www.DemocraticFundamentalism.org - Election 2000 - 5/22/2002 - Justice Department Suit a "Sham" to Protect Harris, Bush

	Election 2000 Justice Department Suit a "Sham" to Protect Harris, Bush By Greg Palast Wednesday, May 22, 2002



	Yesterday's Justice Department announcement of a suit against Florida counties for purging Black voters from voter rolls and other violations of civil rights is the result, and vindication, of the investigations of BBC Television reporter Greg Palast. The award winning investigative reporter, within three weeks of the 2000 election, was first to disclose that the Florida Secretary of State's office had purged thousands of voters, mostly African American, from voter registries prior to the Presidential election. All were named as felons ineligible to vote, but most, Palast disclosed, were innocent. Palast's series, beginning first in Britain's prestigious Sunday paper, the Observer, continued in reports for BBC television's Newsnight and the Guardian, finally reaching American shores with his by-line stories in Salon.com (named Politics Story of the Year), the Nation, Washington Post and most recently, Harper's Magazine, whose next issue will contain a debate by letter between Palast and Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Palast's continuing reports on the topic are devastating: disclosing e-mails and internal Florida state documents indicating that Harris' office KNEW the purge swept away the civil rights of innocents - and changed the outcome of the election. Counsel for the US Civil Rights Commission has said that Palast's reports provided, "The first hard evidence of systematic violation of civil rights." In addition to the voter purge, Palast has documented the tribulations of African American voters in attempting to cast their ballots and have them counted. After reviewing the Justice Department's information, Palast stated today, "The US Justice Department's suit is a sham - the beneficiaries of the voting disaster, Bush's agencies, have figured out a way to do the least possible political damage to candidates Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush. They have aimed their fire at blameless county officials when the disaster was created in Tallahassee - a disaster for Black voters, though a blessing to the highly partisan Secretary of State's office. I fear this is an attempt to undercut the suit by the NAACP against Harris and others more directly responsible." Palast has also investigated similar misdeeds in Tennessee and elsewhere. Palast's book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, providing the evidence of the violation of voter rights, has become a surprise best seller in the US - in its 6th printing since its launch last month. American born Palast, now in London, relocates to the USA (New York) this weekend.