Random Reflections of a Domestic Extremist

Please excuse the cliche, but I think we need to talk about Martin. It’s been a while coming – next year it will be ten years since we first found out our friend, colleague and comrade was in fact a BAE spy, but it’s finally time to write about what happened in detail and with the hindsight of perspective.

So, I’m planning to write a book about my dear “friend” Martin, the secular Godfather to my son, and my close friend for the best part of five years. This will be the account of our times together, from planning meetings and pints, to arrests and tear gas on the streets of international summits. This will be the story of what I believed was our journey together, and how this narrative has been shattered and replaced only with questions.

But I would also like this to be a piece of exploration and examination. There is so much which will always remain unanswered. There are no truths, because the one person who could answer so many of the questions is a professional liar. I don’t know yet whether Martin will be prepared to talk to me. I don’t know whether I want to talk to him. Although I know, without doubt, that if the opportunity arises, I will grab it with both hands. But I’m not holding my breath. He hasn’t had any contact with anyone for years, and I doubt he’s suddenly going to break his silence now.

However, I want to explore his motives and agendas; the relationship he had with other people. This is going to involve many painful and honest conversations, and I really hope people will feel able to engage and talk with me both about their experiences, but also their analysis of who they think Martin really was.

Over the years, I have come up with a myriad of excuses for what Martin did ranging from complete denial to a vain hope that there was a limit to the information he was passing on. However I am coming to accept this was just naive posturing. There can be no excuses for what Martin did, for the betrayal, the manipulation and the lies. There is no middle ground, no half truth that makes sense of his actions. This has been the hardest part to accept; not to make excuses for my friend; not to let him still have a small piece of my heart.

So, does anyone else want to talk about Martin? I’m asking anyone who knew him, loved him, or simply worked with him to get in contact. I’m hoping to get as much information as possible to build the fullest picture of Martin that we can, what he said, they way he operated, thoughts, feelings and gut reactions. I want to dissect the whole sorry mess. I know that’s it’s painful, and I know it may be too difficult to talk about. However, I’m also hoping it could be a positive experience, both in understanding how a corporate spy lived and worked amongst us for so many years, and in processing the pain.

GCHQ, G4S, NPOIU, Special Branch (Counter Terrorism Command) MI5.

This has all been exposed by the Snowden leaks in relations to GCHQ dirty tricks, in 2011 twitter and other social media platforms were seen as a threat to the state, everything that has happened to date has been a coordinated attack on activist groups and individuals.

The current #spycops revelations are good to know, in many cases these are just confirmation that a lot of us already suspected, however its my firm belief that we must not get blinded to what is going on NOW.

I believe its time we began to look at all the problems of the last few years, because without getting personal and naming names, the same people are behind a lot of this. The same tactics are being used time and again, because they have been so successful, I do believe that some very difficult conversations need to be had.

I for one, hope that indymedia survives this latest round of attacks. I for one will be standing in solidarity with them.

Who paid this group to disrupt the IMC newswire and who was giving them their orders ?

If this was a co-ordinated campaign that Indymedia has faced over the past few years of disinformation and lies then we need to understand who did this. The Gateway 303 process showed the extent of the police posting to Indymedia UK, were this group involved with that ?

Was this government funded or like the CAAT infiltration a group funded by an arms or animal abuser company ?

Was this group responsible for the disinformation that led to the fork and the closure of a number of other Indymedia projects ?

I feel this is worthy of a feature by someone on the inside who can give us all an update on what extent the 2sam group has disrupted the Indymedia UK organisation, I would think there is a possible legal claim that can be made for damages.

The only good thing is that they were so arrogant they felt happy enough to say goodbye, at least we know they are now gone and the task of rebuilding Indymedia UK can begin.