E-mail a friendDamon Dash
airdate July 12, 2004
Harlem-born Damon Dash has leveraged his personal image into a global business, incorporating music, apparel, sports management, a non-profit community outreach program and motion pictures. In '95, when Dash and his friend Jay-Z decided that working for someone else wasn't going to work for them, they formed Roc-A-Fella Records. Dash realized that both rich and poor were fascinated by street styles and came up with a plan 'to market the streets' to both. He proves that street smarts and business acumen can make you a heavy hitter in any industry.
Damon Dash
Tavis: This would, in fact, be unprecedented, would it not?
Michael: Oh, if it ever actually were to take place, sure. I think what we're talking about here is some serious thinking going on at some fairly high levels about what would happen or what should happen if there is a terrorist attack on Election Day or on the eve of the election and as that is not such a hypothetical out-of-the-box question. It has certainly been the prospect that Al Qaeda might seek to attack in the United States to disrupt the election process is something that counterterrorism officials have been concerned about for some time, especially since the Madrid railway bombing that successfully influenced the results of the Spanish election. That plus mounting intelligence pointing to Al Qaeda interests in attacking on the U.S. homeland in the fall. It is, in fact, what gave rise to Secretary Homeland Security Tom Ridge's terror threat warning last week in which he specifically talked about the concerns about an attempt to disrupt the election process. So then the next step is if that is real--And of course, as with so much intelligence in this area, it's very hard to say. All the intelligence is fragmentary and ambiguous, and nobody really knows for sure. But if it is in fact a real threat, then what would happen, what should happen? And that's what the Homeland Security Department began to deal with just late last week.
Tavis: You mentioned Tom Ridge. How high up are these conversations being conducted?
Michael: Well, Ridge himself referred to the prospect of an election attack, or an attempt to disrupt the election process. What happened in this sort of chain of events here that brought this to the fore is a man by the name of DeForest Soaries, who is the chairman of the--something called the Election Assistance Commission. That's a newly created body set up by Congress to ensure smooth administration of elections. It was actually set up in the wake of the Florida electoral fiasco from 4 years ago, and the sort of mandate was to make sure we don't have more Floridas. Anyway, this chairman, who was appointed by the President and took office just in January of this year, began to listen to what Homeland Security officials were saying about the prospect of an election attack, looked at his mandate, and said, "Hey, what would happen if there were to be an attack?" And the specific instance he pointed to was that September 11 itself took place on the day of a Democratic primary in New York, and what happened is the State Board of Elections quickly suspended the election. There was no way that any Democratic primary could proceed under the circumstances of September 11. But Soaries said, "Look, in that case, the State Board of Elections could do that, but let's say something were to happen on November 2, Election Day, and who would be empowered to make the decision about whether or not there had to be a similar suspension?"
Tavis: Does that mean Congress gets involved now?
Michael: Well, it's not clear Congress is going to want to touch this with a 10-foot pole, but that's precisely the proposal that this Election Assistance Commission is making, that there be emergency legislation passed through the Congress that would empower somebody--and interestingly enough, of course Soaries says it should be the Election Assistance Commission--that would be empowered to make the call in the event of a catastrophic attack.
Tavis: In the event of that unfortunate and hopefully not to happen catastrophic attack, what kind of time frame are we talking about here? I mean, in New York, your example is perfect. It happened--September 11 happened on the day of a primary. Are we talking within 48 hours, 72 hours, a week?
Michael: There are innumerable questions that almost cry out to be answered once you start to go down this road, and it may be that there are so many questions and this is so fraught with controversy at every step in the road and the mere fact that we're having this discussion and that Homeland Security is having this discussion is going to give rise to a thousand conspiracy theories. I imagine there are, you know, going back and forth on the web right now. But you know, there is no clear answer. All that's happened is that the Election Assistance Commission raised it with the Homeland Security Department, and the Homeland Security Department has raised it with the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and asked them to take a look at this issue. Now, late today, the Justice Department put out a statement that pretty much sort of brushed it all aside and said, "We've had elections before during times of war, and we're going to have these ones," but that doesn't mean that the issue goes away.
Tavis: But there are a lot of people--You mentioned Internet chatter just a moment ago. This is indeed Internet chatter. But beyond the internet, I've heard yesterday a number of conversations about the fact--I mean conversations that actually started a week ago when Mr. Ridge made the announcement that we might--We've discovered, intelligence has suggested there might be--that Al Qaeda, rather, is attempting to attack on U.S. soil before the end of the year. Now this story comes out that Michael Isikoff breaks, and there are some who are suggesting that this doesn't pass the smell test, that the Right, that the Bush Administration wants to send out this smoke signal, if you will, that, "Something might happen between now and November, and if it does, don't say we didn't tell you," and so, that way, it does not negatively impact his chances of being reelected, because, "At least this time around, we told you something just might happen."
Michael: Well, look. There are a lot of people who are going to think that and think a lot of other conspiratorial thoughts about any discussion of this process, and you know, part of it reflects people have just become so jaded, so cynical about the whole terror threat process. This is taking place during a campaign season. It's highly politically charged, and it's almost sort of defeated the purpose of having terror threat warnings at all, because a good chunk of the public now doesn't believe them, doesn't believe the senior officials who are issuing these threats and warnings can be--have any credibility on the matter, so that is part of the problem with any discussion in this area and why probably nothing is going to end up being done. To actually postpone a federal election, it would require an act of Congress, and to imagine that Congress, in a highly charged election season dealing with, you know, something so basic as the peoples' right to vote, is going to delegate authority for somebody to suspend that election, I think is--is highly unlikely at this point.
Tavis: And I can't imagine, Michael, that the Bush Administration would even want something like that to happen. I mean, you got questions from 4 years ago about whether or not you were elected or selected by the Supreme Court, as it were. You don't want to come back 4 years later and have another cloud hanging over an election. Do you?
Michael: Right. No. I mean, certainly they don't, and certainly I think they are smart enough to recognize how politically perilous this train of thought is. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that there isn't a serious question here. And if you just play it out, you could see how difficult and ticklish this thing can become. We don't know whether Al Qaeda is really poised to make an attack here in the United States on Election Day or the week before or during the conventions or any other time. There's a lot of serious people in the counterterrorism community who believe it's possible and believe there are indications they would--they are planning and talking about doing such a thing. But let's say, for instance, that the day before Election Day or a couple days before Election Day, they get a credible report that indicates there is going to be an attack on Election Day at voting booths. What do they do? If they go public with that as they did, say, last December when Ridge gave the warning during the Christmas season about how there was credible intelligence about a--possible attacks on airliners, they inevitably invite the charge that they are trying to suppress voter turnout and manipulate the results of the election.
Tavis: Right.
Michael: If they don't say anything and something happens, they are inevitably inviting a--quite a level of scrutiny after the fact that they sat on information that could have saved lives, so there are no easy answers here, and given the overall threat environment, which if you believe is real, you know, makes this a--an exceedingly difficult set of circumstances to deal with.
Tavis: I am out of time, Michael. Thank you for coming on. Let us just hope that with all due respect to your wonderful efforts and the time you spent with me, let's hope that this conversation is all diatribe and pontification and hubris.
Michael: And moot.
Tavis: And moot. Exactly. Not something we ever have to deal with. Michael, thanks for coming on. All the best to you. We'll do it again sometime.
Michael: OK. Anytime.
Tavis: Thank you, Michael Isikoff from "Newsweek." Thank him for coming on to talk about this story breaking today in "Newsweek." Up next on this program, hip-hop mogul Damon Dash. His empire Roc-a-fella is growing like you wouldn't believe. A conversation with Damon in just a moment.
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