[P2P-F] spooky business report

[Michel Bauwens]

News Release

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, November 20th, 2013
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (202) 387-8030

Spooky Business: A New Report on Corporate Espionage Against Non-profits

Giant corporations are employing highly unethical or illegal tools of
espionage against nonprofit organizations with near impunity, according
to a new report by Essential Information. The report, titled Spooky
Business, documents how corporations hire shady investigative firms
staffed with former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),
National Security Agency (NSA), US military, Federal Bureau of
Investigations (FBI), Secret Service and local police departments to
target nonprofit organizations.

“Corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations is an egregious
abuse of corporate power that is subverting democracy,” said Gary
Ruskin, author of Spooky Business. “Who will rein in the forces of
corporate lawlessness as they bear down upon nonprofit defenders of
justice?”

Many of the world’s largest corporations and their trade associations --
including the U.S. 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.

Many different types of nonprofit organizations have been targeted with
corporate 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.

Corporations and their trade associations have been linked to a wide
variety of espionage tactics against nonprofit organizations. The most
prevalent tactic appears to be infiltration by posing a volunteer or
journalist, to obtain information from a nonprofit. But corporations
have been linked to many other human, physical and electronic espionage
tactics against nonprofits. Many of these tactics are either highly
unethical or illegal.

Founded in 1982 by Ralph Nader, Essential Information is a Washington,
DC-based nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. It is involved in a variety
of projects to promote corporate accountability, a more just economy,
public health and a sustainable planet. It has published a bi-monthly
magazine, books and reports, sponsored conferences, provided writers
with grants to pursue investigations, published daily news summaries,
operated clearinghouses that disseminate information to grassroots
organizations in the United States and developing countries worldwide,
and has hosted scores of conferences focusing on government and
corporate accountability.

More information about Essential Information is at www.essential.org,
and about the Center for Corporate Policy at www.corporatepolicy.org.

The Spooky Business report is available at:
http://www.corporatepolicy.org/spookybusiness.pdf

-- 
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