by Pete Eyre | Jun 1, 2012 | Articles, Videos
Below is the transcript of my video with relevant links.
Below that is the embedded Crimethinc document mentioned.
Here’s a related write-up by fellow CopBlock.org contributor Ademo Freeman: Phil Christiana – (FBI Agent) It’s Not My Friends You Should Be Looking At
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A couple of days ago Crimethinc published the pamphlet Bounty Hunters & Child Predators: Inside the FBI Entrapment Strategy.
The document outlines tactics used by FBI employees to frame individuals, which is then leveraged for political gain to vilify entire groups of people and ideologies.
Having long advocated for complete liberty – that is, 100% freedom and 100% responsibility, where each of us is free to act, so long as we don’t initiate force, I am aware of many situations that fit the entrapment model described – where no one is acting in the wrong until a FBI employee infiltrates, advocates violence and in almost every case, supplies the money or ordinance on which the arrest and headline hinge. And through which another claimed usurpation of rights is “justified.”
This scenario became a bit more real for me after I learned that a friend had been asked by an FBI agent to wear a wire.
Yesterday just before 4pm Rich Paul – an activist known for his advocacy for self-ownership – was picked-up by Keene Police employees, ostensibly on a warrant. Rich was brought to the Keene police department and led into an interrogation room where he had an exchange with a man who identified himself as Phil.
Phil inquired where Rich had been immediately prior to the arrest. Rich said “at the club” and Phil gave the address of the Keene Activity Center.
The Keene Activity Center, or KAC, is one a side of a duplex that’s billed as
the community center, heart of operations, and meeting space utilized by liberty-oriented individuals based in Keene. The KAC is a comfortable environment to be yourself among friends working in concert to advance the peaceful evolution.
Phil asked Rich to return to the KAC, wearing a wire, and to share with those present a completely fabricated scenario – that he’d been snatched-up for a crime that he hadn’t committed. Rich was told by Phil that he wanted to see who questioned the story and at what length.
Rich invoked his right to remain silent and noted his desire to speak with his attorney before deciding how to move forward.
Phil gave Rich his business card – after he’d tried to scratch-out his last name which was still readable as Christiana- and told him to keep their exchange confidential and be in touch by 5pm today.
Instead, at 5pm Rich’s attorney gave Christiana a call and myself and others are working to make this situation transparent.
After all, we have nothing to hide. No one associated with the KAC advocates violence.
A quick Google search turned-up Christiana’s bio:
I am a CPA (accountant) by education from Rutgers University in New Jersey. I have been a special agent with the FBI for 20 years. I was stationed in the Boston field office as a new agent in 1992. I spent five years as an operator with the FBI Hostage Rescue Team at Quantico, VA (1996 – 2001). I am currently assigned to the NH joint Terrorism Task Force at the Bedford (NH) Resident Agency as a special bomb technician. I am also responsible for security related issues at the Manchester Boston Regional Airport and Seabrook Nuclear power plant. I have also served as the primary firearms and tactial instructor for the Boston Field office.
But there’s more to this story.
Back in 2005 DadaOrwell shared on NHUnderground – then the most-popular forum in the ‘shire – that he received a call from Phil Christiana, who sought to “maintain a dialogue”
He wrote:
He says he wants to have lunch with me or something along those lines in about a month. I assume he is trying to do intelligence, find the next tim mcveigh or determine for sure that this movement is the wrong place to look. This is not something I object to in theory, but I do feel uncomfortable doing anything that would cost taxpayer dollars, such as sitting down to lunch with these guys for an hour at taxpayer expense.
[UPDATE – it was brought to my attention that “dadaorwell” was the forum handle used by Dave Ridley, so the above is from the same interaction attributed to Ridley immediately below]
Longtime ‘shire-based journalist Dave Ridley, who, based on his entertaining and informative videos, has gained a following from many in the area – including LEOs who’ve told me personally that they watch and respect his channel, noted that he too was visited by Phil Christiana.
Ridley wrote about their exchange:
My experience with him was that he was more or less polite and professional…but creepy. He came to the same Keene house when I lived there, to learn more about Russell Kanning’s plans for civil disobedience at Manchester Airport’s TSA checkpoint. That was in 2005.
He also requested to have lunch with me and indicated, not in so many words, that he wanted me to be an informant. I told him I would be interested in having that lunch but would report everything we said to the public. He decline to interact with me after that
not included in video: Phil Christiana had an hour-long conversation with then Keene-based activist Russel Kanning:
In early 2011 Christiana visited the home of then-Keene-based activist Kurt Hoffman. After Christiana identified himself as “Phil” who worked with the FBI Hoffman shut his door and declined to talk.
Christiana later called Hoffman twice from a number later determined to be his cell phone – (603) 365-8098 – and visited Hoffman’s dad in Mass, during which time he inquired about his knowledge of activities in Keene.
Later that summer, after the conclusion of the Porcupine Freedom Festival – an annual, week-long event held at Rogers Campground that was attended by over 1,200 pro-liberty people, FBI employees stopped-by and questioned the owners about those who attended, though they claimed to be concerned about vendors selling alcohol without a license.
A couple of months back Brad Jardis – who himself had worked in law enforcement before quitting his job due to his unwillingness to arrest those who use marijuana medicinally – confided that he had been asked to sit-down with a FBI employee. That conversation too was focused on learning who at the KAC advocated the use of violence.
In no uncertain terms Jardis told the inquisitor that such a line of questioning was totally off-base because no one at the KAC advocated such things.
More-recently, after friend Josh Nilsson was picked-up for not checking in with his probation officer as dictated, he too was questioned along a similar vein. While caged at the Cheshire County jail, Josh was asked if he was aware of any violence advocated by anyone associated with the KAC. He laughed at such a statement, knowing full-well that it was completely without merit.
Should we be surprised by Phil Christiana’s snooping-around here in Keene or that of his colleagues in other areas where individuals freely associate and advocate for an alternative to the system that today bestows upon some extra rights?
No. In fact, it’s to be expected due to the perverse incentives inherent in the institution for which they work.
The way Christiana and other employees of government agencies justify their taxpayer-funded salaries is to create issues where none exist – something economist Bob Higgs has deemed the ratchet effect. Manufactured and trumped-up Incidents and arrests are given as justification for a greater police state and the expense of your rights.
There’s no internal check on government as it exists today. No matter the “leadership” the trend is always to grow in size and scope simply because the goods and services its actors provide – in this case “law enforcement” – are provided in a vacuum, absent mechanisms for real accountability. Services rendered are either unwarranted – such as victimless crimes – or done inefficiently.
The Crimethinc write-up mentioned at the beginning of this video seeks to instill in readers the need for a security culture to mitigate risks. The best way that can be done, in my opinion, is to be transparent. To not let threats scare you into complacency or even worse, partnership. Especially if you’re not doing anything wrong. That’s the purpose of this video.
As the size and scope of the liberty-oriented community grows in Keene and around the world, those who seek to maintain the Statist Quo are rightly worried. Not due to the threat of violence – at least from this community – but due to the fact that the bad idea on which they subsist is being seen and thus is eroding.
I know I and the people with whom I choose to associate – diverse as they are – advocate peaceful tactics. FreeKeene.com – a group blog where some who patron the KAC blog – has the tagline “peaceful evolution.” That’s not just a phrase but an idea. And ideas have consequences.
It’s not about a revolution – violent or otherwise, as whatever form that takes, it still revolves around the bad idea of a “leader” but about an evolution – moving past that outdated concept to a free society where we each govern ourselves.
I’m glad Rich and others approached by Christiana have spoken-up. Just like in the schoolyard, it is the bullies, those who initiate force and who act in the wrong, who rely on threats to censor their misdeeds, knowing full-well that were their actions known, they would not be tolerated.
Transparency is key. The curtain is being pulled-back and many are seeing that the emperor wears no clothes. Authority once unthinkingly granted is being retracted.
To me, the means don’t justify the ends. The means are an end in themselves. Live not according to fear, but according to your own conscience. Be led by love.
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Boston Field Office of FBI
Phone: (617) 742-5533
Fax: (617) 223-6327
E-mail: Boston@ic.fbi.gov
Bedford Satellite Office of Boston Field Office of FBI (covers Cheshire County)
Phone: (603) 472-2224
Fax: (603) 472-9419
Phillip “Phil” Christiana
(603) 365-8098
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Inside the FBI Entrapment Society [pdf for reading]
Inside the FBI Entrapment Society [.pdf for printing]
Inside the FBI Entrapment Strategy – by CrimeThinc
