Wal-Mart Seeks Former Intelligence Officers for Security
April 29th, 2007Via: AP / Houston Chronicle:
Wal-Mart Stores has been recruiting former military and government intelligence officers for a branch of its global security office aimed at identifying threats to the world’s largest retailer, including from “suspect individuals and groups.”
Wal-Mart’s interest in intelligence operatives comes at a time when the retailer is defending itself against allegations by a fired security employee that it ran surveillance operations against targets including critics, dissident shareholders, employees and suppliers. Wal-Mart denied any wrongdoing.
Wal-Mart posted ads in March on its Web site and sites for security professionals, including the bulletin of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, for “global threat analysts” with backgrounds in government or military intelligence work.
The jobs were listed with the Analytical Research Center, part of Wal-Mart’s Global Security division, which is headed by former senior CIA and FBI senior officer Kenneth Senser. The analytical unit was created over the past year and a half, according to published comments by its head, Army Special Operations veteran David Harrison.
The job description includes collecting information from “professional contacts” and public data to anticipate and assess threats stemming from “world events, regional/national security climates, and suspect individuals and groups.”
“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.
A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment on the Analytical Research Center for this story or to make any security executives available for interviews.
Many corporations hire law enforcement officers for their security departments.
But Steven Aftergood, who runs the government secrecy project for the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, said Wal-Mart’s efforts appear to go beyond what most companies are doing, raising questions about corporate intelligence work outside of the oversight process in place for government spying.
Research Credit: EP
…… very scary.
It’s the nature of the Beast: when a domination system gets to a certain size, it needs black ops. Now I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wal-Mart merge with Blackwater.
More here http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/51142/.
On this subject, has everyone read Jim Hougan’s Spooks ? Because you must, a true parapolitics classic