
CIA’s Database of Protests and Protesters and a Pentagon Riot - aburan28
https://glomardisclosure.com/2016/07/19/how-cias-database-of-protests-and-protesters-lead-to-a-pentagon-protest/
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Sacho
The article's title is clickbait - the CIA database didn't "lead" to the
Pentagon Riot.

As claimed by the article, the Pentagon Riot was an event precipitated by a
protest which the CIA database had logged. The article alleges that this
information could have been used to de-escalate the protest or tailor the
response to it, but there's no causal link between the CIA database's
existence and the protest happening.

~~~
edkennedy
The link is that they gave one of their agents authorization for the
levitation... but then stocked an entire military unit there from Fort Bragg
to escalate the situation into a riot for further study.

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SideburnsOfDoom
> the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam ... attempted
> to levitate the Pentagon.

In what part did they actually mean to literally mean to "levitiate" the
pentagon - to raise it into the air by magical means.

And how much of it was to cause _levity_ i.e. "treat a serious thing in a
light way with humour or lack of due respect", and raise consciousness, poke
fun at the military and generally stir things up?

~~~
JonnieCache
_> And how much of it was to cause levity_

This seems highly likely to me. Having interacted with a fair few people like
this, it's easy to underestimate how much they see such occult practices in
terms of irony and poetic language. They are most assuredly not making a naive
attempt at doing what physicists do, which is the tempting assumption.
(Sometimes it's correct of course.)

The emphasis in "magic words" is usually more on the words than the magic.

~~~
Bartweiss
There's definitely a sense of humor to efforts like this - a realization that
the whole thing is so absurd that it's worth going all the way to
impossibility.

When you're setting out to oppose bureaucracy and militarism, poetry and
magical techniques make a satisfying _thematic_ counter; you can adopt them
for that purpose without any real belief that they _work_.

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fhood
Oh my stars, was the CIA doing something questionable again. How shocking. The
US govt so rarely overreacts to imaginary threats by spying on its citizens.

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JohnStrange
Out of curiosity, what's the official perspective anyway? Is the CIA legally
entitled to conduct such activities within US borders?

In some countries like Germany the foreign intelligence agency is not allowed
to gather intelligence in their own country, only a separate counter-
intelligence agency may, so I'm wondering whether this is the same in the US
or not. Theoretically speaking, of course.

~~~
s_q_b
The CIA's statutory mandate is limited to foreign intelligence. Virtually
everything the CIA does within US borders is illegal.

~~~
pessimizer
It's been ruled legal to target Americans if they drive a Japanese car, or
have ever watched a movie with subtitles.

~~~
matt_wulfeck
Do you have any case law that backs this up?

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s_q_b
Yes, it's well established. See below, in subsection dealing with activities
within the United States.

[https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockC...](https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/rockcomm/pdf/RockComm_Chap5_Authority.pdf)

~~~
matt_wulfeck
Well this is my sad TIL for the day.

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kstenerud
Can't even read it. The contrast is terrible.

~~~
moron4hire
I was expecting something like grey text on a black background from this
comment, but don't pay attention to him, the contrast is fine.

~~~
erlehmann_
The article is mostly light gray text on white background, really hard to read
for me as well.

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Faust1985
Its for the best, if the protesters had completed the exercism ritual, Iog
Sothoth would have been free to roam the world once more

~~~
justratsinacoat
>Iog Sothoth

It's the Pentagon, so surely you mean Shub-Internet

[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/Shub-
Internet.html](http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/Shub-Internet.html)

