Karl Rove's IT Guru Dies In Small Plane Crash

A dozen readers have submitted the story of the death in a plane crash of Mike Connell, Karl Rove's IT adviser, the man who set up and ran the gwb43.com mail server, and an important figure in GOP tech circles since 1997. The closest thing to straight reporting to be found in a mainstream media outlet is a piece from KDKA in Pittsburgh giving a detailed backgrounder on Connell's work for Rove, two generations of the Bush family, and many GOP congressmen and committees. CBSNews.com is now mirroring the KDKA reporting. Almost all the early media coverage comes from the left and some of it is frankly conspiratorial. Among the milder pieces (although it could not be called balanced) is this interview with Mark Crispin Miller, NYU professor and author of two books about the 2004 election in Ohio. Connell was compelled to testify on the day before the US election in a lawsuit involving Ohio election irregularities in 2004. Connell, an experienced pilot, died on Sunday when his plane crashed two miles short of the runway of Akron-Canton Airport in Ohio.

Comments

Accident?

[gbulmash]

Does anyone really think this was an accident?</tinfoil-hat>

But seriously, if anyone knew "too much," this guy could qualify.

Re:Accident?

[erroneus]

Yes, and a guy associated with the billion-dollar ponzi scheme also committed suicide... or, well... he was found with his wrists cut and had bled to death... the cause and nature of death has yet to be determined precisely.

As the Republican dynasty comes to an end, I think we will see more of this. Not to say that Democrats are clean and clear -- there were a number of "interesting deaths" surrounding the Clintons as well. I believe there is a lot of ugly truth associated with the rule of the U.S.A... we will never ever know the truth. Depresses me sometimes.

Re:Accident?

[VValdo]

Does anyone really think this was an accident?

Not to go all Paul Wellstone on everyone, but rawstory is reporting that "45-year-old Republican operative and experienced pilot had been warned not to fly his plane in the days before the crash."

"Connell...was apparently told by a close friend not to fly his plane because his plane might be sabotaged," Renault said. "And twice in the last two months Connell, who is an experienced pilot, cancelled two flights because of suspicious problems with his plane."

From PRNewsWire:

A tipster close to the McCain campaign disclosed to VR in July that Mr. Connell's life was in jeopardy and that Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife, Heather. VR's attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, notified the United States Attorney General , Ohio law enforcement and the federal court about these threats and insisted that Mr. Connell be placed in protective custody. VR also told a close associate of Mr. Connell's not to fly his plane because of another tip that the plane could be sabotaged. Mr. Connell, a very experienced pilot, has had to abandon at least two flights in the past two months because of suspicious problems with his plane. On December 18, 2008, Mr. Connell flew to a small airport outside of Washington DC to meet some people. It was on his return flight the next day that he crashed.

Alternet reports the following exchange on Amy Goodman's program Democracy Now:

Amy Goodman: Velvet Revolution, a non-profit investigating Connell's activities, revealed this weekend that Connell had recently said he was afraid George Bush and Dick Cheney would "throw [him] under the bus." Cliff Arnebeck had also previously alerted Attorney General Michael Mukasey to alleged threats from Karl Rove to Connell if he refused to "take the fall." Well, Mark Crispin Miller joins us now, a professor of media culture and communication at New York University

[snip]

Marc Crispin Miller: Well, I cannot assert with perfect confidence that this was no accident, but I will say that the circumstances are so suspicious and so convenient for Rove and the White House that I think we're obliged to investigate this thing very, very thoroughly. And that means, first of all, taking a close look at some of the stories that were immediately circulated to account for what happened, that it was bad weather. That was the line they used when Wellstone's plane went down. There had been bad weather, but it had passed two hours before. And this comes from a woman at the airport information desk in Akron. We're told that his plane was running out of gas, which is a little bit odd for a highly experienced pilot like Connell, but apparently, when the plane went down, there was an explosion, a fireball that actually charred and pocked some of the house fronts in the neighborhood. People can go online and see the footage that news crews took. But beyond the, you know, dubiousness of the official story, we have to take a close look at -- and a serious look at all the charges that Connell was set to make.

AG: Now, he had asked the Attorney General Mukasey for protective custody, because of threats to him and his wife?

MCM: He reported threats to his lawyer, Cliff Arnebeck, and Arnebeck -- also, Velvet Revolution heard from tipsters, as well, tipsters who also claimed that Connell's life was at risk. Stephen Spoonamore, the whistleblower who was the first -- who was the one to name Connell in the first place, also had an ear to the inside. He's also very connected. And all these people were

Re:Accident?

[SinGunner]

Not everything has to be a conspiracy. Aircraft do crash.

Is that a threat?

Re:Accident?

[jackbird]

The guy set up and ran the illegal mail server that Bush, Cheney, Rove and others used to evade the Presidential Records Act (remember the "missing emails"?). I imagine the email going through that thing was anything but boring, quite a bit easier to decipher than a bunch of numbers.

Re:Accident?

[Bourbonium]

RTFA. His friends were warning him that his plane could be sabotaged, and he'd already cancelled some flights for fear that this might happen. He DID know too much, and had access to the missing emails that Rove desparately wanted to remain lost forever. And Connell is likely one of the only IT staff with the knowledge and ability to recover that mailstore. Not saying that this couldn't possibly be an accident, just that it's pretty damned suspicious, that's all.

Re:Accident?

[NewbieV]

Not everything has to be a conspiracy. Aircraft do crash.

<whisper mode="conspiratorial">
That's exactly what they want you to think...
</whisper>

Re:Accident?

[BarefootClown]

[snip] We're told that his plane was running out of gas, which is a little bit odd for a highly experienced pilot like Connell

Not even remotely odd. Fuel starvation is probably the single most common cause of "unplanned landings." And I use the term "starvation" because...

when the plane went down, there was an explosion, a fireball that actually charred and pocked some of the house fronts in the neighborhood

"Starvation" means "not getting gas to the engine." It doesn't mean "out of gas," just that no fuel is being delivered. Frequently, starvation occurs when the pilot fails to switch from an empty fuel tank to a full tank.

The Piper Saratoga Mr. Connell was flying would have a tank in each wing, but would be fed from one or the other at any given time. Run one tank dry, and he'd have to manually switch to the other. If he were distracted (say, by the engine stopping), he might not have realized that he had fuel in the other tank.

According to the FAA registry, Michael Louis Connell held a Private Pilot--Airplane Single-Engine Land certificate with an Instrument Airplane rating. He was required to wear corrective lenses to exercise the privileges of his pilot certificate.

I don't have a weather report for the Akron-Canton airport at the time of the crash, but I don't think it matters. I'm willing to bet that the NTSB reports that the fuel selector valve was set to an empty tank. Just poor fuel management.

Screw Balance.

[tuba_dude]

(although it could not be called balanced)

Seriously. Screw Balance. Don't kowtow to some asshole who disagrees with you just because he says you're not reporting fairly. Know your biases, know them well, and know how to counteract them. As for the readers, know your biases and know or at least anticipate the author's biases.

"Balance" is for people who want to be heard, even when they know they're lying. It's for people with persecution complexes who have no business having them. "Balance" is reporting that Wall Street needs $700 billion, but auto workers are paid too much. "Balance" is promoting two sides as equal when they're not, or promoting two sides when an issue is more complex than that.

How many times have we IT people complained about unfair, ill-informed, hyped, or spun news articles about us? Why is this exact same tactic on the front page here? "Almost all the media coverage comes from the left and some of it is frankly conspiratorial." Marginalization and a thinly veiled ad-hominem attack? When did slashdot start culling from the mainstream?

"Balance" is bullshit, truth is paramount.

Re:Screw Balance.

[jdigriz]

Learn as much as you can, check other independent sources, compare them. That's how historians do it. And be alert to freshly uncovered evidence that may contradict your previous conclusions. It doesn't guarantee that it's the truth, but it's the best methodology any of us have, so it greatly increases the odds.

Re:Screw Balance.

[DynamiteNeon]

Actually, balance is about weight, so the point is to give the various sides of the arguments the weights they actually deserve and not treating them all as equal, which happens far too much when people claim to be "balanced."

The perfect example is the Intelligent Design vs. Evolution debate. The fact that some outlets try to put them on the same level and treat them as equal, but opposite opinions is not balanced reporting.

Re:Screw Balance.

[Red Flayer]

FWIW... if something is "balanced", that would mean the two sides[1] of the debate are assigned equal weights. That's how a balance works.

*Fair* is a different story. A *fair* assessment would assign accurate weights to the two sides, which would (gasp) leave an unbalanced situation[2]. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[1] Assuming any issue is simple enough for a two-sided debate, which would be plane wrong.

[2] As shown by the Evolutionary Theory (ET) vs. Intelligent Design (ID) debate, as follows logically:

1. According to evolutionists, birds evolved from dinosaurs.
2. According to established truth (even ID'ers don't deny it), ducks are birds.
3. Logically then, it follows that ET can be represented by a duck.
4. Some "news" outlets claim to be fair and balanced, by assigning equal weight to ET and ID.
5. Picture a large scale, with ET and ID balanced equally.
6. Now visualize the same scale, with ET represented by a duck.
6. Obviously, since ID weighs the same or more than the duck, it is a witch. Burn it!

Now, Sir Gore, tell me again how sheep's bladders can be used to prevent global warming?

This is how the gov't gets away with this crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it's always just a conspiracy theory.

No need to investigate anything. Nobody has a reason to want this guy dead or anything. And lordy lordy the government would NEVER do anything unethical or illegal.

Occam's Razor

[Prysorra]

When a mouse in a house full of cats dies, the simpler explanation isn't that he suddenly lost the will to live.

The Razor is for simplicity. Your need to reaffirm your faith in the humanity of those in power is irrelevant.

Money quote from linked KDKA article:

[georgewad]

>It was later learned that
>Ohio Secretary of State
>Kenneth Blackwell's office
>had routed Internet traffic
>from county election offices
>through out-of-state servers
>based at SMARTech in
>Chattanooga, Tenn.
>SMARTech hosts dozens of GOP Web domains.

I can't see any positive way to spin this.

Newest Ninjalistics news story pertains to this

[Allen Varney]

The newest article posted on Ninjalistics (your leading supplier of ISO 9000-compliant corporate espionage and assassination services) is, "Six additional political operatives die in separate accidents unrelated to Karl Rove."

Re:Condolences

[sedmonds]

While I'm sure it's sad for his family, it's NOT always sad when someone dies. People who exploit the public and abuse its institutions, whatever their politics, are not owed sympathy or some rose-tinted remembrance. I'm not saying whether this particular person did or didn't, this is a general statement.

I now believe political murder is real in America

[TechForensics]

I now believe that assassination is a frequent political tool in America. I thought for years that Castro ordered the death of JFK until I saw the video (possibly now on YouTube) of the film interview with Lyndon Johnson's mistress. I now believe Kennedy was killed by the Rockefellers and Lyndon Johnson. There is much more in the interview, which everyone should see. For some reason it is not being talked about-- probably because years of crackpot "conspiracy theorists" have made even supportable theories about conspiracy suspect.

What Lyndon's mistress has to say is jaw-dropping and highly credible. Of course, for interested parties to deny or combat it would be to promote it, so that's not happening.

This interview gives a picture of American politics I never believed until I heard this straightforward, plain-talking woman. Political murder CAN happen and DOES happen-- often-- in the US. Now I am deeply questioning the official stories about Vince Foster, JFK, and now Mike Connell. Does anyone believe Karl Rove would not stoop to murder? The movie Bush's Brain makes it clear his ruining of opponents caused one or more suicides, yet in threatening to prosecute Connell's wife (for illegal lobbying !!!!!!!!!) (and as much as admitting he can give or withhold presidential pardons) he shows his tactics haven't changed a bit. I now believe Scooter Libby was persuaded to "take the fall" by threats of being ruined and by promises of a pardon if he bit the bullet.

We, the American people, have to wonder about the inadequacies of our political system (or the easy-to-abuse mighty power of the Presidency) that allow these corruptions to happen. I believe that Rove and Cheney are despicable murderers. This "accident" with Connell just proves it. This is what happens when you aren't a good boy like Scooter Libby.

America, we need to look at the issue of political murder and the frequency of its use for advantage.

Re:Hmmm.....

[MaggieL]

Like Monica?

Another interesting point - geography of the area

[Weaselmancer]

I live near Akron Canton airport. This happened maybe 15 miles from my house.

Most of the land around Akron and North Canton is farmland. There is a sizable Amish and Mennonite population in that area. It's a lot of cleared land and cornfields around AC.

If you were to run out of gas on approach there are dozens of places to set down a single engine airplane. It's mostly cornfields.

That was the part that first struck me about this story. If you knew you wouldn't make the airport...you'd have to be pretty damn unlucky to not find a decent place to set down. With any luck you might even manage an old county access road and salvage the plane.

The reason for the witness protection program...

[MarkusQ]

When Steve Fossett's plane crashed, nobody speculated that he was killed so he would be unable to break any more world records.

The reason for the Witness Protection Program is that people who have testified or are about to testify against powerful people often unexpectedly die under suspicious circumstances. This is a well documented phenomenon. The reason there isn't a World Record Setter Protection Program is that there are, AFAIK, no incidents of potential world record setters dying under suspicious circumstances.

Just last month Connell testified against some of the most powerful people on the planet, after years of their trying to prevent it, and he had just been called to testify again. The local news channel is also reporting that he recently told people that he thought his plane had been tampered with, and had refused to fly it twice since testifying.

-- MarkusQ

Re:Assumptions.

[SupremoMan]

I'm not quite sure what you said, but I like it!