We previously pointed out, backed by fairly extensive evidence, that Microsoft has a high level of influence and control over the government, especially the Department of Injustice [sic]. Intel is a similar story that is related to that of Microsoft. Consider the following to be some more evidence of this (staffing overlap) and mind the awe-inspiring [**] headline:

Scott Charney: Microsoft's Ax Man

Microsoft's implementation of its secure-development lifecycle process has led the industry, said Andrew Jaquith, an analyst at Yankee Group. "They have really been a pacesetter in this area," he said.

[...]

Still, Microsoft didn't create the initiative out of choice, Jaquith said. "It was born out of necessity because customers were threatening to defect," he said. Microsoft once had an internal list, called the executive hot list, made up of "customers so furious with security that they called [Bill] Gates or [CEO Steve] Ballmer personally," Jaquith said. "In many respects, that caused the trustworthy computing initiative to be born." Microsoft's public-relations firm said that the company would not comment on the matter.

[...]

Microsoft hired Charney, who had worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and served as assistant district attorney in the Bronx, at what he said was a unique time.

Also of interest, mind the fact that Andrew Jaquith of the Yankee Group is quoted very extensively here. We last wrote about the Yankee Group just about a week ago. It's enormously close to Microsoft and is also responsible for a lot of Microsoft's anti-Linux disinformation (part of the "Slog"). ⬆ ___

[**] Ax \Ax\ ([a^]ks), v. t. & i. [OE. axien and asken. See Ask.]
   To ask; to inquire or inquire of.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: This word is from Saxon, and is as old as the English
         language. Formerly it was in good use, but now is
         regarded as a vulgarism. It is still dialectic in
         England, and is sometimes heard among the uneducated in
         the United States. "And Pilate axide him, Art thou king
         of Jewis?" "Or if he axea fish." --Wyclif. 'bdThe king
         axed after your Grace's welfare." --Pegge.
         [1913 Webster]

Ax \Ax\, Axe \Axe\, ([a^]ks), n. [OE. ax, axe, AS. eax, [ae]x,
   acas; akin to D. akse, OS. accus, OHG. acchus, G. axt, Icel.
   ["o]x, ["o]xi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ["o]kse, Goth. aqizi, Gr.
   'axi`nh, L. ascia; not akin to E. acute.]
   A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge
   or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood,
   hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or
   handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same
   plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter's ax, is an
   ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping ax, and
   with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.
         [1913 Webster]

   Note: The word is used adjectively or in combination; as,
         axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft;
         ax-shaped; axlike.
         [1913 Webster]

   Note: This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also
         was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable:
         as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe,
         etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in
         more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of
         retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its
         exclusion here.
         [1913 Webster]

   Note: "The spelling ax is better on every ground, of
         etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has
         of late become prevalent." --New English Dict.
         (Murray).
         [1913 Webster]