Reply #124: ChoicePoint Ashcroft Connection

[Emit]

Palast on ChoicePoint

Fear for Sale
By Greg Palast

September 11, 2001, was Derek Smith’s lucky day. There were all those pieces of people to collect—tubes marked “DM” (for “Disaster Manhattan”)—from which his company would extract DNA for victim identification, work for which the firm would receive $12 million from New York City’s government.

~snip~

... until a “little birdie” faxed me what appeared to be confidential pages from ChoicePoint’s contract with Mr. John Ashcroft’s Justice Department. A no-bid $67-million deal offered profiles on any citizen in half a dozen nations. The choice of citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint’s menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Argentinians and Mexicans.

~snip~

There are glimmers of ill doings already. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Washington, sued to obtain Ashcroft-ChoicePoint documents. The contract—no-bid, of course—remains so secret, even its true cost and title has been, extraordinarily, withheld. But EPIC found several gems, including the gushing notes of a government spook who requested that agents think of “far-out, funky” ways to use data.

More disconcerting was a handwritten note in government files recommending ChoicePoint for more work because the company “is very responsive to Marshals Service and has made enhancements to their public information database…to meet our needs.” Uh, oh. If ChoicePoint obtained special info for Big Brother, then officialdom crossed a legal line. ...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/fear_for_sale/

ASHCROFT Lobbying client: ChoicePoint:

John Ashcroft and ChoicePoint
Submitted by Vicky Perry on Sat, 02/04/2006 - 5:32pm.
It's your worst nightmare. Ex-Attorney General Ashcroft's lobbying group has client: ChoicePoint. (ChoicePoint owns DBT. DBT authored those "scrub lists" used in Florida in the 2000 election.) Turns out the marriage between Ashcroft and Choicepoint is long-standing.

Ashcroft stakes out lucrative new ground


Less than three months after registering as a lobbyist, former Attorney General John Ashcroft has banked at least $269,000 from just four clients, including Choicepoint. He appears to be developing a practice centered on firms that capitalize on homeland security technology.

ChoicePoint is a "data broker" that sells credit reports and other personal information to the FBI and other federal agencies. Choicepoint bought DBT in 2000, right after DBT produced the scrub list that suppressed Democratic votes giving Bush the edge to "win" Florida in 2000. Florida election officials have been criticized, by many critics of the 2000 election, for knowingly using inaccurate data, and for racial discrimination. Allegations include listing voters as felons for alleged crimes said to have been committed several years in the future. In addition, people who had been convicted of a felony in a different state and had their rights restored by said state, were not allowed to vote despite the restoration of their rights. "It's not OUR fault", says Choicepoint.

Chuck Jones, a spokesman for ChoicePoint, said the firm hired the Ashcroft Group to help gain entrée for its new law enforcement-oriented products to the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security....

http://midhudsonalliance.com/node/454

Similar info here about Ashcroft's lobbying firm/Choicepoint: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601100146jan10,1,5202568.story?page=2&cset=true&ctrack=1