Magical Realism and Information Operations

[wondertk]

Marc,

You are right about legal anthropology. But I think your concerns about legal anthropology may apply to all fields of study in anthropology in that there is a pervasive animus toward helping out government and military. You could argue thereunto that anthropology has a stake in disinformation and deception. There are few anthropologists I would trust.

Bringing in Islamic legal scholars is a good idea, except that trustworthy ones are scarce and expensive.

I think that you should form a special academic advisory consulting firm/think-tank for the armed services rooted in your views about anthropologythe conduct, and prosecution of small wars.

I first started considering the legal anthropology of Islamists when I began studying the case of confessed terrorist conspirator Sami Al-Arian in Tampa. Part of his alleged front enterprise activity involved partnering a think-tank he had founded with USF. This was a legal partnership agreement. Prior to it, key people at USF had been given documents with some rather strange cultural data/language in it about the funding source, another think-tank, of the partnership with USF.

The language clearly shows how puritanical and monolithically doctrinal the views of Sami and his think-tank were. He and his other associates in the think-tank should have been probed further about their views and expectations, but evidently were not.

A Muslim to non-Muslim agreement is quite different in Islamic law than it is in Western law. When you sign a contract with puritanical Muslims, you must be careful because you might be signing a contract with Muslims who believe that a pact with non-Muslims renders non-Muslims subservient to the tenets of Islamic law.

[marct]

Hi Terri,

You are right about legal anthropology. But I think your concerns about legal anthropology may apply to all fields of study in anthropology in that there is a pervasive animus toward helping out government and military. You could argue thereunto that anthropology has a stake in disinformation and deception. There are few anthropologists I would trust.

Now you know I could never use that argument .

I think that you should form a special academic advisory consulting firm/think-tank for the armed services rooted in your views about anthropologythe conduct, and prosecution of small wars.

When I started my consulting company six years ago, I had been toying with getting into the "designer cult" business - seemed like a growth industry . Maybe I should go for that most modern of policy cults - the think tank .

A Muslim to non-Muslim agreement is quite different in Islamic law than it is in Western law. When you sign a contract with puritanical Muslims, you must be careful because you might be signing a contract with Muslims who believe that a pact with non-Muslims renders non-Muslims subservient to the tenets of Islamic law.

A good point, and all the more reason why we should have a number of Muslim legal scholars involved in this entire campaign. Honestly, I'm surprised that USF agreed to that type of "obscurity" in their funding.

Marc

[Bill Meara]

Interesting thread. I was reminded of an incident with the Contras in Central America. A fairly senior USG officer had flown in to harangue them about something. A big meeting was arranged. After the visitor finished haranguing, the top commander said he wanted to discuss a "special problem." He told the Washingtonian that the Sandinistas were training witches and that these women were infiltrating Contra units and putting curses on key commanders. The curses caused small animals to grow in their stomachs. "Julio, go get that thing that came out of the stomach of Wilfredo..." The gringo from Washington thought they were kidding, and he was laughing like a fool. I realized they were serious, and was trying to get him to stop laughing.

The commanders were Central American country folk, and those people have a lot of these kinds of beliefs. Before anyone gets too scornful and superior, it might be a good idea to consider how some of the rituals in OUR religions might appear to outsiders. Incense and holy water come to mind.

For more of this kind of stuff see http://www.contracross.com

[marct]

Hi Bill,

Interesting thread. I was reminded of an incident with the Contras in Central America. A fairly senior USG officer had flown in to harangue them about something. A big meeting was arranged. After the visitor finished haranguing, the top commander said he wanted to discuss a "special problem." He told the Washingtonian that the Sandinistas were training witches and that these women were infiltrating Contra units and putting curses on key commanders. The curses caused small animals to grow in their stomachs. "Julio, go get that thing that came out of the stomach of Wilfredo..." The gringo from Washington thought they were kidding, and he was laughing like a fool. I realized they were serious, and was trying to get him to stop laughing.

There are too many incidents of this sort that have happened; it's one of the reasons I was advocating recruiting practitioners of magic who are already in the US forces to deal with situations like this. That particular incident sounds like a fairly standard witchcraft type accusation. Jeane Favret-Saada's Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage deals with the dynamics of it quite well, as does E.E. Evans-Pritchard's Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande.

What is truly bothersome, is that every time a "Westerner" laughs at something like this, it insults the people who brought it to their attention. What a great way to win friends and influence people.

The commanders were Central American country folk, and those people have a lot of these kinds of beliefs. Before anyone gets too scornful and superior, it might be a good idea to consider how some of the rituals in OUR religions might appear to outsiders. Incense and holy water come to mind.

Too true, Bill. Or how about some of "our" beliefs that we don't consider religious but that others do? Say, equality of individuals, or that strange supernatural being called "the Law" - clearly a supernatural being!!!

Marc

[Tom Odom]

One belief that continually pops up in central Africa is invulnerability through ritualistic initiation. The first time I ran into this was in looking at the 1964 Congo Crisis and the Simba Rebellion. The Simbas believed that their witch doctors could make them invulnerable to bullets, a belief encouraged by the Congolese army's penchant for shooting in the air and discouraged by Western military advisors and mercenaries penchant for hitting their targets. The West's use of contract anti-Castro Cuban aircrew in T6s, T28s, and A26s against the Simbas also did much to disabuse the Simbas (at least those who survived the initial pass) of this notion bullets could not hurt them.

It resurfaced in the post-Rwandan genocide war in central Africa. I have read accounts of the same thinking with the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda and some suggestions the same thing happened in southern Sudan.

Tom

[marct]

It also showed up in the Plains with the Ghost Dance and, in a much more modern context, with the Matamoros massacre.

Ritually, it's a pretty simple thing to achieve, since it really only involves enough manipulation so that the person going through the ritual ends up with heightened adrenal activity (anywhere from 50 - 200%), and a symbolic disjuncture between a particular fear response and a stimulus. A non-kinetic version can be seen in fire-walking.

Marc

[marct]

See also the new Austin Bay article on RCP.

The Battle of Najaf, 2007
By Austin Bay

Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is a most remarkable man.

Consider these attributes: a Muslim theologian who promotes democracy, an Iraqi Shia leader who supports national reconciliation, an international Shia luminary who believes Sunnis and Shias and Christians -- and human beings in general -- have reasons to cooperate and accommodate. In a just world, he would win a Nobel Peace Prize.

British Maj. Gen. Andrew Graham said of Sistani in 2004: "The pro-democracy moderate Muslim cleric doesn't have to be found. That's Sistani. Fortunately, he is the most influential religious leader in Iraq."

Sistani's influence extends beyond Iraq, into Shia communities throughout the world, including Iran and Lebanon.

However, these inspiring attributes are the very reason the so-called "Soldiers of Heaven" militia targeted Grand Ayatollah Sistani for either kidnapping or assassination this past weekend.

More...

[Bill Meara]

One belief that continually pops up in central Africa is invulnerability through ritualistic initiation. The first time I ran into this was in looking at the 1964 Congo Crisis and the Simba Rebellion. The Simbas believed that their witch doctors could make them invulnerable to bullets, a belief encouraged by the Congolese army's penchant for shooting in the air and discouraged by Western military advisors and mercenaries penchant for hitting their targets. The West's use of contract anti-Castro Cuban aircrew in T6s, T28s, and A26s against the Simbas also did much to disabuse the Simbas (at least those who survived the initial pass) of this notion bullets could not hurt them.

It resurfaced in the post-Rwandan genocide war in central Africa. I have read accounts of the same thinking with the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda and some suggestions the same thing happened in southern Sudan.

Tom

O Club, Ft. Bragg, 1984, SF Course. Classmate from Africa is with us. Conversation turns to news reports of Africans putting charms on their M-16 muzzles, and beliveing that they will be protected from incoming rounds. All the Americans chuckle. The African classmate says, "Its true." We're stunned. "You mean its true that they believe this, right." Pause. "No, I mean it is true."
http://www.contracross.com

[goesh]

We are but one small step from wearing tailsmans, feathers and paint ourselves. What comes to mind is the ritual Fred Cox, a Minn. Vikings kicker had. He had to sit in the exact same spot every game and kept a pair of sneakers by the end of the bench where he sat and kept a Snickers bar in the right shoe and would take one bite and one bite only after each kick he made. It gave him the edge he needed. He was college educated and making more money than most of us and he was held in high esteem by his teammates, fans and home town. One man's ju-ju is another's lucky rabbit's foot and by the way, there was Ghost Dancing at Wounded Knee II in 1973 and a Ghost Shirt was worn during the fire fight at the Jumping Bull compound in which 2 US Marshals went down. When I integrated into a bush village in Gambia, W. Africa during my Peace Corps stint, I was housed at a compound owned by one of the head men. He had fine orange tree and the fruit was coming ripe and he had ju-jus on the tree and nobody would touch the fruit. I remember going up to that tree to get an orange to eat and a couple of guys became quite alarmed and warned me to step back or bad things would happen. I was wearing my ju-ju that I got in the Senegal bush before moving into Gambia so I did a little ritual with tobacco smoke and some rocks with my ju-ju placed in circle of rocks, blew some smoke on the tree, grabbed an orage and ate it. Within 2 days time, all the oranges were gone from the tree and I only ate 2 of them. There are alot of funny things in the world we don't understand and can't appreciate and exploit. I highly recommend ju-jus to Spec. Ops forces. I don't care how advanced and civilized we purport to be, you can take the ju-ju off the man but you can never take the ju-ju out of the man.

[wondertk]

The excerpts below come from an interview with Carl G. Jung, "Diagnosing the Dictators." They may offer us a typological context to frame this discussion.

"There are two types of strong men in primitive society. One was the chief who was physically powerful, stronger than all his competitors, and the other was the medicine man who was not strong himself but was strong by reason of the power which the people projected into him. Thus we had the emperor and the head of the religious community. The emperer was the chief, physically strong through his possession of soldiers; the seer was the medicine man, possessing little or no physical power but an actual power sometimes surpassing that of the emperer, because the people agreed he possessed the magic--that is, supernatural ability. He could, for example, assist or obstruct the way to a happy life after death, put a ban upon an individual, a community or a whole nation, and by excommunications cause people great discomfort or pain."

Interestingly, Jung goes on to compare the Hitler/Medicine Man mystique to, of all people, Muhammad, Islam's final prophet, a political, spiritual and military leader. While reading that passage for the first time, I couldn't help but think of charismatic radical imams like Moqtada Al-Sadr, Osama Bin Laden, Sheikh Abdel Rahman, Sami Al-Arian, who seek first and formost to control the meaning of the religion by attacking the legitimacy of Muslim leaders and liberal clerics and also by shunning dissent within their local congregations and communities.

What, therefore, shall be our magical realist plan for psy-ops and other countermeasures to depower the mystique of a "medicine man" like Moqtada al-Sadr while empowering his adversaries?

[marct]

What, therefore, shall be our magical realist plan for psy-ops and other countermeasures to depower the mystique of a "medicine man" like Moqtada al-Sadr while empowering his adversaries?

Like to ask the simple questions, Terri? Well, I've got two answers to that. First, organize the United States Magi Corps (USMC, kinda catchy ring to it, don't you think?). Best to make it under the Marines, both because they seem to be more flexible and because their acronym would then be USMC2.

The second answer is a more serious one but, actually, runs along the same lines. I think that there should be a seminar / workshop / think tank group that is put together to look at this seriously. I'd certainly want to be part of it, especially given my academic background .

Marc

[wondertk]

Don't know about boots on the ground, but I have a pair of pink suede high heels in my closet that could be useful for both psy-ops and non-lethal torture against the most devout among our enemies.

The Magi Corps is intriguing, Marc, but the study group is probably more feasible, and I would be happy to participate.

I know, someone had to bring Jung into this discussion. And it had to be me.

Here's another plan: create a fake insurgent group with its own fake medicine man leader and open up a garbage can into which other insurgents may jump.

That's doable, don't you think?

[marct]

Don't know about boots on the ground, but I have a pair of pink suede high heels in my closet that could be useful for both psy-ops and non-lethal torture against the most devout among our enemies.

<truly evil grin>Reminds me of that fiction piece you sent me a while back....

The Magi Corps is intriguing, Marc, but the study group is probably more feasible, and I would be happy to participate.

I also doubt that a Magi Corps cold get going. It's too bad, especially given the number of magical practitioners already serving in the US forces (Asatruar, Wiccans, etc.). Besides that, I think we could come up with some really spiffy uniforms .

I think the study group / think tank would be the way to go. Any suggestions?

Here's another plan: create a fake insurgent group with its own fake medicine man leader and open up a garbage can into which other insurgents may jump.

That's doable, don't you think?

Yup, but it's also a really dangerous thing to do - black PSYOPs as it were.

Marc