Arianna Huffington's new article highlighted something fascinating. Apparently privacy problem-child ChoicePoint has hired John Ashcroft's new firm to lobby for the company.The same John Ashcroft who awarded them a $67 Million no-bid citizen profiling contract when he was Attorney General.According to Arianna:
ChoicePoint, a company that sells consumer data, recently hired Ashcroft to help it add to the mega-buck, war-on-terror-related contracts the firm had landed from the Justice Department while Ashcroft was still in charge. According to a ChoicePoint spokesman: "The Ashcroft Group contacted us and we initiated a relationship." How cozy.
The quote comes from a New York Times article which notes:
One of Mr. Ashcroft's newest clients is ChoicePoint, a broker of consumer data that is increasingly being used by the government to keep tabs on people within the United States. The company received millions of dollars in contracts from the Justice Department under Mr. Ashcroft as part of the war on terror and has now hired him to find more."The Ashcroft Group contacted us and we initiated a relationship," said Chuck Jones, a ChoicePoint spokesman. "He's got a lot of knowledge that could benefit ChoicePoint."
It's nice that Ashcroft has found work... he has to find some way to pay for all that Holy Oil with which he anoints himself before big occasions.