BUSH'S BUDDIES WIN CONTRACT TO SPY ON THE WORLD, TALLY BALLOTS
by Tabitha Elkins

For Immediate Release


from:Christians Against Bush
http://.christiansagainstbush.bravehost.com
Contact: Tabitha Elkins (+41)(6241) 678 749
PO Box 1831 
Cathedral Station
New York, NY 10025
christiansagainstbush@yahoo.com


On  June 1, 2004 , the Bush administration announced plans for a new international computer network that will conduct background checks on all incoming visitors to the US. The multi-billion dollar project will create a "virtual border" around the US by tapping into private records such as credit reports and using biometrics, digital imaging and fingerprints to identify all persons entering the US.  The system, which may cost as much as $15 billion, will employ a network of databases to track visitors to the United States long before they arrive.The contract was awarded to Accenture over two competing contractors, Lockheed Martin and Computer Sciences. Government spokesmen refused to say whether Accenture's bid was the lowest, citing legal restrictions.

Asa Hutchinson, the under secretary in charge of border security, said the project, called U.S.-Visit, was "a significant milestone in the history of the department." The Project is being billed as a way to keep terrorists out of the US. Hutchinson stated in a NY Times interview, "I really don't think you could overstate the importance of this responsibility in terms of securing our nation." 

However, such a system could very likely lead to abuses, limiting the free movement of international travelers. Critics point out that the Patriot Act has already led to many abuses of power, such as innocent civilians being detained due to computer errors that mis-matched them with others of similar names. The Bush administration has already come under scrutiny for detaining anti-war activists and preventing them from boarding a flight to Boston.

Privacy advocates also worry that the new system could give the federal government too much power. According to the NY Times: 
"The system would tie together about 20 federal databases with information on the more than 300 million foreign visitors each year. The system will lead to a broad interconnection of federal databases, ranging from intelligence to law enforcement as well as routine commercial data." 

In other words, from now on, the US government will be able to use private databases, such as credit reports, school records or bank statements, to spy on citizens from any nation, trumping international law, and turning every private database into part of an international spy network.

In case the name doesn't ring a bell, Accenture is the new name for Andersen Consulting, which broke away from Arthur Andersen in 2000. According to the Canada-based Polaris Institute, a watchdog group that keeps tabs on multinationals:  
"The change to Accenture was the fastest, most expensive re-branding effort in history as everything was changed to fit the new logo in a matter of days.It is Arthur Andersen that is in so much legal trouble for allowing Enron to cook their books and destroying Enron's documents as Enron collapsed. 
While Accenture states that because it is no longer tied to Andersen it is not implicated in the Andersen/Enron scandal, the Wall Street Journal reported that Accenture might have some legal exposure to the Enron scandal, especially if Accenture had anything to do with consulting for Enron's "special-purpose entities" which were among the main players in Enron's collapse."  

However, that seems unlikely to happen; Accenture has "friends in high places".

After the break from the Andersen "parent company", Accenture moved its base (in name only) to Bermuda, where it pays no US taxes, despite the billions of dollars it generates in Federal and State contracts.  With more than 75,000 employees in 47 countries, Accenture generated net revenues of $11.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2002. Since then, Accenture's profits have risen steadily, mainly by securing government outsourcing contracts. 

"Privatization" is supposed to make the government work more efficiently, by providing services for a lower price.However, it more often becomes a payoff scheme in which politicians give outrageously expensive contracts to whichever corporate behemoth will give them the largest campaign contributions, bilking the taxpayers and generating huge profits for the mutinationals. According to the Polaris Institute's report on Accenture, "Accenture's efforts in government outsourcing have often been very expensive and/or of poor quality. There is good reason to question Accenture's track record in outsourcing of government services." 

In 1998, Accenture was the center of a government scandal in Ohio when it was learned that the former welfare director of Ohio, Arnold Tompkins, awarded nearly $26 million in unbid contracts to Accenture and later, after he left public office, was given a $10,000 a month job from Accenture. Accenture consultant Donna Givens was charged conflict of interest and accepted a plea to entering a program for first time offenders in order to avoid prosecution. The contracts themselves, which were to set up the state's welfare reform program and the Ohio Works job matching service computer program and website (called ServiceLink), were wrought with problems. 

According to the Polaris Institute, "Accenture billing the state up to $450/hour per manager. A consultant was paid $123,000 for working 492 hours in a month (this averages out to a nearly impossible 16 hours/day for 31 days). Work done by Cochoran public relations to convince the public of the necessity of Accenture, was marked up by 63%, costing taxpayers $67,300. Taxpayers pay up to $93,750 a month for coffee, lunches, California hotel rooms, office furniture, office rental, carpeting, and a "husband for rent" repair service."

 Despite its ever-growing reputation for corruption and inefficiency, in July 2001, Accenture was awarded a 13 and a half year contract by a four-county California consortium to design and run their welfare system. The contract gives Accenture the right to gather information on welfare recipients, fingerprint them, and keep tabs on them. 

In July 2002,  Accenture was awarded a five-year multi million dollar contract by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Department of State to build and manage a centralized voter registration and election management system. They have also recently been awarded another contract to count the votes in Florida, after the Florida recount mess. The $1.6 million contract will replace paper ballots with touch-screen computers, and Accenture will be put in charge of counting the votes.

Why are all of these contracts being thrown, unbid, at the feet of a giant mutinational corporation? For one, Accenture has been one of the Republican Party's biggest campaign contributors. According to the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org) Accenture gave $220,947 in Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions in the 2000-2002 election cycle (43% to Democrats, 57% to Republicans) Gave $86,487 in "soft money" contributions ($20,500 to the Democrats and $65,987 to the Republicans). These payoffs have paid off mightily. In the past four years, Accenture has been awarded contracts that add up to billions. 

The ties go deeper than mere campaign contributions. Accenture has deep ties with President Bush's inner circle. The Polaris institute reports that in October 2001,  
"Halliburton and Accenture announced a major expansion of their longstanding relationship with the signing of an alliance between Accenture and Landmark Graphics Corporation, a wholly owned business unit of Halliburton which is the world's leading supplier of software and services for the upstream oil and gas industry." 
The most recent CEO of Halliburton was Vice President Dick Cheney, who is still actively involved in the company. 

Halliburton itself was the subject of a SEC investigation and several lawsuits surrounding their accounting practices during and after Cheney's term as CEO. According to the Polaris Institute, in July 2000 David Lesar succeeded Dick Cheney as Chairman and CEO of Halliburton Company. Before joining Halliburton, Lesar worked for Arthur Andersen, Accenture's former parent company. Polaris says, "while defending Halliburton's accounting practices, David Lesar publicly acknowledged that Cheney knew about the firm's accounting practices."

In case counting the votes in Florida and Pennsylvania weren't enough, in 2003, the Department of Defense awarded the contract for a new online voting system for the military, called Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) to Accenture. Thus, the voting rights of millions of US servicemen and women are now in the hands of a multinational corporation with strong ties to Dick Cheney and his cronies.
An estimated 6 million U.S. military and civilian voters could soon be using the military's new online voting system. Says Lynn Landes of ecotalk.org, "According to computer voting security experts, any online system will be easy to rig by company insiders and vulnerable to attack by outsiders." Some election security experts believe that  that computer glitches or disruptions are actually vote rigging. In other words, a "computer mistake" could easily be generated to fix the election in favor of whomever Accenture favors.
 
According to Lynn Jandes, Accenture has also bought out the assets of Election.com, a computer-based voting system which offers to streamline voting by allowing voters to vote online, and was used in elections in Toronto. Election.com's controlling interests are owned by a Saudi Arabian firm called Osan Ltd. According to their press release, since 2001 Accenture and Election.com have been strategic partners "to jointly deliver comprehensive election solutions to governments worldwide."

Election.com was part of a growing scandal last year when the Canadian Broadcasting System reported, "Earl Hurd of Election.com said he believes someone used a 'denial of service' program to disrupt the voting - paralyzing the central computer by bombarding it with a stream of data". This is the type of computerized voting system now being touted by many as the solution to America's election woes, and just the type of "big government" program of corporate welfare that serves no one but the rich.

Will we be able to stem the tide of cash flowing out of taxpayers' pockets into overseas coffers? It seems unlikely, as even out right to a fair democratic vote is in jeopardy. Big brother is watching you- and counting your votes, too, to make sure that the "right" candidate wins every time.
 
References
"Accenture Is Awarded U.S. Contract for Borders" Eric Lichtblau and John Markoff; NY Times June 2, 2004 

"Accenture Profile" prepared by Darren Puscas, updated by Richard Girard (June 2003) Polaris Institute www.polaris.org

"Arthur Andersen Destroyed Records" Peter Dizikes ABC News Headlines abcnews.com Jan. 10 2002

"Bush Did Try to Save Enron" By Sam Parry May 29, 2002 Consortium for Independent Journalism consortiumnews.com

"Jim Crow in Cyberspace", from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast,  Plume Books 2002, 2003

"Offshore Company Captures Online Military Vote" July 17, 2003 thepeoplesvoice.org by Lynn Landes

"U.S. Nearing Deal on Way to Track Foreign Visitors" Eric Lichtblau and John Markof NY Times May 24, 2004


Tabitha Elkins is a freelance writer, journalist, composer and jazz musician. She is the former Assistant News Director of WSIA, Staten Island, is a recording artist with Blues Katze Records, and is the founder of Christians Against Bush. She currently resides in Germany, where she teaches English, and performs on a regular basis.
contact: christiansagainstbush@yahoo.com (+49) 6241 678 749