Who are THEY?

[mhatrw]

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880412019

Tomato pickers feeling spied on
Aide says infiltrators have been at meetings

By AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS • [e-mail] • April 12, 2008

Who would spy on a couple of nonprofit human rights groups? Who would hire a professional infiltrator to sit in on the organizations’ planning sessions? Who would attack them on the Web for their efforts to improve the lives of workers who pick produce for the world’s largest fast food chains? That’s something the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance would like to know. In recent months, they’ve been vilified online and in e-mails that can be traced to the Miami headquarters of Burger King, a company that’s opposed the groups’ efforts. The alliance also identified a spy in its ranks. ...

The coalition works to improve the lives of its mostly immigrant members, many of whom do low-wage labor in Florida’s fields; the alliance is a key ally. In recent years, the coalition has scored a number of hard-fought, high-profile victories. McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, the world’s biggest fast-food chain and restaurant company, respectively, agreed to a coalition-supported penny-per-pound pay increase for tomato workers. Yum! signed on in 2005; McDonald’s in 2007. That penny more could add about $20 to a daily wage of $50, workers say. ...

Marc Rodrigues would never describe himself as a paranoid guy — not even an extra-careful type — but when the second batch of odd e-mails started rolling in, he got suspicious. Rodrigues, 27, is an organizer with the alliance, made up mostly of people in their late teens to mid-20s working from a colorfully cluttered storefront office shared with the CIW. It began normally enough. He got a call from Cara Schaffer, who said she was a student at Broward Community College. She wanted to plan an SFA event at her school. Great, Rodrigues said, and chatted with her about strategy. “Then we were wrapping up the discussion, when out of nowhere she said, ‘What about the conference call coming up? Can I get on it?’’’ Rodrigues says. “I was a bit thrown off because of the way that she asked the question, but I went ahead and gave her the call-in information.”

Curious, he recalls, Rodrigues looked her up on Google. In a matter of clicks, he learned that Cara Schaffer owns the Hollywood, Fla.-based Diplomatic Tactical Services, a security and investigative firm that advertises its ability to place “operatives” in the ranks of target groups. ...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Police_rank_black_ops_on_environmental_0411.html

Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, NRA hired 'black ops' company that targeted environmental groups
John Byrne
Published: Friday April 11, 2008

Dumpster-diving firm collected Social Security numbers of activists

A private security firm managed by former Secret Service officers spied on myriad environmental organizations throughout the 1990s and the year 2000, thieving documents, trying to plant undercover operations and collecting phone records of members, according to a new report. Documents obtained by James Ridgeway, a Mother Jones correspondent formerly with the Village Voice, reveals the contractor collected confidential internal records -- donor lists, financial statements -- even Social Security numbers, for public relations outfits and "corporations involved in environmental controversies."

Beckett Brown International also offered "intelligence" services to the Carlyle Group, the controversial DC-based investment company; "protective services" for the National Rifle Association; "crisis management" for the Gallo wine company and for Pirelli; "information collection" for Wal-Mart. "Also listed as clients in BBI records," Ridgeway reveals: "Halliburton and Monsanto." ...

Taco Bell genetic corn fiasco

The documents reveal spy thriller-like absurdities: a spy job on groups that had discovered Kraft's Taco Bell was using genetically-engineered corn not approved for human consumption and planned to make a fuss. A former Secret Service agent working for the company emailed another man on the payroll -- an erstwhile Maryland police officer.

Received a call from Ketchum yesterday afternoon re three sites in DC. It seems Taco Bell turned out some product made from bioengineered corn. The chemicals used on the corn have not been approved for human consumption. Hence Taco Bell produced potential glow-in-the-dark tacos. Taco Bell is owned by Kraft. The Ketchum Office, New York, has the ball. They suspect the initiative is being generated from one of three places:

1. Center for Food Safety, 7th & Penn SE

2. Friends of the Earth, 1025 Vermont Ave (Between K & L Streets)

3. GE Food Alert, 1200 18th St NW (18th & M)

#1 is located on 3rd floor. Main entrance is key card. Alley is locked by iron gates. 7 dempsters in alley—take your pick.

#2 is in the same building as Chile Embassy. Armed guard in lobby & cameras everywhere. There is a dumpster in the alley behind the building. Don't know if it is tied to bldg. or a neighborhood property. Cameras everywhere.

#3 is doable but behind locked iron gates at rear of bldg.

[jberryhill]

1. "and for Pirelli"

Aw, man, Pirelli pays for this kind of stuff. Shoot, now I wish I hadn't kicked Pirelli's ass: http://domains.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/938180.htm

Were there any figures on pay scale?