Wal-Mart's CIA and FBI agents.

Meet Mr. Senser, who runs Wal-Mart's security department, in front of his monitoring equipment. He formerly worked in internal security for the CIA and FBI.

If you think the image looks familiar, it is. Below is a very similar image of Jeff Kindler, CEO of the drug company Pfizer, in front of his monitoring equipment in Pfizer's security bunker, when he was chief legal officer and head of Pfizer's security department, which is led by a former FBI agent.



Clearly, based on these two pictures, both men are very PROUD of their snooping on employees. But there are limits, even for snoops.

So, back in 2003, when I brought to the attention of Pfizer management certain alleged inappropriate conduct among Pfizer's management, there was nooooooo way they found any way they could investigate. No way. Just couldn't do it. Or so they said. All the Pfizer FBI agents were helpless and suddenly rendered completely useless. Read all about that story in my book "The Whistleblower."

But Wal-Mart doesn't have any such qualms when it comes to looking into the conduct of its senior management. Or so Wal-Mart claims. Others claim Wal-Mart is just as selective as Pfizer when it comes to whom they choose to investigate. Says one former employee: “If it is someone they want to get rid of, they will go all out. If it’s somebody whose career they want to save, they won’t.”

From the front page article of New York Times today:

Bare-Knuckle Enforcement for Wal-Mart’s Rules

The investigator flew to Guatemala in April 2002 with a delicate mission: trail a Wal-Mart manager around the country to prove he was sleeping with a lower-level employee, a violation of company policy.

The apparent smoking gun? “Moans and sighs” heard as the investigator, a Wal-Mart employee, pressed his ear against a hotel room door inside a Holiday Inn, according to legal documents. Soon after, the company fired the manager for what it said was improper fraternization with a subordinate.

The article goes on to state:

But not all of Wal-Mart’s investigations involve money, or even high-stakes business matters, prompting employees to protest that the company’s investigative arm is, at times, used to intimidate employees who question authority or raise issues their bosses wish to remain secret.

Article continues here.

One final thought . . . ever noticed how the people who work for security organizations and who montior other people, suddenly end up in charge of all those people?

Examples:

1. George Bush I who headed up the CIA, who became President USA
2. Vladimir Putin, lieutenant colonel KGB, who became President Russia
3. Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer Chief Legal Officer responsible for Pfizer Security Operations became CEO Pfizer.

Makes you go: Hmmm.

Testosterone Tango!!

We end the week with the following words from John Mack and his eminent The Pharma Blogosphere:

Hacker Scare
Several of us were a bit worried that Peter Rost's Question Authority blog was under hacker attack or being censored by the CIA or NSA (see "Did the CIA Shut Down Question Authority?" and "Access denied...?").

But it was all a testosterone tango between Rost and Pfizer's law firm. Rost calls it a click-a-thon (see " Click-a-thon with Pfizer's lawyers") but I think "testosterone tango" sounds better, don't you?

Rost is confident he can win the good fight: "So how can I feel confident? Because raw power and money doesn't always win; if you don't believe me, check out a place called Iraq . . ."

I think he may suffer the fate of "good sir knight:"



Posted by John Mack

By the way, John seems to know me pretty well:

Pesonal motto:

Never, ever give up. Ever.

Access denied!

Quite a few readers have asked what's been going on with this blog this week.

John Mack asked, Did the CIA Shut Down Question Authority?

Pharmagiles wrote, Access denied...?

So let me explain.

A blog is a party. People coming together, dropping in, hearing thoughts, jokes, news, whatever.

Having fun.

Most blogs are open to anyone--you want to join the party, step right in.

Some blogs, a few, are private, by invitation only.

This blog is open to anyone. That doesn't mean I necessarily enjoy everyone coming here. Most people I love having. A few I don't care so much for.

I mean, seriously, if you had a party and a lot of friends and curious onlookers came by, you'd enjoy it. But if you suddenly had visits by people paid to come by, just to check on you, you wouldn't like it so much.

Am I right?

But it's a blog you say, it's for everyone. This week, however, I've shown it isn't.

You see, most of those paid people work 9 to 6, east coast time, then they go home. And of course, they do use blog or RSS feeds.

So I decided to make a point. I cancelled the feed. I sent those paid people who keep coming here 9 to 6 to the CIA, to the NSA. And I'll keep sending them to fun places.

Of course, they could come here when the blog is open, in the evening, but it is more of a pain. And of course they will come. But I made my point.

So you may say . . . am I not alienating my regular readers?

Maybe, but hey, it's my blog. That's what makes it unique. I mean, I already outed one big D.C. law firm and the lawyers who came here, and they stopped using their office computers to access this blog. Switched to a private service after a failed attempt to use anonymizer services. That was fun.

Seriously, I think a blog should be interesting, creative, exciting.

But you should know this is no regular blog. Lots of people read it because they enjoy coming here, but others read it because it is their job to monitor what I do. They read it because they DON'T like the content.

So I think if unexpected things happen, like corporate spies reading this blog being sent to the CIA (by the way, the CIA encourages anyone to link to their site), that is simply hilarious.

What am I gonna come up with next week?

Dunno yet. Something crazy, I'm sure.

Come back tomorrow. See what happens and where this blog takes you . . .