you look so tired unhappy

December 3, 2005 1:53 PM

Bring down the government! Flickr collection of scans from a CIA published guide for revolutionaries in Nicaragua; many of the suggestions are universally applicable. I myself have been guilty of at least one...
posted by jonson (19 comments total)

These aren't about taking down a government or political system, they're about unneccesarily destroying your society. Many of the actions descibed would actually be detrimental to the next, presumably more America-friendly government. If these really were distributed by the CIA I wonder what their intentions really were.
posted by baphomet at 2:04 PM on December 3, 2005

So does that mean when I slack off at work I'm helping to overthrow the government? Glad to know I'm doing my part.

And it seems that in my teenage years I was quite the revolutionary.
posted by Jawn at 2:37 PM on December 3, 2005

Fill paper bag with excrement. Place on doorstep. Light bag. Ring doorbell.
posted by sharksandwich at 2:56 PM on December 3, 2005

Why aren't these in Spanish?
posted by tweak at 3:22 PM on December 3, 2005

Read the links - there's a version in Spanish also.
posted by jonson at 3:33 PM on December 3, 2005

They (and worse) really were distributed by the CIA, and they're but one of many signs of ineptitude on their part....
posted by nevercalm at 3:33 PM on December 3, 2005

Thanks sharksandwich, I now have this mental image of Bush answering the door to burnning poo.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:15 PM on December 3, 2005

OMG! The CIA doesn't know how a toilet work! Poo flows downhill, not straight up!

I also love that they didn't specify that other people's toilets, not your own, should be the target for the attack. Or maybe the strategy is that you'll have to annoy your neighbors once you block your own.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:22 PM on December 3, 2005

Many of the actions described would actually be detrimental to the next, presumably more America-friendly government.

That is unless the next "America-friendly government" just lost an election to the non-America-friendly political party (NAFPP). Rather than wait until the next election, the NAFPP can go around destroying the country's economy in hopes that the current government could take the blame because most people would not understand what was happening.
posted by j-urb at 4:25 PM on December 3, 2005

Woah, I F'ed up. Time to hit the reset button.

Many of the actions described would actually be detrimental to the next, presumably more America-friendly government.

That is unless the next "America-friendly government" (AFG) just lost an election to the non-America-friendly political party (NAFPP). Rather than wait until the next election, the AFG can go around destroying the country's economy in hopes that the NAFPP could take the blame because most people would not understand what was happening.
posted by j-urb at 4:26 PM on December 3, 2005

How the hell is a bunch of people blocking toilets supposed to bring down a government?
posted by punishinglemur at 4:54 PM on December 3, 2005

I used to have one of the first reprint copies of this. I believe that it has been reprinted (and altered) several times. This copy looks somewhat different from mine. The diagrams look the same, but my copy was in spanish, with red english footnotes ( which weren't in the original). Its also not the complete book. I bought mine in a Cambridge, Ma used bookstore for a political science class/paper on US/Central American relations, and gave it away to a friend years ago.
posted by R. Mutt at 5:28 PM on December 3, 2005

Here's a CIA assasination manual from 1954 printed for
Guatemala operatives.
posted by furvyn at 7:34 PM on December 3, 2005

get a steel bar and bend it around a pole to make a hook... you know it is as easy at that. I know bending steel is an easy thing to do, heck perhasp I'll go do it now.
posted by edgeways at 9:34 PM on December 3, 2005

I'm so proud of my federal government.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 10:54 PM on December 3, 2005

My grandfather went to Nicaragua around the time this original manual was published, and I remember him showing me this pamphlet. This page, specifically, always stuck out in my mind.
posted by thethirdman at 12:28 AM on December 4, 2005

Does anyone else remember the Life in Hell cartoon referencing this manual at the time of its publication?
posted by puddnhead at 2:07 AM on December 4, 2005

"get a steel bar and bend it around a pole to make a hook... you know it is as easy at that. I know bending steel is an easy thing to do, heck perhasp I'll go do it now."

edgeways: you'd be surprised how easy it is actually. Steel can be bend, hammered, ground and cut using handtools.

Its not as strong as people assume.
posted by metaculpa at 8:48 AM on December 4, 2005

Yup, puddnhead. Man, I love me some Life in Hell.
posted by piratebowling at 8:57 AM on December 4, 2005