Industrial espionage agency targeted Heathrow protestors - 8th April 2008
Aviation industry in the frame as Plane Stupid investigation exposes mole
Climate action group Plane Stupid has been targeted by a professional espionage agency.
Oxford-educated Toby Kendall, 24, an employee of aerospace security consultants C2i International (1), infiltrated and spied on Heathrow campaign groups across London for a year. He was immediately suspected and following a Plane Stupid investigation he was last week confronted and exposed in a Japanese restaurant by the Plane Stupid activist Tamsin Omond - one of those who recently scaled Parliament (2).
Heathrow owner BAA admitted to this morning’s Times newspaper that it has been in contact with C2i, having previously claimed it had no involvement in the spying operation.
C2i International states on its website that its team is "hand-picked from Special Operations at New Scotland Yard" (3). It is run by self-proclaimed Special Forces Veteran Justin King and says it "delivers tailored advice and solutions to companies in a wide range of industries including Aerospace." C2i lists its "key services" as "Counter Espionage & Debugging" and "Executive Profiling and Investigation" (4).
Piecing together evidence including photographs, reports from fellow students at Oxford and website profiles, Plane Stupid discovered the agent who was going by the name of 'Ken Tobias' is in fact 'Toby Kendall' who was captain of the athletics team at Wadham College, Oxford.
Kendall - who lists Top Gun as his favourite film on his Bebo social networking profile (5) - went undercover in London Plane Stupid following last year’s Climate Camp at Heathrow. He made elementary errors as his career as a secret agent faltered at the first hurdle - due to his poorly constructed back-story and appalling acting skills. When Plane Stupid fed Kendall false information it was just 48 hours before sources in the aviation industry confirmed that the plans had been reported back to them.
The day after he was confronted, Kendall emailed Plane Stupid saying, "I came into the group with a pure heart wanting to make a difference. I still of course hold my principles." (6)
Tamsin Omond, 23, a Church of England parish administrator, said today:
"The aviation industry brought its special brand of bumbling incompetence to the task of spying on us. Their secret agent was more Austin Powers than James Bond though the question still remains, who paid the espionage agency?"
Plane Stupid is publishing a full dossier of evidence against the spy, including web links, photographs and more at www.planestupid.com.
- ENDS -
For more information:
press@planestupid.com
www.planestupid.com
- http://www.c2i-international.com and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/5/b37/418
- http://www.planestupid.com/?q=content/plane-stupid-scales-parliament-27th-february-2008
- http://www.c2i-international.com/Newservices/counteresp.htm
- http://www.c2i-international.com/Newservices/Busprotection.htm
- http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3859423
- http://www.planestupid.com/?q=content/mole-hunt-kens-heartfelt-email
