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Met Police Agent Provocateurs - Peter Lemkin - 18-01-2011
Business as usual.....:mexican: :what:
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - Peter Lemkin - 19-01-2011
Don't take Mark Kennedy's story at face value
Activists tricked by the police spy don't want his blood but he has, in their view, tailored the truth to suit his narrative
Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 January 2011 15.36 GMT
Undercover police officer Mark Kennedy 'is proving unwilling to let go of his dual identities'
If reports are true that undercover police officer Mark Kennedy is planning to sell the book rights to his story, it will be the latest in a well-established genre in tales of espionage sponsored by the British state. Kennedy's split loyalties, complicated romances and infatuation with his adopted identity suggest a resemblance with Eddie Chapman, the infamous British second world war spy known as "Agent Zigzag" due to the apparent ease with which he switched sides. In his book on the extraordinary life of double agent Chapman or Fritz Graumann, as he was known to his German spymasters Ben Macintyre explains how both sides were never quite sure whose interests the spy was serving.
The same can be said of Kennedy. Since we broke the story detailing Kennedy's seven years undercover last week, I've spoken to police, lawyers and activists, all of whom dispute whether Kennedy has gone rogue, native or simply absent without leave. Yesterday we discovered that Kennedy doesn't really know either, but hints that there are grains of truth in all three theories. The story he sold to the Mail on Sunday contained two very useful facts if that's what they turn out to be and a great deal of lurid storytelling, at least some of which may transpire to be fiction.
First, the "facts". Until yesterday we did not know that police chiefs dispatched 15 undercover spies to live as activists in the protest movement over the past decade, and that four of them are still believed to be there today. From what we know, they spend on average about four years undercover, costing the taxpayer £250,000 a year. That would indicate a private company Acpo has spent £15m of taxpayers' money to place spies deep undercover to monitor a peaceful protest movement.
The suggestion that some of them are still there, living double lives among activists, is a compelling thought. Since exposing Kennedy's double life, the Guardian has identified two more undercover police officers we're calling them Officer A and Officer B but both vanished before 2009. It will be fascinating to see whether those four officers still living among protesters will retain their cover. Only a bold spy would withstand the onslaught of cross-examinations, background checks and suspicious looks that will inevitably be directed at activists with conspicuous lives.
Kennedy's second major contribution was disclosing that secret tape recordings he made that would have exonerated six environmental activists were withheld by police. At worst, Kennedy is describing an attempt by his superiors to pervert the course of justice in a bid to put innocent campaigners against climate change in jail. The ramifications of that disclosure are profound, and could see the scandal propelled from one investigated by the police watchdog to a matter of serious public concern subject to a full-scale judicial inquiry.
If that was Kennedy's parting shot, his former friends from the green movement could be forgiven for thinking he really had switched sides, completing his transformation into the long-haired activist known as Mark Stone. But Kennedy is proving unwilling to let go of either of his dual identities. "I don't think the police are the good guys and the activists are bad or vice versa," he said. "Both sides did good things and bad things."
Exactly what "bad" was done by his friends in the environmental movement is not made clear, although Kennedy makes some disparaging remarks about a life lived in squats among the "freegans". The one serious criticism Kennedy makes of his activist friends does should be queried. The former spy claims to be in fear for his life, and says that he has barricaded himself into a room in his house in the United States for his protection.
He does not say whether he is most scared of being tracked down by his "former bosses", who he says are in America looking for him, or activists, who are "out to get me". But he suggests repeatedly that scorned friends could reap fatal revenge. Quite aside from the fantasy that an undercover police officer's would-be assassins should be green activists committed to non-violent protest, my personal experience of the individuals he claims to fear suggests the opposite.
Over the last few months my colleague Rob Evans and I have worked extensively with activist friends of Kennedy. Throughout that process, they have been careful not to disclose details of the undercover officer's private life. In particular, they have been at pains to protect his wife and family, who they argued should not be punished for his actions.
Kennedy has shown no such compunction, selling a tabloid personal details about his wife and children in Ireland, including the name of his 12-year-old son and information about their tearful telephone conversations after he was exposed. The truth is that even after a seven-year betrayal, activists have mixed feelings about "Flash".
Yes, there are those, particularly, I'm told, in Germany, who do not wish Kennedy well. But for many the anger is directed against the state's infiltration of their movement, rather than an old friend they see as damaged and cut loose by his former employer. Some of Kennedy's former friends have even told me they miss him. Hence their upset at what they see as a double betrayal: first, the lies he told in order to maintain his cover as a fellow activist now, the way in which he has, in their view, tailored the truth to suit his narrative.
They point, for example, to his claim to have had only two sexual relationships while undercover. Those people who knew him best paint a very different picture, of a spy who was sleeping with many women, many times, across Europe. Similarly, Kennedy flatly denies one of the most serious accusations levelled against him: that he revealed that Officer A was, like him, a police spy. But it was the information Kennedy's friends say that he divulged about Officer A that enabled us to identify her as an undercover police officer who had been living in Leeds.
Like all good spy tales, the unfolding story of PC Mark Kennedy is full of intrigue. But not every twist in the plot should be taken at face value, least of all when told by the protagonist, a confused and isolated police spy who has always struggled to tell the truth.
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - Magda Hassan - 19-01-2011
Undercover police: Officer B identified as Mark Jacobs
Mark Jacobs, not thought to be his real name, infiltrated anarchist groups and had an affair with at least one woman
- Rajeev Syal
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 January 2011 21.30 GMT
![[Image: Mark-Jacobs-007.jpg]](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/1/19/1295463448823/Mark-Jacobs-007.jpg)
Officer B claimed to be a landscape gardener and long-distance lorry driver named Mark Jacobs. Photograph: Guardian The undercover police spy previously identified as Officer B was known to fellow activists as Mark Jacobs, a campaigner inside anti-globalisation and anarchist groups for four years, who had an affair with at least one woman.
Jacobs, not thought to be his real name, claimed to be a 44-year-old landscape gardener and long-distance lorry driver. Former friends say he adopted a northern club comedian persona, complete with catchphrases and knowing winks. Occasionally, he would joke that he might actually be a policeman.
He was first noticed in activists' gatherings in Brighton in March 2005 and became a regular face at meetings of Dissent!, the network mobilising protesters for the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July. At 6ft and 15 stone, he stood out from the crowd.
One former friend said Jacobs made friends easily and remembered him for his sayings used to deflect questions or ease tensions. "Dear diary ..." he'd say when discussing the day's events or upcoming projects, or "And relax ..." at the end of stressful conversations.
When others smoked cannabis he would refuse, repeating another favourite phrase: "Strong European lager is my drug of choice." Those close to him said he would drink heavily at most social occasions.
In 2006, he moved to Cardiff where he monitored the activities of an anarchist group as well as the Rising Tide Network. Former friends said he travelled with UK activists to protest against the G8 in Heligendam, Germany, in 2007.
Jacobs, like both the other male undercover officers exposed by the Guardian, has been accused of having an affair while infiltrating a group. A 29-year-old former girlfriend told the Guardian last week that she had an affair with Jacobs for three months in the summer of 2008.
"I was doing nothing wrong. I was not breaking the law at all. For him to come along and lie to us and get that deep into our lives was a colossal, colossal betrayal," the woman said. "I am incredibly angry. Obviously to do that to anybody is pretty low, but to do that to somebody who trusted you and cared about you is just unspeakable."
By 2009, friends had become suspicious of Jacobs and he was increasingly being left out of sensitive discussions. He left claiming he had got a job in Corfu as a gardener. His former friends never heard from him again.
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - David Guyatt - 20-01-2011
What this begins to tell me is that the term "fucking Bill" is, strictly speaking, absolutely true.
I wonder if Undercover Bill Plc., are required to take sexual diseases tests by their bosses in blue as part of their insurance cover?
You can imagine the nurse taking their blood for testing: "hello, hello, hello, what's all this then?" Or "I'm going to take some blood now, so don't worry if you feel a little prick."
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - Peter Lemkin - 20-01-2011
Undercover policeman married activist he was sent to spy on
Chief constable says relationships with targets in environmental movement 'grossly unprofessional'
Paul Lewis, Rob Evans and Rowenna Davis
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 January 2011 21.30 GMT
Article history
Jim Boyling, a policeman known as Jim Sutton when he infiltrated Reclaim the Streets, married an activist and had children.
A police spy married an activist he met while undercover in the environmental protest movement and then went on to have children with her, the Guardian can reveal.
He is the fourth spy now to have been identified as an undercover police officer engaged in the covert surveillance of eco-activists. Three of those spies are accused of having had sexual relationships with the people they were targeting.
The details of the activities of the fourth spy, who is still a serving Metropolitan police officer, emerged as the senior police officer managing the crisis in undercover operations insisted that officers were strictly banned from having sexual relationships with their targets.
Jon Murphy, the chief constable of Merseyside, told the Guardian it was "never acceptable" for undercover officers to sleep with people they were targeting.
"Something has gone badly wrong here. We would not be where we are if it had not," he said, referring to three inquiries into undercover policing that have been launched in response to the Guardian's investigation into the first spy, Mark Kennedy, an undercover officer who had several sexual relationships during his seven-year deployment.
Murphy, who is the national lead officer on serious and organised crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, declined to speak about the Kennedy case directly but said officers who infiltrated the environmental movement were not permitted "under any circumstances" to sleep with activists.
"It is grossly unprofessional. It is a diversion from what they are there to do. It is morally wrong because people have been put there to do a particular task and people have got trust in them," he said.
Meanwhile the ex-wife of the fourth undercover police officer spoke to the Guardian. The woman was married to Jim Boyling, a serving Metropolitan police officer who spent five years living undercover with environmental campaigners between 1995 and 2000.
Using the false identity "Jim Sutton", Boyling infiltrated Reclaim the Streets, an environmental group famed for bringing streets to a standstill in unruly protests against cars.
During his time undercover, when he is said to have become a key organiser, Boyling met a 28-year-old woman and began a relationship with her. He later disappeared from her life.
It was only when he reappeared a year later that he told the woman he was a police officer. They later married and had two children but divorced two years ago.
Speaking for the first time, the woman gave the Guardian a detailed account of their relationship and alleges that Boyling:
Encouraged her to change her name by deed poll, apparently to conceal their relationship from his seniors at the Met. Her deed poll certificate is signed by Boyling, who lists his occupation as "police officer".
Told her a ruling from seniors that undercover operatives should not have sex with targets was unrealistic, and developing relationships with activists was "a necessary tool in maintaining cover".
Only informed a senior officer that he was in a relationship with an activist in 2005, around the time they married using her new identity.
Named at least two other police officers who served as undercover operatives and indicated other political activists who he believed to be police officers.
Kennedy, who is in hiding in the US, is also believed to have "outed" a fellow spy an allegation he denies. Police chiefs, who have been unable to establish contact with Kennedy have said any such breach of protocol constitutes "heresy".
Boyling and the Met were given a detailed account of the woman's allegations, but neither provided a response. The woman said tonight she hoped her story would reveal how deep infiltration of the protest movement "wrecks lives". "Everybody knows there are people in the movement who aren't who they say they are," she said. "Being too paranoid would hinder everything. But you don't expect the one person you trust most in the world not to exist." Senior officers say any suggestion they tacitly allowed operatives to have relationships are unjustified, and argue examples of inappropriate behaviour are rare.
Murphy defended the police tactics of infiltrating the environmental movement today. He said the group had a small number in their midst "intent on causing harm, committing crime and on occasions disabling parts of the national critical infrastructure". "That has the potential to deny utilities to hospitals, schools, businesses and your granny," he said.
Senior officers privately admit there was widespread confusion over accountability at the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, which ran both Kennedy and Boyling. "We are left to regulate it ourselves and we think we do a good job of it," said Murphy today. "Sometimes things go wrong, it is a volatile area of police work."
The Guardian also today fully identifies two of the other undercover officers involved in spying on the eco-activists, previously called Officer A and B.
Their names and photographs were not used after representations from senior police, but both have now been extracted from undercover roles in other investigations, and they can be named as Lynn Watson and Mark Jacobs.
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - Jan Klimkowski - 20-01-2011
Quote:Speaking for the first time, the woman gave the Guardian a detailed account of their relationship and alleges that Boyling:
Told her a ruling from seniors that undercover operatives should not have sex with targets was unrealistic, and developing relationships with activists was "a necessary tool in maintaining cover".
The randy rozzer thinks fucking is a "necessary tool" for undercover assets and agents provocateurs.
Well, I suppose it's a lot more fun than trying to catch burglars and violent thugs, and a lot more pleasurable than pursuing Rupert Murdoch's criminal hacks or cheating bankers.
Jon Murphy, the chief constable of Merseyside,
Quote:defended the police tactics of infiltrating the environmental movement today. He said the group had a small number in their midst "intent on causing harm, committing crime and on occasions disabling parts of the national critical infrastructure". "That has the potential to deny utilities to hospitals, schools, businesses and your granny," he said.
What a crude and clumsy smear on protestors. Chief Constable Plod is claiming that if these £250kpa police agents provocateur had not been fucking their way through the green movement, inciting protestors to criiminal action and providing material support (with taxpayer money), then "your granny" might not have been able to put her kettle on.
Truly pathetic.
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - Paul Rigby - 23-01-2011
Paul Rigby Wrote:Here, I strongly suspect, is an explanation for the Kennedy-Stone operation, and the lavish coverage afforded it, as it ramifies out, by The Guardian, the CIA's most important media asset within the UK.
We shouldn't be naive about the Guardian's role in this story. There is almost certainly another, undeclared agenda at play:
Quote:"...the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a secret unit formed to prevent violent disorder on the streets of London...later the SDS became the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, the secretive organisation that employed Kennedy and whose activities are the subject of three investigations..."Undercover police cleared 'to have sex with activists'
Mark Townsend and Tony Thompson
Saturday 22 January 2011 21.00 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/22/undercover-police-cleared-sex-activists
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - David Guyatt - 23-01-2011
The Fornicating Force Facilitates Felatio in False Friend Fact Finding Frame-up.
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - Paul Rigby - 23-01-2011
David Guyatt Wrote:The Fornicating Force Facilitates Felatio in False Friend Fact Finding Frame-up.
"That's quite a mouthful" - unnamed Green Activist
Met Police Agent Provocateurs - David Guyatt - 23-01-2011
Paul Rigby Wrote::pointlaugh::pointlaugh::pointlaugh:David Guyatt Wrote:The Fornicating Force Facilitates Felatio in False Friend Fact Finding Frame-up.
"That's quite a mouthful" - unnamed Green Activist