Media Interview Assignment: Mother Jones on Black Ops on Green Groups

Date: 11 April 2008

Contacts:
Dan Schulman, dschulman@MotherJones.com
Steve Katz, skatz@motherjones.com

EXCLUSIVE:
Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups

Meet the private security firm that spied on Greenpeace and other environmental outfits for its corporate clients. A tale of intrigue, infiltration, and dumpster-diving.

A Mother Jones exclusive (http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/firm-spied-on-environmental-groups.html) has exposed that a security firm run by ex Secret Service agents spied on Greenpeace, Fenton Communications, the Center for Food Safety, and others.

James Ridgeway, the Mother Jones senior correspondent who obtained the never-before-published internal company documents now available on the Mother Jones website, revealed in today's story that a private security company organized and managed by former Secret Service officers spied on Greenpeace and other environmental organizations from the late 1990s through at least 2000, pilfering documents from trash bins, attempting to plant undercover operatives within groups, casing offices, collecting phone records of activists, and penetrating confidential meetings. The smoking gun documents show that Beckett Brown International (BBI), collected confidential records�donor lists, detailed financial statements, the Social Security numbers of staff members, strategy memos�from these groups and produced intelligence reports for public relations firms and major corporations
involved in environmental controversies.

BBI also conducted background checks for the Carlyle Group, the Washington-based investment firm; provided "protective services" for the National Rifle Association; handled "crisis management" for the Gallo wine company; engaged in "information collection" for Wal-Mart. It conducted background checks for Patricia Duff, a Democratic Party fundraiser then involved in an acrimonious child custody battle with billionaire Ronald Perelman. And for Mary Kay, BBI mounted "surveillance" and vetted Gayle Gaston, a top executive at the cosmetics company (and mother of actress Robin Wright Penn), retaining an expert to conduct a psychological assessment of her. Also listed as clients in BBI records: Halliburton and Blackwater.

Senior Correspondent James Ridgeway and Washington Bureau Chief David Corn are available for interviews on this or other Mother Jones stories by emailing dschulman@motherjones.com or Steve Katz, at skatz@motherjones.com.