MISSING YOU!

Dear Elena
I am hoping you have not become discouraged and 'come away' from battlesword. As you mentioned before, if it were only you and I posting, that would be enough.....LBO.

NEW BLOG AT bbattleswordd.wordpress.com

http://bbattleswordd.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/hello-world/#comments


I don't know why this site doesn't allow you to go directly by clicking on the address but if you paste the url on the address bar it should work.

By the people that looked at the blog yesterday it seems alright.

A friend asked me to use a blogsite like that of the FOF blog site so here it is for the forty or so of you that are still looking in here.

I appreciate your consistency!
Elena

Anonymous

The FOF BLOG ongoing „DISCUSSION“:

Are they still influenced or infected by BOB?

Does it work?

Is BOB still in power? Has BOB still power over his former and Ex- Fellows?


What are the methods?
“Creepy Subliminal Messages” and grains of truth:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng6hQfGzQig



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv1BiRkZ_Tg


or read:

·         David Bunn: Subliminal Messages (Hardback) Illustrated by David Bunn


Short Description for David BunnIn his ongoing work with the discarded card catalogue of the Los Angeles Central Library, Bunn has found cards bearing random stains and marks. Here he scans these stains and blows them up, revealing uncanny connections between mark and card text that speak of the subconscious, the occult, sex, analysis, and social ideologies.


Is BOB’s system so efficient?

Crimes without charge?

Is that possible? Never responsibility?

Mitchell-Smart case

Thank you Associated Press for this article. What I also find interesting about it is the necessity Mitchell had of justifying the ordeal with religion. Again a case of madness with a "sincere"...ly deluded lunatic.   It's good to know she's free. How long to heal?

182. Associated Press - October 1, 2009   fofblog

Elizabeth Smart says she was raped daily
Oct 1, 2009
By JENNIFER DOBNER

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Elizabeth Smart testified Thursday she was raped repeatedly each day after she was abducted from her bedroom seven years ago and told she would be killed if she yelled or tried to escape. She described Brian David Mitchell, her alleged kidnapper, as “evil, wicked, manipulative, stinky, slimy, selfish, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God.”

Smart testified in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City as part of a competency proceeding for the man charged in her 2002 kidnapping.

Mitchell has twice been found incompetent for trial in state court. Mitchell and his estranged wife were found with Smart nine months after she disappeared from her Salt Lake City home.

A judge ruled earlier this week that testimony from Smart, now 21, is relevant to the mental competency of Mitchell, who was removed from the courtroom before Smart arrived and taken to a holding cell where he could listen to the proceedings.

Smart was poised and composed while testifying for just under two hours.

She was 14 when she was abducted from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint in the middle of the night. Shortly after her abduction, Smart said Mitchell took her to a mountain camp and performed a ceremony she said was intended to marry the two.

“After that, he proceeded to rape me,” Smart said.

She said he held her captive with a cable attached to her leg that had a 10-foot reach. That line was attached to another cable strung between two trees.

Smart said Mitchell plied her with alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance.

“He said that he would kill anybody that would come into the camp, or kill me if I ever tried to escape or yell out,” Smart testified.

Smart said Mitchell was motivated by sex and used religion to get what he wanted.

Mitchell’s defense attorneys had sought to limit Smart’s testimony to her experiences with Mitchell, without her opinions about his mental state.

The defense objected to the 39 so-called “lay witnesses” proposed by prosecutors, including Mitchell’s family, friends or workers at Utah State Hospital, because they lacked the expertise to evaluate competency.

In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball rejected the argument as it relates to Smart, saying her testimony may help the court settle differences in the findings of experts who have evaluated Mitchell.

Experts have split opinions over Mitchell’s competency and have relied on statements from others – including Smart – and past evaluations to prepare reports for the court. Kimball’s ruling said Mitchell has been uncooperative with evaluators and refused to participate in diagnostic tests.

In the state court system, Mitchell was twice found incompetent to stand trial.

Smart was rescued nine months after her abduction when a motorist spotted her walking through a suburb with Mitchell and his estranged wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee.

Last year, Mitchell was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor.

Once an itinerant street preacher, Mitchell is said to have wanted Smart as a polygamous wife and may have taken her to fulfill a religious prophecy he laid out in a 27-page manifesto drafted in April 2002.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Does any portion of this crazy situation sound familiar?

Incompetency would make similar defense for REB. Consider all those years of meeting videos that could be submitted as evidence of insanity.

Cults: our microcosmic mirrors.

Anonymous said...

My comment:

The ongoing "FOF discussion" is a nonsense discussion because there is NO sincere DISCUSSION!

Most of the participants are former teacher's pets (Bob's pets) and they are caressing each other and hunting and banning the truth.

ACTING is an ugly word for them because they swim in that intellectual/spiritual Burton inheritance and they are really not willing to leave it or to act against the crimes of the FOF.

Inventing every day feeble excuses for their famous FOF discussion to ruminate the relationship of dependence again and again!

Hi Anonymous,

I've worked on the idea of cults and society again because the ideas in the post yesterday seemed to touch on the issue but were too long and too many. I feel I'm finally being able to unite the two worlds outside and inside the cult and making some sense of the madness. It helps me personally a great deal. Thank you for stimulating me to work on it. I suppose being excluded from the fofblog for not submitting to the ideology that supports cults makes perfect sense!

...........

A freely chosen response from an individual's conscience implies a mature human being. THIS concept is not common in our societies today. What our societies acknowledge is that at 18, an individual is responsible for his actions but by the tremendous abuses of people way above that age, we can see that age is not a measure to maturity, conscience or consciousness. A child that screams when abused is much more conscious than a man that obeys when dominated by the hierarchic authoritarian institution that exploits him psychologically and economically. THAT DEFINES CULT behaviour: the willingness to submit to abuse. But that behavior is not ONLY common in cults: in cults it has been perfectly MASTERED but it is just as common in the average institution of both capitalism and communism based on economic or political power. POWER of some over others is the cause of the inhumanity. POWER: that abstract quality that conditions each and every one of our relationships: Economic, political, emotional, sexual, intellectual POWER over each other: "If you are not willing to submit we are not willing to allow you to participate at dinner in the home, at school in childhood and in a job in society. We exclude you" We have made "SUBMISSION" the condition for love and life. Sexual submission is what Robert wanted from the boys and the submission of each member's "being" what he wanted from the members. The economic structure submits people's work force in the industries but in doing so it rendered the human being equally submissive emotionally and intellectually to dictators and gurus. Unlike the king the dictator is not a symbol of integrity but the reality of social disintegration. A true democracy must bring the individual to hold the integrity that was symbolized by the king. 

What is MASTERED in cults is the WILLINGNESS of the average human being today to submit to psychological and economical slavery so that he can participate in the community. It is the last option of a people who are looking for "meaning" in their lives. When "work" became "the job", human beings disconnected from meaning and community in the practice of their work. The work lost connection with culture and submitted to production. When making money replaces serving the community, the “meaning” of life is lost: the living dialogue between the individual and the community is stifled.

We are sick people: The "ideal" "professional" of today is a man without feelings. The T.V. hero is a man without family: a killer without emotions but so called ideals designed to defend the status quo. Cult members search in the cult for the community that society has failed to offer.

It's in society that religion, politics and economy have separated and severed the inner coherence of the individual as powerfully as the external incoherence. Man's economic life has disconnected from man's emotional and intellectual life just like art has disconnected from science, science from economy and economy from religion and politics, which have become subordinate to the power of the economically privileged. The governments have been corrupt manipulators of politics for the benefit of a few just like the guru is a manipulator of religion for his own inner circle. The conditioned structure, that is, the mental, emotional and instinctive conditioning is already in place long before people join the cult.

The external organisation of our societies has been sculpting the internal schizofrenia of its individuals. There is no inner coherence in our inner world because there is no external coherence in the outside world in which we grow up. It is not that a few are sick but that most are sick. “People” “other human beings” have become our enemies: “the idiots on my road”, the noisy neighbours, the undesirable tourists, vandals, hooligans, criminals. We live in fear of each other getting together in clubs, clans, cults, in which we reconstruct the incoherence that we "introverted" from society and perfect and recreate the systematic abuses in the microcosmic reality of the Cult.

To be able to heal from Cults we not only need to reconstruct our lives but the life of our societies.

Greg G. Goodwin

Elena, how do you explain your own many years as an active participant in a sodomy cult? The FOF is designed to maintain Robert Earl Burton in luxury while he sodomizes as many 'male members' per day as possible and you unwittingly helped in that enterprise for a number of years. Why did you and I do it? How could we be so stupid?

As always your friend in complete and utter insanity, Greg W. Goodwin

17 September 2009 15:31 

Hi Greg, the problem with putting comments is that they get lost over time. I hadn´t seen your comment until today. Please try to post posts so that they don't get lost and for the new people I think if you sign in to google then you can sign in here and post without my ever knowing who you are if that's what you want. 


I think the recent posts are explaining fairly well why we join a cult. There is nothing wrong with the reasons for joining, everyone needs other people. It's what happens to us inside what is so difficult to understand but the more we understand mind control environments the more we understand how we stayed there and supported it. 


Thanks for writing.
Elena

Extremism: Cults, gangs and Terrorists

I realize most of you cannot and do not want to read all the information I am posting. Time and interest both count. Allow me nevertheless to keep adding valuable information to our research on cults. The following is a very interesting article from an FBI executive. What is most surprising about it is that he's saying almost the same thing I was saying earlier today in Cults as a result of inhuman capitalism and communism. The approach is nevertheless equally interesting and practical. The parallel between cults, gangs and terrorist also of extreme significance. A few FOF members today would be a little shaken by the comparison but there it is, clearly stated. 

August 1995

Extremism: Cults, Gangs, and Terrorists
by Edward J. Tully


In considering the large number of people who pose a threat to a law enforcement officer, there are three groups that bear an officer's or police executive's special consideration: cults, youth gangs and terrorists.
These groups have been brought to special attention in light of the bombing of the World Trade Center, the riots of Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the sustaining role of youth gangs in each; the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and the matter with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. All of these events received a tremendous amount of publicity, however, less publicized and less serious variations of these events occur almost on a daily basis in the United States and Canada. Some of these daily acts are caused by members of cults, youth gangs or terrorist groups.
The common thread that runs through these groups and all hate groups is members who have abnormal psychological needs or serious psychological problems. Membership in these groups apparently addresses an individual's personal needs and provides them with much needed peer support -- vital to sustaining their interest. It is also the reason some members will go to great lengths in proving, to other members, their worthiness. Their greatest fear is that the group will reject them, therefore, they become intensely loyal, provide as much financial support to the group as possible, fervently accept the beliefs of the group and follow orders and rituals that they might otherwise reject.
Each of these groups contains a number of individuals, who by any measure, would be called extremists. Extremists are individuals who hold beliefs that would lie on the extreme edges of the bell curve. They act upon their beliefs with complete disdain for the law or other consequences. The number of these individuals in any group are not great, however, with access to explosives and weapons of war, a few extremists can cause a great deal of damage to a highly technical society.
Holding an extreme view on an issue is common to all of us at one time or another. However, when an individual's extreme opinions lead them to violate the law, or the basic rights of others, then they have exceeded the bounds of civilized behavior. Excellent examples of extremist actions are the murder of a doctor in Pensacola, Florida by an anti abortionist and the bombings of the Unabomer.
An individual's unwillingness to hear the other sides of an issue or to compromise their basic beliefs, despite evidence to the contrary, is the key to holding extremist views. Although some are blessed with above average intelligence, the extremist has a mind set that is closed. Most extremists have deep-seated psychiatric problems, an antisocial personality, and -- to make matters worse -- are intellectually lazy. The extremist merely accepts a set of beliefs on a subject -- most likely from another individual -- and then disregards additional information on the subject should it tend to undermine the basic set of beliefs.
In the mind of the extremist there is no time or place for intuition, inquisitiveness, discussion, debate, or research. The closed mind of the extremist is content with the status quo. They only hear information that reinforces the original beliefs. The set of beliefs becomes the psychological balm that eases his/her mental problems. The most dangerous extremist is one who decides to act upon his beliefs to influence or intimidate others into accepting their viewpoints. At this point the extremist becomes a terrorist and an extreme danger to the public and law enforcement officers!
CultsA cult is a close-knit community with a membership ranging from a few dozen to thousands of people. Currently there are several thousand cults active in the United States and Canada. We have cults of zealous believers in God, cults that worship Satan, and cults that strive to understand the universe. It seems as if any offbeat idea can become the central core of belief for some people who believe in nothing and, thus, will believe in anything.
Members of a cult share a strongly held belief system and have a very high level of social cohesiveness. Behavioral norms of the group deeply influence members. They often believe the leader of the cult has divine powers and/or influence. Cults recruit their members from a segment of society that is unhappy with their lives, under some form of psychological distress, or alienated from their family and friends. Cults offer the individual an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance and support. In addition, the beliefs of the cults and the direction offered by the charismatic leader offer a solution to both personal and world problems. Upon acceptance of these beliefs and the authority of the cult leader, members feel a profound change in their lives, relief of neurotic stress and a sense of well-being.
This relief produces an intense loyalty to the group. In turn, the group uses this emotion to control the new member. If the new member does not comply with group norms then the other cult members withdraw their support, leaving the new member in a state of acute distress. As you can imagine, peer support is an extremely powerful force on the new member and is often beneficial to the new member's behavior. For the most part, membership in a cult is psychologically more beneficial than damaging to members provided, of course, that you consider the mental state of the new member at the time of recruitment.
The most serious problem with a few cults lies in the behavior of the leader and his/her closest advisors. Unfortunately, many cult leaders begin to believe they have the divine powers ascribed to them by their followers. As the British historian Lord Acton once said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely." So it is with some cult leaders! They become corrupted by their power which is derived from the devotion of the cult and the acceptance of their divine status. As the neurosis of some cult leaders deepens, they develop acute paranoia and use their imagined fears as a means to increase group cohesion.
They convince their followers that all outsiders, particularly law enforcement officers, are their enemies. This leads to measures to isolate the group from society and to make unusual and abusive demands on the members. In its most zealous state, the cult will come into conflict with the surrounding community. This conflict is usually generated by the cult's strange beliefs and practices, or by their open hostility to non members and the families of new members.
Time moderates or dissipates most cults. This is, primarily, due to ineffective leadership or, perhaps, the members tire of the rigid, closed society and desire a return to a more normal life. However, recent history suggests that certain events within a cult, primarily the deepening insanity of the leader, can lead to mass suicide of the cult members. We observed this type of tragedy in Jonestown, Guyana and Waco, Texas. Most recently, 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple committed suicide near Geneva, Switzerland and Montreal, Canada.
From a law enforcement perspective only a few of the thousands of cults pose a serious and difficult problem. The problem rests with the behavior of the leader toward cult members and their combined behavior toward the surrounding communities. Obviously, in the early stage of development most cults do not pose a serious threat to its members or the community. However, should the cult leader begin to demonstrate behavior that suggests deepening mental instability, then the entire criminal justice system is faced with a serious and potentially dangerous problem. A recent example of this was the release of poison gas in the Tokyo subway system by Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) cult members.
In recent times confrontation with a cult as a tactic of law enforcement has not produced the desired or expected effects. On the contrary, confrontation sometimes furnishes the leader with an additional reason to lead the cult into the ultimate rejection of earthly authority: mass suicide. We observed this result with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. In this case, law enforcement officers were merely members of an audience at a play written, directed and produced by David Koresch. It was a play in which he was the main actor. He had written the script of insanity long before the audience arrived. What was strange about the Branch Davidian case is that some critics blamed the audience for the eventual outcome, rather than the playwright. What this says about cults is that most people, including law enforcement, do not know much about their innerworkings or psychology. This needs to change!
Knowing a cult's innerworkings will go a long way toward developing an understanding of the cult's leadership and their mental condition. If you develop information that suggests the cult is engaged in criminal activities, then you design measures to neutralize their violent and criminal actions. In this regard, legitimate legal questions may be raised if law enforcement uses informants, undercover operatives, and electronic intercepts to gain knowledge about the cult's activities or to spread dissent among cult members in an effort to neutralize the influence of the cult leader. However, if care is exercised in getting reliable information for the issuance of an appropriate search warrant, then this additional oversight of the court should be sufficient to rebut criticism regarding illegal search and seizure and/or the separation of church and state issues.
Should an arrest of cult members be planned, it goes without saying that the arrest plan be carefully crafted with particular emphasis given to staging the arrest outside of the cult's headquarters. This shifts the tactical advantage to law enforcement and away from the cultists.
GangsMuch has been written recently on the nature and composition of youth gangs and need not be reviewed. Youth gangs have flourished in our large cities -- usually in the poor, ethnic neighborhoods -- for well over 100 years. The fundamental purpose of gangs is to provide structure and social cohesion to a group of youths who have little family influence in their lives. They view the gangs as a substitute for a family.
It is easy to understand this part of gang culture. What is more difficult to comprehend is why gang members engage in incredibly adolescent behavior in claiming and defending their turf. If cults and militia groups have to invent enemies to obtain group cohesion, then it is reasonable to conclude that gangs use turf for the same purpose. In recent years, the decline in the quality of public education in the inner cities and the spread of handguns throughout this population has resulted in a significant increase in the murder rate among gang members. Drive-by shootings are the favorite form of recreation of youth gang members. The death toll from this activity far exceeds that of the killings resulting from drug trafficking by gang members.
It is also quite possible that membership in a youth gang provides the young member with a form of excitement. This is a powerful force with a mind that is undeveloped, lacking in self-discipline, absent of normal cultural values and bored with a normal lifestyle. To this youthful mind the gang offers the allure of sex, drugs and the exercise of power through the possession of a weapon. Youth gangs will be with us until we can substitute activities that are just as appealing to young people. This will be a difficult but not impossible challenge for community and law enforcement leaders.
From a metropolitan law enforcement perspective, the continued decline of the inner city -- in terms of basic infrastructure -- the quality of life and, most importantly, the quality of public education can only be viewed as a social disaster. Why are we surprised when children of the inner city begin to have trouble living in society? Single parents incapable of transmitting cultural values, incapable of providing early education and supervision, and devoid of most usual parenting skills raise most of these children.
If one also considers the inferior quality of education received at inner city schools, the lack of religious education and the negative peer pressure from children living in a similar situation; it becomes more clear why many of these children have little chance to succeed in life. Finally, grinding poverty, a lack of hope and positive role models, and a life overly influenced by a disgraceful mass media (driven by enormous greed and total lack of social responsibility) erases any doubts that these children are at risk!
Is it any wonder that many youths in our poorer neighborhoods join gangs, distribute and consume narcotics, and grow into dysfunctional human beings incapable of rational judgment? Their own lives and the lives of those around them have little meaning. Violence is a way of life. Death -- many of them proclaim -- will come to them in a short time.
There are at least three fundamental reasons for the creation of such a hapless group of young people in our metropolitan areas in the United States during the past 40 years. First, all levels of government have been unable to solve the basic problems that caused the rapid deterioration of the inner city. In fact, it could be argued that a variety of government welfare programs have harmed the poor far more than they have helped. Second, the erosion of the cities industrial base has created a situation in our inner cities, which we have not seen in metropolitan areas for over a century. Finally, the lack of jobs and the fear of crime drove the middleclass into the suburbs. The combination of the above three factors, plus our unwillingness to place most of the blame on the individual has created an environment in the inner cities that can only be described as miserable.
So, as a result of 40 years of bumbling government, we now have a deteriorated urban infrastructure, a population increasingly unemployable, a lack of quality jobs, an insufficient tax base and incredible levels of violence. In simple terms we have a complex problem that we will not solve overnight. In fact, it may take 50 years to reconstruct our most troubled cities.
Should we decide to reconstruct the inner cities, the police will be expected to keep the public order. We should note that reconstruction will never be successful unless the fear of crime in the city is reduced! This task of keeping order will test metropolitan police as nothing before in their history. It will be necessary to find a policing method that makes a difference. The answer may be community based policing. However, if this method does not work, a more draconian method will have to be employed.
Our primary enemy in maintaining some semblance of order during the long period of reconstruction will be the youth gangs. They are filled with rage and self-hatred. They harbor a hatred of the system and lack the emotional ability to move from adolescence to adult maturity. They will continue to roam the streets victimizing the weak, the elderly, and all persons with whom they come into contact. Drive-by shootings, drug dealing, carjackings, extortion and a host of other criminal acts, will continue to be their way of life and death! One way, or another, members of youth gangs must learn that acts have their consequences!
The future of our inner cities is not particularly pleasant! Currently, there is no known trend or politically acceptable solution to the problems on the horizon. Consequently, the problems of our inner cities will only become worse in the next 10 or 20 years. Most of the people who are forced to live in the inner cities are good people. However, in an atmosphere of fear, violence, and high drug usage they are virtually powerless against the influence of the criminal element. To make a difference these good people need an ally. The police, schools, and churches are their only hope. To date, few of their hopes for strong allies have been realized! The problem is not completely intractable -- the cities can be saved. If we have the will to do so, and if we use our famous ingenuity, we can improve the quality of life. It will not be an easy task, but when considering the alternatives, what other choices do we have?
TerroristsA terrorist is an individual, or group of individuals, who use terror to achieve political ends. A terrorist might be a member of a cult, or a youth gang. They could also be the military arm of a political party, exponents of a fundamentalist religion, or employed by a sovereign state to achieve objectives that the state cannot be achieved overtly.
Whatever the case may be, the terrorist in our time has been clever, reasonably intelligent, extremely destructive and very difficult for law enforcement to neutralize or apprehend. The terrorist is also a cold-blooded, cynical killer whose concern for innocent victims is nil. Although terrorist acts pose a complex, resource-taxing, and difficult investigation for a law enforcement agency, the success of these investigations in North America over the last 35 years has been excellent. Many unseen victories have also been achieved in preventing terrorist acts, although as one would expect, there has been little publicity surrounding these cases. The key to a successful law enforcement effort against the terrorist is collaboration between law enforcement agencies. Notwithstanding some brilliant police work against terrorists in North America, the day of the terrorist is not over.
Please consider the recent report by James Brooke in The New York Times, July 3, 1995, concerning the narco-terrorists of Colombia. In the last three months the Colombian terrorist groups have: killed 157 persons; blown up oil pipelines; kidnapped 35 people; exploded a bomb in Colombia's Congress building; and murdered two American missionaries that they had held hostage for 17 months. Brooke stated that terrorists killed at least 3,000 people in Colombia each year.
Terrorists earn millions of dollars each year through kidnaping and extortion as well as protecting drug traffickers. Their incentive is money, not social justice. Terrorism has become a job -- an occupation -- a means for many Colombians as well as many Irish, Palestinians and fundamental Muslims all over the world to earn a living and in some cases get rich.
In Ireland the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has killed more than 200 law enforcement officers assigned to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Belfast, Ireland over the past 15 years. Thousands of innocent civilians have also died during the same period. Many experts consider the IRA to be the most cold-blooded and efficient terrorist group in the world. The sophistication of their bombs and organizational structure make the IRA a most formidable enemy of law enforcement. Much like the Colombian terrorists, the IRA has lost its ideological base and now finds terrorism to be a profitable occupation.
The world is also plagued by dozens of Muslim fundamentalist groups involved in terrorist activities. A few groups represent sides in the continuing theological battle between the Sunni and Shia sects of the Muslim religion. Most view the culture and civilization of the Western world as destructive to their core beliefs. Other groups adamantly oppose the presence of the Israeli state in the Middle East and any friend of Israel in the world community. Libya, Palestine, Iraq and Syria sponsor some better known groups. Other groups, which may not be state-sponsored, can be found in Iran, Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan, Philippines, Afghanistan, Lebanon, or wherever the Muslim religion is found. To determine the potentiality of religious-based terrorism, look at what has happened to Lebanon, Bosnia, and the entire Middle Eastern region. You are forced to reach the conclusion that terrorism has the ability to paralyze any society and, in the process, turn the landscape into ashes.
Few law enforcement authorities underestimate the destructive power of dedicated terrorist groups. Armed with sophisticated weaponry, skilled in bomb making, and highly motivated -- either through money, ideology, or theology -- a modern terrorist group has used terror as a means to bring their various causes to the attention of the world. Whether they are successful in having their grievances settled by the political process is immaterial. The purpose of the terrorist is to get the cause of the agenda of discussion by political and other leaders! This is a mind-set that we have a hard time comprehending. Nonetheless, it is a technique that has worked in the past and will be used in the future by people who believe their situation is desperate!
Most law enforcement agencies in the United States are not equipped or structured to conduct an ongoing investigation of a terrorist group. This is particularly so if the group is foreign-based. In fact, no single law enforcement agency could handle this task. It takes the cooperation and collaboration of many agencies at the federal, state, and local level to effectively blunt the effects of either local or foreign-based terrorist groups. The investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing is an excellent modern example of how law enforcement agencies working together can achieve significant results.
Currently, neither international nor domestic terrorism plague the United States or Canada. Although both countries have experienced isolated terrorist acts in the recent past, there does not seem to be a developing trend of terrorism nor is there any group that is suspected of being involved in terrorist activities. Unfortunately, it is most likely that the virus of terrorism will spread to North America sooner, rather than later. It is reasonably apparent that the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York was a motivating factor in the Oklahoma City case. Still these bombings do not constitute a cause for alarm that terrorism will become more widespread in the United States or Canada in the near-term future. However, these two cases have alerted us to the enormous dangers of terrorism.
Most Americans and Canadians think terrorism could never happen, or take root, in our respective societies. At best, this is wishful thinking as it ignores the fact that both societies contain a variety of conditions, or political, reasons for homegrown or foreign based terrorists to strike against the government.
In Canada, the political struggle between Quebec and the other provinces may devolve into terrorism. Here in the United States it is possible, but perhaps not probable, that a cult, or youth gang might also resort to a planned program of terrorism to achieve their thoughtless objectives. One group perhaps likely to resort to terrorism in the near future in the United States is the Pro-Life group involved in the movement against legalized abortion.
The only prudent course of action for law enforcement is to continue to be watchful and proactive in trying to control terrorist activities. In this regard, the establishment of a better intelligence network capable of gathering, analyzing, and sharing information is essential. Our present system is too parochial to be effective. In all too many cases Lady Luck was the most important factor in preventing or solving cases involving terrorists!
ConclusionNorth America, which includes the United States, Canada and Mexico, is undergoing radical change in virtually every aspect of our society, workplace and culture. A technical revolution in the workplace is spawning these changes. Thus, our most serious problem is that present and future job markets will reward only those who have high educational or technical skills. Those workers not afforded an appropriate education will not find good jobs. This is happening in our present job market and soon this trend will affect millions of additional workers.
As technology impacts on every aspect of our lives, most people have been -- consciously or not -- seriously affected by the changes. Our basic core values are being gradually destroyed by individuals not having values or having a different interpretation of what is to be valued. The religious underpinning of the old value system has weakened considerably. Unless the religious aspect of our lives is restored, then those values that best represent our culture will dissipate. Efforts to restore or maintain our old value system will not happen without a considerable political struggle. Should economic conditions significantly worsen I expect this struggle will involve considerable violence.
In an atmosphere of extensive, fundamental change, it is quite natural for many to seek stability in their lives. They tend to reject those things they find troubling in their lives or jobs. It is during times of radical change that many people develop an anti-government, anti-society, or an anti-change attitude. It is why some individuals turn to fundamental religions and/or to a conservative political philosophy. It is also why any anti-establishment cause has some appeal, why certain persons reject religion by joining causes that are anti-religion, why employees in organizations resist and sabotage change, and why so many people just want to be left alone.
None of what has been discussed in this article is particularly good news to the law enforcement officer. In simple terms our job is to nudge the radical fringes of all the competing groups into the middle of the road, in terms of using an acceptable political process to settle differences or to effect change. Our job is not to take sides. An excellent example of this is the current struggle between those who defend abortion and those who oppose the practice. As we have seen, our role in the abortion conflict has not been easy, although, most critics would admit we have performed our duties evenhandedly. Our role is to prevent violence from being used as a tactic by either side of the abortion argument. I think this example is instructive about how we must handle this aspect of our basic mission in the future. This will require that officers have a great understanding of social issues, a strong determination to preserve law and order, and the solid investigative skills so they can determine those individuals, or factions, whose only purpose in life is to wantonly destroy what it has taken good people over two hundred years to build!
The National Executive Institute Associates Leadership Bulletin editor is Edward J. Tully. He served with the FBI as a Special Agent from 1962 to 1993. He is presently the Executive Director of the National Executive Institute Associates and the Major City Chiefs. You can reach him via e-mail at tullye@aol.com or by writing to 308 Altoona Drive, Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401

fofblog - I know

This I know character is so obviously a fellowchill that it's funny how people even indulge in conversation with him. It's very interesting to look at the techniques they use to transmit the message they want and how effective it is. His name "I know" is very good because people are naive enough and if he knows, he knows! Then he limits himself to say a few good things about the Fellowship and a few not so good knowing that the message will get through in the unfiltered mind.

I know little about such techniques but he makes them obvious: he knows!

Mrs. Pilkington and her daughter in England

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6245461/Fiona-Pilkington-Will-we-hear-the-next-cry-for-help.html

Bardon Road in Barwell, Leicestershire is not syringe city. Yesterday morning, one of Fiona Pilkington's former neighbours was taking advantage of the autumn sunshine to paint his garage door a tasteful shade of sage green, while mothers pushed well-dressed children past front gardens adorned with statuary, water features and hanging baskets.

The suburban serenity of the scene makes it all the more shocking that, almost exactly two years ago, Pilkington reached such a pitch of despair about the torment she was subjected to by neighbouring youths that she gave her 18-year-old daughter, Frankie, the family rabbit to hold, drove to a lay-by on the nearby A47 and set fire to their car. With the nights closing in, she believed death was the only way they could find peace.

Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes' night were for her not just a passing nuisance, but the low point in a year-round cycle of horror that she had endured for a decade. Using trick-or-treating and fireworks as an excuse, yobs would post lighted bangers through her door and light fires on the ground in front of her three-bedroom semi. Fiona Pilkington, 38, had complained to the police no fewer than 33 times about such incidents, as well as several vicious attacks on her son, Anthony, and mockery of Frankie, who had severe learning difficulties.

Neither the police, nor any of the agencies who should have been supporting a vulnerable family, had responded to her cries for help. After a decade of being ignored, she had become resigned to the authorities being "too busy" to deal with what they considered low-level nuisance behaviour.

Almost the most shocking thing about this case is that we might not know about this failure to help her if it weren't for Olivia Davison. The assistant deputy coroner for north Leicestershire fought police attempts to impose reporting restrictions on the inquest and, despite the police lawyer's protest about her "robust, challenging and judgmental approach", she asked the questions that all of us would want answered.

Had she not done so, we might not know how easy it is for the weakest in society to get the rawest of deals. Fiona Pilkington had learning difficulties herself and was suffering from depression. She was facing the moment when Francecca was about to leave the special-needs school where she had been happy for 14 years, and start life as an adult. With little support and nothing to look forward to, Pilkington despaired.

This case is being hailed as the Stephen Lawrence moment for disability hate crime. But it also marks a turning point in our tolerance of anti-social behaviour, on which Britain has a worse record than other European countries. "That could be because the public are less willing to intervene," says Rick Muir of the Institute of Public Policy Research, "and children spend less time with their parents."

Yesterday, in his speech to the Labour Party conference, Gordon Brown dared to talk of "mums and dads... who let their kids run riot". Labour is now wooing all those who are sick of seeing parents absolved from blame for their children's behaviour.

He could not take any other line because commentators of every political hue are shocked that a gang of youths were able to make this family's life such a misery – especially in an apparently comfortable street like Bardon Road. One of Pilkington's neighbours, sitting in a neat living room decorated with pictures of his young children, defends the neighbourhood.

"My girlfriend is not afraid to walk around here at night, as we would be in some areas of Birmingham, London or Leicester," he says. "The families concerned are not as bad as have been portrayed: at least you can talk to them. One of the boys held responsible once stole a bike from us; when I told the parents, it was returned."

If the teenage tormentors weren't hardened criminals, it is even more extraordianry that they weren't stopped, but this man knows why he and others didn't take a stand. They thought it was futile. "These days you can't touch kids, and they know it. If you have a go at them, they will try to intimidate you. The laws have become so technical that instead of protecting people, they have made the world more unstable."

To illustrate his point, he says: "My nephew was bullied on his first day at school, but when I talked to the bully, the police came to see me." His experience echoes last week's news that a dinner lady was sacked for telling parents that a pupil at the school where she worked was tied up and whipped with a skipping rope.

It is a skewed world when the police are quicker to take action against well-meaning adults than they ever were in response to Pilkington's complaints. "There have always been unruly kids," says David Green, director of the think tank Civitas, "but other parents don't stop them now because they can't say 'I'll call the police'.

"They know, and the kids know, that the police either won't turn up or won't do anything about it. If they do, they will be told off by their superiors for taking an action that cannot be measured against a target for crime reduction."

In that case, what point is there in Gordon Brown announcing yesterday that: "Wherever there is disruptive behaviour, we will be there to fight it"? A public grown cynical about the effectiveness of parenting orders and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders will shrug despairingly at the thought of more families getting the Family Intervention treatment that Brown claims has an 80 per cent success rate. But Honor Rhodes, development director of the Family and Parenting Institute, believes that Brown is right in seeing it as an effective tool for tackling problem families.

What works well, she believes, is a whole-family approach (such as social services no longer use). It must involve a range of agencies from housing to health, schools to social services, the police, even parking enforcement, "We've got to let these families experience the consequences of the life they lead, one of the most effective being to demote their tenancy of their home if they don't comply with parenting skills training. These people are scary and you have to show them that you mean business. They need to know that it's not OK, for example, for teenagers to wander around until 11 at night, they should be in by nine, and that if they aren't, the parents risk losing their home."

She used to sit on the Nuisance Neighbour Expert Panel to which the worst cases were referred from all over the country. "Often these very troubled families frighten housing officers and social workers, so the people who end up working with them are the least qualified, such as Police Support Officers.

"When the right people take action together, you get results. One family reported to us ended up not being allowed to look out of their windows because people were walking an extra mile and a half just to avoid going past their house."

Before such action can be taken, the authorities need to be alerted to the trouble-makers. The Home Office's Respect website, which puts a price tag of £3.4 billion on anti-social behaviour, begs us all to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to disruptive neighbours. Just dial 101, it says, to reach the 24-hour complaints service. Sadly, that only exists in Hampshire, Cardiff, Northumberland, Sheffield and Leicester City (but not nearby Barwell). Elsewhere, you will struggle to find someone within the local authority or police to take an interest.

Extending that service, and freeing the police to take action would be two useful outcomes to the soul-searching prompted by this sad case. But it isn't only the authorities who need to be more vigilant.

The death of these two women diminishes us all. Without getting sentimental about the imaginary days when everyone lived around the village green and popped into houses to borrow sugar, it is a reminder that we are all so busy getting and spending that we ignore what is going on under our noses. As Pilkington's neighbour says, "Lots of people were worried, but which of us did something?"

Perhaps we could all start by thinking about one of the coroner's most pertinent questions: "Why did no one sit and chat to her over a cup of tea about her problems?"

Telecom suicides in France

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113352329&ps=cprs


While the economic crisis is taking its toll on workers everywhere, it seems to have been particularly deadly for one French company: In the past year and a half there have been 24 suicides at France Telecom. And many of the employees who took their lives directly blamed the company in suicide notes.

The latest death came on Monday when a 51-year-old man jumped from a highway bridge in the French Alps. The employee, who was married with two children, left a note blaming the work atmosphere for his decision to end his life. Eight suicides have taken place since the beginning of the summer alone. One young woman jumped from her office window. Another man hanged himself in his cubicle.

Calls For CEO's Resignation

Sad and angry workers gathered at France Telecom offices around the country this week, including its headquarters in Paris.

Gauthier Rollin, 52, has been employed by the company for 20 years. He says the work environment has been unbearable since France Telecom was privatized a decade ago.

"France Telecom has spent its time breaking up teams and breaking down solidarity," Rollin says. "They cultivate individualism and selfishness. So the support you might have found amongst colleagues in difficult times is not there. France Telecom manages its employees like cattle."

A former state monopoly, France Telecom was privatized in 1998 and now competes on the world market. It has undergone several major reorganizations in recent years and cut 22,000 jobs in the past two years. But company officials say those were voluntary departures and that the firm is the only telecom giant not to have carried out mass layoffs

France Telecom's chief executive, Didier Lombard, is facing calls to quit. There are also calls for an inquiry into working conditions blamed for pushing staff over the edge. Lombard was booed as he arrived at headquarters Tuesday.

"The pressure is necessary because we have to compete on the world market," Lombard told reporters. "But there is a way to be more humane in doing so."

France Telecom has suspended the company's "Time to Move" program, which forced managers to change posts every three years. It has also put in place a team of psychologists to help workers.

Vicious Globalization Or Cynical Management?

The suicides have become the talk of TV news shows and newspaper editorial pages. In a country where five weeks of vacation and the 35-hour workweek are supposed to cut down on work stress, there has been much fulminating over the cause of the suicides.

Workplace lawyer Christophe Mesnooh says they may be linked to France Telecom's specific situation.

"Because of France Telecom's change in status from a public company to a private firm subject to free-market forces, the management had the heavy task of explaining this new world to its employees," Mesnooh says. "And the irony is that the company has communicated much better with the market and its competitors than with its own employees."

As the debate rages whether the suicides were provoked by vicious globalization, the company's cynical management, or mollycoddled state workers being made to face up to reality, France Telecom seems to be doing its utmost to avoid another one. One trade union has suggested the government levy a suicide tax on companies to make sure they maintain a decent work environment.

fofblog - sincere?

Anonymous,

Are you really understanding the problem? My problem perhaps is that I do feel they are sincere, it's their sincerity what is brainwashed! But that is precisely the problem with people in cults. That they are sincerely supporting the abuses!

Don't you feel Tatyana, Ellen etc are sincere? Even Old FOF and Ames? Ames has been fighting the cult in his own way for years, there's sincerity there. What they don't seem to be able to reach is a place in themselves that can act on their understanding of the fact that they are dealing with criminals. It's ironic because they say: criminals, crimes, crimes, criminals and then say they can't stop it.

elena

I agree but hopefully some will see through that. Don't we  make the same mistake a hundred times before the tragedy shows us how mistaken we were?

Anonymous

My comment:

The ongoing "FOF discussion" is a nonsense discussion because there is NO sincere DISCUSSION!

Most of the participants are former teacher's pets (Bob's pets) and they are caressing each other and hunting and banning the thruth.

ACTING is an ugly word for them because they swim in that intellectual/spiritual Burton inheritance and they are really not willing to leave it or to act against the crimes of the FOF.

Inventing every day feeble excuses for their famous FOF discussion to ruminate the relationship of dependence again and again!

Cults, microcosmic mirrors of Society

I've worked on the idea of cults and society again because the ideas in the post yesterday were good but too long, too many and too ambitious. I hope this helps.

A freely chosen response from an individual's conscience implies a mature human being. THIS concept is not common in our societies today. What our societies acknowledge is that at 18, an individual is responsible for his actions but by the tremendous abuses of people way beyond that age, we can see that age is not a measure to maturity, conscience or consciousness. A child that screams when abused is much more conscious than a man that obeys when dominated by the hierarchic authoritarian institution that exploits him psychologically and economically. THAT DEFINES CULT behaviour. But that behavior is not ONLY common in cults: in cults it is ABSOLUTELY MASTERED; it is common in the average institution of both capitalism and communism based on economic or political power. POWER of some over others is the cause of the inhumanity. POWER: that abstract quality that conditions each and every one of our relationships. Economic, political, emotional, sexual, intellectual POWER over each other. "If you are not willing to submit we are not willing to embrace you" We have made "SUBMISSION" the condition for love making our selves INHUMAN. Sexual submission is what Robert wanted from the boys and the submission of each member's "being" what he wanted from the members. At least bosses in industries only demand physical submission, work force, but in doing so they rendered the human being incapable of not submitting emotionally and intellectually to dictators and gurus. 

What is ABSOLUTELY MASTERED in cults is the WILLINGNESS of the average human being of our times to submit to psychological and economical slavery so that he can participate in the community. It is the answer of a people who are looking for "meaning" in their lives. When "work" became "the job", human beings disconnected from meaning and community in the practice of their work. When what a man does has no meaning for his community, when the money he produces is the only issue involved, the “meaning” is lost. The lack of connectedness between his life and other people's stunts culture and develops a subculture or infra-culture that acts against both the individual and the community.

We are sick people and many have been saying so for a long time. The "ideal" "professional" of today is a man without feelings. The T.V. hero is a man without family: a killer without emotions but so called ideals designed to defend the status quo. Cult members search in the cult for the community that society has failed to offer.

It's in society that religion, politics and economy have separated and severed the inner coherence of the individual as powerfully as the external incoherence. Man's economic life has disconnected from man's emotional and intellectual life just like art has disconnected from science, science from economy, economy from religion and politics, which have become subordinate to the power of the economically privileged. The government is a corrupt manipulator of politics for the benefit of a few just like the guru is a corrupt manipulator of religion for his own benefit. The structure, the mental, emotional and instinctive conditioning is already in place long before people join the cult.

The external organisation of our societies has been sculpting the internal schizofrenia of its individuals. There is no inner coherence in our inner world because there is no external coherence in the outside world in which we grow up. “People” “other human beings” have become our enemies: “the idiots on my road”, the noisy neighbours, the undesirable tourists, vandals, hooligans, criminals. We live in fear of each other getting together in clubs, clans, cults, in which we reconstruct the incoherence that we received from society with faithful precision, perfecting the incoherence in the systematic abuses of the Cult: The microcosmic image of the inhumanity of today’s subculture.