or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
June 17, 2008
WikiLeaks Publishes US Special Forces Counterinsurgency Manual?
Wikileaks has published what it says is a manual of US counterinsurgency doctrine:
The manual, Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces (1994, 2004), may be critically described as "what we learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places". Its contents are both history defining for Latin America and, given the continued role of US Special Forces in the suppression of insurgencies and guerilla movements world wide, history making.The document, which has been verified, is official US Special Forces doctrine. It directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates bribery, employing terrorists, false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it directly advocates the extensive use of "psychological operations" (propaganda) to make these and other "population & resource control" measures more palatable.
The document has been particularly informed by the long United States involvement in the El Salvador...
I have no way of judging whether the document is legitimate, but it certainly reads like it is.
Recall that in 2005 the Defense Department decided on what it called "The Salvador Option" for Iraq, with James Steele, a veteran of counterinsurgency in El Salvador during the eighties, training Iraq's Special Police Commandos.
UPDATE: Regarding El Salvador, Iraq and US counterinsurgency doctrine, see two 2006 posts from Nell here and here.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at June 17, 2008 11:21 AMHey, might not be a bad idea to follow their directions in the Preface:
"We would like your comments or recommendations for improving this manual. Please make your comments on DA Form 2028, keying your comments to specific pages and paragraphs and stating your reasons for the recommended change. Mail your comments to—
Commander, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School
ATTN: AOJK-DTD-M
Fort Bragg, NC 28307-5000"
very nice
Posted by: patrick at June 17, 2008 01:53 PMTHE INTERNET MEANS open government. (actually means open everything its just the word government sounds so political and THIRD PARTY)
Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 17, 2008 02:03 PMDo you know who Stan Goff is?
Not that it's relevant to your larger point, but he might be able to tell you if it's legitimate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Goff
He also has a blog, Feral Scholar.
Posted by: Bruce F at June 17, 2008 02:55 PMCompletely deniable, of course. And it's quite possible it's been tampered with, possibly by the aforementioned psy-ops people. That the propaganda objectives in other countries are the same as in the US is just a happy co-incidence, so it's all legal, if below board.
I got accused of being part of the modern equivalent of COINTELPRO not so long ago... well I could be, couldn't I? If so, I'm such a deep agent I'm not sure what agenda I'm pushing, but I'm sure the hidden forces are exerting their influence effectively.
Anyone here read PKD's "A scanner darkly"? I think I've only seen the film, but perhaps the memory is in the process of being suppressed by recontextualizing overlays caused by the implanted identity configurations.
Posted by: me at June 17, 2008 02:59 PMTO: Commander, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School
RE: running death squads
Dear Sir:
Stop it!
Yrs Sincerely
Monkay
Completely deniable, of course. And it's quite possible it's been tampered with, possibly by the aforementioned psy-ops people. That the propaganda objectives in other countries are the same as in the US is just a happy co-incidence, so it's all legal, if below board.
I got accused of being part of the modern equivalent of COINTELPRO not so long ago... well I could be, couldn't I? If so, I'm such a deep agent I'm not sure what agenda I'm pushing, but I'm sure the hidden forces are exerting their influence effectively.
Anyone here read PKD's "A scanner darkly"? I think I've only seen the film, but perhaps the memory is in the process of being suppressed by recontextualizing overlays caused by the implanted identity configurations.
Posted by: me at June 17, 2008 03:00 PMWow. If this can be confirmed, it's huge. And if it can manage to get any meaningful press coverage at all, I mean. Big "if", I know. But... Go wikileaks!
Posted by: Quin at June 17, 2008 03:17 PM2nd paragraph sounds like a detailed map of how our government has been acting here these last 7 1/2 years, no? Terrorist acts? See anthrax attacks on news media and opposition party in gov. Didn't they trace it back to a US military strain before the "trail" cooled?
Posted by: Dee Loralei at June 17, 2008 03:56 PMHere's a link to a page where you can find another link to Department of the Army Form 2028.
http://www.per.hqusareur.army.mil/services/support/forms.htm
I'll keep looking for any better links for the equipage of you merry pranksters.
Posted by: JerseyJeffersonian at June 17, 2008 04:56 PMDee Loralei: Ft Detrich Maryland Brand of anthrax, no less. Bred in Utah, FED EXed to Maryland, and weaponized to "just the way ya like it".
Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 17, 2008 04:59 PM...I'm not sure what agenda I'm pushing, but I'm sure the hidden forces are exerting their influence effectively.
The agenda of the Lizard People. The first thing they tell you is something like this:
The host nation government must provide a credible justification to minimize the obvious propaganda benefits the insurgents could derive from your presence. The country's dissenting elements will label your actions, no matter how well-intended, an "imperialistic intervention."
Those Lizard overlords are a tricky bunch.
Posted by: Labiche at June 17, 2008 05:00 PMI found a better link after all to Form 2028.
http://www.army.mil/usapa/eforms/pdf/A2028.PDF
Now don't be snarky; nobody likes snarky.
Posted by: JerseyJeffersonian at June 17, 2008 05:01 PMOf course it's deniable. Anything is deniable. It isn't genuine or it was tampered with by the International Space Jews or it is the unauthorized work of a Few Bad Apples, or it is just a hypothetical and was never ever ever meant to actually be used. By the time the denials get slapped down, it's forgotten if anyone beyond a few tinfoil-hat leftist conspiracy theorists ever noticed it to begin with. Until the next one comes along, and then that one is also deniable, and it's an aberration, nothing like it was ever done before, etc. etc. etc.
Someone Myra MacPherson interviewed for her biography of I. F. Stone dismissed the notion that politicians and other government officials are pathological liars: they are professional liars.
Posted by: Duncan at June 17, 2008 08:48 PMYears ago, I encountered "Colonel" Jim Steele in person at the U.S. embassy in El Salvador, in fatigues. A piece of work. He took a comically macho pose in front of our visiting delegation, leaning in and saying scornfully "You people probably get all your news from Radio Venceremos." I'm sure it was supposed to intimidate us, but some of us couldn't help but bust out laughing. That just made him madder; it was like a bad teen comedy where he was the insane school principal.
One of my thoughts at the time, having had a lot more exposure to military than most of my fellow delegation members, was "This guy's not regular Army."
So it was creepy but not especially surprising to see him pop back up in Iraq in 2004. He featured quite a bit in Jon Lee Anderson's New Yorker article 'The Uprising' that spring, and had a chilling bit part in the NY Times Magazine piece that ends with the reporter hearing a man being tortured in the HQ of one of the death squad units Steele was training.
Posted by: Nell at June 17, 2008 09:17 PM
