English“Dan” infiltrated groups in France, including groups participating in the grassroots “yellow vests” protests and groups organizing against the 2019 G7 Biarritz summit. She attended meetings and helped organize demonstrations and other events.
She was identified because:
- During a meeting, activists noticed that she was discreetly taking pictures with her phone.
- Activists then seized the phone and found that she had taken many pictures of meetings, demonstrations, and actions, and was sending information about activists to a supervisor.
“Kat” and “Alex” infiltrated the Toronto-based Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN). Claiming to be a couple, they attended a few meetings and tried to find out what MISN was planning in opposition to the 2015 Pan American Games. Kat claimed to be a survivor of abuse in order to avoid answering questions about her past.
They were identified because:
- They exhibited suspicious behavior, such as asking suspicious questions and having suspicious social media profiles.
- One day, a person who suspected they were infiltrators followed them into a subway station. After noticing the person following them, Alex appeared to talk on the phone. Shortly after, two police cars arrived, and police officers ran out of the cars and into the station, as if they had been waiting nearby to protect Kat and Alex in case something went wrong and Alex had called them to ask them to intervene.
- A journalist investigating the story could not find Kat or Alex in public legal records and could not confirm that Kat lived in the neighborhood she claimed to live in, despite knocking on doors and talking to people in the neighborhood.
John Jacob Towery infiltrated anarchist and anti-war groups in Tacoma and Olympia in Washington state. He attended meetings, drove his targets to events, spent time in their homes, and gathered information from conversations he overheard. Claiming to be ex-military and to now work as a civilian in the IT department of a nearby army base, he used knowledge from his “job” to “help” an anti-war group.
He was identified partly because:
- His car was seen in the driveway of a house whose address was linked to his real name.
- His motorcycle's license plate was associated with an organization of motorcycle enthusiasts, and, on the organization's website, he was listed under his real name as a member who rode a motorcycle of the same make and model.
- When confronted with evidence, he confirmed being an infiltrator.
