Gangstalking the mind

Origins and Techniques of Monarch Mind Control

Dec 12th, 2012 

Monarch Programming is a method of mind control used by numerous organizations for covert purposes. It is a continuation of project MK-ULTRA, a mind-control program developed by the CIA, and tested on the military  and civilians. The methods are astonishingly sadistic (its entire purpose is to traumatize the victim)  and  the expected results are horrifying: The creation of a mind-controlled slave who can be triggered at anytime to perform any action required by the handler.  While mass media ignores this issue, over 2 million Americans have gone through the horrors of this program. This article looks at the origins of Monarch programming and some of its methods and symbolism.

NOTE: This article contains disturbing elements and might trigger Monarch survivors.

Monarch programming is a mind-control technique comprising elements of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) and Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). It utilizes a combination of psychology, neuroscience and occult rituals to create within the slaves an alter persona that can be triggered and programmed by the handlers. Monarch slaves are used by several organizations connected with the world elite in fields such as the military, sex slavery and the entertainment industry. This article will look at the origins of Monarch programming, its techniques and its symbolism.

Origins

Throughout the course of history, several accounts have been recorded describing rituals and practices resembling mind control. One of the earliest writings giving reference to the use of occultism to manipulate the mind can be found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It is a compilation of rituals, heavily studied by today’s secret societies, which describes methods of torture and intimidation (to create trauma), the use of potions (drugs) and the casting of spells (hypnotism), ultimately resulting in the total enslavement of the initiate. Other events ascribed to black magic, sorcery and demon possession (where the victim is animated by an outside force) are also ancestors of Monarch programming.

It is, however, during the 20th century that mind control became a science in the modern sense of the term, where thousands of subjects have been systematically observed, documented and experimented on.

One of the first methodical studies on trauma-based mind control were conducted by Josef Mengele, a physician working in Nazi concentration camps. He initially gained notoriety for being one of the SS physicians who supervised the selection of arriving prisoners, determining who was to be killed and who was to become a forced labourer. However, he is mostly known for performing grisly human experiments on camp inmates, including children, for which Mengele was called the “Angel of Death”.

Joseph Mengele, 1935

Mengele is infamous for his sordid human experiments on concentration camps prisoners, especially on twins. A part of his work that is rarely mentioned  however, is his research on mind control. Much of his research in this field was confiscated by the Allies and is still classified to this day.

“DR. GREEN (Dr. Joseph Mengele): The most significant programmer, perhaps one could give him the title of the father of Monarch Programming was Joseph Mengele, an ex-Nazi Concentration Camp doctor. Thousands of Monarch mindcontrolled slaves in the U.S. had “Dr. Green” as their chief programmer.” ¹

“Dr. Joseph Mengele of Auschwitz notoriety was the principle developer of the trauma-based Monarch Project and the CIA’s MK Ultra mind control programs. Mengele and approximately 5, 000 other high ranking Nazis were secretly moved into the United States and South America in the aftermath of World War II in an Operation designated Paperclip. The Nazis continued their work in developing mind control and rocketry technologies in secret underground military bases. The only thing we were told about was the rocketry work with former Nazi star celebrities like Warner Von Braun. The killers, torturers, and mutilators of innocent human beings were kept discretely out of sight, but busy in U.S. underground military facilities which gradually became home to thousands upon thousands of  kidnapped American children snatched off the streets (about one million per year) and placed into iron bar cages stacked from floor to ceiling as part of the ‘training’. These children would be used to further refine and perfect Mengele’s mind control technologies. Certain selected children (at least the ones who survived the ‘training’) would become future mind controlled slaves who could be used for thousands of different jobs ranging anywhere from sexual slavery to assassinations. A substantial portion of these children, who were considered expendable, were intentionally slaughtered in front of (and by) the other children in order to traumatize the selected trainee into total compliance and submission”. ²

Mengele’s research served as a basis for the covert, illegal CIA human research program named MK-ULTRA.

MK-ULTRA

Declassified MK-Ultra document

Project MK-ULTRA ran from the early 1950s to at least the late 1960s, using American and Canadian citizens as its test subjects. The published evidence indicates that Project MK-ULTRA involved the use of many methodologies to manipulate individual mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs and other chemicals, sensory deprivation, isolation, and verbal and physical abuse.

The most publicized experiments conducted by MK-ULTRA involved the administration of LSD on unwitting human subjects, including CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public, in order to study their reactions.

However, the scope of MK-ULTRA does not however stop. Experiments involving violent electroshocks, physical and mental torture and abuse were used in a systematic matter on many subjects, including children.

Declassified picture of a young MK-ULTRA subject, 1961.

Although the admitted goals of the projects were to develop torture and interrogation methods to use on the country’s enemies, some historians asserted that the project aimed to create “Manchurian Candidates”, programmed to perform various acts such as assassinations and other covert missions.

MK-ULTRA was brought to light by various commissions in the 1970s, including the Rockefeller Commission of 1975. Although it is claimed that the CIA stopped such experiments after these commissions, some whistle-blowers have come forth stating that the project simply went “underground” and Monarch Programming has become the classified successor of MK-ULTRA.

The most incriminating statement to date made by a government official as to the possible existence of Project MONARCH was extracted by Anton Chaitkin, a writer for the publication The New Federalist. When former CIA Director William Colby was asked directly, “What about monarch?” he replied angrily and ambiguously, “We stopped that between the late 1960s and the early 1970s.” ³

Monarch Programming

Although there has never been any official admittance of the existence  of Monarch programming, prominent researchers have documented the systematic use of trauma on subjects for mind-control purposes. Some survivors, with the help of dedicated therapists, were able to “deprogram” themselves to then go on record and disclose the horrifying details of their ordeals.

Monarch slaves are mainly used by organizations to carry out operations using patsies trained to perform specific tasks, who do not question orders, who do not remember their actions and, if discovered, who automatically commit suicide. They are the perfect scapegoats for high-profile assassinations (see Sirhan Sirhan), the ideal candidates for prostitution, slavery and private movie productions. They are also the perfect puppet performers for the entertainment industry.

“What I can say is I now believe that ritual-abuse programming is widespread, is systematic, is very organized from highly esoteric information which is published no-where, has not been on any book or talk show, that we have found it all around this country and at least one foreign country.

People say, “What’s the purpose of it?” My best guess is that the purpose of it is that they want an army of Manchurian Candidates, ten of thousands of mental robots who will do prostitution, do movies, smuggle narcotics, engage in international arms smuggling, all sorts of very lucrative things, and do their bidding and eventually the megalomaniacs at the top believe they’ll create a Satanic Order that will rule the world”. ⁴

Monarch programmers cause intense trauma to subjects through the use of electroshock, torture, abuse and mind games in order to force them to dissociate from reality – a natural response in  some people when then are faced with unbearable pain. The subject’s ability to dissociate is a major requirement and it is ,apparently, most readily found in children that come from families with multiple generations of abuse. Mental dissociation enables the handlers to create walled-off personas in the subject’s psyche, which can then be programmed and triggered at will.

“Trauma-based mind control programming can be defined as systematic torture that blocks the victim’s capacity for conscious processing (through pain, terror, drugs, illusion, sensory deprivation, sensory over-stimulation, oxygen deprivation, cold, heat, spinning, brain stimulation, and often, near-death), and then employs suggestion and/or classical and operant conditioning (consistent with well-established behavioral modification principles) to implant thoughts, directives, and perceptions in the unconscious mind, often in newly-formed trauma-induced dissociated identities, that force the victim to do, feel, think, or perceive things for the purposes of the programmer. The objective is for the victim to follow directives with no conscious awareness, including execution of acts in clear violation of the victim’s moral principles, spiritual convictions, and volition.

Installation of mind control programming relies on the victim’s capacity to dissociate, which permits the creation of new walled-off personalities to “hold” and “hide” programming. Already dissociative children are prime “candidates” for programming”. ⁵

Monarch mind control is covertly used by various groups and organizations for various purposes. According to Fritz Springmeier, these groups are known as “The Network” and form the backbone of the New World Order.

Origins of the Name

Monarch mind control is named after the Monarch butterfly – an insect who begins its life as a worm (representing undeveloped potential) and, after a period of cocooning (programming) is reborn as a beautiful butterflies (the Monarch slave). Some characteristics specific to the Monarch butterfly are also applicable to mind control.

“One of the primary reasons that the Monarch mind-control programming was named Monarch programming was because of the Monarch butterfly. The Monarch butterfly learns where it was born (its roots) and it passes this knowledge via genetics on to its offspring (from generation to generation). This was one of the key animals that tipped scientists off, that knowledge can be passed genetically. The Monarch program is based upon Illuminati and Nazi goals to create a Master race in part through genetics. If knowledge can be passed genetically (which it is), then it is important that parents be found that can pass the correct knowledge onto those victims selected for the Monarch mind control.” ⁶

“When a person is undergoing trauma induced by electroshock, a feeling of light-headedness is evidenced; as if one is floating or fluttering like a butterfly. There is also a symbolic representation pertaining to the transformation or metamorphosis of this beautiful insect: from a caterpillar to a cocoon (dormancy, inactivity), to a butterfly (new creation) which will return to its point of origin. Such is the migratory pattern that makes this species unique.” ⁷

Method

The victim/survivor is called a “slave” by the programmer/handler, who in turn is perceived as “master” or “god.” About 75% are female, since they possess a higher tolerance for pain and tend to dissociate more easily than males. Monarch handlers seek the compartmentalization of their subject’s psyche in multiple and separate alter personas using trauma to cause dissociation.

The following is a partial list of these forms of torture:

1. Abuse and torture

2. Confinement in boxes, cages, coffins, etc, or burial (often with an opening or air-tube for oxygen)

3. Restraint with ropes, chains, cuffs, etc.

4. Near-drowning

5. Extremes of heat and cold, including submersion in ice water and burning chemicals

6. Skinning (only top layers of the skin are removed in victims intended to survive)

7. Spinning

8. Blinding light

9. Electric shock

10. Forced ingestion of offensive body fluids and matter, such as blood, urine, feces, flesh, etc.

11. Hung in painful positions or upside down

12. Hunger and thirst

13. Sleep deprivation

14 Compression with weights and devices

15. Sensory deprivation

16. Drugs to create illusion, confusion, and amnesia, often given by injection or intravenously

17. Ingestion or intravenous toxic chemicals to create pain or illness, including chemotherapy agents

18. Limbs pulled or dislocated

19. Application of snakes, spiders, maggots, rats, and other animals to induce fear and disgust

20. Near-death experiences, commonly asphyxiation by choking or drowning, with immediate resuscitation

22. Forced to perform or witness abuse, torture and sacrifice of people and animals, usually with knives

23. Forced participation in slavery

24. Abuse to become pregnant; the fetus is then aborted for ritual use, or the baby is taken for sacrifice or enslavement

25. Spiritual abuse to cause victim to feel possessed, harassed, and controlled internally by spirits or demons

26. Desecration of Judeo-Christian beliefs and forms of worship; dedication to Satan or other deities

27. Abuse and illusion to convince victims that God is evil, such as convincing a child that God has abused her

28. Surgery to torture, experiment, or cause the perception of physical or spiritual bombs or implants

29. Harm or threats of harm to family, friends, loved ones, pets, and other victims, to force compliance

30. Use of illusion and virtual reality to confuse and create non-credible disclosure ⁸

“The basis for the success of the Monarch mind-control programming is that different personalities or personality parts called alters can be created who do not know each other, but who can take the body at different times. The amnesia walls that are built by traumas, form a protective shield of secrecy that protects the abusers from being found out, and prevents the front personalities who hold the body much of the time to know how their System of alters is being used. The shield of secrecy allows cult members to live and work around other people and remain totally undetected. The front alters can be wonderful Christians, and the deeper alters can be the worst type of Satanic monster imaginable–a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde effect. A great deal is at stake in maintaining the secrecy of the intelligence agency or the occult group which is controlling the slave. The success rate of this type of programming is high but when it fails, the failures are discarded through death. Each trauma and torture serves a purpose. A great deal of experimentation and research went into finding out what can and can’t be done. Charts were made showing how much torture a given body weight at a given age can handle without death.” ⁹

“Due to the severe trauma induced through ECT, abuse and other methods, the mind splits off into alternate personalities from the core. Formerly referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder, it is presently recognized as Dissociative Identity Disorder and is the basis for MONARCH programming. Further conditioning of the victim’s mind is enhanced through hypnotism, double-bind coercion, pleasure-pain reversals, food, water, sleep and sensory deprivation, along with various drugs which alter certain cerebral functions”. ¹⁰

Dissociation is thus achieved by traumatizing the subject, using systematic abuse and using terrifying occult rituals. Once a split in the core personality occurs, an “internal world” can be created and alter personas can be programmed using tools such as music, movies (especially Disney productions) and fairy tales. These visual and audio aids enhance the programming process using images, symbols, meanings and concepts. Created alters can then be accessed using trigger words or symbols programmed into the subject’s psyche by the handler. Some of the most common internal images seen by mind control slaves are trees, Cabalistic Tree of life, infinity loops, ancient symbols and letters, spider webs, mirrors, glass shattering, masks, castles, mazes, demons, butterflies, hour glasses, clocks and robots. These symbols are commonly inserted in popular culture movies and videos for two reasons: to desensitize the majority of the population, using subliminals and neuro-linguistic programming and to deliberately construct specific triggers and keys for base programming of highly-impressionable MONARCH children. ¹¹ Some of the movies used in Monarch programming include The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio andSleeping Beauty .

The movie The Wizard of Oz is used by Monarch handlers to program their slaves. Symbols and meanings in the movie become triggers in the slave’s mind enabling easy access to the slave’s mind by the handler. In popular culture, veiled references to Monarch programming often use analogies to The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

In each case, the slave is given a particular interpretation of the movie’s storyline in order to enhance programming. For example, a slave watching The Wizard of Oz is taught that “somewhere over the rainbow” is the “happy place” dissociative trauma slaves must go to in order to escape the unbearable pain being inflicted upon them. Using the movie, programmers encourage slaves to go “over the rainbow” and dissociate, effectively separating their minds from their bodies.

“As mentioned before, the hypnotist will find children easier to hypnotize if they know how to do it with small children. One method that is effective is to say to the small children, “Imagine you are watching a favorite television show.” This is why the Disney movies and the other shows are so important to the programmers. They are the perfect hypnotic tool to get the child’s mind to dissociate in the right direction. The programmers have been using movies since almost day one to help children learn the hypnotic scripts. For children they need to be part of the hypnotic process. If the hypnotist allows the child to make up his own imagery, the hypnotic suggestions will be stronger. Rather than telling the child the color of a dog, the programmer can ask the child. This is where the books and films shown the child assist in steering its mind in the right direction. If the hypnotist talks to a child, he must take extra precaution not to change the tone of his voice and to have smooth transitions. Most of the Disney films are used for programming purposes. Some of them are specifically designed for mind-control.” ¹²

Levels of Monarch Programming

The levels of Monarch Programming identify the slave’s “functions” and are named after the Electroencephalography (EEG) brainwaves associated with them.

Types of brain waves in EEG

Regarded as “general” or regular programming,  ALPHA is within the base control personality. It characterized by extremely pronounced memory retention, along with substantially increased physical strength and visual acuity. Alpha programming is accomplished through deliberately subdividing the victims personality which, in essence, causes a left brain-right brain division, allowing for a programmed union of Left and Right through neuron pathway stimulation.

BETA is referred to as “sexual” programming (slaves). This programming eliminates all learned moral convictions and stimulates the primitive instinct, devoid of inhibitions. “Cat” alters may come out at this level. Known as Kitten programming, it is the most visible kind of programming as some female celebrities, models, actresses and singers have been subjected to this kind of programming. In popular culture, clothing with feline prints often denote Kitten programming.

DELTA is known as “killer” programming and was originally developed for training special agents or elite soldiers (i.e. Delta Force, First Earth Battalion, Mossad, etc.) in covert operations. Optimal adrenal output and controlled aggression is evident. Subjects are devoid of fear and very systematic in carrying out their assignment. Self-destruct or suicide instructions are layered in at this level.

THETA – Considered to the “psychic” programming. Bloodliners (those coming from multi-generational Satanic families) were determined to exhibit a greater propensity for having telepathic abilities than did non-bloodliners. Due to its evident limitations, however, various forms of electronic mind control systems were developed and introduced, namely, bio-medical human telemetry devices (brain implants), directed-energy lasers using microwaves and/or electromagnetics. It is reported these are used in conjunction with highly-advanced computers and sophisticated satellite tracking systems. ¹³

In Conclusion

It is difficult to remain objective when describing the horrors endured by Monarch slaves. The extreme violence, the abuse, the mental torture and sadistic games inflicted on victims by “notable scientists” and high-level officials prove the existence of a true “dark side” in the powers that be. Despite the revelations, the documents and the whistle-blowers, a great majority of the population ignores, dismisses or avoids the issue altogether. Over two million Americans have been programmed by trauma mind-control since 1947 and the CIA publicly admitted its mind control projects in 1970. Movies such as The Manchurian Candidate have directly referred to the subject, even depicting actual  techniques, such as electroshock, the use of trigger words and microchip implementation. Several public figures we see on our TV and movie screens are mind control slaves. Famous people such as Candy Jones, Celia Imrie and Sirhan Sirhan have gone on record and disclosed their mind control experiences…and yet the general public claims that it “cannot exist”.

The research and funds invested in project Monarch do not however only apply to mind control slaves. Many of the programming techniques perfected in these experiments are applied on a mass scale through mass media. Mainstream news, movies, music videos, advertisements and television shows are conceived using the most advanced data on human behavior ever compiled. A lot of this comes from Monarch programming.

 

--

1. Fritz Springmeier, The Illuminati Formula to Create a Mind Control Slave ↩
2. Ken Adachi, Mind Control the Ultimate Terror ↩
3. Anton Chaitkin, “Franklin Witnesses Implicate FBI and U.S. Elites in Torture and Murder of Children”, The New Federalist ↩
4. D. Corydon Hammond, Ph.D ↩
5. Ellen P. Lacter, Ph.D., The Relationship Between Mind Control Programming and Ritual Abuse ↩
6. Ibid. ↩
7. Ron Patton, Project Monarch ↩
8. Ellen P. Lacter, Ph.D., Kinds of Torture Endured in Ritual Abuse and Trauma-Based Mind Control ↩
9. Springmeier, op. cit. ↩
10. Patton, op. cit. ↩
11. Ibid. ↩
12. Springmeier, op. cit. ↩
13. Patton, op. cit. ↩

Informants - the Mark of the Beast

The ancient Judas Iscariot vermin are back, Gangstalkers, Informants - the Delatores

Informants - the Mark of the Beast

From the below: this is today and was in the twentieth century in the Fascist and Nazi dictatorships and the Eastern European and Russian Communist Gulag Spy Dictatorships, in the original Roman Empire, as quoted below, it was the informants that caused the persecution of Christians and the Chrisitans' martyrdom. Those who persecuted the Christians, in so doing, took the Mark of the Beast and are forever damned into hell by God and Jesus Christ the Lord. Those who do so today are equally damned forever. Below that article is the Antichrist Stalinist Gulag State Dictatorship.

"Informants

An Ancient Phenomenon

The use of citizen informant networks dates at least as far back as the Roman Empire. Delatores (informants) were recruited from all classes of society, including knights, freedmen, slaves, wealthy families, philosophers, literary men, court officials, lawyers, etc. Similar to the TIPS program, it was an "all hands on deck" approach to empire security. Setups were routine, and informants sometimes received a portion of the land of those who they helped destroy."

Informants

An Ancient Phenomenon

The use of citizen informant networks dates at least as far back as the Roman Empire.Delatores (informants) were recruited from all classes of society, including knights, freedmen, slaves, wealthy families, philosophers, literary men, court officials, lawyers, etc. Similar to the TIPS program, it was an "all hands on deck" approach to empire security. Setups were routine, and informants sometimes received a portion of the land of those who they helped destroy.

More recently the fascist dictatorship of Portugal used the International and State Defense Police (PIDE) as the main instrument of political oppression. It consisted of secret police and a vast network of Bufos (plain-clothed citizen informants), who were apparently on every block. Money and a need for recognition (a pat on the back) motivated them. Second only to the Stasi in its thoroughness, the PIDE neutralized all opposition to the dictatorship.

Other countries have used massive citizen informant networks to destroy perceived opposition to dictatorial rule as well. In Czechoslovakia they served the Czechoslovak State Security (StB), and in Poland they worked for the Ministry of Public Security (MBP). The citizen informants of the State Protection Authority (AVH) ensured the survival of the Hungarian dictatorship. Targets were harassed, threatened, confined to mental institutions, tortured, blackmailed, and framed. Even their friends and family were co-opted to persecute them.

Probably the best recent example of citizens Gang Stalking people on behalf of the state is East Germany. In Germany the plain-clothed citizen informants were called IMs (inofizielle mitarbeiter), or "unofficial collaborators." Unofficial means that they unofficially worked for the Ministry of State Security (MfS), also called the Stasi. For her book, Stasiland, Funder interviewed former IMs, targets, Stasi Psychologists, and professors who trained IM recruiters in Spezialdisziplin (the art of recruiting informants). "The IMs," wrote Funder, "were 'inofizielle mitarbeiter' or unofficial collaborators [plain-clothed citizen informants]."

Funder continued, "In the GDR, there was one Stasi officer or informant for every sixty-three people. If part-time informers are included, some estimates have the ratio as high as one informer for every 6.5 citizens." In his book, Stasi: The East German Secret Police, John O. Koehler agreed that when you add in the estimated part-time IMs, "the result is nothing short of monstrous: one informer per 6.5 citizens."

In Russia, the People's Brigades were told, "We have growing problems in our country with enemies of the state. They operate internally, intending to undermine the authority of our government." Sergei Kourdakov tells how he was used to harass enemies of the state in his book, The Persecutor.(*) These specialized groups were referred to as the Voluntary People's Brigade. They were given a "License to harass," and charged with the "Maintenance of Civil Order."

When they sprung up all over Russia they were directed by plain clothed police on orders from Moscow. The citizens were told that they were part of a "special-action squad" and would be given tasks that the regular police couldn't or didn't have time to handle. They wore regular street cloths, and were convinced that they were ordinary citizens aroused into taking action against undesirables. Their leaders informed them that some of the people they'd be harassing were worse than murderers.

So in Russia and Germany, these informant groups were basically told that they were their country's first line of defense against threats to national security and criminals. But where are they getting the hordes of citizens who surround targets in public today? Well, they probably do pick people off the streets and use door-to-door recruitment. But due to the shear number of individuals now involved and the pervasiveness of this program, there must be a blanket recruitment process.

A Familiar Pattern

Targeted people have reported that everyone from homeless people to white-collar workers are participating in Gang Stalking. This also includes neighbors, friends, co-workers and even family of targeted people. Federal, state and local governments are reportedly complicit, such as local police, fire departments, EMT personnel, city workers, utility companies, taxi drivers, security guards, and stores and restaurants. According to Dr. Kilde, other participants include, '"Down and out' people, jobless, freed prisoners, mental outpatients, students and orphans." These people "are trained by this organization to harass, [and] follow ... innocent people, who for whatever reason have been put on the organization's hit list."

The April/May 1996 issue of Nexus Magazine revealed that "Tens of thousands of persons in each [Metropolitan] area," are now "working as spotters and neighborhood/business place spies (sometimes unwittingly)." There is a legal loophole that allows people to operate on behalf of the government, without knowing it. Executive Order 12333 states that organizations used by U.S. intelligence do not need to know that they serve U.S. intelligence objectives. These spotters, it continued, are charged with, "following and checking on subjects who have been identified for covert control by NSA personnel." This helps to explain the Mobbing and Gang Stalking accounts of targets both in the workplace and in public.

In order to sell the community on this program, its creators probably equipped it with convincing propaganda, which is delivered by professionals. Although there has been no official admission that the following federal resources function as recruitment programs for public harassment, they are similar to ones used in German and Russian dictatorships.

The Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS), appears to be a bulked-up version of a community-policing program. Even though TIPS was officially rejected by congress, the American Civil Liberty Union contends that it and similar programs are being used aggressively across the nation. Other programs must have sprung up around the planet because the reported tactics of Gang Stalking in other countries are similar.

But who is the threat? According to some of these documents at www.citizencorps.gov, the targets are criminals and terrorists. However, the definition of a terrorist in section 802 of the US Patriot Act is frighteningly vague. Basically it defines terrorism as any action that endangers human life or that violates state or federal law.

An article entitled, US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans as Citizen Spies, which appeared in the Sunday Morning Herald on July 15, 2002, provided us with another clue. It stated, "The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police."

The articled revealed that the system is poised to recruit those whose work provides access to homes, businesses, and public transportation systems. Postal workers, utility employees, truck drivers, train conductors and others are to be recruited. On "state and local" levels these informants are to be directed by FEMA. This provides a motive for the reports of people being stalked by 18-wheelers, busses, city, postal, and utility vehicles.

It continued, "Informant reports will enter databases for future reference and/or action ... [which] will then be broadly available within the department, related agencies and local police forces. The targeted individual will remain unaware of the existence of the report and of its contents." This also helps to explain why inquiries by targeted individuals regarding the harassment have been met with denial by friends, relatives, neighbors, law enforcement, and colleagues.

In August, 2004, the ACLU, published a report entitled, The Surveillance-Industrial Complex, in which it contended that there is currently a vigorous citizen informant recruitment process. It stated, "Only under the most oppressive governments have informants ever become a widespread, central feature of life." Recognizing a familiar pattern, they charged, "The East German Stasi ... recruited from among the citizenry ... as many as one in every 50 citizens, to spy and report on their fellow citizens." They warn that a "massive" recruitment effort is underway.

The New American stated in their October 7, 2002, article called, TIPping off Big Brother, that the current effort to build a colossal network of informants is being done to, "enlist American citizens in surveillance activities that the state is either legally or physically unable to do." They say, a society, "where neighbors, co-workers, and passersby are all enlisted in a vast network of civilian informants--resembles conditions that existed in Stalin's reign of terror, and in all modern totalitarian states."

Continuing, they add, "Realizing that a cowed and brainwashed populace can carry out surveillance better than a million trained agents, Communist tyrants from East Germany to Cuba created revolutionary circles, youth groups, and other organizations specifically to enable the Party faithful in every walk of life to police everybody else."

On July 15, 2002, the Washington Times ran an article entitled, Planned Volunteer-Informant Corps Elicits '1984' Fears, which stated, "1 million informants" would be "initially" participating in a citizen informant program. And that the program would involve a combined effort between the DOJ, local police forces, as well as state and local agencies (businesses). "At local and state levels, the program will be coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency," they described.

"Critics," they added, "say that having Americans act as "domestic informants" is reminiscent of the infamous Stasi" which targeted "dissidents and ordinary East German citizens..." This evidence helps to explain how stores and restaurants are participating in the harassment. In addition, it appears that these informant squads are coordinated by local and federal law enforcement.

According to www.citizencorps.gov, the directive of the informant program is to "harness the power of the American people by relying on their individual skills and interests to prepare local communities to effectively prevent and respond to the threats of terrorism, crime, or any kind of disaster." This may explain the reports of targeted people who allege that local, state and federal workers are using skills within their profession as part of the harassment.

For instance, city vehicles, postal vehicles, fire trucks, school buses, and taxis are reportedly stalking people. Construction projects encircle a targeted person's home and also spring up at frequently visited places. Utility companies interrupt service. Local businesses provide poor service, appear incompetent or clumsy and work with civilian informants to harass targeted people in their stores.

In East Germany the IMs included doctors, lawyers, journalists, sports-figures, writers, actors, high officials in religious organizations, pastors, waiters, hotel personnel, and other workers. "Schools, universities, and hospitals were infiltrated from top to bottom," wrote Koehler. In other words, what Koehler is describing is that the controlling faction of the organization was recruited into a policy set by the Ministry for State Security (MfS), which was then filtered down to its workers.

Interestingly, when I asked a manager at a retail establishment in Medford, MA if he had heard of Gang Stalking, he told me to "contact corporate headquarters." In all likelihood these programs originate from the organization's Corporate Headquarters that have adopted it as part of a federal or state policy. The pattern that is unfolding is that all major departments of the community are involved.

Other questionable programs include VIPS, Weed and Seed, Cat Eyes, and Talon. Part of the Weed And Seed program calls for a combined effort between local, state, and federal agencies, as well as community organizations, social services, private sector businesses and residents, to "weed out" undesirable individuals.
In a May 14, 2003 article entitled, Building a Nation of Snoops, the Boston Globe stated, "Watching America with Pride, not Prejudice," is " the Orwellian motto of the New Jersey-based Community Anti-Terrorism Training Institute, or CAT Eyes." CAT Eyes is, "an antiterrorist citizen informant program being adopted by local police departments," spanning from the east to west coast.

The Globe described how this informant program was poised to recruit 100 million citizens! The program will, "dwarf the citizen informer programs of the most repressive totalitarian states, making them appear amateurish by comparison," they wrote. "Even communist East Germany," they proclaimed, "was not as ambitious about citizen surveillance as CAT Eyes." According to the Globe, the goal is to recruit one out of every three citizens.

Catherine Epstein at the Department of History at Amherst College, contends that East Germany had the highest agent/informer to population rate in history. So if the U.S. has implemented this or a similar program, it has set a historical record. Former FBI Special Agent Ted L. Gunderson indicates that eventually about one in ten people will unofficially work for the state as an informant. In Germany the recruiters were given quotas to ensure a minimal amount of expansion. Due to the shear number of people now participating, I suspect quotas are being used.

They've recruited the youth

Children are now participating in the Gang Stalking of targeted people. Infants too, are dressed in colors that targets have been sensitized to. They are used as a billboard for symbolism, as they're paraded around by their parents who encircle targets in public. As demonstrated, after a target has been alerted that they're being watched, this color essentially acts as a uniform and a weapon. Later as the infants can walk and communicate they're used in other types of Staged Events (Street Theatre). Even at young ages, these children are able to understand how to perform these skits.

This program appears to be multigenerational, for both targeted people and the stalkers. Reportedly, entire families are now participating in patrols (Gang Stalking). Similarly, according to the book, The File, by Timothy Ash, sometimes entire families were recruited as IMs in East Germany. At this point we don't know exactly what these adults are told to encourage their children to participate. But by their behavior, we can logically conclude that the same factors which motivated them are used to get them to recruit their children.
Reason indicates that after a parent has been recruited, a message similar to, "there are bad people in the community and mommy and daddy need your help," is conveyed to the child. The child then receives some type of training and is used for patrols (Gang Stalking). Family participation also seems to serve as a type of bonding, summed up by the adoption of attitudes such as, let's work together to keep the community safe, we're the good guys, etc. Consider that in East Germany, an astounding 6% of the IMs were children.
Due to the number of youths participating, there must be a broad recruitment program designed specifically for them as well. These programs are probably offered in high school and junior high school. In 2000 and 2001, University Wire, ran articles such as, Boston U. Adopts Crime Watch Program, and Police Enlist Ohio State U. Students in War on Crime. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution published articles in 2001 entitled, School Police Enlist Aid of Students in New Crime Watch, and Student-led Crime Watch on Duty at High School. Students Keep the Peace appeared in the October 2000 issue of the Sarasota Herald Tribune. Some of these policing groups are restricted to school grounds while others are not. Similarly, children were also recruited as IMs in East Germany while at school.

But the organization which appears to the central point of recruitment for youths, is theYouth Crime Watch (YCW), which is international in scope, with headquarters on five continents. It is partnered with the Citizen Corps' National Neighborhood Watch program, and works with adults to patrol the streets. Schools are used as recruitment grounds for students from grammar school up to the university level. Participants include all core components of the local government, such as law enforcement, school staff, businesses and restaurants, as well as adult citizens watch groups. After a period of training, they conduct youth patrols under the supervision of a nearby police officer or plain-clothed adult. Like their parent organization, they're fighting crime and terrorism. They have at least hundreds of thousands of members.

In addition to being used to carry out some of the standard tactics, the use of children may also be intended to disgust TIs.(**) This appears to be a triple attack. First, the act of someone using a child seems to be intended to cause revulsion. Secondly, the understanding that a TI would probably not be believed for even implying that a parent would involve their child in something like this, appears to be intended to amplify the revulsion. After all, nobody would ever, under any circumstances, use their children like this. And thirdly, the act itself. Most of these parents seem to exhibit no disgrace, which leads me to conclude that they believe it's a necessary honor.

If children are being used in this program, and if there is a faction of it which frames people for crimes, then is it possible that this faction would use children to frame targeted people? All that the parents and child would need to be told is that their country needs them to do something very important as a matter of national security. If they're sufficiently naive, they'll probably consider it an honor. Children of criminals, or those vulnerable to blackmail or bribery, can also be recruited to accomplish this.

A nation of Gang Stalkers

Most of the citizen informant programs previously mentioned are now organized under a National Neighborhood Watch program, known as,USAonWatch.(***) "USAonWatch is the face of the National Neighborhood Watch Program," declared the Citizen Corps website. "The program," it announced, "is managed nationally by the National Sheriffs' Association [NSA] in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, [and] US Department of Justice." So far, this information suggests that the program is coordinated locally by the FBI and police.

The National Neighborhood Watch Program has existed since the late 1960s. This helps to explain reports of people being Gang Stalked by citizen patrol groups since the early 1980s. "For more than 30 years," proclaimed the National Sheriffs' Association, "The National Neighborhood Watch Program, an initiative of NSA, has been one of the most effective ways for citizens to become involved with law enforcement for the protection of our neighborhoods."

Neighborhood Watch is now partnered with Citizen Corps. And Citizen Corps is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Its website states, "Citizen Corps is coordinated nationally by the Department of Homeland Security," and "works closely with other federal entities, state and local governments." So in essence, USAonWatch is a Department of Homeland Security program. This means FEMA, DHS, the FBI, and local police are working directly with the state and local governments to coordinate these operations.

So if USAonWatch is the current public front, then that would mean that a portion of the Gang Stalking which targets speak of is done during these citizen patrols. It would also signify that this network, with full complicity of all levels of government, is trained and directed by local police, working with FEMA and the FBI. Again, we find another parallel to the Russian and East German dictatorships. The National Sheriffs' Association exclaimed, "The Neighborhood Watch is Homeland Security at the most local level!" It was created to "empower citizens to become directly involved with Neighborhood Watch for the purpose of homeland security." Its targets, according to the NSA, are criminals and domestic terrorists.

What else would the East German IMs do besides inform? Markus Wolf, a former East German executive Stasi officer, and author of the book, Man Without a Face, indicates that targeted people were Gang Stalked by "informers who literally encircled their everyday movements." According to Wolf, the residences of some targeted people were "put under siege," and every family member, and every visitor, was kept under close observation. Even some East German state officials were, "surrounded by unofficial informers for the Stasi," proclaimed Mary Fulbrook, in her book, The People's State.

The book, Stasiland, reveals a similar citizen patrol scenario, where targeted people would be stalked by a network of IMs on a daily basis. This was done using a rotation of IMs. "In the morning when I went to work, there'd be someone close behind me," reported one target. "[And] if I went in to Alexanderplatz to do some shopping a man would come with me..." People would be followed by IMs from their doorsteps, into public transportation systems and then back home again. "They changed the personnel," she continued, "but there was always someone there. They wanted us to feel it." Despite what these IMs were told about threats to national security, this blatant Gang Stalking was done for intimidation.

In 1974 the former Deputy Director of the CIA, Ray S. Cline, drafted a report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), at Georgetown University called, Understanding the Solzhenitsyn Affair: Dissent and its Control in the USSR. It stated, "The Committee for State Security" [KGB] ... functions as a secret political police force, which through nets of agents and informants, reaches literally into every crevice of society." The word, "literally" is noteworthy, because when it is used, they mean it. Just as with East Germany, you can bet that this means every major area of society was filled with informants. This would include workplaces, grammar schools, universities, businesses, restaurants, apartment buildings, etc. Literally, everywhere!

The report continued, "By watching every critical echelon in society, the informant networks also serve to insure that the administrative or daily controls are in fact working." The Soviet Union was run by a small group of wealthy elite. They used their private security force, the KGB, to ensure their control. Although the surface claim for the existence of the networks was for state security, it was in reality used to terrorize the population into submission. "These informants," it sustained "serve the fundamental purpose ... of inhibiting people from speaking freely to one another; from speaking out; from sharing and germinating thoughts."
Shockingly, according to an independent media report, there was an attempt to integrate Markus Wolf and KGB General Yevgeni of Russia, into federal law enforcement. An article entitled, Ex-KGB and STASI Chiefs to Work Under Chertoff, appeared in the Foreign Press Foundation on December 16, 2004. It explained how the U.S. would pay former Stasi officer Markus Wolf, and KGB General Yevgeni Primakov to help co-op citizens into participating in state-sponsored harassment.

The article was based on a U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing, that occurred on June 9, 1997, which stated, "We're talking about Markus Wolfe (sic), the former head of Stasi, right? ... He actively aided and abetted and fostered international and state-supported terrorism when he was an East German government official..."

So, when they sprung up in Germany, they were called "IMs" who unofficially worked for the "Ministry of State Security" to "protect the state" against dangerous elements. They were called the "People's Brigade" in Russia, and their duty was the "Maintenance of Civil Order." The current citizen squads are apparently fighting terrorism and crime. I'm not aware of the official names of groups which conduct these patrols in other countries; no doubt the participating countries have assigned them noble titles.

According to this information, those who have been recruited into the current citizen informant program include people who have access to homes, businesses, and public transportation systems. Others include postal workers, utility employees, truck drivers, train conductors, local police forces, as well as local and state agencies. And, if these youth crime-watch programs are being used for Gang Stalking--children. This helps to explain the reports of targeted people who attest that a variety of local and state vehicles are being used to stalk them. Restaurants and retail stores are also involved. Employees, clerks and/or managers of these establishments participate. If mainstream publications are alerting us to a "massive" recruitment process, then what they're doing behind the scenes is probably much more intense.

All of these volunteer Neighborhood Watch programs are sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Interestingly, in East Germany, the adults and children who Gang Stalked targets operated on behalf of the Ministry for State Security (MfS). In Russia, citizen informants worked for the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti(Committee for State Security), also known as the KGB. In Czechoslovakia it was theCzechoslovak State Security (StB), etc.

Because these harassment programs involve a combined, coordinated effort between federal, state and local governments, logic would suggest that the chief of police, mayor of the city, and governor of the state must be aware of it. The program involves the use of too many resources for them not to be. It can't operate without their knowledge. As previously described, the TIPS or USAonWatch programs would have accomplished this.

East Germany had a variety of different types of informants, which served different functions. So, in all probability, in addition to bulk recruitment programs such as TIPS, and Neighborhood Watch, there are individuals and groups of informants which are also recruited. In my estimation, these units and individuals work alongside the public front organization to harass people in public. If this is true, then this would further compartmentalize these operations, possibly to the point where all of these factions are unaware of the existence of one and other.

Consider the FBI's known use of criminals as informants, which was described in theTactics section. Also note an article which appeared in The Chicago Sun-Times on May 31, 1998, entitled, Family of Spies on Run, which described an, "unknown number" of entire families who are citizen informants. "They are ordinary citizens who, for reasons ranging from petty revenge to pure patriotism, agree to work with the bureau," stated theTimes. The article revealed that these families work with the FBI, DEA, CIA, RCMP, as well as local law enforcement. Most of these agencies are now part of DHS. "Because this is the lifestyle they have known almost since their birth, the ... children rarely complain," they wrote.

Secrecy

To my knowledge, at this time, no one has openly admitted to being part of this program. Targeted people have been stonewalled when confronting their tormentors in public. The citizen squads are obviously told that under no circumstances are they to admit they're part of an organized program to remove troublesome individuals from the community.

In Russia, the state emphasized the need for total secrecy when recruiting people into the Citizen's Brigade. According to Kourdakov, during their lectures they were told that, "Under no condition was the public to know what was going on." The reason was that, "some people could misunderstand what we're doing and why we have to do it," and "don't appreciate the danger that these people represent to our society." When citizen informants in East Germany were recruited, they agreed to a, "code of secrecy," and some had to sign a waver, which stated that they would not mention anything about their connection to the MfS.
By their behavior it is apparent that participants in the current program are told that targeted people can't be reasoned with, but must leave on their own accord, by way of a collaborative community effort. In all likelihood, stigma is probably used to justify the harassment. This includes labeling people threats to "national security," or criminals who have escaped justice.

These tactics have been used in other countries to justify persecution of political dissent. As part of their training, it is also possible that they engage in skits where they witness people breaking down or fainting in front of them, as a result of being systematically Mobbed out in public. Some of the training is apparently designed to put their conscience aside when harassing targets. As we'll learn in the next chapter, when you combine these desensitizing drills with lies, you can get most people to do just about anything.

"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities."
-Voltaire

Filtering

Another reason participants are told to deny their involvement in this program is obviously because their handlers know that because they operate on huge lies, they could not rationally justify the cause. It is critical that participants receive no outside information that can penetrate this barrier. Precautionary measures must have been taken to filter information that would undermine the group objectives.

It has been said that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The people who created this program are obviously aware that it is absolutely essential that no parallel be made between similar historical events and what is taking place now. If this program originated from a Think Tank, you can bet that they have accounted for this, and it has been integrated into the training curriculum.
Therefore, certain phrases, such as "New World Order," "Dictatorship," "Cult," "Nazi Germany," "Hitler," "Cointelpro," MKULTRA," "Experimentation," "Gang Stalking," "Harassment," etc, are probably covered with mental mindguards to disengage critical thought.

Similarly, according to cult expert Steven Hassan's book, Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, these mental blocking techniques are given to members of mind-control cults to reject information that undermines the cult. It basically means that when they're confronted with a particular phrase or question, they should think or say a certain phrase to reject it. This is used to stop critical thought and funnel external input into a mental recycle bin. It works remarkably well.

In his book, Vital Lies, Simple Truths, Dr. Daniel Goleman stated, "A mindguard is an attention bodyguard, standing vigilant to protect the group not from physical assault, but from an attack by information." "'A mindguard,' says Janis [author of Victims of Groupthink], protects the group 'from thoughts [information] that might damage their confidence in the soundness of the policies to which they are committed.'" More on theGroup Mind will be covered in the next chapter.

The Nazis and their educated followers were essentially a political cult. The cult was fed massive lies which were reinforced by the careful filtering of information and propaganda conveyed by mainstream outlets. Literally, a whole country was under this spell. This is happening now. "Hitler and his troop of amateur magicians and hypnotists in the 1930's and 1940's were able to reconstruct a technologically advanced nation such as Germany into a vast theatre of illusion," stated Professor Marrs. "They were also able to induce educated and intellectual [people] into becoming ... oppressors of their fellow men..."
Some may disagree, but arguably, this international group is a political/corporate cult. Various cult experts themselves don't seem to agree on any set definition. But in my view this group is a cult. More evidence will be provided in the Structure, Purpose, andMotivational Factors chapters to illustrate that this group is an essential part of a massive political movement.

Communication

There is communication between the surveillance faction and the citizen informant squads and local businesses in the area. Obviously, the managers of local stores are contacted by a representative of this program, possibly by cell phone, pager, or walk-in, and told to prepare for the arrival of the targeted person. A picture or video of the targeted person may be shown to the participating staff.
The targeted individual may also be identified as he or she walks into the store. Consider that the IMs in East Germany communicated using non-verbal cues, so this is also a possibility. When the TI arrives, those who have been co-opted follow through with the tactics they've learned from their training. They also work in unison with plain-clothed citizens to harass the targeted customer. Advanced electronic methods of communication, which are not commercially available, may be used by the coordinating faction to direct specific citizen informants.

More than likely the current recruitment of informants is done using a beneficial appearing program, equipped with convincing propaganda, which is delivered by trusted authority figures. The recruitment programs offered to the public probably don't refer to this activity as "harassment," or "Gang Stalking."
In all likelihood it is cloaked in a beneficial sounding name. The behavior exhibited by these citizens indicates that they are absolutely convinced that this policy is legitimate and necessary. If it originates from a government Think Tank, you can expect no less than an intellectual and emotional masterpiece that is very cleverly delivered. This program was very well thought out.

Friends and Family

Friends and family of targeted people are sometimes used to harass them. As shocking as this sounds, identical tactics were used during Cointelpro. According to the book, War at Home, by attorney Brian Glick, FBI records reveal frequent maneuvers to generate tension (harassment) on targeted people by recruiting their "parents, children, spouses, landlords, employers, college administrators, church superiors," and others, into investigations. The word "frequent" leads me to conclude that, just as in East Germany, this was standard practice.

This helps to explain the current participation of friends, and family of targeted people. Moret added, "What we've studied and reported and identified is that neighbors are contacted and co-opted, [and] members of the target's family are co-opted..." Similarly, according to Wolf, the residences of targeted people were "put under siege," by the Stasi, and every family member, and every visitor, was kept under observation.
The recruitment of friends and family of targets may not just serve to harass, confuse, and isolate, but also as a discrediting strategy. After all, a person's friends and family would never systematically harass them, so someone complaining of such an ordeal must be mentally ill. This may be compounded if a handler forces a targeted person's family to have the target institutionalized. Remember, one in ten citizens will be recruited as informants anyway, so co-opting ten or fifty friends/relatives of a targeted person is not difficult.
How can a good friend or relative be recruited into a harassment campaign? Simple. They can be lied to, intimidated, or blackmailed into becoming informants during a bogus investigation. Then they can be given a gag order and threatened with jail time if they mention anything about it. Both the Stasi and FBI have done this. According to attorney Glick, blackmail and threats, using statements such as, "We know what you have been doing, but if you cooperate it will be all right," were often used as leverage for the recruitment of a relative or associate during Cointelpro.

Family members or associates who targets have a shaky relationship with can be bribed if they are greedy or in financial ruin. Naive ones or youngsters can be lied to by appealing to their sense of patriotism. This would be especially effective if delivered by a trusted community authority figure, such as a local official. When gaining cooperation in this way, these friends/family members may be fed some truth, and then some damaging lies can be thrown in.

After the friends and family of a targeted person have been recruited, they can be directed by their handlers to perform carefully scripted harassment skits, which include some mentioned in the Tactics chapter. This harassment by proxy is optimized by the use of sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment.

Summary

Multiple citizen informant programs are now operational, with the goal of recruiting a significant portion of the population. We've seen the political Left and Right justifiably compare these informant programs to ones that emerged in Germany and Russia. These programs are supervised by the Department of Homeland Security. They are similar in operation and purpose to those used in Russian and German dictatorships, which were created by the Committee for State Security and Ministry for State Security, respectively.
Those mentioned to be recruited, reflects (to some degree), those reportedly Gang Stalking targets. A massive network of citizens (probably millions worldwide), stalk and harass targeted people in public. They include a wide strata of individuals ranging from seniors to children, and often the friends and family of targeted people. Local governments are fully complicit in the harassment.

The federal government can also recruit groups or individuals as informants, which are not connected to any official organization, such as a Neighborhood Watch network. Without even being aware of the existence of the other network, these entities too can be used to harass people in public.

[Footnotes]
* Although the portion of the People's Brigade which Kourdakov wrote about didn't exhibit the exact traits as the current global stalking group (due to the frequent use of overt physical violence), his account does illustrate the emphasis on secrecy with state-run harassment programs. Furthermore, the Soviet Union did (and still does) possess a huge network of plain-clothed citizen informants, which is used to stalk (shadow) enemies of the state. See the report entitled, Understanding the Solzhenitsyn Affair: Dissent and its Control in the USSR, edited by the former Deputy Director of the CIA, Ray S. Cline. The report was based on a conference held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), at Georgetown University.
** On multiple occasions I have noticed children being used in skits which were obviously intended to convey sexual innuendos.
*** Picture taken from www.usaonwatch.org.

Next

Sources

Stalin’s Spies and Secret Police

Stalin, Molotov, L.M. Kaganovich, and
other Communist officials from a German exhibit

Under Joseph Stalin and his supporters, the Soviet Union’s secret police and intelligence agencies that were first formed during the Russian Civil War grew into vast networks, allowing Stalin to control every aspect of life in the USSR. These organizations reinforced Stalin’s grip on power and squashed anti-Soviet activities, both at home and in the territories the USSR occupied. During World War II, Stalin’s operatives uncovered Axis battle plans that helped Soviet generals thwart Adolf Hitler and stole the secrets of the United States’ atomic bomb program, one of the greatest intelligence coups of the twentieth century. Stalin welcomed classified information from friends and foes alike.

Stalin’s Brand of Leadership: Paranoia and Violence

Throughout his long career as supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin believed that he had enemies around every corner. Tending to be paranoid and to have what historian Robert Service has called a “sociopathic personality disorder,” Stalin suspected that plots and conspiracies were perpetually brewing all around him. He assumed that all of his problems stemmed from some group that was trying to harm him, and he was resentful, vengeful, and carried grievances for years. A lifelong admirer of Ivan the Terrible, Stalin adopted Ivan’s policy of punishing not only those people he perceived to be his enemies, but also his enemies’ extended families.

F. E. Dzerzhinsky (center), director of security
agency Cheka, with board members, circa 1919

As a young man, Stalin was greatly influenced by Vladimir Lenin and theBolshevik party, which had long classified certain people as “anti-Soviet” or “enemies of the people.” This created an atmosphere where it was acceptable–even expected–for whole groups of people to be persecuted or annihilated. To the Bolsheviks, violence, terror, and the elimination of enemies were seen as appropriate methods to maintain political control. Yet even among the Bolsheviks, Stalin was an extremist. He was a revolutionary with a legendary propensity for violence who never cared how many lives were lost as he pursued his goals. He would, without hesitation, have entire villages burned to create fear among Soviet citizens.

One key to the success of Stalin’s brutality was having an efficient, pervasive intelligence organization to carry out his orders. Stalin had one: the NKVD.

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Stalin and the NKVD Unleash the Great Terror

Between 1917 and 1954, the USSR’s state security and intelligence agencies were reorganized and renamed a number of times. The first security agency, Vecheka (or Cheka) was formed in December 1917 to investigate counterrevolution and sabotage, but it soon became responsible for imprisoning and executing anyone considered an enemy of the state. In 1922, Cheka was replaced by the GPU. A year later, as the OGPU, the agency helped implement Stalin’s plans to forcibly collectivize agriculture and deport wealthy peasants. The OGPU eventually controlled all security functions within the USSR until it was absorbed into the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) in 1934. Picking up the OGPU’s responsibilities, the NKVD oversaw all aspects of internal and state security. It controlled the police, criminal investigation departments, fire brigades, internal troops, and prison guards.

Throughout the 1930s, public anger had been building in the USSR against Stalin and his policies. In 1936, believing his power and position in jeopardy, Stalin took the first steps to purge the country from “anti-Soviet elements,” targeting mostly people in his own party and the military. In this period, known as the Great Terror, the NKVD, led by Nikolai Yezhov, arrested anyone believed to oppose Stalin: certain ethnic groups, religious leaders, and members of other political parties, as well as people who held offices in the government, army, politics, and other such institutions. The Terror reached its peak in 1937–1938 as the NKVD’s arrests of approximately 1.5 million people resulted in show trials, executions, and sentences in the Gulag, the NKVD’s network of forced labor camps. But fewer than half of the detainees were sent to the Gulag ; the majority were arrested, tortured, quickly tried, and shot. Yezhov’s operation carried out these orders with zeal.

Soviet Labor and Prisoner-of-War Camps

In 1938, Stalin appointed Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria as director of the NKVD. Beria would retain this position until after Stalin’s death in 1953.

The NKVD during World War II

By World War II, the NKVD’s responsibility had grown even greater. It now oversaw convoy troops, soldiers guarding industry and state facilities, railroad and engineering corps, operational forces, and penal colonies. Its agents also apprehended army deserters, enforced discipline in the military, and “recruited” new troops. NKVD agents were posted to army units with orders to identify anti-Communists and counterrevolutionaries; army officers who made mistakes knew they could be charged with sabotage or political dissent. A special group of NKVD soldiers were stationed at the front, behind the Soviet battle lines, and tasked to shoot any Red Army troops who tried to retreat. By March 1944, the NKVD had 540,000 men protecting vital state objectives.

“We forced them [Red Army troops] to fight to the death. If they resisted or ran away we eliminated them. We shot them. That’s all. They weren’t fighters anymore. It was hard. It was bad. I understand. But what can you do?”

- Vladimir Ogryzko, 1st NKVD Division

As the functional equivalent of Nazi Germany’s Gestapo and SS, the NKVD also had a vast intelligence network abroad that carried out purges in Poland and the Baltic states, mass deportations to Siberia, and executions of suspected spies, draft dodgers, and deserters.

Prisoners bath at the NKVD's
Vorkuto-Pecherskii forced labor camp, 1945

Under Beria’s direction, the NKVD took the lead in securing captured territories so they could be integrated into the Soviet Union. It manipulated elections to give the appearance of popular support for Communist rule, and agents arrested, interrogated, tortured, deported, or murdered local citizens who opposed a Soviet-style system. An estimated 1.5 million Poles, along with four percent of Estonians and two percent of Latvians and Lithuanians, were transported to the NKVD Gulag.

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Soviet Military Intelligence: the GRU

The Soviet Union also maintained a military intelligence unit, the GRU or Chief Intelligence Directorate, which worked with the NKVD to gather intelligence abroad. During World War II, the GRU recruited and trained spies and conducted covert operations. GRU operative Richard Sorge was perhaps the Soviet Union’s greatest spy of the World War II era. He worked in China and Japan from the early 1930s until he was arrested by the Japanese in October 1941. Sorge warned Stalin aboutOperation Barbarossa , the German invasion of the USSR (June 1941), and later that year, informed him that the Japanese were not planning to attack the Soviet Union during the Battle of Moscow (October–December 1941), which allowed Stalin to shift troops westward to fight the Germans. The Switzerland-based Die Rote Drei (The Red Three) spy ring, led by Hungarian Alexander Radolfi, provided Stalin with detailed information about Hitler’s battle plans, including German preparations for the Battle of Kursk (July 1943). This intelligence allowed Soviet generals to concentrate massive forces, assign their best units, and create a maze of trenches, minefields, and underground bunkers in the area.

NKVD head Lavrenti Beria holds
Stalin's daughter, Svetlana, 1930

Even before World War II ended, spies like Klaus Fuchs had passed tens of thousands of documents to the Soviets with information about the U.S. atomic bomb program and other closely guarded secrets of the Western Allies . In 1946, when the NKVD was supplanted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and the Ministry of State Security (MGB), Beria continued to oversee both agencies while also heading the USSR effort to develop an atomic bomb.

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Intelligence Agencies in the USSR after World War II

As World War II wound down, the NKVD quickly moved into territory captured by the Red Army and set up operations. They appropriated the former Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald, just outside the ancient German city of Weimar. The camp had been liberated by the U.S. Army in April 1945. The NKVD renamed it Soviet Special Camp Number Two and began using it to imprison former Nazi functionaries and others the Soviets wanted to get out of the way. An estimated 7,000 people died under the Soviet administration of the camp before it was finally closed in 1950.

“Everything around you was injustice, not only in the camp but around the camp. Everywhere where there were Russians, there was injustice, so it was just a matter of trying to survive to get this thing over with. And then as I came out immediately with the American authorities I said I’ve got a lot to report.”

- John Noble, American imprisoned by the NKVD in Soviet Special Camp Number Two. Never charged with a crime, he was released in 1955 after serving nine years in Soviet detention.

As the Cold War began, secret police agents helped the Soviet Union strengthen its grip on Eastern Europe by working with local Communists to align each nation with Soviet ideals. The nations forged close economic ties with the USSR and underwent social upheaval in an attempt to emulate the Soviet Union. Communist parties in the countries quickly worked to indoctrinate their populations and, with the help of Soviet security forces, used show trials, arrests, and torture to quell adversity. Soviet military and security forces managed to subdue the nations’ populaces, although anger and hostility toward the new political regimes remained rampant. By 1955, when countries in Eastern Europe signed the Warsaw Pact (a military alliance), the Communist bloc comprised Albania, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany.

In 1954, a year after Stalin’s death, the KGB was formed as Beria and his subordinates were purged from the intelligence agencies. Over the next 35 years, the KGB grew to be the largest secret police and intelligence service in the world. The agency was responsible for foreign intelligence, domestic counterintelligence, technical intelligence, security, and surveillance on suspected dissidents. With the Communist Party and the military, the KGB ruled the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.