This video from Britain says about itself:
Environmental and social justice campaigner Helen Steel talks about being spied on by undercover police officer John Dines.
Campaign Opposing Police surveillance meeting, London Metropolitan University, 12 November 2014.
By Conrad Landin in Britain:
Spy Cop ‘Training Police Abroad’
Thursday 10th March 2016
Undercover officer who deceived campaigner into relationship now working with Australian police
POLICE chiefs must give up hiding the identities of undercover coppers, campaigners said yesterday as an officer who deceived a woman into a long-term relationship was revealed to be training police abroad.
John Dines, a member of the Metropolitan Police’s elite Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), was found to be directing police training courses at Charles Sturt University in Sydney.
The explosive revelation came as a whistleblower undercover officer called on the upcoming undercover policing inquiry to rule out the Met’s petition for secrecy.
Mr Dines disappeared 24 years ago, after a career infiltrating protest groups.
As “John Barker,’ an identity stolen from a dead child, he had a two-year relationship with environmental activist and McLibel defendant Helen Steel.
Ms Steel was one of seven women given substantial payouts by the Met in November — when the force issued an “unreserved” apology for forming “abusive and manipulative” relationships.
The Met continues to “neither confirm nor deny” the identities of individual police officers involved in these covert operations.
Campaigners, who gathered outside New Scotland Yard yesterday evening, hope the inquiry, which is currently holding preliminary hearings before full sessions begin in the summer, could force chiefs to change this policy.
Protesters said that only 10 per cent of undercover officers’ “cover names” were known.
Reclaim the Streets activist Carolyn, who is a core participant in the inquiry, said she believed that her group was spied on by other coppers.
“No-one knows for sure if they were spied on,” she told the Star. “We’re asking for all the cover names to be made available — we’re not asking for their real names, it doesn’t affect their own security.”
But the Met has petitioned inquiry chairman Christopher Pitchford to maintain officers’ anonymity and sit in secret when discussing covert operations.
Now lawyers acting for Peter Francis, the ex-officer who revealed that the SDS had spied on trade unions, have urged Mr Pitchford to rule out this request.
They say that the Met’s argument that disclosure would contravene its promise to officers that their identities would be protected for life did not stack up.
Lawyers also say there are “no real national security considerations” in disclosing information on the targeting of activist groups — unlike undercover cops “used in relation to serious crime and to counter terrorism.”
Mr Francis previously issued a statement saying he had spied on members of five trade unions. The undercover inquiry is also examining evidence that police colluded in the blacklisting of construction workers.
GMB national officer Justin Bowden, who has been key to the anti-blacklisting campaign, said: “There is an obvious need for complete transparency on this very emotive issue.
“For there to be any kind of reconciliation and closure for people harmed by police activities, the truth has to come out.
“The police can either continue to be part of the cover-up, or be part of the clean-up.”
Ms Steel flew to Australia after discovering her ex-boyfriend’s new career, and confronted him at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport — where he was greeting a party of Indian police officers due to be trained at Charles Sturt.
She said Mr Dines apologised but added that when he had been sent in to infiltrate groups in north London it was to look out for “extremists.”
Ms Steel fears what his role might be with the Indian police training programme. New South Wales legislative council member David Shoebridge yesterday called for the state government to investigate whether local officers had been trained by disgraced SDS veterans.
Mr Dines was listed as a staff member on the course for Indian officers in university literature and as a “professor” in another academic document. But the university said his role was “solely administrative.”
UK plans to track all internet connections could cost £1bn, campaigners warn: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Tuesday 22nd march 2016
posted by Conrad Landin in Britain
POLICE chiefs attempting to block public hearings into covert surveillance should open up and “admit what went on,” John McDonnell said yesterday.
The shadow chancellor’s intervention came ahead of a hearing of the undercover policing inquiry today, at which chairman Christopher Pitchford will hear evidence to judge how much should be heard in public.
The inquiry was ordered by Home Secretary Theresa May last summer in the wake of revelations about undercover police abuses.
Solicitors will make representations for transparency on behalf of newspapers, politicians who allege they were spied on and women who were deceived into relationships with undercover officers.
The Metropolitan Police will call on Mr Pitchford to maintain their “neither confirm nor deny” policy regarding the identity of undercover officers, their assumed names and the details of operations.
Officers have argued their case on human-rights grounds and their pleas for non-disclosure have been supported by the Home Office.
But Mr McDonnell said grievances caused by undercover policing would not “go away until we get the full truth” from police chiefs.
“It would be easier for the Metropolitan Police commissioner now to [be] fully open to the public and admit what went on, give us all the information that we need,” he told the Star.
“And in that way, maybe, maybe, some of the victims can get some form of closure on this — they won’t, otherwise.”
Mr McDonnell’s current and former parliamentary colleagues Diane Abbott, Dave Nellist, Ken Livingstone and Joan Ruddock are all believed to have been targeted by undercover officers.
Along with Sharon Grant, acting on behalf of her late politician husband Bernie Grant, the group has submitted evidence hitting back at the police case.
Their solicitors argue that restricting information on the targeting of politicians would damage the inquiry’s ability to hear crucial evidence.
“MPs and other democratically elected officials interact with a vast number of people,” they wrote.
“If they do not know that they were targeted in undercover operations, when and in what way, they cannot provide any evidence to the inquiry as to what happened to them.”
They also raise concerns that Mr Livingstone could have been spied on while he had responsibility for the Met as mayor of London.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is also believed to have been targeted by undercover officers — but he is not a core participant in the inquiry.
After hearing evidence today and tomorrow at the Royal Courts of Justice, Lord Justice Pitchford will issue his decisions at a later date.
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-cca6-McDonnell-Cops-must-come-clean-on-secret-ops#.VvFUc3prgdU
LikeLike
Wednesday 23rd March 2016
posted by Conrad Landin in Britain
VICTIMS of police spying are not prepared to “reopen wounds” if the undercover policing inquiry accepts cops’ arguments for keeping identities under wraps, a hearing was told yesterday.
The Metropolitan Police is pressing for the details of covert operations to remain secret, in line with its “neither confirm nor deny” policy. It wants the inquiry, which will begin full evidence hearings in the summer, to shut the public and media out of sessions where these will be discussed.
The inquiry follows revelations that officers of elite police units, including the Special Demonstration Squad, deceived women into long-term sexual relationships, stole the identities of dead children and spied on the families of murder victims and people who had died in custody.
It is also set to investigate allegations that police spied on politicians including Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Ken Livingstone and Bernie Grant.
On the first day of a two-day hearing to determine how much evidence will be heard in public, inquiry counsel David Barr QC said the inquiry team had a “particular interest in openness.”
But Jonathan Hall QC, representing the Metropolitan Police, told inquiry chairman Christopher Pitchford that it would be “unfair and unlawful” to approach the disclosure of information with the “presumption of openness.”
He said the police were not requesting a secret inquiry, but that undercover officers would face harm and “heartbreak” if their identities were disclosed and they were forced to relocate.
He said a “witch-hunt” of officers would deter future covert sources and recruits.
But Philippa Kaufman QC, representing a group of victims of police spying, said many “core participants” in the inquiry would be forced to withdraw “if this proceeds on the basis of secrecy.”
She said some of her clients were not prepared to “reopen wounds … caused by police abuse” if officers were still able to “veil themselves in secrecy” at hearings.
“For them, this is a make-or-break situation,” she told the inquiry.
And she said Mr Pitchford should not consider “neither confirm nor deny” in his weighing-up of competing public interests, arguing that it was simply a means to address underlying interests.
Solicitor Shamik Dutta, who is acting for Mr Grant’s widow Sharon among others, said: “The Met has made no compelling arguments which would support their proposition that they should be free to investigate themselves.”
And Andrea, a woman who was deceived into an undercover relationship by SDS officer Carlo Neri, said: “Confusion seems to be the [Metropolitan Police] strategy from day one.”
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-3a4b-Met-spying-victims-will-quit-inquiry-if-cops-get-anonymity#.VvLJEXprgdU
LikeLike
Thursday 24th March 2016
posted by Conrad Landin in Britain
UNDERCOVER coppers appear to have targeted politicians, including Jeremy Corbyn, because they were “associated with the left wing of the Labour party,” a hearing was told yesterday.
Lawyers acting on behalf of a group of current and former MPs warned that hearing evidence in secret would prevent witnesses disclosing activities “fundamentally incompatible with the proper functioning of democracy.”
Dan Squires QC, acting for Ken Livingstone, Diane Abbott, Dave Nellist, Joan Ruddock and Bernie Grant’s widow Sharon, hit back at the Metropolitan Police’s pleas for officers’ anonymity to be maintained.
Mr Squires said all 11 MPs known to have been targeted “are or had been members of the Labour Party and at various times associated with the left wing of the Labour Party.
“The inference is that these individuals were targeted … because of their politics. If that is correct, that has constitutional implications of the highest order.”
He said spying on MPs whose duties included holding the police to account was “inconsistent with the proper relationship between a functioning legislature and the police.”
The undercover policing inquiry was established under the chairmanship of senior judge Christopher Pitchford following a series of allegations about elite units, including the Met’s Special Demonstration Squad.
On Tuesday Met counsel Jonathan Hall QC suggested there should be“deference” to police accounts of operations.
But yesterday Mr Squires said that it was “fanciful” to say that the same officers who took part in unlawful activity should be trusted to give accurate accounts.
He said coppers’ accounts could not be challenged if they were heard in secret.
He was backed by Ben Emmerson QC, acting for whistleblower SDS officer Peter Francis, who pressed for the disclosure of officers’ assumed names.
Lord Justice Pitchford is set to publish a judgment on April 15 detailing the basis under which restriction orders for evidence hearings and submissions will be allocated.
The inquiry is also set to hold a preliminary hearing on the issue of whether the names of children whose identities were stolen by undercover officers will be disclosed either to the public or to their families.
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-4449-QC-says-MPs-were-spied-on-solely-due-to-left-wing-views#.VvRPh3ptc2E
LikeLike
Thursday 24th March 2016
posted by Morning Star in Britain
SPONTANEOUS applause broke out at the undercover policing inquiry when Helen Steel, who was deceived into a relationship with a cop, savaged police excuses for non-disclosure.
Ms Steel was the only “core participant” to represent herself at the two day preliminary hearing.
She said the police’s initial readiness to confirm the undercover status of officers Mark Kennedy and Jim Boyling blew away chiefs’ pleas to maintain the controversial “neither confirm nor deny” policy during the inquiry.
And she said coppers’ participation in 2002 TV series True Spies showed that they were “perfectly happy to disclose their methods when it suited them for PR purposes.”
Ms Steel blasted cops for hand-wringing over the effect on their personal lives after trampling on the rights of their targets.
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-32d4-Wronged-Steel-sticks-it-to-the-Met#.VvRRSnptc2E
LikeLike
Pingback: MI5 death squads in northen Ireland, inquiry | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: British secret police spy advocated arson | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: British police sexual abuse scandal | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Wednesday 21st
posted by Peter Lazenby in Britain
A GOVERNMENT inquiry confirmed yesterday that a police spy infiltrated an environmental campaign group and had a long-term sexual relationship with one of its members.
But the victim concerned, Helen Steel, called it a “travesty” that the police had taken so long to acknowledge the truth of allegations made years ago.
She also slammed the continuing cover-up over the numbers of police spies who infiltrated campaign groups and trade unions and struck up exploitative relationships with women activists.
The inquiry into undercover policing, headed by Sir Christopher Pitchford, was launched in March last year after police infiltration of environmental groups, trade unions and other campaign groups was exposed.
The Metropolitan Police operates a “neither confirm nor deny” policy on questions about its undercover activities, which were carried out by its Special Demonstration Squad.
Ms Steel, who has been a campaigner on environmental issues for more than three decades, met the man she knew as John Barker — in reality police agent John Dines — at a meeting in London in 1987, leading to a long-term relationship between them.
After yesterday’s official confirmation of Mr Barker’s true identity, Ms Steel said: “While I welcome the official admission that my former partner John Dines was an undercover policeman in the Special Demonstration Squad, it is a travesty that the police have been allowed to take this long to confirm what I and others exposed years ago.”
She said police still refused to admit the truth about other undercover officers who forged relationships with women activists, citing the case of police spy Mark Jenner, who had a relationship with a woman campaigner for five years.
Ms Steel said: “We and other women similarly deceived have had no disclosure at all about how these abusive relationships were allowed to happen. Instead, we have been subjected to intrusive demands for evidence of the effects of the abuse.
“None of those responsible for this abuse have been held to account. Even those still employed by the police have kept their jobs.”
The Blacklist Support Group, which is demanding the truth about police involvement in the blacklisting of building workers, said: “Helen Steel is an inspiration to us all.”
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-6eaa-Partner-of-activist-is-confirmed-as-spy-cop#.WFo5rn2bIdU
LikeLike
Pingback: British police spying cover-up | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: English sexually abusive Conservative politician not resigning | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: British police sexual spying on fox hunting opponents | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Impunity for British sexually abusive spying police? | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: British sexually abusive police spies and Lush cosmetics campaign | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Police sexual spying on British women | Dear Kitty. Some blog