Greg Palast: Greg Palast, here, reporting. on yr mind? Falls Church, Va.: Are you still actively reporting? If so, what are you working on now?
Greg Palast: Right now working on Who's Cashing In on the War on Terror - and the War in Iraq and the wars they haven't told us about yet.
Arlington, Va.: How close were the Enron/Bush administration ties?
Greg Palast: There is no "connection" between Enron and Bush Administration. This IS the Enron Administration.
Within 48 hours of taking office, Bush overturned Bill Clinton's order effectively barring Enron from the California power market. "Tort" reform is Bush's gift to Ken Lay to let him keep the last of his dozen homes.
See the NEW chapter in the US edition of my book, "California Reamin': The real story of deregulation and the Power Pirates."
Washington, D.C.: Is your book more historical in perspective or does it deal at all with the current Administration?
Greg Palast: Some of the material is "history" -- new perspectives on the US coup in Chile; a bit about the Clintons (just to remind you); stories of life among Alaska's Natives and more. But most is about the Power That Be. I do reach back sometimes because history repeats itself -- first as tragedy, then as Presidency.
Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C.: I heard that the accusations you made against Barrick Gold were investigated by the IMF and found to be false. Yet you still seem to believe that people were killed in Tanzania. What's your evidence?
Greg Palast: The World Bank took witness statements -- which ALL told of the killings. But those were from Black people speaking on the record. Some white people whispered they were lying -- and the Bank repeated the statements of the whites and the police (who took part in the killings). Barrick Gold has terrorized virtually every news outlets that breaths a word about the killings in Tanzania. As an investigator, I go by sworn witness statements, photographic evidence, corroborating material. Don't forget -- the World Bank has more invested in the mine than Barrick. If they found evidence of killings, they would have to pull out and probably lose it all. I suggest you go through the evidence -- start with Council of Canadians.
Laurel, Md.: A lot of citizens don't vote in elections because they think it doesn't matter because PACs and Lobbyists write the laws anyway. We can select the politicians but not the policies. Is this an exaggerated viewpoint?
Greg Palast: That's what they WANT you to do -- give up. Vote BECAUSE it annoys them.
Bowie, Md.: I've been a fan of yours for quite some time, and read your book last fall. I see that the paperback is a new updated version. Is it worth buying the new book?
Greg Palast: I hate to say this, but you MUST get the new book -- go the library, if you don't want to pay again. This book has twice as many pages as the British hardbound. It is re-written top to bottom. It contains material that Her Majesty's Satanic government won't let me publish unless I want to join my sources in prison. The British book has none of the chapters on Bush goldmining buddies; lacks chapters on the Power Pirates -- lacks the latest on plans to rig the election of 2004. I am sending a letter to all booksellers to REMOVE the hardbound British book from the shelves.
Somewhere, USA: "That is what THEY want you to do"Who is "THEY?" This is treading into the conspiracy theory mud a bit isn't it?
Greg Palast: Lighten up. The Stupid White Guys don't want Black folk, working folk, the unrich and unprivileged to vote. Most elections are not determined by choice but by turnout. Discouraging the Black vote is a favorite in that game.
Alexandria, Va.: Do you see a disconnect on your type of reporting between the U.S. and European media? We never see some of the stories that British papers print over here.
Greg Palast: Here's a difference. I wrote the first story of the purge of Black voters in Florida in the London Observer (Guardian's Sunday paper) in NOVEMBER 2000. The Washington Post ran my story ... in JUNE 2001.
Washington, D.C.: I see you're a BBC reporter. Do you know the bloke who interviewed Michael Jackson? Any thoughts on his credibility as a journalist?
Greg Palast: Not personally. If I did the story, I'd be looking for Michael's other glove.
Harrisburg, Pa.: One of the biggest changes I have seen in my lifetime is the amount of money it takes to run for office. In 1968, if I recall this correctly, Eugene McCarthy spent $500 to run in the New Hampshire Primary, and the press attacked the fact that $250 of that came from the heir to General Motors. In 2000, business leaders raised $50 million just to get George Bush to enter the race for President. Hasn't the exponential growth in campaign spending had a major effect on campaigns? Greg Palast: Yep -- we aren't holding elections, we're holding AUCTIONS.
It was the money-poisoning of campaigns that gave me the idea for the title, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
Washington, D.C.: I hear that the same voter roll purging methods that were used in Florida are going to be instituted across the U.S. How is this possible? Is there anything we can do to stop it?
Greg Palast: Yes and yes.
Under the Voting Reform Act of 2002, the path to disenfranchisement in Florida -- the first state to fully centralize, computerize and purge "fraudulent" registries through profiling -- will be imposed nationwide.
What you can do about it: vote and make certain that those who lose their vote challenge it. Join with People For the American Way on this fight.
Bowie, Md.: Don't know who said it first, but there's a saying "Democracies perish when people realize they can vote themselves money."
Isn't there an upside to uninformed people not voting?
Greg Palast: No.
Washington, D.C.: I believe there are a few states that have enacted far-reaching electoral reform that has proven effective in restoring our democracy. What are your comments on these reforms and the prospects for other states jumping on board?
Greg Palast: Look at my Washington Post article, "The Wrong Way to Fix the Vote" in their archive. Most of the reforms are simply new excuses to rig the system. God save us from computer voting.
New York, N.Y.: So who do you see cashing in on the war on terror?
Greg Palast: That's a big one, and I'm still investigating (and the war continues to create new profit centers). Here's a few: ChoicePoint Inc -- the company that gave you the racist roster for the Florida purge is a big winner -- Forbes actually called ChoicePoint one of the "winners" in the war on Terror -- who will get massive fees for use of their data bases. Airport profiling; immigration induction; and now THEY WANT YOUR BLOOD: ChoicePoint owns Bode Technologies, biggest supplier of DNA to the FBI Codis system. Hicks & Co, Lockheed...
Somewhere, USA: Will there be more Enrons on the horizon or do you think that the corporate world is pretty shaken up?
Greg Palast: There ARE more Enrons - bigger, nastier - and they are here NOW. Just like the US press missed Enron, they are missing the story of the power companies which have taken the place of the crooked E: Southern Company, Reliant of Houston and others -- read the new Power Pirates chapter in the new book.
Washington, D.C.: Can you name me three things you LIKE about the current administration?
Greg Palast: George W. looks pretty in an Amber Alert. Dick Cheney is in hiding. The Republicans wouldn't allow a sick vulture like Zell Miller into their party.
Allentown, Pa.: I'm interested in the topic of the new book you're working on. Can you give us a taste of some of what you've found out?
Greg Palast: The "new book" is the current book - the new US edition of Best Democracy -- and it's follow-up. I'm also working on the Turkish version of the book this week (adding in info on the IMF; and the Spanish edition - adding in new material on Venezuela). I have several ideas for the next big book -- and I'd chewing over proposals for a feature-length documentary a la Bowling for Columbine. Film and TV for me are a great break from the isolation of writing.
Washington, D.C.: How is your book being received?
Greg Palast: Yesterday, the New York Times announced that, less than a week into release, the new book has joined the top ten bestselling paperbacks. In the San Francisco area, I'm number 1. And I'm still blocked off the US boob tube. (Almost broke through the glass: I was supposed to be a guest on Donahue.)
New York, N.Y.: Do you think true investigative reporting is dead? What do we have to do to get the networks and mass media outlets to resuscitate it?
Greg Palast: Upstairs, a guy named Bob Woodward has gone from Deep Throat to "Bush At War." Investigative reporting hasn't died. It's gone into exile.
Arlington, Va.: How does the U.S. version of this book differ from the UK version -- or does it?
Greg Palast: Answered above. This is NEW BOOK - with new material for the USA only. (Though Britain will get a thoroughly revised, expanded version for sale in a couple of weeks). New chapters, new info -- even if you read the UK book, you'll need this one. I might put up a "concordance" -- but virtually every page is changed. In part because the USA has a unique law called the First Amendment.
Washington, D.C.: My comment about electoral reform in a few states showing some signs of restoring democracy was in regards to campaign finance reform, not internet voting or other purely procedural fixes. Can you comment on some of these reforms and their prospects for building a base for real and far-reaching campaign finance reform? I understand that they are band-aid approaches, but aren't they a step in the right direction?
Greg Palast: The MONEY reforms at the state level are mostly good -- it doesn't solve the problem, but it beats nothing. The federal law is WORSE than nothing -- eliminating soft donations but doubling 'hard' donations. It's just Viagra for campaign donations.
Stafford Springs, Conn.: I agree that you have been blocked on most TV programs, but why can't you get on a program like Crossfire or Bill Moyers?
Greg Palast: I'm sure I will get into those cracks in the electronic Berlin Wall. Friends and supporters please note: please don't HARRASS or attack news programs that do not allow me on. Michael Moore was a pariah -- but success put him on Sixty Minutes. And let me not cry too long or loud -- CSPAN's Washington Journal, Donahue (boo-hoo) and others have let me through the embargo.
Herndon, Va.: What are your feelings on the paperless ballot machines. Can they be misprogrammed on a large scale?
Greg Palast: Paperless ballots. Last week, I met with a professor of computer sciences at Stanford U who told me he is gathering a petition of the top academics in the field to publicly, unanimously, demand an end to this mad rush to computerizing democracy.
Laurel, Md.: Please, Mr. Palast an "Amber Alert" is a system to help find abducted children. It is NOT part of the Blue-Green-Yellow-Orange-Red "Terror Alert" system. You mean the latter don't you, or has Mr. Bush contributed to solving child-nappings in any important way?
Greg Palast: yes.
Arlington, Va.: Has there been a noticeable trend of increasing corruption in both the government and corporate America?
Greg Palast: Yes, I think corruption is at a new level. The mad dash to "deregulate" is really "decriminalization" of the system. Want more info? Read my academic tome, Democracy and Regulation, which also came out this month in the USA (Pluto Press).
Washington, D.C.: What do you think of Mr. Green's work on campaign finance reform issues?
Greg Palast: Mr. Green?
Somewhere, USA: How would you even the playing field?
Greg Palast: It's our votes and our voices versus their dollars (and pounds and euros and SDRs). People are too nervous about the New Greed, the New Militarism, the New Arrogance. We've been here before: McCarthy, Nixon, the Palmer Raid period -- cycles of repression, meanness, plutocracy -- and Americans always rise up and say, "No more of this s---!" That's why I added a new chapter for Americans at the End, "Your Turn" -- what YOU can do.
Orange, Va.: Do you spend most of your time in England or the U.S.? Which do you like better?
Greg Palast: I've just moved my family from London back to the USA. I miss the intellectual vibrancy of England and biking to work. But Americans have a vibrancy and a lack of fear of authority (news editors excepted) which you cannot find in Britain, still a class-poisoned society. Europeans, despite their snooty view of Americans, are still infected with racism, anti-Semitism, classism and ideological arrogance which Americans have, for the most part, overcome.
Re: Mr. Green: You haven't heard of Mark Green's book Selling Out?
Greg Palast: Mark's a nice guy - He can't over the fact that he lost to a guy who spent the equivalent of the price of an Armani suit for each vote he obtained to become mayor of New York. I'm glad Mark won't "get over it."
Silver Spring, Md.: Does your book address the corruption in the International Olympic Committee?
Greg Palast: No. If I had to write on every piece of corruption, we have to make it into the Best Democracy Money Can Buy Encyclopedia issued in 112 volumes.
Greg Palast: Don't lose your sense of anger -- nor your sense of humor. Check out my website and click on appearances to get my tour schedule -- 25 more cities. Have a hot cup of coffee (a little milk, no sugar) waiting for me.
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