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"How much is published about the push to use computerized voting in the
next election -- using proprietary software with no paper trail? And if
the Iraqis do eventually get an election, how will their votes be
counted, and by whom?" -Bob.steel1
I understand the electronic voting machines mau be introduced in UK. Watch
out. This is not really such a joke.
http://www.cntrybob.com/Fun/Voter/voter.html
----- Original Message -----
From: <bob.steel1@juno.com>
To: <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: [casi] "...my last story from Baghdad"
>
> >> It is, to say the least, ironic that, as a federal
> >> judge, I was asked to come here to try to help erect
> >> and establish constitutional values for the Iraqis,
>
> >So someone had better tell Judge Merritt, the
> >media, and the Bush administration that whatever
> >the Iraqis are feeling right now, it isn't likely
> >to be admiration. And any admiration the world
>
> I suspect he knows, and that it's part of the irony he speaks of. Perhaps
> he will speak out when he returns home?
>
> Here in the US the situation reminds of one of those old "zombie" or
> "space alien" movies where invaders start taking over people's minds, and
> a few escape and spend the movie trying to set them free again.
>
> On the Newshour tonight, in a segment on the importance of the missing
> WMD, they talked about how public opinion is shifting away from support
> for the war with the mounting deaths -- near 65 now. Apparantly, to the
> journalist speaking, the thousands of dead and dying Iraqis count for
> naught or never enter her zombified mind.
> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec03/wmd_07-02.html
>
> I am rather concerned about the question of uncensored e-mail from Iraq
> (perhaps through satellite phones?) coming through, since it's apparant
> the the US is working hard to shut down criticism from both Iraqis and
> foreign nationals both -- including in Iraqi newspapers. This has
> certainly been a priority in the US media, although done on a more subtle
> level -- through self-censorship and corporate group-think -- as typified
> by the Newshour report, and more so by the regular commercial media.
>
> The "war of fog" is being fought everywhere.
>
> However -- the good news is that war of fog IS being fought. The articles
> you you post are old news -- sadly only somewhat obsolete -- but neither
> are these things unknown or unprotested in the US. That they were even
> published at the time is a good sign.
>
> While I worry about the things I read, I worry even more about the things
> I do not -- the things which we never hear about ("Those in darkness are
> not seen" - Bertold Brecht).
>
> Not everyone hears it, but there IS information about the lack of water,
> power, security, freedom, etc. in Iraq. There is precious little about
> the abuse of prisoners, and that worries me. What really scares me is
> imagining the secret plans being drawn up for God knows what -- like the
> Patriot II act BEFORE it was leaked -- the evils we don't know about!
>
> How much is published about the push to use computerized voting in the
> next election -- using proprietary software with no paper trail? And if
> the Iraqis do eventually get an election, how will their votes be
> counted, and by whom? (What of Robert Kaplan's "Supremacy by Stealth in
> the Jul/Aug Atlantic Monthly -- critiqued by Jonathan Schell in the 7/7
> issue of The Nation (Letter From Ground Zero)?)
>
> It was the falsification of intelligence that made the war possible,
> because so very few understood it was false.
> Now things are moving, however: the stories about the lies and abuses are
> slowly moving into the mainstream, and a lot of people are becoming
> concerned. That "old news" is still new to many, and needs to be widely
> disseminated among the people.
>
> With a little luck and a lot of work this affair will eventually result
> in new and stronger safeguards, and a new respect for and insistence upon
> international law and human rights. At least in this, we know who the
> enemy is and where they need to be engaged: in the political, media and
> legal arenas in the US and UK, on the ground in Iraq, and in the
> info-sphere of the world. This battle, for free speech and media, is
> critical to uncovering the monsters who yet lurk in the dark.
>
>
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All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk