By ANDREW W. GRIFFIN

Oklahoma Watchdog, editor

Posted: December 8, 2010

andrew@oklahomawatchdog.org

OKLAHOMA CITY  — This month, Arkansas-based retailer Walmart has announced that they are joining the Department of Homeland Security in their fight against terror taking part in their “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign.

At the DHS blog, Secretary Janet Napolitano states that “Homeland security starts with hometown security and each of us plays a critical role in keeping our country and communities safe.”

According to the site, this program initially started with New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and it was funded, in part, by a $13 million grant via the DHS Transit Security Grant Program.

So far, notes the DHS blog post, “(m)ore than 230 Walmart stores nationwide launched the “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign” on Dec. 6. It also notes that in coming weeks, a total of 588 Walmart stores in 27 states will join the campaign, which is seen as “a simple and effective program to engage the public and key frontline employees to identify and report indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats to proper transportation and law enforcement authorities.”

What sort of suspicious activity should be reported? It’s not entirely clear. Oklahoma Watchdog has put in interview requests via email and telephone to both Walmart’s corporate office in Bentonville, Ark. and to DHS’s media center in Washington.

The program has its critics. Popular news-oriented websites like the Drudge Report and PrisonPlanet.com have highlighted the story and it has resulted in outrage in the blogosphere and among a growing number of Americans weary of “threat levels,” “security theater” and the government’s never-ending desire to keep the public scared of an unseen threat.

Writes Paul Joseph Watson for PrisonPlanet.com: “Americans are outraged, and until Wal-Mart kills this un-American insult to everything that the country stands for, their Christmas is going to be a lot less profitable than expected, with numerous boycotts already on the horizon.”

Driving around Oklahoma City and Edmond, Oklahoma Watchdog visited four different Walmart stores. Entering the stores none of the stores featured the monitors that DHS has been touting. Speaking to one store manager about the “If You See Something, Say Something” program, he indicated he wasn’t aware of it and instructed this reporter to contact Walmart’s corporate office.

Talking to several Walmart employees at the various stores none of them seemed to be aware of the program, save for one employee at a Walmart in Edmond who told this reporter that he found it “odd” that Walmart was taking part in such a program considering terrorism hasn’t been much of an overt concern at the world’s biggest retailer.

It was interesting to walk around a sampling of local Walmart stores. At the entrance of one store an enormous  portrait of Walmart founder and Kingfisher, Okla. native Sam Walton looked benevolently out over the zombie-like shoppers looking for deals on flat-screen TV’s and cheap bags of Ol’ Roy dog food.

Gail Weems, an Oklahoma City resident who was returning to his car in a Walmart parking lot, told Oklahoma Watchdog that he was aware of the new DHS program and that Walmart was a willing participant.

“It’s hard to tell what they’re going after,” Weems said. “But I’m all right with it.”

Oklahoma City-based activist James Lane, director of WeAreChange Oklahoma, told this reporter that this snitch-and-spy program touted by Homeland Security and embraced by a corporate behemoth like Walmart comes as no surprise.

“This is just another action in a long chain of events perpetuated by Homeland Security,” Lane said, adding that the program was “truly Orwellian.”

Oklahoma Watchdog did eventually hear from Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington.

Asked about the “If You See Something, Say Something” program, Kudwa said Oklahoma Walmart stores are not expected to get the monitors, rather more technologically-advanced stores with screens at the checkout lane will see these messages. Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Arizona are some of the states that will be participating in the program.

“Walmart is the second retail partner to participate, the Mall of America was the first, and that was last week. This is all really early on,” Kudwa said. “Nine states will get them this week and 18 states by next week.”

Kudwa indicated that this program is no different than McGruff the Crime Dog, Neighborhood Watch or Amber Alerts.

Asked about terrorism concerns specifically and what DHS and other authorities are looking for, Kudwa said, “It could be a range of different things. Someone seeking access to certain areas that are off limits or someone purchasing items that could be used to make an improvised explosive device.”

Added Kudwa: “If there’s something that meet the threshold of suspicious activity … an investigation will be started.”

Kudwa said that in their search for terrorists, DHS is “training local law enforcement” in many areas and along with the Department of Justice are working on a program to “formalize language” so law enforcement and the public has a better sense of what they are watching for.

“We have seen an active threat picture in the United States,” Kudwa said, noting the recent Christmas Tree bomber in Oregon, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – “the Underwear bomber” and incidents in Dallas and Springfield, Illinois.

And then there was the case of Faisal Shazad who allegedly tried to blow up a car in New York’s Times Square back in May.

“An alert street vendor saw smoke coming out of (the vehicle),” Kudwa said, adding that Shazad was soon captured after his unattended vehicle failed to explode.

“We’re asking people to be aware and report something that could be suspicious,” Kudwa said.

Copyright 2010 Oklahoma Watchdog