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CIA Manual Thought Lost In 1973 Available On Amazon
An anonymous reader writes "At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid renowned magician John Mulholland $3,000 to write a manual on misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. All known copies of the document were believed to be destroyed in 1973. Turns out one survived — and is now available on Amazon."
I know that they are deceptive, backstabbing and two-faced, but now I can found out how. Criminals In Action.
'Turns out one survived -- and is now available on Amazon'
Or at least, that's what they want you to think...
For the rest of us, since only one lucky person will get the dead tree prize.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This is not the book you are looking for.....move along.....
A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
Yeah but she told me she likes it when I do that.
I wonder how long until it gets globally deleted via the wireless updates.
Free download of the Ebook version or it never happened...
The manual is of some historic value as a relic of the 1950s, when we were actually trying to murder Castro with exploding cigars, but John Mulholland's actual manuals seem of little practical use, even then. Oh, I suppose there's some value in learning how to drop Roofies in your date's drink while lighting her cigarette, but the techniques developed by Mulholland wouldn't have passed muster at "The Man from Uncle." It was more "Get Smart" stuff.
Review here...
So, it's not all that.
There's a Kindel version so, I guess there will be a torrent?
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
So the Slashdot summary links to an article in the Huffington Post. And the HuffPo article links to an article in Wired. And the Wired article links to the actual story in the Boston Globe.
Genius idea: have the Slashdot summary link to the actual story. YES!!!
The summary is just a very misleading slashvert, it makes it seem like one original copy is for sale. It is just some document that has been declassified and is now being published in a hardcover book...
It’s not particularly hard to find. Amongst the things that I found on eDonkey, some old anarchy sites, etc, are tons of CIA and army manuals about questionable topics. The one I found particularly nice was a guide that explained to you how to get a major or other politician off his post, or even killed, trough small nudges here and there in the town. Talk to someone here, do this there, and let the event cascade roll into a avalanche that breaks his neck. ;)
Then of course torture and interrogation manuals, building bombs and healing yourself in emergency situations or covert operations, etc. etc. etc. Everything from TNT over Napalm, termite, picking locks, spying on people, spy protection, and ten years ago I found a complete technical description of how to build a nuclear bomb. With a text file attached, saying to ask there and there when you’d find yourself in need for the “materials” to build it. ^^
Luckily I was only angry at my dad, and not at any country, back then. ^^
Hmm... I wonder if I still have them somewhere... probably locked away in a archive with military-grade encryption that I forgot the password to.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
So, it looks like it worked, then...
This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for higher security.
I much prefer a link to the book on amazon than a write up about how it exists there. Given that the book is "In Stock" for $15, I'm guessing this isn't the one remaining copy for sale :)
Oh look, BN.com has it as well: http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=Official+CIA+Manual
Remind me not to get on your bad side. If I had any mod points, I'd give them to you, my friend. In fact, I'd give you all of them...really.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
The whole manuscript was published in a magicians' monthly magazine called "Genii" several years ago. Granted, it is a fascinating read, but it was not "just discovered".
Is the one you're looking for. Published by Paladin and available as a torrent...
Most of those files were work of BBS users and can range anywhere from complete bullshit all the way to actually working stuff.
I guess you know this, but rest of slashdot could take a peek at those manuals here: http://textfiles.com/
-- Technology for the sake of technology is as pathetic as eschewing technology because it's technology.
Chapter One: Misdirection
Let me preface this with a few words WHOA LOOK BEHIND YOU MAN! Did you look? I knew it! There you go. Misdirection.
Chapter 2: Concealment:
Watch Pulp Fiction. Captain Koons talking to Butch about his grandpa's wristwatch is all you need know.
Chapter 3: Stagecraft.
See Chapter One. Do something while they're not looking. If someone looks while you're doing whatever it is you're doing, kill them. Claim they were terrorists.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I was under the impression that this book was mandatory reading for all U.S. politicians.
The book is "in stock" in Amazon, and Invisible Hand showed me links to at least 4 other sites where they're selling it... So WTF?
I don't have a sig.
Could I get a zip file of all that? please?
Oh Crap, I'm an optimist.....
Every nation has a CIA equivalence. They have to. They have to know what others are doing and if there is a real threat. For example MI6 comes to mind.
Now, if you are calling them criminal because of Iraq/Afghanistan, then nope. The real problem was not CIA. These were simply foot soldiers doing what they were ordered to by the highest level of the gov.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
doncha know...
Sure. Install eMule, configure it, and enter “cia” or “army” and you got half of it. The other half is found by searching for “bbs anarchy” on Google. Don’t expect me to send it to you directly though, for obvious reasons. :)
Oh, and of course I forgot, that the “illegal” cookbook (yes, THE cookbook) is also easily available.
My father, being a bit of a collector, also once acquired the original 70s paper version of that book. Even back then you could go straight to jail for “terrorism” just for owning it. It was an interesting read for someone going to 4rth class. ^^
I don’t know if he still has it though. Haven’t seen him for 10 years now.
He also told me, that back then, a “cookbook” often just was a book with a grenade in it. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Personally I found tm 31-210 to be most interesting. Forget the Anarchist Cookbook, the USA Government itself provides the best manual to cook your own explosives. Only click the links at Google if you're not paranoid...
Hmm... Now I really wonder where the “flamebait” part of my comment is supposed to be. :) ;P
Or is this some special agent? If so: Hello there. I can see you.
Disclaimer: I am not pro- or contra- anything. I just think that some idiot should stop beating their heads (and especially those of others) in over pointless shit. :) If that means you hate me, then I’m proud of it. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
the best such document i have seen has been silent weapons for quiet wars. really makes you think about the world in its current state... and the invented "problems" like economy, CO2 etc
You coward !
It didn't first surface on Amazon and then become available. If you actually read the article (at the Boston Globe and Wired), it's available for sale on Amazon, but it originally got declassified by the CIA itself.
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
If anyone needs a training manual to outline those obvious "tricks," it does not say much for his intelligence and inventiveness. Any schoolboy has reinvented those deceptions many times over.
Stripped of his position, and having been barred from holding any political office by the de' Medici, after a lifetime of public service, embittered, Machiavelli wrote "The Prince" basically saying: "if you want to grab, hold, and expand your political power," (adding under his breath, "like those de' Medici bastards,") he continued, "this is what you do..." (He could not insult them openly, he had already been imprisoned and tortured by them once, and I guess he wasn't "feeling strong" anymore.)
It was not meant literally! I guess the De Medici had the last laugh though, whether by their actions or not, Machiavelli's name is associated NOT with his own good and noble life's work, but with the behaviours and beliefs of those he most loathed and despised. For a better idea of what this great Renaissance figure really thought, try instead his "Discorsi sulla prima deca di Tito Livio", or "Discourses on the first ten books of Livy", (Titus Livius, Roman historian)
~ Hallux
I've seen a few in the last few days. Since Slashdot doesn't delete any posts (yet), it's a golden place for them to be. Those of us reading at -1 see them, but obviously we won't buy from them. It'll should (I believe) help their pagerank though, which hurts everyone else.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
wikileaks has a lot of it, up to date versions too.
I would give everything i own for a little bit more.
An article on Slashdot linking to The Huffington Post, talking about a Wired story talking about an item for sale on Amazon. No need for the book, misdirection is alive and well.
I am confused as to how google and amazon got rights to all these books. Doesn't this violate copyright laws. If I create a book will google and amazon get it without my knowledge.
Jesus, you just fired Echelon with all those words !!! ... :D
Hopefully you didn't used Semtex or Javelin
More like the MSM handbook anymore.
This is true. The infamous "Anarchist Cookbook", for one, is not Anarchist*, and is a dangerously bad cookbook.
* (You cannot destroy an abstract social relationship with explosives.)
The Prince is not a manual for how to run a government. It is meant as satire, a warning perhaps, to the people, about how sociopaths run a government. If you want something closer to a manual, read Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy , a book about how to run a Republic rather than a Tyranny.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Great. Now Google has to change their slogan to "Do no Microsofty things"
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
... and since the government is "Of the people, by the people, and for the people" that copyright is held by the US citizens, lest you forget 4th grade civics.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
WMD etc...
I think they had a copy.
I knew those little buggers were organized, but not that they were for hire.
Hmmm.
The More You Know :)
Do you mean the CIA doesn't have manuals with those kinds of instructions, doesn't do those kinds of things, or does never disclose/declassify any of it?
So BBS users wrote CIA and army manuals? What? These aren't anarchy philes we're talking about here. They have and ordinary people are often shocked to find that Army manuals tell you how to kill people. "I read it, and those methods are so unfair! We are such horrible people!" I mean, you and I know that's a ridiculous attitude, but I'm not kidding when I tell you there are people out there who do have those reactions.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
the font on the picture reminds me of the TTC font, for some reason.
proud caffeine whore
Contrary to what the summary implies, it's a reprint based on a surviving copy. The actual original from the seventies is going to fetch more than $20, and will probably not be available at Amazon.
Yeah... death by termite sounds... painful.
You coward !
Ha ha!! That's pretty funny coming from a guy named "Anonymous Coward".
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
Some if not most of Mulholland's manual was published in Genii Magazine (a magic magazine) within the last couple of years. if you want you can find a back issue; start at geniimagazine.com.
If not, then I don't want it.
The day Microsoft creates a product that doesn't suck, it will be known as the Microsoft Vaccuum Cleaner!
Yep. I seen quite a few 'Manuals' on the internet, never hurts to have a copy here & there. ;)
FragHARD or don't frag at all
One vote for this because the Puffington Host is blocked at work but not the Boston Globe.
Both the British and Americans employed magicians during WWII to the same ends.
The British had Jasper Maskelyne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Maskelyne#Wartime_trickery)
and the U.S. had a team of magicians, artists and designers whose job it was to simulate troops, tanks, and arty where there was none. One of this team was designer Bill Blass.