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Title: On infiltration... Author: El Libertario editorial collective Date: March 2010 Language: en Topics: El Libertario, police, security, security culture, how to, activism, surveillance Source: Retrieved on 16th August 2020 from https://christiebooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/WorldThatNeverWas.pdf?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=eb688a782c68439bf310974c1d52fff2babaa50f-1597579982-0-ARBDj1ZqYid18tF0HlHE0k2GQQBTlxXatz-CHlPnicf2olWkX_vud7LREBg4vXrq Notes: This article was originally published in El Libertario #58, March-April 2010. Although originally based on the actual experiences of Venezuela’s social struggles, it deals with situations and facts of interest to activists anywhere. Translated by Luis Prat.
For some time now the Venezuelan government has made systematic advances
in the reorganization of the national police intelligence system, with
the intention of discovering and neutralizing autonomous social
movements that appear in the country. The Intelligence and
Counterintelligence Law (temporarily suspended) and the new Bolivarian
Intelligence Service (SEBIN in Spanish) are but two examples of this. In
order to promote the necessary knowledge on this issue among activists,
we give an informative recap of the different tactics used by the State
to break up the antagonistic social fabric and criminalize its
followers.
These tricks were developed and/or systematized by the COINTELPRO
program of espionage,provocation and information the FBI used to destroy
dissident political groups in the United States.They have been used by
most of the world’s States and Venezuela is no exception. Here are some
examples:
Surveillance: Intelligence and security organizations use the existing
technologies to conduct exhaustive surveillance of activists to prepare
the corresponding judicial files. To that end they use the existing
surveillance technologies. Photographing, filming, following in
vehicles,reading email and correspondence are some of the many tactics
used against social militants.
In general, mobiles/cell phones and frequently visited places are
infiltrated by the police to eavesdrop in conversations and do what’s
called “information sharing” to combine different pieces of information.
Let’s not forget that in Venezuela CANTV (State enterprise that
monopolizes telephone landlines) and most private communications
enterprises lend themselves to such manipulation by the State.
Infiltration: The State usually places undercover agents in popular
demonstrations or inside the assemblies with a dual intent: first, to
take note of the persons gathered and the information discussed in the
assemblies, second, to promote discord among the attendants in order to
trivialize the issues. Not many people go to a gathering without
previous interest in the conflict or knowledge of some of the people
involved. Since the intelligence services normally use dumb or rookie
police for this task, a simple conversation with them usually uncovers
who is a plant and who isn’t.
A usual trick is the use of informers. These are people close to the
group who, for money,favors or the resolution of judicial problems give
information about the group to the intelligence agencies. They are hard
to detect and more than once activists have been falsely accused of
being informants. This has been used successfully against armed groups
particularly in the previous century. Because of this, action groups
today tend to be smaller and based on extreme affinity and even family
ties.
Another form of infiltration is people who attend a reunion or assembly
for the first time and push for extreme or violent acts regardless of
the issue being discussed. They stand out because of their subversive
rants and their proposals for crazy ideas or plans rarely in tune with
reality.
Rumors: The use of informers and infiltrators contributes to the spread
of rumors that tend to divide a social front or collective. These
baseless rumors seek to discredit the organization and its activists.
False communiqués: Intelligence organizations usually write misleading
stuff to create confusion among activists and their kindred
organizations. The idea is to find a contradiction within the group that
will cause its implosion. For example, in Chile the District Attorney
created a group named Frente Anarquista Revolucionario (FAR)
[Revolutionary Anarchist Front] that in a provocative fashion claimed
responsibility for false actions and stirred polemics with the informal
Chilean groups in order to destroy them.
Media disinformation: Certain media work in tight cooperation with
intelligence organizations. In general they try to create a preconceived
opinion about demonstrators and activists, accusing them of sabotage, of
being “enemy agents”, “out of control”, or “maladjusted”. An example is
the Venezuelan TV program “La Hojilla” whose anchor –a well known and
decorated police informant- plays prosecutor, judge and executioner of
dissidents against the current government. The media also serves to
broadcast wrong information about groups and initiatives or to publish
manipulated information about some activist, attempting to discredit
his/her commitment with whatever causes he or she upholds.
For this reason the use of counter information is a fundamental tool. In
Venezuela – a country where the majority of the radio-electronic media
is in the hands of the current government-the use of blogs, Myspace,
Twitter or other communication networks is a necessary tool today and
will become even more so in the future.
Harassment: In many countries, intelligence organisms use pressure such
as telling the boss an employee is a “radical” or inserting information
among his/her acquaintances to make him/her feel uncomfortable or
persecuted in their trusted milieu. Accusations such as “homosexual”,
“rapist”,“drug addict” are common. Another form of harassment is when
the State determines the identity of an activist and decides to arrest
or interrogate him/her under any pretext. In many cases the arrest is
used to “plant” drugs or other things considered illegal (Molotov
cocktails, explosives etc). The goal is to make them quit their
activism.
Sabotage: Police organizations (or people connected to them) do sabotage
against the meeting places of activists as well as theft of materials.
They try to sow fear and discouragement among the sympathizers.
Paramilitary: Intelligence organisms form paramilitary organizations
which they equip with weapons and train them to perform the “dirty work”
that is not convenient to do under“constitutional legality”. In
Venezuela this is formed by the evil “combat corps” or the
diverse“popular collectives” that police the poor neighborhoods.
Lethal force: When somebody in a social movement achieves notoriety and
other means of control or cooptation by the institutional powers fail,
they resort to assassinate the dissident either by thugs (masquerading
as common criminals) or in supposed confrontations that are usually
uncovered if there is an objective investigation.
cell phones can transmit information even when they are off. Put them in
a place removed from the discussion area or put them in the refrigerator
[TN: better yet, remove the battery]. Black Berrys use GPS (Ground
Position System) that gives the exact location where you are. Cell
phones are use for data sharing and to establish a dissident’s social
network.
reconnoiter the outside area and try to identify suspicious activity
that could imply undercover police, usually recognizable by their
physique, their way of talking or because they look out of place. Rarely
will they look you in the eye and they many times stumble with their
explanations.
in case your email falls in the wrong hands you will not expose other
people.
prevent the intelligence organizations from obtaining your IP (your
computer ID code)
antidotes against infiltration and repression. Better a few but secure
than many and insecure.
circulate ill-intentioned information.
provocateurs.
right to remain silent. Don’t collaborate with them. Unlike in the
United States, in Venezuela collaboration with the district attorney
doesn’t exonerate you and only symbolically diminishes your sentence.
Today computers are the place where activists keep most of their
writings and communiqués. Inmost raids the first things the security
forces confiscate are the computers so we recommend the following:
ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com) which are free to download and work with
Windows.
be downloaded free at www.lavasoft.de
in the hard drive. There is a program called Clean Disk that totally
erases them, download it here www.clean-disk-security.softonic.com
(www.pgp.com) that has been successfully used by activists in many
countries.
digit code containing letters and numbers. A short password is easy to
detect. Don’t use birth dates, or the names of family members or pets.
free and secure email addresses to activists.
Some activists become paranoid, which completely immobilizes them,
abandoning the struggle andb ecoming passive members of society.
Therefore it is important to think about what was said above so we can
act with prior knowledge and diminish risks and weaknesses. We must be
conscious of the fact that any struggle for the collective is the
potential target of police surveillance and that is part of the social
dynamics. The armed organizations of control and repression have been
created to counter any type of dissidence therefore by being activists
we become their target; however, we have better values than they do: our
convictions we uphold for a positive social change. Don’t let fatigue
and fear stop you!