5-Step Rebellion

How to Win Revolutions and Eliminate People, The CIA Way

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During America’s involvement in Honduras and Nicaragua, the CIA was writing manuals encouraging Central American armies to torture, intimidate, and blackmail their enemies. Recently The Baltimore Sun dredged one of these documents, “The Human Resource Exploitation and Training Manual — 1983,” out of the classified file. According to The Sun‘s story, “ Teaching Torture,” the 1983 manual encourages the use of techniques that “prevent the subject from relaxing and recovering from shock.”

But if your attention span, or moral priniciple, won’t let you slug through 200 pages of sinister tactics, the MoJo Wire presents a shorter, more entertaining guide — “The Freedom Fighter’s Manual (FFM)” — for the first time on the Internet. This CIA sponsored pamphlet, which urges rebellion against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, caused public outcry when it was first revealed in 1984. It features comic book style illustrations of “useful sabotage techniques, the majority of which can be done with simple household tools such as scissors, empty bottles, screwdrivers, matches, etc.”

And, as the “FFM” states, “these measures are extremely safe and without risk to those who use them.” Our government sponsored that? You bet. In 14 easy pages you too can learn how to overthrow the ruling state.

Begin “vindicating Sandino’s memory” here:

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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