Corporate Spooks: Private Security Contractors Infiltrate Social Justice Organizations

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Activists also attract the attention of corporate spies for a less flattering reason, says John Stauber, founder of the watchdog group the Center for Media and Democracy and its magazine, PR Watch. “Any firm involved in corporate espionage is more than happy to take on the job of spying on activist organizations because, frankly, they see it as easy pickings.”

Often operating on shoestring budgets, and dependent on the benevolence of average citizens, few advocacy groups have the time or the inclination to conduct background checks on the volunteers who show up at their door. “Until somebody screws up in some way or ends up in a lawsuit, it’s very difficult to document these activities,” says Stauber.

That’s what happened in early 2008, when a nasty business dispute brought to light one brazen tale of espionage. Becket Brown International (BBI) was started by former Secret Service officers in 1995. After the company’s primary investor, John C. Dodd III, had a falling out with his business partners he began contacting activist groups that the firm was spying on.

Among BBI’s targets: environmentalists in Louisiana and elder-care activists in Maryland. The most audacious case in the BBI files focused on antigun organizations. Starting in the mid-’90s, Mary McFate became a prominent activist within the gun-control movement. She sat on the boards of various organizations, including Philadelphia-based CeaseFire PA and the Freedom States Alliance in Chicago, and lobbied for violence-prevention legislation in Washington.

Her volunteer activities came to an abrupt halt in 2008 when Dodd’s tips helped Mother Jones (July 30, 2008) expose Mary McFate as Mary Lou Sapone, a corporate spy on hire for BBI. Among BBI’s illustrious clients: the National Rifle Association.

The gun-control groups were taken aback by the revelation. “She had access to all the legislative strategy for every major issue for years,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center.

Not everyone, though, viewed McFate-Sapone’s infiltration as an ominous development. “I actually think she helped the movement rather than hurt the movement through all her volunteer efforts,” Ona Hamilton, a founder of CeaseFire PA, told the Philadelphia Inquirer (Aug. 1, 2008). “I just don’t see what she could have gained in terms of damaging information.”

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