This makes it easier for them to track youin traffic. Clearly, if you are sharp enough to detectthe Advance Team- and if you don't reveal you've spotted them- you can enjoy a major tactical advantage over the FBI during the entire surveillance operation. You can either cloak your activities so they find nothing. Or you can feed them misinformation. (See future articles in Spy & Counterspy for more on detecting the first break-in.) You can also watch the behavior of the surveillance team itself for telltale signs that indicate they've got your home or office bugged.) Consequences of same-day response. What's the lesson in all this? Here's a real-world example. Suppose you are a controversial activist group. If you send out a news release to the media exposing government abuse, then you'd better be prepared for same-day surveillance by the FBI. Not tommorow. Not in a few days. Today. The same advice applies if you are an investigative journalist submitting a controversial article for publication. The implications of same-day surveillance can be serious. Suppose you've got documents or materials that you relied on when writing your news release or your article. These documents might contain references to confidential sources or informants or whislteblowers. You don't want the FBI to find these material. You don't want to compromise your sources. The materials had better be securely stowed away BEFORE you send out the news release. Trying to hide the materials AFTERWARD may be too late. Because if you think your faster thean the FBI, you're asleep at the wheel, heading for Dead Man's Curve. But be carefull where you hide the materials. Safes, alarm systems, even bank safe-deposit boxes are generally useless agaisnt a determined FBI surveillance team. (Future articles in Spy & CounterSpy will describe how to keep information form the FBI. It isn't easy, but it can be done) The FBI's capability for same-day response has caught many surveillance targets unprepared. This is not a game for slowpokes. If you don't move fast, you're gonna be roadkill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Managed Aggression... {NOTE- There is more to managed aggression than we cover in this article. For more on mind-games the FBI plays, return to our home page and click on Learning the basics <the author is refering to the original site which is no longer accessible-ed>} This is the third component in the FBI's three-pronged strategy of multi-layered teams, rapid response, and managed aggression. The FBI has a bureau-wide policy of managed aggression. This policy also affects FBI surveillance operations. Surveillance teams are given specific goals. The FBI command structure accepts no excuses. It tolerates no failures. This strategy of surveillance-for-results leads to aggressive behavior in FBI surviellance teams because of the pressure they're under. This results-driven aggression tends to manifest itself as professional aggression. An FBI surveillance team is using professional aggression when it intentionally and deliberately applies pressure to the subject of the surveillance operation. Actions like this are called psy-ops, which is spy talk for psychological operations. Here is an example of how an FBI agent surveillance team will deliberately provoke you. When you're walking through the mall or a downtown shopping district, the surveillance team will intnetionally interfere with your route. A pavement artist will "absent-mindedly" cross your path, forcing you to change course to avoid walking into him. A group of agents will "inadvertently" obstruct your path- they'll be standing together chatting, forcing you to walk around them. Other pavement artists will "accidentally" create near-misses as you walk along. Some of these "pedestrians" will create situations with a potential for a head-on collsion, forcing you to dodge them. As the psychological pressure continues to build, agents may "innocently" bump into you, jolste you, or step on your heal from behind. A group of pavement artists will cue up ahead of you, creating a line-up that delays you as your trying to make a purchase, order fast food, buy tickets, and so on. Activity like this can quickly create frustration, even anger, in you. But because the incidents occur in public locations, it's difficult to prove who's behind them. You never see the same agent more than once. You don't know where the next provocation is going to come from. You're beginning to get upset, irritated, unstable. You're more likely to make mistakes in judgement. And that's exactly what the surveillance team wants. When a surveillance team is experiencing difficulty cracking open an investigation they sometimes resort to professional aggression. This is a wicked mind-game. It can be very effective if you're not anticipating it. The FBI surveillance team has the power to make or break your day- and they don't hesitate to use that power. This is not a game for choirboys. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusions: FBI surveillance strategy... The FBI's triple-threat surveillance strategy of multi-layered teams, rapid response, and managed aggression must be taken seriously. These three threats were mentioned at the beginning of the article. They are important enough to be repeated. Threat #1- A multi-layered team can fool you into thinking that the surveillance has ended. This is an extremely dangerous situation. They're still lurking nearby, of course, waiting for you to say or do something incriminating. Threat #2- A same-day response by the FBI means that surveillance might begin before your ready for it. They'll catch you unprepared. The FBI surveillance team may end up watching you trying to hide the very material you're hoping to conceal from them. Threat #3- The FBI's policy of managed aggression can easily provoke you to lose your temper, or your nerve, or both. It is a wicked strategy. That's why they use it. Back to "What is Street Theater" page |