The row over Pc Mark Kennedy, the undercover Metropolitan police officer who infiltrated the British green movement, has gone international after a German MP demanded an explanation of the agent's activities in Berlin.

Andrej Hunko, a member of the left-wing Linke party, has also accused Kennedy of starting sexual relationships with German activists.

Kennedy, who infiltrated climate change pressure groups as 'professional climber' Mark Stone, admitted he was a police agent last October after being confronted by activists.

He had been undercover for seven years and in that time had reportedly travelled to 22 countries on a fake passport. One of those countries was Germany, where the Guardian says he lived with members of the 'black block' anarchist collective.

Undercover cop Mark Kennedy's Berlin 'sexual activities' questioned

meanwhile .....

Yesterday's extraordinary story of the undercover policeman, Pc Mark Kennedy, who used a fake identity to infiltrate a group of climate change protesters, raised many questions - not least of which was, what on earth are the police doing financing this sort of undercover operation anyway, and how many agents have they got out there?

As Home Secretary Theresa May faces pressure to explain the police action in Parliament, and Scotland Yard is brought to task for spending a fortune - £250,000 per agent, apparently - on infiltrating climate protest groups, where does it stop? Has your yoga group been infiltrated? Is your book club safe?

How to spot an undercover agent like Mark Kennedy in your midst

Twenty environmental activists are seeking to overturn recent criminal convictions in the wake of the Guardian's revelations about a network of undercover police officers embedded deep in the movement.

Lawyers for the group claim that a failure to disclose the role of covert police operative Mark Kennedy during their trial may have led to a miscarriage of justice and have written to the Crown Prosecution Service demanding details of his role.

Six other activists walked free from court earlier this week after their lawyer, Mike Schwarz, demanded details of the part played by Kennedy in planning the environmental protest they took part in at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, near Nottingham, in 2009.

However, last month, in a separate trial, the 20 green campaigners were convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass during the same protest, after failing to convince a jury that their actions were designed to prevent immediate harm to human life and property from climate change.

"The police allowed this trial, unlike the later one, to run all the way to conviction," said Schwarz, whose firm, Bindmans, represents both groups of protesters. "In the light of events last week, this must be seen as a potential miscarriage of justice."

Revelations of PC Kennedy's activities by the Guardian this week have triggered a crisis in undercover policing. He is alleged to have played a central role in organising a proposal to break into the power station.

Activists challenge convictions in wake of police spy revelations

meanwhile .....

Police chiefs are being called on to review the way long-term undercover operations are handled amid growing concerns about the secretive unit at the heart of their spying operation.

The lawyer and former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald said the handling of undercover officers appeared to be "alarming" and "opaque" after Mark Kennedy was unmasked as an undercover police officer spying on the environmental movement.

"There should be published guidelines," said Macdonald. "It is particularly important that the public understands what the principles and what the rules are. The fact this operation is so opaque, nobody knows how it was run, what the objectives were, why it ran for so long, I think that's quite alarming."

Claims made against police include that during his seven years as a spy Kennedy acted as an agent provocateur and had a string of sexual relationships with fellow activists.

But the case has also highlighted the role of the secretive police intelligence units overseen by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) to which both Kennedy and a second undercover officer known as Officer A had been seconded.

"There is this whole issue of what Acpo is," said Macdonald. "It's a limited company. It's an odd sort of organisation. There should be published guidelines, there should be a debate about it. The police should invite comment and discussion ... The whole purpose is to maintain public confidence."

Rein in undercover police units, says former DPP

and, as if that's not enough ...

News of undercover policeman Mark Kennedy's sexual relationships with environmental activists has fuelled speculation about the possibility of civil lawsuits, as experts say there may be legal grounds for action.

The Guardian revealed on Monday that Kennedy had infiltrated environmental protest groups over seven years before quitting the police in March last year.

The six protesters - whose trial for conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station collapsed earlier this week - and several women who had sexual relationships with Kennedy while they believed him to be a fellow activist are expected to consider bringing civil claims against the police for the way the operation was conducted.

There are also question marks over previous cases that may have involved undercover intelligence gathered by Kennedy. If lawyers could show that he acted as an agent provocateur that could provide grounds for appeal.

Mark Kennedy case: News of sexual liaisons may result in civil actions

finally, with the wheels almost totally off .....

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is to launch an inquiry into this week's collapse of a case against environmental protesters amid calls for a wider review of police undercover tactics.

The controversy about police infiltration erupted after a former undercover officer, Mark Kennedy, expressed remorse over his years as a spy.

The IPCC was called in by the Nottinghamshire force, which had gathered the evidence for the collapsed case, to investigate the reasons why it fell apart.

But the police watchdog may announce its inquiry as soon as tomorrow and may widen its scope to examine whether Kennedy acted as an "agent provocateur", and whether he strayed beyond his remit in instigating or inciting any alleged crimes by others.

It is unclear whether it will also widen its remit to meet demands from those targeted by the police, and examine the decision by senior officers to deploy Kennedy to gather intelligence against protesters.

Other inquiries or reviews may follow. Nottinghamshire says it is talking to "a number of bodies" about a wider review into the undercover operation involving Kennedy. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary says it would only intervene if asked by the force or by the home secretary.

Latest news, comment and reviews from the Guardian

The controversy over a police surveillance network embedded in the environmental protest movement has deepened dramatically after the Guardian identified a second undercover officer who spent years living a double life as an activist.

The woman's name has been known to a group of six activists since Mark Kennedy - the police infiltrator identified by the Guardian on Monday as having spent seven years inside the movement - claimed she was also a police officer when confronted by them about his own identity last October.

Senior police chiefs said they were concerned for the safety of the second spy, and a major operation involving several UK forces is now under way to identify other operatives whose safety may have been compromised by Kennedy.

The second spy spent four years living as an environmental activist in Leeds, gaining the trust of dozens of activists and playing a central role in planning a demonstration to shut down Drax power station in North Yorkshire.

Her deployment ended in 2008, when she told activist friends she was leaving town for personal reasons. The Guardian has established the identity of the officer, who is from a force in the south-east of England, but has decided, after representations from senior police officers, to refer to her only as Officer A, and to use pixellated pictures of her.

Revealed: Second undercover police officer who posed as activist

The unprecedented scale of undercover operations used by police to monitor Britain's political protest movements was laid bare last night after a third police spy was identified by the Guardian.

News of the existence of the 44-year-old male officer comes as regulators prepare two separate official inquiries into the activities of this hitherto secret police surveillance network.

The latest officer, whose identity has been withheld amid fears for his safety in other criminal operations, worked for four years undercover with an anarchist group in Cardiff.

Last night a former girlfriend and fellow activist said she felt "colossally betrayed" by "Officer B". The 29-year-old, who had a relationship with him for three months in the summer of 2008 while he was working undercover, said: "I was doing nothing wrong, I was not breaking the law at all. So for him to come along and lie to us and get that deep into our lives was a colossal, colossal betrayal."

The woman, who did not want to be named, said "Officer B" arrived in Cardiff in 2005, becoming a key member of the 20-strong Anarchist network in the city and "one of her best friends". They had known each for three years before their relationship and she said she did not suspect his true identity until after he left Cardiff in October 2009, claiming he had been offered a job as a gardener on Corfu.

According to the woman Officer B's flat was very empty, with no pictures of friends or family and he rarely talked about his past. "He always said he could not tell his family or friends about us because of the age difference ... if it had been anyone else I would have thought that was strange, but because [he] had been such a good friend for so long it really did not enter my mind that he was anything but a stand-up honest man."

Third undercover police spy unmasked as scale of network emerges

The undercover policeman at the centre of the storm over infiltration of the environmental protest movement today insisted that all his actions had been sanctioned by his superiors and accused senior officers of deliberately suppressing evidence that would have exonerated six activists facing criminal charges.

Mark Kennedy, whose seven-year career as an undercover officer in the protest movement was detailed by the Guardian last week, broke his silence in a newspaper interview in which he rejected claims he had acted as an agent provocateur by orchestrating and financing protests. He also said he knew of 15 other undercover officers who had infiltrated green protest groups in the past decade, and of four who remained undercover.

Kennedy told the Mail on Sunday he had been "hung out to dry" by his former employers. "They sanctioned every move I made. I did not sneeze without them knowing about it."

Yesterday, Kennedy revealed that he had covertly recorded two meetings of activists held to discuss the break-in of the power station. "The truth of the matter is that the tapes clearly show that the six defendants who were due to go on trial had not joined any conspiracy," he said. "The tapes I made meant that the police couldn't prove their case. I have no idea why the police withheld these tapes."

Last night Mike Schwarz, the lawyer from Bindmans who represents the activists, called for a full scale judicial inquiry into the case and the "wider concerns about the use of undercover police, particularly against those exercising democratic rights of protest and expression". Schwarz, who said the failure to disclose the recordings could have perpetrated a miscarriage of justice, is demanding copies of all covert recordings and reports sent by Kennedy to his handlers as they could also cast doubt on the convictions of 20 other activists who, in a separate trial last month, were found guilty of a conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass during the same protest. Those activists, however, had argued a different defence.

Mark Kennedy accuses senior officers of suppressing vital evidence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_provocateur'

see also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

In this picture (taken by Gus in Paris, 1970, in the dark with special 4500 ASA film), "agents provocateurs" are wearing white gloves to identify themselves to the riot police. In this case the "agents provocateurs" also wear a special identifying "beanie". This ID stops them being bashed on the head by the riot police who hit everyone on the head at a moderate political meeting...

State Department documents obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act show that in October 1976, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and high-ranking U.S. officials gave their full support to the Argentine military junta and urged them to hurry up and finish the "dirty war" before the U.S. Congress cut military aid.[107]

The U.S. was also a key provider of economic and military assistance to the Videla regime. In early April 1976, the U.S. Congress approved a request by the Ford Administration, written and supported by Henry Kissinger, to grant $50,000,000 in military support to the Argentine military regime.[108] At the end of 1976, Congress granted an additional $30,000,000 in military aid, and recommendations by the Ford Administration to increase military aid to $63,500,000 the following year were also granted by congress.[109] U.S. military aid to the Videla regime continued on a smaller scale under the successive Carter Administration, despite its open condemnation of the junta's dismal human rights record.

The Reagan Administration, whose first term began in 1981, however, asserted that that the previous Carter Administration had weakened US diplomatic relationships with Cold War allies in Argentina, and reversed the previous administration's official condemnation of the junta's human rights practices. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties allowed for CIA collaboration with the Argentine intelligence service in training and arming the Nicaraguan Contras against the Sandinista government. The 601 Intelligence Battalion, for example, trained Contras at Lepaterique base, in Honduras.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War

note the Faulkland invasion by this despotic regime supported by the US...

Twenty years ago, on March 3, 1991, a media shock wave hit Los Angeles and the nation: the Rodney King video. As a bystander captured the incident with his home video camera, several Los Angeles police officers beat King repeatedly while other officers stood by and watched.

The video, or more accurately its broadcast across America, set in motion consequences that have reverberated through the years since the beating. Among them: the Los Angeles riots, after the acquittal of police charged with assault, and the poisonous relations between Los Angeles police and many of the city’s citizens.

Another impact, of course, was the recognition - which grows more and more prevalent - that anyone with a video camera could become more than a witness to the events of our times. The camera-bearing citizen, in this case a man named George Holliday, was becoming an integral part of how we remember these events.

Holliday’s act was one of citizen journalism. It was not the first, however, even though it was a milestone.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/2011314134026456445.html

see Gus comment above... Not a citizen but a witness from another country... I kept the pictures in my secret vault for 40 years. Could have been put in jail "forever" then had I published them...