Wal-Mart and Target Spy on their Employees

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It reads like a cold war thriller: The spy follows the suspects through several countries, ending up in Guatemala City, where he takes a room across the hall from his quarry. Finally, after four days of surveillance, including some patient ear-to-the-keyhole work, he is able to report back to headquarters that he has the goods on them. They're guilty!

But this isn't a John Le Carré novel, and the powerful institution pulling the strings wasn't the USSR or the CIA. It was Wal-Mart, and the two suspects weren't carrying plans for a shoulder-launched H-bomb. Their crime was "fraternization." One of them, James W. Lynn, a Wal-Mart factory inspection manager, was traveling with a female subordinate, with whom he allegedly enjoyed some intimate moments behind closed doors. At least the company spy reported hearing "moans and sighs" within the woman's room.

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Wal-Mart says sorry, this time to shareholders

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Wal-Mart apologized Thursday for considering some shareholder groups as potential "threats" after they submitted proxy proposals ahead of the retailer's annual meeting in June.

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley, referring to an internal company memo that described "background research" being conducted on shareholder groups as a "threat assessment," told CNN that Wal-Mart made a "poor choice of words."

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, cited the internal company memo in which Wal-Mart (Charts) official asked that its internal security groups "do some preliminary background work on the potential threat assessment for the annual shareholders meeting," listing the submitted proposals.

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