Mulling over George Pope to STEVE ASHER 22 Jul 2004

Hi George...

SA>  GP> Coincidence that this purchase plan comes so soon after a news
SA>  GP> release of an unprecedentedly comprehensive personal information
SA>  GP> database?

SA> it might be because of concerns about the founder of Seisint, Hank
SA> Asher (not one of my immediate rellies, afaik), of Florida, who
SA> resigned from the board after confirming that he smuggled cocaine
SA> from Colombia to the USA, & was involved in a plot to assassinate
SA> Daniel Ortega in the 1980s. (Who said crime doesn't pay?)

 GP> He just openly confirmed such details, eh?

Apparently, according to many reports, such as:

===========================================================================
CIBC sells stake in controversial database tracker
Bank to pocket $52-million in deal to sell former drug smuggler's security company

By PAUL WALDIE
Thursday, July 15, 2004 - Page B3

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce expects to pocket $52-million
from the sale of a controversial Florida company that specializes in
developing databases to track down terrorists.

The Reed Elsevier Inc. group, based in London and Amsterdam, announced
yesterday that it is buying Boca Raton, Fla.-based Seisint Inc. for
$775-million (U.S.) in cash. The purchase price includes $30-million
of cash and investments held by Seisint.

CIBC acquired a stake in the privately held company in 2002 when it
bought a portfolio of merchant banking investments from Bermuda-based
Accenture Ltd., formerly known as Andersen Consulting. The portfolio
had stakes in about 80 technology companies. CIBC did not disclose how
much it paid for the portfolio at the time, but it had a book value of
$95-million.

(snip)

Seisint was founded about 10 years ago by Hank Asher, a Florida
entrepreneur with a checkered past. Last year, Mr. Asher resigned from
the company's board after confirming he smuggled cocaine from Colombia
into the United States in the early 1980s. He was also involved in a
plot to assassinate Nicaragua's then-president Daniel Ortega in the
mid-1980s.

Seisint has developed an array of database services that meld
commercially and publicly available records. The company's main
product, Accurint, is widely used by legal and law enforcement
agencies.

Seisint is also involved in Matrix -- short for Multistate Anti-
Terrorism Information Exchange -- which combines state records and
data culled by Seisint to give investigators fast access to
information on crime and terrorism suspects. The Matrix system has
been criticized by civil liberty groups because it could be open to
false accusations. Those concerns have prompted several states to pull
out of the project, but other states, including Florida, back the
system.

(snip)

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040715/
RCIBC15/TPTechnology/
===============================================================================
 GP> Why would he, in any logic whatsoever, DO such an idiotic &
 GP> unnecessary thing (likewise a self-damaging thing to do!)

I think he ended up over a barrel & had little choice.

SA>  GP> It's quite certain that the owners of a database would have 
SA>  GP> free access to its contents!

SA> It would be just as useful for creating a "legend" as for rooting
SA> out "terrorists".

 GP> What "legend"?

A "legend" to cover a spy's real identity - eg fictitiuos name & cover
story, identity papers etc.

SA>  GP> It would seem equally certain that there are plenty of backdoor
SA>  GP> accesses built into it so the old owners will never completely lose
SA>  GP> the useful functionality of such tools of power!
SA>
SA> They are all in bed together - Reed Elsevier buys Seisint, which in part
SA> is owned by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which in turn got
SA> its holding from Accenture (was Andersen Consulting).

 GP> Accenture is the one scaring me these days!  They're getting FAR
 GP> too many gifts from the Canadian governments!

And from the Florida government, apparently. It is Accenture that apparently
designed Florida's central voter database, used in the 2000 US elections. :)
(I'm trying to find out what the attraction is in Boca Raton, & why so many
of these companies have headquarters or links there. It is an unusual name,
& sticks in my mind when it keeps cropping up)

=========================================================================
(Tallahassee Democrat)

Posted on Fri, Jul. 23, 2004

Review of state voter database requested

By Nancy Cook Lauer

DEMOCRAT CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF

Secretary of State Glenda Hood is asking her inspector general to review
the circumstances leading to the creation of the state's central voter
database after the discovery that part of it - a list of possible felons to
be purged from voter rolls - was flawed because it failed to include
Hispanics.

In particular, Hood said she wants to know how the database was created,
how information was acquired, how its parameters were determined "and
the information available to its designers from its inception to the
present."

"We are committed to ensuring successful elections in which every
eligible voter can exercise his or her right to vote," Hood said.
"We will continue to address issues related to this goal to ensure the
public has the highest level of confidence in our elections system."

(snip)

Florida's central voter database was designed by technology giant
Accenture, which holds hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of other
contracts with the state of Florida. The database, which was used in
the 2002 election, was created at a cost of $1.8 million.

But the system, designed to be cross-checked across county lines to be
sure voters are registered in only one county at a time, does not meet
federal standards that were put into place after the database was
built. That forced the state to get a waiver pushing the deadline back
to 2006.

Company pledges cooperation

Accenture spokesman Jim McAvoy said his company had not yet been
contacted by anyone from the Secretary of State's office, but it 
would cooperate in any investigation.

(snip)

Tallahassee Democrat - http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/9221306.htm
============================================================================

SA> Very reassuring to know that the "Matrix" was under the
watchful eye of
SA> a drug runner / assassin, another example of the fox guarding the
SA> chookhouse.

 GP> Under his watchful eye?  How do you know this drugrunner/assassin
 GP> isn't simply another pawn of an even bigger(but less defined) fox?

I don't, and he quite likely is simply another pawn...


Cheers, Steve..

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