Gibbs, Lois

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</div><div>It has been almost 40 years since the nation heard the cries for help from Love Canal, where a school and neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, was built on a toxic dump filled with 21,000 tons of chemical waste. Children were sick, parents were scared and families lost their homes.</div>I know, because my children, my family and my home were among them.The Love Canal crisis created public awareness and a scientific understanding that the chemicals people are exposed to in their everyday environment can cause serious harm to their health, especially to pregnant women and young children.This understanding of the serious risks of living near pollution was the impetus to creating the Superfund program in 1980. The program gives communities power to hold corporations responsible for cleaning up contamination. Today, a pending action by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt threatens to strip that power away.That’s why on Tuesday, a People’s Task Force on the future of the Superfund program released a <a href="http://chej.org/wp-content/uploads/Superfund-Peoples-Task-Force-3.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">series of recommendations</a> to, as the task force puts it, “place public health as a priority” over “private interests and money.” The task force is comprised of representatives of 25 Superfund sites and 70 environmental organizations..The cornerstone of the Superfund program is the “polluter pays” principle.President Jimmy Carter signed the Superfund bill knowing that other sites similar to Love Canal would have immediate resources to reduce and eliminate people’s exposure to toxic chemicals. It worked well for 20 years under presidents Reagan, G.H.W. Bush and Clinton, who all supported the program and the tax that funded it.Then in 1995, Congress allowed the tax to expire, and by 2003, the entire financial burden of cleaning up the worst orphan toxic sites fell to the taxpayers. As a result, the number of toxic sites cleaned up went from an average of 85 a year down to as few as eight a year today.Pruitt says Superfund is his priority. As the “mother of Superfund,” as I am often called, I should be thrilled. Instead, I’m terrified.How can Pruitt call Superfund a priority if he’s proposing cutting the program’s budget by $330 million without advocating for the polluters’ tax to be reinstated?There are 1,300 sites on the Superfund list. Of those, 121 sites don’t have human exposure to toxic contaminants under control. There are another 187 sites where groundwater migration of waste isn’t under control.Nearly 53 million people live within three miles of a Superfund site; 46 percent are people of color and 15 percent live below the poverty line.Pruitt is forming a special Superfund task force, but his directive sounds eerily like a plan to expand the Superfund Alternatives program, and that would be a disaster.Superfund Alternatives removes mandatory citizen participation and access to information and resources provided by Superfund. Under the program, technical assistance grants that allow citizens to hire their own experts to review data and plans are awarded by the polluter rather than the EPA.Under Superfund Alternatives, responsible parties agree to clean up a site to avoid the stigma of being listed on the National Priority List. The program benefits the polluter while punishing the victims. It gives power to corporations, takes it away from communities harmed by the toxic sites, and weakens EPA oversight.The alternative approach also allows a company to avoid flagging a National Priority List site as a liability in its financial papers. This can have a significant impact, especially if the company is being sold.If the polluter is cleaning up the site under Pruitt’s watch, it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that the cleanup will be as minimal as possible. The result will be partially cleaned-up sites being used for other purpose—and on a path back to where we started 40 years ago.Institutional controls were supposed to prevent land that is too contaminated for residential use from ever being used for homes and schools. At Love Canal, those institutional controls failed in the 1950s to stop construction of the 99th Street School.Under Pruitt’s direction, families like those recently evacuated from contaminated public housing in East Chicago, Indiana, might still be there, getting sicker.If Pruitt truly wants to protect people around Superfund sites, his first steps should be to advocate for reinstating the “polluter pays” tax to provide funds to adequately clean up sites.He should hold polluters, not taxpayers, responsible for cleanup costs and collect triple damages from polluters who force EPA to go to court. He should also continue the technical assistance grants that provide communities with the information they need to understand their cleanup options.Pruitt must protect the power of communities to hold polluters responsible, because after 40 years, it is painfully clear that we can’t count on corporations.<div wibbitz="embed-main-player" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="bio-new body_environment" style="width: 630px; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; height: auto; border-top: 3px solid rgb(223, 223, 218); clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="author-bio">Lois Gibbs is the founder and executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ).</div></div><div>=
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</div><div><a href="http://grist.org/article/dicum/" class="external text" title="http://grist.org/article/dicum/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; padding-right: 13px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png); background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Robert Bullard</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D.Bullard" class="external text" title="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert D. Bullard" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 16px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/lock_icon.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">(bio)</a>, sociologist widely regarded as the first to articulate the concept of <a href="http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Category:Environmental_Justice" class="external text" title="http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Category:Environmental Justice" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png); background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">environmental justice</a>. <a href="http://www.westviewpress.com/book.php?isbn=9780813367927&disc=17#" class="external text" title="http://www.westviewpress.com/book.php?isbn=9780813367927&disc=17#" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png); background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Dumping in Dixie</a> <a href="http://www.ciesin.org/docs/010-278/010-278chpt2.html" class="external text" title="http://www.ciesin.org/docs/010-278/010-278chpt2.html" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png); background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">(excerpt)</a> Most recently has been writing about Hurricane Katrina as the latest environmental sacrifice zone. In this <a href="http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/03/14/dicum/" class="external text" title="http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/03/14/dicum/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png); background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">interview</a> Bullard explains why the environmental justice movement is different than mainstream environmental organizations. See A Firce Green Fire <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL1FTRNPU08&list=UUgVOzAPWeqlqL34csSLIW6Q" class="external text" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL1FTRNPU08&list=UUgVOzAPWeqlqL34csSLIW6Q" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 16px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/lock_icon.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">excerpt</a>.</div><div>
</div><div><a href="http://www.chej.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.chej.org/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background-image: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png); background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lois Gibbs</a> is a pioneering environmental activist who discovered that her son’s elementary school was built on top of a toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls, NY. Upon subsequent investigation she discovered that her entire neighborhood was built on the same dump, known as the Love Canal. (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1VzX5MvjXY&list=UUgVOzAPWeqlqL34csSLIW6Q" class="external text" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1VzX5MvjXY&list=UUgVOzAPWeqlqL34csSLIW6Q" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 16px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/lock_icon.gif) 100% 50% no-repeat rgb(255, 255, 255);">short video</a>) Gibbs now runs The Center for Health and Environmental Justice. CHEJ can help citizens understand the technical issues and how to get support in fighting environmental injustice. <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/69280/" class="external text" title="http://www.alternet.org/environment/69280/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; line-height: 16.7040004730225px; background: url(http://ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png) 100% 50% no-repeat rgb(255, 255, 255);">Recent interview (text)</a> with UCSC alum.
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</div><div>Lois Marie Gibbs (born 1951) is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">American</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmentalism" title="Environmentalism" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">environmental activist</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lois_Gibbs_NMU_Mqt,MI_10-15-10(11).JPG" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; text-indent: 15px; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; width: 15px; height: 11px; -webkit-user-select: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%20standalone%3D%22no%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2011%2015%22%20width%3D%2215%22%20height%3D%2211%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3Cg%20id%3D%22magnify-clip%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%23000%22%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20id%3D%22bigbox%22%20d%3D%22M1.509%201.865h10.99v7.919h-10.99z%22%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Cpath%20id%3D%22smallbox%22%20d%3D%22M-1.499%206.868h5.943v4.904h-5.943z%22%2F%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%3C%2Fg%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A);">
In 1980, Gibbs formed the Citizens' Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, later renamed the </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Center_for_Health,Environment_and_Justice&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Center for Health, Environment and Justice (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Center for Health, Environment and Justice</a> (CHEJ), where she currently serves as Executive Director.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-CHEJ_Staff_Page-4" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[4]</a> CHEJ is a grassroots environmental crisis center that provides information, resources, technical assistance and training to community groups around the nation. CHEJ seeks to form strong local organizations in order to protect neighborhoods from exposure to hazardous wastes.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-CHEJ_Staff_Page-4" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[4]</a>Gibbs's involvement in environmental causes began in 1978 when she discovered that her 7-year-old son's elementary school in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Falls,_New_York" title="Niagara Falls, New York" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Niagara Falls, New York</a> was built on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_waste" title="Toxic waste" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">toxic waste</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill" title="Landfill" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">dump</a>. Subsequent investigation revealed that her entire neighborhood, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal" title="Love Canal" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Love Canal</a>, had been built on top of this dump.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a>With no prior experience in community <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activism" title="Activism" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">activism</a>, Gibbs organized her neighbors and formed the Love Canal Homeowners Association.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a> She led her community in a battle against the local, state, and federal governments. After years of struggle, 833 families were eventually evacuated, and cleanup of Love Canal began. National press coverage made Lois Gibbs a household name. Her efforts also led to the creation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency" title="United States Environmental Protection Agency" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</a>'s Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund" title="Superfund" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Superfund</a>, which is used to locate and clean up toxic waste sites throughout the United States.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a>Gibbs has authored several books about the Love Canal story and the effects of toxic waste.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a> Her story was dramatized in the 1982 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_movie" title="Television movie" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">made-for-TV</a> movie Lois Gibbs: the Love Canal Story, in which she was played by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsha_Mason" title="Marsha Mason" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Marsha Mason</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#Awards_and_honors" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">1 Awards and honors</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#Gallery" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2 Gallery</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#References" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">3 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">4 External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Awards and honors[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lois_Gibbs&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Awards and honors" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A); line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Awarded the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Environmental_Prize" title="Goldman Environmental Prize" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Goldman Environmental Prize</a> in 1990</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The 5th Annual <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Award" title="Heinz Award" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Heinz Award</a> in the Environment (1999)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Awarded an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree" title="Honorary degree" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">honorary degree</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haverford_College" title="Haverford College" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Haverford College</a> for her work as an environmental activist (2006)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_note-CHEJ_Staff_Page-4" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Received an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree" title="Honorary degree" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">honorary degree</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_humane_letters" title="Doctor of humane letters" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">doctor of humane letters</a>, from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mountain_College" title="Green Mountain College" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Green Mountain College</a> (2009)</li></ul><div>--</div></div><div><ol class="references" style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 3.2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: inherit; line-height: 20.1599998474121px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li id="cite_note-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"> Verhovek, Sam How (August 5, 1988). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D9143CF936A3575BC0A96E948260" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2210%22%20height%3D%2210%22%3E%3Cg%20transform%3D%22translate%28-826.429%20-698.791%29%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%225.982%22%20height%3D%225.982%22%20x%3D%22826.929%22%20y%3D%22702.309%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%2F%3E%3Cg%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M831.194%20698.791h5.234v5.391l-1.571%201.545-1.31-1.31-2.725%202.725-2.689-2.689%202.808-2.808-1.311-1.311z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M835.424%20699.795l.022%204.885-1.817-1.817-2.881%202.881-1.228-1.228%202.881-2.881-1.851-1.851z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E) 100% 50%;">"After 10 Years, the Trauma of Love Canal Continues"</a>. New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-29.<span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ALois+Gibbs&rft.aufirst=Sam+How&rft.aulast=Verhovek&rft.au=Verhovek%2C+Sam+How&rft.btitle=After+10+Years%2C+the+Trauma+of+Love+Canal+Continues&rft.date=August+5%2C+1988&rft.genre=book&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fgst%2Ffullpage.html%3Fres%3D940DE6D9143CF936A3575BC0A96E948260&rft.pub=New+York+Times&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook" class="Z3988" /></li><li id="cite_note-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-2" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://chej.org/about/our-story/about-lois/" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2210%22%20height%3D%2210%22%3E%3Cg%20transform%3D%22translate%28-826.429%20-698.791%29%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%225.982%22%20height%3D%225.982%22%20x%3D%22826.929%22%20y%3D%22702.309%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%2F%3E%3Cg%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M831.194%20698.791h5.234v5.391l-1.571%201.545-1.31-1.31-2.725%202.725-2.689-2.689%202.808-2.808-1.311-1.311z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M835.424%20699.795l.022%204.885-1.817-1.817-2.881%202.881-1.228-1.228%202.881-2.881-1.851-1.851z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E) 100% 50%;">CHEJ About Lois Page</a></li><li id="cite_note-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-3" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chej.org/mission.htm" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2210%22%20height%3D%2210%22%3E%3Cg%20transform%3D%22translate%28-826.429%20-698.791%29%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%225.982%22%20height%3D%225.982%22%20x%3D%22826.929%22%20y%3D%22702.309%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%2F%3E%3Cg%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M831.194%20698.791h5.234v5.391l-1.571%201.545-1.31-1.31-2.725%202.725-2.689-2.689%202.808-2.808-1.311-1.311z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M835.424%20699.795l.022%204.885-1.817-1.817-2.881%202.881-1.228-1.228%202.881-2.881-1.851-1.851z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E) 100% 50%;">CHEJ Our Mission Page</a></li><li id="cite_note-CHEJ_Staff_Page-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">^ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-CHEJ_Staff_Page_4-0" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-CHEJ_Staff_Page_4-1" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">b</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-CHEJ_Staff_Page_4-2" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">c</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chej.org/staff.htm" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2210%22%20height%3D%2210%22%3E%3Cg%20transform%3D%22translate%28-826.429%20-698.791%29%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%225.982%22%20height%3D%225.982%22%20x%3D%22826.929%22%20y%3D%22702.309%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%2F%3E%3Cg%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M831.194%20698.791h5.234v5.391l-1.571%201.545-1.31-1.31-2.725%202.725-2.689-2.689%202.808-2.808-1.311-1.311z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M835.424%20699.795l.022%204.885-1.817-1.817-2.881%202.881-1.228-1.228%202.881-2.881-1.851-1.851z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E) 100% 50%;">CHEJ Staff Page</a></li><li id="cite_note-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-5" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n81-95587" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2210%22%20height%3D%2210%22%3E%3Cg%20transform%3D%22translate%28-826.429%20-698.791%29%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%225.982%22%20height%3D%225.982%22%20x%3D%22826.929%22%20y%3D%22702.309%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%2F%3E%3Cg%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M831.194%20698.791h5.234v5.391l-1.571%201.545-1.31-1.31-2.725%202.725-2.689-2.689%202.808-2.808-1.311-1.311z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M835.424%20699.795l.022%204.885-1.817-1.817-2.881%202.881-1.228-1.228%202.881-2.881-1.851-1.851z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E) 100% 50%;">Worldcat results (books by and about her)</a></li><li id="cite_note-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-6" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084262/" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2210%22%20height%3D%2210%22%3E%3Cg%20transform%3D%22translate%28-826.429%20-698.791%29%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%225.982%22%20height%3D%225.982%22%20x%3D%22826.929%22%20y%3D%22702.309%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%2F%3E%3Cg%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M831.194%20698.791h5.234v5.391l-1.571%201.545-1.31-1.31-2.725%202.725-2.689-2.689%202.808-2.808-1.311-1.311z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M835.424%20699.795l.022%204.885-1.817-1.817-2.881%202.881-1.228-1.228%202.881-2.881-1.851-1.851z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E) 100% 50%;">IMDB entry</a></li><li id="cite_note-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Gibbs#cite_ref-7" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style="top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important; -webkit-user-select: none;">Jump up^{</a> }<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients/lois-gibbs" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) 100% 50% no-repeat, url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20width%3D%2210%22%20height%3D%2210%22%3E%3Cg%20transform%3D%22translate%28-826.429%20-698.791%29%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%225.982%22%20height%3D%225.982%22%20x%3D%22826.929%22%20y%3D%22702.309%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%20stroke%3D%22%2306c%22%2F%3E%3Cg%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M831.194%20698.791h5.234v5.391l-1.571%201.545-1.31-1.31-2.725%202.725-2.689-2.689%202.808-2.808-1.311-1.311z%22%20fill%3D%22%2306f%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20d%3D%22M835.424%20699.795l.022%204.885-1.817-1.817-2.881%202.881-1.228-1.228%202.881-2.881-1.851-1.851z%22%20fill%3D%22%23fff%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E) 100% 50%;">The Heinz Awards, Lois Gibbs profile</a></li></ol></div><div>
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</div><div>In case you missed my earlier communications, CHEJ was targeted by someone who wanted to do harm to our organization.  They broke into our office building around midnight and deliberately cut our phone and internet trunk cable during the last few days of the year, when our donors make their end of year contributions. The police were called and the investigators agreed that someone had committed a crime.This is not the first time CHEJ was a target.  You may have read the story about <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/news/spygate/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Greenpeace’s lawsuit</a> filed this past October against two major chemical companies, their PR firms and several individuals for activities that amount to corporate espionage. Chemical companies Dow Chemical and Sasol (formerly CONDEA Vista), through the PR firms Dezenhall Resources (Nichols Dezenhall at the time) and Ketchum, hired private investigators from the firm Beckett Brown International (BBI) to spy on Greenpeace.Within the documents Greenpeace found were photographs of my house and notes about my activities. It is very unnerving to know that someone is spying on you at home.  The Greenpeace suit charges the defendants stole thousands of documents, intercepted phone call detail records (CDRs), trespassed and conducted unlawful surveillance and theft of confidential information related to their public interest work.  The complaint charges that the chemical companies, PR firms and individuals “conspired to and did surveil, infiltrate and steal confidential information with the intention of preempting, blunting or thwarting” Greenpeace’s environmental campaigns.CHEJ is not part of this lawsuit but clearly someone is trying to thwart our efforts.  The question is who?  Is it the toy/baby product manufacturers because we let consumers know about the poisons leaking from their toxic toys, baby bottles and other toxic baby merchandise?Maybe it is the industries that are responsible for dioxin pollution as the scientific findings are scheduled to be posted later this month by EPA.  The industry has fought successfully for 25 years to keep adverse health findings from dioxin exposures of birth defects, immune suppression, infertility and diabetes from being finalized and public.  It could also be the companies who brought us PCB’s as CHEJ launches its campaign to get PCB’s out of school (built before 1979)  lighting fixtures.What about the fracking industry they aren’t supporters of our work either.  Just a few days ago a well that took fracking wastes was closed in Ohio.  Activist believe if we close the injection wells in Ohio, then the fracking industry will have few places to go with their wastes significantly impacting their business.CHEJ has many industries who would like to see us go away.  It’s not clear yet how many contributions we lost it might be as much as $20,000 however, some people said when they heard about the incidence they made a donation.  That’s a lot of money but it’s not enough to stop us from standing up and speaking out.  It’s not enough to deter us from helping others in the field to fight back against poisoning America’s families, homes, schools and communities.  CHEJ is back on line, back in the streets and holding polluters accountable.Question for you is who do you think wants CHEJ gone?    Have  you had similar experiences?</div><div></div></div><div>mojo black ops</div><div>
</div><div><h1 class="nodetitle managed-node-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1em; margin-bottom: 5px !important;">Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups</h1><div class="field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields" id="field-wrapper-authors" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 10px;"><div class="grouping-prefix" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0.21em !important; display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; zoom: 1; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">by</div><div class="field field--name-field-author-name field--type-text field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; zoom: 1;"><div class="fielditems" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fielditem even" style="box-sizing: border-box;">James Ridgeway</div></div></div></div><div class="shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope" data-app-id="6840204" data-app="share_buttons" data-title="Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups" data-link="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2008/04/11/cops-and-former-secret-service-agents-ran-black-ops-green-groups" data-summary="" id="shr_canvas2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; zoom: 1; clear: both;"><div ng-show="ready" ng-class="containerClasses" ng-controller="AppCtrl as appCtrl" shr-overflow-limit="2" shr-overflow-child=".shareaholic-share-button" shr-overflow-last="false" shr-overflow-enabled="" shr-overflow-wiggle="5" shr-auto-size="" shr-auto-size-trigger="2" shr-auto-size-target=".shareaholic-share-button .share-button-sizing" shr-auto-size-mobile="config.isMobile" shr-auto-size-min-size="44" class="ng-scope" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui flat mini " ng-style="config.verticalOffset ? {top: config.verticalOffset} : {}" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; position: relative; -webkit-transition: all 0.25s; transition: all 0.25s; top: 98.84375px;"><div class="shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline !important;"><ul class="shareaholic-share-buttons" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; overflow: hidden; -webkit-user-select: none; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; background-image: none !important; background-attachment: initial !important; background-size: initial !important; background-origin: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-position: initial !important; background-repeat: initial !important;">
</ul></div></div></div></div><div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fielditems" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field__item even" style="box-sizing: border-box;">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. According to <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/082098-Operative-Briefing.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">company documents</a> provided to Mother Jones by a former investor in the firm, this security outfit collected confidential internal records-donor lists, detailed financial statements, the Social Security numbers of staff members, strategy memos-from these organizations and produced intelligence reports for public relations firms and major corporations involved in environmental controversies.
In addition to focusing on environmentalists, the firm, Beckett Brown International (later called S2i), provided a range of services to a host of clients. According to its <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Daron-GP-Work-Report.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">billing records</a>, BBI engaged in "intelligence collection" for Allied Waste; it conducted background checks and performed due diligence for the Carlyle Group, the Washington-based investment firm; it provided "protective services" for the National Rifle Association; it handled "crisis management" for the Gallo wine company and for Pirelli; it made sure that the Louis Dreyfus Group, the commodities firm, was not being bugged; it engaged in "information collection" for Wal-Mart; it conducted background checks for Patricia Duff, a Democratic Party fundraiser then involved in a divorce 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 Monsanto.BBI, which was headquartered in Easton, Maryland, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, worked extensively, according to billing <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Dioxin-Ketchum-GP-Report.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">records</a>, for public-relations companies, including Ketchum, Nichols-Dezenhall Communications, and Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin. At the time, these PR outfits were servicing corporate clients fighting environmental organizations opposed to their products or actions. Ketchum, for <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Dow-Global-Trends-Tracking-Team.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">example</a>, was working for Dow Chemical and Kraft Foods; Nichols-Dezenhall, according to BBI records, was working with Condea Vista, a chemical manufacturing firm that in 1994 leaked up to 47 million pounds of ethylene dichloride, a suspected carcinogen, into the Calcasieu River in Louisiana.Like other firms specializing in snooping, Beckett Brown turned to <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Florida-Trash-Fax.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">garbage swiping</a> as a key tactic. BBI officials and contractors routinely conducted what the firm referred to as "D-line" operations, in which its operatives would seek access to the trash of a target, with the hope of finding useful documents. One midnight raid targeted Greenpeace. One BBI <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Possible%20Sites-Addresses.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">document</a>lists the addresses of several other environmental groups as "possible sites" for operations: the National Environmental Trust, the Center for Food Safety, Environmental Media Services, the Environmental Working Group, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, an organization run by Lois Gibbs, famous for exposing the toxic dangers of New York's Love Canal. For its rubbish-rifling operations, BBI employed a police officer in the District of Columbia and a former member of the Maryland state police.Beckett Brown's efforts to penetrate environmental groups and other targets came to an end when the business essentially dissolved in 2001 amid infighting between the principals. But the firm's officials went on to work in other security firms that remain active today.Beckett Brown International began when John C. Dodd III met Richard Beckett at a bar in Easton in 1994. Dodd had recently become a millionaire after his father had sold an Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship on Maryland's eastern shore. Beckett ran a local executive recruiting and consulting business. Soon after they met, according to Dodd, Beckett introduced him to Paul Rakowski, a recently retired Secret Service agent, who had put in two decades protecting presidents and foreign heads of state and had become regional manager of the agency's financial crimes division. Rakowski told Dodd he had an idea for a new security business.Dodd subsequently received a fax of a business plan for the new company. The sender's address at the top of the fax, according to Dodd, read: "11/02/94 USSS Financial Crimes Division/Forgery"-which suggested it had come from a Secret Service office. But Dodd was reluctant to put in the start-up money for the enterprise, because he didn't know who all the partners were. To impress him, Dodd says, Rakowski and his former Secret Service colleagues began taking him and his friends on special tours of the White House. "This wasn't a White House tour conducted by tour guides," he says. "They would take us...to areas that said 'Do not pass this line.'"At one point, Dodd says, a senior Secret Service agent named Joseph Masonis arranged for him to tour a Secret Service facility. "To encourage me to invest in this company," Dodd notes, "they all said 'why not go up to technical security headquarters [of the Secret Service] and you will get an exclusive tour.'...They showed me everything....They were worried about someone flying way up high in a plane, miles from the White House, jumping out of a plane, skydiving, popping the chute and getting on the White House grounds without anybody knowing it. They were working on the technology to pick that up." Dodd says he was blown away by what he saw. (Masonis says, "I have never taken Mr. Dodd to any facility in D.C.") And at a waterfront party, Dodd says, he was introduced to and deeply impressed by George Ferris, another Secret Service officer and an expert in demolitions.Eventually, Dodd says, he agreed to be the sole investor of the new firm, and he put up $170,000, the first of what would be several loans at 15 percent interest. (His investment in the firm, Dodd estimates, would grow to a total of $700,000.) The company was officially launched in August 1995, named after Beckett and Sam Brown, a lawyer who helped get it started. Rakowski, Masonis, and Ferris were officials in the firm.Business was good. In early 1997, Beckett Brown provided security services for Bill Clinton's second inauguration, landing a contract worth nearly $300,000. Early clients also included Phillip Morris, Mary Kay, Browning-Ferris Industries, and Nichols-Dezenhall, a Washington-based firm founded in 1987 by Nick Nichols and Eric Dezenhall that specialized in crisis communications, particularly for corporations involved in biotechnology, product safety, and environmental controversies. BBI provided protection for retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, Dodd says, and there was talk it might also get a job to guard the Rolling Stones."Alley is locked by iron gates. 7 dumpsters in alley-take your pick."By 1998, BBI had 22 employees working in five different divisions, along with subcontractors that it hired as operatives. The company also looked abroad for new opportunities and recruited more law enforcement and intelligence veterans. David Bresett, a former chief of the Secret Service's foreign intelligence branch, joined the firm as a vice president. (A company biography noted that Bresett, while detailed to the CIA, had directed the investigation that identified the terrorists who blew up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.) The firm retained Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, and earlier one of the government officials responsible for overseeing U.S. support of the Nicaraguan contras, as a consultant at $75,000 a year. "I did due diligence on a couple of customers," Cannistraro recalls. On the advice of Cannistraro and Bresett, BBI turned down a $1 million job with the Church of Scientology, according to Dodd. (Bresett did not respond to a message asking for comment.) At one point, an employee named <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/40/a15" target="new" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Tim Ward</a>, who had been a sergeant in the Maryland state police, traveled to Saudi Arabia for the company, according to Dodd.Phil Giraldi, a former CIA officer, was also on the payroll. According to Giraldi, there was not a lot of work for him and Cannistraro. "We would go to a company like Enron and see if they had any issues if they were looking to acquire a company," he recalled. "See if the [company to be acquired] is connected to the Russia mob. That's what we were selling. We were not very successful." Giraldi left the firm in 1999. By then, he had become aware of the firm's more unconventional activities: "Scooping garbage, trying to get penetrations of companies and environmental groups. I didn't know a lot of the details." But, he says, he knew BBI was "working on Greenpeace."In 2000, the firm-which had changed its name to S2i after Richard Beckett left the company-was targeting a group of activist organizations opposed to genetically engineered food that had formed a coalition called GE Food Alert. In the fall of 2000, with these groups poised to assail Taco Bell, S2i operatives got on the case.Their thoughts soon turned to garbage.On September 26, Jay Bly, a former Secret Service agent working for S2i, sent an <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Glow-In-Dark-Tacos-Emails.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">email</a> to Tim Ward, the former Maryland state trooper on the payroll:<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">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:</blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">1.Center for Food Safety, 7th & Penn SE</blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">2.Friends of the Earth, 1025 Vermont Ave (Between K & L Streets)</blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">3.GE Food Alert, 1200 18th St NW (18th & M)</blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">#1 is located on 3rd floor. Main entrance is key card. Alley is locked by iron gates. 7 dempsters [sic] in alley-take your pick.</blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">#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.</blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">#3 is doable but behind locked iron gates at rear of bldg.</blockquote>In this email, Bly explained the urgency and the goal: "Apparently there is an article or press release due out next week and [Ketchum] would like some pre release information." He then turned practical: "I want to send Sarah [another BBI employee] to site #1 for a job inquiry. She can see how big the offices are and get the lay of the land. Maybe this will narrow the field. If they have a job opening could she work there for two or three days to find out what's going on?" The Friends of the Earth site, he noted, would be tougher to penetrate. As for the garbage of GE Food Alert, Bly had a plan: "if we can get some help from our friends who ride the truck. The alley is tight. I think the truck can drive down the alley but the container probably is rolled out and dumped. Looks like one dumpster for the building. I'm sitting on the building at 4:00 am tomorrow morning (if Ketchum gives us a budget)." And Bly noted that there were other possible opportunities: "we have found some other affiliates with the above groups. We are looking for their locations in [Washington, D.C.] and hopefully a more S2i friendly site."The following day, Bly emailed Ward about his early morning surveillance:<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">Re: Dumpster Dive.</blockquote><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">I got hold of Jim Daron [a Washington police officer working for BBI] yesterday. He was supposed to do Vermont Ave and Penn Ave SE last night. I have not heard from him today-what's new. I did 18th St. Weard [sic] set up-the dumpster is behind locked gates. The truck drives down the alley and rings for the night guard to open the gate. The guard comes out, unlocks and goes back into the building (probably pissed off because they woke him up), the guys walk the bags out to the truck one at a time. When they finish they locked the gate behind them. There was so much trash they had to compact the truck two times while they were there. I did not find anything from the 5th floor, but the good news is it's doable.</blockquote>On September 28,Ward responded:<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box;">Good news! Think that once Jim [Daron] calls you back we will know where we stand. If he can't get in with the shield, it will be difficult at sight #1. I think #2 we can do regardless. The issue is a hot one in general. I've been following it from here. Don't forget our GP [Greenpeace] boy in Baltimore has been handling the work for GP. It may be worth a check in the city. Maybe one of our BPD [Baltimore Police Department] guys can hit that one. When you talk with the client push the fact that their client (the cheese people)...should put together a trend tracking program for the future. The anti's now have found an exposed corporate target and they will be back for more blood.</blockquote>This email appears to suggests that the Beckett Brown operatives were considering using a Washington police officer's badge to gain access to the garbage of the Center for Food Safety. And Ward was apparently hoping that Beckett Brown could persuade Ketchum to hire the company to monitor the ongoing activity of the activists opposed to genetically-engineered food.These emails do not indicate whether Beckett Brown succeeded in scooping valuable intelligence from the garbage at these three sites. But Beckett Brown had already managed to penetrate the anti-GE food network. In a 1999 report to Ketchum-entitled "Intelligence Analysis for Dow Global Trends Tracking Team" -BBI described in detail a strategy session held by 35 representatives of various environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, US PIRG, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The report noted the targets the coalition was considering (Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, the Grocery Manufacturers of America) and listed various tactics the group had discussed. Such strategy meetings of this coalition were confidential, according to Dale Wiehoff of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.Neither Bly nor Ward would discuss this series of emails or any of the work they did for Beckett Brown or S2i. "Legally, I can't tell you anything about what the company did," Ward says. He accuses Dodd of trying to "besmirch the names of the people involved" in the company. Rakowski, Daron, and Beckett did not reply to requests for comments. Nor did Ketchum. A spokesman for Kraft says, "After a review of our historical procurement files, we have no record of work on or about Sept. 26, 2000, with either Ketchum, Beckett Brown International or S2i. In the late '90s, Ketchum provided some PR services to Kraft for one of our coffee brands. However, Ketchum does not currently provide PR services to Kraft and has not done so for many years."Time and again, according to Beckett Brown records, the firm looked to trash for intelligence. These trash runs at one point did raise concern within the company. In 1998, David Queen, a senior vice president, sent Rakowski a memo about "dumpster diving." Queen, a former deputy assistant secretary of the treasury and once a U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania, noted that in certain instances searching trash could raise "some troublesome issues," including possible violation of state trespass laws and "possible violation of trade secrets laws." He concluded, "If BBI expects to use this method of information gathering, it would be prudent to get the opinion of outside counsel which could be relied upon by BBI should there be future litigation directed against BBI."Whether or not BBI sought counsel, the dumpster diving continued. In November 1999, according to company documents, Jay Bly traveled to St. Augustine, Florida, to meet with a private detective. He told the investigator that BBI wanted to obtain garbage from the offices of Whetstone Chocolates, a locally based candy manufacturer. (According to BBI billing <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Nestle%20Project.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">records</a>, BBI at the time was working for Nichols-Dezenhall on a "Nestle Project-Florida." At press time, Nestle had not responded to a request for comment.) This private investigator and another local gumshoe then tracked the garbage men who made pick-ups at Whetstone and tried to persuade one of the drivers to turn over the trash from Whetstone. The trash collectors wouldn't cooperate. A month later, another private investigator apparently attempted to grab the garbage himself. He sent Bly a fax reporting, "We made a pickup run on December 23,1999 as requested. We were unable to enter the area where the dumpster is located as there appeared to [be] a company party taking place in the break area located in front of the dumpster. We remained in the area for a short time, however, the party continued and we departed the area." A December 1, 1999, BBI briefing paper on a "Nichols-Dezenhall/St. Augustine Project" reported on activities within Whetstone and said that "BBI now has operative in place."Eric Dezenhall says that he cannot identify clients or vendors with which his firm worked. But he notes in an email that he never saw the briefing paper referring to a BBI operative and Whetstone and that "we would not have been involved in any infiltration operation." He adds, "Nichols-Dezenhall Communications never authorized, directed, or was informed of unethical or illegal activities by forensic investigators employed on any project we have worked on. With regard to our work on matters in which we were teamed with investigators, we are aware only of information-gathering through public records checks and other legitimate means." Dezenhall says that "any use of an 'operative' to infiltrate a company...would be counter to our business interests and any information gathered in that manner would be unusable in court." (In 2003, Dezenhall bought out Nichols and renamed the company Dezenhall Resources. "Our client base and employees from the 1990s have turned over almost entirely," Dezenhall says. According to a source familiar with the firm's current operations, the company has moved away from handling corporations involved in environmental controversies.) Another target of BBI's trash men was Fenton Communications, the liberal PR firm headed by David Fenton that for years has assisted environmental causes. On December 8, 1999, a BBI operative, according to an <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Internal%20Report-Sat-Surveillance.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">internal report</a>, "sat surveillance" at Fenton's Washington home, beginning at 2:50 am. In the report, the operative noted the time of the morning garbage pick-up and that he returned to the office to "sort material" and "analyze." BBI ran background checks on both Fenton and his then-wife. The company's files contained photographs of their house as well as client lists, billing information, and personnel information from Fenton Communications. Between July 1998 and February 2001, Fenton says, his firm experienced several break-ins, during which boxes of files and two laptops were stolen. The culprits were never caught."It was Mission Impossible-like."Greenpeace was the target of one of BBI's more elaborate-and cinematic-intelligence-gathering efforts, according to <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Operative-Inquiring.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">company documents</a> and an interview with an eyewitness. Jennifer Trapnell, who was dating Ward in the late 1990s, recalls an evening when she accompanied Ward on a job in Washington D.C. "He said they were trying to get some stuff on Greenpeace," she says. Ward wore black clothes and had told her to dress all in black, too: "It was Mission Impossible-like." In Washington, Ward parked his truck in an alley, she remembers, and told her to stay in the truck and keep a lookout. In the alley, he met a couple of other men, whose faces Trapnell did not see clearly. Ward was talking on a walkie-talkie with others, and they all walked off. About an hour later, the men came back and placed two trash bags in Ward's car. Trapnell says she didn't know what they did with the bags-and Ward never explained. In addition to Ward's work, on several occasions in 2000, Jim Daron, the Washington cop who also worked for BBI, submitted reports to BBI for surveillance of Greenpeace's offices.BBI gathered numerous internal Greenpeace documents, including financial reports. It also obtained the instructions for using the security system at Greenpeace's offices. And the Greenpeace files at BBI included a handwritten document that appears to record attempts to crack the security codes on entry doors with notations such as "codes do not match" and "open."BBI prepared reports on Greenpeace-based on "confidential sources"-for Ketchum. In at least one case, according to Rick Hind, legislative director for Greenpeace (who reviewed these reports at Mother Jones' request), a BBI report written for Ketchum contained information tightly held within the group about planned upcoming events. And a December 2, 1999 BBI report (which does not mention Ketchum) noted that Greenpeace had chosen Kellogg's, Kraft, and Quaker as "their main targets in the GE campaign," that it was developing a campaign tactic called "Food-Aid Expose" (which would highlight the export of genetically-modified foods to other countries), and that it was helping a Wall Street Journal reporter track food companies involved in the debate over genetically-engineered foods.Over the years, Greenpeace has repeatedly been the target of public relations firms working for industry, and the group has experienced burglaries and caught would-be spies posing as students seeking employment. But Greenpeace officials say they did not know that their organization was under surveillance during that period of time.In the late 1990s, Greenpeace was working with environmental groups in the stretch of Louisiana dubbed "Cancer Alley," organizing against various forms of industry pollution. Its work there and that of its Louisiana partners became another target for BBI. In 1998, according to BBI emails, correspondence, and records, BBI retained Mary Lou Sapone, a self-described "research consultant," who recruited a paid operative in Louisiana to infiltrate an environmental group called CLEAN. Sapone had something of a talent for infiltrating activist groups. In the late 1980s, working for a security firm called Perceptions International, which was, in turn, working for the U.S. Surgical Corporation, she penetrated a Connecticut-based animal-rights group, gathering evidence on an activist who would later serve jail time for planting a pipe bomb near the parking space of the company's CEO. The activist would eventually accused Sapone of coaxing her into the plot.Sapone's operative in Louisiana relayed to her information on what the local enviros were planning, provided gossip on the internal rivalries, and identified the scientists aiding the groups. She passed the intelligence to BBI. In an August 20, 1998 "client briefing," BBI boasted that "our operative is being nominated to the citizen action panels for local industries" and it asked which local industry Condea Vista, the chemical manufacturing firm, would prefer the operative to focus on. (The previous year, Condea Vista had lost a lawsuit brought by the residents of Lake Charles, Louisiana, against the company for the 1994 ethylene dichloride leak and had been slapped with a $7 million judgment.) Another BBI document noted, "The operative has been trained to be inquiring, but not participatory. Operatives are not allowed to offer suggestions or `help' targets in any way. They are trained to seek documents, ID friends and foe legislators and regulators, follow money trails, ID informants, discover future targets."BBI produced detailed confidential reports for Ketchum on the environmental activism underway in Louisiana. And BBI records indicate that the firm worked for Nichols-Dezenhall on a "Condea Vista Project." Citing "strict confidentiality agreements," Dezenhall will not say whether his firm worked with Condea Vista (or any other company), but he notes in an email, "It would be extremely damaging and wrong...to interpret or portray the term 'operative,' a generic term often used by investigators and former law enforcement types to mean an individual, as implying someone necessarily engaged in illicit actions such as corporate espionage." (Sapone did not respond to a message requesting comment.)Penetrating a citizens group was not a new endeavor for BBI. In 1996 and 1997 in northern California, where Browning-Ferris Industries was engaged in a battle over the future of a garbage dump, BBI conducted what its records labeled "covert monitoring" and "intelligence gathering" on the North Valley Coalition, a citizens group opposed to the Browning-Ferris project. In September 1997, BBI received a payment of $198,881.05 from BFI.The Firm's Obama connectionBBI fell apart in 2001 amid arguments over the company's finances. "It was not a happy company," says Phil Giraldi, the ex-CIA man who had worked there, adding, "I have worked for a number of security companies. Some are ethical, some are not. Beckett Brown was not especially so." When the company was collapsing, Dodd says, he heard that document shredding was underway in its offices, and one weekend he went to the offices and carted off scores of cartons stuffed with records.BBI's demise led to a lawsuit. Dodd sued Rakowski, Ward, Bly and two others, claiming they had engaged in fraud. In a pretrial statement, Dodd accused them of having "dipped into the Company's coffers for generous salaries, commissions, bonuses, loans, benefits and unsupported expense reimbursements, all the while presenting false and misleading financial information" to Dodd. In 2005, after a month-long trial in Maryland's Talbot County Circuit Court, Dodd lost. He now was out the $700,000 he had invested in the company. By his own estimate, he had spent over a million dollars in legal fees. And he was mad. He claims that he only learned of the firm's sleazier actions after the company imploded and that his lawyers encouraged him not to raise that issue as part of his lawsuit. But after the trial was done, Dodd began contacting some of BBI's targets and shared its records with them. "I wanted the facts to come out," he says. "I feel terrible that my money was used to screw these people over."Today, boxes and boxes of BBI <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/Possible%20Sites-Addresses.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">records</a> sit in warehouse space Dodd rents. Dodd has not gone through all of the material. (The records include internal and confidential financial reports of a local bank that had been the subject of a takeover.) Much of what BBI did remains a mystery to Dodd. A law firm representing the Mars candy corporation pored over all the records, according to Dodd and his lawyer, apparently in search of evidence that Mars had been the target of corporate espionage. (The files contain records indicating that BBI obtained information on the phone calls made by a PR man working with Mars.) Then Dodd heard nothing further from this law firm. Dodd says he would be delighted to testify before Congress about BBI-but no one has invited him to do so.As for BBI's principals, they are still operating. Tim Ward now runs a security firm called Chesapeake Strategies, which bills itself as "a multinational security and investigative firm comprised of professionals with extensive security experience." Jay Bly works there. Its website boasts that it maintains affiliated offices in Paris, Beijng, Tokyo, Qatar, and Kuwait and that "many team members continue to hold Secret and Top Secret government security clearances." The firm has been active in protecting research facilities from animal-rights activists. In 2002, it won a contract from the General Services Administration "for recreational, hospitality, law enforcement, facilities, industrial and environmental services and products." It was listed on a 2005 line-up of Defense Department contractors. "I don't have any comment about what I am currently doing or what I plan to do," Ward says.Joseph Masonis works for the Annapolis Group, a security firm. Its website notes that the company's managing directors "have over forty-five years of combined experience with the United States Secret Service." Paul Rakowski married Amy DiGeso, who was CEO of Mary Kay when BBI worked for the cosmetics firm. (Currently, she is a top executive at Estee Lauder.) Rakowski's current occupation-if he has one-is not publicly known.Richard Beckett is now CEO of Maryland-based Global Security Services, which, according to its website, offers clients a "suite of business solutions" that includes "intelligence services," "disaster management," "information systems security," and "paramilitary operations." Last year, his firm provided bodyguards to Senator Barack Obama.James Ridgeway is Mother Jones' Senior Washington Correspondent.</div></div></div></div><div></div></div>