<http://www.popularresistance.org/report-one-in-four-activists-may-be-corporate-spies/>
Report: One in Four 'Activists' May be Corporate Spies
By Nafeez Ahmed, www.theguardian.com
December 2nd, 2013
How corporations and spy agencies use "security" to defend
profiteering and crush activism
A stunning new report compiles extensive evidence showing how some of
the world's largest corporations have partnered with private
intelligence firms and government intelligence agencies to spy on
activist and nonprofit groups. Environmental activism is a prominent
though not exclusive focus of these activities.
The report by the Center for Corporate Policy (CCP) in Washington DC
titled Spooky Business: Corporate Espionage against Nonprofit
Organizations draws on a wide range of public record evidence,
including lawsuits and journalistic investigations. It paints a
disturbing picture of a global corporate espionage programme that is
out of control, with possibly as much as one in four activists being
private spies.
The report argues that a key precondition for corporate espionage is
that the nonprofit in question:
" impairs or at least threatens a company's assets or image sufficiently."
One of the groups that has been targeted the most, and by a range of
different corporations, is Greenpeace. In the 1990s, Greenpeace was
tracked by private security firm Beckett Brown International (BBI) on
behalf of the world's largest chlorine producer, Dow Chemical, due to
the environmental organisation's campaigning against the use of
chlorine to manufacture paper and plastics. The spying included:
" pilfering documents from trash bins, attempting to plant
undercover operatives within groups, casing offices, collecting phone
records of activists, and penetrating confidential meetings."
Other Greenpeace offices in France and Europe were hacked and spied
on by French private intelligence firms at the behest of Électricité
de France, the world's largest operator of nuclear power plants, 85%
owned by the French government.
Oil companies Shell and BP had also reportedly hired Hackluyt, a
private investigative firm with "close links" to MI6, to infiltrate
Greenpeace by planting an agent who "posed as a left -wing
sympathiser and film maker." His mission was to "betray plans of
Greenpeace's activities against oil giants," including gathering
"information about the movements of the motor vessel Greenpeace in
the north Atlantic."
The CCP report notes that:
"A diverse array of nonprofits have been targeted by espionage,
including environmental, anti-war, public interest, consumer, food
safety, pesticide reform, nursing home reform, gun control, social
justice, animal rights and arms control groups.
Many of the world's largest corporations and their trade associations
- including the US Chamber of Commerce, Walmart, Monsanto, Bank of
America, Dow Chemical, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Chevron, Burger King,
McDonald's, Shell, BP, BAE, Sasol, Brown & Williamson and E.ON - have
been linked to espionage or planned espionage against nonprofit
organizations, activists and whistleblowers."
Exploring other examples of this activity, the report notes that in
Ecuador, after a lawsuit against Texaco triggering a $9.5 billion
fine for spilling 350 million gallons of oil around Lago Agrio, the
private investigations firm Kroll tried to hire journalist Mary
Cuddehe as a "corporate spy" for Chevron, to undermine studies of the
environmental health effects of the spill.
Referring to the work of US investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill,
the report points out that the notorious defence contractor
Blackwater, later renamed XE Services and now Academi, had sought to
become "the intel arm" of Monsanto, the agricultural and
biotechnology corporation associated with genetically modified foods.
Blackwater was paid to "provide operatives to infiltrate activist
groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm."
In another case, the UK's Camp for Climate Action, which supports the
decommissioning of coal-fired plants, was infiltrated by private
security firm Vericola on behalf of three energy companies, E.ON,
Scottish Power, and Scottish Resources Group.
Reviewing emails released by Wikileaks from the Texas-based private
intelligence firm Stratfor, the report shows how the firm reportedly
"conducted espionage against human rights, animal rights and
environmental groups, on behalf of companies such as Coca-Cola." In
one case, the emails suggest that Stratfor investigated People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) at Coca-Cola's request, and
had access to a classified FBI investigation on PETA.
The report uncovers compelling evidence that much corporate espionage
is facilitated by government agencies, particularly the FBI. The CCP
report examines a September 2010 document from the Office of the
Inspector General in the US Justice Department, which reviewed FBI
investigations between 2001 and 2006. It concluded that:
" the factual basis of opening some of the investigations of
individuals affiliated with the groups was factually weak In some
cases, we also found that the FBI extended the duration of
investigations involving advocacy groups or their members without
adequate basis. In some cases, the FBI classified some of its
investigations relating to nonviolent civil disobedience under its
'Acts of Terrorism' classification."
For instance, on an FBI investigation of Greenpeace, the Justice
Department found that:
" the FBI articulated little or no basis for suspecting a violation
of any federal criminal statute the FBI's opening EC [electronic
communication] did not articulate any basis to suspect that they were
planning any federal crimes.We also found that the FBI kept this
investigation open for over 3 years, long past the corporate
shareholder meetings that the subjects were supposedly planning to
disrupt We concluded that the investigation was kept open 'beyond
the point at which its underlying justification no longer existed,'
which was inconsistent with the FBI's Manual of Investigative and
Operational Guidelines (MIOG)."
The FBI's involvement in corporate espionage has been
institutionalised through 'InfraGard', "a little-known partnership
between private industry, the FBI and the Department of Homeland
Security." The partnership involves the participation of "more than
23,000 representatives of private industry," including 350 of the
Fortune 500 companies.
But it's not just the FBI. According to the new report, "active-duty
CIA operatives are allowed to sell their expertise to the highest
bidder", a policy that gives "financial firms and hedge funds access
to the nation's top-level intelligence talent. Little is known about
the CIA's moonlighting policy, or which corporations have hired
current CIA operatives."
The report concludes that, due to an extreme lack of oversight,
government effectively tends to simply "rubber stamp" such
intelligence outsourcing:
"In effect, corporations are now able to replicate in miniature the
services of a private CIA, employing active-duty and retired officers
from intelligence and/or law enforcement. Lawlessness committed by
this private intelligence and law enforcement capacity, which appears
to enjoy near impunity, is a threat to democracy and the rule of law.
In essence, corporations are now able to hire a private law
enforcement capacity - which is barely constrained by legal and
ethical norms - and use it to subvert or destroy civic groups. This
greatly erodes the capacity of the civic sector to countervail the
tremendous power of corporate and wealthy elites."
Gary Ruskin, author of the report, said:
"Corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations is an egregious
abuse of corporate power that is subverting democracy. Who will rein
in the forces of corporate lawlessness as they bear down upon
nonprofit defenders of justice?"
That's a good question. Ironically, many of the same companies
spearheading the war on democracy are also at war with planet earth -
just last week the Guardian revealed that 90 of some of the biggest
corporations generate nearly two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions
and are thus overwhelmingly responsible for climate change.
Dr Nafeez Ahmed is executive director of the Institute for Policy
Research & Development and author of A User's Guide to the Crisis of
Civilisation: And How to Save It among other books. Follow him on
Twitter @nafeezahmed
Related Posts:
* Spooky Business: New Report On Corporate Espionage
Against Non-profits November 20, 2013
* Rising Corporate Espionage: Why We Need Jeremy
Hammond November 22, 2013
* Spooky Business: U.S. Corporations Enlist
Ex-Intelligence Agents to November 25, 2013
* Dissent or Terror: New Report on Monitoring of Occupy
Movement May 21, 2013
* Monsanto Gearing Up For War Against Food Justice
Activists? July 30, 2013
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