At the end of the Mother Jones article:

In the 1990s—while working within the gun control community as McFate—Sapone formed her own intelligence-gathering business. And she enlisted family members for its operations. "In our business, it's my daughter-in-law, Montgomery Sapone [who] does all the analytic reports, forecasting, and white papers," Sapone wrote to a client in an August 1999 email obtained by Mother Jones. "She produces a very professional product." Sapone continued, "We are warning our clients that activist groups are moving towards ballot initiatives…And it's easy for groups like Greenpeace to emotionally shape a looming crisis in a 10 second TV spot 2 days before a referenda election. My daughter Shelley specializes in that aspect of our business. We are doing a lot of work now to help clients in the 2000 election."

In the 1990s—while working within the gun control community as McFate—Sapone formed her own intelligence-gathering business. And she enlisted family members for its operations. "In our business, it's my daughter-in-law, Montgomery Sapone [who] does all the analytic reports, forecasting, and white papers," Sapone wrote to a client in an August 1999 email obtained by Mother Jones. "She produces a very professional product." Sapone continued, "We are warning our clients that activist groups are moving towards ballot initiatives…And it's easy for groups like Greenpeace to emotionally shape a looming crisis in a 10 second TV spot 2 days before a referenda election. My daughter Shelley specializes in that aspect of our business. We are doing a lot of work now to help clients in the 2000 election."

A resume that Montgomery Sapone used around 1999 describes her role within Mary Lou's business: "Collect and analyze intelligence on European activities of major international environmental organization for a company specializing in domestic and internal opposition research, special investigations, issues management and threat assessment. Write weekly intelligence update on European animal rights and eco-terrorist activity. Assist in confidential litigation support research." Sapone's son Sean, a Brown- and Harvard-educated paratrooper who served with the 82nd Airborne Division, was managing director of this firm, which at one point was called Strategic Solutions Group LLC and maintained an office in Washington, DC. According to a Strategic Solutions Group invoice sent to BBI in November 2000, Montgomery Sapone—a Harvard law school grad and Yale-trained anthropologist—once billed the security firm $400 for four hours of her time, which included a "visit to target's office."

Sapone made her gun control work a family affair as well. Around 2003, Montgomery volunteered at the Brady Campaign, according to Becca Knox, the group's research director. Occasionally, Montgomery would also sit in for her mother-in-law at Washington strategy meetings attended by officials of the gun control movement, according to the Violence Policy Center's Kristen Rand. And Sean Sapone once offered to help Rand's group on a campaign against the civilian use of .50 caliber rifles, Rand recalls. But after attending one meeting, Sean Sapone never followed through.

These days, Sean and Montgomery Sapone are better known as Sean and Montgomery McFate, a successful Washington couple whose current bios make no mention of any past intelligence-gathering or opposition-research work. Sean is currently the program director of the national security initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank boasting an advisory board composed of four former Senate majority leaders: Howard Baker, Bob Dole, George Mitchell, and Tom Daschle. An expert on military affairs, he previously worked for Amnesty International and for military contractor DynCorp. According to an online biography, he helped to organize "the first major legal arms shipment to Liberia in 15 years." Montgomery has made a name for herself as one of the primary architects of the US military's human terrain program, which teams social scientists with military units in Iraq and Afghanistan to help soldiers better understand the local culture. (The controversial program has been sharply criticized by the American Anthropological Association, which fears it may cross an ethical line, and has been described by detractors as "mercenary anthropology.") Now a top Pentagon adviser, Montgomery also contributed to the Army's Counterinsurgency Field Manual drafted under the guidance of General David Petraeus.

Check out this article from last year on Montgomery.

Whether hired by governments at any level or private businesses or opposing organizations, agent provocateurs or informants who simply do what they are told are bad news.

They undermine trust, and their presence often serves to justify rigid and secretive hierarchical patterns that exclude public participation and make goal achievements extremely difficult.

I would hope that the facts of this case would justify a suit against the NRA by Operation Ceasefire, and that the suit would produce valuable information as to how the infiltration schemes work as well as monetary damages.

In my mind there is absolutely no comparison between "salting" and government or business led interventions in civic groups or social movements. It is against the law for companies to hire or not hire based on a person's affiliation or belief in a union. However businesses like Wal-Mart openly flaunt this law because the punishment is very weak. People only clandestinely organize, or "Salt" because the law so heavily favors companies. This has nothing to do and is in no way related to the types of infiltration discussed above.

D.E. II wrote:

"It's clear that you are defending infiltrating an organization, provoking it's members to do something illegal, and then reporting them to authorities"

???????

I was only addressing the statement from Rep Cohen that, "agent provocateurs or informants who simply do what they are told are bad news" and that such informants and their handlers should be subject to legal action by those being infiltrated.  I only wanted Rep Cohen to explain the extent those remarks are applicable to the infiltration of  non-union companies by Building Trades Union members for clandestine organizing efforts.

You are welcome to explain the leap you took and the position you have assigned to me.

twolfson wrote:

"In my mind there is absolutely no comparison between "salting" and government or business led interventions in civic groups or social movements."

What Mary Sapone/McFate was doing with CeaseFireNJ has more in common with union salting than differences from it.

 twolfson wrote:

"It is against the law for companies to hire or not hire based on a person's affiliation or belief in a union. However businesses like Wal-Mart openly flaunt this law because the punishment is very weak. People only clandestinely organize, or "Salt" because the law so heavily favors companies."

Spare me the lesson . . .  I am intimately acquainted with the unfair labor practice of firing exposed salts having been a salt and the subject of such actions and subsequent NLRB filings.

I have been a member of a Philadelphia Building Trades Union for 28 years; a union that is perhaps the most active union in the NE USA in organizing attempts in the non-union shops in our jurisdiction doing our work. 

News flash! Filing the charges has little to do with wanting to see the meting out of the governmental / regulatory "punishment" for offenses.  We would be happy if the cases never see an end.  Why?

Because the primary intent of filing the charges is to tie up a significant amount of corporation capital and energy in defending a myriad of NLRB charges.  You want the non-union company's unconditional surrender, their eventual decision to sit down with the union and sign a contract instead of being frustrated with union salts every time they put a "HELP WANTED -- Experienced _______" classified in the paper and then be saddled with the expense of defending the unfair labor practice suits that follow . . .  

You want it to become too expensive 'day to day' to remain non-union . . .

twolfson wrote:

"This has nothing to do and is in no way related to the types of infiltration discussed above."

Don't be silly . . .

One of the most important duties of a union salt is to discover the location of every job the non-union company has under contract or are even chasing.  With that info pressure can be brought to bear on those GC's and those jobs (especially if union trades are on the job or union manufacturers are supplying the job).  If I were a "salt" in CeasefireNJ it would be my primary concern to find out every entity that organization deals with down to the spring water delivery.

Information gathering is the goal.