Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Is Nashville Explosion Connected To Election Fraud?

 

Christmas Day dawned with a bang in Nashville. A huge explosion rocked the city at about 6.30 in the morning. CCTV shows at about 1.30am a recreational vehicle (RV) parked on the roadside at the AT&T Building at 333 Commerce Street. At 6am, three gunshots were heard, followed by a recorded message warning people nearby of a bomb and to evacuate immediately. The warnings were played repeatedly for about 15 minutes. At 6.30am the RV blew up in a huge explosion and seriously damaged 20 buildings. The police had enough time to clear people in the nearby area. The perpetrator(s) made an effort to prevent bloodshed. It's very obvious it was no terrorist work.

CCTV footage allowed police to trace the RV and identify a person of interest, 63 year old Anthony Quin Warner. They raided his home but neighbours said the house had been sold some time back. However they had seen the RV there 2 weeks ago.

Police found bullet casings and remains of body parts at the scene. The person possibly was in the RV at the time of explosion. DNA test confirmed Dec 27 it was indeed Warner. Next police will try to determine the motive. Two suggestions were floated. One - Warner's father worked in AT&T until he passed away in 2011. Warner Snr had work issues with his employer, we don't know what. Does anyone carry a father's grudge for 9 years and then exact a horrible revenge? This suggestion falls flat. Two - FBI started inquiring whether Warner has '5G Paranoia'. Apparently that refers to someone who has serious grievance with the government for collecting private citizen data.  A contractor who had outsourced some IT work to Warner came forward. He described Warner as a very good worker, never bothered anyone, does his work and go home and has never spoken ill of data privacy matters.

In record 2 days, case solved. Go home everyone, it's just a suicide bombing, nothing to see here.

If this was a conspiracy, it certainly was well executed. Much better than they did with Lee Harvey Oswald. The bomber was vaporised. There is no loose end. 

Was there a conspiracy? The nation is on edge with the election fraud claims and the cyber attack on Solarwinds. AT&T is in the communication infrastructure networks that includes telephony, cellular, internet and cable TV. The bombing hits some nerves as however remote, there is a possibility of all three being connected. 

There are a few things that do not tie up at Nashville.

1. Imagine Warner sitting in the RV for 5 hours, played the tape warning for 15 minutes, then blew himself up. It's ridiculously at odds with the psychology of a man who had some grievances with employers or government and wanting to make a statement. He would have wanted to air his grievances with absolute publicity, instead of making a mysterious exit.

2. What about the shots fired. Were they part of the taped record to attract police to the scene to save lives? There was report police found bullet casings. So did Warner shot himself several times? Is that possible?

3. Of all vehicles, the most noticeable RV is chosen. It's one that sticks out like a sore thumb. It's saying catch me, it's easy.

4. Warner had gifted the house to a woman some time ago, yet the RV was there a couple of weeks back for google to retrieve an image.

5. Some netizens have shown there appears to be a difference in some markings on the RV from the google image taken at Warner's house, and the one from the CCTV near AT&T Building.

6. Police appeared to have DNA confirmed in record time. Lab test for DNA takes some time, depending on the samples and the equipment. A 2009 study of police DNA testing capabilities showed for real urgent rush test, a New Hamshire police lab can do it in 2 days, Tenessee police lab can do it in 7 days, other states can do it on average 1-2 weeks. It is not known how quick FBI forensic lab in Roanake, Virginia can do the test, but it would take at least a while to deliver the samples from Nashville to Roanake. The Dec 27 confirmation of Warner's DNA takes some convincing. 

7. It is assumed the RV is ground zero, packed with explosives. Yet for such a terrific explosion, there is no slight cavity on the spot where the RV was parked.

8. Several underground utility covers were blown out indicating an explosion from below ground level. Could the RV explosion be a decoy?

9. The possibility of the RV being a decoy is supported by the unusual behaviour of a bomber getting into position and waiting 5 hours to detonate. It does not make sense. The only reason for sitting out 5 hours is he was waiting for a coordinated timing. With what? The underground bomb?

10. The building opposite to where the RV was parked suffered serious damage. Why is google blacking out that area in the satellite maps? It is obvious Google blackout was instructions from the government, but why? It seems that is an NSA building.

11. Both AT&T and suspected NSA building had special reinforced concrete firewalls that prevented them from massive damage. AT&T had important communication infrastructure to protect, so it is understandable for the reinforced structures. The suspected NSA building is questionable. What are they holding?

Taken together, these loose ends, the quick investigation, and the FBI trying to force down the '5G Paranoia' angle, seems to suggest a possible cover up. The '5G Paranoia' came out of the blue by FBI and suggest something obvious. By publicly linking Warner's motive to the suspected NSA building, they pre-empt speculation of the NSA building as the target. To those unwary of the sensitivity of this link, in 2013 whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed classified information on NSA spying on Americans in cooperation with communication companies. It seems AT&T has working programmes with NSA. 

The destruction of AT&T and communication infra does not fit into any plausible narrative. What is the purpose of causing a breakdown of communication networks in Nashville? If we look into the context of claims of election fraud, it fits the narrative only if there are critical data stored in Nashville. Powerful actors are out to destroy this data. We know AT&T works with NSA to collect private conversations and other digital traffic. These are randomly collected and archived away, and accessed by investigative agencies when needed. It is possible the suspected NSA building is the data centre where humongous servers of data are kept. That also explains why the building is specially structured. The narrative of a suicide bombing appears remote.The real target is more likely the NSA servers. 

The internet is rife with speculations and conspiracy theories and falsified videos by pranksters and whatever. But yet, internet chatter can be full of information, especially the bits of things here and there by residents living in Nashville in this case. Police today acknowledges that internet chatter has helped to solve many crimes. The Boston marathon bombers were quickly arrested with much help from intel picked up from internet chatter. In the Nashville explosion, these was a video which showed a shaft of white smoke shooting along a straight path into the air followed a couple of seconds later by the blast and the cloud from the explosion. Yet another video after the explosion showed a strange moving lazer beam on the wall of AT&T building. We don't know the veracity of the videos and what they mean.

There is the curious case of a Facebook posting by a Dr Edward Jones, a Nashville resident. Four days before Xmas, he posted on his wall of many Dominion machines being transported to AT&T Nashville and of a rumoured contract that the company had secured to do forensic audit on the machines. 

Could the Dominion machines in the AT&T building be the real target? This seems unlikely. No one has talked of AT&T and the contract, and the company certainly has no expertise of the sort. It is quite likely Jones coincidentally pulled a fast one. But a check at his Facebook does'nt show a prankster. It also showed the post had been taken down. After the explosion, Jones said he was getting out of town. He had too many enquiries and had changed the post to 'private'. Once he has relocated to a safe place, he will reactivate the post so public discussion can continue. We don't know why the cloak and dagger stuff and the danger he sensed. We know what happened to Seth Rich, the guy who was alleged to have stolen Hillary Clinton's emails and given to Julian Assange of Weakileaks. Police said Seith was gunned down in a botched robbery where his watch and wallet were still found on him. We also know Hillary had her confidential documents kept in a warehouse which coincidentally was burnt down in a fire. We do need to understand powerful actors are at play.

Seeing that AT&T is a communication networks enabler and the bombing came within days of the cyber attack at Solarwinds, my Andorian antennae quivered. I needed to check out AT&T and I found the following which may, or may not, mean anything, but nevertheless, interesting in passing :

1. AT&T serves the south-eastern areas of US. This includes Georgia, a hotbed of election fraud claims. A lot of data and voice communication from Georgia go through the Nashville hub of AT&T.
2. AT&T has a project with NSA on harvesting private telephone calls.
3. The building next to AT&T is a suspected NSA building.
4. Both AT&T and the NSA buildings have special reinforced firewalls. Data servers and huge treasure trove of all private conversations are physically protected.
5.  AT&T Building was acquired by Cerberus Capital Management in 2007. What makes this interesting is the character Hootan Yaghoobzadeh. He was SVP at Cerberus 2003-2009. In 2009 Hootan teamed up with Steven Owens and co-founded the private equity firm Staple Street Capital. One of their funds invested in Dominion Voting Systems Inc. As a result Hootan and Owens sit at the Board of Dominion. The fund that invested into Dominion seems to have come from one single investor, UBS Securities HK (75% owned by CCP). The facts indicate Staple is the conduit for CCP acquisition and control of Dominion. Cerberus acquisition of AT&T Building may not mean anything because they resold it immediately the following year to MTL Leasing LLC, a newly incorporated company to book the asset. MTL is owned by MetLife Tower Insurance. There is nothing to indicate the deal was not legit. It only smells rotten if MTL is simply a way to camouflage ownership and embed it in a legitimate insurance corporation. There is no SEC record on MTL so no further check is possible.
 
Was Warner simply a suicide bomber, or was he a patsy, just like Lee Harvey Oswald? You be the judge.




Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Open letter to Elections Dept, PAP MPs & Opposition Parties regarding electronic voting

 

For years, Singapore has managed very efficiently with a manual voting system. Our elections have generally been very orderly and subdued. The only excitement has been the 2 or 3 occasions when ruling party candidates wondered into prohibited areas and we were educated by the strange judiciary wisdom that 'within' the area is not 'near' the area. 

Of course, that does not preclude the use of technology where the cost benefits make sense. We are now digitising certain aspects of the voting system. In the main, it pertains to availability of services to candidates. For voters, it is the introduction of electronic registration at voting stations. In fact, I have always wondered why this function has never been automated in the past 30 years. It's a relatively simple app to code.

There are some issues I like to raise, for which concerned parties should either pursue further or provide some answers.

Foremost, on the dollars and cents.  The new electronic registration employs scanners from Smartmatic. On electronic registration, it would be useful if we can have an idea of how much the Smartmatic contract was. If all a Smartmatic machine does is to scan NRIC and register voters, I am confident any smart young student in our junior colleges could have coded an equally efficient and secure app to satisfy the requirements at a tiny fraction of the cost. There is certainly no need for a mission specific equipment that will be used one day every 4 years. Those with a quick mind must have guessed my real question. Are there any other functions for these Smartmatic machines besides registering the voters? If so, what are these?

In a recent Pennsylvannia Senate Republican lawmaker public hearing into claims of election fraud, retired army colonel Phil Waldronm, who had served in cyber warfare units, said : "The voting systems in the US and in Pennsylvania were built to be manipulated. They’ve been used in elections around the world, in stolen elections around the world, in Venezuela, Italy, Argentina, Singapore, Bolivia as close as two weeks ago." The colonel has cast aspersion on the integrity of our election system and it behoves on our government to make a public statement to clarify the matter to Singaporeans. None was forthcoming on a matter so serious. Our national reputation has been blemished but instead of a strong rebuttal, we are treated to the circus of a prime minister protecting his personal reputation in 2 simultaneous libel cases in the courts. Or perhaps, with their superior cyber intel, the US knows something and a rebuttal may open up Pandora's box.

The following stakeholders should have participation in the implementation of an electronic voting system :
1. An independent Election Agency
2. The ruling party
3. The opposition parties
4. The public

We have no independent election agency. The Election Department manages the Singapore election and it resides in the Prime Minister's Office. (1) and (2) are one and the same. We have no public representation. Surely a parliamentary discussion of an electoral reform on the question of an independent election agency and a civic overseeing body, has more national interest than second hand smoking on balconies.

In the absence of a civic overseeing body, it is incumbent on the opposition parties to assume heightened responsibility on the implementation of an electronic voting system. In our big government nanny state, the government consistently blindsides us with developments without public input. We are once again presented with a fait accompli.

The election chaos in the US should teach us some lessons with respect to the use of electronic voting systems. The nonchalant way the various states treated systems and process security is bewildering to say the least. No doubt our use for only electronic registration is not as complicated as the US voting system. Nevertheless there are implementation protocols that we should adhere to.

Both ruling and opposition parties must review the machine hard codes and application source codes independently of each other. If satisfied, the machines and software are certified. Any revision requires a fresh audit and recertification.

Audit tests should be independently conducted by stakeholders. After which, the audit reports should be filed. Only after a green light is forthcoming from the audit reports of stakeholders can the electronic registration system go live.

In light of the distrust of the Smartmatic and Dominion names generated by the US election, opposition must satisfy themselves that the machines have no other data files except pre-election voter information, there is no communication devices whether built-in or external. 

The use of the voter signing pen raises some concerns. It could well be for the sole purpose of marking the ballots as explained. That's well and good. The signing pen certainly facilitates the scanning of votes. That would mean our votes will be harvested and voting data-base maintained. This calls a revisit of the issue of vote privacy once again. I'm quite certain if these are archived, it will not be for the purpose of selective service denials. It would be to facilitate gerrymandering. Opposition members must ascertain how will counted ballots be controlled and that there is no post election scanning of votes. This can only be satisfied with the source code reviews.

What I am suggesting is that stakeholders can no longer be passive onlookers, sidelined to a systems and process tour and some hands holding on the functionality. Instead, they have to be active participants in the future developments of the electoral process.