Roderick Leeming

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Roderick Leeming, a former Special Branch officer, set up Global Open in 2001. The private security company keeps a "discreet watch" on protest groups for clients including E.ON.[1]

Global Open

Global Open's tagline is "Be Aware. Be up to date. Keep the threat in perspective."[2] 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.[3]

An article by The Guardian, dealing with the undercover police officer Mark Kennedy revealed:

Leeming is a former Special Branch officer. Until Leeming 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. But 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.[1]

Directors

Companies House records show Global Open was incorporated on 1 February 2001. Its directors are listed as Roderick Leeming, Alison Leeming and Victor Ash. Heather Millgate is listed as a former director.

Controversies

Campaign Against the Arms Trade

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.[1] [4]

Private Security Company inked to Undercover Police Officer

It appears that Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer, set up his own private security company, Tokra with links to Global Open.

Leeming told The Guardian the company had never employed Mark Kennedy. He did, however, 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. Today, Millgate declined to comment when asked why Tokra had been set up.[1]

Leeming added that Millgate left Global Open last year on good terms because she wanted to set up her own business. A flurry of official paperwork followed.[1]

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".[5]


  • One 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".[6] 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.[1]


  • 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.[7] Leaked documents exposed Gordon Irving emailing private spying company Vericola, gathering intelligence on the Climate Camp campaigns.[5] 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.


  • The Inkerman Group is another company monitoring protestors, which employs former Met commissioner Peter 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.[5] 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.[8]


  • Russ Corn now works for Diligence, Global Business Intelligence firm, following a career in the UK Special Forces. Diligence was founded in 2000 by an international group of former intelligence officers.[9]


  • 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.[10] 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".[11] 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".[12]


Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Rob Evans, Amelia Hill, Paul Lewis and Patrick Kingsley Mark Kennedy: secret policeman's sideline as corporate spy The Guardian, 13/01/11, accessed 17/01/11 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Evans" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Evans" defined multiple times with different content
  2. ↑ Global Open Website Home accessed 17/01/11
  3. ↑ Global Open Website Security Audit accessed 17/01/11
  4. ↑ Legal briefing, File:CAATvMercer-briefing.pdf‎ CAMPAIGN AGAINST ARMS TRADE v PAUL MERCER & LIGNEDEUX ASSOCIATES, Leigh Day & Co. 18 April 2007.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Paul Lewis and Rob Evans Green groups targeted polluters as corporate agents hid in their ranks The Guardian, 14/02/11, accessed 14/02/11
  6. ↑ LEADING ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST SENTENCED, ACPO press release, 25 February 2005.
  7. ↑ Terry Macalister BP joins renewable power campaign group, The Guardian, 27/12/06, accessed 22/02/11
  8. ↑ Matilda Gifford Why spy on peaceful protesters? The Guardian, 26/04/09, accessed 17/01/11
  9. ↑ Diligence Website, New Leadership and Expanded Office Will Help Meet Rising Demand for Risk Management Services, 03/01/06, accessed 23/02/11
  10. ↑ Contributor's profile Peter Bleksley, The Guardian, accessed 22/02/11
  11. ↑ Kirsty Wark, NewsNight "BBC2" 10/01/11, accessed 11/01/11
  12. ↑ Tilly Gifford Unmasking the environmental infiltrators, SpinWatch, 19/01/11, accessed 22/02/11
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