By Winter Patriot on 7/9/2005, 10:35am PT  

Guest Blogged by Clint Curtis

INTRODUCTION {by Winter Patriot}: We are indeed most fortunate to welcome Clint Curtis, whose "incredible" story turns out to be just a little bit too credible after all. For those not familiar with the story, here's a quick summary:

Vote-Rigging Sofware Fit For A Congressman

by Brad Friedman

In an affidavit and sworn testimony, Florida software programmer Clint Curtis told members of the U.S. House Judiciary committee that U.S. Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) asked him to design a "vote-rigging software prototype". This request, according to Curtis, took place in October 2000 during a meeting at Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI), a computer consulting firm in Oviedo, Florida.

Curtis, until then a life-long Republican, had been a programmer at YEI, which had several top-secret clearance contracts with the state, NASA and other government agencies. Curtis thought Feeney was worried that the Democrats might try to rig the election and wanted to know what to look out for. But Mrs. Yang later told him the program was needed to "rig the vote in South Florida".

At the time of the alleged meeting, Feeney was the incoming Speaker of the Florida House, and a registered lobbyist and the general corporate counsel for YEI. He had been the running mate of Jeb Bush during his 1994 unsuccessful first bid for Florida Governor. In November 2000, Feeney gained national notoriety after declaring open defiance of the Florida Supreme Court by vowing to choose Presidential electors for George W. Bush regardless of whether a court-ordered recount showed that Gore won Florida. He eventually ascended to the U.S. Congress and today sits on the House Judiciary Committee. Although he was out-spent two to one by his Democratic opponent in 2002, Feeney beat him handily at the polls and then ran unopposed for the same seat in 2004.

Curtis claimed in his affidavit and to the Florida State Inspector General that YEI employed an illegal Chinese alien named Hai Lin "Henry" Nee, who inserted "wire-tapping modules" into sensitive database programs which YEI had built for NASA and other companies. Curtis also alleged that the brother of Mrs. Li-Woan Yang, the YEI CEO, had been a deported Chinese spy. Since the time of Curtis' allegations, Hai Lin "Henry" Nee has been indicted, and pleaded guilty to charges of espionage related to attempting to send chips used in Hellfire anti-tank missile systems to China. The arrest followed a four year sting operation by the Homeland Security Office's Immigration and Customs Export (ICE) bureau.

Although Nee admitted in his pleading to have sent such chips "ten to twenty times in the past year" to China, he was sentenced to just three years probation and a $100 fine! Federal investigators have confirmed that Nee was an illegal alien as of January 2000. Yet Federal officials refused to disclose information on Nee's alien status to the Florida IG until after Nee's prosecution had concluded in October of 2004.

Mrs. Yang and the attorneys for YEI (Tom Feeney's former law-partner and current contributor, Michael O'Quinn) still insist that Nee never worked for them even though the Florida Inspector General's report confirmed otherwise. Moreover, his weekly time cards show that Nee worked 40 to 60 hours a week at YEI on their contract with the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT).

The original Inspector General assigned to the case, Raymond Lemme, had contacted Curtis in mid-June of 2003, after both Curtis and the other whistleblower on the case had been fired without cause ? both on the same day. Curtis says in his sworn affidavit that Lemme had advised him in mid-June that he would be very happy about his upcoming report and he should keep his ears open for it because, he told Curtis, "this goes all the way to the top."

Two weeks later, Lemme was found dead in a Valdosta, Georgia motel room.

The police report called the death a suicide, but this report contains many troubling inconsistencies and anomalies. The Valdosta police department re-opened the Lemme case in December 2004, but then re-closed it quickly after they received a phone call fom FDOT.

Tom Feeney has categorically denied all charges made by Curtis and has refused to comment on the record about any of the allegations beyond telling MSNBC that "Curtis has defamed a lot of people". The bulk of Curtis' claims have so far been proven truthful based on a multitude of hard evidence obtained from public documents, court records, newspaper accounts, emails and other materials from a long three year paper trail. On the other hand, statement after statement made by Feeney, YEI and their attorneys on this matter have turned out to be false.

After many months and many requests and many challenges Clint Curtis took a polygraph test on March 3rd, 2005, and passed! The lie-detector test, administered by Tim Robinson, retired chief polygraph operator for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, found that Curtis was truthful in all of his responses!

The story and the investigation continue?

{Winter Patriot again}: You can find much more detail, including links to all the important stories, at this special page of The BRAD BLOG

Clint Curtis will be with us Sunday afternoon. Get your questions ready!

This item is part of the First Annual BRAD BLOGATHON, conceived and implemented by readers of The BRAD BLOG! Please help keep Brad blogging. You can click HERE to donate using PayPal or your credit card, or click HERE to donate using snail mail. Many thanks on behalf of Brad and the Bloggers behind the Blogathon!
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Article Categories: Tom Feeney, Clint Curtis