How is Clark/Acxiom different from Cheney/Halliburton?

[worldgonekrazy]

We all know by now that, after retiring from the military, Wesley Clark worked as a consultant and lobbyist for a number of companies. Among that list was Acxiom, a database company that focuses on consumer databases. Sounds innocent so far, but Clark served on the Board of Directors specifically because he could help that company offer its services to the government in the wake of 9/11. Acxiom sought to take its expertise on consumer databases and translate that into what are essentially databases to monitor and spy on the American public. An example of such a project is a database that screens airline passengers (the infamous "no fly list"), for which Acxiom has already won government contracts.

Now so far we have some activity that some might find questionable in terms of ethics, but there isn't anything illegal. That was until Acxiom chose to violate its own privacy agreement by turning over information from its databases to Torch, Inc. What did Torch, Inc. want this information for? The answer may shock you: to update a version of its Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening Program (CAPS-II). Some here might recognize CAPS-II as a part of the downright scary Total Information Awareness program.

Some will point out that this program's goal is to stop terrorists from boarding planes and as such serves a good purpose. I will ignore, for the moment, the question of whether such a violation of privacy is warranted for this. Instead, I would point out that there have been SEVERAL instances of people essentially being "blacklisted" because of their involvement in events such as non-violent protests. These people are not terrorists yet were identified as such by the program for the sole purpose of harassment.

Wesley Clark was likely not involved in much of this, but as a member of the Board of Directors he was the key lobbyist to procur these contracts from the federal government. It is interesting that Clark speeks so highly of civil liberties in his speech yet in his business career he directly enabled severe violations of civilian's privacy in the name of profits.

Here is an excerpt from an article that provides a bit of background info on Clark and Acxiom:

Since retiring from the military in 2000, Clark has held a variety of industrial positions, including jobs with a Washington, DC-based technology firm, an investment company, and director or advisor positions with six other organizations. In most cases he was brought on board to assist with military or government contracts.

One such company is Acxiom Corp., the Little Rock, AR-based data firm. Clark joined Acxiom in December 2001, and played a part in the company’s efforts to market its services to federal organizations involved in homeland security, according to Acxiom spokesman Dale Ingram.

Ingram did not comment on whether Clark’s actions resulted in any new business for Acxiom.

While Clark is maintaining his position on Acxiom’s board of directors, he did terminate his consulting agreement with the company upon announcing his candidacy. That contract was valued at $150,000 per year, said Ingram.

The full article is here: http://www.directmag.com/ar/marketing_wesley_clark_keeps/


To be fair, Acxiom did announce on the 9th of October that Clark was resigning from its board of directors, after Clark had been sharply criticized by other candidates for his involvement with the company. One such attack, coming from Joe Lieberman, was summed up as follows in a December article int he International Herald Tribune:

The director of Senator Joseph Lieberman's presidential campaign says General Wesley Clark is misleading voters by not giving full details about Clark's work as a lobbyist in Washington after he retired from the military in 2000.

Reacting to the release of Clark's federal financial disclosure form late Friday, Craig Smith, the campaign director, and Brian Hardwick, his deputy, said in a conference call on Saturday that the general was "profiting from the revolving door" between the Pentagon and private business and likened his situation to that of Vice President Dick Cheney and his former employer, Halliburton.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/121463.htm


So how is Clark's relationship with Acxiom different from Cheney's with Halliburton? One sought to profit on the climate of fear following 9/11 while the other sought to profit on war before and after 9/11. Doesn't seem much different to me.

On edit: changed subject line to reflect proper spelling of Acxiom