We Spied on the Spies who Spy on Activists

When governments and corporations want to stay on top of the “threats” posed by protest movements — from climate campaigns to animal-rights advocacy — there’s 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’s 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 Brown

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Jonathan Goldsbie (News Editor), André Proulx (Production Coordinator), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Further reading:

• Secretive intelligence firm with Alberta government contract spying on journalist Brandi Morin — Ricochet
• The Private Intelligence Firm Keeping Tabs on Environmentalists — Mother Jones
• BAE spy named by campaigners is friend of leading Tory — The Guardian
• BP paid ex-MI6 spy firm to snoop on green campaigners — openDemocracy
• Ep. 35 - Larry Hardcastle — Brilliant Business Podcast
• Information commissioner finds feds withheld details of relationship with private spy agency — Ricochet
• Foresight Reports website — Welund North America

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