picks up Ohio and some

border states, the Bush team will be looking for a

West Coast electoral offset and a terrorist alert

would be the key to replacing lost Bush electoral

votes in Ohio (21 votes), Florida (25), and West

Virginia (5), a total of 51 electoral votes for Kerry.

 

With the stage set for a terrorist alert on the West

Coast and with the polls closing at 8 PM EST (5:00 PM

PST and launch time for the terrorist alert) in

Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Illinois, Kansas,

Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi,

Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania,

Tennessee, and Texas, we might be looking at the

following electoral vote tally:

 

Kerry:

 

Florida (25); New Hampshire (4); Vermont (3); Ohio

(21); West Virginia (5); Connecticut (8); Delaware

(3); DC (3); Illinois (22); Maine (4); Maryland (10);

Massachusetts (12); Michigan (18); New Jersey (15);

Pennsylvania (23). Total: 176 (needed to win: 270).

 

Bush:

 

Indiana (12); Kentucky (8); Georgia (13); South

Carolina (8); Virginia (13); North Carolina (14);

Alabama (9); Kansas (6); Mississippi (7); Missouri

(11); Oklahoma (8); Tennessee (11); Texas (32). Total:

152 (needed to win: 270).

 

At 8:30 PM EST (and a half hour into the West Coast

terror alert), the polls close in Arkansas and its 6

electoral votes are added to Bush's column, giving him

158 to Kerry's 176.

 

At 9:00 PM EST, the polls close in Arizona, Colorado,

Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York,

North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wisconsin,

and Wyoming. With Kerry picking up Louisiana (9

votes), Minnesota (10), New Mexico (5), New York (33),

Rhode Island (4), and Wisconsin (11), his vote total

would stand at 248.

 

With Bush picking up Arizona (8), Colorado (8),

Nebraska (5), North Dakota (3), South Dakota (3), and

Wyoming (3), his vote count would stand at 188.

 

At 10:00 PM EST, the polls will close in mainly Bush

states. With Bush picking up Idaho (4 votes); Montana

(3); Nevada (4); and Utah (5) and with Kerry likely

grabbing Iowa (7), the vote count would stand at:

Kerry: 255 and Bush: 204.

 

With an hour to go before polls close on the West

Coast and the region enmeshed in a major terrorist

alert with cops and National Guardsmen now adding to

the mix and possibly closing roads and delaying

traffic to the polling places, Bush's team in

Washington and Sacramento would be poised to deliver

the death blow to Kerry-Edwards.

 

At 11:00 PM EST and 8:00 PM PST, the polls close in

California, Oregon, and Washington. The fix is in:

with California (the mother lode of 54 votes) and

Washington (11 votes) going to Bush and Oregon (7

votes) possibly going to Kerry, the vote count stands

at: Kerry: 262 and Bush: 269. Sometime in the wee

hours of the morning of November 3, Alaska (3 votes)

is declared for Bush and he is declared the winner

with 272 votes to Kerry's 266 (with Kerry's pickup of

Hawaii's 4 electoral votes). It's a down-to-the wire

race with Bush being declared a winner without a

Supreme Court fight but using his " homeland security "

powers to ensure his election and Alaska putting him

over the top.

 

That is what all this talk about a terrorist attack on

Election Day is about. It is to prime the population

and allow Bush surrogates at Fox News, CNN, and MS-NBC

to begin their perception management campaign that an

attack will occur around the election. But there will

be no postponement of the election or

cancellation—this is simply another plan to manipulate

the public through the use of phony threats and fear

tactics. The problem is that it just might work for

Bush and his cabal of " the ends justify the means "

manipulators.

 

This article is a wakeup call to all those who can try

to forestall such a series of events. California's

Democratic majority in the state legislature and its

Democratic Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General

must take steps now to ensure Schwarzenegger does not

conspire with his fellow Republicans in Washington to

do to California in 2004 what Jebbie Bush and his

people did to Florida in 2000. Similarly, Washington's

Democratic Governor Gary Locke and all the Democratic

officials, including the two Democratic U.S. Senators,

must take similar action to avoid a similar scenario

in their state.

 

Action needed now includes:

 

1.Informing all state election officials about such a

scenario and its potential impact on voter turnout.

 

2. Making contingency plans now to keep the polling

places open to ensure that people can vote later or

after any state of emergency is lifted.

 

3. Prevent the National Guard from being used to

facilitate such a state of emergency.

 

4. Close coordination by the Democratic Party, smaller

parties, and minority and labor rights organizations

to respond to such a scenario.

 

To paraphrase James Carville, " It's California and the

voter turnout, stupid! " Forget about canceling or

postponing the election. Keep your eye on a " Red

Terrorist Alert " on the West Coast for Election Day.

That doesn't take a constitutional amendment, merely

an okay from Bush and his homeland security team. They

must be stopped—the future of this nation is at stake!

 

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative

journalist and columnist. He served in the National

Security Agency (NSA) during the Reagan administration

and wrote the introduction to " Forbidden Truth. " He is

the co-author, with John Stanton, of " America's

Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II. " His

forthcoming book is titled: " Jaded Tasks: Big Oil,

Black Ops, and Brass Plates. " He can be reached at:

WMadsen777.

 

 

 

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