Met Police Agent Provocateurs

[Jan Klimkowski]

For the record, here's the chronology, as can best be made out from online datestamps, of identification of ACPO plc undercovers other than Kennedy/Stone.

It strongly suggests that on January 13, The Guardian withheld the identify of "Lyn Watson" and "Mark/Marco Jacobs" in their initial stories, and printed pixellated photos, at the request of police - presumably ACPO plc and NPOIU.

In the early hours of January 19, UK IndyMedia then identified "Watson" and "Jacobs", and printed unpixellated photos.

Later on January 19, in the evening, now that the identification of "Watson" and "Jacobs" had been made, The Guardian also identified the police infiltrators they had called Officers A and B.

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January 13, 2011 - Guardian prints pixellated photo, at police request, of undercover woman agent. Presumably agent called "Officer A" by Guardian:

Revealed: Second undercover police officer who posed as activist

Spy spent four years living in Leeds and played a central role in planning a demonstration to shut down the Drax power station

Paul Lewis, Rob Evans and Vikram Dodd The Guardian, Thursday 13 January 2011

The controversy over a police surveillance network embedded in the environmental protest movement has deepened dramatically after the Guardian identified a second undercover officer who spent years living a double life as an activist.

The woman's name has been known to a group of six activists since Mark Kennedy the police infiltrator identified by the Guardian on Monday as having spent seven years inside the movement claimed she was also a police officer when confronted by them about his own identity last October.

Senior police chiefs said they were concerned for the safety of the second spy, and a major operation involving several UK forces is now under way to identify other operatives whose safety may have been compromised by Kennedy.

The second spy spent four years living as an environmental activist in Leeds, gaining the trust of dozens of activists and playing a central role in planning a demonstration to shut down Drax power station in North Yorkshire.

Her deployment ended in 2008, when she told activist friends she was leaving town for personal reasons. The Guardian has established the identity of the officer, who is from a force in the south-east of England, but has decided, after representations from senior police officers, to refer to her only as Officer A, and to use pixellated pictures of her.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/12...NTCMP=SRCH

January 15, 2011 - Guardian prints story of "Officer B", again withholding his identity at police request:

Third undercover police spy unmasked as scale of network emerges

44-year-old infiltrated Cardiff anarchist group
Former girlfriend tells of 'colossal, colossal betrayal'

Paul Lewis, Matthew Taylor and Rajeev Syal The Guardian, Saturday 15 January 2011
The unprecedented scale of undercover operations used by police to monitor Britain's political protest movements was laid bare last night after a third police spy was identified by the Guardian.

News of the existence of the 44-year-old male officer comes as regulators prepare two separate official inquiries into the activities of this hitherto secret police surveillance network.

The latest officer, whose identity has been withheld amid fears for his safety in other criminal operations, worked for four years undercover with an anarchist group in Cardiff.

Last night a former girlfriend and fellow activist said she felt "colossally betrayed" by "Officer B". The 29-year-old, who had a relationship with him for three months in the summer of 2008 while he was working undercover, said: "I was doing nothing wrong, I was not breaking the law at all. So for him to come along and lie to us and get that deep into our lives was a colossal, colossal betrayal."

The woman, who did not want to be named, said "Officer B" arrived in Cardiff in 2005, becoming a key member of the 20-strong Anarchist network in the city and "one of her best friends". They had known each for three years before their relationship and she said she did not suspect his true identity until after he left Cardiff in October 2009, claiming he had been offered a job as a gardener on Corfu.

According to the woman Officer B's flat was very empty, with no pictures of friends or family and he rarely talked about his past. "He always said he could not tell his family or friends about us because of the age difference ... if it had been anyone else I would have thought that was strange, but because [he] had been such a good friend for so long it really did not enter my mind that he was anything but a stand-up honest man."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/14...NTCMP=SRCH

January 19, 2011 00:51 - UK IndyMedia name "Lyn Watson" (Officer A) and "Marco Jacobs" (presumably Officer B), with unpixellated photos.

So, looking at the time stamps, UK IndyMedia identified and printed unpixellated photos of "Lyn Watson" and "Mark/Marco Jacobs" in the early morning (00:51 GMT) of January 19.

The Guardian (see further below) identified and printed different unpixellated photos of "Watson" and "Jacobs" during the evening of January 19 (21:30 GMT).

Three undercover political Police unmasked as infiltrators into UK Anarchist, Anti-Fascist and Climate Justice movements

ABC Anarres / IMC UK Features | 19.01.2011 00:51 | Repression | World

Update: 4th Spy: "Jim Sutton" | 5th Spy: Peter Black | 6th Spy: Mark Cassidy

"Mark Stone", "Lynn Watson" and "Marco Jacobs".

Three police officers all thought to work for The National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), a political police unit with extensive links to large corporations, have been exposed by activists in the UK.

Two of them are known to have worked outside of UK police jurisdiction. All have actively taken part in illegal activity.

Feature Articles:
Cop Infiltrators: PC Mark Kennedy AKA "Mark (Flash) Stone", "Lyn Watson", "Mark (Marco) Jacobs" and PC Jim Boyling, "Jim Sutton" | Undercover police officer back in the spotlight | Guilty verdict in Ratcliffe trial | Mark Kennedy/Stone exposed as undercover cop

Newswire:
Mark Kenney: A detailed chronology of his activities | Kennedy Mania in the Mainstream Media | Officer 'B' revealed as Cardiff based 'Marco' Jacobs | Mark Kennedy: secret policeman's sideline as corporate spy | Post Flash Fallout, Lessons and Activist security | I can't forgive Mark Kennedy's betrayal of activists | IMPORTANT: A respectful request to all activists regarding Mark "Stone" | Undercover police officer back in the spotlight | Release the Kennedy Files | Ratcliffe: 2nd Court Case of 6 activist Collapses | Ratcliffe trial collapses! | An account of Marco Jacobs' time in Brighton | Cardiff Anarchist Network (CAN)on the infiltration by 'Marco'

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/472363.html

January 19, 2011, 21:30 GMT - Guardian name Officer A as Lyn Watson and print unpixellated photo of her.

Undercover police: Officer A named as Lynn Watson

Lynn Watson posed as an environmental activist for five years, claiming to be a care worker living in Bournemouth

Rajeev Syal and Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 January 2011 21.30 GMT

The undercover police spy known until now as Officer A, who posed as an environmental activist for five years, can be named as Lynn Watson.

A useful member of an activist team for her driving and medical skills, Watson's real motives were revealed last October by the rogue officer Mark Kennedy when confronted by activists about his own identity.

Watson first surfaced in 2003 at a protest at Aldermaston, Britain's nuclear weapons centre. Watson claimed to be a care worker living in Bournemouth in Dorset. Her parents, she told friends, were from Glasgow but had moved to Slough, Berkshire, when she was young.

Using this story, or "legend" as it is known among police, Watson began to make friends among peace activists.

During 2004 she returned to Aldermaston women's peace camp. The following year, she moved to the student area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she became active in environmentalist groups centred around a radical social centre called the Common Place.

Watson also took a role in the UK Action Medics Collective, a group providing first aid at demonstrations. In common with other undercover officers, she could drive, offering another useful skill to a protest movement.

In 2007, Watson was arrested at the Department for Transport building in Whitehall, central London, during a demonstration against expansion of Heathrow. While other women glued themselves to the doors, she gave out leaflets, one activist claimed.

Watson disappeared from Leeds in early 2008, saying that she was leaving because she had met a man she wished to live with. She had a leaving party with close friends, but has not been seen by them since.

A Leeds University lecturer, Paul Chatterton, 37, a close friend, said she had "abused the trust" of activists and that her infiltration had been immoral. He saw Watson about twice a week, and regularly joined her in the pub or went running with her. "I considered her quite a close friend," he said.

Of medium height and with dark hair, Watson is well-remembered at the Common Place, a former pork pie factory in central Leeds which has given space and resources to radical groups for six years.

She was one of the original group who rented the redbrick premises, in Wharf Street. When the community centre was given a licence for drinks her membership card was number three. Volunteers working at the centre say she had "certainly been at the core".

Her credentials were not checked in a structure which was, and remains, open-minded and welcoming, like a smaller version of the base in Poland Street, off Oxford Street in London, which the Rowntree Trust provided in the 1970s for fledgling groups such as Friends of the Earth, the Low Pay Unit and the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. Apart from hosting activist groups, the centre runs English classes for asylum-seekers, bike maintenance and repair workshops, and social events.

"If she was an undercover officer, I imagine she would have found us useful as a way of getting contacts more than anything else," said one of the volunteers, who all preferred not to be named.

Watson's abrupt disappearance in 2007 caused concern about her welfare rather than suspicion of her role.

"People were worried, though, when they tried to find out where she might have gone, and discovered that addresses and people she had mentioned did not exist," said a volunteer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/19...NTCMP=SRCH

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

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.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/19...ark-jacobs