Preempt\r\nThe FBI\r\nAuthor: Bakunin\r\n<\/p>
The FBI has quietly declared October to be \"Harass Anarchists,\r\nMuslims and other Enemies of the State\" month. Well, the FBI hasn't\r\nexactly been quiet. The FBI is behind a recent article on CBS: FBI's Anti-Terror 'October Plan'. \r\nNo doubt the great chest pounding behind the article is intended to have a\r\npsychological impact on activists, making them fearful of FBI harassment during\r\nthe weeks before the November elections. There is nothing the FBI would\r\nlike more than to keep its Dictator-in-Chief in power and this latest move is\r\nintended to assist that goal by silencing those most likely to make a little\r\nnoise. If what the FBI states in the article is true, and we have no\r\nreason to doubt it, the FBI will be overtly conducting surveillance of\r\n\"terrorist sympathizers\" (read, those opposed to Bush as in,\r\n\"You're either with me or you're with the terrorists\") to the extent\r\nof parking in front of your house, visiting your neighbors, visiting your family\r\nmembers, following you around town and perhaps, even, visiting your\r\nemployer. This, of course, will make you nervous and this is exactly what\r\nthe FBI wants, so I am here to suggest a new strategy for dealing with this\r\nsituation.s<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The first and most important thing to do is to talk with your\r\nfamily. Explain to your family, if they do not already know, that you are\r\nan activist and that the FBI is planning on harassing activists during the month\r\nof October by visiting their families. Explain that you are not engaged in\r\nany illegal activities and that if the FBI should come to visit it is for the\r\npurpose of intimidation and information gathering only. Any information\r\ngathered by the FBI will not be used to \"prevent terrorism\" but will\r\nbe used to terrorize and harass you and other activists. Make it clear to\r\nyour family that they are under absolutely no obligation to talk with the FBI or\r\nto communicate in any way with the FBI. With that said, demand that they\r\ndo not, under any circumstances, allow the FBI into their homes, answer any\r\nquestions for the FBI or provide any information whatsoever to the FBI.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The FBI is likely to try to get a foot into the door. They will\r\nattempt to find some pretext to enter the homes of your relatives. Let\r\nyour relatives know that they should not, under any circumstances, permit the\r\nFBI to enter their homes. Once in side they are likely to snoop around,\r\ngather information and search for reasons to obtain a warrant (even if they must\r\nfile a false report and lie about what they have seen in the home). For\r\nthese reasons the FBI should never be permitted to enter your relatives' homes.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
Explain to your family that since you have committed no crimes, nothing\r\nthey say could assist the FBI in clearing you of anything. Make it clear\r\nthat the FBI, despite whatever they may say, are not interested in clearing\r\nyou. Their only purpose is to gather information for the purpose of\r\nharassment. Since you have committed no crimes, any statement by the FBI\r\nthat \"you are in trouble\" or \"that your family can help clear\r\nyour name\" is a lie. It should be met with a door slamming, not\r\nfurther conversation. Make it clear, as well, that they should provide\r\nabsolutely no information about anyone else.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
Suggest to family members that they clear their homes of anything that the\r\nFBI may view from the font door or from any windows and use as a pretext for\r\nobtaining a search warrant. Encourage your family members not to discuss\r\npersonal information about you, where you work or what you are doing on the\r\ntelephone and not to send any emails including such information.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The next step is to deal with your friends. Advise friends that you\r\ncan trust of your concerns and ask them to follow the same protocol as your\r\nfamily (see above). Ask both your family and your friends to inform you if\r\nand when the FBI come to visit. Stress to your friends that you are in\r\nneed of no \"help\" that assisting the FBI could attain. The best\r\nway they can help you is to not communicate with the FBI.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
After you deal with your friends, consider your employer. More\r\nlikely than not you will have some misgivings about informing your employer, so\r\nI suggest taking some preemptive steps at work. You should sanitize your\r\noffice. The first step is to delete any old emails that contain\r\ninformation about your personal life or political activities that you would not\r\nwish the FBI to obtain. Since your employer owns your work email, they\r\ncould turn it over to the FBI without a warrant if they chose to do so. Go\r\ninto your Internet browser and delete your web-browsing history. Remove\r\nany and all cached Internet content from your machine. If you have a tool\r\nto wipe all unused space on your hard-disk, use it. Delete any saved\r\nmessages on your work telephone or home telephone that you do not wish the FBI\r\nto access. Go through your desk drawers and shred any information that the FBI\r\nmay use to harass you. Stop accessing your personal email from work. \r\nAccessing your personal email from work, even through a web-based application,\r\ncan give your employer access to your passwords and email. If you have\r\nalready done this at work, they may already have collected this\r\ninformation. To be safe, upon returning home, change your passwords and\r\nremember never to access your personal email from work again.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
If you are using Windows, your passwords may be cached on your work\r\nmachine. Change them all and when the system asks if you would like to\r\ncache the password for future use, choose the \"no\" option.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
If you have programmed the speed dial to your work telephone with personal\r\nnumbers, reprogram it to forget those numbers or to replace those numbers with\r\nrandom numbers. Your personal connections could be revealed by using your\r\nspeed dial. There exist cheap tools to decode into digits the series of\r\ntones used when a number is dialed.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The next step is to plant disinformation with anyone that you do not\r\ntrust. I cannot fabricate this information for you. You must do it\r\nyourself. It must be believable. For each person that you have\r\ncontact with whom you do not trust, make up a small piece of disinformation\r\n(i.e. a lie) that is believable and that you believe they might share with the\r\nFBI. Keep track of these \"lies\". Assign one unique lie to\r\neach person you do not trust. On a one to one basis, find a way of\r\ncommunicating the unique lie directly with each untrusted person. Make\r\nsure no third party knows the lie - only the untrusted person. When and if\r\nthe FBI visits everyone you know, these untrusted persons will share their\r\nunique disinformation with the FBI. If this information ever surfaces in\r\nthe form of harassment, you will be able to identify the source as the untrusted\r\nperson with whom you entrusted the unique lie.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
There is another edge to the disinformation sword. If this practice\r\nbecomes well known, untrusted people will fear sharing information with the FBI\r\nunder the fear that they possess unique disinformation that will reveal their\r\nidentities. This will make such people fear snitching.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
If you believe that the FBI will obtain a warrant for your home, you\r\nshould act to sanitize your home BEFORE you have clear evidence that they intend\r\nto. Any action you take after obtaining knowledge that you are the subject\r\nof an investigation which removes evidence will be viewed as obstructing\r\njustice. So long as you remove it before you have any reason to believe\r\nyou are the subject of an investigation, you are just being a good housekeeper.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
Often, after such sweeps, the FBI attempts to justify its criminal\r\nbehavior by bringing its victims before a Grand Jury. At a Grand Jury you\r\ndo not have the right to remain silent. I encourage you to look deep\r\nwithin yourself and decide whether ethics and morality are more important than\r\nlaw. Most ethical and moral people will take the position that ethics and\r\nmorality are primary and law is valid only in so far as it conforms to ethics\r\nand morality.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
One final piece of advice is to continue your political activities. \r\nThe primary goal of the FBI is to hinder you. Do not let them succeed.<\/b><\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"The FBI has quietly declared October to be "Harass Anarchists, Muslims and other Enemies of the State" month. Well, the FBI hasn't exactly been quiet.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/09\/117072.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}