Bob Lambert and the Academic Community

This article is part of the Undercover Research Portal at Powerbase - investigating corporate and police spying on activists

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Part of a series on undercover police officers
Robert Lambert
Alias:	Bob Robinson
Deployment:	1983 or 1984 until 1988
Unit:	Special Demonstration Squad
Targets:	Animal liberation and anti-authoritarian movements

Subsequent to his retirement from police service in 2007, Bob Lambert - previously an undercover officer with and then operational commander of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch's Special Demonstration Squad - had a second career as an academic.

This page summarises the many groups and people Lambert associated with in his capacity as a former-police-officer-turned-academic specialising in Islamophobia and de-radicalisation, building on his work with the Met's Muslim Contact Unit. While the other half of this page looks at Bob Lambert and the Muslim Community, this section focuses on his professional relationships in the academic community, notably in the terrorism studies and Islamic studies milieu; and includes his main critics. Also see Bob Lambert Writing and Speaking

• For a full overview of all pages on him, see Bob Lambert.

The intention is to show how Lambert worked his way into networks and discourse subsequent to his retirement from the Metropolitan Police in a manner consistent with the way he did whilst a serving officer, particularly during his time in the Special Demonstration Squad. It also aims to map how he used a relatively small number of individuals to effect his passage into and through much larger numbers of organisations.

Disclaimer. This page was developed using only open source materials, and it is not meant as a critique (or, for that matter, as an endorsement) of the groups and individuals mentioned.

+++++ Last Updated November 2016 +++++

Background

This is one of a series of pages on Bob Lambert and his work, first as an undercover for the Special Demonstration Squad, and later as a mentor to and manager of further generations of spycops. Towards the end of his police career Lambert focused on islamophobia and deradicalisation, and set up the Muslim Contact Unit as a pilot within Special Branch, to work with muslim communities to push out jihadi recruiters. After his retirement on 2007, Lambert continued this work for his PhD. His thesis was published as Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership. Little over a month after the book was launched in September 2011, Lambert was exposed, and his academic career has dwindled since.

When working with muslim communities and in academia, Lambert has always been open about his career of 27 years with the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch and the Counter Terrorism Command. When embarking on his academic career he presented this as his unique selling point - that he has “a perspective that combines academic research and police practitioner experience”.

What Lambert consistently failed to mention, was the fact that at least ten of those years had been with the Special Demonstration Squad), infiltrating activist groups and gathering intelligence about their political work.

Key themes

Lambert pursued a “path of mixed practitioner/academic activity”, earning his undergraduate degree in 1995 whilst still a serving Metropolitan Police Special Branch officer. He then studied “early modern English encounters with Islam”, and for his Masters, which was awarded in 2003 (a year after he set up the Muslim Contact Unit). By 2005 he was working on his PhD, which combined his academic research with professional experience garnered through the MCU.

On his retirment from the Met at the end of 2007, he entered into a research partnership with Jonathan Githens-Mazer at the University of Exeter, based around the ESRC-funded project ‘Cultures of Repression: the Legacy of Colonial Violence and State Repression in the Maghreb, and its Effect on North African Diasporas in Europe’. Initially, Lambert noted that his principal research interests as an academic were “community-based approaches to counter-terrorism and Islamophobia,” in line with his MCU work and subsequent European Muslim Research Centre research projects.

His PhD was published as Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership in September 2011, a month later he was publicly exposed as a former undercover with and later manager of the Special Demonstration Squad.

By 2013 he had broadened out his focus to “terrorism, counter-terrorism, far right political violence and anti-Muslim hate crimes.” This shift in emphasis saw him increasingly address the likes of Norwegian spree killer Anders Breivik, the ideologies which inspired him, and concepts of far-right ‘lone wolf’ terrorism.

Key locations

Through his academic career Lambert had positions with several different research units at various universities.

• European Muslim Research Centre (EMRC) at University of Exeter: Lambert joined Exeter as a research fellow in 2008, working on a doctorate under his supervisor Bill Tupman. There, in September 2009 he and Jonathan Githens-Mazer, also at Exeter, set up and rant the European Muslim Research Centre. He and Githen-Mazer conducted research based on Lambert's experience at the based on Lambert's experience at the Muslim Contact Unit of community engagement work with Salafi and other Islamist groups.

This was done under ‘Cultures of Repression’ project which was being managed by Githens-Mazer. From 2009 until 2010 Lambert supervised the PhD research of Abdul Haqq Baker, whom Lambert had known since 2002 as a Brixton-based Salafi. Lambert quietly resigned from his post at Exeter in October 2011 following his unmasking as a former undercover police officer - which remained unrevealed until journalist Rob Evans wrote about it in The Guardian in January 2015.

• Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) at St. Andrews University: From September 2008 Lambert began teaching, lecturing and supervising dissertations on the e-learning M.Litt. terrorism studies course provided by St. Andrews University's Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), a noted research centre in the field of Terrorism Studies. Co-founded in 1994 by Paul Wilkinson and Bruce Hoffman, CSTPV's director from 2006 to 2011 was Alex Schmid. He was succeeded by Richard English, who was still there when Lambert resigned his post at St. Andrews in December 2015.

• John Grieve Centre (JGC) at London Metropolitan University: In September 2012 Lambert joined the staff at the John Grieve Centre, a criminology unit based at London Metropolitan University. This was at the invitation of his former opposite number at the City of London Police, Tim Parsons, , who had himself been on the advisory board of the EMRC at Exeter after a career with the City of London Police (see below). Lambert acted as course leader for the undergraduate Criminology and Law course from autumn 2012 until at least summer 2014. Named for its founder (who continues to serve at the Centre's director) - a former senior Met police officer with a background in undercover policing and anti-terrorism, and noted for leading the Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force as well as reinvestigating the Stephen Lawrence murder - the John Grieve Centre continues to have close connections to the police. Of the seven serving as faculty members in 2015, besides Lambert three had Metropolitan Police backgrounds (Anti-Terrorist Branch and Special Branch), two were alumni of St. Andrews University's Terrorism Studies course, and one had close connections to the University of Exeter's EMRC.

After a concerted public campaign to see his ouster, Lambert resigned his post at London Metropolitan in December 2015. Lambert was replaced by Robin Bhairam, a former Met officer who from January 2013 until February 2015 served as Deputy National Coordinator Domestic Extremism(NCDE), with responsibility for overseeing the rump of the NPOIU spycop units, now stripped from their operational powers.

Key people

• Javier Argomaniz and Orla Lynch: Colleagues of Lambert's at St. Andrews University's Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. In 2015 Argomaniz and Lynch edited a book - International Perspectives on Terrorist Victimisation: An Interdisciplinary Approach - for which Lambert wrote a chapter, entitled ‘Victims of Terrorism: Distinctive and Diverse Experiences’. They cited Lambert as one of the scholars with whom they “learnt much from our conversations and exchanges”. From 2014 Lambert is referenced as a ‘Radicalisation and Victimisation Project’ team member on the Victims of Terrorism Academic Research Group run by Argomaniz and Lynch.

• Abdul Haqq Baker: Born Anthony Baker,Born Anthony Baker, he converted to Islam in 1990 and subsequently chaired the Brixton Mosque (1994 to 2009). There in 2006/2007, he founded the Salafi youth outreach organisation Strategy to Reach, Empower, and Educate Teenagers - better known as STREET UK) and was a key ally of Lambert and his Muslim Contact Unit (see Bob Lambert and the Muslim Community for more detail). Indeed, on the formal incorporation of STREET in April 2008 Lambert was a founding director, alongside Baker, remaining as such until November 2009. Fellow directors at the time included Respect councillor Mohammed Alyas Karmani and businessman Najeeb Ahmed. As well as setting up STREET UK, Baker also created an associated business, Street Consultancy Ltd, with STREET activists Abdur Rahman Anderson and Sameer Koomson.

Lambert referred to Baker as “my good friend” during his Chatham House talk and subsequently supervised his PhD research at the University of Exeter (as did Lambert's own academic mentor, Bill Tupman). Baker was a Fellow at the European Muslim Research Centre from 2009 until 2010, working alongside Lambert and Githens-Mazer. Baker then took up a lecturing position at St. Andrews at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, again alongside Lambert.

Baker's book Extremists In Our Midst: Confronting Terror was dedicated to the memory of Bob Lambert's acknowledged son Adam, an employee of STREET until his death in February 2011.

• Marie Breen Smyth: An academic based at Aberystwyth University's Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence (CSRV) and specialising in religion, conflict and victim politics, Breen Smyth has appeared on a number of platforms with Lambert, including his earliest known appearance at an academic conference. This was in 2006 when still as head of the Muslim Contact Unit he attended a two-day event co-organised by CSRV, titled ‘Is it Time for a Critical Terrorism Studies?’. There he shared a panel with Breen Smyth and John Horgan from CSTPV to discuss ‘Forging a Critical, Policy Relevant Research Agenda: the Way Forward’. The next year Breen Smyth and CSRV organised an event in London, ‘The Politics Of Radicalisation: Reframing The Debate And Reclaiming The Language’, which brought together academics, 'Islamists' and others, including Lambert.

In 2007, Lambert returned to Aberystwyth in 2008 for ‘Trust-Building in Conflict Transformation’, a two-day conference organised by Breen Smyth and introduced. Lambert and his colleage Basia Spalek presented two sessions. Finally, a chapter by Lambert was included in a book edited by Breen Smyth and published in 2012 (after Lambert had been exposed), the Ashgate Research Companion to Political Violence. Breen Smyth in turn was thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their publication London Case Study.

• Jonathan Githens-Mazer: Lambert's key collaborator whilst at the University of Exeter, where the two set up and were co-directors of the European Muslim Research Centre. The pair collaborated on three major studies, two book chapters, a journal article and nine newspaper or website articles.

In addition, from March 2009 (six months before they set up the EMRC) until its dissolution a year later, Githens-Mazer and his wife acted as company directors of Lambert's consultancy business, Lambert Consultancy & Training Ltd.

For more detail, see Bob Lambert Consultancy

• Tim Parsons: As its former Head of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights with the rank of Chief Inspector, Parsons once occupied a similar position at the City of London Police as Bob Lambert had at the Metropolitan Police's Muslim Contact Unit. In 2006, Parsons published a Guide To Islam For Non-Muslims, authored by Mehmood Naqshbandi, an IT consultant with private sector company Logica. Whilst the book does not mention Lambert by name, it does praise the Muslim Contact Unit as having created “a bi-directional, trusted relationship between the Metropolitan Police and members of the Muslim community who have concerns about the way that conventional policing frequently misinterprets aspects of the Muslim community.” Lambert reciprocated with fulsome praise for the Guide in a press release issued by City Of London Police, which in turn was cited by several newspapers and other news media.

Parsons is thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study produced through the European Muslim Research Centre.

During his time with the police, Parsons pursued an academic career. He had obtained a Master's in Education from Hull University in 2001, and in 2003 begun at King's College London (KCL) for a Doctorate. On leaving City of London police in 2010, he joined the John Grieve Centre at London Metropolitan University as a Senior Lecturer in Criminology, whilst continuing his studies at KCL, which he completed in 2011. By his own account, Parsons has extensive experience “of teaching and lecturing in [by 2013] 20 different countries across Europe, N. America, Africa and the Middle East,” at higher education institutions including the London School of Economics, the University of Surrey, the University of Westminster, Exeter University and the Woodrow Wilson Centre in the United States. “In addition to this he has taught in a number of different global organisations and police training academies including those in London, Toronto, Warsaw, Budapest, Zagreb, Kiev, Sarajevo, Kigale (Rwanda) and Abu Dhabi.”

Parsons, in his capacity as an academic at LMU, publicly endorsed Lambert's positive view of Muslim Brotherhood-linked organisations such as the Muslim Association of Britain, noting that he could “personally testify to the value of the advice and guidance provided to the police by the MAB”. From at least October 2011 until at least June 2013 Parsons was a member of the advisory board to Lambert's and Githens-Mazer's European Muslim Research Centre at Exeter. Fellow board members during his time there included Anas Altikriti (Cordoba Foundation, Muslim Association of Britain), Muhammad Abdul Bari (Muslim Council of Britain, Islamic Forum of Europe), and American academic John Esposito. Parsons is also a member of the advisory board of American think tank Research Institute for Human Security and Cooperation, where Lambert protegé and former Muslim Contact Unit colleague Detective Constable Abid Raja has a fellowship; he is a serving officer (at least until October 2015).

In September 2012, Lambert accepted Parsons'invitation to join the John Grieve Centre in London Metropolitan University. Lambert would also appear at a 2015 conference hosted by London university the School of Oriental and African Studies.

In January 2015, with a public campaign to have Lambert removed from his teaching post at London Metropolitan University building support, Parsons in his capacity as Senior Criminology Lecturer at LMU appeared on a TV news programme to defend the decision to hire Lambert, and described him as “an extremely distinguished academic” with “extremely rich experience in professional practice, even accepting some of that is controversial.” Lambert's resignation from London Met was publicly acknowledged in December 2015, as was his leaving St. Andrews University.

• Basia Spalek: Lambert and Spalek first met in 2004, when Lambert was still a Metropolitan Police officer and heading up the Muslim Contact Unit. In 2004 Spalek co-authored - along with others including Zamila Bunglawala (sister of leading Muslim activists Shenaz Bunglawala and Inayat Bunglawala) a report for the EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program of the Open Society Institute, Muslims In The UK: Policies for Engaged Citizens, which consulted with both Lambert and his Muslim Contact Unit.

Lambert is credited as a “consultant and facilitator” for Spalek's 2008 report Police-Muslim Engagement and Partnerships for the Purposes of Counter-Terrorism: An Examination (University of Birmingham). Spalek, and her co-authors Salwa El Awa and Laura Zahra McDonald, thanked Lambert “for his significant help and support”, noting also the “generosity shown by members of the Muslim Safety Forum and Muslim Contact Unit”.

Lambert was also listed as a formal research partner of the core University of Birmingham team in a project summary supplied to funding body Religion & Society. In a follow-up report, A study exploring questions relating to the relationship between Police and Muslim Communities in the Prevention of Violent Extremism amongst Muslim Youth, Lambert was cited as a ‘Consultant’ to the project, with companies STREET and Siraat, among those listed as ‘Research Partners’.

• For more detail on Lambert's directorship of companies, see Bob Lambert Consultancy

In July 2011 Lambert represented the CSTPV in "a new collaborative hub developed with practitioners, community organisations and academics" set up with Dr. Basia Spalek and Dr. Laura Zara McDonald,founders of Police Community Engagement for Conflict Resolution at the University of Birmingham.

Lambert and Spalek have subsequently shared a number of conference platforms and co-authored book chapters. In addition Spalek has written a glowing review of Lambert's book, cited him extensively in her own work (including in unpublished manuscripts) In a book she co-edited, Lambert was invited to write a chapter trumpeting the work of the Muslim Safety Forum; Spalek had been an academic observer to the MSF from December 2007 until July 2008.

Spalek co-authored a paper in the academic journal Critical Studies on Terrorism specifically addressing the issue of Lambert's public exposure as a police infiltrator and provocateur; the same issue also gave space to Lambert for his response to the allegations.

• Bill Tupman: Tupman is an Honorary Research Fellow at Exeter University, having retired as a senior lecturer there in 2005. Lambert first met Tupman in 2004; with Tupman going on to supervise Lambert's PhD. They also co-wrote an article for INTERSEC: The Journal of International Security in 2007.

Notably, Lambert has described Tupman as something of a mentor, and that he “was encouraged to move into academia myself when [he] read Bill Tupman’s critique of the war on terror as failing to have legitimacy and failing to have the reduction of the number of new terrorists as its objective or outcome.” In 2013 Lambert again referred to the impact of Tupman's paper had had, stating that it “provided the stimulus for my research, and he played a key role in allowing me to develop my own local analysis.” (Elsewhere Lambert notes “the positive audience reaction to Bill Tupman’s deconstruction of the war on terror was evident at the first Islam Expo gathering at Alexandra Palace in 2006.”)

Tupman is the first person Lambert thanks in the acknowledgements of his book, acclaiming him as "the one and only Bill Tupman...[who] has unique experience of guiding police officers through the hazards of academic research,” and describing Abdul Haqq Baker as “a fellow Tupman protegé.”

• David Veness: A successful career officer - having joined the Met as a cadet in 1964, he ended his police career in 2005 having reached the heights of Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations - David Veness and his policing interests have intersected with or mirrored those of Lambert in several ways.

As ACSO from 1994 onward, Veness was personally responsible for the annual authorisation of the Special Demonstration Squad per protocols in place between 1989 and 2000; this covers Lambert's entire tenure as Operational Controller of the SDS from November 1993 until some time in 1998.

Following 9/11 Veness, like Lambert, acquired an interest in working with Muslim organisations, and from 2001-2003 in his capacity as ACSO he regularly chaired meetings of the Muslim Safety Forum; Lambert, as head of the Muslim Contact Unit from its creation in early 2002, was similarly a regular attender. Lambert notes that Veness had, during his unusually long, eleven year tenure as ACSO built up strong rapport with many community representatives, something that his four successors (Andy Hayman, Bob Quick, John Yates, Cressida Dick) in the six years until the MSF's closure in 2011 never managed. Lambert notes Veness' encouragement, both of him personally and of the MCU in general, to continue to engage with communities in this way. He also points to how, following Veness' departure Scotland Yard preferred to send community relations rather than counter-terrorism officers to MSF. Lambert also offered praise to Veness when he spoke at Strathclyde University's ‘9/11 Ten Years On’ conference in September 2011.

After retirement Veness was bestowed with an honorary professorship by the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews (where Lambert taught on the Terrorism Studies course from 2008 until 2015).

• David Miller: An academic specialising in critical terrorism studies, a co-founder of Spinwatch and an editor on the related Powerbase website. Miller and Lambert were both speakers the CSRV conference (co-organised by the British International Studies Association Working Group on Critical Studies on Terrorism, of which Miller is a member) in Manchester in October 2006. In November of the same year Miller reflects upon this conference in an article on the Spinwatch website, and in particular the contributions of Bob Lambert, “One of the more interesting speakers at the conference,” whom he describes as “at the liberal end of the Special Branch, in its eight person Muslim Contact Unit.”

In September 2011, Miller and the British International Studies Association’s Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group organised another conference, ‘A Decade of Terrorism and Counter-terrorism since 9/11’, taking place in Glasgow over several days. Lambert is a keynote speaker, undertaking a research workshop alongside Richard Jackson, leading a plenary session, and launching his newly published book. Later that month Miller and Lambert both give expert evidence at an immigration hearing for Sheikh Raed Salah,a leader the Islamist Movement of Israel. Salah lost this hearing but would win on appeal. In October Lambert joins Miller for the launch at the Houses of Parliament of a new Spinwatch report on Islamophobia, entitled The Cold War On British Muslims, an event sponsored by both Middle East Monitor and the Cordoba Foundation (which also sponsored the book’s publication). Lambert and Githens-Mazer are among those thanked in the acknowledgements of the book.

Following Lambert's exposure in mid-October, David Miller and Spinwatch ended all cooperation with Lambert; Spinwatch' wiki Powerbase would later host the profile portal of the Undercover Research Group.

Spinwatch Founded in 2005, Spinwatch is one of two twin projects of Public Interest Investigations (PII) (the other being the wiki-based Powerbase site on which this URG research is hosted), and “investigates the way that the public relations (PR) industry and corporate and government propaganda distort public debate and undermine democracy.” One of its main areas of interest is Islamophobia. This common research area saw it encounter Lambert as early as 2006, when he was still heading up the Muslim Contact Unit, with both David Miller of Spinwatch and Lambert making presentations at ‘Is it Time for a Critical Terrorism Studies?’, a two day conference organised jointly by the British International Studies Association Working Group on Critical Studies on Terrorism and Aberystwyth University's Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Contemporary Political Violence (CSRV). Miller subsequently described Lambert as “at the liberal end of the Special Branch, in its eight person Muslim Contact Unit,” and someone who “promotes the idea of partnership working with muslim community organisations.”

In December 2010 Miller was a guest speaker at a launch event of the Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies report by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in Glasgow. In September 2011, Miller and others from the Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group (CSTWG) of the British International Studies Association organised a series of events in Glasgow to mark the decade since 9/11 from a critical terrorism studies perspective; Lambert was a key speaker at several events. Later on that same September, both Lambert and Miller were presented as expert witnesses in the immigration tribunal deciding whether the Home Office was right to arrest, detain and attempt to deport Sheikh Raed Salah, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who came to Britain for a speaking tour at the invitation of Daud Abdullah's Middle East Monitor (MEMO). Salah later secured victory in the Upper Immigration Tribunal. Four days before his exposure as a former police spy, in October 2011 Lambert was a speaker at a book launch at the House of Commons for the Spinwatch report The Cold War On British Muslims, written by David Miller, Tom Mills and Tom Griffin (an editor of the openDemocracy blog OurKingdom). All three authors appear, alongside Daud Abdullah of MEMO and Anas Altikriti from the Cordoba Foundation, whose organisations jointly host the event, the Cordoba Foundation also having funded the report. Simon Danczuk MP is the official sponsor of the event, whilst CND's Kate Hudson, the originally advertised chair of the event, is replaced on the night by former Guardian associate foreign editor Victoria Brittain. A further scheduled appearance by Lambert to promote his book and the Spinwatch report at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel alongside David Miller and fellow academic Rizwaan Sabir (then Strathclyde, now Bath) in November was cancelled after Lambert's exposure.

Following the public unmasking of Lambert as an undercover police officer who had infiltrated London Greenpeace as ‘Bob Robinson’, Spinwatch addressed a public letter to Lambert stating that it believes “that you need to make a public statement confirming or denying the specific allegations so far made public. In addition, if any of the allegations are true, you need to give an account of what you now think of your previous activities. We repeat: In our view your current activities and your alleged past activities are not compatible.” A few days later Lambert replied, confirming that he had been an undercover officer, that he had infiltrated London Greenpeace, that he had entered into an intimate relationship with one woman, and that he had later taken on a supervisory role at the unit. He also claimed that he wanted “to begin a process on conflict resolution in this difficult and sensitive arena,“ adding that “By working in partnership we have an opportunity to enhance public safety and to promote the value of non violent protest as a more effective tactic than political violence - whether committed by state or non state actors.” In response to this, Spinwatch published a rebuttal in early November: “Spinwatch’s work and commitment is not compatible with Bob Lambert’s history as an infiltrator, the details about his past that have come to light so far, and the way he reflects on it in retrospect.”

Notable critics and criticism

Though Lambert’s approach to community engagement and deradicalisation was welcomed in some parts of academia, police and the media, others raised objections to it, labeling it ‘Lambertism’.

Mohamed Ali Harrath incident

In 2008 Lambert was alleged to have had as an adviser whilst head of the Muslim Contact Unit a man who had been named on an Interpol watchlist. The furore began with an article in The Times, about Mohamed Ali Harrath, the founder of British-based television company the Islam Channel, who had co-founded the Front Islamique Tunisien in 1986 before seeking asylum in the UK in 1995.

Some newspapers claimed he has been an ‘adviser’ to the Muslim Contact Unit, but no direct evidence was proffered. The Met issued official denials, but in his column for The Times former senior police officer Andy Hayman appeared to accept the story as accurate. (Hayman had been Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations at the Met from February 2005 until December 2007, and as such had management responsibility for MCU and its parent unit Special Branch.) After that the story was recycled widely.

Harrath received from Lambert a letter of endorsement in his efforts to be removed from Interpol's ‘Red Notice’ international extradition request list. Also said to have provided an endorsement to Harrath was Special Branch's Detective Chief Superintendent Alan Mitchell, who had previouslym been a line manager for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit.

Raed Salah deportation affair

In June, 2011 Lambert was a signatory to an open letter which condemned the arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah, a prominent Palestinian leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who had been invited to the UK for a speaking tour by Daud Abdullah's Middle East Monitor (MEMO). In July he emphasised his support for Salah in an article published both by Al Jazeera and MEMO.

In September Lambert joined David Miller of Spinwatch as an expert witness in the immigration tribunal which decided whether the Home Office was right to arrest, detain and attempt to deport Salah.Whilst Salah lost his initial tribunal, he later secured victory in the Upper Immigration Tribunal.

For his involvement in the affair, Lambert was criticised by the likes of former Hizb ut Tahrir activist-turned-Quilliam Foundation associate Rashad Ali, as well as Lambert's vociferous critics at the Harry's Place blog.

‘Strathclyde Nine’

During a presentation at a weekend of events organised by the Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group (CSTWG) of the British International Studies Association (including David Miller of Spinwatch) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in September 2011, Lambert identified nine individuals as exemplifying criticism of his work:

Martin Bright, Nick Cohen, Andrew Gilligan, Dean Godson, Michael Gove, Ed Husain, Douglas Murray, Gilles Kepel and Melanie Phillips.

• Martin Bright: At various times a journalist and political editor with publications including The Guardian, The Observer, New Statesman, the Jewish Chronicle and The Spectator, in 2006 wrote a highly critical report on the Islamist links of the Muslim Council of Britain for the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange. The report, When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries: The British state's flirtation with radical Islamism, was based on documents leaked to him in 2005 by a whistleblower within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Subsequently Bright has penned a number of other pieces specifically attacking Lambert, or others he considers beholden to Islamists, such as Ken Livingstone.

• Nick Cohen: Whilst left/liberal journalist Cohen was not notably a critic specifically of Lambert or the Muslim Contact Unit in the years before Lambert's exposure, he was a significant personality behind the Euston Manifesto, and a writer for news magazine New Statesman, which was also closely associated with it. Subsequent to Lambert's exposure, Cohen did pen a 2014 article highly critical of Lambert and asking whether his pro-Muslim Brotherhood work with the Muslim Contact Unit had parallels to his time with the SDS:

Bob Lambert, to take the most ghoulish case, groomed an animal rights protester. As part of his role playing, he got her pregnant and then abandoned her and their infant son when she was no longer of use.

• Andrew Gilligan: Formerly a BBC radio defence correspondent now working predominantly for right-leaning newspapers and magazines such as the Telegraph and The Spectator, Gilligan has been a notable critic of perceived Islamist sympathisers in general, and Bob Lambert in particular. Gilligan has also contributed to two Policy Exchange reports.

• Dean Godson: A former writer for the Telegraph papers as well as The Spectator and Prospect magazines, Godson joined right-wing think tank Policy Exchange in 2005 and ran its International Affairs research unit from 2006 until 2013, when he was appointed PE's director. Godson already had a background in right-wing think tanks, having been a research fellow at the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies (a British conduit for funding from the Cold Warriors of the conservative American Heritage Foundation) in the late 1980s. In addition, he has a family history of connections to think tanks whilst his brother Roy “is an expert on covert action and disinformation,” and involvement in intelligence and security agencies.

Lambert has crossed swords with Godson and Policy Exchange for their antipathy towards his brand of engagement with Islamists for several years, with one commentator summarising Godson's position as thus: “that Lambert and his MCU colleagues suffered from a form of “Stockholm Syndrome”, buying into the Islamists’ positive depiction of their ideology while turning a blind eye to their extremism”. Lambert has described Godson - along with his former Telegraph boss and now Policy Exchange trustee Charles Moore - as “the architects of policy exchange policy that stigmatises muslim organisations”. For his part, Godson has called Lambert's style of engagement with Islamists to be “as if the government responded to a violent insurgency from the neo-Nazi terrorists of Combat 18 by turning to Nick Griffin of the BNP”. Lambert has also accused Godson of levelling the slur ‘Islamo-fascist’ against him.

• Michael Gove: Politician and former journalist Gove has long been interested in the issue of Islamist extremism. In 2006 he published a book summarising the neoconservative view of Islamism, Celsius 7/7.

Gove was an advisor to the Quilliam Foundation ‘counter extremism think tank’ set up by former Hizb ut Tahrir activists Ed Husain, Maajid Nawaz and Rashad Ali from its formal incorporation in 2007 until its public launch in April 2008; after that the names of Gove - and other advisors - were removed from Quilliam's website in light of the foundation's decision “to respect our advisors' wishes that they continue to advise us in private [and that] to save them the indignity of constant Islamist-Wahhabite harrassment...[Quilliam would] no longer publicise their names.”

• Ed Husain: An ex-Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT, or HT) activist, and formerly with the Islamic Forum of Europe's youth wing the Young Muslim Organisation, Husain later broke with radical Islamism and co-founded “the world’s first counter-extremism think tank” the Quilliam Foundation with fellow former HT members Maajid Nawaz and Rashad Ali Husain has also worked as a senior fellow at American think tank the Council on Foreign Relations, and as an advisor for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

• Gilles Kepel: A French political scientist specialising in the contemporary Islamic and Arab world, Kepel popularised the term ‘Londonistan’ in European news media post-2001. Whilst Lambert drew particular attention to Keppel in his Strathclyde talks, in his written work he has only made passing reference to him.

• Douglas Murray: Previously the founder-director of right-wing think tank the Centre for Social Cohesion (2007-2011), Murray has been associate director at the similarly right-wing Henry Jackson Society since April 2011. A self-declared neoconservative, his writing has been published in publications such as The Spectator, Standpoint, the Sunday Times and the Wall Street Journal. As with Gilles Kepel, Murray has not been directly cited in his written work to any significant degree by Lambert.

• Melanie Phillips: A right-wing journalist and columnist, Phillips was an early public critic of Lambert and his community engagement model of deradicalisation and work with Salafis and Islamists, as well as being a critic of Islam in general. Her book Londonistan (originally published in 2006) posited that Britain had become a staging post for Islamist terrorists due to political and policing policies over time. By the time of the revised eleventh edition in 2008, a new foreword included a direct attack on Lambert and his Muslim Contact Unit, in particular for his claim that one of his MCU officers was a Salafi. The foreword - including the attack on and rank attributed to Lambert - essentially reworked a July 2008 column for the Daily Mail. Phillips returned to the theme of ‘Commander’ Lambert giving jobs to Salafi police officers and working with non-‘moderate’ Muslims in an article for The Spectator later that year, in which she pithily summarised the Lambertist approach: “Islamist extremism is the antidote to Islamist terrorism – that the Muslim Brotherhood are useful allies against al Qaeda”.

Lambert has repeatedly referred to Phillips and her criticism of him, the MCU and of community engagement with Islamists in general. His first notable reference to her came in his (pre-exposure) interview with fellow academic Richard Jackson for Critical Studies in Terrorismin which he suggests that in the reasoning of such commentators “Islamists and Salafis are wrongly conflated with the al-Qaida”. Her book and two articles (including the Spectator one noted above) are later cited in both the London Case Study and UK Case Studies reports produced by him with Jonathan Githens-Mazer at the European Muslim Research Centre, as well as in his book Countering Al Qaeda In London.In 2010 Lambert robustly attacked Phillips' ‘Londonistan’ claims in an article for the Cordoba Foundation's journal Arches, whilst the following year in an article for Al Jazeera (subsequently republished elsewhere) he also made passing reference to Phillips as one of a clique of journalists (“such as [Andrew] Gilligan, Melanie Phillips, Martin Bright.... sorry I won't go on, it's a long list!”) whose “never ending barrage of denigration” undercuts the “outstanding bravery and good citizenship” of the Muslims with whom he worked in Brixton. By Lambert's own account at his Chatham House talk in 2011, it was reading Phillips' book Londonistan (and that by Michael Gove, Celsius 7/7) which “spurred [him] into action” towards the end of his policing career and inspired him to move fully into academic life.

While the London Case Study does not explicitly mention newspapers or colunmists by name, it does reference Londonistan by Phillip as placing a part in triggering hate crimes. This criticism was picked up by several newspapers.

By November 2010 Lambert commented over Phillips' libel defeat at the hands of Mohammed Sawalha (of the British Muslim Initiative), whom she defamed with a 2008 blog post hosted by The Spectator magazine. Lambert noted “she claimed that Mohammad Sawalha had referred to Jews in Britain as "evil/noxious". Over two years later and after much prevarication the Spectator and its star columnist have agreed to apologise and to pay substantial damages and costs.” And in his 2011 interview with Lambert for New Humanist magazine (conducted shortly before Lambert's exposure, but published after it) Paul Sims quoted as exemplars of such antipathy: Phillips about his work ('lunacy'), Andrew Gilligan calling him “one of Britain’s most important fellow travellers of Islamism”. and the blog Harry's Place accusing him of leaving a “legacy of shame at the Met”.

‘Euston Manifesto’

Critics from a different corner are some of the people associated with the ‘Euston Manifesto’ - traditionally Labour or left/liberal types who in 2006 stood behind a declaration calling for “the reconfiguration of progressive opinion that...involves drawing a line between forces on the Left that remain true to its authentic values, and currents that have lately shown themselves rather too flexible about these values.” The Manifesto was in part characterised as a realignment of Labour and left/liberal elements to provide backing for the Iraq war, support for Israel and disassociation from pro-Arab or Islamist currents.

Critical think tanks

Some of the most vociferous criticism of Lambert before his exposure (and to some degree subsequent to it) has emanated from the partisan policy institutes attempting to set the agenda in relation to engagement (or otherwise) with Islamism. Such think tanks can generally be characterised as of the political or economic right, neoconservative or neoliberal in outlook.

• Centre for Social Cohesion: A right-wing think tank, the Centre for Social Cohesion was founded in 2007 by Douglas Murray, who served as its first director, initially as a unit within Civitas, and then as a separately incorporated entity from January 2008 onwards. In 2011 the CSE was merged into the Henry Jackson Society and its staff, including Murray, transferred over to HJS. The discrete legal entity CSC was formally wound up in 2013.

• Henry Jackson Society: Established in March 2005 as a “policy-shaping force that fights for the principles and alliances which keep societies free”, (though not incorporated until 2010), the HJS has been perceived - despite being at its heart a right-wing think tank - as partially aligned with the more social democrat/liberal-oriented ‘Euston Manifesto’ group. Signatories to the Society's ‘Statement of Principles’ include numerous former and current politicians, most notably Michael Gove. Others signed up include smaller numbers of former military officers (Tim Collins, John Drewienkiewicz, Jonathan Gray), journalists (Tom Gross, Stephen Pollard, Irwin Stelzer) and academics (Vernon Bogdanor, Andrew Lever), as well as businessmen and ex-senior civil servants. In April 2011 it absorbed the resources of and personnel from Douglas Murray's Centre for Social Cohesion.

• Policy Exchange: Policy Exchange is a right-wing think tank which defines itself as “an educational charity [whose] mission is to develop and promote new policy ideas which deliver better public services, a stronger society and a more dynamic economy.” (In the past it has described itself as “an independent think tank whose mission is to develop and promote new policy ideas which will foster a free society based on strong communities, personal freedom, limited government, national self-confidence and an enterprise culture.” Its trustees include (or have included) David Frum (a journalist and speechwriter for George W Bush), Charles Moore (former editor of the Telegraph papers and The Spectator magazine), US financier Robert Rosenkranz, Conservative blogger Iain Dale and Tory communications guru Rachel Whetstone, whilst Michael Gove MP was its first chairman. When he published his book on Islamism Celsius 7/7 in 2006, Policy Exchange hosted a launch event for it, at which he was interviewed about it by journalist Nick Cohen (a fellow critic of Islamist engagement).

Key reports published by Policy Exchange include Martin Bright's When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries: The British state's flirtation with radical Islamism, Denis MacEoin's The Hijacking of British Islam, and Choosing Our Friends Wisely: Criteria for engagement with Muslim groups by Shiraz Maher and Martyn Frampton.

• Quilliam Foundation: Describing itself as “the world’s first counter-extremism think tank” and standing for “religious freedom, equality, human rights and democracy”, the Quilliam Foundation was set up in 2007 by former Hizb ut Tahrir activists Maajid Nawaz, Ed Husain and Rashad Ali. Until 2011 funding for the foundation came largely from government sources, with £700,000 paid through Prevent by October 2009, and around a million pounds by August 2010, though Quilliam states that after these streams dried up it “has been independent of public funds ever since.”

In 2010 a Quilliam ‘strategic briefing paper’ for Charles Farr, who headed up the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) within the Home Office - Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain? - was leaked. In the document the Quilliam authors (presumably Nawaz and Husain) draw up a long list of organisations they accuse of proving the “extremist mood music” which “draws British citizens into radicalisation”. Of the thirty-nine specifically mentioned, Lambert has been connected to seventeen of them.

Quilliam and Lambert (and those aligned with Lambert) have long sparred over their differing views on Islamism, and on government approaches to counter-terrorism and anti-radicalisation methods, with Quilliam broadly in support of the Prevent programme, and Lambert critical of it.

Critical blogs

Before his exposure in 2011 as an undercover officer, whilst with the Muslim Contact Unit and then later as an academic, Lambert was subject to criticism from several blogs, notably from the right wing and the milieu around the Euston Manifesto.

• Harry's Place: A joint blog characterised by its typically social democrat/liberal authors' Euston Manifesto-style pro-Iraq War/anti-Islamist leanings, Harry's Place has long criticised Bob Lambert, both as a police officer and as an academic.

• Trial By Jeory: Covering Lambert from the perspective of municipal reporting rather than the more partisan approach of Harry's Place and others, Tower Hamlets-based journalist and blogger Ted Jeory drew attention to serious errors of fact in the European Muslim Research Centre's Islamophobia And Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies report, which was edited by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer, within three days of it being published in November 2010. The University of Exeter “unreservedly apologised”, distribution of the original version was “curtailed”, and a revised edition (minus the offending, possibly libelous, chapter in question) issued the following February.

Further Undercover Research resources on Bob Lambert

• Bob Lambert
• Bob Lambert as Bob Robinson
• Bob Lambert Exposure and Post-Exposure
• Bob Lambert Career Timeline
• Bob Lambert and the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
• Bob Lambert Consultancy
• Bob Lambert and the Muslim Community
• Bob Lambert Writing and Speaking
• Bob Lambert Gallery
• Muslim Contact Unit