Simple sabotage
At the Enterprise 2.0 conference (which I didn’t attend), Don Burke and Sean Dennehey from the CIA gave a talk on Intellipedia, the CIA’s internal wikipedia. As part of their talk, they cited a manual, including, I’m told, this from page 28:
(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
Their point was that these instructions come from a 1944 manual on how to sabotage a business.
The session’s Web page points to the entire, amazing, declassified manual of simple sabotage.
[...] company rules, pointlessly close parsings of email messages, and PHBs? Maybe someone is executing a denial-of-service attack on the business! (The instructions are real; they start on page 28 of the linked manual.) [...]
[...] course, they were describing how to sabotage an organization from within. (Follow the link to download the PDF of the original [...]
Oh my goodness, this is fantastic!
The really sad part is seeing this type of stuff in action all the time, but not with the objective of causing sabotage, but as a way they believe business should be done. Number 5 is one I’m dealing with right now.
[...] from this blog) « Brother can you spare a gallon? [...]
[...] Enterprise 2.0 and Joho the Blog are all covering a talk given by CIA folks at the Web 2.0 conference about the Intellipedia, or how [...]
what is this, from ww2?
what is this, from ww2?
[...] I found this link on BoingBoing. Its a link to a PDF of a CIA document from 1944 that describes various methods of sabotage, from your mundane pouring sand into fuel tanks to the more sophisticated “fucking up of things”. The really interesting part was when it describes how to sabotage a business which sounds uncannily like modern business/political practise…. (1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions. (2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments. (3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five. (4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. (5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions. (6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision. (7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on. (8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon. link [...]
[...] Joho the Blog » Simple sabotage How to sabotage a business. (tags: cia) [...]
Isn’t there a cartoon illustrating these principles?
[...] PDF Download of the Simple Sabotage Manual. Thanks to David Weinberger. [...]
Nice. But how the scanning of a 1944 typewriter paper document results in an pdf with clear times and helvetica inline text? With nice “declassified” stamps on every single page?
seb – it isn’t typewritten, it’s printed. Printing presses have existed for a long time – it is generally accepted that the first practical movable-type printing press was constructed by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439.
The font used is not Times (by which I assume you mean Times New Roman, which was designed well before 1944) – the serifs aren’t quite right, and the bottoms of the t’s look wrong too – but similar fonts (Garamond, Baskerville) have been around for centuries. See for instance the following scan of the front page of the September 3-10, 1666 issue of the London Gazette:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:London-gazette.gif
Sans-serif fonts have been around since the early 1800s. The font on the cover looks like Futura, not Helvetica (which is a lot curvier); Futura was designed in 1927.
Serifs have been around for a while. But the United Nations (p2) dates back only as far as 1945. And it’s an odd kind of reference when you consider that, in 1944, the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, was effectively defunct.
“Finally, the very practice of simple sabotage by natives in enemy or occupied territory may make these individuals identify themselves actively with the United Nations war effort, and encourage them to assist openly in periods of Allied invasion and occupation.”
Wikipedia gives the answer to “United Nations”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_by_United_Nations
coined by the U.S. president to describe the allies… .is it surprising that the successor to the League had the same name?
Way to “rather” yourself…
Sabotage? Or “Modern Business Principles(tm)” at Work?…
It’s funny because its true. You know it. I always wish things were more like they were then. People just got shit done. Christ we went to war in ‘42 and were done in two separate theatres in three and a half years. Stuff just got done, dammit. …
[...] This is making the rounds in the blogosphere, and while it isn’t actually helpful, it does make for a good intro piece in a speech, talk, etc. [...]
[...] noticed David Weinberger’s post, but didn’t read it carefully the first time; the words “CIA” and “Wikipedia” stood out, [...]
@des Open the pdf, look for font information: you will find out that the whole document is in Times and Helvetica. I mean: Pages are made with DTP-Programms. Its not a PDF with pictures. So I think this is a fake.
Or do you know ANY kind of OCR thats makes TEXT from scans without any error and puts pictures (the stamp) on this text?
So the PDF seems to be a PDF with scanned pages from an old printed document. But it isn’t.
[...] [From Joho the Blog » Simple sabotage] [...]
if you want to view it without downloading the PDF try: http://www.footnote.com/image/76293867
[...] to that manual though. You can download it, in it’s full 1944 glory, from here. You’ll have to actually read the thing (or skim it, as I did) if you’re interested [...]
CIA control pet international Agents etc.
LIST OF NAMES CIA control pet international Agents etc.
Timothy Leary?
Allison Legge
Joe Parise
PET
Sarah Johnson
Charlie Chrisawn
Carvalho Rasmussen
alex jones
tyrk ozoz
Ralf andersen
Tom Zajkowski
Colin Butler
Pia Kjærsgaard
Bjarne Bo Larsen
Cynthia Dame Logan
Jens ( Peter) Mortensen
Pam Hughes
lars ‘moslem’
Kareeme Tucker
Germany
Danish royals
jack harmes
INTELLIGENCES
Jens Mogensen? Henrik Sass Larsen? valerie plame ? karl rove? johnny hansen hardington thomas christensen lebrecht 322 boligforening dupont
OSAMA BIN LADEN
Svensson
Koskinen
Julita Brown
Victoria Mortensen
Tiitinev
DF
george tenet
HM
Jeppesen Dataplan
Crowell Aviation Technologies, Inc.
Lockheed?
Devon Holding and Leasing Inc.
Aviation Specialties, Inc.
Keeler and Tate Management LLC
Rapid Air Trans Inc./Rapid Air Transport Inc
Tepper Aviation, Inc.
Stevens Express Leasing Inc.
LCF
Premier Executive Transport Services,Inc.
Aero Contractors
Prescott Support
Maggie Gravelle
Villy Søvndahl
Charlie Chrisawn
Shane Fitzsimmons
Amber Smith
camre mogens?
Ehmsen
israel
batluder
Inger Serup
Juha Leppanen
Tracy Tilly
Kenn mortensen
putin
lars ‘moslem’
A. fogh Erasmussen
NATO
Nicholas Turza
mi5
Jens Mogensen ?
cameron
Gregory Asherleigh
Julita Brown
internet
PAUL NYRUP?
hollywood
above
And I wondered how anything got done by holding endless meetings. Now I know why. Double-agents!
Much of what would have “sabotaged” a business in 1944 we can get done more efficently in 2009. Channel communications for example are easier with email than snail mail or courier.
cool pics