Supply Chain Dysfunction, Wal-Mart Still Creepy

The Associated Press April 24, 2007, 12:11PM EST
Wal-Mart recruits intelligence officers
By MARCUS KABEL

BENTONVILLE, Ark.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 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 has denied any wrongdoing.

Wal-Mart posted ads in March on its own web site and sites for security professionals, including the bulletin of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, for “global threat analysts” with a background 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 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.

“It’s a troubling new departure in corporate security. We’re not just talking about security, we’re talking about intelligence operations,” Aftergood said.

Harrison told a meeting of security professionals last year that Wal-Mart was learning to defend itself by using the vast information it routinely collects about its employees, shoppers and suppliers.

The only public comment to date on the work of the Analystical Research Center, the speech was reported on by the trade magazine Government Security News. Wal-Mart did not dispute the report when contacted by The Associated Press this week.

Harrison told the meeting that Wal-Mart tracks customers including those who use its pharmacies, buy propane tanks and anyone making “bulk purchases” of prepaid cell phones, which some law enforcement officials have tied in the past to terrorist or criminal activities.

Harrison did not elaborate on how that information could be better used, except to say the data could be shared with law enforcement.

Wal-Mart’s union-backed critics said culling customer data for intelligence was disturbing.

“The idea that Wal-Mart is creating its own personal CIA should make every American—Wal-Mart customer or not—nervous about whether Wal-Mart is invading their privacy or could do so in the future,” said Chris Kofinis, spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8ON2P400.htm

WORKER INTIMIDATION HAS FRIENDS AT WALMART…

This item from the Los Angeles Business Journal by Anthony Effinger-

“Jon Lehman, a former store manager who is with the union now, said Wal-Mart has a 60-by-60 foot room at its headquarters in which two dozen people with headsets monitor calls and e-mails from stores to see whether anyone is talking about union organizing.”

===================

Over the past 10 years, the NLRB or its administrative law judges have determined in at least 11 cases that Wal-Mart or individual Wal-Mart stores were engaging in unfair labor practices to prevent unionization, according to the agency’s website.

An excerpt from one of the decisions against Wal-Mart gives a sense of the extent of the violations:
The Respondent, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., its officers, agents, successors, and assigns, shall:
1. Cease and desist from

(c) Engaging in surveillance of the union activities of employees.

==================

Fired Wal-Mart worker claims surveillance ops: report
Wed Apr 4, 2007 12:44am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter’s phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees, but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., The Wall Street Journal reported.

As part of the surveillance, the retailer last year had a long-haired employee infiltrate an anti-Wal-Mart group to determine if it planned protests at the company’s annual meeting, according to Bruce Gabbard, the fired security worker, the Journal said.

The company also deployed cutting-edge monitoring systems made by a supplier to the Defense Department that allowed it to capture and record the actions of anyone connected to its global computer network, the Journal said.

“...a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation… but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.....”

...honesty is Wal-Mart’s number one principle.

Concerning Wal-Mart, a top EEOC lawyer told Business Week:

“I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law.”

Who ya gonna believe?

Behind a fence topped with razor wire just off U.S. Highway 71 is a bunker of a building that Wal-Mart considers so secret that it won’t even let the county assessor inside without a nondisclosure agreement.

Someone once said,"A gang runs Walmart”.

This probably explains why a CSS sneaked up behind me and grabbed me by the back of my collar to check a upc number. Who told her to do this ? Follow the money. First they are with you then then they are against you. SHAME ON YOU. Did Walmart mention that I was viewed on tape falling on a hair product ? According to a associate our supervisor said he saw me fall and was laughing his ass off. That same supervisor TOLD ME that when someone wants to get rid of you they work together to make that happen. He was speaking in general. A supervisor said that lies told about me are justified. So anyone who wants to work for Walmart and play the spy game should ask Walmart to tell the truth. Perhaps your being lied to.

Walmart tell the truth?
like Obama bringing “change”
yea right!

war waaagh

‘Wal-Mart buyer Liao Mou demanded 20,000 RMB from the egg supplier as an “entrance fee”.’

How much is 20,000RMB in U.S. currency?  It’s probably about $25.00US.