Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Did A Progressive Firewall Keep Karl Rove And Co. From Stealing The 2012 Presidential Election?

Romney headquarters in Boston,
site of the ORCA servers

The failure of a Republican get-out-the-vote Web application called ORCA has been well chronicled in the post-election press. But the progressive hacktivist group Anonymous claims ORCA actually was designed to steal the election, and Anonymous says it erected a digital firewall that prevented the theft in three key swing states.

Does President Barack Obama owe his re-election to the electronic handiwork of a group that is known for its shadowy videos featuring the face of a character from the film V for Vendetta? It probably is too early to know for sure what happened on election night. But Anonymous issued a pre-election video stating that it would be monitoring any actions by GOP strategist Karl Rove to steal the election, and the group now has issued a press statement claiming it did, in fact, block an effort to change vote totals in three different states--presumably Ohio, Virginia, and Florida.

If those three states had gone Republican, Mitt Romney probably would have won the election. Did a progressive firewall thwart Rove's plan to steal the 2012 election? And if so, was Anonymous the group behind the white-hat cybersleuthing effort?

Details are murky at the moment, but a source tells Legal Schnauzer that progressive groups kept a watchful eye on ORCA and did communicate with representatives from Anonymous in the days leading to the election.

The story is gaining traction across the Web. Consider these words from a Truthout report by Thom Hartmann and Sam Sacks:

If this is true, then the implications are enormous and could take down the entire Republican Party and finally wake Americans up to the fact that our privatized vote system is shockingly flawed and insecure. . . .

In an era of internet lulz and digital false flags, we must demand proof for these sort of claims made by Anonymous. But given Karl Rove’s history with elections in Ohio and the known vulnerabilities with our corporate owned electronic voting machines, there may be both smoke and fire with these election night allegations.

The watchdog group Protect Our Elections says it received a letter from a group calling itself "The Protectors." It's the same letter that Truthout and Wonkette identify as being a press statement from Anonymous.

What is the key point in the letter? Here is how Truthout describes it:

The statement reads, “We began following the digital traffic of one Karl Rove…After a rather short time, we identified the digital structure of Karl’s operation and even that of his ORCA. This was an easy task in that barn doors were left open and the wind swept us inside.” The “ORCA” that Anonymous is referring to in the press release is a massive, high-tech get-out-the-vote system created by the Romney campaign this year that will keep tabs on potential voters and coordinate with operatives to target who has and hasn’t voted yet on Election Day. . . . 
But, according to Anonymous, ORCA had nothing to do with getting out the vote and everything to do with rigging the vote. 
“We coded and created, what we call The Great Oz. A targeted password protected firewall that we tested and refined over the past weeks. We placed this code on more than one of the digital tunnels and their destination that Karl's not so smart worker bees planned to use on election night.”

What impact did The Great Oz have on election night? Here is how Truthout describes it:

Anonymous alleges these “digital tunnels” were leading to servers in three different states. The release goes on to detail what happened on election night as Rove’s operatives attempted to access these tunnels. “We watched as Karl's weak corrupters repeatedly tried to penetrate The Great Oz. These children of his were at a loss--how many times and how many passwords did they try--exactly 105.” 
“Karl’s speared ORCA whale was breached, rotting with a strong stench across his playground, unable to be resuscitated,” claims Anonymous.

Perhaps the defining moment of the campaign came on election night when Rove, acting as an analyst for Fox News, refused to go along with his own network's call that Obama had won Ohio, and thus, the election. Did Anonymous cause Rove's moment of disbelief by foiling his plan to steal the election? Truthout addresses the question:

So might this have really been the reason for Karl Rove’s shock on election night? Under the guise of sophisticated get out the vote operation, had Rove and the Republican Party actually built up a massive system to steal the Ohio election, just like in 2004, only to have it thwarted at the last minute by a group of computer hackers?

It might be months, even years, before all of the facts are in on Election Night 2012. But watchdog groups and members of the progressive press are taking the Anonymous story seriously. States Protect Our Elections:

We are not in a position to vouch for the contents of this letter any more than we can vouch for the video by Anonymous warning Karl Rove not to rig the election. However, we can analyze that content under the prism of Mr. Rove’s history and facts over the past few weeks. We do so in the hope that this will lead to an investigation of Mr. Rove’s entire operation ala General David Petraeus. In that spirit, we provided this information to the FBI prior to publication, and followed up after publication. For years, we have campaigned for a complete investigation of Mr. Rove, and we have provided extensive legal memos and evidence to the FBI to support such an investigation.

We urge others who have information to about election tampering or other criminal violations by Mr. Rove, including violations of campaign finance laws, to provide that evidence to the FBI. We also urge people who gave money to Mr. Rove and his organizations to contact the FBI if they were misled, promised things that did not happen, or were otherwise defrauded.

27 comments:

Spasmoda said...

If this proves to be true, it could be one of the greatest political stories ever.

Anonymous said...

Of course the elections are fixed. The entire U.S.A. is a fix for the State of Israel ~

http://www.activistpost.com/2012/11/my-open-letter-to-every-kid-in-america.html

"... Fact of the matter is that the system is a dying system, whereas you are a living creature with a free will, free thoughts and free desires. It (the system you were led to believe was real) doesn’t want you to realize you have naturally given inalienable rights to express yourself in any way you want as long as you don’t harm others in doing so. It doesn’t want you to acknowledge that there might be a higher power much greater than any government whose natural laws could never be challenged ethically by any man.

.. Now can you see why every single war is a crime? One of the biggest lies you were taught was to believe in and support war; yet did you ever stop to think, what is war? War is the process of cold murder of other human beings just like you. In the political process of war this murderous process is colorized and packaged using a marketing technique known as ‘propaganda’. Yes, all those ceremonies at the beginning of every college football game were a lie. You know the ones where they always portray military people to be more honorable and worthy of praise than all the heroes throughout history lumped into one. Using this marvelous technique any criminal agenda can be portrayed as a good, noble, necessary and even important agenda even if it means killing hundreds, thousands or millions of innocent men women and children.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if this a political story or a humor story. The thought of Rove being jammed this way makes me wanna laugh out loud.

Raymond said...

This reminds me of one of those John Grisham books that was turned into a movie, where one side was trying to rig a jury verdict. Can't remember the name, but Gene Hackman played the bad guy in the movie.

Anonymous said...

Schnauzer, did you make a trip to Boston to take that pic of Romney HQ?

legalschnauzer said...

Nope, a source sent me that.

Anonymous said...

GAZA is the greatest political story ever told ~ too ~ because it is why we have been sold down the river by the GOP.

Over and over, from the beginning of the reign of the CIA.

VIA "W" ?? Oh so much earlier in time, Louis Brandeis was and is another thief of our 'reality.'

Mr. Brandeis stole our right to be a sovereign nation and gave this power to Israel's criminally insane House of Rothschild, Bank of England, ET AL.

But of course our "Supreme Court" locked and loaded for "Israel" ~~ ALL BLOB "families" ARE IN CULT with Turd no more blossom's stealing the power of Americans since 1907, and earlier.

Now the time has arrived for the LEGAL SCHNAUZER journalist to keep exposing the real tap roots to our shrunken trunk of life source 'freedom.' The word keeps getting out about the LS beacon shinning and no small flashlight.

Romney~Netanyahu~Rove~~~there's no idea other than Medusa's head of monsters ...

Curious George said...

I'm not a computer geek, but wouldn't it be possible for Anonymous to extract some data that would prove a vote-stealing program was in place? And if that could be traced to Rove, wouldn't it be a crime? I guess I'm talking about "digital fingerprints." If those were left at the scene, and were traced to Rove, could that lead to indictments?

legalschnauzer said...

Excellent questions, George. It does seem plausible that Anonymous might have been able to take digital snapshots that would show the vote-rigging program in place. Perhaps a real geek can help us out.

Anonymous said...

What if some of the big money men knew this plan was in place? What if Kochs and Adelson, etc. specifically spent their money for a vote-rigging scheme--and it failed?!!

legalschnauzer said...

I'm intrigued about the information on 105 passwords. That's getting into some pretty juicy details.

Anonymous said...

On the internet election day ~~11-6~~, passed around amongst the thirty and younger crowd, a photo from an I-Phone of the GOP switching from Obama to Romney AND this 'proof' is iron clad. How many have awakened since 2000, and 9-11! Enough of US, thankfully we are blessed with Legal Schnauzer, too!

STAY ALIVE LS!!

"... Earlier that year, San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb published a series of articles about the L.A. crack explosion titled The Dark Alliance. The story behind the crack explosion:

For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a Mercury News investigation has found. This drug network opened the first pipeline between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a city now known as the crack capital of the world. (The Dark Alliance. The story behind the crack explosion, San Jose Mercury News.)

globalresearch.ca

connected to your PETRAEUS coverage, however, interweaves into all your investigative deep probe journalist reporting.

jeffrey spruill said...

Does anyone seriously believe the FBI is gonna investigate Karl Rove when the FBI holds secrets of is own criminal behavior.

Right Mr. FBI Director:

http://hamptonroads.com/node/189481

And here's the article that alerted me to your National Security Letters:

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/03/bush-reduces-portsmouth-womans-prison-term-drug-case


(trying to set up one who's COMPLETELY INNOCENT)

(just alerting the American people to your criminal behavior Mr.FBI)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous is an entity and it's identity is elusive. IT did give Rove a warning two weeks before the Election and reported afterwards that IT stopped him. It is known in the past and present Anonymous has done actions equivalent to this to people and organizations they deem deserving of such action. So it is quite possible it did happen, therefore with the likelihood of it happening even the hint of it,the US government should protect their voting system from any possible attack. It must give the public confidences in the election and provide a method of accountability that is transparent to the public so we have proof it is a trustworthy count of the votes.

Anonymous said...

Had not been to your blog in ages, but met a guy on twitter tonight that has radio show in Bama. Made me think of you, gave him link to your blog.

Then I saw this article..And I picked this off twitter from an "Anonymous" twitter acct about your very article. See what you tink.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/did-hacker-group-anonymous-stop-karl-rove-hijacking-election

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 10:57--

That's an excellent piece. Thanks for sharing. I hope LS readers will check it out.

Robby Scott Hill said...

"Anonymous" is just that, it's anonymous. However, it will never be known as "understaffed." It's like a Liberal Ku Klux Klax. It's an invisible empire for the liberation of oppressed peoples. It's members have day jobs. They go to school and church with you. Not unlike the way some of them smoke Weed, they read this blog on the reg. It gives them ideas and conservatives are frightened. This blog has something in common with good drugs. It has the power to change people's minds. Cocaine is a powerful drug.

jeffrey spruill said...

Really. How could anyone seriously believe the FBI will investigate Karl Rove when they're both joined at the hip in criminality.

I mean Rove was directing them during the US Attorneys firngs.

e.a.f. said...

most interesting comments & article. Having seen what has gone on in the last Canadian federal election I would not be surprized if one rove attempted to do what he thinks best. Democracy as Canada & the U.S.A. once knew it is dead. it started with electronic voting. The "old fashioned" way of voting worked quite well so why the shift to electronic voting? Yes it took a tad longer to calculate the vote but we knew who was counting & there were representatives of the parties to watch the count. Electronic voting has a much wider opportunity for fraud. Elections have to get back to basics if democracy is going to prevail. If not we will simply have the myth of democracy, which in fact is rigid.

Anonymous said...

"John Kerry and the entire nation were watching Ohio just after the 11pm hour. Florida had just been called for George W. Bush and according to the Electoral College math whoever won Ohio would win the election...exit polls from Ohio showed John Kerry with a substantial lead,...
Then the clock struck 11:14pm, and the servers counting the votes in Ohio crashed. Election officials had planned for this sort of thing to happen and already contracted with a company in Chattanooga, Tennessee called SMARTech to be the failsafe should the servers in Ohio go down.
Sixty long seconds later the servers came back up in Ohio, but now with vote rerouted through SMARTech in Chattanooga...Bush’s prospects for re-election were suddenly a lot brighter. The vote totals that poured into the system from SmartTECH's computer in Chattanooga were flipping the exit polls on their head. The lead Kerry had in the exit polls had magically reversed by more than 6%... giving Bush the win in Ohio and the presidency for another four years."
Rove rejects Fox's concluaion that Obama wins Ohio. What did he think he knew?

jeffrey spruill said...

Here is a chronology of the criminal enterprise/events the FBI initiated:

Dear Mr. Spruill:
Thank you for your letter dated July 4,2005,expressing your concerns about the Supreme Court under theleadership of Chief Justice William H.Rehnquist. I appreciate you apprising me of your views on this issue.

Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as this issue comes before me. Please feel free to contact me in the future on other issues which may be of concern to you.

Robert C. "Bobby''Scott
Member of Congress

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/politics/15rehnquist.html?_r=3&ex=1122091200&en=e0ec6fdc57fa3214&ei=5070&emc=eta1

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/politics/21bush.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/politics/21bush.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

*
Dear Mr. Spruill:
Thank you for your letter dated December 18, 2005, expressing your support for the resignation of former House Majority Leader Tom Delay. I appreciate you apprising me of your views on this issue"

Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as this issue comes before me. Please feel free to contact me in the future on other issues which may be of concern to you.

Robert C. "Bobby''Scott
Member of Congress

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19980416&id=VTMzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zwgGAAAAIBAJ&pg=6989,3512615

*
Dear Mr. Spruill:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concems about Harley Lappin. I appreciate you apprising me of your views on this issue.

Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as this issue comes before me. please feel free to contact me in the future on other issues which may be of concem to you.

Robert C. "Bobby''Scott
Member of Congress

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/689627/posts

Anonymous said...

The Ohio "live" election results on the SoS website went offline in this (2012) election. Check bradblog.

I experienced the same.

Molli said...

It is no wonder Mitt only prepared an acceptance speech. This is most likely how George W was "elected".

jeffrey spruill said...

Mr. FBI Director--

http://hamptonroads.com/node/189481

You may have other people snowned but I know you were instrumental in the U.S. Attorneys firings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismissal_of_U.S._attorneys_controversy

And you were trying to set me up with National Security Letters:

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/03/bush-reduces-portsmouth-womans-prison-term-drug-case


The tryanny of America just might surpass the tryanny of Cuba.

Anonymous said...

LS, FYI:

"... LONDON—Today, Monday 27 February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example :

~~

"... "[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control... This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase" – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.

.. The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States.

http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html

Bev said...

It takes a lawyer...like Cliff
Arnebeck to set the techies straight.

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2012/11/what-really-happened-in-ohio-on-election-night/

Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis are the two Ohio attorneys who deposed Mike Connell, and who have otherwise been working to expose Karl Rove’s election thievery since 2004.

From Cliff:

Some hackers/spooks hacked Romney’s computers, which crippled his election day get out the vote activity. However I fail to see how this relates to Rove’s meltdown on Fox News that night.

A successful hack of the Romney campaign computers would have affected all of the operation, would have been illegal, and would have been known to Rove early on election day. So, it does not explain Rove’s dramatic disconnect over Fox’s calling Ohio for Obama at the 11 PM (EST) news hour.

The hack we discovered was limited to Ohio. Its use was coming from Bob Urosevich the same guy who personally delivered a malicious patch in Georgia 2002 which flipped the votes and outcome in their governor and US Senate races. Our exposure of the problem in court through one of the top cyber security experts in the world (so certified by NSA) occurred at about 3:15 PM on election day.

Urosevich would have been informed that the fix had been exposed and that an Ohio judge with jurisdiction had expressed willingness to adopt the corrective action recommended by our expert. He and the one operative who would have been positioned pull the trigger, instead nixed the operation. Neither of them would have been so foolish as to contact Rove to inform him that the Ohio fix was off. Rove’s communications were surely being monitored by law enforcement authorities.

Thus, Rove’s mistaken rant over Ohio being prematurely called for Obama.

Cliff Arnebeck

jeffrey spruill said...

What is it Mr. FBI Director:

http://hamptonroads.com/node/189481

Don't wanna be in the Klieg lights of notoriety. You to good for that? Unlike the rest of society?

You know the Bush planned these set up schemes when he came to Va. Beach May19,2006:

http://hamptonroads.com/node/103941