Toby Kendall

MOLE HUNT: Behind the bamboo curtain

Graham — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:11:21 +0000

The man they * call Agent Maverick first appeared on my horizon several months ago, when Tamsin mentioned that Plane Stupid London had a mysterious new member calling himself Ken Tobias.

"He looks a bit like a cop," she said.

That could have been the end of Plane Stupid – how were we, a bunch of useless hippies, supposed to deal with a professional infiltrator? Things had escalated to a new and discomforting level – what had we got ourselves into? And how could we determine whether he really was a mole?

MOLE HUNT: More Austin Powers than James Bond

Richard — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:08:16 +0000

Since late summer 2007, an employee of a corporate espionage agency has been trying to infiltrate Plane Stupid. Toby Kendall, who works for C2i International, a "special risk management" firm, thought he was undercover in our London group, gathering information on what we're up to. Instead we've been feeding the 'revenge movie' obssesed mole false information, which he's been reporting to the aviation industry for months.

After last year's Camp for Climate Action new activists began turning up to London Plane Stupid meetings. Most were perfectly normal people angry at the expansion of Heathrow airport. But one newbie didn't fit in with the rest - Ken Tobias, an Oxford graduate who claimed to have just got back from China. Something about him just wasn't right.

Check out our mole hunt gallery for more photos.

MOLE HUNT: Two words: "wrong team"

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:00:00 +0000

London Plane Stupid was infiltrated. Can you guess who it was? We could. Sorry Toby - from the beginning your red Palestinian scarf and baseball cap was doing little to cover up an all-year tan that stank of short breaks in the sun and a relentless hunger to hear about the hardcore action - with a cautious refusal to take any yourself.

What a toe-rag! To take advantage of our unwillingness to exclude new activists, and all because you'd watched one too many spy flicks and think that spying against greenies is what the good guys do. Two words for you Toby: wrong team. We gave you the opportunity to be one of the good guys but you made it clear that your idea of a good time was breaking into trusting affinity groups and betraying the friendship that defines activism.