I.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Residence: Andy Martin, America's fearless
corruption-fighter and Internet Powerhouse, currently resides in
Manchester, New Hampshire.
Born: Middletown, Connecticut
Family history: Andy's family immigrated to Manchester
100 years ago. His mom was born in Manchester and graduated from
Manchester Central High School and the University of New
Hampshire. Andy grew up visiting relatives and playing on Elm
Street in Manchester. Andy's independence and conservatism come
from his Granite State family roots.
For more
about Andy’s century of New Hampshire family history please
click here.
Education: Andy holds undergraduate and graduate degrees
from the University of Illinois (B.S. 1966, Juris Doctor 1969).
He also attended the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, (1965)
and while in high school attended Wesleyan University
(Middletown, Connecticut) for advanced study.
II. CONSUMER ADVOCATE: THE PEOPLE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL
In 2013 Andy Martin celebrates forty-four (44) years as a public
interest lawyer at the national and state levels. A partial list
of examples follow:
Antitrust Litigation: Andy began a long association with
antitrust litigation/legislation and the media when he filed the
first antitrust lawsuit against the three major television
networks to bar anticompetitive practices in network affiliation
agreements in 1969. In 1998, he filed the first antitrust
lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation as part of his efforts to
protect cyberspace for the public.
Sex discrimination: Andy was one of the first advocates
to fight wage discrimination against women in the workplace; in
1969 he was a party to and helped spearhead the first major
attack on sex discrimination AT&T, at the Federal Communications
Commission.
Water Pollution: In 1972, Andy filed the first federal
court lawsuit in the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Illinois challenging "impoundment" of
federal spending for water pollution control by the President
Nixon. The U.S. Supreme Court later upheld his legal theories.
Victims of Crime: In 1972, as head of the Illinois
Consumer Council he was an expert witness before the United
States Senate Judiciary Committee in early congressional efforts
to protect victims of crime. These hearings formed the basis for
subsequent federal legislation protecting victims of crime in
the judicial process.
Financial Regulation: In 1973, he conducted the first
administrative trial at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington
seeking to force bank regulators to exercise strict supervision
over bank holding company expansion. Over a decade before the
1980’s banking crisis, Andy was fighting for stronger regulation
of financial institutions. In the 1990's, Andy opposed the
financial deregulation that triggered the financial collapses of
2007-2009.
Racketeering Litigation: Andy was the first consumer
litigant to popularize and publicize the "civil RICO" statute
for use against politicians and white-collar crime in Chicago.
As a result of his seminal efforts beginning in 1976, "civil
RICO" became a revolution that has changed the face of federal
jurisprudence.
Congressional Investigation: Andy helped lead
congressional investigators in 1980 to one of the biggest real
estate scandals in history, a corrupt financial empire in
Chicago/nationally that was severely damaged as a result of
legislative scrutiny.
Illinois Consumer Council: Andy formed the Illinois
Consumer Council in 1970 and that organization remained active
for decades, until it was gradually superceded by more specific
consumer activist entities.
Housing abuses: In 2005 Andy launched FightPulte.com,
FightDiVosta.com and FightDelWebb.com, his newest public
interest organizations to oppose corrupt practices by a national
homebuilder and to advocate increased regulation of the
financial activities of the real estate industry.
Obama
litigation:
Andy Martin filed the first valid lawsuit seeking to pry loose
the original birth certificate of Barack Obama. That case was
filed in the Hawai'ian courts, where it is currently pending on
appeal.
Summing Up:
As a people's attorney general, Andy has had a significant
impact on American law. His efforts to develop new legal
theories are frequently misunderstood, because consumer advocacy
by its very purpose seeks to change the system and to upset the
status quo. Andy has been featured on the CBS Television
Network's "48 Hours" [1993] as an indefatigable public interest
litigator and also been a guest on the Phil Donahue Show [1994]
and Fox News’ Hannity and Colmes and O’Reilly Factor.
III. MANAGEMENT AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Board of
Directors:
From 1978 to 1980, Andy served on the Board of Managers of
Olympic Tower Condominium in New York City. He helped supervise
a multi-million dollar budget involving the world's first
multi-use condominium and also spearheaded efforts to
successfully settle major legal claims with corporate interests
involving the condominium.
Broadcasting: Andy has also been a radio talk show host
with an international audience on the Internet. At age 23 Andy
became the youngest person ever authorized by the Federal
Communications Commission to control and operate a television
station, WTAF-TV in Marion, Indiana. He has managed both radio
and television stations and produced statewide political
programs (30 min.) in Illinois. He has been involved in
advertising sales and in-house advertising agency management.
Academic: Beginning in 1969, Andy lectured law students
in Washington, DC on "guerilla law," the ability of individuals
and small entities to oppose larger, more powerful legal
interests by fighting back with tactical and strategic mobility.
From 1985 to 1992 he was an adjunct professor of law for the
City University of New York, at LaGuardia Community College and
other campuses, teaching business law, legal advocacy, family
law, business management and related subjects.
International:
International: Over the past forty-seven (48) years Andy
has lived in or been in Israel, Jordan, Libya, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,
Viet-Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Hong Kong and
the United Kingdom. He is a frequent guest on cable and
satellite TV stations and his controversial
investigative columns and opinions draw intense
attention throughout the world. He founded and serves as
Executive Director of the Revolutionary War Research
Center, which studies counterinsurgency and
counterterrorism.
IV. JUDICIAL REFORMER
By fighting to clean up the courts, Andy is a controversial
figure in the legal system. He specializes in fighting judicial
corruption and is unafraid to attack corruption in both the
courts and legal profession. He began his career as a judicial
reformer in 1969 after he graduated from the University of
Illinois College of Law and joined efforts by the Chicago Daily
News to remove two corrupt Illinois Supreme Court judges who had
taken bank stock bribes.
His efforts to fight corruption in Cook County, Illinois courts
in the 1970's helped pave the way for Operation Greylord and
eventually resulted in the conviction of over 80 Illinois
judges, lawyers, and court personnel. His strident efforts to
reform the judicial system and legal profession are in stark
contrast with the "business as usual" manner in which judges try
to discourage public accountability.
In Florida,
his exposés of corrupt and incompetent judges have led to the
removal and retirement of numerous trial and appellate judges.
|
Click to See Andy's
Certificate Of Recognition |
While his efforts to clean up the courts provoke wrath and
outrage from judges and lawyers, through it all Andy has
persevered and steadfastly adhered to the principle that the
legal system must be honest, be open and accessible, and be
accountable to the people and serve the public interest, not
special interests.
V. FOREIGN POLICY, MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE EXPERIENCE
Andy has forty-eight years of experience in Asia, Southwest Asia
and the Middle East; he is regarded overseas as one of America’s
most respected independent foreign policy, military and
intelligence analysts.
Andy’s experience fighting terrorism began during the Cold War
in 1965, when he became an acolyte of Professor Bernard Fall.
The U. S. Government was calling the Viet Cong “terrorists” and
insurgents; use of the word “terror” had largely lapsed after
World War II. Professor Fall believed that Viet-Nam was a
“revolutionary” war, a military campaign based on political
goals that more properly fit the matrix of political analysis.
After Professor Fall was blown up, Andy persevered in studying
counterinsurgency (COIN) in Viet-Nam. Andy founded the
Revolutionary War Research Center and in 1974 began to offer
counterterrorism consulting at the World Trade Center, becoming
one of the nation’s first counterterror experts. Andy was in New
York on September 11, 2001 and rendered assistance.
Andy was in Iran and Afghanistan during the hostage crisis in
1979-80, and has regularly returned to Southwest Asia since
then. He lived in Iraq in 2003. His analysis of the terrorist
threat in Iran during 1979-80, and again in Iraq in 2003, were
leading-edge predictions of what Americans faced in the future.
Andy’s worldwide sources give him an “over-the–horizon” view of
America’s national security.
Andy is a
member of the American Legion.
VI. WASHINGTON EXPERIENCE
Andy served as an assistant to Illinois’ United States Senator
Paul H. Douglas in Washington in 1966. He remained close to the
Senator after Mr. Douglas' retirement from the Senate and
undertook special projects for the Senator.
Andy has been an expert witness and consultant on congressional
matters (see above) and worked closely with congressional staff
members over the years.
Although personally conservative on many issues, he has been
described by a Tampa Tribune newspaper columnist as "neither far
right nor far left." In short, Andy addresses each issue on its
merits and looks at the total picture before making a decision.
He has become one of America's foremost public interest lawyers
by being what a consumer advocate should be: Independent,
aggressive and totally committed to fighting for ordinary
citizens, not special interests.
VII. COMPUTER ADVOCACY
The First Consumer Advocate in Cyberspace Andy has become the
nation's first Consumer Advocate in Cyberspace through his
efforts to police the software industry and fight attempts to
monopolize computer markets. His computer industry reform
proposals have drawn worldwide attention. In 1995, Andy formed
the first computer-oriented public interest organization, the
Committee to Fight Microsoft (CTFM). The CTFM proposed new
statutes to regulate computer industry abuses, led a boycott of
Windows 95 and Windows 98 and has been vehemently attacked by
Bill Gates and Microsoft Corporation.
Andy's creative legal strategies are largely responsible for the
relentless governmental attacks on Microsoft. In 1995, Andy
created the concept of energizing state attorney generals to
fight Microsoft. He complained to all fifty (50) state attorneys
general to take action under their consumer fraud statutes,
thereby awakening the sleeping giant of state attorney general
litigation. He pressured the Department of Justice to file
antitrust charges. He lobbied on Capitol Hill for legislative
action. In sum, he personalizes in one man the opposition to
Bill Gates. Andy and his supporters continue to monitor the
computer industry for abuses.
VIII.
CONTROVERSIAL INVESTIGATOR/AUTHOR/WRITER/EDITOR/COLUMNIST
Andy is the
author of the bestselling book "Obama: The Man Behind The Mask,"
(www.OrangeStatePress.com) which exposed the secret life of
Barack Obama to a national audience. Martin's appearance on
"Sean Hannity's America" in October, 2008 triggered a firestorm
of controversy over Martin's analysis of Obama's lifetime of
links to radical, anti-American influences. Martin's book and
ongoing disclosures probably cost Obama millions of votes and
held down his electoral victory.
Andy has been
an editor/investigator/author in most of the conflict zones of
the past half century, from Viet-Nam to Iran to Iraq, were he
served as a Baghdad bureau chief and triggered another firestorm
of controversy because of his accurate predictions about the
failed invasion and occupation.
Over the past
five decades, because of his aggressive search for the truth,
Andy has appeared on presidential and presidential candidates'
"enemies lists" in both parties. He is fearless in probing for
facts and exposing the truth to daylight.
Andy Martin
is Executive Editor of the Internet newspaper and investigative
publication ContrarianCommentary.com and its associated blogs,
www.ContrarianCommentary.wordpress.com and
www.ContrarianCommentary.blogspot.com