Counterintelligence Rules for Political Activism, Part 2
There are five more you need to know.
We’ve been talking about the rules for counterintelligence, as first written by James Olson. His Ten Commandments of Counterintelligence were penned for the CIA and other alphabet agencies, and we’re modifying them for the political activism arena. In the last issue we discussed the first five; today we’ll deal with the second half.
If these rules are making you uncomfortable, that’s okay. Discomfort is good, because it promotes growth. If they’re making you angry, that’s fine too. No one likes to be told they’re doing something wrong, or missing a critical part of their overall operational process. The point here isn’t to say, “You’re a failure.” The goal is to get you thinking about and making necessary changes to become a more effective group. After all, you want to work in support of your cause, and this part of how you do that.
Let’s get back into it with rules 6-10.
6. Do Not Be Parochial
With this rule, Olson is specifically talking about “interagency sniping and obstruction” but it’s easily applied to activism groups and their internal workings.
Drama within a group is an effectiveness killer every time, and we’ve talked about that kind of thing in detail so I won’t belabor it here. Whether it’s from targeted infiltration or just crappy people in your group fomenting the same results, internal issues can and will ruin your efforts. Head them off with decisive efforts—and have a good enough vetting process so that you can prevent them to begin with.
7. Train Your People
This should be a no-brainer, but we’ve already talked about how rare it is. CI isn’t something you can just do. It’s a specific way of seeing the world, and it requires training and practice in both that process and what to do with the information collected. Not every personality type is suited for it, and not every personality is pre-disposed to value its results.
When thinking about training, don’t just get your CI person trained. Train the rest of your group to see the value of counterintelligence and how it can be the difference between effectiveness and destruction. If you have people in your group who simply refuse to see the point, or who insist on discounting CI input and charging ahead anyway, you have a problem.
8. Do Not Be Shoved Aside
This rule is more for the CI people in your group. If you’re performing a counterintelligence function, you’re probably an unpopular member. You’re the devil’s advocate, the Negative Nancy, the one who sees issues all over the place and is constantly saying, “This is a bad idea because…” In short, many groups see the CI member as a nuisance.
It’s true that CI folks can get a bit over the top, even venturing into mild paranoia after a while, especially if the group is consistently targeted or engaged in more dangerous actions. On the flip side, groups tend to minimize risk or even seek it out, and that can contribute to how a CI person engages with their group.
The bottom line is this: if you, as a group, are blocking your CI person out, they can’t do their job. If you’re the CI person, you need to sometimes force yourself onto the group.
9. Do Not Stay Too Long
Being solely in counterintelligence functions within a group can get very draining after a while, especially if you’re constantly being minimized, ignored, or having to deal with the results of a group blowing right past your warnings only to prove you right later.
If your group consistently ignores your input on threats, or insists on acting in ways you have specifically explained the bad outcomes of, you should get out.
It’s that simple.
If your leadership routinely cuts you out of discussions or even removes you completely from the table, you should immediately remove yourself from the group. You cannot operate within your arena effectively if you’re being thwarted by a leader who’s too arrogant or too stupid to value your work.
If you’re a group member who has seen leadership oust your CI people, you should walk too, because there is nothing good coming from expelling the person who can see the threats coming.
Staying to watch your group take an action that you know will have a negative outcome is even a worse idea than taking the action to begin with. In staying, you’ve put yourself in the entrapment phase, and that means being seen as supporting it—regardless of your previous warnings. Your continued presence in the group will be seen as consent.
10. Never Give Up
Considering I just told you to get out if your group is acting like a bunch of idiots, this might sound contradictory.
What this rule applies to is your work. If you have indicators that an infiltrator is trying to get into your group, don’t push those aside. Keep digging.
If your gut says something is wrong, don’t rationalize it away. Investigate.
If you know an action is going to be a bad idea, don’t be quiet. Stand up.
If you’re working a contact that you really need and it’s taking a bit longer than you think it should, don’t stop.
Putting It All Together
If you’re the CI person in your group, be patient, thorough, and methodical in your processes. Don’t dismiss a principle you know to be true in order to engineer a result because it won’t work. Don’t set aside your vetting process “just this one time.” Pay attention to your group members, and recognize when something is off or has changed. Study your opposition and your history. Stick to your guns.
If you’re a group leader, value your CI person. You don’t have to let them run things from the shadows, but hear their input and truly consider it. They want the same things you do—they’re just looking for the best way to go about it.
If you’re a group member, watch the relationship between your leadership and your CI person. It can and will be adversarial at times, but there should be a basic level of respect. If there isn’t, be very wary because your group is about to see some real threat.
Counterintelligence isn’t for everyone. It’s a difficult discipline, and it requires a certain kind of person to do well. It is, however, something everyone benefits from and should value.
In the next issue we’ll talk about how some other groups have really screwed up—and how to avoid being just like them. Subscribe now for free to make sure you don’t miss it!
Kit Perez is a counterintelligence and deception analyst, and the co-author of Basics of Resistance: The Practical Freedomista. She is currently working on her second book, which will focus on group activism efforts.