Recorded Novem­ber 28, 2004
REALAUDIO
NB: This stream con­tains both FTR #s 487 and 488 in sequence. Each is a 30 minute broadcast.

Many peo­ple now know the name of Diebold—one of the com­pa­nies man­u­fac­tur­ing the con­tro­ver­sial elec­tronic vot­ing machines. Less well known is the Sequoia Pacific firm—a com­pany that is tainted with orga­nized crime con­nec­tions, as well as a his­tory of legal malfea­sance and reac­tionary pol­i­tics. Daniel Hop­sicker once again joined Mr. Emory for a dis­cus­sion of two arti­cles from his www.madcowprod.com web­site about Sequoia Pacific. In addi­tion to detail­ing some of Sequoia Pacific’s col­or­ful his­tory, Daniel relates the involve­ment of that com­pany in Louisiana elec­tion scan­dals. It is worth not­ing that Sequoia uses a num­ber of dif­fer­ent cor­po­rate fronts to mask its oper­a­tions from scrutiny.

Pro­gram High­lights Include: Sequoia founder Lloyd Dixon’s crim­i­nal his­tory; Sequoia chief Louis Wolfson’s attempt at brib­ing Supreme Court Jus­tice Ape For­tas; extrale­gal machi­na­tions by elec­tion soft­ware firm ES & S—bailed out of hot water by the elec­tion of Ronald Rea­gan in 1980; the alleged “sui­cide” of the offi­cial who was in charge of the New Orleans ware­house where the Sequoia vot­ing machines were kept; local can­di­date Susan Bernacker’s test­ing of Sequoia machines—she was video­taped vot­ing for her­self, only to have the machine tally her vote for her oppo­nent; the Gam­bino crime family’s links to Sequoia, as well as that pow­er­ful Mafia family’s nar­cotics oper­a­tions con­ducted in coop­er­a­tion with the late CIA agent Barry Seal.

1. (For more about the sub­ject of vot­ing machines and elec­toral fraud, see FTR#’s 466, 468, 470.) The focal point of this pro­gram (as well as that of FTR#488) is the elec­toral fraud that is becom­ing rou­tine in the United States. High­light­ing aspects of two arti­cles writ­ten by Daniel Hop­sicker on Sequoia Pacific, the broad­cast notes the sig­nif­i­cant posi­tion of this com­pany in the grow­ing (and largely fraud­u­lent) elec­tronic vot­ing field. Inex­tri­ca­bly linked with orga­nized crime, the com­pany com­ple­ments Diebold and ES & S as com­pa­nies that are mort­gag­ing what lit­tle is left of Amer­i­can democ­racy. For the con­ve­nience of the reader, the arti­cles are repro­duced below:

2.
“The Big Fix 2004”—How to Fix a Pres­i­den­tial Elec­tion
Pt. 1: Con­victed, Felons, ‘Shad­owy Financiers’ Own Com­pa­nies Count­ing Votes
Novem­ber 15, 2004; Venice, Fl.; by Daniel Hopsicker

An inves­ti­ga­tion into the surprisingly-sordid his­tory of America’s “elec­tion ser­vices indus­try” has revealed that exec­u­tives and own­ers of the two largest com­pa­nies, E S & S and Sequoia Pacific, have been con­victed of bribery and sub­orn­ing pub­lic offi­cials in more than a dozen states.

And while a felony con­vic­tion may be enough »Con­tinue orginal article»

3.
Elec­tion Com­pany Has Long Crim­i­nal His­tory
Thugs, Rack­e­teers Count­ing Amer­i­can Votes
Novem­ber 24, 2004; Venice, Fl.; By Daniel Hopsicker

While Ukraini­ans poured into the streets of their cap­i­tal Kiev to protest a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion they say was stolen by that country’s cur­rent regime, here in the U.S. a little-known elec­tion com­pany called Sequoia Pacific, respon­si­ble for putting our own ‘cur­rent regime’ in pow­er­four years ago, was at the cen­ter of con­tro­versy last week... for the sec­ond Pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in a row.

While U.S. news­pa­pers have been filled »Con­tiune orig­i­nal article»

4. Begin­ning with dis­cus­sion of the Gam­bino crime fam­ily, Daniel notes that Sal­va­tore Reale—an oper­a­tive of that pow­er­ful Mafia entity—noted that Sequoia per­son­nel attempted to “grease the skids a lit­tle” at a func­tion hosted by Mr. Reale. The aim was to facil­i­tate Sequoia’s share of the mar­ket for elec­tronic vot­ing machines in New York City. Daniel notes that Barry Seal’s CIA-connected cocaine import­ing oper­a­tion in the 1980’s appears to have been inti­mately con­nected to the Gam­bino family’s oper­a­tions. (The fam­ily was appar­ently dis­trib­ut­ing the cocaine that Seal was importing.)

5. From its incep­tion, Sequoia has been inex­tri­ca­bly linked with crim­i­nal activ­i­ties. Begun as Amer­i­can Vot­ing Machine, the com­pany was under the con­trol of stock­hold­ers in [North Amer­i­can] Rock­well, a major defense con­trac­tor. Pres­i­dent and CEO Lloyd Dixon was con­victed of brib­ing an offi­cial and sen­tenced to prison.

6. Com­pany owner Louis Wolf­son was con­victed of attempt­ing to bribe Supreme Court Jus­tice Abe Fortas.

7. Sequoia com­peti­tor ES& S has been sim­i­larly tainted by crim­i­nal activ­ity. ES & S’s Ran­som Shoup was under inves­ti­ga­tion for crim­i­nal activ­ity, but escaped con­vic­tion due to the elec­tion of Ronald Rea­gan. Shoup had been involved with try­ing to sell the company’s vot­ing machines to for­mer dic­ta­tor Anas­ta­sio Somoza.

8. Much of the pro­gram con­cerns the fas­ci­nat­ing tale of (Louisiana Elec­tion Com­mis­sioner) Jerry Fowler and Pasquale Ricci, Sequoia’s South­east rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Both were con­victed when the ten mil­lion dol­lars’ worth of bribes Fowler received from Ricci came to light. Hav­ing got­ten deeply into debt through gam­bling, Fowler was an easy tar­get for graft. The result of these machi­na­tions was a thor­oughly skewed, cor­rupt elec­tion process in Louisiana. Local can­di­date Susan Bernacker was video­taped vot­ing for her­self, while the Sequoia machines recorded votes for her oppo­nent. Tony Giambel­luca (who held the keys to the ware­house where the elec­tion machines were kept) turned up as an appar­ent sui­cide. He “killed him­self” behind a garbage dump­ster. Tough luck.

BE SURE TO VISIT DANIEL’S WEBSITE TO VIEW A TRAILER PERTAINING TO THE SEQUOIA CASE. www.madcowprod.com.)