WARNING: Graphic images included.
Released on DVD and now airing on Link TV, Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story is the most explosive documentary produced in recent memory, involving murder, espionage, cover-up, electoral cyber fraud and a United States Member of Congress with ties to the Bush Administration. Filmed in a style described as 60-minutes-noir, journalist/blogger Brad Friedman (Bradblog.com) investigates the assertions of Curtis. Attorney Bob Fitrakis, computer security expert Harri Hursti, Gore Vidal, Mavis Georgalis, Cynthia McKinney, and Richard Hayes Phillips make memorable appearances.
Hosted on Link TV by Danny Schechter, editor of Mediachannel.org, MSVL is shown in segments, with interludes of Schecter interviewing Bob Fitrakis, Ohio attorney and editor of the Columbus Free Press. MSVL airs five more times: on Tuesday the 30th, and then on October 5th, 6th and 10th. This is the two-minute trailer, and there's also a five-minute trailer.
MSVL is Patty Sharaf's second feature, the first being Citizen Stan about activist Stanley Sheinbaum. When Sharaf caught Friedman interviewing Curtis in early 2005 at the Sundance Film Festival, she recognized the import of his story. She also saw it get buried. OpEdNews reached her at the New Jersey Film Festival where MSVL premiered at Rutgers University last weekend.
"Working the news business as a techie has taught me first hand: some of the most important stories never make air. I thought I could put Curtis in touch with news people who would want to hear his story. While they wanted to know about it initially, nobody would report on it. Seeing that this was one of those stories falling through the cracks, I felt obligated to film the next meeting between Brad and Clint, which took place in Nashville."
That would be the April 2005 National Election Reform Conference, organized by Bernie Ellis, which drew people from thirty states and nine different political parties. Ellis told me, "I know of no better model for what a citizen-patriot looks like than Clint Curtis. He is a quiet, nation-loving, clear-eyed citizen who recognized wrong when he saw it, who spoke up, and who has refused to stop sounding the alarm ever since. If we are ever able to rescue our country from the un-American election thieves who have brought us to this cliffside edge of rack and ruin, it will be because Clint Curtis showed up, stood up and refused to shut up."
Much of the footage in MSVL covers this conference and intersperses Friedman's interview of Curtis with its own interview of Friedman, who recently wrote:
"While the Curtis story has been told, often beautifully, in a number of other documentaries, such as Uncounted and Stealing America, this is the first to go all the way into all of the frightening details underscoring this case, including the mysterious death of Florida's Inspector General Raymond Lemme while investigating the allegations, and the bizarre case of the convicted Chinese spy, Hai Lin 'Henry' Nee, who worked at the firm with Curtis."
Curtis alleges that he was asked to write vote switching software for touchscreen voting machines to throw the 2000 election in South Florida. He also asserts that a co-worker at Yang Enterprises in Oviedo, Florida inserted spyware into sensitive programs that Yang had built for NASA. He also claims that Yang overbilled the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) by over $800,000. Unable to get the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, or the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement to fully investigate these matters, Curtis took the story to blogger Brad Friedman, who broke it in late 2004, and who continued to investigate and cover it the past four years.
When asked what prompted him to go to a blogger with his story, Curtis told OpEdNews, "I read that these machines were being used, and Velvet Revolution offered a quarter million dollars to anyone who could prove election theft. Of course, I didn't want the money, because then the story would be tainted." With that serious of a reward, perhaps Velvet Revolution was serious about exposing cyber fraud. Friedman became involved once Curtis contacted VR.
Murder of Man and Dog
MSVL exposes widespread censorship of this frightening story and suggests that authorities wrongly shut down the investigation into Lemme's death and into electoral cyber fraud. Sharaf carefully explores the intersections between the alleged espionage, election fraud, and the many mysteries surrounding the death of Raymond Lemme. Although FDOT had officially terminated the investigation into Curtis' charges, Lemme continued to pursue it in 2003. On their last visit, Lemme told Curtis he had traced the matter "all the way to the top" and planned to finalize the matter in the next few weeks. He assured Curtis he would "be pleased with the outcome."
A close look at the details surrounding Lemme's death certainly raises questions, suggesting a high-level cover-up. Details in the police report conflict with other information.
On Monday, June 30, 2003, Lemme left his home for work at about 5:15 AM, according to his wife's sworn affidavit. At 6:20 AM, he left a message for his boss, Robert Clift, advising he'd be late coming in and would call back later. Lemme missed a 1:30 PM appointment with the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) General Counsel. When his wife arrived home from work about 6:45 pm, she found a 4 PM message from Clift seeking his whereabouts. She became very concerned, given that Lemme had cardiac issues, and reported him missing to the police.
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