Met Police Agent Provocateurs

[Jan Klimkowski]

A bump as the wheels of justice are moving very very slowly, perhaps because public understanding of the MO is highly damaging for TPTB...

Met facing mounting crisis as activist spying operation unravels

Senior police officers' judgment questioned as revelations emerge about the behaviour of undercover agents

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 October 2011 20.22 BST


It was shortly after 10am, in a corner at a primary school near Nottingham, that a police agent using the codename UCO 133 began whispering into a microphone hidden in his watch.

Mark Kennedy was a long-haired, tattoo-covered undercover police officer who had been living for six years as an environmental activist. But the covert agent with a long-term activist girlfriend was about to set in train a chain of events that would result in one of the most intriguing scandals in policing history.

"I'm an authorised police officer engaged in Operation Pegasus," Kennedy hissed into his £7,000 Casio G-Shock watch, equipped with a hidden microchip. "This weekend, Easter weekend, I am together with a group of activists that are planning to disrupt Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. Shortly gonna go … and record briefings that subsequently take place throughout the day. So I shall now switch this device off."

He snatched a look at his wrist and read out the time. At that point 10.06am on 12 April 2009 one of the British constabulary's most closely guarded secrets remained intact; Kennedy, perhaps the most successful in a fleet of agents sent to live deep undercover among political activists, had maintained his cover.

More importantly, virtually nothing was known about the secretive police units which, for four decades, had been surreptitiously disrupting the activities of political campaign groups.

But now a series of revelations concerning a network of undercover agents has become a growing crisis for police.

At the centre of the latest controversy is a set of documents, obtained by the Guardian and the BBC's Newsnight, indicating that another police spy, Jim Boyling, who lived undercover among the environmental group Reclaim the Streets, concealed his identity in a criminal trial, giving false evidence under oath about his real name.

The accusation that police deliberately subverted the judicial process, and at worst sanctioned perjury, prompted outrage among lawyers and parts of the judiciary and led to the last-minute postponement of a major report into undercover policing of protests by the newly appointed commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Bernard Hogan-Howe.

Now questions are being asked about the judgment of Britain's most senior police officer, whose report conducted in his prior role with the policing inspectorate is being reviewed. Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, described the court deception as a monumental misjudgment, saying police had "crossed the line". There are mounting calls for a full public inquiry.

The truth behind the police spies began to unravel late last year when activist former friends of Kennedy revealed his police background on the website Indymedia.

Two months later in January this year the Guardian published the first revelation in its long-running investigation into the undercover policing of protests, revealing how Kennedy, after leaving the Met, returned to his activist friends, expressed sympathy with their cause and attempted to continue living under his fictional identity, Mark Stone.

In the last 10 months, the Guardian has detailed the covert deployments of six undercover police officers. In addition to Kennedy and Boyling, police officers using the fake identities Mark Jacobs, Lynn Watson and Pete Black have been exposed. This week Bob Lambert, a well-known academic, was unmasked as a former spymaster who spent years deep undercover.

Writing in the Guardian , Lambert acknowledges police should learn from mistakes, but defends the work of undercover police officers in "countering political violence and intimidation".

Lambert, who later ran special branch's Muslim contact group, which was tasked with building relations with London's Muslim organisations, said he was not involved in any surveillance at that stage of his career. Boyling also went on to work for the same unit. "I did not recruit one Muslim Londoner as an informant, nor did I spy on them," Lambert said. "They were partners of police and many acted bravely in support of public safety and protection of fellow citizens."

A seventh undercover officer, Simon Wellings, was exposed by Newsnight in March.

All seven spies shared similar modi operandi: they appeared out of nowhere, often had access to vehicles and showed an unflinching willingness to help run the logistics of protest organisation. Unlike undercover officers who penetrate serious criminal gangs, typically for no more than a few weeks or months, agents deployed in protest organisations are authorised to spend years living double lives as campaigners. Only rarely have they been asked to gather evidence for prosecutions; usually, their mandate is to gather intelligence on activists while quietly disrupting their campaigns.

Most of the undercover police officers identified by the Guardian and Newsnight have also had sexual relationships with their targets, in some cases developing long-term relationships.

Some activists argue this has been the most disturbing element of the controversy, equating the operation to state-sanctioned sex abuse. They point to the anger, betrayal and psychological trauma suffered by some of the women who have spoken out about their relationships with men who later turned out to be police spies.

Senior officers have claimed sexual relations were never condoned or known about by the top ranks a finding Hogan-Howe was expected to endorse in his report. However, the mounting evidence suggests otherwise.

Kennedy said he could not "sneeze" without his handlers knowing about his activities, and gave every indication they knew about the methods he used to gain the trust of activists, including his sexual liaisons. Black has said it was "part of the job" for fellow agents to use "the tool of sex" to maintain their cover and glean intelligence.

Together, these seven agents, and dozens more, have infiltrated a series of groups from across the political spectrum, including groups such as Stop the War, Youth Against Racism, Earth First, and Climate Camp. They have been regularly spying on activists at major demonstrations surrounding summits such as the G8 and G20, as well as local protests such as a campaign to protect Titnore Woods in West Sussex.

However, it was Kennedy's operation to prevent 112 activists from breaking into the Nottinghamshire power station in 2009 that placed the long-running operation under the spotlight.

Late last year, prosecutors refused to admit that the environmental campaigners had been infiltrated by an undercover police officer. The secret recordings made on Kennedy's Casio watch which would have exonerated the activists if disclosed during their trials were suppressed. An inquiry by Sir Christopher Rose, the former surveillance commissioner, is investigating claims made by police that their colleagues in the Crown Prosecution Service suppressed the recordings.

Transcripts of those recordings have now been obtained by the Guardian, along with other police materials relating to Kennedy's deployment marked "restricted" and "confidential".

They shed light on the extent of surveillance undertaken to keep tabs on a group of environmental campaigners. They reveal the minute details about the activities of campaigners being relayed by Kennedy, from discussions about football teams to types of biscuits eaten at a planning meeting.

In one document, marked "secret", police chiefs lay out what they believed to be the legal justification for Kennedy's surveillance operation, stating that the environmental campaigners could cause "severe economic loss to the United Kingdom" and an "adverse effect on the public's feeling of safety and security".

Those police claims, along with the broader suggestion that environmental activists threaten the national infrastructure of the UK, have been repeatedly challenged in court. All 26 activists police wanted to prosecute for conspiring to trespass at the Nottinghamshire power station either had their trials abandoned or their convictions quashed following the Kennedy controversy.

Sentencing 20 of the activists in January, a judge at Nottingham crown court said he accepted they had intended a peaceful protest and had the "highest possible motives", describing the group as "honest, sincere, conscientious, intelligent, committed, dedicated, caring".

When their convictions were quashed in July, three court of appeal judges, who included the lord chief justice, said "elementary principles" of the fair trial process were ignored when prosecutors did not disclose the secret recordings to activists' lawyers. In a damning ruling, the judges said they shared the "great deal of justifiable public disquiet", found that Kennedy's operation had been partly unlawful, and even proffered the suggestion he had arguably been acting as an agent provocateur.

What the judges did not mention but is increasingly becoming clear was that Kennedy was not a lone operator, but the latest in a long line of undercover police officers who have been spying on activists as part of a classified operation dating back four decades.

Previously known as the special demonstration squad, which operated under the command of the Metropolitan police's special branch, the undercover unit was first conceived as a tool to combat the anti-Vietnam protests at Grosvenor Square in 1968.

The infrastructure of long-term police surveillance of leftwing and far-right campaign groups has remained in place ever since and continues today. What was previously conceived as a secret plan to disrupt the activities of "subversives" was, more than a decade ago, reinvented under the leadership of the Association of Chief Police Officers as part of a new drive to combat "domestic extremists". The secretive body that controls the spies, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, was recently returned to the command of the Met.

It now falls to Hogan-Howe to grapple with the fallout of the latest controversy over Boyling, who has been placed on restricted duties and subject to a disciplinary inquiry since January, when it emerged he married an activist he met while undercover and fathered two children with her. That inquiry, which is investigating claims by Boyling's ex-wife that he encouraged her to change her name by deed poll to conceal their relationship from his superiors, has yet to conclude.

It is now likely to be overshadowed by the accusation that he lied about his real identity under oath. Details of his false evidence were revealed on Wednesday.

Besides prompting outrage among lawyers, the accusation that police subverted the judicial process appears to have shaken senior police officers. Within hours, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) cancelled its planned publication of the report on Hogan-Howe's review.

The Hogan-Howe report had been expected to ignore advice from other senior police officers, who argued that the unfolding scandal in undercover policing revealed the need for a more robust system of independent oversight. HMIC said it would now seek further details about Boyling's alleged false evidence under oath before reviewing its report. However, what is unclear is how much information if any the Met disclosed to the inspectorate about Boyling, his marriage to an activist and his evidence under oath.

A draft of the HMIC report circulated over the summer, as Hogan-Howe believed he was nearing his conclusions, is not believed to have contained any reference to Boyling at all.

Jenny Jones, a Green party member of the London assembly who sits on the Metropolitan police authority, will be questioning Hogan-Howe at an MPA meeting next week. She said: "I will be pressing him to explain how we can stop such mistakes being made again and how we can bring some accountability to a police service which has been given almost carte blanche to spy on its own citizens."

[Peter Lemkin]

The wheels of justice are slow indeed! Sometimes rusted shut!

Mark Kennedy, the first infiltrator to be exposed, says he may sue Scotland Yard for causing post-traumatic stress disorder

I love the above, MK should have gotten agent provocateur health insurance :popworm:

[Magda Hassan]

Mark Kennedy, the first infiltrator to be exposed, says he may sue Scotland Yard for causing post-traumatic stress disorder

And what of the women who have been fucked over by the State in every possible way? What compensation will they receive for being raped and damaged and never able to trust another soul again?

[Keith Millea]

Mark Kennedy, the first infiltrator to be exposed, says he may sue Scotland Yard for causing post-traumatic stress disorder

BIG mistake!They'll have some really fine anti-psychcotic drugs waiting for Mr.MK Slime.....:moon:

[Jan Klimkowski]

Mark Kennedy, the first infiltrator to be exposed, says he may sue Scotland Yard for causing post-traumatic stress disorder

And what of the women who have been fucked over by the State in every possible way? What compensation will they receive for being raped and damaged and never able to trust another soul again?

Magda - read this with the sick bag handy.

I particularly enjoyed the pseudo justification: "The world of eco-activism is highly promiscuous", with the implication being I had to shag these hairy hippies to be a credible part of the gang...

An undercover police officer has defended having sexual relationships with unsuspecting eco-activists, saying they were essential' to maintaining a convincing cover story.

Mark Kennedy, who spent eight years posing as eco-warrior Mark Flash' Stone, has spoken out after learning that three women plan to sue the Metropolitan Police for emotional distress, saying he duped' them into sex.

I never conned anyone into having sex,' he says. I lived undercover for eight years and if I hadn't had sex, I would have blown my cover. But I never used these women to gain information. The love we had was real.

I am not the first man to give a false name to a woman. I do have sympathy for those I may have hurt but this doesn't warrant a lawsuit. The world of eco-activism is highly promiscuous. It was essential for me to have relationships in order to do my job.'

In total, eight women are accusing five undercover officers, including Kennedy, of causing them intense emotional trauma and pain'.

The lawsuit, thought to be the first of its kind, alleges the degrading deceit' caused them psychiatric and psychological injuries, including depression, anxiety and trauma. It states: It appears that [the men] used techniques they had been trained in to gain trust .  .  . officers obtained the consent of [these women] to sexual intercourse by deceit.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z1j53UW9PA

I saw the Channel 4 documentary with Kennedy which was broadcast in November in the UK. Kennedy/Stone came over as a man who'd lost his raison d'etre and had no idea where to start looking for it again.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Mark Kennedy, the first infiltrator to be exposed, says he may sue Scotland Yard for causing post-traumatic stress disorder

BIG mistake!They'll have some really fine anti-psychcotic drugs waiting for Mr.MK Slime.....:moon:

Now you're talking! :wheel:

Any naive soul considering becoming an agent provocateur needs to study Kennedy/Stone/Flash's case in detail. After he was exposed, Kennedy returned to the Met and, allegedly, had a meeting with Scotland Yard's Head of HR. Mr Flash was told that the only potential option was for him to return to being a rank and file "beat copper". However, Scotland Yard HR further advised him that his many years undercover meant he was totally deskilled, and therefore could not even return to being a neighbourhood rozzer.

Kennedy was declared unemployable as a police officer.

It's the mundane, proasaic, counterpoint to the fate of the DiCaprio character in Scorsese's Departed.

And the DiCaprio character had at least infiltrated a genuine criminal gang.

Unlike Kennedy/Stone/Flash who was tasked with infiltrating and, almost certainly, destabilizing, a legitimate protest movement.

[Peter Lemkin]

The world of eco-activism is highly promiscuous. It was essential for me to have relationships in order to do my job.'

Wonder what the job description details read like.....:what: The man was only doing his job for the MAN! :fullofit::fullofit:

[Jan Klimkowski]

The world of eco-activism is highly promiscuous. It was essential for me to have relationships in order to do my job.'

Wonder what the job description details read like.....:what: The man was only doing his job for the MAN! :fullofit::fullofit:

The man who works for The Man adds: "The love we had was real."

I feel like quoting some GG Allin, as managed by another notorious agent provocateur, one Leni Colby.

[Peter Lemkin]

Undercover police had children with activists

Disclosure likely to intensify controversy over long-running police operation to infiltrate and sabotage protest groups

Rob Evans and Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 January 2012 20.15 GMT

Bob Lambert, believed to be holding the son he fathered while working as an undercover policeman
Bob Lambert (far left), with his child. The undercover police officer had a relationship with a woman who is now taking action against the police

Two undercover police officers secretly fathered children with political campaigners they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring, the Guardian can reveal.

In both cases, the children have grown up not knowing that their biological fathers whom they have not seen in decades were police officers who had adopted fake identities to infiltrate activist groups. Both men have concealed their true identities from the children's mothers for many years.

One of the spies was Bob Lambert, who has already admitted that he tricked a second woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an intricate attempt to bolster his credibility as a committed campaigner.

The second police spy followed the progress of his child and the child's mother by reading confidential police reports which tracked the mother's political activities and life.

The disclosures are likely to intensify the controversy over the long-running police operation to infiltrate and sabotage protest groups.

Police chiefs claim that undercover officers are strictly forbidden from having sexual relationships with the activists they are spying on, describing the situations as "grossly unprofessional" and "morally wrong".

But that claim has been undermined as many of the officers who have been unmasked have admitted to, or have been accused of, having sex with the targets of their surveillance.

Last month eight women who say they were duped into forming long-term intimate relationships of up to nine years with five undercover policemen started unprecedented legal action. They say they have suffered immense emotional trauma and pain over the relationships, which spanned the period from 1987 to 2010.

Until now it was not known that police had secretly fathered children while living undercover. One of them is Lambert, who adopted a fake persona to infiltrate animal rights and environmental groups in the 1980s.

After he was unmasked in October, he admitted that as "Bob Robinson" he had conned an innocent woman into having an 18-month relationship with him, apparently so that he could convince activists he was a real person. She is one of the women taking the legal action against police chiefs.

Now the Guardian can reveal that in the mid-1980s, just a year into his deployment, Lambert fathered a boy with another woman, who was one of the activists he had been sent to spy on.

The son lived with his mother during the early years of his life as his parents' relationship did not last long. During that time, Lambert was in regular contact with the infant, fitting visits to him around his clandestine duties.

After two years, the mother married another man and both of them took responsibility for raising the child. Lambert says the woman was keen that he give up his legal right to maintaining contact with his son and cut him out of her new life. He says the agreement was reached amicably and he has not seen or heard of the mother or their son since then.

Lambert did not tell her or the child that he was a police spy as he needed to conceal his real identity from the political activists he was spying on. The Guardian is not naming the woman or the child to protect their privacy.

Lambert was married during his secret mission, which continued until 1988.

The highly secretive operation to monitor and disrupt political activists, which has been running for four decades, has come under mounting scrutiny since last year following revelations over the activities of Mark Kennedy, the undercover police officer who went rogue after burying himself deep in the environmental movement for seven years.

Police chiefs and prosecutors have set up 12 inquiries over the past year to examine allegations of misconduct involving police spies, but all of them have been held behind closed doors. There have been continuing calls, including from the former director of public prosecutions Ken Macdonald, for a proper public inquiry.

The second case involves an undercover policeman who was sent to spy on activists some years ago. He had a short-lived relationship with a political activist which produced a child.

He concealed his real identity from the activist and child as he was under strict orders to keep secret his undercover work from her and the other activists in the group he infiltrated. He then disappeared, apparently after his superiors ended his deployment. Afterwards, she remained under surveillance as she continued to be politically active, while he carried on with his police career.

The Guardian understands that as he had access to the official monitoring reports, he regularly read details of her life with a close interest. He watched as she grew older and brought up their child as a single parent, according to an individual who is aware of the details of the case.

The policeman has been "haunted" by the experience of having no contact with the child, whom he thought about regularly, according to the individual.

If you have information please contact paul.lewis@guardian.co.uk

[Peter Lemkin]

Activists plan Scotland Yard blockade to expose spies who used sexual tactics
[Just realized this WAS last year - what became of this, if anything!??????!]

Women aim to identify undercover police who infiltrated environment groups and had sexual relations with protesters

James Meikle
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 06.01 GMT

Metropolitan Poloce Commissioner Ian Blair resigns
Activists are expected at Scotland Yard in London today to protest over surveillance methods on women and what they call 'state-endorsed sexual manipulation'. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Women activists are to blockade Scotland Yard today, intending to demand to know the identity of any undercover police who have infiltrated their organisations.

As evidence continued to emerge of police officers having had sexual relations with people they were monitoring, the women said they wanted to know if they had been "abused" by police.

Though senior police insisted that sleeping with activists during such operations was banned, a former agent claimed such "promiscuity" routinely had the blessing of commanders.

The activists' concerns follow the revelation that the undercover PC Mark Kennedy had sexual relationships with several women during the seven years he spent infiltrating environmental activists' groups. Last week the Guardian identified more officers who had sex with the protesters they were sent to spy on. One officer, Jim Boyling, married an activist and had two children with her.

Rebecca Quinn, an environmental activist from Oxford, said: "This is about people from different groups and networks who share concerns about this type of policing and how it affects women. We are still at the stage where we are trying to piece together the extent to which these operations have reached.

"There may be dozens of other women who might be affected by this, who have [unknowingly] had relationships with other undercover officers. It is unacceptable. A picture is starting to emerge of state-endorsed sexual manipulation."

The issue is expected to be raised by MPs tomorrow, when the acting Metropolitan police commissioner, Tim Godwin, appears before the Commons home affairs select committee.