number of spy tales coming from the UK.
No, not anti-Russian counter-espionage, but
rights groups, justice groups, enviro groups
all of them infiltrated by the London cops.
What did the groups do to warrant being
spied on, at the cost of 1 million quid a year? EACH
NOTHING. I guess they just pissed
off the wrong person, somewhere.
Here's a scenario. You're a woman in
Greenpeace, and you marry a guy, have
a kid, then he disappears. Turns out he
was a cop pretending to be a hippy.
Another one. Your son gets killed by
racists in London. The cops cover up
the guilty party because he's the son
of an informant. Instead, they send in
a spy to the public group that was trying to
get a bit of justice for Steven Lawrence's
death.
NOW, for burger battles. Here's one that
really backfired.
One cop spy in Greenpeace helped write,
with the unwitting wife of another spy,
a libelous document about McDonald's.
Why?
to stir shit up?
to make the group disintegrate?
They handed out like 20 leaflets before McDick's
sent in the writers' colleagues- the police, that is.
McDicks took the Gpeace "members" to
civil court, and won, but they had to reveal the
evil chemistry experiment that is their menu.
Stamped: fail, for the Powers (government, police & McDicks)
checkit: The Guardian
McLibel
leaflet was co-written by undercover police officer Bob Lambert
Exclusive:
McDonald's sued green activists in long-running David v Goliath legal battle,
but police role only now exposed
Paul Lewis and Rob Evans
Friday 21 June 2013 14.54 BST
Jump to comments (910)
An
undercover police officer posing for years as an environmental activist
co-wrote a libellous leaflet that was highly critical of McDonald's, and which
led to the longest civil trial in English history, costing the fast-food chain
millions of pounds in fees.
The
true identity of one of the authors of the "McLibel leaflet" is Bob
Lambert, a police officer who used the alias Bob Robinson in his five years
infiltrating the London Greenpeace
group, is revealed in a new book about undercover policing of protest,
published next week.
McDonald's
famously sued green campaigners over the roughly typed leaflet, in a landmark
three-year high court case, that was widely believed to have been a public relations disaster for the
corporation. Ultimately the company won a libel battle in which it spent
millions on lawyers.
Lambert
was deployed by the special
demonstration squad (SDS) – a top-secret Metropolitan police unit that
targeted political activists between 1968 until 2008, when it was disbanded. He
co-wrote the defamatory six-page leaflet in 1986 – and his role in its
production has been the subject of an internal Scotland Yard investigation for
several months.
At
no stage during the civil legal proceedings brought by McDonald's in the 1990s
was it disclosed that a police infiltrator helped author the leaflet.
McLibel:
Helen Steel and David Morris, outside a branch of McDonald's in, London, in
2005 The McLibel two: Helen Steel and David Morris, outside a branch of
McDonald's in London in 2005 after winning their case in the European court of
human rights. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
A
spokesman for the Met said the force "recognises the seriousness of the
allegations of inappropriate behaviour and practices involving past undercover
deployments". He added that a number of allegations surrounding the
undercover officers were currently being investigated by a team overseen by the
chief constable of Derbyshire police, Mick Creedon.
And
in remarks that come closest to acknowledging the scale of the scandal
surrounding police spies, the spokesman said: "At some point it will fall
upon this generation of police leaders to account for the activities of our
predecessors, but for the moment we must focus on getting to the truth."
Lambert
declined to comment about his role in the production of the McLibel leaflet.
However, he previously offered a general apology for deceiving "law
abiding members of London Greenpeace", which he said was a peaceful
campaign group.
Lambert,
who rose through the ranks to become a spymaster in the SDS, is also under
investigation for sexual relationships
he had with four women while undercover, one of whom he fathered a child
with before vanishing from their lives. The woman and her son only discovered
that Lambert was a police spy last year.
The
internal police inquiry is also investigating claims raised in parliament that
Lambert ignited an incendiary device at
a branch of Debenhams when infiltrating animal rights campaigners. The
incident occurred in 1987 and the explosion inflicted £300,000 worth of damage
to the branch in Harrow, north London. Lambert has previously strongly denied
he planted the incendiary device in the Debenhams store.
A
McDonald's sign While McDonald's won the initial legal battle, at great
expense, it was seen as a PR disaster. Photograph: Image Broker/Rex Features
Lambert's
role in helping compose the McLibel leaflet is revealed in 'Undercover: The
True Story of Britain's Secret Police', which is published next week. An
extract from the book will be published in the Guardian Weekend magazine. A
joint Guardian/Channel 4 investigation into undercover policing will be
broadcast on Dispatches on Monday evening.
Lambert
was one of two SDS officers who infiltrated London Greenpeace; the second, John Dines, had a two-year relationship
with Helen Steel, who later became the co-defendant in the McLibel case.
The book reveals how Steel became the focus of police surveillance operations.
She had a sexual relationship with Dines, before he also disappeared without a
trace.
Dines
gained access to the confidential legal advice given to Steel and her
co-defendant that was written by Keir Starmer, then a barrister known for
championing radical causes. The lawyer was advising the activists on how to
defend themselves against McDonald's. He is now the director of public
prosecutions in England and Wales.
Lambert
was lauded by colleagues in the covert unit for his skilful infiltration of
animal rights campaigners and environmentalists in the 1980s. He succeeded in
transforming himself from a special branch detective into a long-haired radical
activist who worked as a cash-in-hand gardener. He became a prominent member of
London Greenpeace, around the time it began campaigning against McDonald's in
1985. The leaflet he helped write made wide-ranging criticisms of the company,
accusing it of destroying the
environment, exploiting workers and selling junk food.
Four
sources who were either close to Lambert at the time, or involved in the
production of the leaflet, have confirmed his role in composing the libellous
text. Lambert confided in one of his girlfriends from the era, although he
appeared keen to keep his participation hidden. "He did not want people to
know he had co-written it," Belinda Harvey said.
Paul
Gravett, a London Greenpeace campaigner, said the spy was one of a small group
of around five activists who drew up the leaflet over several months. Another
close friend from the time recalls Lambert was really proud of the leaflet.
"It was like his baby, he carried it around with him," the friend
said.
When
Lambert's undercover deployment ended in 1989, he vanished, claiming that he
had to flee abroad because he was being pursued by special branch. None of his
friends or girlfriends suspected that special branch was his employer.
It
was only later that the leaflet Lambert helped to produce became the centre of
the huge trial. Even though the
activists could only afford to distribute a few hundred copies of the leaflet,
McDonald's decided to throw all of its legal might at the case, suing two
London Greenpeace activists for libel.
Two
campaigners – Steel, who was then a part-time bartender, and an unemployed
postal worker, Dave Morris –
unexpectedly stood their ground and refused to apologise.
McLIbel:
Helen Steel and David Morris Steel and Morris outside the high court at the
start of the first proceedings in the McLibel trial in 1990. Photograph:
Over
313 days in the high court, the pair defended themselves, with pro bono
assistance from Starmer, as they could not afford to hire any solicitors or
barristers. In contrast, McDonald's
hired some of the best legal minds at an estimated cost of £10m. During the
trial, legal argument largely ignored the question of who wrote the McLibel
leaflet, focusing instead on its distribution
to members of the public.
In
1997, a high court judge ruled that much of the leaflet was libellous and
ordered the two activists to pay McDonald's £60,000 in damages. This sum was
reduced on appeal to £40,000 – but McDonald's never enforced payment.
It
was a hollow victory for the company; the long-running trial had exposed damaging stories about its business
and the quality of the food it was selling to millions of customers around
the world. The legal action, taking advantage of Britain's much-criticised libel laws, was seen as a heavy handed
and intimidating way of crushing criticism. However, the role of undercover
police in the story remained, until now, largely unknown.
On
Friday, Morris said the campaign against the burger chain was successful
"despite the odds overwhelmingly stacked against us in the legal system
and up against McDonald's massive and relentless advertising and propaganda
machine.
"We
now know that other shadowy forces were also trying to undermine our efforts in
the most disgusting, but ultimately futile ways. All over the world police and
secret agents infiltrate opposition movements in order to protect the rich and
powerful but as we have seen in so many countries recently people power and the
pursuit of truth and justice is unstoppable, even faced with the most
repressive and unacceptable Stasi-like tactics."
