Inside the secret world of the corporate spies who infiltrate protests
Major firms hiring people from corporate security firms to monitor and infiltrate political groups that object to their commercial activitiesSurveillance firms spied on campaign groups for big companies, leak shows
It was perhaps not the most glamorous assignment for a spy. Toby Kendall’s mission was to dress up as a pirate, complete with eye-patch, bandana and cutlass, and infiltrate a group of protesters.
The campaigners had organised a walking tour of London to protest outside the premises of multinational firms, objecting to what they believed was the corporate plunder of Iraq.
To make their point in a colourful way, they wore pirates’ costumes as they banged drums on a wintry Saturday to implore the firms to get “their hands off Iraqi oil”.
Kendall, a 23-year-old Oxford University graduate, joined the protesters as of the capital. What the protesters did not know at that time was that Kendall was a corporate infiltrator working
