Met Police Agent Provocateurs

[Jan Klimkowski]

Meet the Focker.

All that blubbing on camera about his torn emotions...

Now this dipstick will be paid by a US security firm as a "consultant" on "countering current and developing threats" from protesters.

Mark Kennedy hired as consultant by US security firm

Former police spy provides 'investigative services, risk and threat assessments' for Densus Group
Rob Evans and Paul Lewis

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 June 2012 17.29 BST


A former police spy who infiltrated the environmental movement for seven years has been hired by a private security firm in the US to give advice on how to deal with political activists.

Mark Kennedy has become a consultant to the Densus Group, providing "investigative services, risk and threat assessments", according to an entry on his LinkedIn profile.

He says he has given lectures to firms and government bodies drawing on his experiences "as a covert operative working within extreme left political and animal rights groups throughout the UK, Europe and the US".

Kennedy, 42, went to live in Cleveland, Ohio, after he was unmasked by activists in late 2010. He has claimed to have developed sympathies for the activists while undercover, although many campaigners have scorned this claim.

The disclosure of his clandestine deployment has led to a series of revelations over the past 18 months about the 40-year police operation to penetrate and disrupt political groups. The convictions of one group of protesters were quashed after it was revealed that prosecutors and police had withheld key evidence Kennedy's covert recording of campaigners from their trial. A second trial of activists collapsed after it emerged that Kennedy had infiltrated them.

Kennedy was one of a long line of undercover officers since 1968 sent to spy on political activists under a fake identity. He posed as Mark Stone, a long-haired, tattooed campaigner, and took part in many demonstrations between 2003 and 2010. He has admitted sleeping with activists he was spying on, even though police chiefs say this is strictly forbidden.

Even after the police ended his deployment, he continued to pretend he was a campaigner and to fraternise with activists he had known while undercover. In particular, Kennedy developed a sudden interest in animal rights campaigns, according to activists.

After he was exposed, he sold his story to the Mail on Sunday which reported that soon after he left the police he worked for Global Open, a security firm that advises corporations on how to thwart campaigners promoting animal rights and other causes. He denied this in a later interview.

A month before he left the police he set up the first of three commercial firms whose work has not been described. For the past four months he has been working for the Texas-based Densus Group, which advises firms on "countering current and developing threats" from protesters.

A US newspaper obtained a Densus threat assessment that was circulated to businesses before a G20 summit in 2009. In it, Densus is reported to have described planned protests outside the summit as "extreme" and "likely to be the most violent event of the week".

Sam Rosenfeld, the chair of the group, said: "Mr Kennedy's history is unparalleled in being able to share his experiences of legal and illegal protest techniques perspectives critical in understanding where the real risks, threats and opportunities lie. Like all Densus consultants, Mr Kennedy's involvement promotes the facilitation and effectiveness of legal protest and forewarns the likely victims of violence and criminal damage."

Rosenfeld said his company "promotes the facilitation of legal protest and prevents over- or under-reaction that could escalate a situation unnecessarily, thereby hampering effective free speech."

Earth First! have noticed.

Very wise.