 | |
| Authors | Rob Evans Paul Lewis |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Espionage, undercover police work |
| Published | London |
| Publisher | Guardian Books, Faber & Faber |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 346 |
| ISBN | 9780852652688 |
| 363.2520941 | |
Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police is a 2012 book by The Guardian journalists Rob Evans and Paul Lewis. [1]
The book investigates the infiltration of political activist groups in the United Kingdom by police forces, such as the Metropolitan Police. Groups targeted included those of the revolutionary left, far-right, and apolitical community campaigners. One police infiltrator, Bob Lambert was accused by a Member of the House of Commons of participating in a firebombing on a retailer selling fur. Lambert has also admitted fathering a child whilst undercover. Police stole the identities of deceased persons, often children, and created fake passports, licences and bank accounts. [2]
Critical reception for Undercover has been positive. [3] Alan White in the New Statesman wrote "Undercover compels the reader throughout, which is a testament to the investigative and writing skills of Evans and Lewis" and noted "the result is an example of the kind of classic, long-haul journalism that has, over recent years, produced scoops that have rattled the establishment, provoked multiple police inquiries and offered up an extraordinary series of revelations. The work of these authors is one of the best arguments in favour of a free press you’ll ever read." [4] Marc Hudson in Peace News advised "activists really must read this book. They should share it, discuss it and learn from it". [5]
The book was also featured in a piece in the London Review of Books . [6]
McDonald's Corporation v Steel & Morris [1997] EWHC QB 366, known as "the McLibel case", was an English lawsuit for libel filed by McDonald's Corporation against environmental activists Helen Steel and David Morris over a factsheet critical of the company. Each of two hearings in English courts found some of the leaflet's contested claims to be libellous and others to be true.
Mark Clifford Thomas is an English comedian, presenter, political satirist and journalist from south London. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark Thomas Comedy Product on Channel 4. Thomas describes himself as a "libertarian anarchist".
Helen Steel is an environmental and social justice activist who is known for her involvement in the McLibel case, an English lawsuit for libel filed by McDonald's Corporation that lasted for 10 years and was eventually taken to the European Court of Human Rights, where Steel and fellow campaign David Morris won their case against the UK Government on the grounds that they had been denied a fair trial. She is a key figure in the 'Spycops' scandal and subsequent Undercover Policing Inquiry.
An agent provocateur is a person who commits or who acts to entice another person to commit an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation or entice legal action against the target or a group they belong to or are perceived to belong to. They may target any group, such as a peaceful protest or demonstration, a union, a political party or a company.
To go "undercover" is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization in order to learn or confirm confidential information, or to gain the trust of targeted individuals to gather information or evidence. Undercover operations are traditionally employed by law enforcement agencies and private investigators; those in such roles are commonly referred to as undercover agents.
Being undercover is the practice of disguising one's identity for the purposes of a police investigation or espionage.
The Sumac Centre is a self-managed social centre in Nottingham, UK. It provides resources, meeting spaces and workshops for groups and individuals, and supports campaigning for human rights, animal rights, the environment, and peace. It is part of the UK Social Centre Network and the radical catering group Veggies is based at the centre. It receives no regular funding, the core groups each pay rent that goes toward the mortgage and running costs. Some of the groups are run by volunteers. Its origins can to traced to the Rainbow Centre, which was established in 1984.
Forward Intelligence Teams (FITs) are two or more police officers who are deployed by UK police forces to gather intelligence on the ground and in some circumstances, to disrupt activists and deter anti-social behaviour. They use cameras, camcorders and audio recorders to conduct overt surveillance of the public. An unsuccessful legal challenge has been made against their use of overt surveillance, but in 2009 the Court of Appeal ruled that they must justify retention of photographs on a case-by-case basis. Any retained information is recorded on the Crimint database.
London Greenpeace was an anarchist environmentalist activist collective that existed between 1972 and 2001. They were based in London, and came to international prominence when two of their activists refused to capitulate to McDonald's in the landmark libel case known as "McLibel". It was not affiliated with Greenpeace International nor with Greenpeace UK.
Covert policing in the United Kingdom are the practices of the British police that are hidden to the public, usually employed in order that an officer can gather intelligence and approach an offender without prompting escape.
Undercover Boss is an American reality television series, based on the British series of the same name and produced by Studio Lambert in both countries. Each episode depicts a person who has an upper-management position at a major business, deciding to go undercover as an entry-level employee to discover the faults in the company. The first season consisted of nine episodes produced in 2009 and first aired on February 7, 2010, on CBS. Companies that appear on the series are assured that the show will not damage their corporate brands.
Mark Kennedy, undercover name Mark Stone, is a former London Metropolitan Police officer who, whilst attached to the police service's National Public Order Intelligence Unit, (NPOIU) infiltrated many protest groups between 2003 and 2010 before he was unmasked by political activists as an undercover policeman on 21 October 2010 and his identity was confirmed by the media three days later.
Leslie Harrison Lambert, known in public as A. J. Alan, was an English magician, intelligence officer, short story writer and radio broadcaster. At the beginning of World War II he worked in naval intelligence at Bletchley Park.
Robert Lambert MBE is a British academic and former undercover police officer. He served in the controversial Special Demonstration Squad and posed as a left-wing animal rights activist from 1983 to 1988, fathering a child with an activist, who was unaware of his true identity, during his deployment. Both the woman and her child have needed psychiatric treatment as a result, and both have been awarded damages against the Police. Until December 2015 Lambert was a lecturer in Terrorism Studies at the University of St Andrews and a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University's John Grieve Centre for Policing, but was forced to resign after details of his past emerged. He has subsequently pursued a career as an independent academic.
The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) was an undercover unit of Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, set up in 1968 with the approval of the Wilson government, to infiltrate British protest groups. It was part of the Special Branch, and worked closely with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). It operated from 1968 to 2008.
The Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing is a British literary award presented for the best radical book published each year, with radical book defined as one that is "informed by socialist, anarchist, environmental, feminist and anti-racist concerns" – in other words, ideologically left books. The award believes itself to be the UK's only left-wing only book prize. Books must be written, or largely written by authors or editors normally living in the UK, or international books available for purchase in the UK. Winning authors receive £1,000. The Bread and Roses Award is sponsored by the Alliance of Radical Booksellers and has no corporate sponsorship.
Louise Wallis is a DJ, singer, and writer who is also known for her animal advocacy. She lives in London, England.
Damien Gavin Lewis is a British author and filmmaker who has spent over twenty years reporting from and writing about conflict zones in many countries. He has produced about twenty films.
Around the end of 2010 and during 2011, it was disclosed in UK media that a number of undercover police officers had, as part of their 'false persona', entered into intimate relationships with members of targeted groups and in some cases proposed marriage or fathered children with protesters who were unaware their partner was a police officer in a role as part of their official duties. Various legal actions followed, including eight women who took action against the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), stating they were deceived into long-term intimate relationships by five officers, including Mark Kennedy, the first officer to be identified as such, who was publicly identified on 21 October 2010 as infiltrating social and environmental justice campaigns, and Mark Kennedy himself who claimed in turn that he had been incompetently handled by his superiors and denied psychological counselling. According to The Guardian, Kennedy sued the police for ruining his life and failing to "protect" him from falling in love with one of the environmental activists whose movement he infiltrated.
Rob Evans is an investigative reporter. He was instrumental in the exposé of BAE Systems' corrupt payments. He also worked on the promotion of freedom of information primarily via the book he co-authored with colleague Paul Lewis, Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police. The two authors exposed 40 years of espionage through the book. Evans also wrote Gassed: British Chemical Warfare Experiments on Humans at Porton Down. Awards received include for Undercover, and for his exposition of the Al-Yamamah arms deal. He started work at The Guardian in 1999.