CSE gets flak on TV

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Responding to msg by s1113645@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca () on Tue, 14 
Nov  4:47 PM

>For those who care, the Communications Security 
>Establishment has been  getting some flak for spying on 
>Mex. during NAFTA talks and on Korea to  help us sell 
>Can. nuke reactors:


Here's a facet of the burgeoning counterspying, oops, biz-intel 
blathering, oops, globally competing, oops, leveling the 
playing field, oops, securing the econo-nation, oops, 
downsizing spies and X-spies and XX-ing spies and putting to 
pasture cud-chomping nincompoops of the Chomsky-contra-CIA 
golden-asses era:

---------

   The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 1995, p. A15.


   This Is the CEO -- Get Me the CIA [Op-Ed, excerpts]

   By Ernest Brod. (Mr. Brod is executive managing director of
   Kroll Associates, an international investigation, business
   intelligence and security frim based in New York.)


   While government policy makers ponder and debate [economic
   espionage] issues, U.S. companies are fighting the global
   competitiveness battle. In the past year U.S. companies
   have rushed to level the playing field with foreign
   competitors who have long exploited the advantage of
   competitor intelligence. For years, foreign-based
   multinationals have had teams of people devoted to learning
   as much as they could about their U.S. competitors. The
   methods ranged from in-depth research and analysis of
   publicly available information to covert and sometimes
   clumsy attempts at industrial espionage, in some cases with
   the active support of their government's intelligence
   agencies.

   Today, having had their consciousness raised by the global
   business realities of the '90s, U.S. companies in all
   industries are scrambling to set up units devoted to
   gathering strategic information about the competition.
   Teams can be found at both corporate and division levels;
   they may be multi-department or reside within planning,
   development, marketing, finance or international units.
   They may have euphemistic labels and they increasingly draw
   upon burgeoning numbers of outside private resources.

   In recent months, for example, my firm was asked to help
   determine:

   + Whether an Asian competitor will take advantage of the
   North American Free Trade Agreement to establish facilities
   in Mexico in order to supply the U.S. market.

   + How an overseas competitor with an apparently comparable
   cost base can consistently produce lower bids.

   + Who controls an overseas private company and how deep are
   their pockets.

   While the controversy continues over whether U.S. companies
   should be favored with government-sponsored industrial
   intelligence, managers are already employing legal and
   ethical research and investigative techniques to learn more
   about the methods, resources and plans of their marketplace
   adversaries.

   These forays may not be exciting, risky or glamorous enough
   for our battle-hardened spy masters, but they help American
   strategists win hard-fought ground from their adversaries.