Bush Administration Vote Tampering in Mexico?

After the debachle vote tampering in 2004 presidential election in Ohio, the 2000 presidential election in Florida, I've come to expect more of the same from the Republicans for future elections. It's also been my suspicion that Bush tried to fix the election in Iraq, but clearly there weren't enough troops to do that. But now it would appear that Bush has made election fraud a keystone in his foreign policy. In 2001, the Justice Department put together a contract to obtain detailed information on voter lists in Latin American countries and probably where ever the US has a strong interest in election outcomes.
I listened yesterday to Democracy Now! newscast that details allegations of voter tampering in Mexico and that fact that Mexican authorities were concerned enough to arrest the contractors staff.
UNDERNEWS

This past Friday, we reported that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had obtained Mexico's voter files under a secret "counterterrorism" contract with database company ChoicePoint of Alpharetta, Georgia. The FBI's contractor states that, following the arrest of Choice Point agents by the Mexican government, the company returned or destroyed its files. The firm claims not to have known collecting this information violated Mexican law. Such files can be useful in challenging a voter's right to cast a ballot or in preventing that vote from counting. It is, of course, impossible to know if the FBI destroyed its own copy of the files of Mexico's voter rolls obtained by Choicepoint or if these were then used to illegally assist the Calderon candidacy.

10/12/03: Chicago Tribune

In late 2001, the Justice Department signed the first of several contracts with ChoicePoint, a company that collects biographical information and sells it to employers and insurance companies for resume checking and identity verification. Other clients are media organizations, including the Chicago Tribune. The contract called for personal information on citizens of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, ChoicePoint officials said. The company has since ceased collecting data in Argentina and Costa Rica.


U.S. officials say the purpose of the contract was national security. They contend that the information will bring quicker identity verification, such as when officials are trying to uncover a smuggler among a group of illegal immigrants, as well as enhance their ability to detect suspicious patterns of behavior that could lead to the discovery of terrorist cells.


ChoicePoint officials say all the information comes from public sources, such as driver's license lists, civil registries and telephone records. The U.S. government doesn't have open access to the data, they say, but must apply to see the information only when attempting to verify the identity of someone under suspicion. The company says it makes its local subcontractors certify in writing that the information they pass along was obtained legally.