Voting Fraud-Updates: Scientist Rubin resigned

posted by ewing2001 on Wednesday August 20, @05:44PM

Update:
Howard Ahmanson-The real "owner" of the Voting Scam
plus more about SAIC and Johns Hopkins
More: Bev Harris at Seattle Times
New SAIC article at Scoop (08/23)

Scientist Critical of Computer Vote Quits

AP -Aug 20, 12:32 PM

BALTIMORE (AP) - A Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who co-wrote an influential report alleging flaws in touch-screen voting software used by a leading manufacturer has resigned from the technical advisory board of a provider of competing software.

The researcher, Avi Rubin, resigned this week because "he didn't want any perception of conflict of interest," Jim Adler, chief executive of VoteHere Inc., said Tuesday.

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Rubin, technical director of Johns Hopkins' Information Security Institute, said he was returning stock options, resigning from the VoteHere board of advisors, and asking Hopkins to review his outside consulting work.

"I believe it was careless of me to engage in a study of a software system of a company in the same space as another company in which I had a financial interest," Rubin said in a statement. "Had it occurred to me at the time, I would have disassociated myself from them. I am now doing just that." Rubin said he had never exercised the options and had not profited in any way from his affiliation with VoteHere. In fact, he said he has had no contact with VoteHere since he signed on to the board two years ago. He said he didn't talk to VoteHere about the report or review its products or software.

In the report last month, Rubin and his Hopkins associates claimed the voting system made by Diebold Election Systems could let outsiders or election officials manipulate election results. The study was billed as the first independent review of electronic voting.

Voting machine fiasco: SAIC, VoteHere and Diebold
. . . Scam to vet software?

OnlineJournal -August 20, 2003

By Lynn Landes

The voting machine wars are heating up and the implications of vote fraud in America are even more ominous.

Computer scientist Avi Rubin, whose Johns Hopkins University team found serious flaws in Diebold Election Systems software, abruptly resigned from VoteHere, another election software company.

In a related story, on August 6t Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) gave a contract to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to review the Diebold Election System's software in preparation for elections in Maryland. The report is due in four weeks.

...SAIC is a behemoth military defense contractor with a shadowy, if not tarnished, reputation, while former SAIC executives also have ties to VoteHere. Why is that important? VoteHere is a growing company, which aspires to provide cryptography and computer software security for the electronic election industry.

Former president, chief operating officer, and vice chairman of SAIC is Admiral Bill Owens, who is now Chairman of the Board for VoteHere. Owens also served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was a senior military assistant to Secretaries of Defense Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney. Carlucci's company is Carlyle Group, while Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer is Halliburton.

Another former SAIC board member, also on the board of VoteHere, is ex-CIA Director Robert Gates, a veteran of the Iran-Contra scandal.

More at Online Journal -Please check out also all SAIC-links at GFP incl. The Secrets about SAIC and stories by Bev Harris
ES&S; (Election Systems & Software)

The Voting Machine Producers

Diebold
Sequoia Voting Systems

The real "owner" of the Voting Scam

Howard Ahmanson, Jr., Ahmanson Foundation

Infos compiled by GFP

Howard Ahmanson has not only ties with the Neocons, but is also giving financial contributions to Religious Right. He once said: "My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives."

His money, inherited from his father's Home Savings of America, goes chiefly to anti-abortion, anti- gay rights and pro-business state Assembly candidates in California.

In the 80s, he founded American Information Systems, a vote-counting company.

One of the other founders had been the Brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich.

In 1999, American Information Systems, purchased Business Records Corp to become ES&S.; American Information Systems (AIS) was primarily funded with money from both Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of the Howard F. Ahmanson Co.

Bob is currently president of Diebold Election Systems, who produce the controversial Source Codes for new Voting Machines. Todd Urosevich is Vice President, Aftermarket Sales of ES&S.;

Bob Urosevich created the original software architecture for Diebold, and his former company, called I-Mark Systems, can be found in the source code signatures.

When Bob Urosevich left ES&S;, Chuck Hagel took his position.

The majority stake in ES&S; is still owned by Howard F. Ahmanson and the Ahmanson Foundation. Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy, which also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute.

In 1981, the CNP was founded as a "501" non-profit educational organization by Tim LaHaye of the Religious Roundtable, who was also the first CNP president.

Later it was revealed that the early leadership of the CNP, was also represented in the Council on Foreign Relations, among them Dr. Edward Teller - CNP Board of Governors (1982).

Another famous member of the CNP was Major General John K. Singlaub(ret.) (CNP Board of Governors- 1981), who was CIA deputy chief in South Korea during the Korean War.

During the late 90s, Alan Keyes supported the CNP.

Alan Keyes was William Kristol's roommate at Harvard, whose father, Irving Kristol, joined the Young People's Socialist League in the 30s. In 1953 Irving Kristol founded the magazine "Encounter" in England that was secretly being supported by the CIA.

William Kristol (PNAC member) runs the Weekly Standard.

Other members of the CNP are Gary Bauer (PNAC), Joseph, Jeffrey and Holly Coors (who supported, together with Bechtel, the Heritage Foundation), Grover Norquist, Dr. Gary North, Lt. Col. Oliver North (Iran-Contra affair), Dr. "M.G." Pat Robertson (Christian Broadcasting Network), Dr. Jerry Falwell, Kathleen Teague Rothschild, Mark Skousen (Wall Street Journal, The Economist, National Review), Edwin Meese III, Trent Lott, Pat Matrisciana (Owner and president, Jeremiah Films which has produced over 60 documentaries including "Pagan Invasion", "No Second Chance" or as Chairman of "Citizens for Honest Government", which produced "The Clinton Chronicles")

Due to investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker, Matrisciana was also intelligence operative for Richard Mellon Scaife, "himself an intelligence operative, with longstanding ties to the Central Intelligence Agency".

According to Reason magazine, promotional materials from the Seattle-based Discovery Institute acknowledge that the Ahmanson family donated $1.5 million to the Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture for a research and publicity program to "unseat not just Darwinism but also Darwinism's cultural legacy." In fact, the August 1999 issue of the Discovery Institute's Journal recognizes an Ahmanson outfit for providing the Center's start-up funds.

Latest Developments and Sources

BlackboxVoting.com

To date in the developing story about electronic security concerns about new touch screen voting systems – black box voting – high profile conflicts of interest have already caused problems for 1) Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel and 2) for Johns Hopkins university professor Avi Rubin, co-author a report damning Diebold's touch screen software security published in June.

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