JOURNAL: Private CIAs

A strong sign that the nation-state is in decay is the frequency we see announcements of companies that are replicating some of the most sensitive government services. The most recent mover is Walmart, which is in the process of putting together its own intelligence arm (it's being built by a former CIA/FBI officer Kenneth Senser). For those unable to afford their own global intelligence unit, Blackwater's Cofer Black is building one called Total Intelligence Solutions.

If you want to get up to speed quickly, the background for this is available in BNW.

Comments

[georgelarson]

I do not think this is a new development. I recall reading this kind of story in the early 1980s. Of course businesses may have stopped doing it after a couple years because it was too expensive ot not useful back then. I think if you look hard enough you will find non profits with intelligence arms.

[shloky]

PMCs are not new either. But the industry for private security (made up of services like shooters or intel) has exploded in the last six years.

One of the most interesting and important developments is the move away from the nation-state customer base of the 70s/80s/90s to a corporate/NGO base.

[ramsis]

Is this to counter Corporate Espionage? I can't belive that wallmart could possibly act on behalf of national security.

[georgelarson]

The Britsh East India Company acted to enhance British interests out side of India. Why wouldn't Walmart? It might depend on who the major stockholders were.

I have heard the Vatican has an intelligence gathering organization.

[Cavolonero]

Pretty soon , " Security Forces Limitation Act " ?

[adam]

John,

Walmart is a funny case (not funny ha-ha sadly). We should say "hi" to them right now. Wal-Mart does indeed run (and has for years) a fairly large intelligence operation where the main targets are traditional US-corporate enemies; union and human rights activists in countries that the company feels should remain union-and-human-rights free (including the US).

Walmart Intelligence recruits extensively from the FBI and CIA with a basis for working rather like that of the NSA. The New Yorker has a fairly complete examination in its April 2nd 2007 issue. Most of the spying is 'business as usual' - on stockholders, awkward customers, and employees using technical means :

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/04/news/companies/walmart_spy/index.htm

More active Wal-mart operations can take some surreal turns. One operation involved a multi-nation pursuit of a Wal-Mart manager who had made the dreadful mistake of criticising Wal-Marts sweatshop conditions in Guatemala. The manager was eventually fired for "fraternisation" with a co-worker, although whether this was a honey-trap or not remains unclear.

The reality is that Wal-Mart is as big as many nations. At this level executives really do believe that their company is a nation unto itself (Ian Banks' satirical novel The Business just got there a little too soon) and at a certain stage corporations start to act like a nation with internally policed laws, internal and external security agencies, a military wing, and espionage systems.

If I recall correctly Wal-Mart pulled out of Germany because its internally policed laws relating to sex were declared really illegal (Business week misses the court case, but it often spins to make businesses look like they're making a decision, not obeying a ruling):

www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2006/gb20060728_594752.htm

Of course I would wonder why Americans put up with this kind of thing from their companies. Thoughts?

[Duncan Kinder]

""Familiarity with a broad spectrum of information resources and data-mining techniques" is listed among the skills sought, along with a foreign language, preferably Chinese or Spanish."

This suggests that if you really have it in for Walmart, you had best learn Urdu.

[pm2075]

Something along the line of privatization...

http://www.mises.org/store/The-Enterprise-of-Law-Justice-without-the-State-P297C0.aspx

P-
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/invest_mavin/message/356

[Timbers]

Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash (1992) predicted the privatization of defense and intelligence functions along with the decline of nation states. It's all too real now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_crash

[john SCOTT]

DONE look at http://www.ijet.com