Global Open

Global Open was set up in 2001 by Rod Leeming, a former Special Branch officer. The company keeps a "discreet watch" on protest groups for clients including E.ON.

According to its website, "Global Open can carry out a full security audit of an organisation's plants and offices from an activist's perspective", using the tagline "Be Aware. Be up to date. Keep the threat in perspective." Global Open has been associated with several cases of infiltrating public protest campaigns; its activities raise questions about the revolving door between the police and private security industry.

Global Open's Services

Risk Management

Outlining their services on their website, "aimed at clients at a more serious level of threat from activism", Global Open provide

• Forward-looking intelligence;
• An assessment of future events with the potential for conflict;
• A 24-hour warning service indicating, wherever possible, if a company is about to be targeted;
• Notification of high-risk dates;
• Immediate circulation of new activist tactics;
• A daily summary of events as required;
• Circulation of the movement of activist groups;
• Telephone and email access to our analysts in order to answer your questions.
• Graphs and push-pin maps of the current threat in any country or region.

Intelligence gathering services

Their website states

Companies currently being targeted by activists require fast access to information in order to avoid the effects of economic sabotage and personal harassment.

Until they are targeted, risk managers engaged in business continuity planning often exclude the risk from activism connected with, for example:

• Animal rights;
• Environmental issues;
• Anti-corporatism;
• Anti-globalisation.

Background

Global Open director former special branch

Rod Leeming, a director of Global open, is a former Special Branch officer. Until he left the police in 2001, he admits he regularly infiltrated undercover operatives into protest groups in his role as head of the Animal Rights National index. The animal rights movement subsequently became one of the main focusses of NETCU which polices "domestic extremism". He told The Guardian the company only advises firms on security and insists Global Open does not infiltrate activist groups. However, Global Open appears to have access to well-sourced intelligence.

Peter Bleksley, former undercover police officer, when questioned about the Mark Kennedy affair in an an interview for BBC2, confirms that there are currently more police officers embedded in the movement and that "there are also people from the private security sector working against climate campaigners".

State and private intelligence-gathering

When private security firms send spies into campaigns to gather information, their work bears parallels to that of undercover officer Mark Kennedy whose activities caused significant public outrage when he was exposed. The lack of accountability from ACPO who receive public funding, yet are not designated as "public bodies" was denounced. In the words of ex-undercover officer Peter Bleksley, "don't waste your time compiling a Freedom of Information Act application to see their costs, or examine their expenses – the act doesn't apply to them". However, the measures to hold private security firms to account are even more limited. Senior police officers complain that spies hired by commercial firms are – unlike their own agents – barely regulated. Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers which until recently ran the secretive national unit of undercover police officers deployed in protest groups, stated that "the deployment by completely uncontrolled and unrestrained players in the private sector" constituted a "massive area of concern".

Corporations delegating their "dirty work"

Different from corporate espionage between two private firms, cases of corporate espionage against the public are being uncovered. Arguably the very industries whose environmental and social impacts are being challenged are delegating their dirty work to private security firms. Responding to The Guardian after being exposed hiring the private security Vericola who was infiltrating campaign groups

E.ON said it had hired Vericola and another security firm, Global Open, on an "ad hoc" basis as its executives wanted to know when environmentalists were going to demonstrate at or invade its power stations and other premises, as they had done in the past. The E.ON spokesman said it asked Vericola only for publicly available information and if Todd and her colleagues had obtained private information, they had done so "under their own steam". SRG and Scottish Power did not comment.

The revolving door between Police and Private Security

Undercover police officer Mark Kennedy and Global Open

Controversially, though no longer working for the police, Mark Kennedy was carrying on his life undercover, using his fake name and beginning work within the private security industry.

The nature of the connections between Global Open and mark kennedy remain unclear. Leeming previously claimed never to have met or employed Kennedy. However, according to The Guardian it has been subsequently understood that Global Open had "offered to employ several ex-police officers, including Kennedy, who said he was hired by Leeming as a private investigator last year." .

Mark Kennedy set up his own private security company named Tokra. As researched by The Guardian

In February 2010 – a month before resigning – Kennedy set up Tokra Limited, at an address in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Calling himself a logistics officer, Kennedy registered himself as sole director of the company. Intriguingly, the address he used is the work address of Heather Millgate, a solicitor specialising in personal injury, and a former director of Global Open, a private security firm.

Last spring, Kennedy set up a second firm – Black Star High Access Limited – in east London.On 12 April, Kennedy applied for Tokra to be dissolved. Within a few days of that application, he resigned from the police. Tokra was finally dissolved on the 17 August. On 31 August, Millgate resigned as director of Global Open. Black Star High Access has not yet filed any records to reveal whether it is a viable, financial concern, but it is still active.

Leeming did confirm that Tokra was set up for a "reason" but he could not say what it was – only that it was a confidential matter between Kennedy and Millgate,former director of Global Open . Connections between Kennedy's firm Tokra and Global Open seem to go beyond sharing company registration addresses. In an article for The Daily Mail Kennedy says "in January last year I was approached by a private company which advises corporations about activist trends. It’s run by Rod Leeming, a former Special Branch officer. I’d never met him before". The article continues, stating that Kennedy handed in his resignation from the police in January, ending work in March. He resumed his relationship with his girlfriend while he worked for Global Open as a consultant – although he says he did not operate undercover for the company.

Transferable skills and alliances: police and private security industry

Questions have been raised regarding the ethics of "former police officers cashing in on their surveillance skills for a host of companies that target protesters".

Gordon Irving was a senior officer, and worked for special branch, for 30 years. Since 2001 he is director of security for Scottish Power, subject to criticism due to the social and environmental impacts of their projects. Leaked documents exposed Gordon Irving emailing private spying company Vericola, gathering intelligence on the Climate Camp campaigns. This example of proximity between the police and large corporations, formal or informal, may raise doubts about the the possibility of an entirely unbiased police force.

Another company monitoring protesters is the Inkerman Group, which employs former Met commissioner Lord Imbert as a strategic adviser. A "restricted" report produced by the company three years ago warns of a growing threat of "eco-terrorism". Under a section on "recent acts of eco-terrorism", the document lists a number of peaceful campaign groups, including the anti-aviation collective Plane Stupid. Arguably it has been this elusive threat of "eco-terrorism", sometimes tainted with the conflation between "illegal" and "violent" protest, that serves to justify the need for both the domestic extremism units and the private security firms.

Another example of Special Branch providing transferable skills is Leeming, a director of Global Open, and former Special Branch officer. Until he left the police in 2001, he admits he regularly infiltrated undercover operatives into protest groups in his role as head of the Animal Rights National index. The animal rights movement subsequently became one of the main focusses of NETCU which polices "domestic extremism". However, he insists Global Open does not infiltrate activist groups. He told The Guardian the company only advises firms on security. However, Global Open appears to have access to well-sourced intelligence.

Peter Bleksley, director and co-owner of a business intelligence company, was a founder member of Scotland Yard's undercover unit in the 1980's. Speaking as a former undercover police officer, when questioned about the Kennedy affair in an an interview for BBC2, confirms that there are currently more police officers embedded in the movement and that "there are also people from the private security sector working against climate campaigners". A SpinWatch article comments on Bleksley's words that "the language itself is telling. Not ‘protestors’, but ‘campaigners’. Targeted not for taking illegal direct action, but simply for holding a view. And not simply monitoring: the ‘against’ testifies to an agenda in policing".

Clients

claim to have more than 90 clients, operating from london base (15-02-11)

E.ON

The Guardian reveals a confidential document produced by Global Open for another company interested in plans to attack the E.ON-owned power station at Kingsnorth in Kent dismissed the idea there would be violence. "The aim of the protests is to cause economic damage to ensure that the cost of building more coal-fired power plants becomes prohibitive," it stated. "There is no threat of violence to persons from any of the groups concerned, despite newspaper reports to the contrary." E.On was also found to be employing Vericola who was infiltrating campaign strategy meetings.

In response to The Guardian's expose on hiring the private security Vericola who was infiltrating campaign groups,

E.ON said it had hired Vericola and another security firm, Global Open, on an "ad hoc" basis as its executives wanted to know when environmentalists were going to demonstrate at or invade its power stations and other premises, as they had done in the past.

The E.ON spokesman said it asked Vericola only for publicly available information and if Todd and her colleagues had obtained private information, they had done so "under their own steam". SRG and Scottish Power did not comment.

CAAT

It first came to public attention in 2007 when it was implicated in the case of Paul Mercer, a friend of the then Conservative shadow defence minister, Julian Lewis, who was exposed by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade of spying for the arms firm BAE.

Economic or Violent Threat?

A document regarding the protests at Kingsnorth, produced by Global Open states

"The aim of the protests is to cause economic damage to ensure that the cost of building more coal-fired power plants becomes prohibitive. There is no threat of violence to persons from any of the groups concerned, despite newspaper reports to the contrary."

The conflation between economic and violent threat reoccurs in the public debate about the policing of protest. The Mark Kennedy and Strathclyde Police's attempted infiltration of Plane Stupid illustrate this point. As does the statement on Global Open's own website

"Activists claim that peaceful protest is ineffective."

If the environmental movement poses no threat to people's well-being, why appoint such disproportionate resources to infiltrate and monitor them? The environmental movement does represent an economic threat to the development of industry with large environmental and social impacts.

Developed in a comment piece for The Guardian, this raises interesting questions about the idea of corporate policing.

E.ON, the owner of the alleged target of the alleged protest, gave us a clue about what is going on here in its statement following the arrests: "While we understand that everyone has a right to protest peacefully and lawfully, this was clearly neither of those things."

Spot the deliberate mistake. E.ON's statement conflates the notions of "lawful" and "peaceful" protest; but the critical distinction between these two lies at the heart of the question of whether the extent of policing being applied to the climate movement can be justified. Peaceful does not mean the same thing as lawful. No activists at Plane Stupid or the climate camp have ever been convicted of a violent crime, and we are proud to be a part of the long tradition of non-violent protest.

The accusations that climate activists represent a threat to people's safety are baseless and defamatory. The true threat we represent is a financial threat to some powerful special interests.

It is time to drop the pretence of preventing violence against people, and start an honest conversation about all of this. It is time to ask what constitutes appropriate policing of peaceful protest, whether lawful or otherwise; and to question whose interests are really being served by devoting such extravagant police resources to preventing it.

Company details

Company directors

Companies House records show Global Open was incorporated on 1 February 2001. Its directors are listed as security consultants Roderick Leeming and Victor Ash, and analyst Alison Leeming, who is also company secretary. Heather Millgate, a solicitor, is listed as a former director.

Company addresses

The company Millgate Woodbridge Ltd No.07261650 is registered to:

11 Jacques Lane Clophill Bedfordshire MK45 4BS

The company was registered on the 21/05/2010 and the website on 28/12/2009.

Tokra Ltd, established 09/02/2010, was registered to Millgate's current business address:

36 Orchard Drive Linslade Leighton Buzzard Bedfordshire LU7 2PL

On 13/03/2010, the address was changed to:

Tokra Ltd Suite 2029 6, Slington House Rannkine Road Basingstoke RG24 8PH

Tokra Ltd was wound up on 17/08/2010.

Contact

Companies House registered address:

Global Open Ltd

10 Springpark Drive

Beckenham

Kent BR3 6QD

Company No. 04152470

Website: http://globalopen-uk.com

Email:http://globalopen-uk.com/contact/ (email form)