CLINT CURTIS: VOTING RIGHTS AND TECHNOLOGY
Clinton E. Curtis is a computer programmer. He claims that in October 2000 he was told to by then Congressman Tom Freeny to create a computer program that would fix an election. After hearing this, Curtis quit his job and became a whistleblower, exposing YEI Enterprises and Tom Freeny. The mainstream media has ignored his story, but there is hope that we can preserve our sacred ballots. Mr. Curtis was nice enough to take the time to share his amazing story with us. Thank you, Mr. Curtis, for not giving up and fighting for democracy in America.
Thank you, Mr. Curtis, for taking the time to walk with me. I am sure the American people will have great interest in your story. First of all, give us your background. Where were you employed? What did you do there? What are your allegations against YEI Enterprises?
Programmer- have completed projects for NASA, ExonMobil, Florida Dept of Trans, Florida Dept of Law Enforcement, Florida Fish and Wildlife. etc.
Yang Enterprises was (and probably still is) actively engaged in spying for the Chinese government. They are doing so under the protection of Mr. Feeney.
They passed information to Mrs. Yangs brother which was deported for spying as well as through Henry Nee who has since been convicted of shipping hellfire missile parts to the capital of communist China.
Yang over billed the state of Florida for services on an 8 million-dollar contract as well allowed illegal aliens to work on the project.
Feeney requested a vote flipping prototype which Mrs. Yang latter identified as being needed to "Control the vote in South Florida.
How long did you wait to tell the authorities about what had happened? Why did you wait so long to hand your affidavit to members of Congress?
(I) told the Florida Inspector General Office as soon as I learned and confirmed some of the details. That was within 90 days of leaving Yang. The IG's office is the departmental arm of the Attorney Generals office. I had many discussions with the investigator(Ray Lemme) about the various details. He stated that he was contacting the appropriate authorities and ask me to keep communication with others to a minimum so that it did not compromise his ongoing investigation.
Equate this to being the witness to a robbery. You contact the police, fill out their report and then go about your business. You wouldn’t think that you would need to monitor the cases progress or confirm that it was being handled properly.
The affidavit to Congress deals mainly with the vote fraud discussion. Until October of 2005, I was not aware that laws had been passed which allowed the source code and the hardware to be hidden and that no standard elements of auditing used in any normal program rollout were being implemented. If any safe guards were in place Feeney would have been unable to fix elections through technology. Prior to learning that the rules had been written to allow if not encourage vote fraud on a nation wide level, my report of Feeneys vote fraud request was more a demonstration of his lack of ethics rather than thinking he could actually pull it off.
Where were the Democrats? Better question. Where are they NOW?
You accuse Tom Feeney of wrongdoing. Was Tom Feeney’s relationship to YEI strong? Does it continue to this day? What does YEI do?
Feeney has a twenty year relationship with Yang. At the time of his request for the vote fraud software, he was their corporate attorney, chief lobbyist, and Speaker of the house of the Florida Legislature.
The relationship still continues. Once on the take – always on the take.
Government contracts with top secret clearances – mostly dealing with safeguarding records and base maintenance.
What was your relationship with Tom Feeney before October, 2000?
Never met him. Did not even know who he was until identified by Mrs. Yang.
Tom Feeney told you to fix the vote. What were his exact words?
To the best of my memory , He said - Can you build us a prototype that can flip the vote so that a person activating the hidden code can select the winner of an election. . Don’t know who US referred to but he generally spoke in terms of US and WE.
He stressed three points in the design 1. The program needed to be touch screen capable. 2. The user had to be able to activate the flip code without any additional hardware. 3. The vote manipulation needed to remain hidden even if the source code was inspected.
Who else at YEI told you to fix the vote, or planned the fraud with Mr. Feeney?
After I told Feeney that the source code could not hide the fraud (at the initial meeting) Mrs. Yang interrupted and told Feeney that "we will put something together for you to look at and demonstrate.”
The computer program you designed would flip the vote 51/49. Why would you create such a program? Did you ever assume that it would be used against voters?
Prior to Mrs. Yangs telling me it was to be used in South Florida, I believed that Feeney was simply investigating the security (or lack thereof) of computer voting software. Along with the program , I submitted a report on what to prevent so that vote fraud could not be committed. The laws were written so that all the possible prevention’s would be removed.
With the proper measures
1. Non-proprietay software (open source) (compiled during open inspection) confirmed and hashed) 2. Non-proprietary hardware (code can be hidden in hardware too) 3. Two paper receipts, one which is the offical ballot (the machine is only a tool to assist in the counting. 4. One receipt is the official ballot. The other is a public record that is freely available to any interested party for no charge.- That way anyone has the ability to independently verify the election. 5. A random sample (5%) of the official ballots are chosen and hand counted and then compared to the machine count. If they are not an exact match (the machine only adds up totals, there should be no errors) the machine counts are disregarded and a hand count occurs until all interested parties agree that the election results are correct.
With these simple safeguards machine voting can be completely safe and actually enhance the voting process. Without these type of safeguards, the machines control the outcome. The voters need not bother submitting their choices.
Could the program you designed delete itself after being used?
My prototype did not. However the code to write that routine is a simple fifteen line executable.
Why didn’t you keep a copy of the program you designed after you left YEI?
YEI has many government contracts including NASA and is thus a secured site. It is against the rules to take data or programs off the premises. I am a rule follower.
Beyond the issue that the site was secure, I thought that it was a dead issue. With the proper safeguards ( which anyone with an ounce of computer development experience could tell you) a vote fraud program can not exist. You can not fix an election, if any interested party has access to public records and can check the results independantly.
I wrote to Yang Enterprises and got an automated response. YEI claims that “The allegations made in Mr. Curtis's "affidavit" and elsewhere regarding YEI are categorically untrue and fail the most basic "smell" and logic tests.” They obviously do not paint a good picture of you. What is your response to this?
I will leave it up to you to decide if what they have done smells and if we should logically let them continue. While DOT has confirmed the over billing and fired them from their document management contract, YEI is still listed as one of the 200 preferred vendors.
While Henry Nee has admitted that he sent missile guidance chips to communist China and I have produced both emails and time cards signed by YEI showing that he worked at Yang, they still maintain a high security clearance with NASA and have access to that base as well as other military bases.
YEI claims that Mr. Nee has never been an employee of Yang Enterprises. Please explain who Mr. Nee is and how you know he was employed there.
Henry Nee is the spy that was convicted of sending missile guidance chips to communist china. Not only did I work with him but have emails referencing him from two YEI employees as well as from Henry himself. Yang also submitted time cards and billed the FDOT $38,000 for his services.
Some critics argue that touch screen voting machines were not used in the 2000 election in Florida. Could your program be used in vote counting machines? If not, do you have a case against Feeney and the administration?
Feeney would not have been asking for a program in October of 2000 that he planned to use in November of 2000. Feeney was planning for the future. His 2000 plans were more based on intimidation and thuggery than technology.
Yes, the code can be used anywhere. 24 lines of code in either the machine, card scanner or the central tabulator can change any race.
What did Mr. Lemme, a Florida investigator, mean when he said he had, "tracked the corruption all the way to the top"? Was he referring to Congressman Feeney, Jeb Bush, President Bush, or someone else in power?
Lemme was a Dragnets Sgt. Friday type. He asked a lot of questions but provided very little back. He did not elaborate. From his attitude (the happiest I had ever seen him) I took it to be big.
The highlight of this experience had to be when Air America Radio picked up the story and interviewed you. Your story was recently told on Air America Radio again, on the morning of July 5, 2005. How did it feel to finally get this amount of attention? What new information did you unveil in that interview?
I did not hear it. I am a programmer. A little introverted and not comfortable with any form of spot light. My highlight will be when we fix the voting problem, elect a legitimate government, and I can go back into obscurity.
The highlight to date is in meeting a lot of people who sincerely care about democracy in this country.
In your opinion, how can we keep this story alive after almost four years have passed?
The story is important only if we act on it. We must insist that the voting machines be made verifiable (see #7). Right now they just ignore us and laugh at us.
They worked hard to fix the system. Put the machines in the right places. Consolidated and intimidated the media so they won't get out of line. And effectively stolen our democracy and made slaves of us all.
Why would they give that up?
Luckily we can still win.
Bush likes to remind us that he is the WAR president. We need to realize that he is correct, and it is us and our freedom that he is at war with. We can defeat this group by taking away their money. Listed on my web site www.JustAFlyOnTheWall.com and in my book Just A Fly On The Wall are main supporters of the Bush machine. While they have the mass of wealth, all their money comes from us. The handful of rich are only rich because we give them our money. The middle class and poor of this country control 70% of the money.
If we collectively boycott anyone who supports the Bush machine we will crush them where they live. Common products like Coke, Listerine, AFLAC insurance, Amway, etc must be avoided. By bringing the companies listed in my book down just 20%, we can completely bankrupt the Bush machine. We can also prevent other companies from providing money to the Bush machine.
When you see a car or truck with a Bush/Cheeney sticker on it, know that that person is your enemy. If you have a chance to deny them your money or your talents, do so. This type of division is of course not a good thing. Everyone in this country should work toward living together. In this case, we did not start the division, but if we hope to beat this group we must be willing to embrace it.
Having an inside look at the workings of this group has convinced me that they will do ANYTHING in order to win. Unless we are as determined to fight back, we should shut up, get down on our knees and grovel before King George .
When it comes time to vote, use absentee ballots only and keep a copy of your ballot. It will be to our advantage to gain the assistance of an independent vote watcher where the copies could be collectively stored and counted. It will be harder, though not impossible, to steal an election if hard documentation exists that the vote was flipped.
What would you say to critics who do not believe your story? There are some harsh critics who do not believe your story. Congressman Feeney, for example, says he laughs at your book Just A Fly On The Wall and gave it to friends for Christmas for their amusement. This is not a very flattering review. How do we know you are telling the truth?
I produced the book in September. When some interest was shown in December regarding the affidavit I removed reference to the book from my web site and made no marketing attempt since then. I wanted to make sure that no one confused that the story was true and not just a way to sell books. Since I pulled the book reference in the site (it received 30,000 hits after the affidavit) and made no mention in any interviews the book sales for December were less than a dozen. I can account for all but three. Apparently Mr. Feeney is again lying or has no friends.
I think every element of my story has been examined and verified (at least those that could). As for the private meetings, I took and passed a polygraph test from the lead polygraphist from FDLE. This was a person I did not know and who had nothing to gain by confirming my story.
Feeney is a crook and a traitor. That pretty much sums it up.
John Conyers, who recently had the hearing on the Downing Street Memo, and Bill Nelson have investigated your claims. What have hey found? If they have found anything, why are they remaining silent?
The Democrats are effectively neutered. Mr Conyers keeps up the fight but is basically operating in a media blackout. Most of the public have no idea what has happened to their freedom. When I tell people they are shocked and wonder why they haven't heard about it before. Unless the public receives the information and does something about it, this country is doomed to more of the same.
Have you kept in touch with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and the others who were at the hearing? Have you contacted other Congressmen and Congresswomen?
No, Occasionally I am invited to speak at voting events and have the opportunity to discuss the events with various people, but I am nobody. I have no ability to influence Congressional decisions. All I can do is try to spread the word and do what I can do on a personal scale.
You passed a polygraph test on March 3, 2005. YEI claims that you passed it because you are a pathological liar. Is this a correct assessment? Should Mr. Yang be given a polygraph test, now?
Mrs. Yang was actually the person with whom Feeney dealt.
Within that group they have the ability to buy results. An example was the freshly created Voters rights group that testified before congress and at the Carter-Baker Commission. Problem was that the group was form the week before they needed to testify and was made up of members of the Bush-Cheeney reelction commettee.
If we have a polygraph for Mrs. Yang it would need to be a public affair with verifiable results from non-partisan polygraphist. If it were publicized I would be happy to do it again under the same conditions.
The questions for Mrs.Yang should be
Have You, Mr. Feeney or anyone in Yang employment ever provided any secret merchandise or information to anyone from Communist China?
Has Mr. Feeny ever used his influence to benefit Yang?
Did Mr. Feeney request a vote machine protoype designed to allow a user the ability to alter the results of an election?
Have you ever overbilled on a government contract or allowed an illegal alien to work on that contract?
In your mind what has been the biggest under-reported story of the past few years, not including your allegation?
Downing Street , Feeney was discussing invasion of the Middle East in 2000. It is in the book. There are probably a multitude of "Downing Street" type evidence that is completely ignored.
What is the most difficult thing about being a whistleblower? What are the rewards?
There are no rewards other than the knowledge that you are doing the right thing. In short, there are no protection and you are going to get your "clock cleaned". If your lucky, after 10 years of court battles you "might" get back half of what you would have received if you simply kept quiet. That of course will come after loosing everything you own, subjecting your family to poverty and bankruptcy, and in this case putting the things you love in physical harm.
For me I would do it again simply because that is the way I am programmed. My suggestion for anyone else is RUN. Whistleblowers are not protected. The laws are written to pretend to promote people being able to report on government corruption but in reality, They don't want to know.
When you hear that President Bush is spreading democracy, what is the first thing that pops into your mind?
Bush has no interest in democracy. He has stripped this country of our democracy and will tolerate only puppets in other countries. Unless we get our country back, we can expect a continual state of war.
If President Bush was somehow involved in the vote rigging scheme, how should he be punished? How should Feeney be punished if he is found guilty?
We will never get that far. The best we can hope for is to get back our democracy. That should be our goal. We will not get him impeached or convicted. The people we presently have in power are too used to making back room deals than in protecting the people of this country.
You can read more about Clint Curtis on The Brad Blog, Just A Fly on the Wall and on Wikipedia. A very speical thanks goes out to Brad Friedman for making this interview possible.
posted by The Anteater Blog @ 3:49 PM
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