When “intelligence agencies” first began officially in the US (FBI/BOI in 1908), their stated purpose was to discredit, misdirect, and diminish the effectiveness of the early labor activists – though later they would cloak their intentions in loftier language.

At least by the 50s and on, they were targeting all sorts of activists, including civil rights, anti-war, and environmental – anyone who threatened corporate profits or the status quo. Tactics, even today, include assassination, but most often subtler techniques, which former agents have written about – usually on their deathbeds.

I read one of those memoirs (Wes Swearingen’s), and I have seen the tactics played out against activists I’ve known (Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, who were almost assassinated – I watched the trial and wrote about it almost daily for six weeks – the feds were found guilty), and I’ve experienced the tactics played against me.

Why me? Who the hell am I?

Well, after I sent media releases around the world about the FBI for those six weeks, I realized I’d been a mind control subject in my childhood and was still under some degree of control. It scared the sh*t out of me, but when I recovered somewhat from that, I turned my activist work to exposing the CIA’s mind control programs. I knew it was a dangerous job, but “someone had to do it,” and it seemed I was in the perfect position (healed enough and a writer/activist), so, like it or not, I took up the task.

Today, I’m one of only, I’d guess, maybe a dozen or fewer across the nation speaking out and having somewhat of an impact, though I’m very ambivalent about taking a high profile or speaking out much in my local community. Most of my work (admittedly sporadic) is online, via YouTube and my blog, speaking around the Southwest, and continuing to sell my memoir.

Is this enough to make me worth harassing or discrediting? I don’t know what’s at stake for those guys. But I have regularly found my home broken into, my body bruised in odd places, once my arm with a two-prong electrical burn (Taser, I assume), and a great deal of other very clear physical evidence that something weird is going on. I’ve documented much of this with photographs given to my doctor and, because last year I felt the need for one, a counselor.

When I learn about weird things being told about me in my community, I know some of it is simply my own human failings mixed with other human’s misunderstandings, but not all of it. Some of it, because of the other stuff in my life, I have to believe originates with Disinformation Specialists, because some of it has been just too weird.

If you are interested, do your own research on COINTELPRO (Wikipedia documents it well). But what I learned is that they have their operatives (witting or unwitting) in various social circles whom they use to plant false information about their targets. Their witting or unwitting operatives pass on the information and, if it’s juicy, it spreads.

Just thought I’d let ya’all know.

I’ve believed lies about other people, and I feel real bad for having believed some of it for years.

It’s part of our cultural mind control. Any of us can be subtly tricked, especially in a culture where we communicate so much via words on a screen and too little face-to-face, where we can pick up vibes and know who we want to trust.

In the “old days,” these agents went to a lot of trouble to create false communications, for instance, filing typewriter keys to match a particular person’s typewriter and practicing another handwriting style. This was often used to drive a wedge between activist colleagues, to make each think the other was a jerk, or racist, or hated them, or might actually be a spy, so their work would be sidetracked or totally derailed. This is all documented.

Today, with the Internet, how easy do you think it would be to intercept communications and change them before sending them on, creating great trouble for activists?

They certainly have the budget. Intelligence agencies expanded their budgets four-fold in one decade I happened to track, and that didn’t include the Black Budget which dwarfs the entire “regular” military and intelligence budgets.

Their motives have not changed, so there’s no reason to believe they don’t still do this, especially when it’s now so easy.

To conclude: We need to be careful, so our judgments are not manipulated by those with destructive intentions.

We need to reclaim our human communications – increase our face-to-face time, maybe even reduce online time except when necessary. (I’m trying to do this.)

I don’t know what else to do, but say, Let’s be cautious about negative “news.” Check it out.

“Gossip” is usually thought of in its most negative sense, and it often operates that way, but it can also be used positively, when we check primary sources and then pass that along.

Good day and good luck!