"Perhaps it's time to revisit a guy named Hank Asher.Robert O'Harrow told part of the story of Asher in the interview with RussertIn early 2005, Michael Shnayerson wondered, in his Vanity Fair piece, why no one was calling Asher a hero for inventing the ultimate surveillance program. I'm now wondering why no one's subpoenaed him.
In 2000, Hank's company, DBT, caused 57,000 innocent, mostly African Americans to lose their vote by naming them as felons in Florida, thereby fixing the presidential election. Three years later, the DEA would learn of Hank's smuggling planeloads of cocaine from the Bahamas in the 80's, and he would be forced out of his company. Friends in high places made sure he never faced charges.
Hank founded another personal data gathering venture, Choicepoint... Then he sold the company, pocketing about $148 million. The new owners hit him with a lawsuit alleging major theft of source codes and hardware. Hank, you see, was opening up a new company across the street: Seisint.
Although he was a Democrat, Hank suddenly started writing big checks to Governor Jeb Bush and the Republican party. Two days after 9/11, coincidentally, he was sipping a martini in his $8 million Boca Raton home, when he had the genius idea to use his massive database to see if he could create a "terrorist suspect list."
By cross-referencing the 30 billion personal records Seisint had access to, he came up with 419 suspect names, and his pal Jeb Bush flew him to Washington so they could both show Vice President Cheney. Amazingly, according to Hank, five of the names were already being investigated by the FBI, and the sixth turned out to be one of the hijackers. Sold! Homeland Security threw millions at Asher for his system, which he dubbed - no kidding - The Matrix. But there was one crucial element to the deal: Asher, in partnership with the highly esteemed state of Florida, would retain control of The Matrix.
The Matrix can scan everyone's records, not just criminals. Need to find every guy in America in his 20's with brown hair and a red truck who recently filed for divorce? The Matrix can do it in no time. Of course, it can be used for much darker purposes. But the real evil genius in this plan was that it would be controlled by the states, thereby skirting congressional oversight...
[]
The Register concurred: "The perverse dream of integrating law enforcement, military intelligence and vast databases of virtually everything done by virtually every citizen is coming to fruition, only under state, not federal, auspices."
Last April, Homeland Security announced they were cutting funding to The Matrix, but shrewdly left open the door that individual states were welcome to fund it. Most of the original participating states, however, had abandoned the Matrix due to "growing opposition to this kind of intrusive, investigatory technique," according to the ACLU. Which states remained? Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The triplets.
[]...And Maybe Verizon and BellSouth didn't give the NSA our records after all. Maybe they gave them to someone who gave them to the NSA. A private contractor perhaps. But don't ask Hank. He sold The Matrix, and his company, to Lexis Nexis for $775 million."
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Hank Asher: Drugs, Spying and Voting
* Bill Robinson at Huffpo today (thnx don in the comments):
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7 comments:
This article is ridiculous. You dub Hank Asher an "evil genius".... his programs have found lost and kidnapped children, put murderers behind bars, found terrorists, and saved the lives of the American public as a whole. Do more research and get the whole story before you write bias, accusatory articles about things you do not know. Hank is one of the most generous and patriotic Americans our country has ever seen and he should be thanked not criticized.
Asher has connection with the mafia. Look at his interview about borrowing money from men 10-20 years old than him and flying cocaine into the united states.
Hey Hank you and Eddy Marin are good buddies aren't yah? You guys work with the same mafia faimly down in florida don't you?
It is amazing what you can find on a dead hackers computer when you look :)
GH
I know you don't but don't sweat it.
You can say anything you want about Hank Asher, but the truth will always prevail. He is and always has been a person with a raging conscience, a protector of the innocent, and the most brilliant man who could touch anything and it would turn to gold.
Even during that VERY BRIEF period in the 80s when he was doing things that he shouldn't have been, he hated doing it (it made him physically amd mentally sick because it was so malaligned with his true spirit). He realized very early on that that was not the life for him, and he turned it around for good.
Since then, he has been a genius businessman, inventor, and, for many years now a major philanthropist. His primary motivation is and never has been about money - that just came natural due to his extraordinary intelligence and drive. He could probably be financially worth 100 times more than he is now, but consistently gives money, time, and energy to causes that he believes in.
Although I have not had contact with him in a couple of years, I have known him intimately since 1980 and can tell you that regardless of his idiosyncrasies and no holds barred rhetoric, he is just a guy trying to do the best he can for as many people as he can in his lifetime.
mlb
I believe Frank left the company before the voting problems. He is on record explaining how DBT made mistakes by talking to programmers who were still on staff.
Hank Asher,
has helped more people than you could ever imagine. He is a true hero. I have seen him help so many people and ask for nothing in return. So what he made one mistake over 20 years ago, but in the past years he's helped countless people. The world would be a much better place if we had more people like Hank.
It's always a sordid affair to judge and be judged, but facts remain facts.
I see it no differently than choosing to believe in the great virtues of catholic priests (with many great, philanthropic deeds) who confess to child molestation as well.
Besides any plus points already mentioned, honest people who have worked along with Hank Asher *also acknowlege* him as a highly volatile, eccentric who whimsically terminates (supported by Florida's at-will employment rules) people. He has a history of ruling by raging anger and fear-mongering. I hope that things have changed with this guy, because karma can really be a bitch!
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