Welcome to the twelfth installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a new weekly column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week I looked at Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE: WMT) stores and how the different formats the retailer uses have are seen throughout the country. From standard discount Wal-Mart stores to Neighborhood Markets to Supercenters, is Wal-Mart's format mix for stores producing optimal results?

This week, I'll be looking at something a bit more invasive for the company: its internal security force. With Wal-Mart being the largest retailer in the country, it's no question that it needs a well-staffed security force to respond to threats and ensure the orderly functioning of the company's information is conducted. But, does this"force" go too far? Let's find out.

With Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE: WMT) annual shareholder meeting coming up on June 1st, wouldn't we all like to be there? From the showmanship and grandstanding that Wal-Mart likes to put on to dissing shareholder requests without a modicum of thought (or so it seems), this time more pressing matters should be in focus: where have Wal-Mart sales gone and why is Lee Scott taking home millions while WMT investors have seen little movement in the stock price in half a decade?

The black helicopters will most certainly be in play (watch out for dark sunglasses) inside the shareholder meeting, and tactics straight out of Mission Impossible will be used to make sure any unrest is quelled and the crowd remains passive. Wal-Mart's security apparatus is headed by Kenneth Senser, a onetime senior FBI and CIA official, so expect state-of-the-art surveillance techniques -- at a public company's shareholder meeting. Could there be a clearer picture of "we trust nobody?"

With all the security (Bruce Gabbard), executive (Tom Coughlin) and PR (Julie Roehm) scandals and black eyes, Wal-Mart's growth rate stumbled in 2006 even as revenues rose to a new record (though profits just inched up). The company's international plans are in flux right now and the company's common stock has not beaten the S&P 500 since 2003. Only if you've been long on WMT for more than 10 years have you done well. Do you think there will be quite a few happenings come June 1st? I think so.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is beginning to look like a bad episode of the TV version of Batman. Last week, I posted on Wal-Mart's paranoid spying unit -- nicknamed the Bat Cave. Today, The Wall Street Journal reported on yet another once secret project -- dubbed Project Red -- to spin off Wal-Mart's Sam's Club [subscription required] operation. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart shareholders would not be likely to benefit from such a spin off.

Wal-Mart's recent woes are considerable. Its stock price is down 20% over the last five years while rival Target Corp.'s (NYSE: TGT) -- whose TV advertisements are fantastic -- is up 75%. Meanwhile at Wal-Mart, a former vice chairman pleaded guilty last year to fraud and tax evasion related to using Wal-Mart funds for custom-made alligator boots and a dog kennel. He had said he was reimbursing himself for payments he made to help keep unions out of Wal-Mart. In December, Wal-Mart fired a senior marketing executive, saying she had had a personal relationship with a subordinate and accepted gifts such as pricey vodka from a vendor. When she sued, Wal-Mart filed in court what it said were suggestive emails.

Now, after firing Bat Cave member, Bruce Gabbard, for spying on a New York Times reporter, it emerges that he was part of the security team for Project Red. Wal-Mart hired two teams of McKinsey & Co. consultants, so neither could fully grasp the project. Cameras inside a room recorded their activities. The security team encrypted data and reports and created passwords to secure their work.