Thread by @copscampaign

Only one officer, 'HN345, is giving live evidence at the #SpycopsInquiry today.

He was only deployed by the SDS for a short time, about six months, in 1971. He used the name 'Peter Fredericks'.

There will be a ten-minute delay in place.

He is being questioned by the Counsel for the Inquiry, David Barr QC.

HN345 joined the police in the mid 60s, and when first offered the opportunity to do undercover work “thought it sounded more interesting than road traffic duties”
This was before he joined Special Branch. He was trained 'on the job' to do this undercover work.

While he was doing this 'ordinary' (non-#spycops) undercover work, he came across information about the Stop the Tour campaign.

He also picked up intelligence about the Black Power movement: it “just happened while I was doing other things” He had not been tasked to report on either of these groups at this time.

He explained that he was then approached by Special Branch, because of this previous undercover work, and his success (supplying them & MI5 with useful intelligence)

He was asked if he heard about what was then called the Special Operations Squad (SOS) when he joined Special Branch?

He joined C Squad at first – the section of C Squad that dealt with the Trots & anarchists (not the CPGB section) – and was instructed to attend a demo about Bangladesh.

He gave an account of an incident he witnessed while in plain clothes near Parliament, where he spotted a police comms vehicle on fire and the female officer inside “in distress”.

He and other SB officers had been summoned by radio back to Scotland Yard, but he didn't notice any other serious trouble/ violence that day

“I didn't notice anything to be worried about”.

HN345 confirmed that he received no training on the definitions of 'extremism' or 'subversion'.
He said that “what is subversive to one group could be helpful to another, or positive to another”.

Asked if he could remember being briefed about any specific (Trot or anarchist) groups, he said he could not, it was a long time ago.

He met a woman at a Blangladesh demo who was connected to the 'Operation Omega' activists.
T seems to have flagged him up as a potential recruit for the SOS.

He was told that “Box” (ie MI5) was involved and he would be transferred to this secret #spycops squad and given an undercover identity.

We looked at document [UCPI0000005817], a report of a meeting organised by the IMG VSC in April 1971.

This is a report on a meeting with two speakers (incl Tariq Ali) talking about the struggle of the Vietnamese against American imperialism. A demo was due to happen the following week, on Sat 24th April.

He was asked about HN326 and HN68 – they visited him at home – he can't remember exactly when or why this took place. He and HN326 were already acquainted.

How did he find out what was expected from him? From his #spycops colleagues?
He said it didn't happen that often, they were quite isolated
He agreed that they would have conversations at the 'safe house', the SDS flat
“We were on a bit of a learning curve”

If he made mistakes with his report, someone would correct it. There was a typing team – he didn't type up his own reports.

Barr: Who tasked you to infiltrate Operation Omega?
HN345: I don't remember but my assumption is Ken Pendered (the same man who had invited him to join the SOS).

Did SOS managers discuss this with you before you were deployed?
Were you given instructions about what to find out about Operation Omega?

Was this SOS work just an extension of the work you'd been doing in Special Branch?

HN345 explained one of the main differences: “You didn't go anywhere near the office” once you were in the SOS

He admitted that much the work done by the Operation Omega group was humanitarian in nature.
He doesn't remember any discussions with his #spycops managers about the motivations of these groups, or being directed to infiltrate any groups in particular.
.

He claims not to remember the names of other groups that he reported on, just Operation Omega.

One of the members of the group told him that her family had donated £6500 to the cause

"That was a great deal of money in those days” Barr suggested

[It equates to approx £75k today]

Some members of the group did travel to East Pakistan to deliver aid; he heard (on the grapevine) that one of them gave birth while in custody there.
Was he invited to go to East Pakistan with them? No

The group met up to stuff envelopes together and talk, but HN345 says that decisions were not made in his presence.

He attended some demos with the group. He remembers one in Slough, but can't remember “anything special about those demonstrations”.

The one in Slough involved several thousand people but was un-policed and peaceful:
“Would this have been unusual?” asked Barr, who said he was getting the impression that there were no public order concerns that day.

Did Fredericks go to Speakers Corner in relation to Operation Omega?
Likely, but no memory

He couldn't remember fly-posting with the group.

Did he have to get special permission from his managers to do this? Was anyone upset? No.

He went on to say that fly-posting wasn't serious - “the authorities have more important things to do”.

Barr agreed that it was “at the very very bottom end of the scale of criminal offending”

He didn't have access to the group's mailing list. If he had, he would have passed it along.

Did he recall any other activism with Action Bangla Desh (as the group was then called)?

How well did he get to know the members?
Not very well, he wasn't as “involved in the hierarchy” as others

He met two women from the 'Young Haganah' at Operation Omega events.
He says he didn't 'join' or participate in this group, or socialise with them.
He said he had no plans to infiltrate them, and no memory of being instructed to do so (by Phil Saunders or any other manager)

He did some basic research (at the library) into the Young Haganah grouping.
He said of the connection to Israel - “it just widens the geograohy”

He then admitted that he doesn't know anything about the Young Haganah, but knew the original Haganah were involved in setting up the state of Israel decades earlier.

He recalled being diplomatically 'steered away' from meeting Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and two Labour MPs at a function, by the woman whose family had funded the group's activities.

He “knew something was wrong” when this occurred.

Is this why he moved away from spying on Operation Omega and moved on to target the Black power movement?

He tried to cast a wide net and gather as much info as possible, from all sorts of people.

He compared himself to the provenance of antiques - “if I can be seen to be someone who knows a lot of people, different organisations, perhaps I would gain more trust”

He would hand over the info he gathered, others in the SOS decided what was relevant enough to be included in reports

He mentioned one woman (from the Operation Omega group) who he believes had a hidden agenda – he found it hard to explain what he meant by this – he said she seemed different to the others, and significantly younger than them (she was on her 30s)...

“She didn't fit”
but HN345 couldn't work out why.

He then suggested that there could be a link with the United States (CIA?)
“I could be totally wrong but it attracted my attention” he clearly still remembers the strength of his hunch now

“I don't know what it was but this woman knew what she was doing”
HN345 said he was very careful – listening, doing as little talking as possible - “we enjoyed each other's company” but there was mutual suspicion
She was older than him – he was in his 20s at the time

Did you try to strike up a romantic relationship with her?
He said no, & that he would rather not comment further about this.
He said he would certainly have mentioned her in his reports, but didn't gather any meaningful info (earlier he said that he discovered her work address)

He was then asked about an activist who committed suicide. He considered that his time with the group had ended by then, so he didn't even report it.

He said there was no romantic relationship between them - “I just found her interesting as a human being”

He recived no guidance from his #spycops bosses about mixing with activists after his deployment spying on them had ended.

He says he was not steered towards infiltrating the Black power movement by anyone in the #spycops unit.
He met a guy at Speakers Corner and "hit it off" - was then invited to Black power events & meetings, which led to him meeting activists from the States.

He knew that any such group would be considered to be of interest to Special Branch.
He was "on the periphery, by no means at the heart of it" but added that he "did meet some interesting people" at this time.

Were his bosses pleased?
HN345: “Not pleased, not dis-pleased”

The only time he can remember anyone being 'pleased' was when that letter from 'Box' turned up.

Asked more about the Black Power group
He says he got on “pretty well with some of them” but again, didn't get to know them “hugely well”.
A lot of his time with them was spent socialising rather than discussing politics, but he thought this was a good tactic to gain their trust,

We saw a report [UCPI00000026455] of a Black Power meeting in a pub in September 1971.
The speaker was a student from South Africa, talking on the subject of apartheid. There were a dozen people (incl HN345) in the audience.

There was a second meeting later that month.
Michael Siefert was the speaker – he was part of the Angela Davies Defence Committee (they were all members of the Communist Party of GB)

HN345 said he couldn't remember much about that campaign.

He was not given any guidance on the appropriateness of spying on a justice campaign.

Finally, he was asked about an incident he recounted in his written statement - at a meeting of around 80/90 people on the subject of violent protest, with a speaker from the States.

His witness statement included a description of worrying that he was “going to be kicked to death” after thinking he'd been accused by someone of being in MI5,

He recalled the feeling “when you know you're outnumbered and you're in deep difficulties”

He then said that he was “aware that I was involved with people who had access to and were prepared to use violence as an when necessary”

With that, we stopped for lunch.

The @ucpinquiry has now uploaded HN345's written witness statement, so you can read more detail for yourself before we start again at 2pm:

ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/upl…