The war on democracy
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.
Dow Chemical
James A.
Bell is a director at the Dow Chemical Company,
a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and
was the EVP & CFO for the Boeing Company.
Note: Robert
S. Osborne is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and the EVP & general counsel for Booz Allen Hamilton.
Edward
Snowden was an employee at Booz Allen Hamilton,
and leaked information about the National Security Agency (NSA).
Keith
B. Alexander is a director at the National Security Agency (NSA),
the chief of the Central Security Service, the commander
for the U.S. Cyber Command, and a friend of Barbara G. Fast.
Barbara
G. Fast is a friend of Keith B. Alexander,
was a VP for the Boeing Company, and a VP the CGI Group Inc.
Barbara
G. Fast was a VP at the Boeing Company,
and a VP for the CGI Group Inc.
CGI
Group Inc. was the Obamacare
contractor that developed Healthcare.gov web site.
Donna S.
Morea was the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.,
and a trustee at the Committee for Economic
Development.
George Soros
is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
Harvey R.
Miller is a trustee at the Committee for Economic
Development, and an attorney for Texaco Inc.
Stuart
E. Eizenstat is a trustee at the Committee for Economic
Development, an international advisory board member for the Coca-Cola Company, and was a lobbyist for Xe Services.
Richard
M. Daley is a director at the Coca-Cola Company,
and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Obamacare
is Barack Obama’s signature policy
initiative.
Newton N.
Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
R. Eden
Martin is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members
Directory
Please note: This link for the members of
the Commercial Club of Chicago can no longer be found.
Andrew
J. McKenna Sr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and the chairman for the McDonald's Corporation.
Walter E.
Massey is a director at the McDonald's Corporation,
a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, was the
chairman for the Bank of America Corp. (Bailout Company),
and a director at BP p.l.c.
W.
James McNerney Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and the chairman & president & CEO for the Boeing Company.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Dow Chemical Company, the Boeing
Company, the Shell Oil Company,
the Monsanto
Company, Chevron USA, Inc, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Jose
H. Villarreal is a senior adviser at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, and was a director at the Wal-Mart
Stores Inc.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a
senior counsel for
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, an honorary trustee at the
Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American
Friends of
Bilderberg (think
tank), was a member of the
Iraq Study Group,
and a 2008
Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Lee H.
Hamilton was the co-chair for the Iraq Study Group,
is a director at BAE Systems Inc., and an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
Klaus Kleinfeld
is a trustee at the
Brookings Institution
(think tank), a director at the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
and a 2008
Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Valerie
B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Glenn F.
Tilton is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and was the CEO for Texaco Inc.
Cyrus
F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
George Soros
is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
James S.
Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Stephen
Friedman is a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), and a director at the Wal-Mart
Stores Inc.
