Met Police Agent Provocateurs

[Jan Klimkowski]

A familiar, but usually suppressed, tale:

Undercover officer spied on green activists

Guardian investigation reveals details of PC Mark Kennedy's infiltration of dozens of protest groups

Rob Evans and Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 January 2011 20.35 GMT

A police officer who for seven years lived deep undercover at the heart of the environmental protest movement, travelling to 22 countries gleaning information and playing a frontline role in some of the most high-profile confrontations, has quit the Met, telling his friends that what he did was wrong.

PC Mark Kennedy, a Metropolitan police officer, infiltrated dozens of protest groups including anti-racist campaigners and anarchists, a Guardian investigation reveals.

Legal documents suggest Kennedy's activities went beyond those of a passive spy, prompting activists to ask whether his role in organising and helping to fund protests meant he turned into an agent provocateur.

Kennedy first adopted the fake identity Mark Stone in 2003, pretending to be a professional climber, in order to disrupt the UK's peaceful movement to combat climate change. Then aged 33, he grew long hair and sported earrings and tattoos, before going on to attend almost every major demonstration in the UK up to the G20 protests in London. He was issued with a fake passport and driving licence.

Sensitive details about Kennedy's activities had been set to be raised in Nottingham crown court in legal argument relating to a case of six activists accused of conspiring to break into Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station.

But prosecutors unexpectedly abandoned the trial after they were asked to disclose classified details about the role the undercover officer played in organising and helping to fund the protest.

Kennedy, who recently resigned from the Met, is understood to be torn over his betrayal, telling one activist that his infiltration had been "really wrong". "I'll just say I'm sorry, for everything," Kennedy said. "It really hurts."

Apparently keen for redemption, Kennedy indicated he would "help" the defendants during their trial and was in touch with their lawyer. He backed out three weeks ago, citing his concern for the safety of his family and himself.

The Met could face pressure to explain the ethics of deploying an officer so deep undercover. It has been repeatedly criticised for its handling of protests. A Metropolitan police spokesman said: "We are not prepared to discuss the matter."

Kennedy is believed to have been one of at least two undercover operatives working for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, an agency that monitors so-called domestic extremists. He told friends each undercover spy cost £250,000 a year.

The officer was found out in October after friends, some of whom had grown suspicious about a seemingly "perfect activist", discovered a passport bearing his real name. They eventually unearthed documentary proof that he had been a policeman since around 1994, and, confronted with the evidence, Kennedy confessed. He is now living abroad.

Police arrested 114 activists at a school near Nottingham in April 2009 in a controversial operation to prevent activists from breaking into the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station the next day.

Twenty-six activists were later charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass. Of those, 20 admitted they planned to break into the power station to prevent the emission of around 150,000 tonnes of carbon.

They were convicted after failing to convince a jury their actions were designed to prevent immediate greater harm from climate change. Handing down lenient sentences last week, a judge said they had been acting with "the highest possible motives".

It is widely presumed that Kennedy tipped off police about the protest. But activists who spent four months working with Kennedy to hatch the plan now question whether he crossed a boundary and became an agent provocateur.

The allegation was set to emerge during the trial of the six defendants who unlike the other activists maintained that they had not yet agreed to break into the power station. According to legal papers drawn up by their lawyers, Kennedy helped to organise the demonstration from an early stage, driving on reconnaissance trips of the power station and suggesting the "best and easiest way" to get into the plant.

"He continued to participate, including hiring, paying for and driving a vehicle and volunteering to be one of two principal climbers who would attach himself to the [coal-carrying] conveyor belt. He actively encouraged participation in the action and expressed the view that he was pleased it was going to be an action of some significance," the papers say.

The documents state that planning meetings for the protest took place at Kennedy's house and he paid the court fees of another activist arising from a separate demonstration. "It is assumed that the finance for the accommodation, the hire of vehicles and the paying of fines came from police funds," they state.

Lawyers for the activists submitted their demand for material about Kennedy's role last Monday. The CPS confirmed it would not proceed with the trial, stating that "previously unavailable information" that undermined its case had come to light.

It said there was no longer sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of prosecution.

"I have no doubt that our attempts to get disclosure about Kennedy's role has led to the collapse of the trial," said Mike Schwarz, a solicitor at the Bindmans law firm who represented the activists.

"It is no coincidence that just 48 hours after we told the CPS our clients could not receive a fair trial unless they disclosed material about Kennedy, they halted the prosecution. Given that Kennedy was, until recently, willing to assist the defence, one has to ask if the police were facing up to the possibility their undercover agent had turned native."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/09...-activists

[Magda Hassan]

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...ur-exposed.

[Magda Hassan]

Did the trial collapse because he went native or because the defence asked the prosecution to disclose full details of Mr Kennedy's activities? Wouldn't be the first time some one went native. And did he really really go native? :curtain: heep:

Trial collapses after undercover officer changes sides

By Meirion Jones BBC Newsnight Pc Mark Kennedy worked undercover in the green movement for a number of years
[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12148753#story_continues_1"]
[/URL]

The trial of six green campaigners has collapsed after an undercover policeman who had infiltrated their group offered to give evidence on their behalf.
The six were charged with conspiring to shut down the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottingham in 2009.
The case was due to start on Monday, but was abandoned after Pc Mark Kennedy contacted the defence team to say he would be prepared to help them.
The prosecution subsequently dropped their case.
Mr Kennedy had been intimately involved in the green movement since 2000.
He was known to those within it as Mark "Flash" Stone, having earned the nickname because he always seemed to have more money than the other activists.
Confronted He lived a double life as Mark Kennedy of the Metropolitan Police and as Mark Stone, green activist, based in Nottingham.
Danny Chivers, who was one of the six defendants in the failed case, said Mr Kennedy was not just an observer, but an agent provocateur.
"We're not talking about someone sitting at the back of the meeting taking notes - he was in the thick of it."
Mr Kennedy would disappear for extended periods, saying he had to visit his "brother" in the US.
Continue reading the main story
In October 2010, Mr Kennedy was confronted by some of the activists after they found documents which revealed his true identity.
He admitted he had been a Met Police officer and had infiltrated their organisations, before then disappearing.
Speaking about the Ratcliffe-on-Soar protest, Mr Chivers said: "Mark Stone was involved in organising this for months - they could have stopped it at the start."
Instead, Mr Chivers said the police officer helped recruit as many people as possible.
He also drove a reconnaissance party to the power station in his van and then hired a truck for the main protest, Mr Chivers added.
The activists' plan was to try to shut down the coal-fired power station for a few days as a protest against global warming.
<div class=&quot;warning&quot;> <img class=&quot;holding&quot; src=&quot;http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50....jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Bradley Day&quot; /> <p><strong>Please turn on JavaScript.</strong> Media requires JavaScript to play.</p> </div>

Climate activist on undercover officer and why he was nicknamed 'Flash'

But in April 2009, when 114 people had gathered for a meeting at the Iona School in Nottingham, hundreds of police swooped on the building and arrested them all for "conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass".
Twenty were convicted late last year.
Ratcliffe-on-Soar was one of many actions in Britain and across Europe which Mr Kennedy was involved in, including the protests against the G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2005 which helped give birth to the Climate Camp movement.
"He was one of the key people setting up Gleneagles 2005," said Mr Chivers, who also claimed the undercover officer drove protesters there in his van.
'Violated' Activist websites are full of denunciations of Mr Kennedy by former close friends.
There is some abuse, but most say they feel "violated", "betrayed" and "sickened".
One writes: "He must be a deeply conflicted individual."
When confronted, Mr Kennedy told the activists he left the police after the Nottingham arrests in 2009.
It is unclear whether this is true, or where he is now, but he contacted the activists' defence team to say he would be prepared to help their case.
When the defence then asked the prosecution to disclose full details of Mr Kennedy's activities the prosecution dropped the case.
Twenty people were convicted over the Ratcliffe-on-Soar case last year
Mike Schwarz, a solicitor at Bindmans law firm which represented the activists, said he had "no doubt that our attempts to get disclosure about Kennedy's role has led to the collapse of the trial".
He added: "It is no coincidence that just 48 hours after we told the CPS our clients could not receive a fair trial unless they disclosed material about Kennedy, they halted the prosecution.
"Given that Kennedy was, until recently, willing to assist the defence, one has to ask if the police were facing up to the possibility their undercover agent had turned native."
A CPS spokeswoman said: "Previously unavailable information that significantly undermined the prosecution's case came to light on Wednesday, 5 January 2011.
"In light of this information, the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the case and decided there was no longer sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction."
The Met Police are refusing to comment officially on Mr Kennedy and would not say whether or not he is still a police officer.

[Magda Hassan]

Undercover officer lured back with meat

11-01-11
POLICE hope to lure undercover officer Mark Kennedy back into a police station using a steak on the end of some thread.

There are still huge gaps in Britain's anti-bean intelligence matrix

Kennedy has gone missing after spending more than two years infiltrating some of the world's most boring vegetarians in a bid to stop them making a big banner with a colourful bird on it.

But instead of gathering vital intelligence about beans and slightly out of tune guitars, Kennedy found himself agreeing with whatever it is they go on and on and on about.

A Scotland Yard source said: "It got to the point where Mark could read an entire newspaper column by George Monbiot without immediately wanting to frame him for something."

Kennedy was one of series of undercover officers sent to infiltrate a variety of dangerous groups, including one officer who spent three years wearing some novelty dreadlocks and saying 'yeah mon' every 30 seconds and another who posed as an animal rights activist before falling in love with a donkey.

Upon capture Kennedy will be deprogrammed and then reprogrammed using a combination of beef products, some old episodes of The Sweeney and selected readings from Peter Hitchens' new book about how environmentalism killed the Queen Mother.

The source added: "It's basically a reverse 'Clockwork Orange' where the intention is to turn the patient back into a blindly obedient cretin.

"We'll know it's worked when we present him with a Sun crossword and he tries to eat it with his feet."
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/socie...101113420/

[David Guyatt]

I meant to report on this but forgot (so solly). Yes, the undercover cop decided to thrwo his weight in with the activists and not the police.

It's one of those rare stories where the good guys triumph.

[Jan Klimkowski]

My suspicion (no more, no less) is that the "undercover officer went native" narrative is a cover story to avoid public disclosure of the real reasons why the CPS and police dropped the case.

My suspicion is that evidential discovery and witness testimony in open court would have revealed that Pc Kennedy acted as an agent provocateur, and both incited and provided material supply to illegal or criminal acts.

The exposure of a bona fide agent provocateur, and the creation of false flag protest, is politically unacceptable to the deep state.

Therefore the psyop cover story is that "Kennedy went native" and is now overseas.

[David Guyatt]

I think you're bang on target Jan. Last evening driving home, this was precisely what was being said on the radio news by the defence lawyer.

[Jan Klimkowski]

I think you're bang on target Jan. Last evening driving home, this was precisely what was being said on the radio news by the defence lawyer.

Not me! Honest, guv! :angeldevil:

[Peter Lemkin]

My take...IF he really went 'native' he'll sooner than later [much sooner] wind up dead as a doornail by suicide or 'accident'. If not, then the real reason to not prosecute [i.e. he was too obvious an agent provocateur] likely holds center stage. :wirlitzer: [to those groundlings who can see....!]

[Jan Klimkowski]

He was known within the green campaign as Mark "Flash" Stone, having earned the nickname because he always seemed to have more money than the other activists.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-12158198

Close reading the many articles on Kennedy (Stone), it's clear that: a) he was a frequent source of funding; b) this includes buying vehicles and other equipment used in protest operations. In other words, he was almost certainly providing material support to protest actitivies, some of which may have contained elements of illegality or criminality.

That makes Kennedy prima facie an agent provocateur:

agent provocateur French [aʒɑ̃ prɔvɔkatœr]
n pl agents provocateurs [aʒɑ̃ prɔvɔkatœr]
a secret agent employed to provoke suspected persons to commit illegal acts and so be discredited or liable to punishment
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/agent+provocateur

Below is an account from an activist who met Kennedy. It is clear that Kennedy's persona would have enouraged other protestors to brag of their own actions to further the cause, and perhaps even exaggerate or lie to curry favour with the undercover copper.

I came across Mark on a few occasions, at large gatherings and events. I have to admit, I never really liked him much, despite many others going on about what a great guy he was. He was a very macho man, always showing off his hardcore activist credentials and taking an atmosphere of bravado around with him. He seemed very attuned to informal hierarchies, seeming to seek out other Big Men and looking for the in-crowds. His big mouth instantly made me suspicious and guarded around him, not because I thought he was a cop, but just because I thought he was indiscrete.
Looking back, it's obvious to see that not only was Mark extremely good at making people trust him, his personality was perfect for getting tongues wagging. He was the kind of person who I can imagine encouraging others to brag about daring actions and someone who seemed like he'd be up for future ones.

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...ur-exposed