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Does your vote count? 
In interview, programmer details what led him to file vote-rigging affidavit by John Byrne
It has been a long day for Clinton Curtis.
Curtis, who signed an affidavit which has been delivered to the House Judiciary Committee, has accused Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) of requesting the development of software which would allow vote totals to be tampered. Feeney, who now sits on Judiciary, was then the general counsel and lobbyist for Curtis'-then employer, Yang Enterprises, as well as a rising star of the Florida state congress.
His allegations have raised a deluge of questions. Why now? What is his agenda? What made him decide to come forward?
The 46-year-old fielded some of these questions Monday in an exclusive interview with RAW STORY.
Curtis says he first leveled charges to the CIA, the FBI and other agencies, none of whom seemed to take an interest, and in a book, published in September. None of these venues, he said, drew much concern. So when he heard of a $200,000 award being offered by the nonprofit group Justice through Music for proof of voting fraud, he bit.
"I contacted Justice through Music," Curtis says. But "I told him that I didn't want the reward because I didn't want to taint the equation."
A spokesman for Justice through Music confirmed the reward is still available.
Since then, he has found an outlet among those in the blogosphere, where his affidavit was first released on The Brad Blog. Two newspapers have begun the process of vetting his claims. The Floridian's appearance in Washington, and the delivery of his affidavit to Congress, may signal a deeper investigation in progress.
While he stresses that the development of a prototype of vote-rigging software does not of itself indicate fraud took place, he is certain that the intent of Rep. Feeney, who he charges commissioned the code, was to taint the election. [more]
Michael Powell is a chump
Activists Dominate Content Complaints by Todd Shields
In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.
The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, "a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes."
What Powell did not reveal--apparently because he was unaware--was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003--99.8 percent--were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.
This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified. [more]
Things are going great in Iraq
2 C.I.A. Reports Offer Warnings on Iraq's Path by Douglas Jehl
A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to government officials.
The cable, sent late last month as the officer ended a yearlong tour, presented a bleak assessment on matters of politics, economics and security, the officials said. They said its basic conclusions had been echoed in briefings presented by a senior C.I.A. official who recently visited Iraq.
The officials described the two assessments as having been "mixed," saying that they did describe Iraq as having made important progress, particularly in terms of its political process, and credited Iraqis with being resilient.
But over all, the officials described the station chief's cable in particular as an unvarnished assessment of the difficulties ahead in Iraq. They said it warned that the security situation was likely to get worse, including more violence and sectarian clashes, unless there were marked improvements soon on the part of the Iraqi government, in terms of its ability to assert authority and to build the economy.
Together, the appraisals, which follow several other such warnings from officials in Washington and in the field, were much more pessimistic than the public picture being offered by the Bush administration before the elections scheduled for Iraq next month, the officials said. The cable was sent to C.I.A. headquarters after American forces completed what military commanders have described as a significant victory, with the retaking of Falluja, a principal base of the Iraqi insurgency, in mid-November. [more]
More roguery
ACLU: Memos reveal alleged threats to hush Iraq abuse CNN
U.S. special operations forces accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq threatened Defense Intelligence Agency personnel who saw the mistreatment, according to government memos released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Another memo says the special forces once confiscated photos of a prisoner who had been punched in the face.
The special operations forces also monitored e-mails sent by defense personnel and ordered them "not to talk to anyone" about what they saw, said another memo written by the Defense Intelligence Agency chief, who complained to his Pentagon bosses about the harassment.
Prisoners arriving at a detention center in Baghdad had "burn marks on their backs" as well as bruises and some complained of kidney pain, according to the June 25, 2004 memo.
FBI agents also reported seeing detainees at Abu Ghraib subjected to sleep deprivation, humiliation and forced nudity between October and December 2003 -- when the most serious abuses allegedly took place in a scandal that remains under investigation.
The release of the ACLU documents comes a day after The Associated Press reported that a senior FBI official wrote a letter to the Army's top criminal investigator complaining about "highly aggressive" interrogation techniques at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay dating back to 2002 -- more than a year before the scandal broke at the Iraqi prison. [more]
F.B.I. Memos Criticized Practices at Guantánamo by Neil A. Lewis
Confidential memorandums from F.B.I. officials that were disclosed Monday show the bureau repeatedly criticized "aggressive interrogation practices" that its agents observed being used by military personnel at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
One document, obtained by The Associated Press, described a case in which an agent observed a female interrogator squeezing a male detainee's genitals and bending back his thumbs. Other memorandums were provided by the government in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. [more]
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