'Campaigners Complain Of Special Branch Dirty Tricks'
Last night's London Evening Standard had a piece by Andrew Gilligan who had interviewed someone purporting to be the "London and South East liaison officer" for the fuel protests. He also claimed to be "Captain Gatso".
He complained about infiltration of meetings called to discuss fuel protests during the election, including a meeting where new blokes turned up in "clean lorries" who argued against taking action and spent the meetings spreading doubts amongst the others. "They were saying things like: 'Think of the hospitals, what happens if it goes like 2000?"
He also complained of being followed and of having his house secretly entered and his paperwork and computer looked through.
Gilligan went on to say:
"If these claims are true, the work is likely to have been done by local Special Branches and a secretive, Scotland Yard-based Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). Few have heard of it, but it's role in controlling dissent is central.
Established by the Blair Government in 1998 to monitor "politically motivated disorder", in the words of the Inspectorate of Constabulary, the NPOIU says the Home Office, "provides critical support to forces accross the UK in maintaining a strategic overview of public order issues".
MI5's website describes the unit as dealing with "Right and Left-wing extremists, animal rights extremists and other militant single-issue protestors". In its seven-year history, according to the Metropolitan Police Authority accounts, its buget has steadily grown."
Last night's London Evening Standard had a piece by Andrew Gilligan who had interviewed someone purporting to be the "London and South East liaison officer" for the fuel protests. He also claimed to be "Captain Gatso".
He complained about infiltration of meetings called to discuss fuel protests during the election, including a meeting where new blokes turned up in "clean lorries" who argued against taking action and spent the meetings spreading doubts amongst the others. "They were saying things like: 'Think of the hospitals, what happens if it goes like 2000?"
He also complained of being followed and of having his house secretly entered and his paperwork and computer looked through.
Gilligan went on to say:
"If these claims are true, the work is likely to have been done by local Special Branches and a secretive, Scotland Yard-based Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). Few have heard of it, but it's role in controlling dissent is central.
Established by the Blair Government in 1998 to monitor "politically motivated disorder", in the words of the Inspectorate of Constabulary, the NPOIU says the Home Office, "provides critical support to forces accross the UK in maintaining a strategic overview of public order issues".
MI5's website describes the unit as dealing with "Right and Left-wing extremists, animal rights extremists and other militant single-issue protestors". In its seven-year history, according to the Metropolitan Police Authority accounts, its buget has steadily grown."
