Sorry, I couldn't resist the title. Earlier, I wrote a bit about the events that took place this week in the UK. Let's look at the group responsible for the Parliament actions - Plane Stupid.
According to The Guardian, "Plane Stupid was created three years ago after a group of anti-Iraq War protesters found common cause in the government's expansionist aviation policy.
The group conducts what are known as "direct action" operations. These require no overhead support and require no upper leadership approval when a target of opportunity has been discovered. Some of their ops have included the storming of the BAA's appearance at the transport select committee last November and chaining themselves to the gates of Farnborough airport – the main UK hub for private jets. 27-year-old Richard George is said to have co-founded the group with 34-year-old Greenpeace employee Graham Thompson in 2005.
The Guardian report also notes the group is made up of five members who are educated, middle class, and young. It operates on anarchist principles and describes itself as a "devolved network of autonomous groups" numbering around 150 dedicated activists. It has no designated leader and reaches all decisions by consensus.Does this sound familiar? I'm beginning to see a lot of duplication when it comes to celluar structures of nonconformist organizations like this and others. What makes their statements about how they carried out the Westminster op so realistic is their age and education level. They're are all very smart and young enough. I bet at one point they even used student ID's to get past security. When protecting government institutions, we must look at all areas of vulnerabilities. This includes but does not exclude students and young people. If your too lackadaisical and think they're just kids, remember most of the 9/11 hijackers were all in this profile except they weren't white.
