IN THE SHADOW OF THE AGENT PROVOCATUER *
* A person who induces others to break the law so that they
can be convicted.
Bob Lambert was a police
spy and agent provocateur. He infiltrated Greenpeace in the 1980’s; during his
time spying on British citizens he had several sexual relationships and
fathered a child. In 1986, under the cover name Bob Robinson he co-wrote a
leaflet that led to the infamous McLibel case.
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| BOB LAMBERT THEN AND NOW |
In the 1980’s the McLibel
case shone like a beacon of resistance against the growing power of bullying
corporations. Whilst McDonalds may have technically won the case morally and in
PR terms they were the losers. The role of this agent provocateur, - a term
strangely alien to the British political scene, - in this affair has only just
come to light.
I believe that morality
and ethics have nothing to do with religion. I believe we are all born with a
predilection toward human solidarity. It is even possible that the golden rule
is innate. As nature and nurture take their course we all learn what is right
and wrong. In short we all, sociopaths and psychopaths aside, develop a moral
compass. This of course does not mean that we all direct our actions in the way
the needle points; only that when we so do we are aware that we are not
behaving well. We can sometimes do violence to our sense of what is right, but
‘normal’ people pay a price for doing so.
So what kind of man is Bob
Lambert? He leaves behind him a trail of lies and deceit, whatever the
justification for infiltration of Greenpeace, what possibly justifies the vile
practice of entering into fraudulent relationships with four different women and
fathering a child?
In his non justification
for his actions Mr Lambert stated that his work had been ‘dangerous.’ Well,
certainly had he infiltrated the BNP, Combat 88, the SWP or other far ‘left’
groups with a predilection for bashing in peoples skulls rather than seeking to
persuade them of the merits of dialectical materialism, he might have a case, but
Greenpeace? Of course their might have been some element of danger had he
thought himself at risk of prosecution for some of the crimes he was involved
in, though it is safe to assume that he had been reassured that this would
never happen.
What seems clear is that
whilst imagining himself as some sort of James Bond he was enjoying himself immensely
in his hippy persona, all the time his police pay accumulating in his bank
account.
People like Lambert do far
more damage then any amount of graffiti spraying vandals, phone booth
destroyers, or drunken town centre louts. By undermining the basis of human
relations, the trust that you are who you say you are. They eat away at the
fabric of human relationships leaving terrible wounds in their wake. Additionally
in undermining legitimate protest organisations like Greenpeace or those
supporting the fight for justice, the likes of Mr Lambert are attacking civil
society itself.
There is a case for
gathering human intelligence by infiltrating groups of Islamic fanatics or
fascist groups like Combat 88. In his actions Bob Lambert has damaged that case.
In answer to my earlier
question Mr Lambert is a particularly disgusting human being and he should be
pursued and never allowed bury the harm he has done. He has now re-invented
himself as a professor of counter-terrorism and extremism. Nick Cohen has
written about this.[1]
Perhaps Mr Lambert believes that if he prattles nonsense about Islam he can
make up for his squalid past life. He should be quickly disabused of this idea.
Whoever Mr Lambert now
says he is I would not believe him and, as a small consolation to the people he
betrayed, I suspect that he is in truth no longer sure that he knows himself.
For further information
see:-
[1]‘He became foremost exponent of the idea
that Britain
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