
Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944) - funerr
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/simple-sabotage.html
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dang
A discussion from 2012:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4831363](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4831363)

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peterwwillis
Clicking the "past" button above shows six other discussion threads

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mturmon
Thanks for pointing this out. It's the first time I'd noticed this small but
very information-rich button in the wild.

I notice that "past" is also present in another evergreen posted today, the
one on crowd dynamics
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10488996](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10488996)).

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protonfish
> When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and
> consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large and bureaucratic as
> possible. Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.

I assumed that every place I ever worked was just managed by morons. I never
considered that they could be infiltrated by saboteurs!

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mikeash
Where do you think the CIA got all their ideas from?

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giardini
Are you kidding!? They got the ideas from people who work in these areas!

Reading part of the text drives me nuts because I've seen people essentially
do many similar things inadvertently and had to enlighten them to the
potential hazard/damage that could result.

Ever had a mechanic with filthy grit-covered hands start to grease your front
wheel bearings? Ever seen someone start to clean a paintbrush with gasoline?

The book simply compiles these errors in one place and presents them as
"sabotage". Most of the time when they occur in the real world they're chalked
up to Hanlon and human ignorance:

"Hanlon's Razor: Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately
explained by stupidity."

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hansjorg
In a similar vein, if one were so inclined, how hard would it be to make a
modern city come to a grinding halt?

Seems to me that this kind of "economic terrorism" would be very low hanging
fruit, achievable with even modest means and at a low risk of exposure.

If the "clash of civilizations" is real and the western world is really under
such a severe existential threat as so many seem to believe, why aren't we
seeing more of this?

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gamegoblin
I live in Seattle, and traffic during rush hour here is a nightmare.

There are perhaps 5 key routes of getting in and out of downtown. Last summer,
one of these was blocked by an accident [1], leading to a complete gridlock on
the highway for five hours, and downtown traffic was taking roughly ~30
minutes to travel a block.

It would be relatively easy to cause five significant wrecks on each of these
corridors. Rent a moving truck and crash it into several vehicles at high
speed. Traffic would be so congested, it would take hours for emergency crews
to get to the scene. If you did this during morning rush hour, I imagine you
could shut down a lot of the city for the day.

[1] [http://westseattleblog.com/2014/06/4-miles-of-highway-
closur...](http://westseattleblog.com/2014/06/4-miles-of-highway-
closure-5-hours-of-gridlock-this-cant-happen-again/)

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ohitsdom
You wouldn't even have to cause a crash. All it would take is to stage a
couple of car breakdowns at key points in one or several highways.

Heck, even simultaneously driving slow on all lanes with conspirators just
long enough to not get pulled over would start a chain reaction that could
screw up traffic for hours.

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mindslight
The chaotic good in me has to wonder if you could take it one step further -
do this every third day for a few weeks, then "claim responsibility" as some
Islamic terrorist group. Get the city panicked and scrutinizing hard on anyone
driving too slow, broken down on the side of the road, or in a minor accident.
Get the invasiveness and paranoia high enough that everyone is forced to see
the ridiculousness of it first hand, rather than blindly believing story time
from the terrorists behind news desks.

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iamdave
_chaotic good_

Good god almighty, I read your post, chuckled slightly having fully understood
the DND reference, then I read it again and damn. If there were __ever __a
perfect descriptor for what you just described. Having lived in a city with
unending traffic problems among a populace that seems hellbent on voting
against it 's own desires to _fix_ said problems (Austin Texas), holy cow.

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dx211
Huh. I always assumed Stalin was being overly paranoid when he exiled all of
those folks to Siberia for breaking farm equipment, etc. Still a terrible,
awful way to address the problem, but it makes a bit more sense if that's
exactly the sort of thing the subversives are being told to do.

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notjustanymike
I'm beginning to suspect CIA influence at the DMV.

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caseysoftware
Add one to C and you get D.

Flip the A upside down and it looks like a V.

I'll leave you to discover the rest on your own.

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curiousGambler
Bend the I and you can make an M! (a small one tho)

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lifeformed
If the I has serifs, then it's doable.

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AlexEatsKittens
Reading this made me consider the possibility that people with anti-government
sensibilities have intentionally gotten themselves into critical government
roles and employed these, or similar, techniques. The procedural productivity
killers seem like they would be extremely effective, and easily passed off as
incompetence or a simple proclivity for bureaucracy.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the slow moving, budget draining, enthusiasm
killing bureaucrat were really a subtle and effective anarchist?

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ddingus
Honestly, I think that sort of thing is happening.

Look at the changes to the Post Office. Two seemingly small things combine to
put real pressure on what is otherwise able to operate just fine.

One was a change in rates, which basically favored large publishers. Small
distribution and citizen mail subsidize big publishing, who then can ramp up
on their volume.

The other was a pre-pay requirement for benefits that is just nuts! Something
like 25 years.

Now, the Post shows a loss and there is a lot of discussion about how to
"improve" it, privatize it, etc...

I'll bet there is a fair amount of this type of thing going on. Some analysis
to identify critical targets, planning to impact them, then messaging to
maximize the leverage / profit / change from those impacts.

Anyway, back to the Post. Either one of those things would have been both
manageable and to a degree justifiable. Both combined are a real mess.

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uxp100
There was later a cartoon sabotage manual that isn't so wordy.

[http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/19/world/cia-linked-to-
comic-...](http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/19/world/cia-linked-to-comic-book-
for-nicaraguans.html)

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elif
This reminds me of the John Shirley proto-cyberpunk novel "Transmaniacon,"
where the pro(an?)tagonist's role was to incite anger/riots in a group of
people by doing a bunch of little things that, on the surface, seem perfectly
reasonable, but when combined in the right way created absolute chaos.

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csense
> Forget to provide paper in toilets

War is hell.

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megaman22
This sounds like the handbook of every industrial contractor I've ever worked
with. Particularly the bit about leaving scrap iron in the turbine (I worked
in a power plant for a couple years...)

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ibarrajo
I thought the sugar in the car's fuel tank was a myth. Yet it's there on page
13-14 (PDF pg. 10-11)

And I never ever heard of using sugar to compress a sponge in order to clog
the drain.

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InclinedPlane
It is a myth, mythbusters tested it. You can put a lot of sugar in a fuel
tank, it won't make the car not run.

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csn
polystyrene foam on the other hand might do the trick

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JoeAltmaier
Absolutely. Gasoline gells.

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byron_fast
I now suspect my wife may work in a workplace full of spies.

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crpatino
just your wife? you must be a very lucky man!

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rconti
Polygamous marriages are typically frowned upon; at least in the US.

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hackaflocka
Remember people, when the CIA does it, it's "sabotage." Don't be using the "t"
word now.

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TeMPOraL
"T" as in "teambuilding"?

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eefing
It's interesting to think about this sort of thing in regards to corporate
influence on government processes.

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aluhut
.cC(better turn on TOR before I get it)

