The U.S. Chamber has proven that it is unabashedly determined to do whatever it takes to discredit its critics, regardless of the legality or morality of the tactics being considered.
Earlier this year, ThinkProgress reported that the U.S. Chamber had solicited “private security” companies to investigate its political opponents. Their tactics included planting false documents, creating fake personas, and creepily stalking opponents’ families and children.
Lee Fang, an investigative journalist for ThinkProgress, just released this article providing additional information about the Chamber’s insidious plot:
“As HBGary Federal executive Aaron Barr described in several emails, his firm could work with partner companies Palantir and Berico Technologies to manipulate fake online identities, using networks like Facebook, to gain access to private information from his targets.”
The Chamber only backed away from the deal after the hacktivist group Anonymous exposed 75,000 e-mails detailing its conversations with the the private firms. Considering the amount of powerful, wealthy friends that the U.S. Chamber has, it’s shocking to see the organization stoop so low, but it also highlights one important fact: it’s vulnerable. The Chamber knows that it has a wide range of opponents—from journalists to business owners to everyday citizens and union workers—who are working every day to keep its dirty money and dangerous politicking out of Washington DC, and we’re making it nervous.
