by Timothy Chilman

email: timothychilman@yahoo.com

Scientologists touting for business. Photo: MalleableExit

So, what does the faux religion of Scientology entail? Tom Cruise denied it, the website www.scientologymths.info still denies it, and the Church of Scientology has attempted to suppress the story by means of copyright and trade secrecy lawsuits, but it goes like this: after Scientologists have shelled out an estimated $350,000 to reach Operating Thetan Level III, they hear the story of Xenu, the overlord of the 76 planets of the Galactic Confederation. He solved overpopulation by transporting people to the planet Teegeeack – Earth – on spaceships that resembled Douglas DC-8s and destroying them with H bombs. The souls of the dead are called Thetans, which attach themselves to people, and Scientology is largely based on ridding people of them.

Xenu was overthrown by the Loyal Officers, and imprisoned in a mountain on Madeira where he remains to this day. A document handwritten by Hubbard tells the story and Church spokesman Tommy Davis confirmed it. Wikileaks released details of the OTIII procedure. The official Scientology line is that anybody reading the story of Xenu without undergoing the appropriate preparation could die of pneumonia.

L. Ron Hubbard in 1950, admittedly some time before the events described here

The Snow White Program was devised by the founder of the Church of Scientology, science fiction hack author, L. Ron Hubbard, in 1973. It is sometimes wrongly referred to as Operation Snow White, which annoys Scientologists. It was so-called because Hubbard wished it to make his Church appear snow white.

The Church claimed that the Program aimed to nullify government reports about the cult which were perceived to be untrue by Hubbard and his followers. The stated objective of the program was “to engage in various litigation in all countries affected so as to expose to view all such derogatory and false reports, to engage in further litigation in the countries originating such reports, to exhaust recourse in these countries and then finally to take the matter to the United Nations… and to the European Commission on Human Rights, meanwhile uprooting and canceling all such files and reports wherever found.” This would entail the submission of Freedom of Information Act requests to federal agencies, the requesting of public records, and litigation.

The Program was created while Hubbard and the management of Scientology were aboard the ship, Apollo, which Scientologists described as “the sanest place on the planet.” The 3,280 ton Apollo had for almost a decade been the personal yacht of Hubbard. The Program was largely prompted by the difficulties encountered by the Apollo as it shuttled between ports in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Madeira. The Apollo had often visited ports without problems from 1969 to the first half of 1974, but in July, 1973, rumors surfaced in Portugal that the vessel was a “CIA ship.” The same had been rumored in Spain in 1972. When the Apollo stopped at the port of Funchal in Madeira, Portugal, on October 3, 1974, the ship was attacked by a sizable crowd who threw rocks and shouted: “CIA ship!” One crew member said that Molotova cocktails were thrown, but were not lit. “Fortunately, “ he said, “this was not an experienced mob.” Nearby police and army units declined to intervene. Some Church members were injured and property was damaged: lines were cut and Scientologists’ autos and motorcycles were pushed off the dock and into the water. Attackers were fended off with fire hoses, and the ship departed in haste.

The Scientologists were perhaps not best placed to complain of their reception. On June 25, 1971, a young woman from Colorado, Susan Meister, died in an apparent suicide aboard the Apollo. The next month, her father went to the ship when it was in Safi in Morocco to inquire about his daughter’s death. Hubbard was reportedly on the ship, but declined to meet Meister. Meister questioned the explanation of Susan’s suicide which he received from Scientology personnel, and suggested that he might seek further investigation. In the present of the American vice consul from Casablanca, William J. Galbraith, the Apollo’s captain said that “he had enough material, including compromising photographs of Miss Meister, to smear Mr. Meister first.”

The captain’s threat was likely empty. A person acquainted with Susan who later left the Church said, “There was no way that girl could have been involved in anything compromising. She was very quiet, very nice.”

The captain also said that “”his organization, backed by money and friends in high places, ‘would cause a nosy vice consul severe problems’.” In Safi, he said, his ship was well-regarded and “Accidents could easily happen to people.”

The two most senior officers of the ship filed a formal complaint with the State Department, claiming that Galbraith had said he could “get the ship sunk … by the CIA” or arrange its sabotage “by getting a couple of bottles of Coca-Cola into the (engine) oil, or, even better, commercial diamond dust.”

The Apollo was, like this vessel, a rustbucket. Photo: PhillipC

The Apollo was registered in Panama with its owner designated as Operation and Transport Corp, Ltd., a Panamanian company which declined to divulge the names of its clients. The Panamanian consul said the Apollo was “in a very bad state of repair” and “the lives of the crew had been in jeopardy while the vessel was at sea.”

The Apollo transmitted messages in code. A U.S. diplomatic cable from Tangier which was dated April 26, 1972 said that there had been rumors in town that the Apollo was “involved in drug or white slave traffic.” The latter is a delightful term for prostitution, and the cable said that the allegation arose because aboard the Apollo were “a large number of strikingly beautiful young ladies.” The cable added that these allegations were likely false, as the vessel stood out “like a sore thumb,” and would not have been employed by anybody not wishing to attract attention. The rumors followed the Apollo to the Caribbean. In Trinidad, the tabloid, The Bomb, connected the Apollo not only with Scientology, but also the CIA and the Sharon Tate murder. The Church sued for libel.

The American Consul General in Tangier, Howard D. Jones, told of a social encounter with a lady from the Apollo’s owner, the mysterious OTC company. She told him: “’I am Meredith Thomas. I am here with a Panamanian corporation, and that is all I can tell you.”

The Apollo attracted attention in Portugal because the ship purported to be owned by a wealthy consultant, but dirty laundry was hung from it, children could be seen running around the decks, and the vessel was a wreck.

The Snow White Program was, in truth, a systematic attempt to infiltrate the U.S. government and steal files relating to the Church. The Program was divided into Snow White Operating Targets, each of which had a codename.

The building on Constitution Avenue in Washington which houses the IRS, and was a target of the Snow White Program

The highest priority targets included the IRS, CIA, FBI, FDA, NSA, DEA, U.S. air force, army, navy, and coast guard, the U.S. attorney general, the Departments of Justice, Labor, State, Treasury, Immigration, the Post Office, and the Senate and House of Representatives.

Project Hunter targeted the IRS in addition to other federal and state agencies. The plan was written by Hubbard on 20 April, 1973. He said the Project was one of “record correction”: French police, he said, had reported that the U.S. government had made false accusations against him. He described the resultant damage as “incredible,” causing problems with immigration and suchlike. This would be the subject of a complaint to the UN, a venture which did not get anywhere. The Church’s representative at the UN was John McMaster, who wore a ministerial collar and was addressed as “Father McMaster.” Hubbard’s plan was entirely legal: government agencies would be asked for relevant information, and if that could not be “corrected,” suit would be filed. In practice, it was all terribly illegal, and encompassed the governments of several nations.

Mary Sue Hubbard in 1957

The Guardian’s Office (G.O.) was an organization within the Church headed by Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue. It was, in effect, a private CIA.

The G.O. was responsible for the planting of a bug in a conference room of the IRS Chief Counsel, where the Church was discussed. Jane Kember, the Guardian World Wide, who resided in East Grinstead, in England, issued Guardian Order 1361, which called for the insertion of a Scientologist agent into the IRS in Los Angeles. This individual was to be “trustworthy and well grooved-in.” G.O. member, Gerald Wolfe, codenamed Silver, was given this mission.

Wolfe was hired as a clerk typist in May, 1975. He acted in concert with the G.O.’s Assistant Guardian for the Bureau of Information, Michael Meisner. Between May, 1975 and June, 1976, the pair burglarized the offices of the IRS’s Chief Counsel, a number of attorneys, the Interpol Liaison Office, the Office of Intelligence Operations, and the Deputy General of the United States using Wolfe’s I.D. card and five forged ones.

Documents were taken relating to organizations other than the Church, so that another body would be suspected. Information was obtained to resist a financial audit by the IRS in California, and to assist with a Freedom of Information Act suit against the IRS. IRS stationery was stolen to be used to draft fake letters from a disgruntled employee.

The premises of the Church of Scientology which were raided by the FBI

In June, 1976, Wolfe was apprehended by the FBI with a forged I.D. Card, after a security guard at the U.S. Courthouse became suspicious of his credentials. He was arrested and convicted of forging identity documents. Meisner escaped justice for a year, but he did not escape imprisonment: the G.O. held him captive when he threatened to flee Los Angeles to Canada or Washington, D.C. He escaped and turned himself over to the FBI and agreed to cooperate. A month after that, the FBI raided the G.O.’s offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. The thousands of documents seized included most of those stolen from IRS offices.

Eleven G.O. Officials were indicted, and nine landed prison sentences of between six months and, in the case of Mary Sue Hubbard, five years and a fine of $10,000. Mary Sue pleaded for leniency, but was criticized by her judge for attempting to “destroy the very foundation of the government.” She served one year before being released, and was ousted from her position as head of the G.O. L. Ron Hubbard was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, and it is unlikely he was unaware of the activities of his spouse. Other of the Church of Scientology’s covert operatives were uncovered. Nancy Douglass, codename Pitts, worked for the Drug Enforcement administration while the attractive Sharon Thomas, codename Judy, was employed by the American Psychiatric Association, the Coast Guard and then the Department of Justice. Both stole or photocopied documents, and received light sentences for their actions.

Documents obtained by the FBI told of Project Apple, an attempt to remove negative references to Scientology from the files of Interpol, the Paris police, and the French ministry of immigration and Project Coal, an attempt to have German critics of the Church charged with genocide.

Paulette Cooper, the target of Operation Freakout

Some of the seized documents detailed Operation Freakout PC. This was a series of efforts to undermine Paulette Cooper, author of The Scandal of Scientology. The aim was to have her “incarcerated in a mental institution or jail or at least to hit her so hard that she drops her attacks.” Some of her stationery was stolen and her fingerprints acquired, which were used to make bomb threats against the Church. Until the evidence revealed by the FBI raids, Cooper faced 15 years in jail. No indictments resulted from Freakout, but it has been speculated that Cooper filed civil charges and received a cash settlement. Church documents discussed framing Cooper for bomb threats against an Arab consulate and Henry Kissenger, and threats to then-President Nixon.

One policy which fell into the hands of the FBI was entitled, Security and Theft of Materials, which talked about how to burglarize. Premises would be cased before operatives entered, wearing gloves. A series of cover stories would be created for presentation to authorities, and anybody arrested would say only the minimum required by law. Operatives were to carry nothing which connected them to the Church. A document named Walk-Ins detailed how to break into a locked xerox machine, how to open a locked door with a credit card, how to make a metal tool for lockpicking, how to use a strand of wire for the same, how to defeat a combination lock, and more. Illustrations were provided.

The document, B & Es (breaking and entering), commented that “some of our most successful collections actions fall into this category.” Another document spoke of bugging and debugging. Policy #121669, Programme: Intelligence: Internal Security, said that personnel files should be used against targets. One document concerned plans to put agents into the offices of the U.S. Attorney, the headquarters of the AMA, and different state and local district attorneys. Compliance Report GO#121569 said that with the World Federation of Mental Health, “everything possible was done to collect the data, everything from infiltrating to stealing to eavesdropping, etc.”

The policy documents, The Correct Use of Codes and Re: Coding/Wording of Messages, said messages should be encoded if they concerned incriminating activities, particularly those that might require more payment of tax. Specified were activities that would call into question the Church’s humanitarian motives, and admission to unpunished crimes, breaking and entering, posing as a government agent, illegal wiretapping of taping of conversations, harassment, and bribery. Wording such as “let’s wipe him out,” in particular, was to be encoded.

The document, Re.: Intelligence, listed infiltration, bribery, purchasing information, robbery, and blackmail as methods of obtaining information. Another document described the system of the Red Box, where evidence of illicit activities was kept in a folder or briefcase which could be quickly destroyed in the event of a raid. Basic and Essential Security said that G.O. Staff should be capable of destroying incriminating material within 30 to 60 seconds. It said that “Fire is usually most thorough and practical,” and recommended having lighter fluid and matches to hand.

G.O. Agents attended a course known as Information Full Hat. The reading list for the course included Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, The Spy and His Master, and KGB, CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. Training in lying was given.

Information obtained during "auditing" was passed to the G.O.

The G.O. maintained files on all Scientologists and people perceived to be enemies. As Hubbard said in a policy later dated 5 August, 1959, “Remember one thing, we are not running a business, we are running a government. We are in direct control of people’s lives.” Information divulged by Church members during “auditing” sessions where confidentiality had been promised ended up with the G.O. The information was used for intimidation and, specifically, blackmail. One such file, on a member who became disaffected, detailed her promiscuity (“She slept with four or five men during the course… She had quite a record of promiscuity… She has masturbated regularly since she was eight years old, mentions doing it once with coffee grounds and once had a puppy lick her”), Another report talked of the subject’s several abortions, appointments with a psychiatrist due to alcohol problems, drug history, and son being in jail.

New members to the Church were interviewed, where they were asked questions about all their past lives. Inquiries included: “Have you ever enslaved a population?”, “Have you ever eaten a human body?”, and “Did you come to Earth for evil purposes?” Adherents sign a billion year contract.

The Church says that the Guardian’s Office was disbanded in 1983, but it appears to have been merely renamed the Office of Special Affairs. The Apollo was sold on and became a restaurant in Texas before it was cut into scrap. While the Church of Scientology claims to work toward global social betterment, its true function was apparent from a 1972 policy letter written by Hubbard to senior Scientologists: “Make money… make more money… make other people produce so as to make money.”

Bibliography

“Scientology Myths.” Church of Scientology. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.scientologymyths.info/snow-white-program/.>
“The strange links between the CoS-IRS agreement and the Snow White Program.” Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/irs-snow.html<a href=”http://www.scientologymyths.info/snow-white-program/”/.>
“Lies Debunked: Operation Snow White – FOIA.” Church of Scientology volunteer ministry Program. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.cosvm.org/swfoia.htm.>
“Lies Debunked: Operation Snow White – Germany.” Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministry Program. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.cosvm.org/swgerm.htm.>
“OSA (Office of Special Affairs) — The Secret CIA of Scientology.” Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us-12.html.>
“Scientology – Crime & Legislation – Operation Snow White.” Whatisanonymous. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.costruth.com/trans/index.php/Whatisanonymous_-_english_-_Scientology_-_Crime_&_Legislation_-_Operation_Snow_White.>
Preston, Alex. “The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion by Hugh B Urban – review.” Guardian. 2 September 2011. 10 January 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/02/church-of-scientology-urban-review.>
“Google Asked to Delist Scientology Critics.” Chilling Effects. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=90357.>
Gillette, Robert. “Scientology Flagship Shrouded in Mystery.” Los Angeles Times. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.xenu-directory.net/mirrors/www.whyaretheydead.net/susan_meister/latimes_780829.txt.>
“The Sea Org — ‘For the Next Billion Years…’.” Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. n.d. 10 January 2012. <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us-09.html.>
Leyden, John. “Scientology spokesman confirms Xenu story.” The Register. 16 March 2009. 10 January 2012. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/16/scientology_xenu_confirmation/.>

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It’s seen by some that the Salvation Army’s extreme beliefs of Christian fundamentalism is harming women’s rights, homosexuals, the terminally ill, and religious freedom.

Homophobia

As Jamie McGonnigal of LGBTQNation reports:

• When New Zealand considered passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986, the Salvation Army collected signatures in an attempt to get the legislation killed. The act decriminalized consensual sex between gay men. The measure passed over the charity’s objections.
• In the United Kingdom, the Salvation Army actively pushed passage of an amendment to the Local Government Act. The amendment stated that local authorities “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.” The law has since been repealed, but it led many schools and colleges to close LGBT student organizations out of fear they’d lose their government funding.
• In 2001, the organization tried to extract a resolution from the White House that they could ignore local non-discrimination laws that protected LGBT people. While the commitment would have applied to all employees, the group claimed that it needed the resolution so it “did not have to ordain sexually active gay ministers and did not have to provide medical benefits to the same-sex partners of employees.” After lawmakers and civil rights activists revealed the Salvation Army’s active resistance to non-discrimination laws, the White House admitted the charity was seeking the exemptions.
• Also in 2001, the evangelical charity actively lobbied to change how the Bush administration would distribute over $24 billion in grants and tax deductions by urging the White House deny funding to any cities or states that included LGBT non-discrimination laws. Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary, issued a statement saying the administration was denying a “regulation sought by the church to protect the right of taxpayer-funded religious organizations to discriminate against homosexuals.”
• In 2004, the Salvation Army threatened to close all their soup kitchens in New York City to protest the city’s decision to require all vendors and charities doing business with the city to adhere to all civil rights laws. The organization balked at having to treat gay employees equal to straight employees.

Against Women’s Rights

According to the Salvation Army website,

When an unwanted pregnancy occurs, The Salvation Army counsels that the parents receive caring support for their emotional, physical, social and spiritual needs, and that the unborn child be carried to term.

Against Euthanasia

Again, according to the organization,

The Salvation Army believes that euthanasia and assisted suicide are morally wrong, and holds that they should continue to be illegal under Canadian law.

Promotion of one religion over the other

The Salvation Army has banned the distribution of Harry Potter books and Twilight toys, claiming the books and films are incompatible with the charity’s Christian beliefs.

From the Edmenton Sun article:

I was told to withhold a six-inch Harry Potter figure, but when I picked up a plastic M-16, I was told, ‘That’s for the 10-year-olds,’” he said.

I was shocked…war-themed toys and toys from TV shows and movies with far more violence than Harry Potter and these were considered appropriate toys?

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TIME changes the cover of its magazine when selling issues in the United States.  The latest occurrence involves the December edition, where pictures of the Egyptian revolution are replaced by a childish cartoon telling Americans it’s o.k. to worry about silly little insignificant things.

Why the switcharoo?

Many negative inferences can be drawn from the cover-switching practice:

• Media is censored in America
• Americans are too dumb to understand world problems
• Americans don’t care about world problems
• The media is afraid Americans may copy their global neighbors

That last one, “media is afraid Americans may copy their global neighbors”, is big.  Comparing the December issues, what is different between the American and international versions is the topic of conflict.

Media doesn’t want to start fights that would end sales

American Media knows how powerful it is.  It censors the Occupy Wall Street movement for a reason:  it doesn’t want to slow business.

Conflict is bad for business.  Suppressors lose money when their victims rebel against them.  That’s why you don’t see any hard-hitting journalism and in-depth reports anymore on TV; the Disney-owned ABC news network instead presents inconsequential stories that do nothing but encourage you to keep sitting on your butt and watching their channel and buying their products.

Be weary of news from corporate-owned media

When media giants like ABC or TIME bring up a topic in their news stories, ask yourself, what topics did they choose to ignore?  Is there anything more important happening in the world now that they are not reporting, and why?

Thanks to David Airey for the cover comparison.

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A report by the Wall Street Journal confirms CIA drones are targeting “men believed to be militants associated with terrorist groups, but whose identities are not always known.”

The attack on unknown targets comes as the result of increased military offense efforts in the Pakistani region.  Initially, only top-level terrorist leaders were targeted.  Now, simply spotting a group of people talking in the street is enough for the CIA to initiate an attack.

The Hunt for Terrorists Comes Home

It’s not a good sign when a country’s intelligence agency begins to accept the mass murdering of possible innocents as standard operating protocol.  The feared consequence is that the agency will use the same tactics against its own people.

Why would the CIA attack its own people, you ask?  Consider the spread of civil unrest events breaking out all over the country recently: New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Denver, Chicago, Seattle, and many more.

Protestors massing. CNN

News and media outlets spin the Occupy Wall Street protestors as big unruly mobs that will destroy America with their lethargy and no-purpose attitudes.  Rebels without a cause, you might say.

As the economy continues to nosedive and the protests continue to grow, tension will rise between the government and the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Acts of brutality have already made headlines.  Two Oakland residents, both Iraq War veterans, have been hospitalized due to police crackdowns.  Actions like these only further the divide between government and public, constructing false perceptions of ‘good guy’ versus ‘bad guy’.

The government, the ‘good guys’ as they would see themselves, could place grassroots movements and protests in the same category of homegrown terrorism and order drone airstrikes on protestors.  The orders would be carried out because the same tactics used against terrorists abroad should be just as effective against terrorists at home.

“We do it overseas, and it works, so why not do it here?” would be the reasoning and justification for carrying out drone attacks on homeland targets.

Stop the Bloodshed Before It Can Go Further

The CIA’s indiscriminate killing of possible innocent civilians must come to an end.  Today they may be going overseas and killing innocent strangers, but tomorrow, they could come home for Anonymous.

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The goal of the program is to predict events before they happen.  They collect data from thousands of blogs, websites, twitter accounts, and social networks (GOOGLE PLUS ahem) and put it together to make connections out of it.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is receiving a lot of attention around the world.  It’s garnishing the attention of Recorded Future as well; so much so that the company has decided to make it a primary focus of their eavesdropping and data surveillance research.

In this video, Recorded Future attempts to map the global spread of Occupy Wall Street by placing dots in cities where protests broke out in chronological order.

Does Google and the CIA share the same bed?

Although Google and the CIA are partners, no one really knows how deep the connection is.  Let’s just call it friendly.  Google has been known to sell servers and products to the NSA, and White House visitor logs show that Google’s director of public policy and political affairs has had at least 3 meetings with the National Security Council since 2010.

Despite these lovely get-togethers, Google continues to show some forms of independence.  Its refusal to grant a law enforcement request to pull a police brutality video shows that the company is not yet 100% pro government– at least not local government, that is.

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Opening the Gate to World Domination

GATE, or Gifted And Talented Education, was a program that introduced young American students to new and developing educational methods and technologies.  The program claimed the testing was harmless, but some of the participants are looking back on the experience now as adults and realizing  it was way out of the ordinary and perhaps dangerous.

There is talk in some circles that the true purpose of the program was for the government to train a tireless and submissive army that would die fighting at the commands of its leaders.  The group was to become a walking meat-shield, human body guards programmed to protect their leader and fight to the very end.

A Gateway to Brainwashing and Mind Control

To most, the memory of how they were tested in GATE’s classes is a blank spot in their mind; as if it were erased.  But because of the number of people that were involved in this program was so great, we can piece together individual accounts to get the big picture.

GATE was all about experiments.  The kids were given simple materials and asked to construct vehicles and moving parts.  They were asked to look at images and then draw them with their eyes closed.  They were given lessons in the programming code Basic.  They were given various logic puzzles and tests, the most peculiar being the fast flickering light examination.  People fear that this “examination” was the main tool the program used to brainwash and plant obedience into their naive young minds.

Gates Closed

For reasons unknown, GATE was discontinued, and children were no longer required to be taken out of class and attend special sessions.  It looked as though the kids– now adults, were free to live their lives without worry of the testing they underwent.  It was believed the program did not last long enough to leave any lasting scar or imprint on their minds.  Recently, however, this belief is changing.

People Searching for Answers

GATE participants are finding each other in forums and on the Internet, sparked by a recent interest in the program they seemed to have gained all at the same time.  The conclusion that many draw from this occurrence is that the GATE program in fact did NOT fail, that it succeeded in brainwashing and controlling their minds, and that the orders implanted laid dormant and are now just beginning to activate as the former kids reach the age of full-grown adults.

To those reading this who participated in GATE, leave a message below expressing your experience with the program and any advice you can give to prevent the government from switching the mind-control button to ‘On’.

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Is Facebook the CIA's information gathering site?

We all love Facebook. We tell it who our friends are, what we like and don’t like, what we are doing today, and anything else which pops into our innocent little social network loving heads. It’s hard to keep track of the count of users  now as it goes up all the time. Even your grandparents probably use it.

But what if the friendly Facebook image is just a front and it’s actually being run by the ruthless men of the CIA?

Who Wants All This Information Anyway?

Are you telling the government what you like?

The story goes that the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was looking at ways to use cutting edge technology to grab people’s personal details for its Information Awareness Office (IAO) section for use by the government. They wanted easy access to names, addresses,credit card details, and anything possible. When word got out about their plans, there was an outcry and the IAO was effectively rendered useless by getting funding cut off. So does the story end there?

Well, if you believe the Facebook conspiracy theory then it doesn’t.  You see, information gathered about you would be extremely useful to snoops from the CIA and it has been repeatedly suggested that they are behind a good deal of Facebook’s initial funding– it’s basically a sham operation to gather information for the US government.

Check out the Facebook’s terms of use and privacy policy if you haven’t read them before. They make for interesting reading.

How to Stay Safe

The best way to protect your information is to refrain from releasing it in the first place.  Once it is saved in your profile, the data cannot be deleted from Facebook’s database.  It may appear gone, but it stays stored in Facebook’s server even though it is no longer shown on your profile.

So now we know to be more protective of the information we release.  Another way we can stay safe is to prevent Facebook from tracking what websites we visit.  This can be down with the help of a Firefox addon called Priv3.  This is one of many addons that can prevent unauthorized tracking of your Internet use.  Another handy one is NoScript, which stops websites from running scripts and malicious code on your computer without permission.

Facebook and CIA Connections

Was Facebook set up by the CIA? Probably not, but information you feed into it is being seen by more people than you think. Facebook cooperates with governments to release requested information about its users.  The social network has also filed a patent detailing how to track users that are not logged into the site.  This means Facebook has found a method to continue collecting information from you even when you’re not using the site.

Facebook’s controversial privacy policy throws up a red flag among Internet privacy watchdogs, and for good reason.  After typing in personal details and secrets into Facebook, prepare to see that information follow you forever.

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The conspiracy of dumbing down society on food

Could it be true that the elite is dumbing down society through the use of food and medicine? The elite not only control the food and medicine industry, but they also allow government to tolerate and implement laws dumbing down people on physical, emotional, and mental levels, in order to control the population and reduce it by 80-90%.

In the context of food, beverages, and medicine, society is a puppet on strings, unaware that the elite control what is eaten and drank.  I do not give this information to scare, but to inform people to be observant– food  contains harmful chemicals, toxins, and untraceable poisons.

Dumbing Down Society on Food and Beverages: What’s in the Food and Drinks?

Have you ever wondered why, after you eat a certain food, you keep craving it? Food companies exist to make a profit. With the use of food additives, chemicals, and artificial flavors, consumers are indoctrinated through mass media to crave the foods advertised.  These food companies deceive us into thinking the food is satisfying and healthy.

Mosanto,  a company holding a huge monopoly on the agricultural industry, produces an estimate of 95% of all soybeans and 80% of all corn in the US.  The company practices genetic modification, which makes their food more pleasing to the taste buds and eyes of consumers.  If they have enough control of the genetics of food to make it big and tasty, they may also have enough control to alter the behavior of the people who eat it.   Think of the corn, beans, and steak you had for dinner yesterday. It’s likely your food contained patented genes owned and engineered by the Mosanto company.  That food could even be influencing the way in which you make decisions today.

Mosanto also markets Roundup brand pesticide, which is used to strengthen crops against insects and disease.  Studies show Roundup leads to many health problems, miscarriages, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and increased risk of the cancer non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  Why is such a harmful product allowed on the market?  Because the people who are supposed to make such harmful products illegal, the people who pass laws for agriculture, food, and medicine, are also the same people who used to work  for Mosanto.

We all love sitting back and watching television programs (which are programs to “program” and indoctrinate) while drinking cold soda. There’s an ingredient found in beverages, especially those “sugar-free” ones, called Aspartame. This is used as an artificial sweetener not only in sodas, but also in chewing gum. It was discovered in 1965, and caused controversy regarding its effect on causing brain tumors.  The FDA considered it so dangerous that it was banned from sale, until the Searle company came along and pushed it to market. It was at this same time they also appointed Donald Rumsfeld as CEO, and then guess what happened? Now, over 5,000 foods contain Aspartame.

Dumbing Down the Society on Medicines: What’s in your Prescription Drugs?

The dumbing down of society in medicine

Another way for the elite to dumb down society is by using prescription drugs to not treat disease, but to sedate you and slow down your brain function. There has been a huge increase in the amount of drugs prescribed, particularly for children targeted by disorders such as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Children who have ADD are prescribed drugs to sedate them; Ritalin use at very young ages has increased. Research shows that this leads to children becoming more dependent on psychotropic drugs later in life.

“This concern have also been voiced out in the January 2005 issue of Pediatrics in which the large discrepancies between pediatricians’ practice patterns and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for the assessment and treatment of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was bought forth. The article also stated that because the medical community didn’t come to a consensus on how to diagnose ADD/ADHD, they should not be making extensive decisions as to how to treat individuals who have been diagnosed with the disorder.”

Many prescription drugs are sold, prescribed, and approved by the elite.  Most are not ground with proper research on their long-term effects, and if side effects are found, it is quite unlikely that the public will not be informed of them. I am not against taking medicine, nor am I saying  to stop trusting your doctor for prescription drugs, but come to think of it, where did your doctors study? In prominent and well-established universities. Even educational systems are intended to indoctrinate, not to educate, but to feed our minds with information which only they want us to know. Universities are also controlled by the elite. All these systems work together to work against us, and it is up to us to be aware and informed.

Related posts:

1. National Advertising Campaign Rebrands High Fructose Corn Syrup as Corn Sugar
2. 18th Century Secret Society Book Decrypted
3. Ohio Exotic Animal Farm Owner Found Dead

email: timothychilman@yahoo.com

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

- The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

The villain of the piece

COINTELPRO stands for counter-intelligence program, and is the collective name for 2,370 covert action programs directed at US domestic groups by the FBI from 1956-1971.

Here, the FBI acted beyond the realm of intelligence collection and resorted to action to “neutralize” or at least “disrupt” targeted groups or individuals. The FBI intended to prevent the exercise of First Amendment rights of free speech, free press, association, and protest, positing that preventing the expansion of undesirable groups propagating dangerous ideas would protect national security by deterring violence. In Brandenberg v Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), the Supreme Court declared actions of this nature to be illegal.

COINTELPRO was investigated by the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities – the Church Committee. More than 20,000 pages of FBI documents were reviewed, depositions were taken from many of the FBI agents involved, and targets were interviewed. The 35,339 words of the Church Committee’s final report are alarming, and are summarized here at slightly more than one sixth of the original length.

COINTELPRO sought to attend to people for whom traditional law enforcement methods were ineffective due to inadequate statutes, ineffective local police, or restrictive court rulings. Every FBI witness deposed by the Church Committee believed his particular COINTELPRO was the product of considerable pressure on their organization to deal with some perceived threat. The head of COINTELPRO said that in the 1950s there was a widespread feeling that “you did not have to worry about Communism because the FBI would take care of it. Leave it to the FBI.”

The CPUSA logo

The program was aimed at five “perceived threats to domestic tranquility”: the Communist Party, USA (1956-71) ; the Socialist Workers Party (1961-69); White Hate (1964-71); Black Nationalists (1967-71) ; and the New Left (1968-71).

The FBI used methods which had worked in wartime against foreign agents and which the Soviets had employed in return. Former Assistant to the Director William C. Sullivan said it was “a rough, tough, dirty business” where “no holds were barred.” Examples of every activity mentioned by the Church Committee are given here, however where possible additional instances of one method have been omitted for the sake of brevity, not to mention excitement.

More than half of all proposals to receive approval related to the CPUSA. The Bureau possessed evidence that the CPUSA had been “blatantly” involved in Soviet espionage and that the Soviet Union continued to use the party for political or intelligence purposes. While activities under the name COINTELPRO began only in 1956, similar activities had been underway for some years, with efforts differing by office. COINTELPRO endeavors against the CPUSA included not just party members but also sponsors, for instance the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee, and civil rights leaders who were insufficiently anti-Communist.

The logo of the NAACP

It was in March 1960 that CPUSA COINTELPRO field offices were issued a directive ordering an increase in efforts to staunch Communist infiltration of mass movements varying from the NAACP to a local scout troop.. This memorandum signifies a move toward the targeting of not only CP members but people supposedly bending to CP will – like Martin Luther King Jr, whom the agency acknowledged advocated non-violence. It was enough to adopt a position also supported by communists, for instance increased minority hiring, opposition to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, and school integration. In one case, a reporter was passed details of communist involvement in a Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, to lower the standing of SANE and the participants.

The Socialist Worker Party COINTELPRO had low priority, seeing only 45 operations approved. It ended in 1969, upon which it was combined with the New Left COINTELPRO. The FBI acknowledged that the SWP had never engaged in violence or taken other criminal steps, but it did support Cuba. Targeting of the Socialist Workers Party included people unconnected with the SWP who had sponsored anti-war demonstrations along with the SWP.

The White Hate COINTELPRO kicked off on July 30 1964. Seventeen Klan bodies and nine “hate” organizations (e.g., National States Rights Party, the American Nazi Party) were listed as targets of the White Hate COINTELPRO. The FBI sought to deter or counteract propaganda and deter violence and recruitment. No “legitimate” right wing organizations where encompassed by the program, in contrast to the treatment of the CPUSA and SWP.. Operations against White Hate targets were very precise thanks to extensive informer penetration.

Previously, investigation of “negro matters” had been limited to specific instances of communist penetration, but pressures on the Bureau during what the Church Committee called the “long, hot summer of 1967” led it to behave more proactively that same year. Starting almost from square one in this way was a departure, as every other COINTELPRO was an intensification of existing operations which had lasted for years.

Elijah Muhammed, considered by the Bureau to be a potential Black Nationalist messiah figure

The Black Nationalist COINTELPRO had several objectives. It aimed to prevent a “coalition of militant black nationalist groups,” which was thought to be the first step toward establishing something like the Mau Mau in America. The Mau Mau fought the British in Kenya, then known as British East Africa. COINTELPRO aimed to prevent the rise of a messiah figure able to “unify and electrify” the population, with Elijah Muhammed, Stokely Carmichael, and Martin Luther King Jr. considered candidates. Violence was to be prevented by identifying “potential troublemakers” and neutralizing them before they committed violent acts. COINTELPRO intended to prevent leaders or groups from becoming respected within the black or white communities. The latter was divided into “the responsible community” and “liberals.” Recruitment of young people by Black Nationalist groups was to be hindered.

Per its supervisor, the Black Nationalist movement included many organizations that while pretty black were not very nationalist: the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a non-violent body, was labeled a black nationalist “hate group” after allegations of communist infiltration. Others investigated were the Nation of Islam, the Congress of Racial Equality, Deacons for Defense and Justice, the Revolutionary Action Movement, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While the Black Panthers were included, so were most black student groups.

BPP members

The Black Panther Party (BPP) was excluded from the first two lists of Black Nationalist primary targets (August 1967, March 1968) as it had yet to attain national significance. But by November of that year it had made it and was regarded as a primary target. A letter to field offices dated November 25, 1968 ordered recipients to prepare “imaginative and hard-hitting” measures to cripple the BPP. Rapt attention was to be devoted to capitalization upon the differences between the BPP and Ron Kenga’s US, Inc., which had already assumed “the aura of gang warfare” with concomitant threads of murder and the like. By January 1969, the BPP was cultivating an improved image and was attempting to purge itself of police informants. FBI offices were advised to play upon suspicions.

The fifth and final COINTELPRO was initiated against the nebulous New Left, in response to concerns amongst the government and citizens resulting from media coverage of campus protests. The New Left was defined as “more or less an attitude,” which attitude was heavily anti-war. Students were targeted who published underground newspapers, protested university censorship of student publications, or, horror of horrors, carried signs bearing cuss words.

The Bureau wished to target people urging revolution in the US and US defeat in Vietnam, falsely alleging excessive use of force by police (hey, they deserved it), frustrating conscription, and committing other unlawful acts while they were at it.

Much was made of the New Left’s “immorality.” All that fucking, one supposes. Headquarters did not believe enough had been done in this direction, and on October 9 1968 a letter went out from HQ, criticizing field offices for failing to “remain alert for and to seek specific data depicting the nature and moral looseness of the New Left.”

Methods used against the New Left varied. Leaflets attempted to discredit student demos. Personal conflict between party leaders and whole parties was instigated. The impression was created that leaders were FBI or police informants. University-published articles were sent to authorities and anonymous letters to parents, neighbors, parents’ employers and university authorities to inform them of all that sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. People were arrested for marijuana possession. Cartoons, photographs and anonymous letters ridiculed the New Left. Disinformation was employed to disrupt New Left activities, for instance notifying members that events had been canceled. The New Left COINTELPRO included the highest proportion of proposals intended to prevent free speech.

Two students participating in a demonstration for defending the use of swear words were targeted. The FBI did not believe the demonstration was inspired by the New Left, but that the students showed “obvious disregard for decency and established morality.”

Nine percent of all approved proposals for COINTELPRO were for “selective law enforcement.” Local, state, and federal law enforcement was “guided.” While the Bureau was not ordinarily interested in health violations, it became so if the perpetrator was a target. The Bureau claimed that passing information to other authorities was not counter-intelligence but a regular part of its job, but the lie is given to that by the case of a “key figure” Communist with a history of homosexuality. The plan was to arrest him and embarrass CPUSA, but the Bureau lost interest when the target ceased to work for the Party.

Bureau-run splinter groups were formed to bleed membership from the target organization. One “notional” organization in a Southern city was a chapter of the W.E.B. DuBois Club. Its members were all Bureau informants or fictions. The aim was to cause CPUSA to incur expense in sending organizers to an area and funding out-of-town CP meetings. The chapter later deviated from the Party line in the hope of being expelled, enabling them to claim they were victims of a Stalinesque purge. It was thought that the whole operation would be over in 18 months.

Certain persons to the forefront of race relations in the United States

A second form of “notional” would have some genuine members, as when a Klan organization was established which, at its peak, diverted 250 people from the United Klans of America. The third form was entirely fictitious, but its name could be used on newsletters, such as one attacking CPUSA from a “Marxist right” viewpoin

The Bureau acted to prevent US citizens from petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. A mid-west field office discombobulated the effort of state university students to attend the 1969 inaugural demonstrations by means of anonymous telephone calls to the transport service provider. The calls attempted to flummox both the company and the student leaders concerning the cost of transport and the place and time of departure and return. The office also distributed confusing leaflets around the campus showing different places and times for demonstration planning meetings.

Another protest nullified was the plan to drop flowers over the Pentagon from an airplane at the time of the 1967 National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (NMC) rally in Washington. The New York field office answered the NMC’s ad seeking a pilot, and maintained the pretense until protestors turned up at an airport with a 200 pound floral arrangement.

The Bureau sought to abridge the right of people peaceably to assemble. Oft-used techniques were to contact the owner of a building where a meeting was to take place and persuade him to refuse to rent to the target group; persuading sponsors to cease funding; and fomenting press interest in meetings.

The most egregious of attacks on the right to assemble peacefully, however, made use of “disinformation.” In one such case, Chicago’s field office copied blank forms for the volunteering of premises to the NMC for the purpose of housing out-of-town demonstrators. The office completed 217 forms with concocted names and addresses and sent them in. Supporters conducted long and fruitless journeys to locate the addresses. The NMC abandoned its effort to house demonstrators.

The same was performed with the Washington arm of the NMC when it organized protests around the 1969 Presidential inauguration. An additional twist was that marshals employed walkie-talkies to manage movement, and the Washington field office used compatible equipment to send spurious messages, for instance countermanding true instructions.

A technique used by all COINTELPROs was the “snitch jacket” – labeling a target as a snitch, i.e. informant. Often, this caused the target to be alienated from the group. One man was targeted because he took part in draft counseling at San Diego’s Message Information Center. By chance, the man had been present on two occasions when Selective Service violators were arrested. A Bureau informant suggested at a meeting that is was odd that two men had been apprehended by federal agents shortly after the target had become aware of their locations. The target was “completely ostracized” by people at the Center.

In October 1959, hearings were held in Philadelphia by a legislative committee into a resurgence of CPUSA activity in the vicinity. A target of the Bureau was subpoenaed to appear in front of the committee , although he was not called to testify. The field office suggested local CPUSA leaders be led to question how the target escaped testifying, so the target might be suspected of co-operating with the committee. The target was actually not a CPUSA member, but an infiltrator for a private anti-communist group who had aroused the ire of the Bureau for getting in their way.

Some of the groups upon whom the snitch jacket was used had been known to murder informants. The chairman of New York’s BPP chapter was suspected as an informant after another member was arrested for weapon possession. The Bureau dispatched anonymous letters to the BPP state headquarters, the wife of the arrestee and another person describing the target as a “fink.”

The Racial Intelligence Section chief, George C. Moore, said he was not aware of anyone the Bureau labeled as an informant coming to a sticky end, and that if it had happened, it would have been reported. When asked whether this was through luck or judgment, he replied, “Oh, it just happened that way, I am sure.”
The Bureau undertook a number of attempts to prompt organizations to cease funding targets. When the SNCC tried to obtain funds from the Episcopal Church for a “liberation school,” two letters were sent to the Church falsely alleging that SNCC was conducting a “fraudulent scheme” relating to the expected funds. The scheme was to place fictitious orders from local businessmen, who would split the money with the SNCC.
4 percent of COINTEL proposals were to expose “communist infiltration” of groups. Most often, groups such as a PTA, the Boy Scouts, or a civil rights organization would be informed anonymously that one of their members was a pinko fag commie subversive. Sometimes the group itself was the target, in which case the information was sent to the media.

One example was a professor who had recently been president of a local peace center which brought together anti-Vietnam groups. He had resigned to act instead as chairman of the state’s campaign to elect Eugene McCarthy for president in 1968, intending to return to the peace center post-election. The professor’s spouse had been a CPUSA member in the early 1950s, which information was supplied to a newspaper editor who had previously written an editorial describing Students for a Democratic Society and certain Black Nationalist groups as “professional revolutionists.”
28 percent of all COINTELPRO actions approved intended to increase factionalism between and within groups. The first ever COINTELPRO capitalized on divisions within CPUSA concerning Krushchev’s excoriation of Stalin. One method was for informants to raise controversial issues at meetings.

Hostility to the point of gang warfare between groups was encouraged. The supervisor of the Black Nationalist COINTELPRO admitted that physical harm could easily result. One example was the mailing of an anonymous letter to the leader of the Chicago-based Blackstone Rangers gang, a body to whom violent activity was, the Bureau said, “second nature.” The letter said the Panthers blamed the Rangers for “blocking their thing” and that there was said to be “a hit” out on the Rangers’ leader.

The Bureau reported at least four assaults, two on women, with the San Diego field office taking credit for three. The Bureau sent a critical article from the Black Panther newspaper to the leader of the opposing Black Nationalist group, US Incorporated, to prompt retaliatory action. This came to pass when US members assaulted a Panther newspaper vendor. In another instance, US Inc. members gained entry to a BPP meeting and assaulted a female member. The Bureau gave the San Diego police a tip that “sex orgies” were occurring at the headquarters of the Black Panthers. The police gained entry after discovering two outstanding traffic warrants for one BPP member. The woman who granted officers access to BPP HQ was “severely beaten up” by other members. An informant entered a “heated conversation” between group members and sided with one party to heighten tension. Members subsequently fought, upon which the informant “departed the premises.”

The logo of the SCLC

The Bureau arranged a meeting between a Southern Christian Leadership Conference official and the leader of a small “anti-Vietnam black nationalist [veterans'] organization.” The veteran’s group leader was on leave from a psychiatric hospital and was unhappy to not be receiving funds from the SCLC. It was hoped that he would lose his temper and initiate a fight, causing the police to be called. This would neutralize the small group’s leader and lower the standing of the SCLC.

Anonymous mailings were made. These could denigrate a leader, accusing them of living ostentatiously or being lackluster public speakers. Mailings could stoke resentment between groups, as when an attempt was made to frustrate the alliance between the Black Panthers and the SDS through a letter to BPP leaders lambasting SDS for “diarheaof the mouth” A chapter could be reported to its headquarters for rule infractions, leading to criticism or even disciplinary action.

Derogatory information was disseminated to family, friends and associates of targets. Perhaps the nastiest example was when a letter was sent to Mr. B., the husband of a woman who was both a Black Nationalist and New Left target. The lady led a branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, active in draft resistance and other New Left activities, and was an officer of ACTION, a biracial organization that had broken off from the Congress of Racial Equality.

Mr. B. had been making inquiries as to his wife’s relationship with black males in ACTION. The Bureau’s letter confirmed his suspicions, which were not known to be true. The Bureau dearly hoped the ensuing “marital tempest” would render the woman ineffective in her political roles. If Mr. and Mrs. B. shouted at each other, threw things, and had less sex, the Bureau believed this would constitute a “major blow” against both the WIL and ACTION. The couple split up, to which the Bureau believed it had “contributed very strongly.”

One informant implied that the leader of one SDS faction used group funds to support his drug habit, and that another leader embezzled funds from a school. Name calling and fist-fights ensued. Another informant questioned the sexuality of a 30 year-old, unmarried group leader.

The members of a group or its supporters were interviewed to promote jealousy or engender suspicion. The latter could result in purges. People who had been contacted by the Revolutionary Union were interviewed to lead them to believe the organization had been infiltrated by informants at a high-level. The same was tried with the Tougaloo College Political Action Committee, a student group affiliated to the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee, resulting in reduced participation in its affairs.

Once, a target of Black Nationalist persuasion attempted to organize a youth group in Mississippi. Prospective leaders of the group were interviewed and the target’s background and “true intentions” made known. The target’s landlords were contacted, and three asked the target to end his tenancy.

One attack on free speech centered on a dissident group of stockholders seeking to protest a large corporation’s military production at the company’s Annual General Meeting. The Bureau aimed to prevent disruption of the AGM and avoid embarrassment to company officials. A field office obtained the group’s plans from paid informants and passed them to a company manager.

In one case, 120 anonymous telephone calls were placed to the editorial desks of three newspapers in a city in the Midwest. The calls advised that an upcoming lecture on a university campus was sponsored by an organization that was a front for the Communist Party. Only recently had that university lifted a ban on Communist speakers on campus, and the decision was debated.

For a time, the Bureau’s machinations appeared to be working. Staff from one of the newspapers contacted the director of the university’s conference center, who in turn spoke to the president of the university, who decided to cancel the meeting. The sponsoring organization, assisted by the ACLU, went to court and secured a ruling that the university could not bar the speaker. The decision caused the HQ to order its field office to supply information on the judge. While the lecture proceeded as planned, HQ praised the field office for its work: the sponsoring organization was obliged to rack up additional expenditure to pay its attorneys, and newspaper coverage had been obtained.

Teachers received the attention of the Bureau because they were believed to be uniquely placed to “plant the seeds of communismin the minds of unsuspecting youth.” It was also believed that the position of a teacher gave added respectability to a cause. In one instance, a high school teacher was targeted for arranging for two poets to attend one of his school’s classes. The poets had come to prominence for their efforts on behalf of the draft resistance movement. Authorization was given to the local field office to send anonymous letters to two local newspapers, the city’s Board of Education, and to the high school’s administrators pointing out that the teacher was a convicted draft dodger. No results were forthcoming.

The Bureau’s intention in targeting people’s right to speak was to prevent recruitment of new members. Writers and publications were targeted for this reason. Once, two university teachers were targeted only because they hand a considerable hand in the publication and funding of a student underground newspaper. Needless to say, this newspaper was anti-establishment, left-of-center, and opposed to the university’s administration. The Bureau was of the opinion that if the two teachers withdrew their support, the newspaper would fold and “This would eliminate what voice the New Left has in the area.” And so the field office sent an anonymous letter to a university officer passing on information of the teachers’ connection to the newspaper and warning that if the university did not cause the teachers’ to cease their support, the information would be made public. A strong blow was struck against the cause of Communism when the teachers were placed on probation, making them ineligible for a pay rise.

The Bureau often abridged the freedom of the press. The paper of the Black Panther Party was repeatedly targeted due to its contents and the revenue it earned for the Party. Contact was made with the landlord of premises rented by two New Left papers with the intention of ending their tenancy. An anonymous letter was sent to a state legislator bemoaning the distribution of an underground newspaper on certain campuses as it propagated “immorality.” A letter with the signature “Disgusted Taxpayer and Patron” was sent to advertisers in one student newspaper because of the paper’s editorial stance and “vulgar language.” Proposals to physically damage printing presses were drawn up but never enacted.

The New Mexico Free University aroused Bureau interest for teaching “draft counseling training” and “confrontation politics.” A cartoonist’s labors were solicited to create a cartoon to depict anti-war activists who traveled to North Vietnam as traitors. A professor was targeted because he was faculty adviser to a college group which distributed “The Student as Nigger.” A professor performing a study on the social costs of McCarthyism was targeted for seeking help from the American Institute of Marxist Studies. Three law schools were contacted to prevent the hiring or contract renewal of a teaching candidate.

Organizations hostile to targeted groups were used to inconvenience targets, for example by disrupting meetings.

Bureau propaganda used three basic techniques. Reprints of magazine or newspaper articles were mailed to group members and their potential supporters to dissuade them from protest. A list of amenable news sources was compiled and confidential sources (unpaid informants) were cultivated. Articles were written supplying information to these bodies in order to “expose” targets such as the National Mobilization Committee, the Southern Students Organizing Committee, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Poor People’s Campaign

An American Legion meeting place

The provenance of distributed pamphlets and fliers, needless to say, went unmentioned. The Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion sometimes took ownership of Bureau-authored pamphlets, e.g. condemning the SDS. One group, “a militant anti-communist right wing organization, more of an activist group than is the more well known John Birch Society,” was used at least four times. Even unfriendly groups could be used, as when Operation Hoodwink attempted to pit La Cosa Nostra and CPUSA against each other.

Reprints of a news article entitled “Rabbi in Vietnam Says Withdrawal Not the Answer” were mailed to members of the Vietnam Day Committee to satisfy them of the wisdom of US foreign policy in Vietnam.

Information concerning the Junta of Militant Organizations was provided to a source at a television station in Tampa. A half-hour film was made as a result. A Miami television station produced documentaries on the New Left, Black Nationalist groups and the Ku Klux Klan using material secretly supplied by the Bureau. The documentary that highlighted the Nation of Islam left the Bureau “elated,” after the stations switchboard was overwhelmed by favorable calls. NOI leaders were forced to rebut the documentary at every meeting, where attendance dropped by 50 percent.

The Church committee acknowledged that anonymous propaganda violated no civil rights, but questioned whether the Bureau ought to devote time to it. Attorney General Levi labeled much of COINTELPRO as “foolishness,” and the Church committee felt propaganda richly merited this description.

Despite never having come close to election victory, candidates of the Socialist Workers Party were routinely selected for counter-intelligence. One SWP candidate for a state position inadvertently protected herself by stating at a news conference that she did not object to premarital sex, leading to the withdrawal of a field office’s proposal to publicize her common law marriage.

Another candidate targeted was a lawyer in the mid-west whose company stood for “subversives” – defendants in the Smith Act (Alien Registration Act) trials. The lawyer ran for City Council. He had been active in the South’s civil rights movement. The John Birch Society in his city had not long before mailed a book by the name of “It’s Very Simple – The True Story of Civil Rights” to a selection of clergymen. The Bureau sent an anonymous follow-up letter to recipients noting the pages where the candidate had been mentioned, highlighting his “Communist background” and describing him as a “charlatan.” Another letter went to a television station where the candidate would appear, detailing questions that should be asked. Although the candidate was defeated, he later successfully ran for a judgeship.

The Bureau made stringent efforts to exercise control over COINTELPRO. Every proposal had to be approved by the Seat of Government, the Bureau term for its HQ. A recommendation would be made by the relevant Section Chief, the next stage being approval by the Assistant Director, Domestic Intelligence Division or, more often, the Assistant to the Director or the Director hisself. While targets were not directly selected by HQ, directives were occasionally issued to target particular groups or individuals. When a favorable result was reported, the field office or even the leading agent himself received a letter of praise or incentive award.

The Assistant Director who then headed the Inspection Division stated that his job was to determine the efficacy rather than the propriety of proposals. The Bureau assembled for the Church Committee every document in its files which showed a member of the legislative or executive branches being informed.

On May 8 1958, two letters were sent by Director Hoover. One went to Robert Cutler, Eisenhower’s Special Assistant, and the other to Attorney General William Rogers. The letters stated that a program to disrupt CPUSA had been instigated. There is no record of a reply.

On January 10 1961, more letters emanated from the Director, this time to Byron White, Robert Kennedy, and Dean Rusk, the incoming Deputy Attorney General, Attorney General, and Secretary of State. Again, a “counterattack” against CPUSA was detailed.

On September 2 1965, Hoover this time wrote to Attorney General Katzenbach and Marvin Watson, President Johnson’s Special Assistant. The letters spoke of Bureau success in dealing with racial violence in the South. The Bureau’s declaration that it was “seizing every opportunity to disrupt the activities of Klan organizations” was taken as notification of the White Hate COINTELPRO. Katzenbach’s two-paragraph reply praised the Bureau. Mr. Katzenbach told the Church Committee that he had no knowledge of Hoover’s letter or his reply. He said it never occurred to him that the Bureau would conduct such operations.

On December 19 1967, a letter went from Hoover to Attorney General Ramsay Clark revealing accomplishments against the Ku Klux Klan. Its talk of removing senior Klan officers and “provoking scandal” should have indicated operations beyond the realm of standard investigative activity. There exists no record of a reply to this letter, and Clark could not remember receiving it.

A final letter was sent to Attorney General Mitchell on September 17 1969, with copies going to the Deputy Attorney General as well as the Assistant Attorneys General of three divisions. It described “significant progress” against the KKK.

The head of COINTELPRO declared that he was sure Hoover verbally briefed every President and Attorney General, because he composed “squibs” – talking points – for the Director’s use on these occasions. He could not, however, remember the dates of these briefings and the Bureau was unable to produce any “squibs,” which would not normally have been retained.
Cartha DeLoach, formerly Assistant to the Director, testified to “distinctly” recalling briefing Attorney General Clark “generally” about COINTELPRO. Clark retorted that this never occurred. The Bureau could not produce memoranda recording such briefings, although it was the practice of both Hoover and DeLoach to create these in this kind of situation.
The Bureau produced part of a briefing paper for the eyes of Hoover relating to his briefing of the Eisenhower Cabinet dated November 6 1958. The paper described efforts against CPUSA which included anonymous communications and use of informants.

The Bureau was unable to substantiate its claim that external authorities were informed of the New Left, Black Nationalist, or SWP COINTELPROs. The Black Nationalist efforts in particular made much heavier use of degrading, dangerous, or outright unconstitutional methods than did the communist or White Hate programs. What notification there was did not mention the risk of physical damage to targets. One ex-Attorney General said he was too busy to be aware of Bureau activities and that he could not have halted it anyway.

In January 1974, Attorney General Saxbe instructed Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen to form a cross-departmental committee to study COINTELPRO. The committee comprised Department attorneys and Bureau agents. The committee found that most activities were legitimate, although some could “only be considered abhorrent in a free society” as they violated First Amendment rights. The committee recommended that no counter-intelligence program be initiated without the approval of the Attorney General. No such approval was ever given.

The Church Committee asked the Bureau for a list of any actions similar to COINTELPRO since April 28 1971. At first, the Bureau said none had transpired, but later found two examples. The Church Committee found a third.

The notorious transvestite, J. Edgar Hoover

Efforts against CPUSA included “the most effective single blow ever dealt the organized communist movement.” The Bureau took particular pride in its moves against the KKK. It is unsure of the efficacy of the Black Nationalist COINTELPRO. Moore said he hoped the Bureau had provided what he described as “a nudge.” No Bureau witness believed the New Left was much affected by COINTELPRO, partly due to imprecise targeting. The SWP COINTELPRO was a small-scale affair, and it is revealing that the program was discontinued two years before the others. The SWP Troskyites had actually at times been useful against CPUSA.

P.S. J. Edgar Hoover is widely-reputed to have been a transvestite

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Related posts:

1. The Truth about the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
2. Introducing Task Force Orange
3. News of the World Introduces ‘Spying’ as New Business Practice

email: timothychilman@yahoo.com

Our story begins on April 24, 1980, with Operation Eagle Claw, the disastrous U.S. attempt to rescue hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

Six Hercules transport aircraft and eight RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters were to fly under radar and rendezvous at a secret landing strip in the Iranian desert, code-named Desert One. All aircraft bore black-red-black identification stripes. At Desert One, the aircraft would refuel from Hercules-mounted bladders containing 6,000 gallons of jet fuel, and the helicopters transport an assault force of 120 men to Desert Two, an isolated, mountain hiding place, after which they would set off for Tehran in vans. This would have been the first mission of the US Army’s recently-created Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta (Airborne), better known as Delta Force, which had been set-up by Vietnam veteran Colonel “Chargin’ Charlie” Beckwith following the example of the British Special Air Service.

At least, that was the plan. Two hours after taking off from the USS Nimitz, the rotor blades of Bluebeard 6 cracked. Bluebeard 1 malfunctioned upon entering a dust cloud – a haboob, a sandstorm following a thunderstorm where the sand is like talcum powder. Bluebeard 1 returned to the Nimitz. As radio silence was observed, the helicopters were not informed that the air at Desert One was clear, and the pilot later said he would have continued, had he known. The hydraulic pumps of Bluebeard 8 failed en route to Desert One.

A minimum of six helicopters was required, so the mission was aborted. When Bluebeard 3 took off, a dust cloud obscured the view of the pilot, causing vertigo. Disoriented, his aircraft drifted toward an EC-130, which the rotor blades impacted. The helicopter crashed and its fuel tanks exploded. Ammunition exploded, and shrapnel damaged the remaining helicopters. Five Air Force personnel and three Marines died. A memorial to them stands at Arlington National Cemetery. The helicopters were abandoned and U.S. forces departed. Two of the U.S. helicopters now serve with the Iranian Navy.

Eagle Claw had involved all U.S. armed services: navy helicopters with Marine crews, Air Force airplanes, and Army soldiers. The deficiencies of the mission as identified by the report of the investigative panel chaired by aviator Admiral James L. Holloway, Jr. were in mission planning, command and control, and inter-service operability. The key failings were that insufficient helicopters were used – ten would have been required – and those present had been prepped on the Nimitz for marine conditions when they were traveling to the desert. Al Jazeera ascribed the helicopter shortage to the timidity of politicians.

Hence a unified entity, the Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), was established and commenced operations on April 16, 1987. USSOCOM comprises the Navy SEALs of Task Force Blue, the Delta Force troopers of Task Force Green, and the signals specialists of Task Force Orange, otherwise known as the US Army Intelligence Support Activity. Sometimes the Task Forces work with Task Force Black – British SAS and SBS.

The objective of Task Force Orange is to collect actionable intelligence for use by the other units. It boasts its own wing of aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport. The American Special Ops website says Orange consists of around 300 people, The Washington Examiner puts the figure at 600 and AOL says it is more than 1,000. These people are from each of the armed services, and sometimes allied forces.

Human intelligence is collected. Reconnaissance of a safe house by operatives would include working out routes of ingress and egress, blind spots, and the number and disposition of hostile forces. Agents are run. Signals intelligence is obtained, for instance locating people who use cellphones or monitoring a terrorist entity through its communications. In Iraq, al Qaeda operatives used cellphones constantly to coordinate activities and detonate explosives. Seized cellphones often gave access to a list of key phone numbers. Monitored emails could be used to focus efforts. In 2006, the new division of Computer Network Operations was created.

While the National Security Agency (NSA) has unparalleled eavesdropping technology, it is unable to penetrate a fiber-optic telephone cable. At sea, U.S. submarines splice cables, and on land the task falls to Task Force Orange.

After the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Task Force Orange operatives entered the tribal areas of Pakistan and planted listening devices. U.S. spy satellites are not believed to be sufficiently sensitive to detect cellphone or hand-held radio transmissions. Al Qaeda operatives are said to have been located in this manner.

Ali Qaed Senyan al-Harthi was the primary planner of the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in 2000. He is said to have once been bin Laden’s bodyguard. He was the highest-ranking al Qaeda member in Yemen. In 2001, Yemeni troops assaulted his village of al-Hosun in the lawless-but-oil-producing province of Ma’arib, in a mountainous area 100 miles east of the capital, Sana’a. 18 soldiers and six tribesmen were killed, but al-Harthi escaped. On November 3, 2002, a GPS fix on his cellphone allowed him to be killed with six others by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone as he traveled in a jeep. One of the others killed was an American citizen.

On January 7, 2006, insurgents in Iraq kidnapped American Jill Carroll, a freelance journalist working for the Christian Science Monitor. Task Force Orange picked up the communications of men associated with the kidnappers. SEALs and Delta Force operatives kicked in doors and killed some people. One raid revealed information which led to the next. It was determined that Carroll was usually held at a farmhouse in Baquba, north of Baghdad. USSOCOM, including Task Force Black, raided the farmhouse, capturing twenty terrorists and killing five. Carroll was absent, but subsequently released. One of the USSOCOM operators said the kidnappers had decided: “Here, you take her. Get off our backs.”

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a hyperactive child and a bully, then a high school drop-out, then a simple, short-tempered, barely literate petty drug dealer accused of sexual offenses, and finally the most wanted man in Iraq. The bounty on his head was $25 million, just like bin Laden. In October 2002, Zarqawi was blamed for the murder of US aid official Lawrence Foley in Amman.

He wielded the machete when American contractor Nick Berg, American engineer Eugene Armstrong, and British engineer Ken Bigley were beheaded. In Feburary 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the presence of al-Zarqawi in Baghdad showed a “sinister nexus” between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Although a major plank of the case for war, that one now appears distinctly questionable.

Al-Zarqawi sought to inflame sectarian tension, and mostly killed Shia civilians. He was behind the truck bombing at the U.N.’s headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August 2003 which killed 23 people, one being U.N. Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. He was also implicated in a bombing ten days later which killed the senior Shia cleric, Ayatollah Baqer al-Hakim, and over 85 more at the revered Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. On Feburary 1, 2004, during the Ashura festival, he organized the killing of 185 celebrants in Baghdad and Karbala. His followers boasted of killing 35 children in Baghdad on September 30, 2004. He has been connected to the train bombing that killed 191 people in Madrid on March 11, 2004. In October 2004, the Jordanian government charged him with leading a plot to use chemical weapons in Amman. In November 2005, he sent four suicide bombers to three hotels in Amman, and 57 people were killed, some of them guests at a wedding reception. He was a very bad man, OK?

Agents downloaded software at internet cafes which allowed the reading of emails. Often, code was used, so “I’ve got the groceries” could mark that a terrorist had acquired guns or bomb components.

Al-Zarqawi was a hands-on manager who owned no cellphone, instead using those of others. Emails from al Qaeda members were matched to cellphones simultaneously in the vicinity. Signals from these cellphones were intercepted, and the speakers identified. A list of al-Zarqawi’s followers was compiled. Task Force Orange was listening when an Islamic religious adviser, Sheik Abdul Rahman, spoke of visiting al-Zarqawi. When he traveled to the hideout of al-Zarqawi near Baquba on June 7, 2006, USSOCOM had its man. An F-16 delivered two 500 pound bombs precisely on target.

Mullah Dadullah was a warlord who lost a leg fighting the Soviets in the 1980s. He was a member of the Taliban’s ruling ten man leadership council before the U.S.-led invasion and was described as “Afghanistan’s top Taliban commander” after. He was close to one-eyed Taliban Leader Mullah Omar. He was linked to guerrilla operations in Helmand Province, the dispatch of suicide bombers, and the kidnapping of Westerners, including Daniele Mastro-Giacomo. Videos of military exercises and the beheading of suspected spies produced for his unit at the Taliban’s media center in Quetta, southern Pakistan, proved extremely popular ($4 a pop, with discounts for multiple purchases).

His brother, Mullah Shah Mansoor and four other Taliban were released in a much-criticized exchange for Italian journalist Daniele Mastro-Giacomo. Her translator was not released. Mansoor’s communications were monitored by Task Force Orange, showing him traveling to a Taliban training facility in Quetta. A satellite phone of one man present was monitored, allowing the group to be followed from Quetta to Afghanistan: a convoy went to Bahram Chah in southern Helmand province, close to Pakistan’s border. Usually, Delta Force would have been summoned, but they were otherwise engaged so it was instead soldiers of the British Special Boat Squadron fighting alongside Afghan soldiers who overpowered the 20 defenders after a four-hour gun battle on 12 May 2007. The Afghan intelligence service declared that Dadullah had been tracked “with [the] most modern intelligence technology.” Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid had Dadullah’s body put on display.

The piece de resistance, of course, is the alleged killing of Osama bin Laden hisself. Prisoners interrogated at Guantanmo Bay divulged the name of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, who was said to be close to bin Laden, Khalid Shaik Mohammed, one of the planners of 9/11, and Abu Faraj al-Libbi, al Qaeda’s third-in-command.

Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi in 2003. He was waterboarded 183 times, but maintained that Kuwaiti was unimportant. Abu Faraj al-Libbi was captured in 2005 while in a store in the Pakistani town of Mardan. Under interrogation, he said he had never heard of al-Kuwaiti. The steering of attention away from al-Kuwaiti aroused curiosity, and emails and telephone calls from the man’s family were monitored.

An al Qaeda trainee named Ahmed Siggiqui was captured, and revealed to his questioners that bin Laden was in Abbottabad, 40 miles from the capital of Pakistan. CIA agents had obtained the registration number of al-Kuwaiti’s white Suzuki four-wheel drive, and tracked the vehicle to house No 3, street No 8-A, Garga Road, Thanda Chowa, Hashmi Colony. Abbottabad. This house stood out. Its structure was different from those of other buildings in the area: it was taller, the walls were three-feet thick and eighteen-feet high, and in contrast to other, nearby buildings there was all that barbed wire and surveillance cameras. Three gas connections had been installed within days of construction three years ago, when others face a wait of weeks or months.

An intelligence source said, “We put 24/7 eyes on it.” Those within would travel for a minimum of 90 minutes before even inserting batteries to their cellphones. The building’s occupants had told people they had to protect themselves, having enemies in their home village. They did, however, interact with the local community to some extent: 12 year-old resident Zarar Ahmed was an occasional visitor to the house, and was once given a gift of two rabbits.

After the attack, techies from Task Force Orange helped to collect a “treasure trove” of intelligence comprising a handwritten journal, five computers, 10 hard drives, 110 thumb drives, and numerous documents.

One local complained: “It’s going to destroy property prices in the area.”

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Related posts:

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2. The Truth about the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
3. The Libyan Guy Didn’t Do It – the Story of Lockerbie