*FBI Employs Leftist Activists to Spy On Americans - Results: Project Megiddo and More* -

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[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only] FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1999

FBI Spy 'Fronts' -

Expert: Megiddo is domestic espionage network run amuck

By David M. Bresnahan

The Federal Bureau of Investigation employs leftist activist organizations to spy on Americans, most recently resulting in Project Megiddo -- which targets "right-wing" Christian-oriented groups and characterizes many as potential terrorists -- according to a national expert on political fringe groups.

The Project Megiddo report, which bears a striking resemblance to a similar report by the Anti-Defamation League, has been distributed to law enforcement agencies nationwide to alert police to the supposed dangers posed during the millennium transition by various religious and political groups, almost all of which are on the political right.

Named after the biblical location in Israel of the prophesied Battle of Armageddon, Project Megiddo warns of the dangers presented by certain "extremist" Christian groups whose objective it is to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The report claims that these groups may commit acts of terrorism within the United States.

Laird Wilcox, author of two comprehensive books on extremist groups on both the left and the right, as well as "American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists & Others," charges that the FBI, in the process of infiltrating potentially dangerous organizations, gets infiltrated itself.

"The most troubling aspect of watchdog opportunism is their infiltration of law enforcement," Wilcox told WorldNetDaily. "Watchdog organizations feed law enforcement agencies information in order to prompt them to go after their enemies, real or imagined. By alleging 'dangerousness' on the basis of mere assumed values, opinions and beliefs, they put entirely innocent citizens at risk from law enforcement error and misconduct." Wilcox authored "The Watchdogs: A close look at Anti-Racist 'Watchdog' Groups," to document this phenomenon.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation readily admits it makes extensive use of information provided by political organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Militia Watchdog, according to FBI special agent in charge of the Denver office Greg Rampton.

"The FBI obtains information from public sources, such as the ones you mentioned," Rampton told WorldNetDaily. "We have individual citizens who have information which they think is of importance to us, and they provide that information. We have our own sources of information -- individuals that we work with regularly that we task sometimes to obtain information. Some of these individuals may be members of some of the organizations that might advocate or might be engaged in violent activity. So we obtain our information from a variety of sources," Rampton said.

'Things could get worse fast'

Rampton denied that the Anti-Defamation League wrote the FBI version of the report.

"It was not written by the ADL. The truth of the matter is that it was an effort by FBI agents and analysts. The information they used in order to prepare the report came from a variety of sources. Some of those sources of information could have been militia groups themselves. There could have been, and probably were, ADL literature. We gather information from a variety of sources, and we have to evaluate and weigh that information. The authors of that report are FBI employees," explained Rampton.

Wilcox claims this is partially true, but that the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center had significant roles in the completion of Project Megiddo. Although those groups did not write the final draft of the document, information they provided to the FBI was compiled and essentially rewritten to create the report, he said.

"Project Megiddo has been around for a long time, but didn't have that name and it wasn't organized in a formal way," said Wilcox.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have extensive networks of hundreds of people who spy on unsuspecting U.S. citizens who they consider to be their enemies, Wilcox charged. The groups maintain the information they gather in a huge database until the FBI needs it, he said, adding that watchdog groups have the luxury of being able to go beyond the laws to which the FBI must adhere when gathering intelligence information or conducting an investigation.

"The ADL is not as principled as their publications would lead you to think. They're very much into real politics," said Wilcox, who founded one of the world's largest collections of research documents on extremist political groups at the University of Kansas.

"They're not going to quibble about the niceties of civil liberties, procedural things or issues of presumed innocence or anything like that. To them everything is survival," explained Wilcox.

"So don't imagine for a minute that the ADL holds to any particular high standard of morality or practice in this thing. It is absolutely pragmatic," he added.

The underlying purpose of Project Megiddo and Anti-Defamation League documents, said Wilcox, is to condition law enforcement officials to view certain "conservative, right-wing Christian" groups and individuals as dangerous. It is an effort to make opinions a crime and create a form of thought police, warned Wilcox.

"This is a scary time we're up against," he said. "We'll have to see what happens around Y2K. If not much happens and they don't arrest too many people, this might kind of blow over. If somebody's stupid enough to stage a high-profile crime -- a bombing, for example -- or if the ADL manages to bait somebody to attack them physically, then things could get worse fast," Wilcox predicted.

Rampton disagrees, insisting the fact the ADL and FBI documents are so similar in wording and topics is coincidence. Both groups examined the same subject and came to the same conclusions, he said.

Project Megiddo specifically targets what most would consider right-wing groups. There are no groups expressing left-wing views on the list of organizations that law enforcement agencies are asked to monitor. Rampton agreed, and tried to explain why.

"It has to do with why Project Megiddo was undertaken in the first place," he said in an interview with WorldNetDaily on a live radio broadcast of the American Freedom Network. "It deals with the potential for extremist activity in the United States by groups who profess an apocalyptic view of the Millennium or attach special significance to the Year 2000. I don't think you're seeing much of that coming from the left-wing groups. ... "

Although Rampton agreed that left-leaning groups might be inclined to violence, he disagreed that they should be added to the FBI list.

"As far as leftist groups that have some of those same beliefs, there very well may be some out there. I'm not personally aware of any," said Rampton.

When asked if he considered groups that admit to being Marxist, Social-Marxists, or Communists to be dangerous, Rampton replied the FBI does not care about the beliefs expressed by an individual or group.

"Our mission is to investigate crimes that are committed that are a violation of federal law, so while people espouse certain ideologies which may give pause to the general populace, that's not necessarily cause for an FBI investigation or an FBI concern. We personally might be concerned about something someone says or does, but as an institution or as an agency the FBI doesn't express that concern in terms of action, unless it has a reasonable indication that someone has been, or will commit a federal crime."

Just because a person may express concern about the formation of a one-world government does not qualify him as an extremist in the Project Megiddo document, said Rampton.

"All I can say is that we are only investigating groups where we have some sort of reasonable indication that they're involved in some violation of federal law. I can't comment on any investigations that we are or aren't conducting," he said.

Some current employees of the Anti-Defamation League are former FBI agents, according to published reports. One such agent who is given credit for the ADL report is Neil Herman. Rampton said he did not know him and was unaware of any former FBI agents working for ADL. Herman reportedly resigned from the FBI's counter-terrorism division and went to work for the ADL.

Despite the warnings in Project Megiddo about the dangers of militia groups, Rampton admitted the actual danger is very minimal.

"I don't think that the FBI considers them to be dangerous. Only a small segment of the militias actually commit acts of violence to advance their political goals and beliefs. Some, such as the Michigan Militia, have gone to lengths to rid themselves of radical members that are inclined to violence. So I don't think that the FBI considers the militias dangerous per se. I think that the FBI has identified individuals on the fringes of some of these militias that may take some of these beliefs to an extreme and commit acts of violence," said Rampton.

He cited convicted Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols as an example of a dangerous militia fringe participant. People who want to incite race wars and other acts of violence are attracted to militias and try to use them for their own agenda, he said.

Wilcox claims watchdog groups have hundreds of people in major cities throughout the country who monitor editorials, observe who attends certain meetings, and actively create lists of people they consider to be offensive.

Rampton admits the FBI uses such information from watchdog groups, but insists that people who write letters to the editor or attend gun shows and preparedness shows are not under surveillance and that no records are being kept about them by the FBI.

Wilcox rejoins that the FBI doesn't have to keep such files -- because the watchdog groups do it for them until the information is needed.

"The Privacy Act of 1974 regulates what information a government agency can collect," said Rampton. "It provides that a government agency 'shall maintain no record describing how any individual exercises his rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained, or unless pertinent to or within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity.' So if the information that's sent to us doesn't fall within that scope then we are not permitted to retain it," said Rampton.

"We operate under what we term the Attorney General Guidelines, which became effective back in 1983," he explained. "In terms of domestic security investigations, or domestic terrorism investigations," he said, quoting from the guidelines, 'such an investigation may be initiated when the facts or circumstances reasonably indicate two or more persons are engaged in an enterprise for the purpose of furthering political or social goals wholly or in part through activities that involve for or violence and a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S.'"

Rampton added, "If you're not engaged in that, then you're not a target of investigation."

Wilcox disputes that claim, insisting that watchdog groups are paid millions of dollars by the Department of Justice to develop intelligence files on thousands of Americans. Those files are never provided to the FBI until they are needed.

"Following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Southern Poverty Law Center gave the FBI a list of several thousand alleged members of militias and 'hate groups' culled from its files. None of them had anything to do with the bombing. These names came from letters to newspapers expressing right-wing political views, lists of 'members' supplied by informants, names from license plate numbers collected outside public meetings, pilfered mailing lists, and so on," explained Wilcox.

The Anti-Defamation League also provided extensive information to the FBI about the Branch Davidians prior to the raid in Waco, he added.

Wilcox complained that, were the watchdog groups to conduct surveillance of black organizations there would be a public uproar, but because the groups are predominantly white, conservative, and Christian there is little concern in the press.

Although the law enables citizens to obtain copies of their FBI files, Wilcox said it would do them no good in many instances -- since the FBI doesn't have the file yet. It is most likely still in the possession of one or more of the watchdog groups being paid with tax dollars to spy on unsuspecting Americans, he said.

Rampton claims the FBI is free from political influence, pointing to recent public disagreements between the FBI director, attorney general, and president as evidence the FBI doesn't cave to political pressure.

"Decisions to investigate or not investigate ... so far as I've been involved, have been free of outside influences," he said.

Rampton noted that the FBI is working to rebuild its public image, which has been tarnished and decreases agents' ability to work with the public on investigations. He has seen that level of trust steadily decrease for 28 years, he added.

"We're very concerned on how the public perceives us, because we rely heavily on public support in individual and larger settings in order to fulfill our mission. I think with regard to Ruby Ridge, Waco, and some of the other controversial incidents that have occurred recently, I think the FBI is ready, willing and able to stand a full examination of those things. I think the recent congressional committee that has been impaneled to review Waco will provide a very unbiased and truthful examination of what occurred there. I think that the result will be favorable to the FBI, but that remains to be seen," he said.

"We realize that we're accountable to the American public. We are ready to be held accountable. So we welcome these kinds of reviews of what we've done, so that in the end the public will come away with more confidence in the FBI than less," explained Rampton.

WorldNetDaily contacted the Anti-Defamation League for its reaction. Spokesman Todd Gutnick said that even though he is a public relations spokesman, he could not comment, and said he would attempt to arrange an interview with one of the authors of the ADL report. After several weeks of attempts by WorldNetDaily, the Anti-Defamation League has not granted the interview.

David M. Bresnahan is an investigative journalist for WorldNetDaily.com URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_bresnahan/19991210_xex_fbi_spy_fron.shtml

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-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), December 10, 1999

Answers

After reading through this long, sickening slime, the question that comnes up that the FBI doesn't even touch is "Why are the very left-wing groups that are doing the spying for the FBI, because"they can go far outside the boundaries of the law where the FBI cannot go", NOT themselves added to the list as being "subversives of democracy?" Obviously the FBI doesn't hold to the founding principles of democracy. Maybe they should dig up Joe McCarthy to head up the commission (or the FBI).

What is not mentioned is exactly what percent of these organizations that are spying on Americans are themselves receiving some form of US taxpayer money/grants, either legally or illegally, and what % of these same groups are NOT minority groups.

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), December 10, 1999.


AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: FORGET THE BEST, HIRE THE REST....

-- fred (fred@fred.mart.com), December 11, 1999.

REVERSE ENGINEERING PROJECT MEGIDDO

Profit: I read Project Megiddo as well as the transcript of Rampton's interview. To be fair, Rampton did NOT say left organizations are safe and not under observation by the FBI (he didn't say they were either). What he did say is that Proj. Megiddo's purpose was soley to help cops identify which groups in their regions might engage in unprovoked violence around the rollover. The FBI figures those groups which would become violent even without provocation have characteristics in common which might help police focus their efforts (rather than I think the police freaking out and harassing everyone).

Project Megiddo lists characteristics of groups the FBI thinks have the POTENTIAL for initiating UNPROVOKED violence during ROLLOVER. The groups at risk for violence not only believe in Armageddon (a Christian belief), but they believe the ROLLOVER WILL start Armageddon, and they also believe that if it doesn't look like it is starting "on time" then they will take it upon themselves to start Armageddon by engaging in domestic terrorism. If you haven't answered "YES" to all these criteria, then for example YOUR group is not deemed a "Christian Identity" risk by this document.

Now I think that if I were a cop then that tip might mean a hell of alot to me because (1) most folks in my town don't fall into that narrow category, so (2) I can show up for work and feel like my family will be relatively safe till I return, (3)....You see, the report, if I were a cop, would be comforting because it would give me a structure to process what is happening around me and give me a sense of control or manageability.

With that said, I found Project Magiddo's text offensive in many ways. IF I WERE A COP then I would feel indignant about the degree to which the manuscript insulted my intelligence. It uses drama to make emotional appeals, which I consider manipulative, and so from the cuff I would feel suspicious. Simply, they would not start off with the dramatic title/intro to grab my attention and envoke an emotional response which gets me ampped IF the document could fly on content alone. Immediately my red flags went up, and I was suspicious of their intent before they even began to run the facts and gameplan by me.

They erred in their oversimplification of characteristics as they defined them. They erred in their selection of the term "Christian Identity" for many reasons already covered on this forum and others. They erred in internal inconsistencies within this document which, even if not consciously apparent to the average reader, will at the very least create again a subconscious sense of distrust. In other words, folks will say "There is something fishy about this, but I just can't put my finger on it." The motivation to resolve this cognitive dissonance will become primary to the reader, and so undermine the true potential for behavioral effectiveness (which would be training the cops to handle the rollover in the most professional and effective manner that the FBI could imagine).

This monologue is way too long...that's what I get for stayin' up too late; dang! I'm gonna abandon any further explanation, but the question I would leave for any night owls here tonight is this:

The FBI has all this heebee-geebee mind control know how, so:

"IF we were to entertain the possibility that this Project Megiddo was succintly designed and is 100% effective to date at manipulating the true hidden agenda of the FBI and/or any powers that be...

AND looking at the current effects of Project Megiddo so far, and hypothesizing the impact the document's head games might have on police on rollover,...

THEN (for $10 and the admiration of the board)...WHAT would that true FBI agenda BE?

(just some late night reverse engineering for your amusement)

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 11, 1999.


"When asked if he considered groups that admit to being Marxist, Social-Marxists, or Communists to be dangerous, Rampton replied the FBI does not care about the beliefs expressed by an individual or group."

Just inordinatly focused in on White, Christian, Milita types or wanna be's.

"Shoot Fire Jim Luke!" I got a death threat from one of those Left Wing whacko groups for asking the question, "Why are you so against us when we are simply defending our Nation and way of life?"

-- Mark Hillyard (foster@inreach.com), December 11, 1999.


Hey Nabi if you're out there, what do you think of this? How does it feel to work for the Feds and be wanted by them at the same time?

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 11, 1999.


Confirms what I found talking with the extremists at the ADL personally (Oh - sorry, guess there are "no prejudiced bigots" with a socialist agenda at the ADL or SPLU).

talking with the authors confirms exactly this - that whole sections of their "report" - now being widely and deliberately spread as justification "against terrorism" by the fed's, and the most likely justification for martial/gun confiscation/national gun control before the rollover - are directly and deliberately equal to, or copied from, or provided to the FBI - to create that report. The intent of the ADL's reprot was specifically to attack the people they fear: pre-emptive perhaps, but certainly deliberate.

To date, note that there has been only two people arrested - and two alleged plots discovered: one in ALaska to bomb the pipeline. And the second this week from FL to attack plants in GA. (Now, why a guy from FL would drive out of state to attack fossil power plants is beyond me....but perhaps the FBI has an answer. They certainly have arrested no other "plotters" yet.

All this (two people) from an investigation that allowed the domestic anti-terror group to hire thousands of agents and get huge budgets increases, millions (billions ?) of dollars of new equipment, all the cooperation they want from the military, tons of politcal power and influence, lots of publicity and all the propaganda they want for those higher polical leaders who control their future.....but the FBI manamgers have no ulterior agenda do they?

Which came first, and who wrote what part of which document - will neve be determined from this Justice Dept under Reno. You can conclude that from the previous interference the Justice Dept did to the FBI, and how the FBI itself promoted thoese individuals responsible for th ecoverups at Ruby Ridge and Waco, among other botched investigations of the Chinese bribery and other Clinton scandals going back to the FBI files first lifted in their first days as President.

Again, regrettably - nothing surprising here. Only what I had read between the lines before.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 12, 1999.


While some you may not like some of what the FBI does, just pretend that they ARE telling the truth, here. What if there ARE genuine nutcases who are in the final planning stages of taking out North America's electric, phone, and gas network on the evening of the 31st?

Don't you think that someone ought to stop them from destroying the country and causing the deaths of thousands?

Out of curiosity, do you think that there will be a lot of malicious activity out there? Shooting? Guerilla activity? Whose side will you be on if faced with difficult choices? Or will you just try to lay as low as possible and do everything in your power to stay out of the way?

-- coprolith (coproltih@fakemail.com), December 12, 1999.


I told you - they have hired hundreds of new agents, spent billions o fdollars in military and FBI/ATF/etc. drills and exercises, and have worked real hard for the whole year to make themselves look good.....

.... and have arrested two only people.

If they (the FBI/ATF anti-terrorism outfits who are getting more money and power from this fear-mongering tactic) REALLY wanted to minimize the danger from New's Year Eve attacks - THEY WOULD STOP PUBLICIZING THE DANGER.

They would arrest people - quietly - if there wre legitimate conspiracies going on.

If there were other conspiracies out there, I'm sure they would have found them.

The actual targets of this episode are not terrorists - because the only serious y2k-terrorists out there are in the minds of the government, who want to imagine terrorism is going to occur, ... or who need terroism to occur....this could be for several reasons: all of them make sense, and none can be discounted from this administration. An administration that wages war on foreign countries - which has bombed factories overseas to distract attention from its domestic legal affairs (several times!), and has apparently attacked Bosnia to get public crediblility for opposing Hitler's oppresion of the Jews to gain Jewish votes in NY, and which has continued on a deliberate mis-informtion campaign about actual y2k-induced events...this adminsitration would definitely not miss an opportunity to use (encourage) domestic terroism to advance its hate-filled agenda against its opponents.

Note: the language is deliberate: it is exactly what the Clinton's supporters claim that church-going citizens are. Notice how claiming the inverse seems so "distasteful"? - The hatred is from the left right now - the danger is from the socialists in power now.

There i sNO evidence of danger from those who are preparing...it isthese who are least likely to cause problems - but the government doesn't want that image presented.

The question is why.

As far back as the first days in the White House, this adminstration used fear, confidential files, and intimidation of its opponents. The trend - once found to be successful and to be supported by the national press - has continued through intimidation of witnesses, removing witnesses from the country and warning them (through the DNC) of impending investigations, and "non-lies" such as hundreds of Democratic witness replies that "I can't remember".... Later, politcal pressure and intimidation was used against the "jury" of the Senate - deliberately and mailiciously.

"Why" they apparently want terrorism to occur is a different subject than "Do they want terrorism to occur... " because their actions right now only increase the probability of "copy-cat" crimes and vandalism.

I am reminded of the Allies who knew that Germany wanted to know where the Normandy invasion was going to take place. So they created a false army - led by a real general (Patton) - in Dover opposite Calais. Thus the germans saw the image they wanted to find - and so ignored the other armies massing elsewhere in England.

If the federal government actually wanted to stop domestic terrorism centered around the y2k issues - they would not publicize it.

Instead, they are encouraging it (the terrorism) by publicizing it. They are promoting it. They are loudly claiming that they are fighting it. They are demonizing those who they regard as enemies. They are claiming they "expect" it - and they are loudly claiming that failures associated with domestic terroism are going to cause many failures early next year.....you figure it out.

But, I repeat - they have found only two people who they claim are terrorists.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 12, 1999.


RC-

You have some compelling points. It certainly does seem suspicious. I too am skeptical of the vast publicity given to certain crimes--as if they WANT to instigate more "copycat violence" so as to create the impression that there is more danger to which to react (and obtain more funding and staff). From time to time I get a bad feeling that all we love and hold dear about everyday life is going to crumble and be shot to hell.

-- coprolith (coprolith@fakemail.com), December 12, 1999.


From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

If a lot of us got picked off, nobody would even know. Everybody who posts here, please check in from time to time if only to let us know you're still OK.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), December 13, 1999.



Hi. I live in pakistan in karachi city i lke to study about FBI so what can i do can u tell me and i need fbi book to red can u send me. my home address is A-146-Block-A-North Nazimabad.Karachi.no.33.PAKISTAN.

-- Ashraf Muhammad Ibrahim (khan_durrani_a@hotmail.com), January 06, 2003.

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