Dow Chemical, chemical manufacturer Sasol North America and their contractors hired private investigators to spy on the environmental group Greenpeace, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
The 56-page lawsuit, filed by Greenpeace in federal district court in Washington, alleged that the companies and public relations firms Dezenhall Resources and Ketchum hired investigators who stole documents, tapped phones and hacked into computer networks between 1998 and 2000.
"We believe it is every citizen's right to stand up for the health of their children and community without fearing retribution, an invasion of privacy, conspiracy against them or theft of their belongings," said Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA.
The story had been broken by Mother Jones in April 2008. It had exposed how a private security firm run by former Secret Service agents were spying on a number of environmental groups on behalf of corporate clients. They were even infiltrating unsuspecting organisations with operatives posing as activists.
Greenpeace has now called this Spygate, and set up a section on its website which collates all documents being shown as evidence.
This case concerns events that occurred between 1998 and 2001. Greenpeace says many of the affected people in Lake Charles and Mossville, Lousiana, have since died, many by cancers they believe were caused by the toxic pollutants these companies pumped into their environment.
"This is not about money," Mark Floegel, a Greenpeace employee who helped collect material for the lawsuit. told Reuters. "What we really want is to drag the activities of these people into the light of day and to send a message to corporations that they can't do this."
