Do you ever feel like your workplace is being sabotaged? Well, it just might if any of your colleagues are adhering to a formerly classified Office of Strategic Services document, the “Simple Sabotage Field Manual.”
America’s enemies will always innovate and the intelligence apparatus has always sought to evolve to counter changing threats. The sabotage manual was one of those means – originally distributed to field officers, it was quickly declassified and made available to ordinary citizens in the countries of America’s enemies – individuals who disagreed with their home country’s wartime policies.
Information included in the 32-page document included tips on recruiting possible saboteurs. The guide outlined personal motivations and how to encourage destructiveness. The manual highlights the kind of field work intelligence agencies are known for. Despite the advent of modern technology and its influence, such tactics are still in practice.
Some of the tips in the simple sabotage manual are clearly dated, others apply today, particularly the section on “Organizations and Conferences.” As someone who has worked in the Pentagon, I cringed when I read it, as it would appear that foreign spies are infiltrating almost every DoD meeting as we speak. Here’s an excerpt:
(a) Organizations and Conferences
(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 is within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
Interesting post, Lindy. Now we know what all those office back-stabbers are reading (lol).
Lindy – pretty eye opening, isn’t it? Almost as if some people are issued this manual when they come to work. Very common and frankly very effective in government work spaces. I used to see this all the time.
We also had a discussion about this subject a few months ago (okay, it started in January of 2011).
You can check out the discussion and responses here : https://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/simple-sabotage-we-wrote-the
I remember when you posted this David. Terribly ironic, even to the point of being comical. I have to chuckle every time I read this and think of it’s obvious correlations.
Luckily though, I believe this paradigm is beginning to shift, even in government. I think realistically we’re still a ways off of whole departments or even agencies jumping on board with addressing these issues, but it’s the small teams and offices that are going to need to show the efficiency and effectiveness of alternative methods for things to change anyway.
Too funny – I guess I need to do a better job of searching for previous posts! I just saw the manual on the CIA website about two weeks ago and couldn’t believe it when I read it. The meetings section might as well be a manual for most government offices (and many in the private sector, for that matter). Glad I wasn’t the only one who saw it and found it highly ironic!!