EcoWorldly

It’s been an intriguing week for British environmental activists, with the discovery of a spy in the camp at UK aviation protest group Plane Stupid.

Ultimately the spy, an employee of C2i International who specialize in ’special risk management’ (otherwise known as industrial espionage) was little match for Plane Stupid, who described him as “more Austin Powers than James Bond”.

Accounts of the episode reveal that Ken Tobias (real name Tobias Kendall), made a number of basic errors, including:

• • Wearing expensive designer clothes (which he attempted to disguise by wearing a Palestinian scarf to give some environmental credibility)
  • Turning up to meetings consistently early
  • Demonstrating an unusual eagerness to reap mayhem on British airport infrastructure by suggesting the grandest and most aggressive schemes
  • Allowing information on planned activities to be published almost immediately in the press

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Kendall was ultimately outed after Plane Stupid members became suspicious and began feeding their mole with false information, which would reliably come to the attention of the aviation industry and be published in newspapers within days.

Following further identity checks and a direct confrontation in a London restaurant Kendall silently slipped back into the shadows, and is currently refusing all media requests for contact. Kendall is no doubt reconsidering his career in the underworld after what seems to have been a dismal performance.

The mystery still remains as to who hired C2i to infiltrate Plane Stupid, with fingers currently being pointed at British Airways, The British Airport Authority and even the British Government. In the final analysis no one seems to have benefited from the affair, except perhaps for Plane Stupid who are doubtless grateful for the additional publicity.

Further reading: Graham Thompson in The Guardian

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