Revealed: how energy firms spy on environmental activists

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/14/energy-firms-activists-intelligence-gathering

Revealed: how energy firms spy on environmental activists

Leaked documents show how three large British companies have been paying private security firm to monitor activists

guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 February 2011 21.00 GMT

Three large energy companies have been carrying out covert intelligence-gathering operations on environmental activists, the Guardian can reveal.

The energy giant E.ON, Britain's second-biggest coal producer Scottish Resources Group and Scottish Power, one of the UK's largest electricity-generators, have been paying for the services of a private security firm that has been secretly monitoring activists.

Leaked documents show how the security firm's owner, Rebecca Todd, tipped off company executives about environmentalists' plans after snooping on their emails. She is also shown instructing an agent to attend campaign meetings and coaching him on how to ingratiate himself with activists. The disclosures come as police chiefs, on the defensive over damaging revelations of undercover police officers in the protest movement, privately claim that there are more corporate spies in protest groups than undercover police officers.

Senior police officers complain that spies hired by commercial firms are – unlike their own agents – barely regulated.

…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/14/environmental-activists-protest-energy-companies

Green groups targeted polluters as corporate agents hid in their ranks

Special report: After revelations of police spying, the focus turns to firms paid to infiltrate protesters

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans
guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 February 2011 21.00 GMT

At 8.04pm, an agent using the conspicuous alias Vandango007 received an email setting out the details of his deployment. The message had come from Rebecca Todd, chief executive of Vericola, a company spying on environmental campaigners on behalf of some of Europe's largest power companies.

It was September 2009, and green activists involved in the Climate Camp network were planning a major demonstration against Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire, owned by one of Todd's clients, the energy company E.ON. A meeting to plan the protest was being held at London's SOAS university, and Todd wanted someone on the inside.

"Hola Carlos," she wrote to Vandango007 – whose real name is Carl Bishop – in an email providing details of the rendezvous. "It should only last 2 hours … same people that you have met before."

Todd, 33, gave Bishop tips on how to explain his recent absence from the group. "Apologise for delay in getting back to them – you have had girlfriend issues!!!! That sounds better than family or work issues!!!" She added: "Use your own wording – do your own thing be yourself. Do not mention that your going to Munich – obviously they hate short haul flights." She signed off the email: "Over and out!"

…

:hi:

[FBaggins]

1. They make it sound so "cloak and dagger"-ish

Like they're hacking into email servers and planting bugs in hotel rooms.

This isn't exactly difficult. Most environmentalist groups are happy to take new members and add them to the email list. Far easier to get someone into a meeting than it would be for environmentalists to get a representative into a board meeting for one of these companies.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Just as easy as you’ve found it to be?

:hi:

[FBaggins]

3. These are people protesting a coal-fired plant.

The real environmentalists on DU oppose that. There are others on DU who would like to think of themselves as environmentalists... but really just push policies that will ensure that these coal plants stay in business for a nice long time.

Is there some reason you feel a need to be intentionally insulting? Insufficient confidence in your own position perhaps?

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. And you downplayed the fact that they were being spied upon by private companies

There does seem to have been a bit of cloak and dagger involved.

When the police do it, that’s bad enough:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/10/mark-kennedy-undercover-cop-activist

Mark Kennedy: A journey from undercover cop to 'bona fide' activist

No one suspected Mark Kennedy was undercover when he joined environmental activists – but has he now switched sides?

Undercover officer spied on green activists

Paul Lewis and Rob Evans
The Guardian, Monday 10 January 2011

He turned up with long hair, tattoos and an insatiable appetite for climbing trees. Few people suspected anything odd of the man who introduced himself as Mark Stone on a dairy farm turned spiritual sanctuary in North Yorkshire.

He had come alone on 12 August 2003, in the middle of a heatwave, for a gathering of environmental activists known as Earth First.

Apart from the fact that "Stone" was apparently well-paid and ate meat, he appeared no different from the hundreds of other activists who gathered under marquees to smoke weed, play guitars and plan protests.

What no one could have known was that, despite appearances, the 33-year-old "freelance climber" was actually PC http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/mark-kennedy">Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer beginning an audacious operation to live deep undercover among environmental activists.

…

But even the police are upset about this case:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/14/energy-firms-activists-intelligence-gathering

…

Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, which until recently ran the secretive national unit of undercover police officers deployed in protest groups, said in a speech last week that "the deployment by completely uncontrolled and unrestrained players in the private sector" constituted a "massive area of concern".

…

[FBaggins]

6. Not a bit.

I'm just pointing out that there is no need to make it seem like more than it is. Of course the companies (good or bad) are interested in finding out what their opposition is doing (plans for protests, etc). Finding out doesn't seem particularly difficult, nor illegal (or at least, doesn't require anything illegal).

There does seem to have been a bit of cloak and dagger involved.

The article does try to make it seem that way... but provides nothing that demonstrates this. If a wife hires a private investigator to see if her husband is cheating... it's possible to do so without breaking the law. The fact that she is interested and has hired a professional, does not indicate that they tapped his office phone or did anything else illegal.

When the police do it, that’s bad enough:

You have that backwards. When the police do it, it's a problem. It implies that the force of government has taken sides in the dispute. They also have the tools to perform "less legal" means of surveillance and are both harder to catch and harder to hold liable. Both sides in a dispute have a legitimate need for "intelligence" and can be expected to try to gain it within legal boundaries. The police have no such legitimate need unless the organization actually takes part in (or endorses) illegal activities. An "environmentalist" organization that blows things up, for instance, is a legitimate target for law enforcement surveilance.

The environmental organization should expect that some attendees or people on their mailing list have different motivations... and they can only hope than one of them will be stupid enough to actually steal records or tap phone lines.

Environmentalists have a legitimate interest in finding out the plans of the companies they're protesting and also take (legal) measures to conduct such intelligence gathering. This doesn't mean that they're hacking servers or breaking into secure offices. As long as their actions are legal, what's the fuss?

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Honestly, I would rather deal with regulated police…

…than unregulated private firms.

If the police go too far, there’s a better chance that they will be called to account for their actions.

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

…

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."

…

http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm?action=book&bookid=224">Battling Big Business

[FBaggins]

8. It isn't an issue of who we would "rather" deal with.

The police have no business aligning themselves with corporate interests in opposition to protesters unless there's reason to believe that the protesters have done (or are planning) something illegal.

It's as if you posted an article about a rival football team having scouts watching film of your favorite team to figure out what they're going to do next... or even attending practices that are open to the public (gasp! While wearing a jersey and cap that make them look like a fan!!!).

I'd rather that they not do it... but it isn't much of a surprise. And it wouldn't bother me to learn that my own team did it.

[BeFree]

4. Duh

It is called "Taking care of business". Not new. News to some, maybe. But for those who have been involved as environmentalists working to limit coal, and nuclear, and fossil fuel impacts upon the environment, this is all old hat.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. We're all just conjugating our nouns

When THEY do it, its Spying.

When WE do it, it's Investigative Reporting.

:evilgrin:

Seriously, am *I* the only one who sees the potential here for some epic monkeywrenching?

--d!