Palast To Testify At US Civil Rights Commission
By: Steve Turner

Thursday July 15, 2004 09:21 AM ET

MACON,GA.-The US Civil Rights Commission has asked Greg Palast to testify before a special commission hearing Thursday, July 15th at 11am, to discuss his continuing investigative reports for BBC Television on Florida and other states' cleansing of Black voters from voter rolls. Palast's reports provide the basis for the story on the vote fix in Florida featured in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The Commission requested that the Florida Secretary of State testify jointly with Palast before the Commission.

The hearings are open to the public to and the media.

Palast's latest investigation has uncovered new attempts by the State of Florida to take away the votes of African-Americans - this includes a fix in registries and in ballot counting methods and racial bias in the computerization of the ballot box. "Florida put Jim Crow in cyberspace in 2000 ... and it's looking worse in 2004."

The Democratic Caucus of Congress has also asked Palast to appear Thursday morning before the hearings to explain the latest from his investigations of vote fixes and the Bush-bin Laden family connection. Palast will also be a panelist on a joint Minority Outreach Forum sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus and Senator Hillary Clinton. "I'm happy to speak to Republicans, too," said journalist Palast, "but I haven't received a request to by Dick Cheney's bunker."

C-Span is expected to provide coverage of this event.