Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

October 6, 2009

MNN: Perfect intruder or true friend? Hindsight

PERFECT INTRUDER OR TRUE FRIEND? HINDSIGHT
Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com

MNN. Oct. 6, 2009. This is about spies and agents in our midst. We Indigenous look at our experiences and try to put them into context. Some of us have been misled by colonial agents posing as scholars, friends, supporters or helpers. Because we don’t have all the information at the time, we don’t jump to conclusions. Afterwards we put the picture together and make guidelines to protect ourselves. There are always exceptions.
The perfect intruder will abandon you when they are finished their assignment, especially when they put your life or liberty on the line. My intruders took off when I almost died from the beating at the border. The end game was to kill me. I survived. They were nervous about how long they could keep up their cover. We wondered about this too.
PROLOGUE. Any social order based on inequality of wealth and power depends on political repression. The establishment and colonial social order call us domestic dissidents. We could disrupt their image and their economy which is based on the theft of our lands, resources and space.
Infiltration is a sophisticated vigilante operation to stop free speech and to neutralize us. How? By creating factionalism, bringing us into disrepute and causing confusion and dissatisfaction.
BACKGROUND. Progressive activists are their main targets. Infiltration is low intensity warfare, which is molding public opinion, working outside the law and using fraud and force to sabotage legitimate political activity. Surveillance is used to gather intel, to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or neutralize individuals or groups.
The federal government has become the main domestic covert repressor using hired thugs, right wing vigilantes, private military organizations and police. Local police are the foot soldiers for arrests, raids, beatings and infiltrations.
False stories are planted. Bogus organizations like the camel toe treaty cult in Akwesasne are set up. Parents, employers, landlords or school officials are strong armed to cause trouble for activists.
The legal system and courts criminalize activists through perjured evidence, false arrests and imprisonment. Threats, assaults, beatings and political assassinations are carried out. [Malcolm X].
It is well known that provocateurs like the KKK, Minutemen, Nazis, racist vigilantes and right-wing thugs are subsidized, armed, directed and protected by the government.
PROVOCATEURS seize every opportunity to disrupt, create disagreements, make divisions, sabotage, squander resources, steal funds, seduce leaders, promote rivalries, provoke jealousy and public embarrassment, lead activists into danger, and push paranoia to undermine trust.
Indigenous pursuing a traditional lifestyle are now the new domestic dissidents.
INFILTRATORS come unannounced and hang around target for years studying and gathering intel. Some offer a service, like a pro bono lawyer, or romances a community member, even has a family with them.
Agents have a vague cover story that can’t be checked. They confuse everybody about their intentions. Nothing is kept around to identify them. Some have many aliases. They don’t have cell phones and are hard to reach. Some pretend to be Indigenous. They are loners, unless they show up as a pair. They have no friends or social life that can be questioned.
Usually agents have no job but have a steady income. They live like they could leave at a moment’s notice.
Their training includes acting needy, meek and non-threatening. They are whiney and cry “poor me”. The target is made to feel like they have to help them. They feign a rare sickness or obscure medical condition with vague chronic symptoms. This lets them distance themselves when necessary. They remain distant but act like a best friend. They downplay themselves. They are always observing. They don’t say much as they are there to get others talking to get intel.
These tactics are meant to maintain control of their surroundings.
The infiltrator enters the community, gets involved with one faction and quietly confuses the people and the issues. At the same time, another agent infiltrates another faction. They drive wedges between people with false stories or lure them into compromising situations.
The infiltrator can clandestinely create fear around the target, like having them followed, strangers taking pictures, and so on. They can arrange an attack if necessary with police protection.
Infiltrators organize drug, booze and sex parties to recruit youth.
The intruder’s value is not the intel they gather. It is that they are there, a concealed hostile within the community or movement to instill suspicion and fear. Some agents are valuable because they are community members who know the people’s ideals. Others have to work hard to fit in. They will bad jacket an activist as being a government agent.
Agents dress and groom so they can change and re-do their image to work somewhere else, such as hair style, weight, clothes or car they drive or don’t have. They disappear or cut off their association with the target suddenly.
Outside support groups are set up invite the targets to take part in their protests or meetings. The government and the police want us on the defensive by associating us with other groups we don’t know.
PRECAUTIONS: Check authenticity of visitors, rumors or calls. Keep notes of harassment, etc. Be honest. Keep friends close and watch enemies more closely. Stay on the goals of the movement.
Watch for non-verbal cues. If the eyes say something different from the body, they are not genuine.
The Great Law provides that “As a weapon against a crawling creature, I lay a stick with you so that you may thrust it away from the Council Fire”. A crawling creature may be a disrespectful person seeking to disrupt the people and must be removed. [Wampum 4].
Kahentinetha MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Or go to PayPal on MNN website. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN AKWESASNE category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now!
Brian Glick. War At Home - Covert Action Against US Activists & What We Can Do About It. South End Press. Boston

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