Corporate Involvement in Olympic Security

Olympics Watch
by Tim Groves

http://www.thevancouverobserver.com/show1269a/Are_Private_Corporations_E...

Canada's plans to involve US Government agencies in security for the 2010
Olympics may lead to US corporations, like Microsoft and Boeing, gaining
access to Canadian security information. Top Canadian security officials
have traveled to US military bases, security conferences, and
congressional hearings in order to keep US officials abreast of planning
in Canada.

The Privy Council's Office of the Coordinator for 2010 Olympics and G8
Security makes clear on its website that coordinating with the US is one
of their key tasks. What role US agencies will play in Olympic security is
not fully clear, but since the US government has been letting private
companies play an increasing role in its security operations at home and
abroad, Canada may become entwined with private companies as well.

The RCMP officer in charge of Olympic Security, Bud Mercer, and the former
CSIS director who heads the Office of the Coordinator for 2010 Olympics
and G8 Security, Ward Elcock, both travelled to Washington DC between
April 23 and April 25, 2008, according to the travel and hospitality
expense reports that all federal employees must file.

Mercer's disclosure says that they both attended a congressional hearing.
It was not possible to acquire minutes from this hearing, however, minutes
from an earlier congressional hearing do shed light on 2010 Olympic
security.

On March 12th 2008, a subcommittee of The Committee on Homeland Security,
held hearings on the 2010 Olympics. Among their witnesses was Jeffrey
Slotnick, the CEO of Setracon Inc., a company that provides training for
both public and private security officers.

He spoke at the hearing because he sits on the the Security Subcommittee
for the 2010 Winter Olympic Task Force. According to the Chairwoman of the
hearing this State of Washington based group is carrying out the bulk of
planning efforts inside the US.

In his testimony Slotnick spoke of the economic cost that would be felt by
an emergency. He expressed the need to expedite border crossings and
specifically for agreements to allow police and other emergency personnel
to easily cross the border in the case of any "critical incident."

He told congress the US federal government needs to provide a more serious
approach to the games, and provide more funding. A member of the private
security industry himself, Slotnick called for private security to play a
greater role in Olympic operations.

Slotnick spoke of the need for intelligence sharing between government and
corporations. He explained that many corporations based in the Pacific
Northwest "possess significant intelligence assets" and named four
specific corporations he felt should be integrated into Olympic security
efforts - Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and Washington Mutual.

He said that "in many cases individuals in these organizations have higher
security clearances than many law enforcement officials." Slotnick never
made clear what the intelligence assets these corporations possess were or
how they would be useful in Olympic security.

Slotnick's testimony suggests that private/public security sharing is
already underway, but that if the US government provided more funding,
private entities could be better incorporated into security efforts.

He indicated that intelligence and security information would be shared
through the Northwest Warning, Alert & Response Network (NWWARN), a group
that encourages the sharing of security information between corporations
and government entities in five US states and three Canadian provinces or
territories, including Washington and BC. NWWARN's role is to gather
intelligence from the private and public sectors, and make the information
available to a "fusion center" which would share it with organizations in
Washington State.

In effect this means that any information Canadian officials share with
their US counterparts may end up in the hands of US based companies. It is
unclear what intelligence assets these corporations have, or how they
would go about gathering information. Asking these companies to use their
resources for intelligence gathering on the Olympics may encourage them to
gather information on Canadian citizens and organizations. Being private
entities, these corporations would be able to function with less
accountability and oversight than their public sector counterparts.

On their website NWWARN describe themselves as a "collaborative effort
between government and private sector partners within our region’s states
and provinces with a goal to maximize real-time sharing of situational
information without delay and provide immediate distribution of
intelligence to those in the field who need to act on it." This raises
another question; to what degree are Canadian corporations involved in
sharing information on Olympic security?

The Congressional hearing took place in March 2008 and it is still unclear
to what degree US corporations have been integrated into Olympic security
operations. It is also uncertain which, if any, Canadian corporations are
playing a role in Olympic intelligence gathering. However, the secrecy
surrounding security operations means that the role of the private sector
in the Vancouver Olympics may be far larger than what is publicly known.

Tim Groves is a Toronto based investigative researcher. After years of
researching abandoned buildings for activist groups interested in
squatting, he began immersing himself in mastering a wider range of
research skills. He now works as a freelance researcher and trainer.