The Treasury Department has told Lou Dobbs that they are finally looking into the sale of Sequoia Voting Systems to a company owned by Venezuelan nationals.
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A written transcript follows…
Kitty Pilgrim has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sequoia Voting Machine Company likes to point out its long history as an American company. It provides voting machines in hundreds of jurisdictions across the country. But in 2005, Sequoia was sold so Smartmatic, a company controlled by Venezuelan businessmen. Even though the U.S. voting machine company was sold outright, the U.S. government did not review the sale, even though voting machines are critical to national security.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney wrote a letter to Treasury last May demanding an investigation.
REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: They have started a preliminary investigation. They are looking into the ownership. They call it a pre-CFIUS review. It is very unusual for Treasury to go back and look at a company that has already been sold, but they are doing it in this case.
PILGRIM: The worry is, if a foreign-owned company had control of election equipment in the United States, it could be vulnerable to manipulation. In fact, many security experts say the way all voting machines are currently engineered, they may be vulnerable to hacking.
DAN WALLACH, RICE UNIVERSITY: The federal guidelines don’t say enough about security, which means that voting systems aren’t engineered to be as secure as they need to be.
PILGRIM: While the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States says its review process is secret and can’t comment if there’s an investigation into Smartmatic, the Treasury Department does admit interest in the deal and is in contact with the company and is taking it very seriously.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, a lawyer for Smartmatic confirmed today they have provided the relevant information to the Treasury Department. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney also says she’s proposing a bill this week that would tighten up the CFIUS review process — Lou.
DOBBS: As you know, I think the CFIUS committee and everybody on it are basically dithering idiots, because they do absolutely nothing to protect the interests of this country. If they could assert themselves here, no one would be more shocked nor pleased than me.
But I think we have to give just extraordinary credit to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. She focused on this issue, she brought it to the attention of the public, and our hats are off to her. She’s just doing a wonderful job here.
PILGRIM: She’s been very vigilant. And until this came to light publicly, there was really no — absolutely no acknowledgment that there was a problem with this.
DOBBS: It is nice to see our elected officials, when it does rarely happen, doing their job. And again, our compliments and commendation to Congresswoman Maloney.
Venezuela’s leader, Hugo Chavez, has formed what he calls a strategic partnership with President Lukashenko of Belarus, Europe’s last dictator, some say. Chavez and Lukashenko signed an agreement to increase military ties. Both leaders say the United States is trying to overthrow their governments.
Chavez then traveled to Russia, where he will sign, we’re told, a series of contracts to buy the latest Russian fighter aircraft and helicopters, about $1 billion worth.
Once again Thanks Lou for fighting the good fight!
No kidding, BB2! Who’s gonna be the one to step up and join him?
We gotta get Lou some help out there! Any ideas?
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, is it not a little weird that suddenly an agency of the dictatorship is interested in looking into this potentially dem-titling vote-rig issue? Treasury “told Lou Dobbs” – huh? I know it is important to emphasize non-partisanship on this issue, but something smells fishy here (note the Chavez setup at end)
Winter –
About 30 years ago I would have suggested Geraldo Rivera, but any more he has descended into the realm of the National Enquirer type of journalism.
Here’s the thing to think about, with investigating Sequoia. They want to investigate Sequoia because the owners may be tied to Hugo Chavez. Since DIEBOLD and ES&S are just Republicans orchestrating elections, THAT’S OK!!!
The point is, and we’ve been saying all along, that ANYONE including terrorists can hack an American election. I guess it’s OK if Republicans hack them, though??? That will get MSM attention…
The point is, all along, that ANYONE can hack an election, because the machines are not secure and don’t pass vote security standards. Maybe it’s good, if someone from another country hacks an American election.
What will they end up doing? ONLY BANNING SEQUOIA MACHINES!!! Not ALL the machines!!!
there is nothing fishy if you have been following Smartmatic from its Venezuela days. The bottom line is that Smartmatic was selected in a rigged bid process and then hijacked by the Venezuelan government for the purpose of developing and implementing an electronic voting solution that could be manipulated to alter votes and combined with fingerprint scanners to violate voter secrecy, determine voter preference and subsequently create retaliatory citizen databases used by government to deny those who voted against chavez government jobs, benefits, assistance, services, etc.: the infamous Tascon and Maisanta databases.
The machines used in Venezuela are modified bidirectional gaming/lottery terminals from Italy’s Olivetti (MAEL 205).
Smartmatic acquired Sequoia using dirty money i.e. money laundering and if GOVUS really wanted to get technical they would apply Patriot Act against them.
The delusional Antonio Mugica buys Sequoia thinking the Venezuelan recall referendum is behind him and the purchase flys below GOVUS radar just like the recall referendum did because of many reasons, one being the focus on the middle east.
There has always being an ongoing effort to expose Smartmatic. We can see that CFIUS has its problems and reform is being sought.
Venezuela is two and a half hour flight from Miami and has the worlds largest overall reserves. We have a big problem whether we like it or not with the fascist tropical dictator.
What’s sad is that the majority of society has been disenfranchised and hijacked by a 10% radical minority that can summon 50% support among the ignorant poor through heavy handouts and masterful populism by Chavez.
I have been saying that a good hacker should hack the machines so that ALL incumbents and ALL Democratic and Republican candidates get 0 votes, and all votes register for only osbcure third party candidates. It may be the only way to wake up members of Congress to do something. I don’t think any of them would sit still for having an election result which throws them all out of office. (Of course, only 1/3 of the Senate is up for election at one time, but the House is up for election every two years.)
the solution implemented in Venezuela would never be allowed in the US. The Chavez-controlled electoral council led by Jorge “Sigmund Fraud” Rodriguez committed the largest and most expensive electronic electoral fraud in history. It wasn’t successful as it relied on secrecy which was maintined by force. Basic reviews of the system would start revealing problems. The Carter Center and OAS teams there at the time not up to the job plus Carter also played a role.
It’s probably fact that Chavez had majority that day by only by a slim 2% margin. Chavez cheated that day and every day leading up to that day for a dirty 52%.
The difference was squeezed from the Smartmatic machines that were reprogrammed to flip their numbers.
David:
I have my doubts about Chavez’s ultimate plan (I really don’t know much about him), but you have to admit he has outsmarted our numbskull leaders! Didn’t they know he was buying our voting systems or were they too busy chasing down the medical marijuana patients and pornographers! I’m not joking, those were Ashcroft’s priorities, even eclipsing gun sales to terrorists!
Chavez committed “the largest and most expensive electronic electoral fraud in history.” Give me a break David!
Larry
More likely Chavez overcame the largest and most expensive electronic electoral fraud in history… if anything of the sort was involved at all.
David
Ya can’t just pop in here and make all these wild claims without backing them up. Give us some links. Back up your statements. We start getting pretty grouchy if you keep this stuff up.
I believe David is a professional disinformation specialist/propagandist on behalf of the GOP and the Bush regime distracting people from more imminent dangers to our election system (I feel the same about Lou Dobbs for that matter). I am opposed to any election fraud coming from anywhere, just as everyone else who frequents this website. But there is abundant evidence linking the GOP to e-voting fraud, such as Wally O’Dell’s statement to fellow Republicans, and campaign contribution data from e-voting company executives to the GOP. Where is any solid evidence linking the owner of Sequioa to Chavez? I have yet to see or hear anything but bold assertions coming from highly dubious sources.
Chavez is no dictator, either. He was duly elected by his people in what outside observors validated as a basically honest election. According to what I read, Chavez is very popular with his country’s people, much more so than our president with his country’s people.
David needs to “put up or shut up.”