Corporate Espionage: Fact And Fiction

sfgate.com
Corporate espionage is probably not what you think of when you hear the word spy. It's not Sean Connery with his debonair manner, nor is it Tom Cruise hanging from suspension cable; sometimes it's as simple as a man in a bathrobe sitting in front of a computer with a touchtone phone beside it. Google found out that espionage can "allegedly" be a sovereign state seeking to quash dissidents. We'll look at both the fact and fiction surrounding the world of the corporate spy. (From godfathers to perps, familiarize yourself with the "criminal elements" creeping around Wall Street, in Handcuffs And Smoking Guns: The Criminal Elements Of Wall Street.)

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Dutch prosecutors stop tapping lawyers' phones

nrc.nl
For years, Dutch law enforcement officials have been listening in on conversations between lawyers and their clients. The prosecutor’s office itself now wants to put an end to the practice once and for all.

What do a miracle doctor, a shrink, a lawyer and an imam have in common? Their professions are all on a list of words compiled by the Dutch public prosecutor for what is its biggest inquiry ever. All over the Netherlands, millions of transcripts of phone taps are currently being screened for phone calls between suspects and their lawyers, doctors or psychiatrists. A list of search terms has been compiled that could indicate a confidential conversation has taken place.

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DoD Official Tied to Private Spy Effort

military.com

WASHINGTON --- A Defense Department official is under investigation for hiring private contractors to gather intelligence on suspected insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, The New York Times reported Sunday.

That information was then supplied to military units and intelligence officials, the Times said, citing anonymous military and business sources in the United States and Afghanistan. The scheme violated U.S. policy against using contractors as spies.

Michael D. Furlong was reported to have hired contractors from a private company run by retired Special Forces officers for what some of the Times' sources described as an off-the-books spy operation. Some of the Times' sources said the information gathered by the contractors was used by the military to track down and attack militants.

The officials who spoke to the newspaper said they were not sure who condoned Furlong's operation, and it may have been funded by diverting money from a program intended to merely gather information about the area.

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