| On 23 October 1983,
a truck packed with explosives crashed through the perimeter
of the U.S. Marine expeditionary force at the Beirut
International Airport. Moments later it slammed into
a temporary barracks and exploded, killing 241 Marines
serving with an international peacekeeping force that
had been dispatched to Lebanon at the request of the
Lebanese government. Within a matter of minutes a second
truck penetrated the lines of the French contingent
located nearby and detonated, killing 58 French paratroops.
As a result of the carnage, the Reagan Administration
made the politically costly decision to withdraw from
that country; and the governments of Great Britain,
France and Italy followed suit. Lebanon dissolved into
chaos, and a bitter civil war ensued pitting the traditional
Christian elite backed by Israel against an emergent
Muslim majority supported by Syria, Iran, Iraq and Libya.
At the time, US policymakers dismissed the suicide
bombings as a tactical gambit conceived and executed
by local fanatics. But with the benefit of hindsight,
it is now clear that they marked the beginning of a
general offensive against the West. For in the 19 years
that have since elapsed, more than 200 suicide attacks
have been conducted against Israel, Russia, Chechnya,
India, Sri Lanka and the United States – and these
have reshaped the face of modern war.
Despite the spectacular aerial assaults that destroyed
the World Trade Center and badly damaged the Pentagon
on 11 September, Western analysts remain loath to recognize
this basic fact. According to the still prevalent conventional
wisdom, suicide attacks are born of desperation and
despair - in this case, from the pervasive social and
economic malaise that afflicts the Muslim world. Like
the Japanese Kamikazes of an earlier era, Western analysts
have dismissed them as little more than a deadly nuisance.
This is unfortunate, for had they reached deeper into
history they might have realized that the suicide attacks
are strategic rather than tactical in nature; and that
their objective is not to wreak local havoc, but rather
to overturn the global balance of power. Moreover, they
might also have found that this strategy is based upon
the modern rediscovery of an ancient art - specifically,
the conquest and weaponization of the human psyche.
Although tyrants have sought to enslave the human mind
from times immemorial, the first known success was an
Eleventh Century figure by the name of Hasan bin Sabah.
Said to have been of noble birth, Hasan was forced to
flee his native Persia after having become embroiled
in a financial scandal at the Imperial Court. After
finding sanctuary in Egypt, he is reported to have studied
the teachings and organizational structure of an underground
cult known as the Dar ul Kikmat. During this same time
frame, he is also said to have mastered the Dark Arts.
Whatever the actual truth, Hasan had returned to Persia
by 1094; and with the aid of indigenous allies he seized
control of the mountain fortress of Alamut. There he
founded a sect that achieved infamy as the Assassini.
Formally known as the Shiah Ismai, this sect claimed
to hold in its possession secret and sacred truths;
but in fact, it was a terrorist organization that sought
to impose its will upon the Islamic World by systematically
assassinating political figures that opposed its ends.
Until finally crushed by Mongol invaders in 1250, the
Assassini shook the political structures of the Middle
East to their very foundations.
According to legend, Hasan created a virtual paradise
in a valley beneath his mountain citadel to recruit
and train initiates. Hasan is said to have dispatched
his followers to the public houses of the area, where
they would drug and kidnap young men, and transport
them to the valley. There they would awaken from their
stupor to find themselves in luxurious surroundings,
tended to by scores of beautiful young women. Having
been informed by the maidens that they had been transported
to Paradise by angels, the hapless victims would spend
their days gorging upon wine, sex and mind-altering
drugs. Then they would mysteriously re-awaken in their
former surroundings, alone and bereft. Months might
pass without incident as they resumed their ordinary
and miserable lives; but then suddenly and mysteriously,
they would reawaken in what they credulously believed
to be the Muslim Heaven. After three or four such experiences,
most became willing slaves to Hasan and his murderous
schemes. Persuaded that Hasan was Allah made manifest
upon the Earth, they killed their assigned targets without
pity or remorse; and then went willingly to their deaths,
certain of their place in Paradise.
Although this story of Hasan’s recruitment and
training techniques is fantastic, it is well supported
by historical evidence.1 Moreover, it closely resembles
the ARTICHOKE technique that was developed and successively
refined by the Soviet, Nazi, and Western intelligence
services between 1920 and 1973. It was thus empirical
science rather than Black Magic that made possible Hasan's
reign of terror; and if this science once perished in
the flaming ruins of Alamut, it has in this century
been entirely restored. Like the mythical Phoenix it
has arisen from the ashes; and it now threatens to shake
the world once more.
II
Although the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany –
and, apparently, Great Britain – mounted large-scale
research programs designed to develop techniques for
psychological control at an early date, the United States
did not actively pursue the subject until the Second
World War. Then the Office of Strategic Services –
forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency –
enlisted behavioral scientists for specialized problem
solving. Foremost among these was the development of
technical solutions to the urgent problems of agent
recruitment, handling and assessment. Although the OSS
had at its disposal a wealth of human talent and essentially
unlimited funds, the hurriedly constructed organization
lacked experienced case officers to recruit and run
field agents behind enemy lines. Acutely aware that
their lack of practiced personnel rendered them vulnerable
to deceptions, senior OSS officers turned to the behavioralists
for a scientific solution. Their top priority was the
development of a “truth serum,” which they
hoped would make possible fast and accurate assessments
of agent reliability.
Despite frantic efforts, the OSS failed to find an
effective interrogative drug. Yet the lure was so enormous
that even after the war the newly created CIA continued
the effort undeterred. But it was not until the 1949
trial of Cardinal Josef Mindszentry by the Soviet-installed
Hungarian communist regime that the CIA realized that
drugs held other promises as well. In the course of
Mindszentry’s trial, his deportment, demeanor
and speech led CIA analysts to the conclusion that he
had been successfully subjected to an extraordinary
form of psychological manipulation. Although the technique
was unknown to CIA psychologists, it was clearly of
such efficacy and power as to cause him to confess to
crimes he did not commit and could not have committed;2
and they were quite certain that drugs were somehow
involved. The Soviets had clearly mastered a new form
of totalitarian control; and discovering its secrets
became an urgent intelligence priority. On
April 20, 1950, CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter approved
the United States’ government’s first research
and development program expressly designed to develop
techniques for the control of the human mind. It was
known through successive incarnations as Project BLUEBIRD,
ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA and MKSEARCH; and eventually came
to encompass 149 distinct behavioral science research
programs and 33 related non-behavioral projects over
the course of twenty-three years.
The open-ended research program that Hillenkoetter
approved was given sudden impetus by two dramatic developments.
The first was the outbreak of war in Korea sixty-six
days later; the second was the public breakdown of the
U. S. ambassador to the Soviet Union some two years
thereafter. During the Korean conflict American forces
often performed poorly in the field against enemy armies
that had no prior experience in mechanized warfare;
and in one particularly shameful incident, an entire
U.S. army division fled the field.
Moreover, the conduct of American servicemen in captivity
was shocking. Fifteen per cent of American prisoners
of war held by the Chinese Communists actively collaborated
with their captors, and a full seventy per cent signed
fraudulent confessions to war crimes or written denunciations
of the United States government. More alarming still,
large numbers of those that signed confessions or denunciations
refused to recant after their repatriation.3 Many were
suspected of having returned to the United States as
willing spies for the enemy; and some were later proven
to be.4 Of similar concern was the bizarre behavior
of Ambassador George F. Kennan at Templehof airport
while en route to London from Moscow. There Kennan exploded
in anger at a naïve question posed by an inexperienced
reporter; and as a result of his ill-advised response
was declared persona non grata by the Soviet regime.
Such were the times that many senior American officials
were convinced that this incident provided strong evidence
that Kennan had fallen victim to Soviet mind control.5
The general outline of the CIA’s behavioral science
research program – commonly, but incorrectly referred
to as MKULTRA - was inadvertently revealed by the Rockefeller
Commission in 1975. Established by President Ford to
investigate allegations of CIA illegality, the Commission’s
Final Report contained a one-line reference to a federal
employee who had killed himself after having been unwittingly
drugged by a CIA officer as part of an MKULTRA experiment.
This sparked a press furor that eventually resulted
in more extensive congressional investigations chaired
by Sen. Edward F. Kennedy. Not
surprisingly, both the press and the Sen. Kennedy focused
their investigations upon the more lurid aspects of
MKULTRA, which included the kidnapping, drugging and
torturing of American citizens on American soil for
research purposes and the effort to develop “programmed
assassins.” Overlooked in the process were the
CIA’s efforts to determine the effects of electromagnetism
upon the psyche, electromechanical stimulation of the
brain, a form of technologically-based ESP, remote viewing,
precognition, psychokinesis and, especially, nonaural
voice communications with radio and microwave transmissions.
This was unfortunate, for their
researchers made gains in most of these areas and scored
dramatic breakthroughs in others. 6
According to declassified financial
records and the testimony of retired CIA officers, the
CIA had by 1961 developed implant devices for dogs,
making it possible for their handlers to guide them
through various courses by remote.7 During this same
time frame they also developed techniques for disrupting
bodily functions with radio waves. By the mid-1960’s
they had successfully developed and field-tested nonaural
voice communications with both radio and micro waves;
and by 1977 they had developed and field-tested a rudimentary
form of electromechanical “mind reading.”8
But despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they
have steadfastly maintained that they failed entirely
in their quest to control the human mind.
III
There are perhaps three reasons for the CIA’s
implausible denials. The first is legal responsibility.
For as the Kennedy hearings established, CIA officers
wildly exceeded their authority in the course of MKULTRA.
Innocent citizens were kidnapped
off the streets and drugged, hypnotized and subjected
to physical torture. These actions were and remain felonious;
and had the criminal justice system taken its proper
course, scores of CIA officers would have faced capital
charges. The second reason
is the explosive nature of the data they developed in
the course of their experiments. For contrary to common
belief, the human psyche lacks systemic integrity. Rather
than the tightly integrated system that has been historically
assumed, it is in fact a loosely related collage of
drives, inhibitions, orientations, functions, desires
and beliefs – all of which are subject to external
manipulation. The third and final reason is the extraordinary
ease of reengineering the human mind. With the ARTICHOKE
technique, a psyche may be broken apart, restructured
and reassembled almost to specification in approximately
four hours – all without the victim’s consent,
or even his conscious awareness.
Despite almost two and a half centuries of scientific
study, hypnosis remains poorly understood; and at present,
all that is known with certainty is that hypnotic states
are natural phenomenon that occur under certain –
and often quite ordinary – circumstances. These
states may be induced by external stimuli – and
especially, by a skilled practitioner of hypnosis –
and are related more or less closely to another psychological
phenomenon known as disassociation. Hypnotic states
extend across a broad spectrum, ranging from a light
hypnotic trance in which subject is alert and fully
aware, to a very deep trance in which the subject looses
both conscious awareness and volition. At this level,
the will of the subject may be suborned; and through
a process of faux identification, entirely by that of
a hypnotist.
Because hypnotic states are inherent potentialities
of the human mind, everyone is subject to hypnosis.
But under most circumstances,
only about 20 percent of the population is capable of
achieving the deepest hypnotic state required by ARTICHOKE.
To escape this difficulty, practitioners first anesthetize
their subject/victims with sodium pentothal and then
stimulate them with Benzedrine. This produces an indeterminate
physical state somewhere between sleep and waking consciousness,
making it possible to place the victim/subject in a
deep trance.
Once the desired level of hypnosis is achieved, the
subject/victim’s psyche is systematically disassembled
by isolating and identifying his or her drives, inhibitions,
orientations, functions, desires and beliefs. In this
process, particular attention is given to the so-called
ego-defenses.
Ego-defenses protect the individual from unwanted or
threatening intrusions into conscious awareness; and
for that reason are essential to ordinary functioning.
Operating heavy equipment for example is an exceedingly
hazardous endeavor; and safety requires the operator
to concentrate carefully. To do so, he must repress
his most basic instinct to flee from the danger. In
the process, he must also avoid making untoward associations
through a process known as inhibition.
Ego-defenses are a matter of common experience, and
one need merely reflect upon ones own behavior in various
circumstances to observe their operation. Nonetheless,
the number and nomenclature remains a matter of debate
among psychologists and psychiatrists. But for operational
purposes, the CIA embraced the classical catalogue presented
by Anna Freud. According to Dr. Freud, there are nine
innate ego-defenses and one potentiality: regression,
repression, reaction formation, isolation, undoing,
projection, introjection, turning-against-the-self and
reversal. The last – which differs from the others
in the sense that it actively promotes mental health,
rather than psychological stability – is sublimation,
or the displacement of instinctual drives.9
Ego defenses normally operate automatically, far below
the level of conscious awareness. But in a state of
deep hypnosis they may be isolated and brought to a
state of awareness through a process of regression.
They hypnotist, for example, might summon forth projection
by asking the subject/victim to go back in time to his
early childhood and recall an incident in which he was
so angry with his mother that he screamed at her, and
accused her of wanting to deliberately harm him. Once
the subject complied, the hypnotists would evoke the
particular emotions of that moment by expressing his
sympathy and providing his assurances that the sentiments
were right and proper. He would then inform the subject/victim
that this was especially true as his mother had deceived
him all his life. Rather than John Doe, as his mother
had falsely informed him, his real name was “Frank”
or whatever name came to the hypnotist’s mind.
Most often, the hypnotist would then inform the subject/victim
that he was in fact of noble birth or lineage, and that
someone – perhaps the Communists, or the Jews,
the Freemasons or perhaps the villain de jour - had
wickedly denied him this birthright. Identifying himself
to the subject/victim as a secret friend who’s
identity must never be revealed to anyone, the hypnotist
would suggest that the subject/victim be reminded of
his terrible mistreatment - and exalted status - whenever
he might throw something in the trash or launch a paper
airplane in flight. The hypnotist would then would ask
the subject victim to recall another incident from his
youth in which, for example, he created something –
perhaps a sand castle at the beach – and then
obliterated it, wiping all traces away. By this means
the hypnotist would summon forth the ego defense undoing.
The hypnotist would then gently explain how he was different
from “Frank” – and incidentally, much
superior – and give him a new name, accompanied
by a similar story of exalted birth and stolen birthright.
The hypnotist might then introduce the ego-defense undoing
– now grandly named “Robert”, for
example – to projection - that is, to “Frank
” - and then tell them a story as to how they
are related and why they should work together in what
circumstances. The process would then be repeated with
each ego-defense in turn, until all had been identified,
named, ennobled by a fantastic story, provided with
suitable reinforcers and, perhaps, given instructions
for a subsequent rendezvous for “refreshment.”
By this means a new psychic structure is constructed
– creating, in effect, highly specialized multiple
personalities within a single psychic system without
the subject/victim’s knowledge. Once this is done,
the next challenge is to reshape his relationship to
external reality.
The human mind has four basic orientations: thinking,
feeling, sensing and intuition. In simple terms, this
means that the mind relates to external phenomenon by
way of reasoned thought, emotions, physical sensations
or intuitive knowledge. Thinking and feeling are considered
to be superior functions, as they involve making judgments;
while physical sensations and intuition are regarded
as inferior functions. In any given circumstance, at
least three of the four are engaged by external stimuli;
and in a well-functioning psyche, they tend to be more
or less congruent. In eating a chocolate bar, for example,
a normal and healthy individual might think it good
for satisfying a consciously recognized need for energy,
feel it to be good it for providing a physical lift,
and sense it to be good for the release of endorphins
it caused within the brain. In contrast, a reasonably
informed adult smoking a cigarette would know it to
be bad, feel it to be good for relieving his nicotine
cravings, but still sense it to be bad for wreaking
havoc within his body.
Realigning the subject/victim’s
orientation toward the external world is essential to
ARTICHOKE, for success is measured in part by separating
the subject/victim from reality. This is unfortunately
easily done, by attaching a powerful and pleasurable
physical memory to an otherwise unappealing situation.
To do so, the hypnotist might for example ask the subject/victim
to recall his fondest memory of physical pleasure; and
then associate it with words and images to the unappealing
situation referenced above. In this way the subject/victim’s
physical memories of intimacy with his first love might
be associated with a particularly dangerous activity,
thereby creating an artificial attraction to that activity.
A soldier sent into battle, for example, might correctly
think it dangerous but feel it wonderfully euphoric;
and even though he sensed that something was terribly
wrong with this feeling, he would not be able to escape
it. In a very literal sense, he would be drawn towards
danger.
The next difficulties for the hypnotist to overcome
are the subject/victim’s inhibitions – which
are, for operational purposes, the subject/victim’s
most basic beliefs. The subject/victim might for example
believe himself incapable of performing certain particularly
challenging physical or mental tasks; but this belief
is ultimately based upon his self image - and this is
quite literally a picture of himself that he has formed
within his own mind. To change that belief, it is necessary
only to change that picture, substituting for example
a perhaps realistic image of himself for an image of
a far superior man capable of overcoming any obstacle.
To do this, the hypnotist need only play to the subject/victim’s
vanity, pride and desire. For in almost all cases, these
temptations are sufficient to persuade him to willfully
suspend his own disbelief.
Some inhibitions are more difficult to overcome than
others, especially those that involve basic moral issues;
and this is particularly true in terms of the prohibition
against the taking of human life. During World War Two
for example, American soldiers rarely displayed overt
acts of cowardice and in fact routinely demonstrated
a high level of courage under fire. Nonetheless, the
overwhelming majority of American soldiers would not
shoot to kill. Studies undertaken after the war demonstrated
this fact conclusively; for it was found that a mere
25 per cent of the Army’s frontline troops were
responsible for almost 100% of the casualties inflicted
upon the enemy. 10
To avoid this difficulty, the hypnotist
uses a variety of techniques upon the subject/victims.
One of these is the alteration of self-image described
above; but a more powerful technique is known as “permissioning.”
To do so, the hypnotist questions the subject/victim
intensively as to why he believes that killing is wrong,
and tries to find exceptions. Extensive research demonstrated
that in most cases the inhibition against killing is
traceable to the influence of the subject/victim’s
mother during his most formative stage; and to overcome
this the hypnotist might present killing in certain
circumstances as exceptions that the subject/victim’s
mother would approve of; or perhaps even impersonate
the subject/victim’s mother, to falsely assure
him that the taking of life under specified circumstances
would be permissible after all. Once this inhibition
has been overcome, excepted, or rationalized through
hypnotic deceit, all that remains to be done is to install
additional “reinforcers” in the subject/victim’s
mind, assign to him his particular task and, if necessary,
schedule a follow-up “appointment.” Thus
the subject/victim may be instructed that each time
he saw a telephone pole he was to reaccept and reaffirm
as right, proper and true all that occurred while in
the hypnotic state; and to re-accept and re-affirm his
mission.
IV
As declassified CIA documents
make clear, a principal objective of MKULTRA was to
develop techniques that would allow the Agency to exert
control over an individual to such an extent that he
would do their bidding “against his will and even
against such fundamental laws of nature such as self-preservation.”
Technically, they failed; but
only because a parallel project run by the Department
of Defense achieved success first. The CIA research
and development program was reportedly shut down in
1973, and the ARTICHOKE techniques perfected by the
military were adopted wholesale.
There is no evidence that either the CIA or the US
military operationalized ARTICHOKE, but other intelligence
services were less circumspect. There is clear evidence
that the Soviet and Soviet Bloc intelligence services
made ample use of it. The Soviets were decades ahead
of the West in the race to weaponize the human psyche,
and they exploited their advantage to its maximum potential.
Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s the West
received a steady stream of false defectors, dispatched
abroad by the KGB to disinform the Western intelligence
services. To ensure that they delivered their false
messages and no more, most were subjected to ARTICHOKE.
The KGB later shared its expertise with their North
Vietnamese allies; and by 1966, suicide bombings in
Saigon, Da Nang and Hue began to exact a heavy toll
upon American rear-echelon troops. These bombings did
not significantly contribute to the North Vietnamese
victory, but they did exact a measurable toll upon the
morale of US forces.
Exactly when the Soviets shared ARTICHOKE with their
Arab allies is unknown, but they had clearly acquired
the capability by the latter part of the 1970’s.
Their intelligence services are said to have passed
it to various terrorist groups under their control by
the late 1980’s; and this knowledge is now widely
believed to have diffused throughout the terrorist underground.
Although this supposition remains unproven, it meshes
neatly with the historical record. The first suicide
bombing sponsored by an Arab intelligence service occurred
in Beirut in 1983; and the first suicide bombing conducted
by an Arab terrorist organization followed 11 years
later. [...]
VI
As of this writing, there has been no public discussion
of ARTICHOKE-assisted suicide bombings. Indeed, all
official discussions of suicide attacks have carefully
omitted any reference to ARTICHOKE as an element of
the suicide attack strategy. They have instead focused
upon the supposed religious fanaticism of the bombers.
Religious fanaticism is undoubtedly a significant factor
in the recruitment of volunteers for so-called martyrdom
operations, and it is certainly a strong contributing
factor to their success. But in and of itself, religious
fanaticism fails to explain the remarkably low failure
rate of suicide bombings. To
date, not a single recruit is known to have defected
to either Israel or the United States; and only one
is known to have refused to carry out his assigned mission.
On the basis of current public source reports, the failure
rate of suicide bombers appears to be about 1 in 80;
and such an extraordinary figure is only attributable
to scientific technique.
Thus far the only countermeasure known
to have been employed by Israeli and American –
and, presumably - European security services is Remote
Influence Technology, or RIT. An offshoot of MKULTRA
distantly related to ARTICHOKE, RIT employs radio and
microwave frequencies to broadcast subliminal messages
to general or specific targets. Although RIT appeared
promising in field tests and is said to have performed
well during the 1989 invasion of Panama, it appears
to have fallen short in this particular application.
Israel is said to have initiated intensive RIT broadcasts
in September of 2000, with no apparent success. Similarly,
the National Security Agency’s much vaunted effort
to use RIT against Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan has
been judged an unqualified failure, and apparently abandoned.
On the basis of the available evidence, then, it would
appear that technological solutions to the problem of
ARTICHOKE-assisted suicide bombings are unlikely in
the near or medium range future. The only plausible
alternative is classical counterintelligence - that
is, intelligence operations that are designed to counter,
i.e., negate, the effectiveness of targeted intelligence
services by infiltrating, penetrating and suborning
their ranks. Because counterintelligence has historically
focused upon opposing intelligence services rather than
terrorist organizations, classical CI may be imperfectly
suited for this task. Nonetheless, no other alternative
readily suggests itself.
Unfortunately, the United States is singularly ill
equipped to undertake this effort, for the national
counterintelligence capability was systematically destroyed
during the anti-intelligence hysteria of the 1970’s;
and the feeble attempt to re-establish it by the Reagan
Administration arguably died with James Angleton in
May of 1987. A scholar of international renown, Angleton
was widely regarded as the premier theorist of counterintelligence
during the Twentieth Century; and during his long tenure
as chief of CIA counterintelligence, he is credited
with creating Americas first and only national counterintelligence
capability. Unfortunately, Angleton’s refusal
to accept Henry Kissinger’s policy of détente
with the Soviet Union precipitated his dismissal in
December of 1973; and within a matter of years, the
CIA’s counterintelligence staff was disbanded
altogether.
Creating a new counterintelligence capability configured
for both classical counterintelligence and counter terrorist
operations is a daunting task; and even if the political
will for this undertaking is suddenly found, it will
take at least a decade to achieve full functionality.
Nonetheless, the need is compelling, and the prospects
are bright. For Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist
organizations not only accept Western volunteers; they
seem to revel in the practice. The fact that at least
two Americans, two Britons, and an Australian have been
found among captured Al Qaeda fighters demonstrated
the permeability of this organization, and augers well
for success. Even in the absence of a national counterintelligence
capability – with the training and support functions
that this implies – it should be a comparatively
simple task to place American or Allied agents in the
ranks of the Islamic terrorist organizations; and once
emplaced, to begin the long task of reducing them from
within. Given the ghastly potential of suicide bombers,
their first and foremost objective should be obtaining
the names and locations of the terrorist’s ARTICHOKE
operators, and their subject/victims.
VII
For more than a century and a half, Hasan bin Sabah
and his followers terrorized the Muslim world by systematically
murdering anyone who stood in their way. In this, their
principal weapon was the programmed assassin, psychologically
weaponized with a technique strikingly similar to ARTICHOKE.
In terms of strategy, tactics and technique, the Assassini
were the historical predecessors of today’s suicide
bombers; and for that reason they are instructive.
The Medieval Islamic elite failed to devise an effective
strategy against suicide assassins, and for that they
paid a fearsome price. It was not until the Mongol Conquest
that the Assassini were finally suppressed, and then
only by sheer brutality. Lacking modern sensibilities,
the Mongols laid waste their strongholds and surrounding
areas; and all known, suspected, and potential supporters
of the Assassini were summarily put to the sword. The
number of people killed by the Mongol’s in their
campaign against the Assassini has been lost to history,
but it was surely in the hundreds of thousands and it
may have numbered in the millions.
Contemporary suicide bombers pose an almost identical
challenge to the political structures of the contemporary
world. ARTICHOKE-assisted terrorism is capable of successfully
attacking almost any target at a highly favorable exchange
ratio; and for that reason, it has revolutionized modern
warfare. The political and economic structures of the
Western states are now at grave risk; and the danger
grows daily with the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.
Barring an improbable technological breakthrough, the
only plausible option for the United States is a strategy
of suppression based upon the classical counterintelligence
techniques of infiltration, penetration and subornation.
Although such a strategy would be difficult for the
United States to undertake at the present time, it offers
every promise of long-term success. All that is required
is political will, ingenuity, and patience – and
a commitment to national survival.
___________________________________________
Originally published in INTELLIGENCE BRIEFS: a publication
of the Center for Intelligence Studies, vol. 2, number
4, June/ July, 2002.
Notes
1. See for example Jim Marrs’
Rule by Secrecy. [New York: Harper Collins, 2000.] pp’s
280-285.
2. Marks, John. The Search for |
