NEW YORK -- Voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for prison time for the new US Attorney for Arkansas, Timothy Griffin and investigation of Griffin's former boss, Karl Rove, chief political advisor to President Bush.
"Timothy Griffin," said Kennedy,"who is the new US attorney in Arkansas, was actually the mastermind behind the voter fraud efforts by the Bush Administration to disenfranchise over a million voters through 'caging' techniques - which are illegal."
Kennedy based his demand on the revelations by BBC reporter Greg Palast in the new edition of his book, "Armed Madhouse." On one page of the book, Palast reproduces a copy of a confidential Bush-Cheney campaign email, dated August 26, 2004, in which Griffin directs Republican operatives to use the 'caging' lists.
This is one of the emails subpoenaed by Congress but supposedly "lost" by Rove's office. Palast obtained 500 of these, fifty with 'caging' lists attached.
'Caging' lists are "absolutely illegal" under the Voting Rights Act, noted Kennedy on his Air America program, Ring of Fire. The 1965 law makes it a felony crime to challenge voters when race is a factor in the targeting. African-American voters comprised the bulk of the 70,000 voters 'caged' in a single state, Florida.
Palast wrote in his book, "Here's how the scheme worked. The Bush campaign mailed out letters," particularly targeting African-American soldiers sent overseas. When the letters sent to the home addresses of the soldiers came back "undeliverable" because the servicemen were in Baghdad or elsewhere, the Republican Party would, "challenge the voter's registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballots being counted."
The Republicans successfully challenged "at least one million" votes of minority voters in the 2004 election.
Kennedy, a voting rights attorney, fumed, "What he [Griffin] did was absolutely illegal and he should be in jail. Instead [Griffin] was rewarded with the US Attorney's office."
"They [Griffin, Rove and their confederates at the RNC] knew it was illegal."
Kennedy has called on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to expand their investigations of the firing of US Attorneys to include a probe of their replacements, especially Griffin, as well as Rove's knowledge of the caging operation.
In preparation for just such an investigation, Kyle Sampson, former aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, wrote a confidential email, dated December 19, 2006 outlining a strategy to stall Congress' from questioning the propriety of the Griffin appointment. “We should gum this to death," wrote Sampson, "Ask the senators to give Tim a chance . . . then we can tell them we'll look for other candidates, ask them for recommendations, evaluate the recommendations, interview their candidates, and otherwise run out the clock. All of this should be done in 'good faith,' of course."
Sampson has since resigned.
Palast said, "Just as Rove is known as 'Bush's brain,' Griffin is 'Rove's Brain.' I'm flattered by his 'review.'"
Palast first reported on the caging list operation for BBC Television's premier current affairs show, Newsnight, in 2004. In a February 7, 2007 email obtained by subpoena from Rove's office, Griffin boasted that, "No [US] national media picked up" the BBC story. Griffin attached an excerpt of Armed Madhouse.
Greg Palast, winner of the George Orwell Courage-In-Journalism Prize, is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and "ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War."
The corp. run, bootlickin' lackey media feels the same way. That's why his article was in Rolling Stone instead of a major publication or national news. He did some amazing research on the '04 stolen election that has resulted in convictions in Ohio that have not been publicized in the suck ass media. I wonder how much coverage this would get if it were a Dem. administration.
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mike wygant (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 287 comments)
on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 6:40:41 AM
Open your mind and listen to something other than your own thoughts. The only way a thinking mind can understand the complexities of todays world is by listening to and reading what others say and and digesting their words and formulateing an opinion their own. If you disagree speak up and express the reason for your disagreement. Who knows, you might just learn something by reading and attemepting to understand the written word.
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walley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 109 comments)
on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 9:35:02 AM
Their house of cards are falling. If we had a DOJ we could possibly prosecute. Come on Conyers and all of the rest on the judicial committee. Go for it.
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Ron McCallie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 74 comments)
on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 12:42:31 AM
Kennedy's article got printed in Rolling Stone because it offered nothing new and proved nothing. Same old deflated conspiracy theories about a "stolen" election that was not stolen. Therefore, print it in a magazine that reviews crappy music.
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Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 415 comments)
on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 9:40:33 PM
