HOW FREE ENTERPRISE CAN COPE WITH ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

Education of executives is vital. Here's a checklist of questions to ask about your company:
Are we a target?
    Have we been attacked? If not, are we in a business sector that has been attacked?
Are we prepared?
    Do we have an emergency response plan in the event of attack? Can we properly protect our employees and neighbors?
How do we contact law enforcement to report economic sabotage?
    Do we have a plan in place to summon law enforcement if necessary? Does our security department have direct lines to the county sheriff, local police and federal officers?
Are we legally protected?
    Does our state have legislation that protects us from threats and perpetration of economic sabotage and environmental terrorism? Is our legal department prepared to prosecute offenders and pursue civil penalties? Is our government affairs department actively seeking legislative solutions to economic sabotage?
Are we fighting alone?
    Is there a coalition of businesses that we can join to cope with economic sabotage?
Are we in over our heads? Do we need competent assistance?
    Can we hire a crisis management firm if the need arises? How do we identify competent firms?
Do we have a public constituency that can help?
     Are there non-profit pro-business groups with solid public support that actively campaign against economic sabotage? How do we reach this public constituency?
What are our long-term plans to eliminate economic sabotage?
    What steps are necessary to render economic saboteurs ineffectual?

Sabotage is a wartime concept. In simplest terms, sabotage means deliberate or underhand damage or destruction, especially carried out for military or political reasons. AllWords.com.

More generally, sabotage means any underhand interference with production, work, etc. in a plant, factory, etc., as by enemy agents during wartime or by employees during a trade dispute. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.

Sabotage technically means the wilful destruction or injury of, or defective production of, war-material or national-defense material, or harm to war premises or war utilities. Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 1335.

War and national defense material includes "arms, armament, ammunition, livestock, forage, forest products and standing timber, stores of clothing, air, water, food, foodstuffs, fuel, supplies, munitions, and all articles, parts or ingredients, intended for, adapted to, or suitable for the use of the United States or any associate nation, in connection with the conduct of war or defense activities." United States Code, Title 18 (Crimes and Criminal Procedure), Chapter 105 (Sabotage), Section 2151 (Definitions)

All these listed items, which include nearly everything used in a complex society, define a wartime economy. Any harm to the production of these goods in wartime can reasonably be construed as economic sabotage. Economic sabotage is, then, deliberate or underhanded damage or destruction against an economy or economic unit for military or political purposes. Because of the events of September 11, 2001, the United States may be considered to be on a wartime footing for the foreseeable future.

Economic sabotage, then is of two kinds:

1. Direct physical damage or destruction to the production of these goods by foreign agents, ecoterrorists, animal rights terrorists, anti-capitalists, anti-globalists, anarchists, or other opponents of free enterprise.

2. Indirect underhanded damage or destruction to the production of these goods by anyone using political or legalistic measures.

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