Former Blackwater Officials Form Global Intelligence Company- “Jellyfish Intelligence”

[maddezmom]

Former Blackwater Officials Form Global Intelligence Company
Team boasts of “human assets” in Iran and access to “lobbying firms, intelligence officials” in Washington

By Shane Harris


From the team that brought you Blackwater and the pre-9/11 counterterrorism program Able Danger comes “Jellyfish Intelligence.”

That’s the name a group of former US intelligence officials and executives from the controversial security firm have chosen for a new private outfit that offers “predictive intelligence” for Fortune 500 corporations and senior-level executives and that aims to “protect human lives and their business interests throughout the world.



The company blends traditional models of a strategic consulting firm with what it claims is an extensive network of human sources—people who, in an official context, would be called spies. Jellyfish employs a network of “over 200 intelligence assets on the ground” in global hot spots, according to a marketing document, including countries undergoing political upheaval in the Middle East. The company won’t disclose its sources’ identities, but the document calls them “figures inside key circles . . . including within the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, clerical circles in Iran, and tribal leaderships on the Pakistani side of the border region.

If true—and none of the claims could be independently verified—that would make Jellyfish a private rival to the CIA. The company also says its assets are “well-connected among key opposition groups throughout the Middle East,” a claim, one company official boldly asserts, that the US spy agencies couldn’t make, as evidenced by its failure to predict political and civic uprisings in Egypt and other countries in the region.

more:http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/19436.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. reading this made me think of red licorice.

i'm hungry & twizzlers sounds good.

i guess it's the "jelly" part.

what a dumb name for a spy shop.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. A disturbing development.

Essentially companies can hire their own black ops operation, with no apparent oversight, control.
wonder how the other countries feel about having a group like this running around.

[midnight]

5. Yes... Very concerning because of the lack of oversight.

[Fuddnik]

3. Big Brother Incorporated.

Tell me again that fascism isn't here already.

[formercia]

4. Like the Octopus, just more Tentacles.

with stingers.