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'''The Wackenhut Corporation''' provides security services to commercial and government organizations. It is a subsidiary of U.K. based [[G4S]], which is one of the largest security corporations in the world.
<ref>[http://www.hoovers.com/wackenhut/--ID__11598--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml Wackenhut Profile], ''Hoovers'', accessed September 2007.</ref>
"It is known throughout the industry that if you want a dirty job done, call Wackenhut." -retired [[FBI]] agent, [[William Hinshaw]] in a September 1992 [http://prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm ''SPY Magazine'' article] by John Connolly.
==Overview==
Before the merger the chairman was George Wackenhut, the vice chair and chief executive officer was [[George C. Zoley]] and the president and chief operating officer was [[Wayne H. Calabrese]]
==Government Connections==
Wackenhut has been tied to the US goverment since inception. The early board members included Capt. [[Eddie Rickenbacker]], Gen. [[Mark Clark]] and [[Ralph E. Davis]], a leader of the [[John Birch Society]]. Other members include former [[FBI]] director [[Clarence Kelley]], former [[Defense Department|Defense secretary]] and [[CIA]] deputy director [[Frank Charles Carlucci III|Frank Carlucci]], former [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] director Gen. [[Joseph Carroll]], former [[Secret Service]] director [[James J. Rowley]], former Marine commandant [[P.X. Kelley]], former CIA deputy director Adm. [[Bobby Ray Inman]], and previous to becoming CIA director, [[William J. Casey]] as outside legal counsel. [http://prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm]
==Surveillance==
Wackenhut's [[Surveillance|surveillance]] services were fined in 1999 by a federal district court in Alabama for illegal wire tapping, theft of business documents and corporate sabotage. This should come as no surprise as Mr. Wackenhut, a fervent right-winger, made his money in the 1950s [[Surveillance-industrial complex|creating dossiers]] on suspected communists, achieving by 1966 over four million files, or one for every 46 adults in the country.[http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2001/450/450p15.htm]
==Front Company==
In the same above mentioned [http://prop1.org/legal/prisons/92wack.htm ''SPY Magazine'' article], 18 year terrorism expert and CIA analyst, [[William Corbett]], stated "For years, Wackenhut has been involved with the CIA and other intelligence organizations, including the [[Drug Enforcement Agency]]. Wackenhut would allow the CIA to occupy positions within the company [in order to carry out] clandistine operations." He went on to say Wackenhut provided the intelligence agencies with information and was paid in return "in a ''quid pro quo'' arrangement". This would explain in part the huge number of contracts awarded to Wackenhut in delicate areas of the national security, such as embassies and nuclear plants, and the $150 million increase in work under the [[Reagan Administration]].
Wackenhut was also involved in illegal US operations in Central America in the 1980s. By exploiting the Cabazon Indian reservation as a sovereign nation, they intended to produce and export explosives to the [[Contras]], evading Congressional law to the contrary.[http://www.maebrussell.com/Articles%20and%20Notes/Napa%20Sentinel%20INSLAW%20article.html][http://www.jillnicholson.com/plot.htm]
The director of international operations at the time, [[Ernesto Bermudez]], admitted to having 1,500 men in [[El Salvador ]] doing "[t]hings you wouldn't want your mother to know about."
According to [[Edward Herman]] and Gerry O'Sullivan in ''The Terrorism Industry'' (ISBN 0679725598), "Wackenhut quickly got involved with right-wing terrorists who were themselves linked to state security agents" in Belgium. They left in the early 1980s after some of their guards were accused of luring immigrant children into basements and beating them.
==Strike Breakers==
Wackenhut is known for providing muscle and force against organized labor and protestorsprotesters. They provided strike breakers at the Pittston mine in Kentucky. Their armed guards have beaten protestors protesters at nuclear sites for the Department of Energy. [http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=867]
Among nuclear weapons lab employees, Wackenhut was better known for “wacking” radiation whistleblowers like [[Karen Silkwood]] and attempting to run [[Dr. Rosalie Bertell]] off the road. [http://www.sfbayview.com/092204/nuclearweapons092204.shtml]
==Celling Prisons==
Progressives at the turn of the last century were able to stamp out the trend of [[Privatization|private]] prisons, however the [[Reagan Revolution]] and the rise of crime in the 1980's reversed those accomplishments of old labor and allowed the [[Prison-industrial complex|prison market]] to develop. Once a State-responsibility, prisons now rely on criminals for profit and [[Prison labor|labor]]
==Joint Ventures==
Wackenhut is a joint venture partner along with [[MPRI]], [[Kellogg Brown and Root]] and [[AGS]] in the civilian police training company [[Civilian Police International, LLC]] which is under a [[State Department]] contract for $1.6 billion to work with the [[Civilian Police and Rule of Law]] office in coordination with the [[United Nations]] training emerging police forces around the world. [http://www.input.com/corp/press/detail.cfm?news=908]
Wackenhut's subsidiary in [[Peru]], [[Wackenhut del Peru]], has been representing an Indiana based security recruiting company, [[3D Global Solutions]], in efforts to recruit former military in Peru for service in [[Post-war Iraq|Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].[http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/merc-d28_prn.shtml]
==Investigations==
On June 26th, 2007 the City of Los Angeles opened an investigation into Wackenhut for contract abuses with the city ranging from workplace discrimination, labor violations, and management incompetence to employing irresponsible contractors with poor performance on other contracts and failing to comply with relevant laws and regulations.
The contracts were not renewed. [http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=201647]
==Political contributions==
[[George C. Zoley]], Chair & CEO of Wackenhut Corrections Corp., was a [[Bush Pioneer]] having raised at least $100,000 for [[George Walker Bush|Bush]] in the [[U.S. presidential election, 2004|2004 presidential election]].
<ref>[http://www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=1010 Bush Pioneer George C. Zoley], ''Texans for Public Justice'', accessed September 2007.</ref>
Wackenhut Corp gave $21,600 to federal candidates in the 2006 election through its [[political action committee]] - 0% to [[Democrats]] and 100% to [[Republican Party (USA)|Republicans]].
<ref>[http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.asp?strID=C00165365&cycle=2006 2006 PAC Summary Data], ''Open Secrets'', accessed September 2007.</ref>
==Personnel==
Key executives:
<ref>[http://www.g4s.com/usw/usw-about_wackenhut/usw-key_people.htm Management], Wackenhut, accessed September 2007.</ref>
*[[Gary A. Sanders]], Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
*[[Susanne Jorgensen]], Chief Financial Officer
*[[Brian McCabe]], Chief Information Officer
==Nuclear Facilities==
Wackenhut, through contracts with the [[Department of Energy]] provides security services for the following sites:
*Arkansas Nuclear One One *Braidwood Nuclear Power Station Station *Byron Nuclear Power Station Station *Callaway Plant Plant *Clinton Power Station Station *Dresden Nuclear Power Station Station *Ginna Nuclear Power Plant Plant *Grand Gulf Nuclear Station Station *Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant Plant *LaSalle County Nuclear Power Station Station *Limerick Generating Station Station *Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant Plant *Oyster Creek Creek *Palisades Nuclear Plant Plant
*Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station
*Pilgrim Nuclear Station
*Point Beach Nuclear Plant
*Prairie Island Nuclear Plant
*Quad Cities Nuclear Cities Nuclear Power Station Station
*Salem/Hope Creek Generating Station
*Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant
*South Texas
*St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant
*Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 1
*V.C. Summer Nuclear Station
*Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station
*Waterford Waterford
*Zion Nuclear Power Station
==Contact==
4200 Wackenhut Drive<br>
Suite 100<br>
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410<br>
USA<br>
Phone: 561-622-5656<br>
Fax: 561-691-6423<br>
http://www.wackenhut.com
==Outside Reading=External articles===*[[Greg Palast]], [http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=868 "Wackenhut's Free Market in Human Misery"] in the ''London Observer'', September 26, 1999.*Ken Silverstein, [http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=867 "America's Private Gulag"] ''Prison Legal News'' June 17, 2000.
*[http://sev.prnewswire.com/aerospace-defense/20060425/DCTU03625042006-1.html "DOE: Wackenhut Facing Investigation Concerning Falsification of Training Records, According to SEIU"], ''PRNewswire'', April 25, 2006
*Visit [http://www.eyeonwackenhut.com/ Eye On Wackenhut] hosted by the [[Service Employees International Union]].
*[http://visar.csustan.edu/aaba/Cooper&Taylor.pdf "Privatised Prisons and Detention Centres in Scotland: An Independent Report"] by Phil Taylor and Christine Cooper. (.pdf file)