Transition Transparency Issue #3: Obama’s Foundation and ChoicePoint

by Ari Herzog on November 23, 2008 · 3 comments

I’m confused.

Every source on the web cites the president-elect’s transition team as the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization.

So why does page 8 of the alleged job questionairre for Cabinet and other senior-level White House officials define the team as the Obama Transition Foundation?

I can’t find any search engine results that match this name:

Do you see the first sentence in the “authorization” section where ChoicePoint is named as the agency to run applicant credit reports?

If the company sounds familiar, here’s the Wikipedia page on ChoicePoint that details privacy leaks and security breaches of civilian and government data going back eight years.

Moreover, ChoicePoint was acquired in September by London-based Reed Elsevier.

Not only does Obama have a mysterious foundation that only appears in a background checking document, but the company running those checks is now owned by a British company. Talk about transparency.

Wait until my next installment in this transition series.

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Tagged as: Obama, security

Comments:

{ 3 comments }

1 Steve Rhodes November 23, 2008 at 4:24 AM: You make it sound nefarious that ChoicePoint is owned by a British company.

Most people aren’t familiar with Reed Elsevior, but many have heard of Lexis-Nexis, the Lancet, and Gray Anatomy.

And perhaps Foundation instead of Project was a mistake (or even on
an earlier draft).
2 Ari Herzog November 23, 2008 at 11:10 AM: I don’t question mergers and acquisitions by transnational firms, but it’s slightly odd that a British-owned (or any non-American owned) company is checking personal data of presidential appointees.

And the Obama-Biden Transition Project was named such before Election Day, so while your assumption is valid, that begs the question how far back this Foundation was called such.
3 Steve Rhodes November 23, 2008 at 3:28 PM: It is a media company (other properties include the New Scientist & Variety), not MI5.

I’m sure it passed FBI muster.

And perhaps the Obama transition team just needs more copy editors (something media companies should also do though sadly, they’ve been cutting copy editors).

They’ve been planning the transition for months. It is probably just language (perhaps even from before Biden was picked) that didn’t get changed.