Going Undercover Among The Stinky

I recently came across this interesting article on a young woman who went undercover to spy on anarchists for the FBI. After attending an anti-globalization demonstration dressed in “grunge” clothing for a school project, she was recruited by the Bureau to attend anarchist gatherings and protests and report on any criminal activity she witnessed. To play the part the woman dressed in, as she put it, the “dirtiest, smelliest” clothes she could find and dyed her hair in all of the primary colors. She eventually fell in with a group of young anarchists who were planning bomb attacks on environmentally damaging targets in California. The unnamed young lady collected over $30,000 for her labors, and then disappeared back into the mainstream world. And do you want to hear the really funny part? She met the motley crew of would-be bombers at an anarchist conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The main item on the conference’s agenda was "sharing skills on how to spot undercover law enforcement people."