[Imc-uk-features] Feature PROPOSAL

Tue Jul 26 05:58:37 PDT 2005

Hi

On Tue 26-Jul-2005 at 11:07:29AM +0100, Rich wrote:
> 
> The following is a feature proposal that a friend working at the
> Campaign Against the Arms Trade has asked me to put to this list. 

Nice one, I can't see any reason to run it apart from
mistakes in the html ;-)

Chris

Corrected version follows:

<title>UK Information Commissioner links Campaign Against Arms Trade
employee to British Aerospace spymistress</title>

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) today
publishes <a
href="http://www.caat.org.uk/spying.php">evidence</a> from
the UK Information Commissioner which substantively links
its former Campaigns Coordinator, Martin Hogbin, to a
private investigator, Evelyn le Chene. Le Chene was
employed by British Aerospace (now BAe Systems) to collect
confidential information about CAAT, according to evidence
revealed by a Sunday Times investigation.

Throughout his employment at CAAT, Martin sent large
quantities of information about CAAT and other campaigning
organisations to an unidentified email address. The
Information Commissioner's investigation has now found
that this email address belonged to a company linked to le
Chene, which ceased trading directly after the Sunday
Times allegation. CAAT urges everyone involved in
campaigning activities to read its findings, particularly
if they are considering working with Martin.

[BELOW FOLD]

In September 2003, The Sunday Times newspaper <a
href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-833883,00.html">reported</a>
that, starting in 1995, British Aerospace (now BAe
Systems) paid a company directed by one <a
href="http://www.evel.nl/spinwatch/TRFrontpage.htm">Evelyn
Le Chene</a> to infiltrate CAAT, and to collect
information about its activities. The paper cited evidence
that LeChene had used at least half-a-dozen agents posing
as campaigners to provide detailed reports of work in the
CAAT office, meetings and preparations for protests,
copies of correspondence, and other internal documents.

CAAT staff immediately carried out Internal checks to
try to determine how the information had been obtained by
Le Chene and Bae. By chance, staff found that Martin
Hogbin had been sending <a
href="http://www.caat.org.uk/information/spying/spy-email-breakdown.pdf">emails</a>,
many with similar content to that mentioned in the Sunday
Times article, to an email address unknown to them -
joseph at jofa.demon.co.uk (the name "Joseph" has been
changed). This address received a third of all the
emails Martin sent during the period of his employment
covered by CAAT's records - 9 times the number he sent to
any other single address. Continuing right up until the
publication of the Sunday Times article, their content
included details about CAAT employees and supporters,
campaign actions, and details of legal action.

Martin, CAAT's Campaigns and Events Coordinator since November 2001,
and before that an active volunteer since spring 1997, agreed that he
had sent the emails. He said that he believed he had been sending them
to Joseph Jones (name changed), a former CAAT volunteer. Yet
although he had known the volunteer during his time at CAAT, Martin
never addressed the emails by name. The email address was also
associated with a different name in the CAAT email system's electronic
address book.

On legal advice, Martin was suspended on full pay
pending the detailed internal investigation. Two days
later, however, before the investigation began, Martin
resigned. He has refused to cooperate further. The
investigation by CAAT's Steering Committee, with which the
volunteer cooperated, concluded in February 2004 that the
volunteer had not been the recipient of these emails, and
that Martin could not be cleared from suspicion. This <a
href="http://www.caat.org.uk/information/spying/spy-investigation-report.pdf">report</a>
is also published today.

Soon after the Sunday Times article appeared, CAAT was
contacted by officials from the Information Commissioner's
office, the UK government department set up to protect
personal information. In May 2004, following a series of
meetings, CAAT made a formal complaint to the Commissioner
that Martin had passed sensitive confidential information
outside the organisation. Both Martin and Le Chene were
approached by the Commissioner's investigator, and refused
to cooperate with his investigation. On 20
December 2004, the Commissioner <a
href="http://www.caat.org.uk/spying/201204letter">reported
to CAAT</a> that the unidentified email address was indeed
connected to Evelyn Le Chene.

"the investigation did establish that a
former member of CAAT had been forwarding information by
way of e-mail, to a company with links to Evelyn Le
Chene. The individual concerned was approached by
my office but refused to be interviewed regarding this
matter. I also understand that the company
receiving the information ceased trading shortly after
publication of the newspaper article. It is
understood that Evelyn Le Chene is now residing in France
and she has also refused to assist with the
investigation."

Ironically, the narrowness of the Data Protection Act
1998 itself prevents legal action being taken, and forbids
the Information Commissioner from <a
href="http://www.caat.org.uk/spying/080205letter.pdf">"publish[ing]
the name of the former member of staff from CAAT who was
forwarding information by way of email"</a> and releasing
details of the company concerned. In the interests of
fellow campaigners, CAAT confirms today that this
individual, the subject of its complaint, was Martin
Hogbin. Though confidential, the information forwarded in
the emails did not meet the <a href=
"http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?pg=SR&cID=5152">recently
narrowed</a> definition of "personal data", and so is not
covered under the 1998 Act. And although the Sunday Times
documents, seen by the Commissioner, showed that Le Chene
had gathered detailed and sensitive information about
CAAT, the Commissioner could not prove that she had
divulged data-protected information (membership lists,
bank account details).

Despite being unable to bring any legal action, CAAT is
deeply concerned about the privacy and security of its
supporters and other organisations. They urge everyone
involved in campaigning activities to read the findings of
its <a
href="http://www.caat.org.uk/information/spying/spy-investigation-report.pdf">internal
investigation</a> and the <a
href="http://www.caat.org.uk/spying/201204letter">Information
Commissioner</a>, particularly if they are considering
working with Martin. They also encourage all campaigning
organisations to check their email logs for the period
before October 2003 to make sure that no information was
being forwarded to any email of the form
address at jofa.demon.co.uk .

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