Oracle helps Ashcroft board the terror gravy train
PrintCover up those nudes, Larry
Posted in Financial News, 11th January 2006 18:54 GMT
Free whitepaper – Vulnerability management buyer's checklist
Former US Attorney General John Ashcroft has hit the ground running in his new lobbying business - mostly thanks to Larry Ellison.
Ellison's Oracle provided $220,000 of the $269,000 banked by The Ashcroft Group, the company reported in a financial statement. Ashcroft started the lobby business last summer with his former chief of staff, David Ayres.
Ellison's interest is pragmatic. The explosion in surveillance and data mining under the PATRIOT act is a potential bonanza for database vendors.
The Oracle founder wasn't deterred by the firm's declared mission.
"The Ashcroft Group will represent big companies with big problems", said a prominent staffer when the lobby firm launched.
But Ashcroft's decision to profit from his inside knowledge has raised a few eyebrows. The company says it's touting for business from foreign governments, raising secrecy issues.
In fact, the godfather of the PATRIOT Act, appears to have a flexible sense of his own patriotic obligations.
Boeing, a major employer in the US, is bidding for a South Korean defense contract, but The Ashcroft Group chose to consult for an Israeli rival. ®
Related link
Free whitepaper – Vulnerability management buyer's checklist
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
What Exchange can't do - and Dell can
Enabling The Agile Data Center
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Google Spanner — instamatic redundancy for 10 million servers?
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Fedora 12 polishes Linux for netbooks
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter