Choicepoint to Diebold to CIA web page link

[BeFree]

Not only was Choicepoint a feature in this web page, but a very well done compilation of the whole she-bang was laid out, from backdoor firmware to defense department and CIA connections plugged into our voting machines.

http://www.ballotintegrity.org/DCForumID1/418.html

The Hidden Underbelly of Election Engineering -
Why We Cannot Entrust Our Sacred Republic to Automated Elections

<snip>

· Five former CIA Directors are identified as directly involved in election engineering, overtly or covertly: John Deutch, R. James Woolsey, Bobby Ray Inman, Robert Gates, and George H.W. Bush.

· Investigative journalist, Lynn Landes, reports that SAIC (Science Applications International Corp., sometimes also referred to as Scientific Applications International Corp.), of San Diego, California, is described as, “the shadow ruling class within the Pentagon,” and as a “behemoth military defense contractor with a shadowy, if not tarnished reputation,” which maintains strong business ties to the military and intelligence communities, such as the NSA and CIA. Many of SAIC’s board members are formerly with the Pentagon and CIA.

· Behemoth military contractor SAIC and ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia, have developed a strategic alliance, teaming up as partners in “data mining”.

[livvy]

1. Some interesting links

pdf of ChoicePoint's response to Palast's column

http://www.privacyatchoicepoint.com/common/pdfs/ChoicePoint_Response_051606.pdf

ChoicePoint website: home page

http://www.choicepoint.com/

[kster]

2. Oh My!!

Ownership: There are no government standards or restrictions on who can sell and service voting machines and systems. Foreigners, convicted criminals, office holders, political candidates, and news media organizations can and do own these companies. It appears that these companies are dominated by members of the Republican Party and foreign investors. Jack Kemp, a former GOP candidate for vice president in 1996 and a possible candidate for Governor of California this year, is on the board of directors for Election.com, while Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) was the past president of the company (AIS) that counted the votes in his first election and an investor in the company (ES&S) that counted the votes in his second election. At least four companies are foreign-owned: Sequoia (UK), Accenture/Election.com (UK Bermuda), EVS (Japan), and N.V. Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Netherlands). Election.com was formerly owned by Osan, Ltd., a Saudi Arabian firm. Many voting machine companies appear to share managers, investors, and equipment which raises questions of conflict-of-interest and monopolistic practices.

http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineCompanies.htm

[Blaze Diem]

3. Can we send this to Olberman?? Someone has to

begin to bring this all to light..
We all knew it, and I've always feared the involvement of foreign interests.

How do we begin to make this right again?
My dear God in Heaven!!

Somehow "Bush" and "Saudi Arabian firm" stood out from all the rest.
Just as we all suspected...
Bush Crime Family is fully operational!!

[BeFree]

6. bushco is fully operational

Its almost, dare I say it, a conspiracy?

Yeah, we file a lawsuit here, make a little noise there, but they have all the lawyers our money can buy, and the judges, and the guns. And what does the press say? Another round, boys, bushco is buying!

Dear God In Heaven, is right.

[Joanne98]

10. Keith won't do it Lou Dobbs is more likely. Everybody afraid of SAIC!

[autorank]

23. This is exactly why we need to go to paper ballots, period, NOW. Dean:

Crisp summary. You say all that needs to be said. That's why Howard Dean (found by the inimitable kpete) said:

These machines are a problem. This is not some Internet conspiracy; this is a serious problem that faces American democracy. These machines are not reliable and they shouldn't be used. We should not be using machines in this country where the results of the vote can't be verified after the fact. Period. Any machines.

April 22, 2006 DU Poster kpete: http://tinyurl.com/kublj
April 20, 2006 American Prospect (source): http://tinyurl.com/zwmxq


Anybody want to argue with that?

[halobeam]

4. A couple of more recommends and we can begin to get this out

if it doesn't make it here, it won't make it out there.

[gumby]

5. Robert Gates

While I'll have to read the link later, Robert Gates was one of my 'teachers.' I learned the art of "Macho Dissembling" from him.

At his conformation hearings, Gates was confronted with colleges who testified that he engineered "Intelligence conclusions" that fit his preconceived political conclusions. Gates' prognostications were about the Evil Soviet Union and how the U.S. had to defend/spend, defend/spend at a time when it was evident that the USSR was imploding.

Gates used the Macho Dissembling defense. He puffed out his chest and declared that he NEVER told an analyst to "change" a report.

What I learned from Gates was that he, of course, NEVER told Soviet Analysis's to change anything. INSTEAD, he quashed any reports he didn't like before they BECAME reports.

That's exactly what the "whistle blowers" were saying.

Gates didn't allow any reports that didn't fit the neo-con agenda to come into existence.

Gates was correct when he testified that he never quashed any reports. That was because he never allowed those reports to be "reported."

The same "Macho Defense" was employed by Clarence Thomas' defenders against Anita Hill.

This is how the Totalitarian Class works. Isn't about time they are exposed??????

[autorank]

7. BE FREE, where the heck did you find this gem?

What a great piece of work this source is. They really take their voting seriously in New Hampshire, the activists, not the state, which like all other states has total contempt for its citizens shown in the form of electronic voting.

Make no mistake: any electronic voting is a fundamental violation of the rights of "we the people" because it makes voting secret, indecipherable, and turns control over to geeks and Republican owned electronic voting companies (they're all Republican, btw).

No more machines for voting or tabulating...all paper, all the time; full observation and examination by citizens and interested parties; do it now.

Canada and England vote by paper. England counts votes in large halls where people come and watch. Many bank tellers volunteer to do this in England.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO AVOID PAPER. THOSE WHO MAKE EXCUSES FOR "GOOD MACHINES" OR VERIFIABLE MACHINES MISS A KEY POINT, THE MACHINES CAN ALWAYS BE RIGGED. BESIDES, WE CAN GET ALL THE PAPER WE WANT OUT OF MACHINES, VERIFICATIONS COMES THROUGH AUDITING AND STATE, LOCAL, NATIONAL AUDITS ARE HIGHLY RESTRICTED.

PAPER NOW!!!

[BeFree]

13. It was a fluke that provided the link ;)

Paper Ballots: I have gone from one to another, listened to the arguments on all sides and have wavered from one position to another. It has been said that a thinking person never really fixes something as truth, but always thinks of the possibilities of the forms the truth can take.

So, the convenience, the ease, and the other arguments in favor of using high tech to count votes has been weighed in my mind and many favorable outcomes of using the machines have been shown.

But really, in the final analysis, when we see the forces that can and do support, condone, and further the machines, ie, as this thread indicates, that tech must not be used. These people must not be allowed to control elections.

The only voting process that ensures our votes are counted as accurately as possible is the process of Paper Ballots, Hand Counted.

[rumpel]

8. I rememeber also discussions here on SAIC

vaguely was it not also connected with total awareness database?

[Joanne98]

11. Bev Harris was the first one to bring up SAIC. Buzzflash interview.

I'm posting the whole thing. They don't care.

September 29, 2003
INTERVIEW ARCHIVES
Will the 2004 Election be Stolen With Electronic Voting Machines? An Interview with Bev Harris, Who Has Done the Groundbreaking Work on This Issue.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

BUZZFLASH: Electronic voting machines, including touch-screen voting, have been touted as the salvation of a fair voting process. Your tenacious research over the last year has shown that this idea may be the Trojan Horse of voting machine reform, allowing elections to be stolen more easily than in the past. What are the basic reasons that you argue that electronic voting machines pose a threat to democracy?

BEV HARRIS: Four reasons:

1. Secrecy: What has always been a transparent process, subjected to many eyes and belonging to all of us, has very recently become secretive and proprietary. This happened when voting systems, which should be considered part of the "public commons" were turned over to private companies. These companies now assert that the process underlying the vote must be held secret from the voters.

2. Ownership: When a system that belongs to the public becomes secret, it becomes doubly important to make sure we can completely trust those who run it. Voting machine companies are not required to tell us who owns them. Two of the top six firms have been foreign-owned: Election.com, owned by the Saudis until an acquisition by Accenture recently, and Sequoia, now owned by DeLaRue (Great Britain). Three of the top six firms have owners and/or directors who represent vested interests:

-- Election Systems & Software, the largest company. Main owner is a company owned by Senator Chuck Hagel's campaign finance director, Michael McCarthy. Hagel has owned shares in both the voting company itself and in the parent company run by his campaign finance director, and Hagel was the CEO and Chairman of the voting machine company while it built the machines that counted his votes.

-- Diebold, the second largest voting machine company. CEO is Wally O'Dell, who recently visited George W. Bush at his Crawford ranch along with an elite group of Bush supporters called the "Rangers" and "Pioneers.” Days later, he penned a letter to Ohio Republicans promising to help "deliver the votes" for Bush. O'Dell sponsored a $600,000 fund raiser for Dick Cheney in July. Diebold director W.H. Timken is also a Bush Pioneer.

-- VoteHere, the company striving to get its cryptography software into all the other companies' machines (already has a contract with Sequoia), has as its Chairman a close Cheney supporter and member of the Defense Policy Board, Admiral Bill Owens. Former CIA director Robert Gates, who heads the George Bush School of Business, is also a director.

-- Voting companies also have a somewhat incestuous group of key players -- Todd Urosevich and Bob Urosevich founded ES&S, but Todd now is an executive with ES&S while Bob is president of Diebold Election Systems. Sequoia and ES&S share software and optical scan machines.

3. Disabling the safeguards: Voting systems have always had people trying to rig them, with varying degrees of success. What has changed is scale. Whereas it used to be that one had to run around bribing someone to shave the wheel on each lever machine, or collect up ballot boxes and stuff them in a trunk, nowadays a programmer can, essentially invisibly, create a back door into the vote system for millions of votes at once. Whereas vote-rigging has always required physical access before, modems and wireless communications devices now open up possibilities for remote vote rigging that no one can observe.

-- The audit trail is being taken away: An audit is simply the act of comparing two independent data sets that are supposed to match. Probably the most important understory to the voting issue right now is this: The voting industry is spending literally millions of dollars, and going through amazing feats of contorted logic that can best be described as marketing gymnastics, to convince us that we should discontinue proper auditing. They want us to eliminate the ballot which you verify, and trust the secret system instead. Even with the optical scan machines, which retain a paper ballot, some states have passed laws to prevent us from looking at the paper ballot to use it for a proper audit.

-- Incorrect programming: One thing we've never had until we got electronic vote-counting (which includes touch screens and optical scan machines), is bad software programming. A lever machine can be tampered with, but you don't have any software programming errors with it. Incorrect software programming has now been identified in over 100 elections, often flipping the race to the wrong candidate, even when the election was not close.

No one knows how many elections have actually been misprogrammed, and as we eliminate paper ballots, no one will ever know. We do know that errors as high as 25 percent are not uncommon, and software programming errors have been documented as high as 100 percent, and in one small Iowa county, a single machine miscounted by 3 million votes.

Incorrect software programming can take two possible forms: Accidental or deliberate. Either one takes away our right to have our vote counted as we cast it.

4. Secret certification and testing, which gives a passing grade to flaws -- The whole reason we are supposed to accept secret software and secret ownership is that, we're told, these systems go through extensive and rigorous certification and testing. However, this turns out not to be the case.

First of all, the certification officials refuse to say what tests they do.

No one quite knows what the certifiers’ credentials are or why they keep hiring the same guy, and we’re not allowed to ask that question.

It turns out that the states generally do not look at the secret programs at all; they simply ask some routine questions and do a "Logic & Accuracy test" that does not detect fraud, and has proven to miss huge software programming errors quite often.

We now know that the certification process is fundamentally flawed. The recent report by Scientific Applications International Inc. (SAIC) on the security of the Diebold voting system identified 328 flaws, 26 of which it deemed “critical.” The examination was ONLY done because, quite by accident, we got access to the voting program files and a report was written that exposed problems. But what this illustrates about certification is simply this: It doesn’t work!

BUZZFLASH: How could a company steal votes for one party and we would never know about it?

HARRIS: Given inside access, which is available to software engineers and support techs, anything is possible. In California, according to internal memos we have obtained written by Diebold support techs and software engineers, in some elections no one looked at the software code AT ALL, except for a couple of programmers out of Canada. This is because the software that was certified and approved, and supposedly frozen and held in escrow, was replaced with different software for elections. All of the companies seem to do this: They allow their techs, and sometimes even elections officials, to replace or “update” programs, and you can’t count on these “updates” being tested by anyone. In Georgia they did this repeatedly.

Let me explain just how disturbing this is: The Diebold software that has been certified includes something called “GEMS” version 1.11.14 and also GEMS version 1.17.17. However, according to company memos, they rewrote “the guts of the program” when they made GEMS version 1.14.xx and then made even more changes, significant changes, with GEMS version 1.15.xx. (The last two numbers vary; none of these were certified.) These changes were made by programmers in Vancouver, Canada and stuck on an unprotected web site, where support techs went and retrieved them and put them on machines used in elections in California.

The story gets odder. The Canadian office, where the programmers come from, employs only a few people. Key software engineers actually come from Russia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hong Kong, and often speak imperfect English and seem blissfully unaware of U.S. election law. Who knows what is in these programs? What is the background of these people? You can do anything you want to an election, if you write the commands that tell the computer what to do.

Getting into specifics requires some geek-speak, which is beyond the scope of an introduction like this. Several chapters in our soon-to-be-released book, "Black Box Voting," discuss this in more depth.

BUZZFLASH: What are the names of the manufacturers of the electronic voting machines, and which one is the biggest?

HARRIS: These are the key players:

-- Election Systems & Software (ES&S) – currently the largest
-- Diebold Election Systems – currently the fastest growing
-- Sequoia Voting Systems – Still controls a significant share of American voting machines.
-- Hart Intercivic – Like the others, their machines are not properly auditable.
-- VoteHere – This is a different kind of company. They have heavy ties to the defense industry. Their current focus is to get their encryption system into all the other manufacturers’ voting systems; their encryption concept is just another attempt to do an end run around an open transparent system with paper ballots.
-- Avante – This is a very interesting company, because it makes touch screens WITH a paper trail, and a secure ballot box is attached to every machine. Their machines have been used in Sacramento County and recently fared quite well in Connecticut.
-- AccuPoll – This is another company we should pay more attention to. It not only has touch screens with a voter verified paper ballot, but its software is also “Open source,” meaning anyone can examine it.


BUZZFLASH: You have charged that the owners of some of these companies have close connections with the Republican Party. The head of Diebold, for instance, publicly vowed to do everything possible to see that Bush wins in Ohio in 2004. Are you concerned that the Republican Party affiliation of some of these companies could result in voting results skewed toward the GOP, in short, as a result of manipulating the software?

HARRIS: It’s a conflict of interest, just as having military defense contractors involved in our voting system is a conflict. “Conflict of interest” provides a motive to do something impure. Allowing secret code and combining it with conflict of interest is just playing with electoral fire.

BUZZFLASH: You have been the victim of having your website www.blackboxvoting.org shut down by Diebold. Briefly, why did they shut down your site and how were they able to do that? You refer to their use of "DMCA" to get your ISPN to clear your website. What is DMCA? What is the difference between www.blackboxvoting.org and www.blackboxvoting.com?

HARRIS: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) laws, in the Internet world, are almost as controversial as the Patriot Act, because they tread on rights, contain draconian penalties, and can be abused in order to shut people up. What DMCA does is criminalize copyright issues. They were pushed in by the recording industry to prevent music piracy, but they have since been used for many other things.

The provision that was used against us was an abuse of the DMCA pull-down-demand- process. Using this, a company can claim they own copyright to something, write a letter to your Internet service provider (ISP), demand that the offending page be removed. The ISP must pull the page immediately or risk losing everything. These pull-downs almost always take place without a court order.

Now, in our case, Diebold didn’t even claim we had a copyrighted document on our site, they complained that we had a LINK to an unrelated site which, in turn, had LINKS to documents which they claimed copyright to. And in our case, our ISP overstepped its bounds. We do not know the extent to which it was pressured to do so by Diebold or whether there were other types of political pressure. Our ISP not only pulled the offending link, it pulled the page the link was on, then it pulled our whole site down, then it removed access to the files on our FTP site so that we couldn’t even relocate the files to another location. We have been told the site must remain down for 10 days, and we need to file a letter disputing their claim and bleed lawyer’s fees to litigate this. Fortunately, David Allen, who knows about these things, had a techie-to-techie conversation with a rep at the ISP, and they decided their attorney had been wrong and granted us access via FTP, though the site is still not up.

Now let me tell you what the Diebold didn’t want people to see: Memos leaked by an insider. It was not a Diebold page, it was an independent web site owned by someone else.

These memos show a pattern of allegedly breaking the law, starting with using uncertified software; Diebold insiders allegedly admit to doing “end runs” around the voting system, and in one of the most shocking sets of memos, they allegedly admit that a “replacement” set of vote totals was uploaded in Volusia County, Florida which took 16,022 votes away from Al Gore in Nov. 2000. The explanation for how a supposedly secure system can have replacement votes put on it, and the whereabouts of “card #3” which contained the second vote upload, are missing in action. (The votes were given back to Gore, but only because a Florida clerk noticed the tally going down and sent out an alert).

Now on the web sites: blackboxvoting.com is owned by David Allen, my publisher, with Plan Nine Publishing. It contains breaking news stories, a generous archive of articles, and commentary. I own the domain name blackboxvoting.org, but to be fair, a webmaster named Roxanne Jekot, of “Georgia hack challenge” fame, did all the work to create a very effective “self-serve” activism site, where people could go and get directly involved and post their work and set up meetings, both public and private. It is the .org site that was shut down, and I don’t know if I’ll set it up again; I don’t have the programming expertise to run it.

We are at “the tipping point” now. What brought us to this point, besides all the hard work by many people, was a kind of “drip,drip,drip” public education process, mostly using the Internet but also using radio quite a bit, and what has finally tipped things is the program files from the Diebold web site and the internal memos.


BUZZFLASH: Due to your work, states now seem to be reviewing electronic voting machines, but not necessarily doing anything about it? Is that accurate?

HARRIS: We’re getting there. My skills are primarily in investigating, writing, and being a mouthpiece to get things into public attention. The set of skills for changing laws, getting injunctions, and confronting officials in an organized, systematic way is quite different. I have been eager to pass the torch, and I think we are at that point, and you will see citizens groups having a big impact in the very near future. The “Black Box Voting” book is designed to facilitate activism, because although we’ll start seeing action soon, we have a very long fight ahead of us. It’s a solid synopsis of what we know, to equip citizens to argue this issue persuasively.

BUZZFLASH: Okay, you've identified a problem that goes to the heart of how we choose our leaders in a democracy. You claim that the "salvation" of electronic voting is rife with potential for corruption? We are just over a year away from a national presidential election. Can anything be done in time to ensure an accurate vote count?

HARRIS: It has to be. We should not do any more elections until we have trustworthy and fully auditable voting systems. The stakes are high and the timeline is short.

BUZZFLASH: You have described many of the relationships in the Black Box Voting industry as incestuous. Can you explain how a recent State of Maryland "investigation" into a touch-screen voting machine vendor illustrates that?

HARRIS: Yes. Check this out: The SAIC is charged with doing an “independent” investigation of the security of Diebold software. They then give us about 69 heavily redacted pages out of a 200-page report, and in this, they take whole sections of the voting system off the table for examination. Now, the SAIC has ties to the voting industry – specifically, Admiral Bill Owens is the Vice Chairman of the SAIC and he is the Chairman of VoteHere. SAIC has ties to the ITAA , and the ITAA just tried to thrust a $200,000 PR campaign on the voting industry to solve the “PR problem” caused by the Diebold revelations. And there’s more. You don’t even have time for how much more there is.

BUZZFLASH: You have a book coming out, "Black Box Voting." When is it going to be released? What does it cover? (We will be offering it as a BuzzFlash premium).

HARRIS: Are you ready for this? Wednesday, Oct. 1, we will start releasing this book for free in electronic format. We know that some of the people most likely to be disenfranchised cannot afford a book, and we want the book to be available to everyone. We know that time is of the essence, and we want tools to be available to activists immediately. On Wednesday, we will release two chapters every two days in free electronic format until the book has been thoroughly propagated around the world. Then the paperback version will go to print. (, watch for the announcement at the top of the homepage)

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

* * *

[Up2Late]

24. Though some of the info in that 2003 interview is goods, a lot...

...of it's no longer true. Just about any info in this area older than 2005 needs to be re-checked to see if facts have changed.

I only read down about half a page and already found several errors like "...and Sequoia, now owned by DeLaRue (Great Britain)...."

No longer true,

"...The indignation has taken Sequoia executives by surprise, partly because Sequoia has been foreign-owned for 24 years. The firm's roots go back to 1890.

In the early 1980's, Sequoia was sold to the Irish printing conglomerate Jefferson Smurfit, which sold the company to De La Rue, a British banking technology and currency printing house. Sequoia lost money in 2004 and De La Rue sold it to Smartmatic Co. of Boca Raton, which is owned by companies of the Smartmatic Group based in the Netherlands and Curacao....

And here,

"...Election.com, owned by the Saudis until an acquisition by Accenture recently..."

They should point out who Accenture is, "...Accenture originated as the consulting division of Arthur Andersen."

For those who might not remember Arthur Andersen, they are ENRON's former Accounting firm. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accenture>

And it's no longer Election.com, now it's "Accenture E-democracy Services" <http://www.accenture.com/Global/Services/By_Industry/Government/EdemocracyServices.htm>

And if you ever wanted to feel like you were being scammed, read the slick Corp-speak this page is written in. Check out this part:

"...Specific Services

* Strategic planning—Helping agencies navigate the complexities of planning for long-term election solutions.

* Election systems management and voter registration—Leveraging our knowledge capital from election solutions implementations worldwide.

* Program management—Helping to mitigate risks by managing the implementation of complex, mission-critical solutions.

* Fulfillment—Understanding and addressing all of the issues that jurisdictions must get right—voter systems, poll worker training and education, performance tracking and reporting...."
<http://www.accenture.com/Global/Services/By_Industry/Government/EdemocracyServices.htm>

Reading that is making me ill. :puke:

Here's a link to some updated info:

California: Sequoia Quietly Leading State E-voting

By Ian Hoffman
June 20, 2006

Foreign ownership an issue for rising Oakland company

This article appeared on Inside Bay Area. It is reposted here with permission of the author.

For three years, the nation's two largest suppliers of voting machinery have driven feverishly for sales and shown the symptoms of overextension — missed deliveries, faulty equipment and breach-of-contract lawsuits.

Until recently, the supplier running a close third kept a lower profile than competitors Diebold and Election Systems & Software, though quietly snapping up sales of voting systems on both coasts, all of Nevada and Louisiana, as well as Chicago and Cook County.

With a $13.3 million contract signed Friday by Alameda County, Sequoia Voting Systems arguably became the dominant voting-system maker in California, with more counties than any other.

Outside California, a controversy has sprung up over the foreign ownership of Oakland-based Sequoia.

(more at link) <http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1411&Itemid=51>

And I hope those here who have said we should ask for Lou Dobbs to get involved in this, stop and read the bogus info he's pushing in this article.

And here's another interesting development, posted over at Brad Blog:

Inventor of Electronic Voting Verification System Takes Industry Giants to Court for Patent Infringement

Wednesday July 12, 11:19 am ET

SimmonsCooper Files Lawsuit on Behalf of AVANTE International Technology Corporation

EAST ALTON, Ill., July 12 /PRNewswire/ — SimmonsCooper LLC has filed a lawsuit against the three largest voting machine manufacturers for infringing AVANTE International Technology Corporation's Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and optical scan patents.

Named in the suit are Diebold Election Systems, Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), and Sequoia Voting Systems. The suit was filed on behalf of Kevin Chung, CEO of Avante International Technology Corporation, Inc., who invented VVPAT.

(more at link) <http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3061>

[rumpel]

9. Why would Choicepoint prez support a Dem

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=439952&mesg_id=440008

smells - even with my allergy impacted nose - it smells

[Cookie wookie]

14. that's a strange question.

Maybe because he's a Democrat?

Maybe because he wants the Dems to take our country back?

Oh, that does smell rotten. (sarcasm)

Oh, wait, aren't we Democratic Underground? Don't we support Democrats?

Uh oh.

[Kelvin Mace]

16. Between him and his wife

they have donated about $100,000 to Dem candidates, including Hilary, Max Cleland, Kerry, Edwards, Bob Casey and Dennis Kucinich. The husband did donate some cash to Orin Hatch and Saxby Chamblis, but much less than went to Dems.

[BeFree]

18. The point is, Kelvin

It is a choice, and the point is that getting in bed with such a company is like being addicted to the drug of technology that will take over every aspect of our public lives.

Choicepoint will destroy our privacy. It is CIA, it is bushco. Do not be deceived. Choicepoint IS big brother and they are having an orgy at our expense, please, don't even get close to sleeping with the enemy.

[chill_wind]

12. K&R&B N/t

[Land Shark]

15. I'm sending folks over here since my thread will remain undefended

since i'm on vacation and will be on the road the next 6 hours or so... at least.

[autorank]

22. Can you imaigne.....

...there are actually people around here who defend Choicepoint. Amazing times.

Wasn't DU founded, in some part, due to the reaction to stolen election - Florida 2000?

Didn't Choicepoint acquire DBT, the people who wrote the felon purge code in Feb 2000?

Isn't Feb 2000 a full eight months before the election where the purge code wiped out
the Gore victory (before we ever look at hanging chads, etc.)?

I know the answer to the latter two questions is YES.

Fund raising makes strange bed fellows;)

[Nothing Without Hope]

17. Greg Palast says these guys helped steal the Mexican election:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=437351
thread title (6-30-06): STEALING MEXICO - by Greg Palast

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1556158
thread title (7-3-06): Dispatch from Mexico City: Stealing it in Front of Your Eyes - Greg Palast

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x439021
thread title (7-8-06): Mexico and Florida have more in common than heat-Greg Palast/The Guardian

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1631079
thread title (7-14-06): Why Democrats Don't Count - Greg Palast

[bleever]

19. Blast from the past: INSLAW and the PROMIS software theft.

· The now infamous PROMIS software was originally developed by a company called INSLAW (Institute for Law and Social Research), which was awarded a contract for $10 million by the U.S. Department of Justice, “to adapt a computer program to the needs of U.S. attorneys and government agencies in tracking criminals (later termed “terrorists”), inter-agency.”

· Upon being shorted $2 million of $10 million, INSLAW filed suit against the U.S. Justice Department for breach of contract. Discovery revealed that the PROMIS software had been unlawfully altered with a quiet nod of approval from high-level officials at the Justice Department.

· According to INSLAW Owner and CEO, Bill Hamilton, PROMIS software was later sold with companion hardware, “with extra signal-sending hardware chips that broadcast data to satellites owned by the NSA.”

· Robert Gates, a Senior American intelligence and national security official (later, appointed Director of the CIA by President George H.W. Bush), personally peddled the PROMIS software overseas, complete with “back doors by which to spy on client countries.”

[autorank]

20. Hey you...

:hi:

[bleever]

25. The NSA and stolen elections.

It'd never happen, right? Right?

:hi: Happy summer, dude!

[happydreams]

21. David Kay, the infamous Bush appointed weapons inspector, is

or was on the BOD of SAIC

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Kay

[seafan]

26. More on ChoicePoint:

Directly from their website:

(Please take note of the bolded sections, which are added.)

I'll wager that this is where all the *stolen data* on private citizens has been flowing. The same for the data from Latin America before the recent elections in Mexico and other areas. ChoicePoint and NSA? Wouldn't doubt it one bit. ChoicePoint's handiwork in Florida in November, 2000 was only the beginning.

We are all being sold out to the highest bidder as merely pawns in the BFEE/Carlyle/Corporate Empire robbery.

SQL Direct™

SQL Direct, a remote processing solution, dedicates the processing power necessary to handle any high-volume searches and can be accessed by virtually any mini-computer or mainframe system.

With SQL Direct, unnecessary labor costs are eliminated, as searches can be completely automated to provide efficient data retrieval. SQL Direct can also eliminate the need for a large capital investment. It offers the same flexibility and conveniences as an in-house database without the costs associated with additional computer hardware, data acquisition, development and maintenance.

Key Features & Benefits

* Current and historical public record information.
* Extensive breadth and depth of data.
* Total interface control.
* Flexible, customizable search capability.
* Volume pricing through high volume searching.

Available Databases:

Any or all of the following databases are available:

* Credit Header
* Real property
* Corporations limited partnerships
* UCC filings
* Bankruptcies, Liens and Judgements
* Telephone Directory (includes Reverse Directory)
* Business Directory listings
* SEC Significant Shareholders
* FAA Aircraft and Pilots
* US Coast Guard Watercraft registrations
* Physician Reports
* Address Inspector
* Federal Employer Identification (FEIN) listings
* OSHA filings
* Professional License
* Fictitious Business Name Registrations

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/prds_1.html

FAIRSM for Housing and Entitlement

FAIR (Family Assistance Information Reporting) is an online solution developed specifically to help government agencies enhance their eligibility determination process, which enables them to deliver the right benefits to those in need. With FAIR, government employees are empowered to make well-informed decisions in the interview process for publicly-funded programs.

By combining credit history data with ChoicePoint's public record data from AutoTrackXP®, FAIR helps users quickly uncover assets, financial status, household composition and identify information.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/gs_2.html

Resident Data®

Resident Data is an industry leader in apartment resident screening and debt collections. Our mission is to maximize customer profitability by managing resident profile risk, collecting maximum payments from residents who default, and creating an environment of resident accountability.

Our integrated screening, skip watch and collections solutions enable apartment owners and managers to better direct their properties by providing flexible solutions that adapt to the individual needs of the community.

Resident Data helps reduce liability by improving compliance with FCRA and Fair Housing requirements.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/cbi_5.html

AutoTrackXP®

AutoTrackXP provides Internet access to more than 17 billion current and historical records on individuals and businesses, and allows users to browse through those records instantly. With as little information as a name or Social Security number, users can cross-reference public and proprietary records including identity verification information, relatives and associates, corporate information, real property records, deed transfers and much more . In addition, access is available to a staff of field researchers who perform county, state and federal courthouse searches.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/cbi_1.html

ChoicePoint Authentication Services

With today's technology, identity can easily be falsified. A combination of personal data and biometric elements offers a more definitive method of identification.

Through ChoicePoint's identification services, companies can perform on-site, online or off-line identity validation and confirmation for use in trusted transactions. CPAS can integrate via API into any integrated credentialing solutions, enabling such security solutions as:
- biometric smart card issuance, credential monitoring and card revocation; and
- traditional digital certificate issuance, rights and privilege monitoring and certificate revocation
Step 1 - Identify Verification (Establishes unique identities)

* Verifies name, Social Security number, date of birth and drivers license number, and ensures they are all valid and unique
* Matches this information against a separate credit source
* Verifies that the person is indeed who he or she claims to be

Step 2 - Identity Validation (Establishes valid identities)

* Knowledge engine that validates whether an enrollee is who he/she claims to be by posing unique questions only the applicant can answer
* Questions are developed using ChoicePoint's extensive public records databases

Step 3 - Identity Confirmation (Confirms a level of trust with the identity)

* Builds on identity verification in step 2
* Uses formula to determine normal transactional history for the individual
* Compares individual's actual history with formula to confirm valid identity

After these steps are completed, a credential can be issued to the individual for use in trusted transactions or for storage in any secure device, such as a smart card.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/cbi_6.html

Washington Document Service

Washington Document Service provides on-site, same-day research capabilities at every court, legislature and agency in the country. Experienced researchers locate documents including complaints, answers, briefs, bankruptcy petitions, indictments and articles of incorporation. Washington Document Service’s watch service tracks cases daily, weekly or monthly, obtaining the documents you need as they are filed.

Use the numbers listed to obtain a quote for your document searches. No contract is required.

Key Features & Benefits

* Obtain court filings including docket sheets, pleadings, briefs and more.
* Enjoy 24-hour turnaround time with no rush fees.
* Send anonymous FOIA requests.
* Benefit from more than 20 years of experience in public record retrieval.


http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/cbi_7.html

Asset Locator

The Asset Locator service enables users to locate assets such as real estate, aircraft and watercraft with one search. Verify ownership, assessed property value and more.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/cbi_10.html

Business Background Check

Choose vendors, service providers and business partnerships without the worry of unknown, troublesome histories. Uncover bankruptcies, judgments, lawsuits, liens and UCC filings against a business with one search.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/public/cbi_11.html

Investigative Solutions



Visualize - Analyze - Communicate

ChoicePoint’s i2 is the leading worldwide provider of visual investigative analysis software for law enforcement, intelligence, military and Fortune 500 organizations.

The integrated suite of products enables investigators and analysts to quickly understand complex scenarios and volumes of seemingly unrelated data, perform analysis and communicate the results.

i2’s award-winning products have proven instrumental in helping to solve cases of fraud, drug trafficking, counterterrorism, national security, and corporate security. That is why more than 2,000 organizations in over 100 countries rely on i2 for investigations and intelligence analysis.

http://www.choicepoint.com/industry/government/i2inc.html

Mapping Solutions



ChoicePoint’s iMapData delivers relevant and tailored information to clients via a Web-based map interface. Our visual platform helps government agencies and corporate customers quickly grasp complex scenarios, analyze geo-economic environments, and determine organizational strategies.

iMapData supports strategic planning, analysis and response activity. The intuitive Web-based platform does away with complex GIS applications, expensive hardware and software, database acquisition and lengthy staff training.

Thousands of existing data layers deliver targeted and actionable information to corporations and government agencies. Databases incorporate business, economic, demographic, geographic and political information.

http://www.choicepoint.com/industry/government/imapdata.html

Automation Solutions



One platform. A full complement of solutions.

ChoicePoint’s EzGov solution offers a full range of commercial-off-the-self (COTS) software products that help governments around the world bring transactional applications online, fully automating processes such as revenue collection, licensing & compliance, and benefits & claims administration.

The solutions are built on EzGov FlexFoundation®, an innovative, open standards-based software platform engineered to adapt easily to change. So when governments invest in one or more solutions built using FlexFoundation, the platform is theirs to grow on.

FlexFoundation technology has the power and flexibility to connect disparate people, processes and data for truly integrated, end-to-end automation, no matter how demanding the requirements. It is technically superior to other solutions on the market. And full-featured, out-of-the-box functionality makes EzGov government software a much smarter choice than custom development.

In addition to being one of the world's leading government software providers, EzGov offers professional services, hosting services and partnerships with leading systems integrators. We provide complete support for successful implementations that prove their value day after day.

http://www.choicepoint.com/industry/government/ezgov.html

Office Locations



Location> Business Unit>
Alpharetta, GA < > Headquarters & Insurance Services
Alpharetta, GA < > Public Records
Andover, MA < > True ID
Atlanta, GA < > Public Records
Atlanta, GA < > Public Records
Aurora, CO < > Public Records
Austin, TX < > Public Records
Bainbridge Island, WA < > Public Records
Bloomington, IL < > Insurance Services
Boca Raton, FL < > Public Records
Boca Raton, FL < > Public Records
Bolingbrook, IL < > Pre-Employment Screening
Bolingbrook, IL < > Pre-Employment Screening
Bolingbrook, IL < > Public Records
Bolingbrook, IL < > Public Records
Bozeman, MT < > Public Records & Financial Services
Brea, CA < > Pre-Employment Screening
Brea, CA < > Pre-Employment Screening
Brea, CA < > Pre-Employment Screening
Brentwood, TN < > Records
Charlotte, NC < > Pre-Employment Screening
Chicago, IL < >
Dallas, TX < > Pre-Employment Screening
Dallas, TX < > Public Records
Dallas, TX < > Public Records
Danbury, CT < > Direct Marketing Services
Duluth, GA < > Pre-Employment Screening
Duluth, GA < > Public Records & Insurance Services
Durham, NC < > Direct Marketing Services
El Paso, TX < > Direct Marketing Services

http://www.choicepoint.com/choicepoint/efx00014.nsf/weblocations?openview

Customer Identification Programs



Customer identification programs are now required of virtually all U.S. financial institutions including banks, mutual funds, credit unions and securities dealers. To help you meet these new requirements, we offer a suite of due diligence products and services.

With ChoicePoint’s solutions, you can:

* Reduce financial risk while potentially increasing revenue.
* Protect your firm’s reputation.
* Enhance USA PATRIOT Act and anti-money laundering compliance.
* Prevent fraud and identity theft.

ChoicePoint’s solutions are delivered in XML, system-to-system query services and batch delivery – enabling customized search and results logic, rapid response time and unique search and link technology. The use of XML supports integration at the data or Web services level for ease of application integration.

Identification Solutions

Basic identification solutions ensure that name, address, date of birth and Social Security numbers match. This includes a check against required government sanctions lists. Enhanced due diligence solutions include telephone numbers, historical information, criminal records, key relationships, international information and comprehensive individual and business reports.

ChoicePoint provides actionable information, customized to your needs – connecting people, organizations and their activities. We will help you address “know your customer” issues and comply with the USA PATRIOT Act and anti-money laundering initiatives. ChoicePoint can help you better know your customers and mitigate risk, while protecting the privacy of your customers.

You’ll benefit from our unique offerings, including:

* Access to more than 17 billion public records and three major credit bureaus.
* An extensive proprietary identity database.
* National real property information.
* Nationwide corporate and business information.
* A vast database of drivers’ license data and motor vehicle records.
* National criminal history database.
* Access to the Office of Foreign Asset Control and other government sanctions and enforcement actions, including international information.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/financial/patriotact.html

Public Records Group

Through unique filtering and delivery capabilities, ChoicePoint Public Records Group provides access to billions of public records. Our revolutionary technology – unprecedented in the information industry – makes us the preferred provider for government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies.

Whether the answer lies in public records or ChoicePoint's privately maintained databases, the ChoicePoint Public Records Group has the technology, tools and services to deliver it quickly, cost-effectively and most importantly, the way you want it.

http://www.choicepoint.com/industry/telecom/public.html

ChoicePoint Precision Marketing



ChoicePoint Precision Marketing offers integrated, flexible marketing solutions combining data, database, analytics, creative, teleservices, e-mail and lettershop capabilities. Our standard solutions focus on minimizing the cost and time needed to get database marketing programs up and running. Our advanced marketing solutions offer the ultimate in customization and performance for clients who place a premium on power. Regardless of where you fit, ChoicePoint Precision Marketing delivers results.

We offer the following marketing solutions:

* Data – The MarketViewSM family of data products integrates ChoicePoint proprietary data with third-party data sources to provide unmatched coverage, depth and accuracy on more than 210 million consumers.
* Database – ChoicePoint DirectLink™ gives your sales network access to lead generation and customer marketing programs to help grow business, improve retention and increase cross-sell capabilities.
* Analytics – Our world-class analytics team can help you find qualified prospects, retain valuable customers and identify profitable growth opportunities.
* Creative – Our creative department delivers attention-getting communications that increase response rates and help you communicate your message in an exciting and effective way.
* Teleservices – From prospecting to retention, inbound to outbound, and business to consumer, we offer proactive, customizable communication at every point in your customer’s lifecycle.
* E-mail – ChoicePoint Precision Marketing’s MarketView eAppend solution uses permission-based e-mail records you can use for retention and customer contact strategies.
* Lettershop – Our lettershop facilities provide all the services you need – including print procurement, personalization and production of attention-getting pieces, and delivery to the postal service – to deliver effective, targeted direct mail campaigns.
* Lead Generation – ChoicePoint Precision Marketing is your results-driven source for finding and marketing to qualified leads.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/direct/direct.html

The Bode Technology Group, Inc.

Advances in technology have been phenomenal, particularly in the field of DNA identification analysis, but understanding technology and using it to its greatest potential are two different things. The Bode Technology Group has the personnel and ability to successfully integrate the most current information of modern genetics with today's latest technology. The Bode Technology Group performs DNA identification analysis on a daily basis for federal and state agencies, as well as commercial firms.

The Bode Technology Group provides DNA identification using short tandem repeats (STRs), a proven technology that is widely accepted in the laboratory and courtroom. In addition, Bode offers forensic analysis of DNA evidence, evidence handling, pre-trial assistance, expert witness testimony and mitochondrial DNA sequencing.

Bode's knowledge of genetics is supported by a fully equipped genetic identity laboratory, offering state-of-the-art technology that ensures quick, reliable results.

http://www.choicepoint.com/business/dna/dna.html

Executive Management

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Derek V. Smith

President, Chief Operating Officer and Director
Douglas C. Curling

Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer
David T. Lee

Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer
Steven W. Surbaugh

Chief Financial Officer
David E. Trine

Chief Credentialing, Compliance and Privacy Officer
Carol DiBattiste

Senior Vice President & General Manager
Jeffrey J. Glazier

General Counsel
J. Michael de Janes

Corporate Secretary and Vice President, Government Affairs David W. Davis

Treasurer and Vice President, Investor Relations
John M. Mongelli

http://www.choicepoint.com/about/executive.html

[autorank]

27. Remarkable post thank you. n/ other than THANK YOU again...

[seafan]

28. Thank you, autorank. Just chippin' away at the boulders. n/t

[autorank]

30. Chippin' with a jack hammer! Righteous ... it's bookmarked. n/t

[EVDebs]

29. Now, look into Global Information Group, Ltd., the Bahamas...

mentioned in this May '06 DU posting on topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1213142

[autorank]

31. Debs, that's one outstanding link.

Particularly your post quoted in the thread. Chilling...and there is no check or balance from Congress, certainly not form the WH or the courts.

[EVDebs]

32. Now look into Ptech/GoAgile and follow your logic

How much did the FBI know about P tech
http://cbs4boston.com/iteam/local_story_343145212.html

and cooperative research's link to more info on the company, which whistleblower Indira Singh reported

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-2254

All point to 'inside jobs', both the current TIA and special projects-related matters. All from a common source. The call it intelligence; I have another name for it: stupidity.