The FBI investigated 400 economic espionage cases in
1995 - and 800 in 1996. It interfaces with American
corporations and obtains investigative leads from them
through its 26 years old Development of Espionage,
Counterintelligence, and Counter terrorism Awareness
(DECA) Program renamed ANSIR (Awareness of
National Security Issues and Response). Every local FBI
office has a White Collar Crime squad in charge of
thwarting industrial espionage. The State Department runs
a similar outfit called the Overseas Security Advisory
Council (OSAC).
These are massive operations. In 1993-4 alone, the FBI
briefed well over a quarter of a million corporate officers
in more than 20,000 firms. By 1995, OSAC collaborated
on overseas security problems with over 1400 private
enterprises. "Country Councils", comprised of embassy
official and private American business, operate in dozens
of foreign cities. They facilitate the exchange of timely
"unclassified" and threat-related security information.
More than 1600 US companies and organization are
currently permanently affiliated wit OSAC. Its Advisory
Council is made up of twenty-one private sector and four
public sector member organizations that, according to
OSAC, "represent specific industries or agencies that
operate abroad. Private sector members serve for two to
three years. More than fifty U.S. companies and
organizations have already served on the Council.
Member organizations designate representatives to work
on the Council.
These representatives provide the direction and guidance
to develop programs that most benefit the U.S. private
sector overseas. Representatives meet quarterly and staff
committees tasked with specific projects. Current
committees include Transnational Crime, Country
Council Support, Protection of Information and
Technology, and Security Awareness and Education".
But the FBI is only one of many agencies that deal with
the problem in the USA. The President's Annual Report to
Congress on "Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial
Espionage" dated July 1995, describes the multiple
competitive intelligence (CI) roles of the Customs
Service, the Department of Defense, the Department of
Energy, and the CIA.
The federal government alerts its contractors to CI threats
and subjects them to "awareness programs" under the
DOD's Defense Information Counter Espionage (DICE)
program. The Defense Investigative Service (DIS)
maintains a host of useful databases such as the Foreign
Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) register. It is
active otherwise as well, conducting personal security
interviews by industrial security representatives and
keeping tabs on the foreign contacts of security cleared
facilities. And the list goes on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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