The Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC) is an American

Public–private partnership A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sectors, private sector institutions.Hodge, G. A and Greve, C. (2007), Public–Private Partnerships: An International Performance Revie ...

created at the request of corporations "for an FBI-led organization that would bridge the information divide between America’s private and public sectors" in December 2005. The program facilitates information sharing and cooperation between the FBI and over 509 of the largest American companies, which altogether account for over one half of the

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...

of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and employ more than 20 million people. In December 2012, released documents showed that the DSAC and counter-terrorism programs conducted surveillance of nonviolent

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial ...

protesters in 2011.

History

The

Overseas Security Advisory Council The Bureau of Diplomatic Security, commonly known as Diplomatic Security (DS), is the security branch of the United States Department of State. It conducts international investigations, threat analysis, cyber security, counterterrorism, and pr ...

(OSAC) was established by the

Diplomatic Security Service The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) is the principal Specialist law enforcement agency, law enforcement and security agency of the United States Department of State (DOS). Its primary mission is to protect diplomatic assets, personnel, and info ...

of the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

in 1985 as a mechanism for sharing security information between the U.S. private sector and the U.S. government.U.S. DSAC Webpage, "About DSAC" The FBI Criminal Investigative Division (CID) began to advise OSAC in 1996. In November 2005, by corporate request, the FBI hosted a steering committee composed of Chief Security Officers for major American companies including

Citibank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for "National bank (United States), National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation, multinational corporation. Ci ...

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

and

Federal Express FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company specializing in transportation, e-commerce, and business services. The company is headquartered in Memphis, Tenness ...

; this committee founded the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC) the following month. All three of these founding corporations cross-affiliate with the

Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major U.S. companies. Unlike the United States Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, ...

. The mission statement of DSAC states that the program is "a strategic partnership between the FBI and the U.S. private sector," that it promotes the "effective exchange of information" between them, and that it allows the FBI to more easily detect and prevent criminal activity involving interstate commerce. DSAC is also supervised by the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

.States News Service, 2011 In July 2006, DSAC created a leadership board of 29 business leaders from major companies in the United States. These include companies in the airline, banking, entertainment, food, and other industries. Two-thirds of the members of the leadership board cross-affiliate with the Business Roundtable. In 2010, over 200 companies participated in DSAC, constituting over one third of the US GDP and almost 10% of its labor force. Merck Vice President Grant Ashley, American Undersecretary Dawn Scalici, and assistant FBI director Ronald C. Ruecker are all chairpersons of and executives for DSAC. Merck also cross-affiliates with the Business Roundtable. Other American companies participating in DSAC include

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

, MasterCard,

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

, and

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

.U.S. DSAC Webpage, "DSAC Leadership Board." Of these, Bank of America, Barclays, American Express, MasterCard, Boeing, General Electric and Walmart all cross-affiliate with the Business Roundtable. As of May 2021, DSAC is led by Senior Executives

FBI Director The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a United States federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI director is appointed for a ...

Christopher Wray and

Secretary of Homeland Security The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the U ...

Alejandro Mayorkas Alejandro Nicolas Mayorkas (born November 24, 1959) is an American attorney and government official who was the seventh United States secretary of homeland security, serving from 2021 until 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Mayorkas previ ...

. The three co-chairs of the Executive Working Group (EWG), representing the FBI, DHS, and private sector, respectively, are assistant director of the Office of Private Sector Michael Sullivan, director of Private Sector Engagement Tamara Hutchinson, and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Senior Vice President and

Chief Security Officer A chief security officer (CSO) is an organization's most senior executive accountable for the development and oversight of policies and programs intended for the mitigation and/or reduction of compliance, operational, strategic, financial and re ...

Ronald L. Iden.

Domestic surveillance

Following successful freedom of information requests by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, the FBI released redacted documents in December 2012 showing that the FBI had spied on

(OWS) organizers and passed OWS information to financial firms via DSAC prior to the first OWS protests in

Zuccotti Park Zuccotti Park (formerly Liberty Plaza Park) is a publicly accessible park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is located in a privately owned public space (POPS) controlled by Brookfield Properties and Goldman S ...

.Grant, 2012 FBI officials met with New York Stock Exchange representatives on August 19, 2011, notifying them of planned peaceful protests.Browdie, 2012 FBI officials later met with representatives of the

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond is the headquarters of the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve located in Richmond, Virginia. It covers the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and most of West Virgini ...

and Zions Bank about planned protests. The FBI used informants to infiltrate and monitor protests; information from informants and military intelligence units was passed to DSAC, which then gave updates to financial companies.Grey, 2012 Surveillance of protestors was also carried out by the

Joint Terrorism Task Force A Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) is an American locally-based multi-agency partnership between various federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies tasked with investigating terrorism and terrorism-related crimes, led by the Federal Burea ...

.Wilkins, 2012 DSAC also coordinated with security firms hired by banks to target OWS leaders.International Business Times, 2012 Previously, in December 2011, DSAC had written a report on law enforcement agencies' plans for a 12 December protest at US ports, which involved investigation of links between OWS and port trade unions by the

Naval Criminal Investigative Service The United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the primary investigative law enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Navy. Its primary function is to investigate major criminal activities involving the Nav ...

.Partnership for Civil Justice, pp.30-33 The Partnership for Civil Justice, a non-profit, said that espionage facilitated by DSAC treated "protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity," and said that DSAC was "functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and corporate America."

Naomi Wolf Naomi Rebekah Wolf (born 1962) is an American feminist author, journalist, and conspiracy theorist. After the 1991 publication of her first book, '' The Beauty Myth'', Wolf became a prominent figure in the third wave of the feminist movemen ...

wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' that surveillance of OWS by the FBI was conducted with the knowledge of the Obama Administration.Wolf, 2012 A DSAC brochure states that the benefits of membership in the DSAC include: * Centralized access to security information not only from the FBI, but from all federal government entities, including the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, the IRS, U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Secret Service * Ongoing access to a network of diverse security experts at the highest government and corporate levels * Continuing education for CSOs through the semi-annual Domestic Security Executive Academy at the FBI Academy, Quantico, VA * Continuing education for intelligence analysts through quarterly regional Intelligence Analyst Symposiums * Additional opportunities through participation in DSAC’s committees

Notes

External links

Official Webpage for the Domestic Security Alliance Council

References

* * * * * * * * * {{cite news, last=Wolf, first=Naomi, title=Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy, newspaper=The Guardian, url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/29/fbi-coordinated-crackdown-occupy, date=29 December 2012, accessdate=31 December 2012 Agencies of the United States government United States intelligence agencies Public–private partnership projects in the United States 2005 establishments in the United States Government agencies established in 2005

History

Domestic surveillance

See also

Notes

External links

References