For months, residents in Clemmons have been organizing against a proposed asphalt plant, citing concerns about environmental impacts. But recently, reporter Lisa Sorg discovered one of the people helping lead that opposition wasn’t who he claimed to be.
Her investigation for Inside Climate News revealed that the individual was actually a consultant with a history of working for companies conducting so-called “defense campaigns” — undercover operations designed to block development projects on behalf of competitors.
WFDD’s April Laissle spoke with Sorg about what sparked the story and how residents are reacting.
Interview highlights:
On how infiltrators avoid detection:
"You go in under false pretenses, meaning you might go in under an alias, and when you've finished your work, you just fade away. ... A community group may not know that there was a mole because they may think, 'Oh, that person just got busy.' People come and go out of these movements, so they just ghost."
On potential warning signs:
"I think first of all, if someone tries to undermine the leadership, if someone advocates for violence, if someone is not on board with the strategy, and I'm not saying that these grassroots groups all have consensus, but if they seem to have an axe to grind that is not quite what everybody's on the same page about, if you can't find out where they live, if they're vague about their details of their lives. ... It's easy enough to background someone even without paid databases."
On how the revelation has affected residents:
"I don't think that the opposition campaign has weakened at all. In fact, it's getting stronger," she said. "But I do think, on a personal level, a lot of the residents told me that they felt betrayed; they felt invaded. I mean, this man entered their homes, so I don't think the movement is affected as much as it is just a personal feeling of violation."