General Deal-Maker

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ADD LOBBYIST AND CONTRACT RAINMAKER to presidential candidate Wesley Clark's resume. As have many retired military officers, the retired general and former supreme commander of NATO has consulted or lobbied

for technology firms trying to cash in on the homeland security business. Some have met with success and others with controversy. Clark resigned in November from the board of directors at Acxiom Corp., a consumer research company headquartered in Little Rock, Ark. He came to the board to help Acxiom win federal contracts.

It might have worked. Acxiom is involved in the Transportation Security Administration's effort to build an airline passenger screening system designed to weed out potential terrorists and other flight risks. It also was reportedly being eyed to participate in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's now-defunct Terrorism Information Awareness project. That initiative was predicated on sifting through massive amounts of consumer data from Acxiom for signs of nascent terrorist plots.

But Acxiom got into hot water after a Pentagon contractor purchased its consumer data and merged it with passenger information bought from discount airline JetBlue.The airline said the disclosure of personal data violated its privacy policy. Both companies are named in a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission by a Washington-area privacy watchdog. Acxiom wasn't the only technology contractor that paid for access to Clark's Rolodex. He also helped market military products for two companies, Time Domain of Alabama and WaveCrest Laboratories in Virginia.