Grok Summary of AI-Generated Video Transcript
The podcast episode features host Lara Logan interviewing Gary Berndson (former CIA) and Ralph Pezzullo (author) about their book Stolen Elections: The Takedown of Democracies Worldwide.Key claims and assertions made:
- Venezuelan regime (led by Hugo Chávez and later Nicolás Maduro), with Cuban assistance, developed sophisticated election-stealing software in the early 2000s to rig the 2004 Venezuelan referendum.
- Three Venezuelan engineers created the software, which was installed in voting machines (initially Olivetti, later Smartmatic).
- Smartmatic was founded in the U.S. (Boca Raton, Florida) with Venezuelan government money; the source code always remained under Venezuelan ownership despite corporate maneuvers to hide it.
- The same software (or modified versions) migrated to Sequoia, then was sold to Dominion (a small Canadian company) under pressure from a U.S. Treasury/CFIUS investigation.
- This software has been used to steal elections in numerous Latin American countries and is now present in U.S. swing states and other locations (e.g., Los Angeles County still uses Smartmatic).
- The system allows manipulation through at least 14 technical methods, defeats audits, and is connected to the internet despite claims otherwise; results are allegedly altered via servers in places like Serbia using Chinese Huawei hardware.
- The Venezuelan regime (called “Cartel de los Soles”) is described as the world’s largest narco-terrorist organization with trillions in illicit wealth, partnered with Cuba, Iran, Russia, and China.
- The 2020 U.S. presidential election was allegedly stolen using this system; Barack Obama’s 2008 Illinois primary win is cited as the first U.S. use.
- Berndson and his partner Martin Rodeal spent years recruiting insiders (engineers and employees from Smartmatic, Dominion, etc.), built a private computer lab, and gathered evidence, but were blocked or threatened by parts of the FBI, CIA, Congress, media, and publishers.
- Multiple U.S. agencies and individuals are accused of being penetrated or compromised by Cuban/Venezuelan intelligence; some named indirectly, others implied.
- The hosts call for immediate action against the Venezuelan regime, dismantling of electronic voting systems, return to paper ballots, creation of a new OSS-style intelligence agency and separate counterintelligence service, and full accountability for treason and election theft.