We Spied on the Spies who Spy on Activists
When governments and corporations want to stay on top of the \u201cthreats\u201d posed by protest movements \u2014 from climate campaigns to animal-rights advocacy \u2014 there\u2019s one company that they tend to turn to: Welund. Founded in the UK in 2007, it expanded to North America about a decade later, setting up shop in Calgary (where it\u2019s now called Foresight Reports). So who are they? And what does it mean when public-sector bodies farm out their intelligence gathering to a private firm?
To find out, we put our own open-source intelligence skills to the test.
Host: Jesse BrownÂ
Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Jonathan Goldsbie (News Editor), Andr\xe9 Proulx (Production Coordinator), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)
Further reading:
- Secretive intelligence firm with Alberta government contract spying on journalist Brandi Morin \u2014 Ricochet
- The Private Intelligence Firm Keeping Tabs on Environmentalists \u2014 Mother Jones
- BAE spy named by campaigners is friend of leading Tory \u2014 The Guardian
- BP paid ex-MI6 spy firm to snoop on green campaigners \u2014 openDemocracy
- Ep. 35 - Larry Hardcastle \u2014 Brilliant Business Podcast
- Information commissioner finds feds withheld details of relationship with private spy agency \u2014 Ricochet
- Foresight Reports website \u2014 Welund North America
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