"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance"
So I am doing this on November 2, 2016. It's 9:28pm, and I have not eaten in 148 hours and 28 minutes.
I am on hunger strike due to a persistent campaign of political repression against me. Nothing but water and Gatorade/Vitamin Water. For six days now.
What I am hoping is for people to let others know about my situation. And maybe the higher-ups that caused my situation will grow a conscience. But the second is admittedly a long shot.
The following is what I have learned through experience and research: How COINTELPRO got started, who is still perpetrating it, and more importantly why.
Beginnings of COINTELPRO: the American Gestapo
COINTELPRO is the moniker for a U.S. Intelligence community program which targeted law abiding political figures, union organizers, leftist writers, artist, actors, and community leaders. First people were put under surveillance to learn everything about them. If they were committing crimes, they were put away, or blackmailed with them. If they were law abiding, they were then subjected to harassment, bullying, innuendo campaigns, and every other method of destroying someone; including in some cases, sponsored murder.If you go and read about COINTELPRO you will hear that it is over and done with. Some committee of insiders would prevent it. There is a rule against it. No such thing could happen in America.
Well I'm here to tell you that COINTELPRO is alive. Not from some book I read, or movie I saw. I tell you this from my own experience. Maybe it has a different name, and it is definitively using newer tools, but COINTELPRO is alive.
And we should all have expected as much. The truth is that absolute power still corrupts absolutely, and that people will always be fallible.
To learn why COINTELPRO would survive any attempt to squash it, you have to learn about how it got started, and what it is actually all about. As to how it started, there is one U.S. President who actually saw its genesis: Harry Truman. As a sitting president, he wrote about what he was observing in his own IC agencies (then mostly the FBI). Truman called it for what he saw. In a writing made in 1945 he outlined his concerns about what the FBI was starting to become:
That's his handwriting and that is how he described the problem. He elaborated that what he saw was the taking root of a secret police - with agents engaged in enslaving others through "blackmail,"instead of "catching criminals."
Well that's an eye opener. We don't usually don't get to see Presidential notes as candid as this. It's an alarming quote, and if you want to learn whether Truman was able to stop it from happening, read on.
The Perpetrators Get Caught Again
Truman's words were not heeded. What we do know is that the American Gestapo got going and has never stopped. How do we know ? Well, the only way taxpayers ever find out about widespread illegal government activity - Through leaks, of course.The IC initially got caught due a 1971 break in at one of their offices by a Vietnam Draft Opponents/antiwar protesters. These activists suspected but could not prove ongoing and illegal harassment of war protestors. So they broke into the FBI offices in Media, Pennsylvania. There they found overwhelming evidence of the illegal government COINTELPRO program, which they leaked to the media. The program, just like it had during Truman's time, again targeted people with blackmail and other secret police tactics. The leak to the press resulted in national public furor, congressional committees, changes in the law, and, promises not to do it again.
But those promises ring hollow, and you'll see why. In the above linked NBC article we can hear the voices of FBI agents who still believe that the break-in should never have occurred. They think the information should never have been made public. They ignore the public outcry that followed the discovery of their illegal program. Neither the law nor the citizens of this country have ever authorized their government to break the law and target law abiding citizens for destruction. Their targets had been peace protesters, civil rights leaders, left leaning thinkers, progressives, union organizers, black leaders, and more. Once again it became clear that due to overwhelming surveillance, if the targets had been breaking the law they would have been imprisoned and quickly. Instead, repression was used, because the targeted citizens committed no crime.
From the FBI comments in the above NBC News article one can derive the IC mindset, and come to understand why the COINTELPRO problem recurs. Simply put, some people in the IC believe that the public is not on the same level as they are. We the People - not. Because otherwise they would all readily admit when they got caught red-handed. Instead you have the real IC mentality, and then the public image. Publicly, they say COINTELPRO ops are over with. They'll say that was 1971, and that the IC obeys the law now. Privately, as heard in that NBC article, they admit that they don't think they were doing anything wrong.
Instead, it's the IC, and then us, the little guys. The little guys have to obey the law, pay taxes, and stay in the straight and narrow. Many government employees - alike the very rich, the very connected, and politicians - seem to think the can be fully trusted to do the right thing, unconditionally. That the law does not quit apply to them.
When they get caught committing illegality, they also persecute whoever exposes them. Like the NBC article described, there was a tremendous manhunt for the people who broke in. It's simple: Little people have no right to know what is done with their taxpayer dollars, and if the IC is breaking the law, well, they look at it this way : how can the law break the law ? Impossible.
So I hope i will be forgiven a little sarcasm on the issue. This really highlights the issue of who polices the police. Significant city police usually have extensive local civilian oversight, like resident-police boards, to help offset the problem. Despite the obvious propensity for abuse and illegality, the IC does not have that. At most there is a few handfuls of people with very limited oversight or authority, and a some insiders lacking in any real inclination to upset their apple cart. There is clearly people in the IC who feel like the are the law. They forget one thing about Government, and what it's supposed to be:
"[a] government of laws, not of men,"
This simple if chauvinistic John Adams quote puts the lie to what COINTELPRO and its modern derivatives stand for. It puts to shame any politician and government employee who believes they are entitled break the of law. The founding principle of this nation is that no one is above the law.
Nonetheless, the IC seems to feel entitled. What has been established, without a doubt, is that the IC has occasionally devolved into systematically targeting law abiding U.S. citizens, in violation of our rights. Well, that was 1945, and 1971. What about now ?
COINTELPRO Modernizes for the 21st Century
If you ask the IC or look at their slogans, they would say that is all in the past, a thing of the seventies.Not so. On or about 2002 there was a little known Whistleblower from the NSA., a Mr. William Binney. Mr. Binney was a math guru and a thirty year veteran of the NSA, a 'Technical Leader,' described as "one of the best analysts in the NSA's history." He resigned from the NSA in October 2001, and blew the whistle on illegal activity at the NSA.
What he revealed was the same thing that President Harry Truman pointed out : the IC had lost their focus on catching criminals, and was instead focusing on mass surveillance, like a secret police would.
How it unfolded Binney was highly placed and an ultimate insider. After he made the discovery of illegality Mr. Binney's said he simply could not go on working there. He said he was unable to continue participating in an NSA that had, in his words, "been turned against Americans." What he saw is a pattern of NSA actions where "fundamental constitutional rights were being violated."
But corruption hates the truth. So when Mr. Binney came out with the evidence of IC illegality, he got the punitive "treatment:" He was maligned, disparaged, pointlessly prosecuted, and had his livelihood destroyed, in a basic act of political repression.
Mr. Binney had revealed the information legally, by disclosure through the DOJ. And he was a higher level NSA employee with 30 years in the IC. He would easily recognize the treatment and he was connected, and resourceful enough to fight it. It is quite telling that the IC has the hubris to give someone like him the "treatment" anyway.
It is significant that Mr. Binney observed and documented this deliberate pattern of conduct before the War On Terror and its enabling mentality; long before September 11 even occurred. So there was none of the 'national emergency' to support the illegal acts.
Politicians and IC members would again say that we must trust them to do the right thing after that. Perhaps it was just a one time mishap ?
Well then came Snowden in 2013, who broke the law and his contract when he disclosed, but he did confirm much of what Mr. Binney had said: the IC is continuing to turn their teeth on law abiding people. And what Snowden revealed was found to be illegal conduct by the Government, over a decade after Mr. Binney spoke out. The dust settled and secrecy really helped. The IC will not admit the full scope of their program, but they did say that they would "end" some of the programs they had been caught red-handed with.
So it turns out that politicians can't be trusted unconditionally, and that IC illegality has happened, and continues to happen, and will continue to happen. That is not to say there
aren't good people working in the IC, doing dangerous and taxing work. But there is certainly some of them who are targeting law abiding United States Citizens. They will not stop doing it and they usually refuse to admit wrongdoing. They also feel entitled to use taxpayer funds and assets in witch-hunts to crush anyone who exposes them.
Some people in the IC will fall into the mire and inevitably engage in these illegal activities. The question we need to ask is why this happens, just what is the draw ?
Why The New COINTELPRO Runs on Data Collection: Blackmail and the Enslavement of a Free People Through Fear
We've all heard about the data collection scandals. Seems like there is a new revelation every few months or so. The average person asks what the point is. Why retrieve and keep all that seemingly meaningless information ?Mr. Binney explained it best when he said that mass surveillance is not really to find out about crimes, but rather, it is about amassing "power." He estimated that 20 trillion US citizen-US citizen transactions were needlessly retrieved. And he pointedly observed,
But how is your private information really power ?
It works like this: When your locations, phone records, emails, private conversations, and other metadata are collected, it basically shows what makes you tick. It will occasionally reveal blackmail material as well.
That treasure trove of personal information is a component of a mind map - it shows where your buttons lie, your 'must-haves,' and 'can't-stands.' It makes you vulnerable to button pushers and reaction seekers. This can be all for the good. We can imagine a world where you tell your weaknesses and embarrassing things to your opponents, adversaries, or newspapers, and they do nothing with that information.
There is just one problem with that. This isn't such a world.
Some people are eager to see others being destroyed. Adversaries and competitors are always on the lookout for a weakness. Local power hubs and stakeholders are always on the lookout for fresh recruits.
The blackmail is obvious. People figure you'll do anything to keep your secrets. Local power hubs or stakeholders will be happy to take you up on that, and they have much for you to do: their bidding.
Your mind map is more complicated, but let's just say it makes you harnessable. If your wants are denied, delayed, or obfuscated, frustration will build. If your can't-stands are channeled in your direction, life becomes even more difficult. Repeatedly delaying a person when they absolutely have to get somewhere will do away most people's jobs. If those three things are done to you for long enough, most everyone will be brought to their ruin, or worse.
Once ruined you would be begging for the treatment to stop. You would likely accept an offer that promises the end of the treatment and a chance to rebuild. And there are plenty of local power hubs and stakeholders itching for people in such a predicament.
So we can see that mind maps and blackmail material enables a person to be owned, sometimes for life. And it is way too tempting to ignore. It's like this: They could get a fish, and eat a meal. Or, they could learn how to fish, which requires some work, but it will provide sustenance. Or they could own the fisherman, and then they can have fish for nothing. It's not a new concept. People have raided others since time immemorial. Conquest yields slaves.
What is new is how it is being done today, and who has been doing it. Not raiders from abroad, but people within the IC itself.
Some might say that local stakeholders, power hubs and other interested parties would never find out what their mind maps or peccadilloes are. After all, these things are safely kept in some vault. Or not kept at all. Right ? No, and sadly, no.
The IC is a vast human enterprise with many connections to local stakeholders and local power hubs. Many of their personnel revolve in and out of private enterprise, assuming positions of good pay, power, and influence. So when someone in a local power hub needs something; there is usually somebody they can call. That's what keeps them on top. They are connected and can get things done. And if something is found that would interest a local power hub, well, that information trickles down like candy.
This is the way it has been since the early Hoover days - when the IC figured they could peddle secrets like most merchants deal in goods. This is what frequently made the FBI the second most powerful entity in the nation. Except most of the early data crunching abilities were based on personal observation, mail reads, and wiretaps. Since there was only so much staff to go around, they mostly limited themselves to significant targets: union organizers irking a friend, celebrities with enemies, dissident writers stirring the pot, politicians, other potential conduits to more power, and the like.
Today's fine grained automated tools would make Edgar cackle with glee. Not tens of thousands, not even hundreds of thousands: millions of targets out there, ripe for the picking, and most importantly, ready for distribution. No longer restricted to FBI employees for the task at hand, but now gorged by unaccountable and unvouchered private contractors, their families, their friends, and hangers-on: all aching for another hapless citizen to be thrown into their troth.
The temptation is too great, the gain too significant, the task too simple: Query, copy, and paste. Chalk up another. This is how low hanging fruit are passed on to interested friends around the country, to then become lifetime followers. It's a new resource grab, a new frontier. It makes the gold rush seem like child's play.
Skeptics might say that local law enforcement would not permit this to happen. Well, in some cases yes, but probably not for long. Federal and local law enforcement are now very closely tied, and the dollars, swag, and potential jobs flows from the IC. Law enforcement are themselves subject to ownership and "the treatment" if they fail to partake in the illegality. See Michael Ruppert, Kathryn_Bolkovac, Frank_Serpico, or Justin_Hopson for just a few experiences on that front.
And congress ? The IC deals in intelligence and has therefore become the de-facto brain of the US government. With the vast trove of information they possess, one email is all it takes for many politicians, celebrities, and tycoons to come crashing down. Few dare to question that structure.
The truth is that IC activities are never not local. The IC continues to grow by tending to local power hubs and aggregating favors. Thus communications are sent to local power hubs and stakeholders, notifying them of 'low hanging fruit'- vulnerable hapless people who have not protected themselves - which are therefore going to be owned. And let's face it, there are always local stakeholders, friends, and their friends that want to be satisfied - this assures the IC some support when their times get tough.
For the skeptics let's deal with one example of IC-local conniving: Racial integration in the South and the Freedom Riders. The Free Riders were activists who were traveling through the South, advocating for racial integration. They would sit in segregated coffee shops, ride in the segregated buses, and otherwise demonstrate that racial segregation was wrong. Many in the U.S. saw these young people as heroes, doing something that needed to be done. The Freedom Riders were likely to face violence from segregationists. So, the FBI was charged with keeping an eye on the situation. The FBI did indeed keep a keen eye on them.
The local power hub, in the Freedom Riders case, was influential southerners who opposed segregation. They wanted the Freedom Riders stopped, and would engage in violence to get that to happen. Unless there was national outcry that could not be deflected, the FBI would simply service that local power structure. Or, it would service it covertly. But the South is where the power was, and that is what the IC fed.
In one instance, the FBI was informed, at least ten days in advance, that there was going to be violence, where it would take place, and when. The FBI did nothing. Well, almost nothing. The "chief of the Birmingham FBI bureau called a known klan agent" to let them know exactly where and when the Freedom Riders would be arriving. The FBI also kept the information about the threat secret from Bobby Kennedy, its direct supervisor.
The buses carrying the Freedom Riders arrived to violent mobs who savagely attacked the peaceful activists with chains, clubs, fists, pipes, even a baseball bat. One of the buses was set afire with the activists still inside, while mobs blocked the doors attempting to burn them alive. Previously, the police had been cleared from the scene, and ambulances had been made unavailable for service. Northern Press were kept away or attacked, if they appeared. An FBI paid informant, Gary Thomas Rowe personally participated in the burning of the bus and the severe beatings of several of the activists. A reporter managed to take one photo of a beating, where Rowe and several others were pummeling a peaceful activist. That reporter was seized, beaten and had his camera smashed, but somehow the film survived; and the picture was published. Rowe's handlers at the FBI were horrified - but not for the reasons you might think. Their reproach was for Rowe's allowing himself to be photographed. That picture is perhaps the only reason that people came to know about Mr. Rowe's activities, and who funded them. Ultimately Rowe's FBI aided career left a trail of death and destruction in the desegregation movement. In turn, his deeds were covered up by the very FBI agents who were supposed to prosecute his crimes.
It can thus be seen that in this particular instance the local power hub was the South's power structure, with its hateful racism, and that the IC served that structure like it serves any other, while covering up any crimes that resulted.
So when someone who is vulnerable appears on a IC radar screen, that name would be passed down to a local power hub or stakeholder. Favors beget favors. Local law enforcement would not likely protect such a person from the Treatment, since the order is coming from up high. I know from personal experience that even assaults with a deadly weapon would be ignored by police, or even turned on the victim as if it were their fault. Most everything else is simply for the "civil" courts, or "lacking in evidence." Civil courts attach the burden of proof to the victim - which already have their hands full and are strung for resources. Not to mention people in the civil court system can be very hard to persuade when the word comes from up high - that the treatment is in effect. Certainly the above listed police whistleblowers and prior instances of COINTELPRO showed us that manufactured charges are also a tool. Ultimately the person is told to do as they're told, or they are destroyed, through blackmail or the ensuing harassment. Down would come the marriages, jobs, and friendships. So, most people simply submit themselves to such "authority."
Not surprisingly these same people then become tools of the system, going on to harness their own circles of friends and family. Like multi-level marketing, and just like the original Gestapo.
To anyone that doubts the negative consequences of such accumulations of power over law abiding citizens, listen to what Mr. Binney compares the IC programs with:
There is that word again, from a highly placed NSA insider. I put it in bold, because most of us never thought this word could be uttered in the same sentence as the IC. But it's not some far out thinker saying these things, it's a US president and highly placed NSA insider. They'd know what they were talking about. And it certainly sounds like Mr. Binney recognized in 2002 what Truman knew in 1945 - the IC can and does fall prey to illegality: The power thus collected by the IC will not sit in a vault when there are hundreds of political friends, followers, and stakeholders wanting new followers and people to do their bidding. Ultimately, the information is used, and it is used to blackmail people into submission.
What Happens When Blackmail Fails
I am again speaking from experience here, since I personally got the attempted blackmail - but did not respond well to the attempt. The thing is, I don't believe in blackmail. My life is an open book. To be honest, I didn't even realize that something had gone amiss until a CIA recruiter tried to shock me into submission with it.Admittedly I made a mistake, but it was a victimless action which no one was complaining of. I didn't even know of the issue. So my position was to own up and take the rap. That must have been shocking, and at the time it happened I could actually see the disappointment in the recruiters otherwise polished face.
But, no rap came. Just now, as I was writing this, I realized why the rap never came: they would never admit to how they obtained that information, because it was obtained illegally.
Unfortunately for me, the follow-up to failed blackmail is a program of harassment. I mean at that point I had met the recruiters and seen them engage in various draw tactics including the blackmail attempt. There was probably some interest in what I could provide, if nothing else, they could ensure my silence. They also seem to wield the "never give up" mentality anyway.
Would I submit to harassment ?
Nope.
I happen to believe in human rights. So when the harassment came in earnest I responded by writing discreet whistleblower letters to the IC. Though it sounds impossible, whistleblowing can be discreet. For example, I sent the letters to each of the perpetrators and their supervisor. No disclosure to the press. No attorneys were hired.
However I did ask that the letter be passed on to any relevant party - meaning that if they would not cease of their own accord or more authority was needed, then that letter should have gone up the chain and taken care of the problem.
Unfortunately, discreet whistleblowing did not cause the op to cease. It apparently got me into the second category: truthsayers that must be utterly crushed. The aim then seems to switch to a witch hunt, leading to total destruction.
I didn't tell anyone about this for years because when you are under a repression op like I was, you are essentially disabled as a person. You are reeling at your losses, distracted by the harassment, and crushed with fear of what they might do next - all of which keeps you silent. It's a reign of fear, including fear that you will lose your life.
Not A Functioning Democracy
So if you are still a doubter about the state of things in the U.S., or how what happened to me could happen to you, let me tie this off with one quote.That quote might be shocking to hear, especially when you learn when it was made. This is not a quote made during the Jim Crow struggles in the south, or in some border town in the push Westward. This is a quote from 2013. Even more shocking is who made that statement: None other than former President Jimmy Carter, a democrat, and a very well connected one at that.
President Carter said that in response to the IC's abuse of power and related scandals that have come up in the past 3-4 years. He would know about discretion too - and how such a statement would hurt any current administration. He would not have said that unless there was no other way to address the matter.
The point made by Mr. Carter will not receive ample press in the mainstream media in the US - It cuts against the gravy train upon which the very rich are thriving. Nonetheless, President Carter laid out reality: parts of the IC are tearing the country to shreds by flouting the law and doing whatever they want.
And what they want is what their unprincipled politicians want: to gather more and more 'personnel' through blackmail or ensuing repression. Once a person caves from either, the IC swoops in as a saviour and relieves the pressure on one condition: the victim does what he or she is told. At that point they feel like they owe their life to the IC anyway.
I have personally watched the process on some family and friends. Sheer and total destruction of their will, complete turning of their world upside down, a total loss of their consciousness and morality, a willingness to do anything that they are told. The process is undemocratic, vile, and revolting.
How Some within the IC are Ailing the "American Dream"
When there is no functioning democracy anything goes for those in power.So the "American dream" can be turned into a farce of an insider's club harnessing law abiding people into losing their will, and their morality. It's a new push for a different kind of "human resources," which some might compare to slaves.
Not surprisingly the principle of hard work for just rewards is simply negated: if there is no democracy there are no rights, and if there are no rights there is no real entitlement to property. And because the system is thriving on illegality, there is no way for an outsider to make much headway: their inner workings can not be disclosed so outsiders cannot be allowed in, lest the house of cards come crumbling down.
And that is just the beginning. What gets done to the resilient types involves sinister technologies that make the acknowledged Gitmo practices look tame. I went through 13 years of it so I got to see a good range of what gets done. There is another horrifying thing about it: some of the process is automated. More on that in another article.
The Nazi Gestapo's exemption from the law was actually enshrined in the law. There was actually a law passed that exempted them from it. In the U.S., the government does not have the courage to admit what has happened.
The way forward is for people to speak about what is being done to the once great democracy that was the United States. Silence merely invites more abuse. I was silent for years on the issue.
You see where silence got me.
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance"
So I am doing this on November 2, 2016. It's 9:28pm, and I have not eaten in 148 hours and 28 minutes.
I am on hunger strike due to a persistent campaign of political repression against me. Nothing but water and Gatorade/Vitamin Water. For six days now.
What I am hoping is for people to let others know about my situation. And maybe the higher-ups that caused my situation will grow a conscience. But the second is admittedly a long shot.
The following is what I have learned through experience and research: How COINTELPRO got started, who is still perpetrating it, and more importantly why.
Beginnings of COINTELPRO: the American Gestapo
COINTELPRO is the moniker for a U.S. Intelligence community program which targeted law abiding political figures, union organizers, leftist writers, artist, actors, and community leaders. First people were put under surveillance to learn everything about them. If they were committing crimes, they were put away, or blackmailed with them. If they were law abiding, they were then subjected to harassment, bullying, innuendo campaigns, and every other method of destroying someone; including in some cases, sponsored murder.If you go and read about COINTELPRO you will hear that it is over and done with. Some committee of insiders would prevent it. There is a rule against it. No such thing could happen in America.
Well I'm here to tell you that COINTELPRO is alive. Not from some book I read, or movie I saw. I tell you this from my own experience. Maybe it has a different name, and it is definitively using newer tools, but COINTELPRO is alive.
And we should all have expected as much. The truth is that absolute power still corrupts absolutely, and that people will always be fallible.
To learn why COINTELPRO would survive any attempt to squash it, you have to learn about how it got started, and what it is actually all about. As to how it started, there is one U.S. President who actually saw its genesis: Harry Truman. As a sitting president, he wrote about what he was observing in his own IC agencies (then mostly the FBI). Truman called it for what he saw. In a writing made in 1945 he outlined his concerns about what the FBI was starting to become:
That's his handwriting and that is how he described the problem. He elaborated that what he saw was the taking root of a secret police - with agents engaged in enslaving others through "blackmail,"instead of "catching criminals."
Well that's an eye opener. We don't usually don't get to see Presidential notes as candid as this. It's an alarming quote, and if you want to learn whether Truman was able to stop it from happening, read on.
The Perpetrators Get Caught Again
Truman's words were not heeded. What we do know is that the American Gestapo got going and has never stopped. How do we know ? Well, the only way taxpayers ever find out about widespread illegal government activity - Through leaks, of course.The IC initially got caught due a 1971 break in at one of their offices by a Vietnam Draft Opponents/antiwar protesters. These activists suspected but could not prove ongoing and illegal harassment of war protestors. So they broke into the FBI offices in Media, Pennsylvania. There they found overwhelming evidence of the illegal government COINTELPRO program, which they leaked to the media. The program, just like it had during Truman's time, again targeted people with blackmail and other secret police tactics. The leak to the press resulted in national public furor, congressional committees, changes in the law, and, promises not to do it again.
But those promises ring hollow, and you'll see why. In the above linked NBC article we can hear the voices of FBI agents who still believe that the break-in should never have occurred. They think the information should never have been made public. They ignore the public outcry that followed the discovery of their illegal program. Neither the law nor the citizens of this country have ever authorized their government to break the law and target law abiding citizens for destruction. Their targets had been peace protesters, civil rights leaders, left leaning thinkers, progressives, union organizers, black leaders, and more. Once again it became clear that due to overwhelming surveillance, if the targets had been breaking the law they would have been imprisoned and quickly. Instead, repression was used, because the targeted citizens committed no crime.
From the FBI comments in the above NBC News article one can derive the IC mindset, and come to understand why the COINTELPRO problem recurs. Simply put, some people in the IC believe that the public is not on the same level as they are. We the People - not. Because otherwise they would all readily admit when they got caught red-handed. Instead you have the real IC mentality, and then the public image. Publicly, they say COINTELPRO ops are over with. They'll say that was 1971, and that the IC obeys the law now. Privately, as heard in that NBC article, they admit that they don't think they were doing anything wrong.
Instead, it's the IC, and then us, the little guys. The little guys have to obey the law, pay taxes, and stay in the straight and narrow. Many government employees - alike the very rich, the very connected, and politicians - seem to think the can be fully trusted to do the right thing, unconditionally. That the law does not quit apply to them.
When they get caught committing illegality, they also persecute whoever exposes them. Like the NBC article described, there was a tremendous manhunt for the people who broke in. It's simple: Little people have no right to know what is done with their taxpayer dollars, and if the IC is breaking the law, well, they look at it this way : how can the law break the law ? Impossible.
So I hope i will be forgiven a little sarcasm on the issue. This really highlights the issue of who polices the police. Significant city police usually have extensive local civilian oversight, like resident-police boards, to help offset the problem. Despite the obvious propensity for abuse and illegality, the IC does not have that. At most there is a few handfuls of people with very limited oversight or authority, and a some insiders lacking in any real inclination to upset their apple cart. There is clearly people in the IC who feel like the are the law. They forget one thing about Government, and what it's supposed to be:
"[a] government of laws, not of men,"
This simple if chauvinistic John Adams quote puts the lie to what COINTELPRO and its modern derivatives stand for. It puts to shame any politician and government employee who believes they are entitled break the of law. The founding principle of this nation is that no one is above the law.
Nonetheless, the IC seems to feel entitled. What has been established, without a doubt, is that the IC has occasionally devolved into systematically targeting law abiding U.S. citizens, in violation of our rights. Well, that was 1945, and 1971. What about now ?
COINTELPRO Modernizes for the 21st Century
If you ask the IC or look at their slogans, they would say that is all in the past, a thing of the seventies.Not so. On or about 2002 there was a little known Whistleblower from the NSA., a Mr. William Binney. Mr. Binney was a math guru and a thirty year veteran of the NSA, a 'Technical Leader,' described as "one of the best analysts in the NSA's history." He resigned from the NSA in October 2001, and blew the whistle on illegal activity at the NSA.
What he revealed was the same thing that President Harry Truman pointed out : the IC had lost their focus on catching criminals, and was instead focusing on mass surveillance, like a secret police would.
How it unfolded Binney was highly placed and an ultimate insider. After he made the discovery of illegality Mr. Binney's said he simply could not go on working there. He said he was unable to continue participating in an NSA that had, in his words, "been turned against Americans." What he saw is a pattern of NSA actions where "fundamental constitutional rights were being violated."
But corruption hates the truth. So when Mr. Binney came out with the evidence of IC illegality, he got the punitive "treatment:" He was maligned, disparaged, pointlessly prosecuted, and had his livelihood destroyed, in a basic act of political repression.
Mr. Binney had revealed the information legally, by disclosure through the DOJ. And he was a higher level NSA employee with 30 years in the IC. He would easily recognize the treatment and he was connected, and resourceful enough to fight it. It is quite telling that the IC has the hubris to give someone like him the "treatment" anyway.
It is significant that Mr. Binney observed and documented this deliberate pattern of conduct before the War On Terror and its enabling mentality; long before September 11 even occurred. So there was none of the 'national emergency' to support the illegal acts.
Well, politicians and IC members would again say that we must trust them to do the right thing after that. Perhaps it was just a one time mishap ?
Well then came Snowden in 2013, who broke the law and his contract when he disclosed, but he did confirm much of what Mr. Binney had said: the IC is continuing to turn their teeth on law abiding people. And what Snowden revealed was found to be illegal conduct by the Government, over a decade after Mr. Binney spoke out. The dust settled and secrecy really helped. The IC will not admit the full scope of their program, but they did say that they would "end" some of the programs they had been caught red-handed with.
So it turns out that politicians can't be trusted unconditionally, and that IC illegality has happened, and continues to happen, and will continue to happen. That is not to say there
aren't good people working in the IC, doing dangerous and taxing work. But there is certainly some of them who are targeting law abiding United States Citizens. They will not stop doing it and they usually refuse to admit wrongdoing. They also feel entitled to use taxpayer funds and assets in witch-hunts to crush anyone who exposes them.
Some people in the IC will fall into the mire and inevitably engage in these illegal activities. The question we need to ask is why this happens, just what is the draw ?
Why The New COINTELPRO Runs on Data Collection: Blackmail and the Enslavement of a Free People Through Fear
We've all heard about the data collection scandals. Seems like there is a new revelation every few months or so. The average person asks what the point is. Why retrieve and keep all that seemingly meaningless information ?Mr. Binney explained it best when he said that mass surveillance is not really to find out about crimes, but rather, it is about amassing "power." He estimated that 20 trillion US citizen-US citizen transactions were needlessly retrieved. And he pointedly observed,
But how is your private information really power ?
It works like this: When your locations, phone records, emails, private conversations, and other metadata are collected, it basically shows what makes you tick. It will occasionally reveal blackmail material as well.
That treasure trove of personal information is a component of a mind map - it shows where your buttons lie, your 'must-haves,' and 'can't-stands.' It makes you vulnerable to button pushers and reaction seekers. This can be all for the good. We can imagine a world where you tell your weaknesses and embarrassing things to your opponents, adversaries, or newspapers, and they do nothing with that information.
There is just one problem with that. This isn't such a world.
Some people are eager to see others being destroyed. Adversaries and competitors are always on the lookout for a weakness. Local power hubs and stakeholders are always on the lookout for fresh recruits.
The blackmail is obvious. People figure you'll do anything to keep your secrets. Local power hubs or stakeholders will be happy to take you up on that, and they have much for you to do: their bidding.
Your mind map is more complicated, but let's just say it makes you harnessable. If your wants are denied, delayed, or obfuscated, frustration will build. If your can't-stands are channeled in your direction, life becomes even more difficult. Repeatedly delaying a person when they absolutely have to get somewhere will do away most people's jobs. If those three things are done to you for long enough, most everyone will be brought to their ruin, or worse.
Once ruined you would be begging for the treatment to stop. You would likely accept an offer that promises the end of the treatment and a chance to rebuild. And there are plenty of local power hubs and stakeholders itching for people in such a predicament.
So we can see that mind maps and blackmail material enables a person to be owned, sometimes for life. And it is way too tempting to ignore. It's like this: They could get a fish, and eat a meal. Or, they could learn how to fish, which requires some work, but it will provide sustenance. Or they could own the fisherman, and then they can have fish for nothing. It's not a new concept. People have raided others since time immemorial. Conquest yields slaves.
What is new is how it is being done today, and who has been doing it. Not raiders from abroad, but people within the IC itself.
The IC & Why Information Must Travel
Some might say that local stakeholders, power hubs and other interested parties would never find out what their mind maps or peccadilloes are. After all, these things are safely kept in some vault. Or not kept at all. Right ? No, and sadly, no.The IC is a vast human enterprise with many connections to local stakeholders and local power hubs. Many of their personnel revolve in and out of private enterprise, assuming positions of good pay, power, and influence. So when someone in a local power hub needs something; there is usually somebody they can call. That's what keeps them on top. They are connected and can get things done. And if something is found that would interest a local power hub, well, that information trickles down like candy.
This is the way it has been since the early Hoover days - when the IC figured they could peddle secrets like most merchants deal in goods. And create willing sycophants of even former critics. This is what frequently made the FBI the second most powerful entity in the nation. Except most of the early data crunching abilities were based on personal observation, mail reads, and wiretaps. Since there was only so much staff to go around, they mostly limited themselves to significant targets: union organizers irking a friend, celebrities with enemies, dissident writers stirring the pot, politicians, other potential conduits to more power, and the like.
Today's fine grained automated tools would make Edgar cackle with glee. Not tens of thousands, not even hundreds of thousands: millions of targets out there, ripe for the picking, and most importantly, ready for distribution. No longer restricted to FBI employees for the task at hand, but now gorged by unaccountable and unvouchered private contractors, their families, their friends, and hangers-on: all aching for another hapless citizen to be thrown into their troth.
The temptation is too great, the gain too significant, the task too simple: Query, copy, and paste. Chalk up another. This is how low hanging fruit are passed on to interested friends around the country, to then become lifetime followers. It's a new resource grab, a new frontier. It makes the gold rush seem like child's play.
Skeptics might say that local law enforcement would not permit this to happen. Well, in some cases yes, but probably not for long. Federal and local law enforcement are now very closely tied, and the dollars, swag, and potential jobs flows from the IC. Law enforcement are themselves subject to ownership and "the treatment" if they fail to partake in the illegality. See Michael Ruppert, Kathryn_Bolkovac, Frank_Serpico, or Justin_Hopson for just a few experiences on that front.
And congress ? The IC deals in intelligence and has therefore become the de-facto brain of the US government. With the vast trove of information they possess, one email is all it takes for many politicians, celebrities, and tycoons to come crashing down. Few dare to question that structure.
The IC & Local Power Hubs: The Freedom Riders Example
The truth is that IC activities are never not local. The IC continues to grow by tending to local power hubs and aggregating favors. Thus communications are sent to local power hubs and stakeholders, notifying them of 'low hanging fruit'- vulnerable hapless people who have not protected themselves - which are therefore going to be owned. And let's face it, there are always local stakeholders, friends, and their friends that want to be satisfied - this assures the IC some support when their times get tough.For the skeptics let's deal with one example of IC-local conniving: Racial integration in the South and the Freedom Riders. The Free Riders were activists who were traveling through the South, advocating for racial integration. They would sit in segregated coffee shops, ride in the segregated buses, and otherwise demonstrate that racial segregation was wrong. Many in the U.S. saw these young people as heroes, doing something that needed to be done. The Freedom Riders were likely to face violence from segregationists. So, the FBI was charged with keeping an eye on the situation. The FBI did indeed keep a keen eye on them.
The local power hub, in the Freedom Riders case, was influential southerners who opposed segregation. They wanted the Freedom Riders stopped, and would engage in violence to get that to happen. Unless there was national outcry that could not be deflected, the FBI would simply service that local power structure. Or, it would service it covertly. But the South is where the power was, and that is what the IC fed.
In one instance, the FBI was informed, at least ten days in advance, that there was going to be violence, where it would take place, and when. The FBI did nothing. Well, almost nothing. The "chief of the Birmingham FBI bureau called a known klan agent" to let them know exactly where and when the Freedom Riders would be arriving. The FBI also kept the information about the threat secret from Bobby Kennedy, its direct supervisor.
The buses carrying the Freedom Riders arrived to violent mobs who savagely attacked the peaceful activists with chains, clubs, fists, pipes, even a baseball bat. One of the buses was set afire with the activists still inside, while mobs blocked the doors attempting to burn them alive. Previously, the police had been cleared from the scene, and ambulances had been made unavailable for service. Northern Press were kept away or attacked, if they appeared. An FBI paid informant, Gary Thomas Rowe personally participated in the burning of the bus and the severe beatings of several of the activists. A reporter managed to take one photo of a beating, where Rowe and several others were pummeling a peaceful activist. That reporter was seized, beaten and had his camera smashed, but somehow the film survived; and the picture was published. Rowe's handlers at the FBI were horrified - but not for the reasons you might think. Their reproach was for Rowe's allowing himself to be photographed. That picture is perhaps the only reason that people came to know about Mr. Rowe's activities, and who funded them. Ultimately Rowe's FBI aided career left a trail of death and destruction in the desegregation movement. In turn, his deeds were covered up by the very FBI agents who were supposed to prosecute his crimes.
So it can be seen that in this particular instance the local power hub was the South's power structure, with its hateful racism, and that the IC served that structure like it serves any other, while covering up any crimes that resulted.
"Better" Than The Gestapo
New information technologies have made things easier. When someone who is vulnerable or tasked appears on a IC radar screen, that information would be passed down to a local power hub or stakeholder. Favors beget favors. Locals within the IC sphere of influence will trip over themselves to do something to participate. This keeps them in the critical information loop and connected to the insiders' circle of taxpayer supported freebies and opportunities. That means anyone who is suitably cleared will be notified and align his or her personnel assets in the area. Their assets are a cross section of the local scene. Most have very limited information, except that somebody matching a description is to be given a bad night, for example, by repeatedly disrupting their sleep at a national park. Roving groups of assets will then continue to perform ops on the subject almost seamlessly, until the subject leaves their area of operation. Their area of operation can be quite limited, say a few city blocks, or a given institution of learning.Most local law enforcement would not likely protect such a person from the Treatment, since the order is coming from up high. I know from personal experience that even assaults with a deadly weapon would be ignored by police, or even turned on the victim as if it were their fault. Most everything else is simply for the "civil" courts, or "lacking in evidence." Civil courts attach the burden of proof to the victims - who have their hands full with near daily losses and are strung for time and resources. Not to mention people in the civil court system can be very hard to persuade when the word comes from up high - that the treatment is in effect. Certainly the above listed police whistleblowers and prior instances of COINTELPRO showed us that manufactured charges are also a tool. And that local law enforcement contains its own group of operators.
Under relentless pressure, and usually after they have broken, the subject is finally told to do as they're told, or they will be destroyed, through disclosure or ensuing harassment. They are promised a much easier life on the 'inside.' otherwise, the blackmail is revealed, and the "Treatment" continues. Down would come the marriages, jobs, and friendships. So, most people simply submit themselves to such "authority."
Not surprisingly these same people then become tools of the system, going on to harness their own circles of friends and family. Like multi-level marketing, and just like the original Gestapo: Say a church was targeted. The Gestapo would turn one person, and then that person would turn on their family, friends, and everyone in their circle. Driven by fear of a recurrence of the Treatment, and drawn to the taxpayer supported perks of the inside, the overall philosophy at that time seems to become
"Better then than me."
To anyone that doubts the negative consequences of such accumulations of power over law abiding citizens, listen to what Mr. Binney compares the IC programs with:
There is that word again, from a highly placed NSA insider. I put it in bold, because most of us never thought this word could be uttered in the same sentence as the IC. But it's not some far out thinker saying these things, it's a US president and a highly placed NSA insider. They'd know what they were talking about. And it certainly sounds like Mr. Binney recognized in 2002 what Truman knew in 1945 - the IC can and does fall prey to illegality: The power thus collected by the IC will not sit in a vault when there are hundreds of political friends, followers, and stakeholders wanting new followers and people to do their bidding. Ultimately, the information is used, and it is used to blackmail and or harass people into submission.
I have personally watched the process on some family and friends. Sheer and total destruction of their will, complete turning of their world upside down, a total loss of their consciousness and morality, a willingness to do anything that they are told. The process is undemocratic, vile, and revolting.
What Happens When Blackmail Fails
I am again speaking from experience here, since I personally got the attempted blackmail - but did not respond well to the attempt.The thing is, I don't believe in blackmail. My life is an open book. To be honest, I didn't even realize that something had gone amiss until a CIA recruiter tried to shock me into submission with it.
Admittedly I made a mistake, but it was a victimless action which no one was complaining of. I didn't even know of the issue. There would have been repercussions, but my position was to own up and take the rap. So that is how I reacted: face forward on it. That must have been shocking, and at the time it happened I could actually see the disappointment in the recruiters otherwise polished face.
But, no rap came. Just now, as I was writing this, I realized why the rap never came: they would never admit to how they obtained that information, because it was obtained illegally.
Unfortunately for me, the follow-up to failed blackmail is a program of harassment. I mean at that point I had met the recruiters and seen them engage in various draw tactics including the blackmail attempt. There was probably some interest in what I could provide, if nothing else, they could ensure my silence. They also seem to wield the "never give up" mentality anyway.
Would I submit to harassment ?
Nope.
I happen to believe in human rights. So when the harassment came in earnest I responded by writing discreet whistleblower letters to the IC. Though it sounds impossible, whistleblowing can be discreet.
For example, I sent the letters to each of the perpetrators and their supervisor. No disclosure to the press. No attorneys were hired.
However I did ask that the letter be passed on to any relevant party - meaning that if they would not cease of their own accord or more authority was needed, then that letter should have gone up the chain and taken care of the problem.
Unfortunately, discreet whistleblowing did not cause the op to cease. It apparently got me into the second category: truthsayers that must be utterly crushed. The aim then seems to switch to a witch hunt, leading to total destruction.
I didn't tell anyone about this for years because when you are under a repression op like I was, you are essentially disabled as a person. You are reeling at your losses, distracted by the harassment, and crushed with fear of what they might do next - all of which keeps you silent. It's a reign of fear, including fear that you will lose your life.
Not A Functioning Democracy
So if you are still a doubter about the state of things in the U.S., or how what happened to me could happen to you, let me tie this off with one quote.That quote might be shocking to hear, especially when you learn when it was made. This is not a quote made during the Jim Crow struggles in the south, or in some border town in the push Westward. This is a quote from 2013. Even more shocking is who made that statement: None other than former President Jimmy Carter, a democrat, and a very well connected one at that.
President Carter said that in response to the IC's abuse of power and related scandals that have come up in the past 3-4 years. He would know about discretion too - and how such a statement would hurt any current administration. He would not have said that unless there was no other way to address the matter.
The point made by Mr. Carter will not receive ample press in the mainstream media in the US - It cuts against the gravy train upon which the very rich are thriving. Nonetheless, President Carter laid out reality: parts of the IC are tearing the country to shreds by flouting the law and doing whatever they want.
And what they want is what their unprincipled politicians want: to gather more and more 'personnel' through blackmail or ensuing repression.
How Some within the IC are Ailing the "American Dream"
When there is no functioning democracy anything goes for those in power.So the "American dream" can be turned into a farce of an insider's club harnessing law abiding people into losing their will, and their morality. It's a new push for a different kind of "human resources," which some might compare to slaves.
Not surprisingly the principle of hard work for just rewards is simply negated: if there is no democracy there are no rights, and if there are no rights there is no real entitlement to property. And because the system is thriving on illegality, there is no way for an outsider to make much headway: their inner workings can not be disclosed so outsiders cannot be allowed in, lest the house of cards come crumbling down.
And that is just the beginning. What gets done to the resilient types involves sinister technologies that make the acknowledged Gitmo practices look tame. I went through 13 years of it so I got to see a good range of what gets done. There is another horrifying thing about it: some of the process is automated. More on that in another article.
The Nazi Gestapo's exemption from the law was actually enshrined in the law. There was actually a law passed that exempted them from it. In the U.S., the government does not have the courage to admit what has happened.
The way forward is for people to speak about what is being done to the once great democracy that
was the United States. Silence merely invites more abuse. I was silent for years on the issue.
You see where silence got me.
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