"There are actually two kinds of informers. The deliberate informer is someone who infiltrates an organization with the specific intent of getting incriminating evidence against activists or even setting them up to be arrested. These infiltrators are either on the payroll of a government agency or may be hired by industry. The second type of informer is the activist-turned-informant -- either unwittingly or because of pressure put on them by the authorities. Make no mistake, both kinds exist throughout our ranks and are equally dangerous.

Let's discuss the deliberate informer (infiltrator) first. They
are often difficult to identify, they come in all ages and types, but they usually have a similar modus operandi--they come out of nowhere and all of a sudden, they are everywhere. Whether it's a meeting, a protest, or an action, this person will be right in the thick of it."

The above is taken from  http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/ELF/sec-handbook.pdf

A few notes for the British political scene.

The authorities here, as elsewhere, work on the principle of either "Infiltrate, Subvert, Control" or "Infiltrate, Subvert, Wreck". The goal is usually to infiltrate the group, find out a lot of information and then report back. If your activist group is involved in direct action, the infiltrator will try to cause the group to collapse from the inside but if your group is more of a lobbying group (or political party), the infiltrator is more likely to attempt to take it over and control it.

Actually the infiltrator will want some members of your activist collective to suspect them of being infiltrators. Anything that undermines group solidarity is within the domain of the wrecking infiltrator. By having group opinion divided over a particular person's validity is very useful to the wrecker. Seeds of mistrust will be planted everywhere.

For example:
The infiltrator may attack one member (or one section) of the collective accusing them of being "racist", "vanguardist", "sexist", "infiltrator",
"mysoginistic", "perverted", "authoritarians", "in it for the sex", "conspiracy theorist" or similar. Anything that attempts to cause distrust and disharmony are in the wreckers arsenal. Anything that is hard to defend against is in the wrecker's arsenal.

The wrecker will go to every single meeting, but probably not really take part in actions. They may be members of several unrelated groups. Activists will generally trust people pretty quickly, so the wrecker only has to hang around the scene for a month or 2 before being fully trusted. But it is not uncommon for an infiltrator to be involved for a year or more.

In order to split your activist or political group, the wrecker will try to undermine group solidarity. Creating arguments that are unrelated to the group's focus. Stealing money and accusing others of doing this. Pointing out flaws with people in order to undermine solidarity. e.g. "They shop at tescos, wear nike, don't recycle, fly in planes, are rich" etc. These flaws may be real, but they will be exploited by the wrecker in order to destroy your group.

Wreckers will be at every meeting, but you will probably not get to see their home. If you regularly get invited to someone's home, they are probably not wreckers.

Sometimes wreckers work in pairs - In order to disrupt the group 2 wreckers will have cleverly-timed but meaningless arguments. They'll argue about anything that is unrelated to the activist group. They'll argue about fundraising, priority of actions, etc. They'll call each other "trots", "leeches" or try to exploit the "social anarchist v lifestyle anarchist' divide. They'll argue about the validity of violence, about some finer philosophical points or the merits of veganism. They'll argue, argue argue until you all want to run away and they have suceeded. They'll argue about sexism, they'll argue about which book to read. They'll argue about group direction.

A pair of wreckers may take over a mailing list by having arguments. They may also send many many mails forcing some people to unsubscribe due to excess traffic.

Some wreckers will often advocate militancy and violence. Nothing will discredit your group more than the use of violence. Be Non-violent. Wreckers will fight the police which will can cause clamp-downs on activists. We urge you all to remain non-violent for the sake of safety, public relations and outing infiltrators. Whenever there's a large mobilisation, the TV is full of images of agents provocateur engaging in violence and property-damage. This is done for a reason. Think about it.

Wreckers may be sleasy. They do this to make certain members of the group feel uncomfortable in the group setting. Wreckers almost never get drunk or stoned in ordinary social circles. Alternately, they may attempt to keep the group drunk or stoned in order to loosen tongues or stop the group from doing what it planned to.

Wreckers may be around for a long time. Maybe a year or more before they move on. It costs the government very little to give a wrecker a few hundred to a thousand quid a week (the same as is given to a cop or soldier) so keeping the wrecker in long term is no hassle.

A big mistake you can make if you suspect someone is a wrecker is to accuse them of being one. This will almost certainly cause your group to implode. Better to keep an eye on them and find out what they are up to. To accuse someone of being an infiltrator without proof is destined to cause your group to collapse. Remember, they will be attempting to divide the group so will make friends of some and enemies of others.

They may spend a lot of time on the phone and they almost certainly have hi-tech gadgets.

Many wreckers will be cop-magnets. By having cops around all the time, your group determination will be majorly undermined. If there are always loads of cops on your tail when a particular person is with you, that person may be an infiltrator.

Wreckers will organise group meetings and help organise actions but will rarely take part in the actions. They will have a lot of useful information, making them appear indispensable. They will try to make themselves integral to the group whilst not actually achieving much for it.

Wreckers may try to dominate mailing lists, with arguments, with hostility ( to the group or to particular individuals), with negativity (as in "no point, we can't make a difference"). They may dominate the list by spamming it to death causing others to leave. They may try to become email list administrators or web site volunteers. If they can keep track of every member of the group, they have a powerful tool. If they can monitor all group communications, they have another powerful tool.

They will almost certainly have personality clashes with one or 2 select individuals within the group. The wrecker will do everything to exploit these personality clashes in attempts to destroy the group. They will find issues that they consider important when nobody else really cares. Most people are too timid to express themselves a lot of the time and the wrecker will hope group members don't speak out to each other's defence.

This essay makes no attempts to describe what to do when infiltrators are suspected or discovered. The most useful solution is to counter their attempts at disruption. If they attack one individual, gently defend that individual. Do not get drawn into a fight. The wrecker loves a fight. The wrecker depends on people either fighting, or becoming foo frightened of fighting to not express themselves.

If someone (wrecker or not) suggests a group tactic you disagree with, speak out and say so. This will be good for you and the group as a whole, but it will also stop the wrecker from gaining a foothold. The wrecker will want to tire you out, make you bored, restless, angry, frustrated etc with the group in order to get you to quit.

Try to send the wrecker off on missions with other people whilst you get important work done. Having a small affinity group containing the wrecker go on a mission can allow the rest of the group to do what they need to.

Assume you are infiltrated. Seriously, it will make everything much easier if either everything is out in the open so there's nothing to spy on. Dissent! was fantastic at this and you had the infiltrators beat at every turn. Your left hand didn't know what your right was doing and it worked brilliantly this time. If you want/need to be clandestine, be very careful about who knows what pieces of information.

At large mobilisations like Dissent! - infiltrators will move toward any communications collective that might have formed. The wrecker will attempt to subvert and destroy your means of communication. They will attempt to control your mailing lists, bank accounts and websites. Their destruction of your communication channels backfired on them during Dissent wherein autonomous group actions were successful. The government simply didn't have enough infiltrators to watch everybody. Cool.

"Unless you are only working with people you've known for years and who have earnt your trust, you should assume there is an informant in your midst and act accordingly. "

Assume you are being watched and assume your group has been infiltrated.

If your group has open door policies like most carnivale activist groups do (e.g. Samba bands and street performer groups), the infiltrator will be the one who finds it harder to smile and dance. Keep the carnivale and fun vibe and the infiltrator will be helpless. Keep on laughing and having fun and these wreckers will be easily spotted. They're the miserable ones who want to argue about funding, mailing lists or political philosophy.

Infiltrators and wreckers take their time and have a lot of patience, but you can deal with them. Just don't let them draw you into their disruptive games. Do not argue excessively with wreckers. Generally you want to minimise your group arguments anyway. Or rather, ensure your arguments and disagreements are resolvable. That's how to spot a wrecker - they will want to argue but they won't want to find a solution to the argument. They will use the argument to disrupt the group. Disruption is their main tool and tactic and objective.

Good luck!

more:
 http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm11.showMessage?topicID=368.topic
 http://www.sheffieldmayday.ukf.net/articles/spooks.htm