In recent days, thousands of emails hacked from the account of a private security company have revealed a plan to entrap and discredit prominent foes of the US Chamber of Commerce. I give more background here, and ThinkProgress has details on specific groups and individuals targeted by the security company, HB Gary Federal, and its CEO, Aaron Barr.
While the Chamber on Friday denied any knowlege of the entrapment plan, emails that I've perused suggest that the Chamber clearly was involved on some level in a scheme to investigate and discredit its opponents. According to the emails, the Chamber's law firm was looking for groups that could help it prove--or maybe at least suggest--a liberal conspiracy against the Chamber.
According to the emails, Chamber law firm Hunton & Williams requested the creation of team that could prove that the business group's opponents had been working as a "single entity instead of a true 'grasroots' campaign." That phrase and others suggest that the Chamber's ultimate goal was to openly accuse its foes of a left-wing form of astroturfing.
Three security firms, HB Gary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies, were working on a presentation scheduled to take place at the Chamber this upcoming Monday. In the meeting they planned to pitch their services as a "Corporate Information Recoinassance Cell." The cell would supposedly collect online information on the Chamber's foes from social networking sites and other sources and organize it to demonstrate previously hidden relationships.
An an email between the security firms from Pat Ryan of Berico Technologies describes a conversatoin with the Chamber's law firm about the proposed project: "The problem that they've identified is this:
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