Former-ALF member Peter Young Speaks at Hampshire College

Amherst, Massachusetts April 24,2007- Convicted "terrorist" Peter Young recently related his history with the animal rights movement to an auditorium filled with more than one hundred militants, radical straightedge vegans, anarchists, primitivists and other riff-raff at Hampshire College. Visibly excited, the crowd listened as Young described, to the best of his legal ability how and when he made the choice to cross the line to commit direct actions by freeing thousands of minks from fur farms throughout the mid-west. I went to the lecture not because I am an die hard animal rights activist, but in hopes of learning some of tactics and techniques that Young picked up over the years. Unfortunately, he said that he was not able to talk about the seven years that he spent evading U.S. law enforcement and being the # 1 domestic terrorist in the nation. Nor was he able to give any advise on how to evade law enforcement, because telling someone how to commit a crime can make you an accessory to that crime. But young made one thing clear, while activists are always talking about a lack of number, what is forgotten is that sometimes two people are all it takes or better yet only one person. It certainly makes security culture much more simple; if you can't keep your own mouth shut then maybe terrorism/illegal direct action isn't the wisest idea. He spoke at great lengths about security culture and not snitching, saying "If you choose to snitch, a real price is paid in blood and flesh by those you snitch on." He also reminded the audience that "If no ones talks, everybody walks." Young didn't glorify or romanticize his capture and time spent in prison, rather provided a grim reminder of what potentially awaits those who cross the line and commit extra-legal political acts. One must come to terms with this before making the decision to cross this line, Young said. While it didn't turnout to be the training seminar that I desired, it was an incredibly thought provoking and inspirational experience that helped me grapple with the some of the big questions of direct action/violent resistance/alternative civilities.

Musica Revolutionaria

Just a quick fix post here. I found an awesome Cuban web page with free downloads of Che related songs and sound clips. It has been a constant source of inspiration for me lately and I hope that you enjoy it too!

WikiHow

So here are some potentially helpful pages from Wikihow
Guns and Shooting
Disaster Preparedness

Guerrilla Mail

I am glad that I took a break after a week of heavy/crazy postings. I feel much better now...

I stumbled upon this website today which seems like it would be very useful in many situations. Guerilla Mail allows you to create disposable, temporary email addresses from which you can receive and reply to emails for 15 minutes. because it is created and then destroyed, it seems like you could never get a search warrant for it or even trace the email to regular IP address. Therefor it is good for receiving ransom notes, clandestine communications, etc.

Ideology

For those looking to learn more about Marxism and what various Marxists say/said the site Marxists.org is an invaluable resource. They have "The Art of War" in case you don't like the version provided in my previous post. It is not my favorite translation but it doesn't make that much of a difference. They also host the Mao book, "On Guerrilla Warfare" which I posted earlier. I have also found Guevara's canon Guerrilla Warfare as a pdf. This book kicks ass, but read it in its historical context because, like Marx, Che just got some stuff wrong.
I might possibly have another interview before the one that I previously mentioned that I want to do. Peter Young, convicted "terrorist" and former member of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is speaking at Hampshire College on April 24th at 8:30pm in the Main Lecture Hall of Franklin Paterson Hall. I will try to obtain an interview with him, and post it here. It is another step towards professionalizing this blog.

Navy Seal Videos, etc.

My last two posts were kinda out of place/different from everything else that I have posted so far. As such you may be wondering why I choose to post them. Two reasons, first, know thy enemy, know what you are potentially up against. I mean these guys are tough as napalm covered nails. Second, even though you might not train as hard as them, it gives you some ideas, particularly in the second one I posted. Their shooting drills could obviously be replicated very easily, with whatever gun you have. This goes for a lot of promotional videos for counter-terrorism training, firearms training, etc. companies that you find on YouTube as well. This promo for a Israeli counter terrorism training is a good example.

Navy Seal Training Reality Series Part 2

The Navy Seal Training Reality Show

Mao's On Guerrilla Warfare and the Art of War

I guess found a couple of vital resources online thanks to Guerrilla Blog(UPDATE: check out the link now, wierd huh?). The first is Mao's "On Guerrilla Warfare." I haven't read this essay yet but I did read an essay called "Problems in the Anti-Japanese War" or something to that extent, which was half way decent, but defiantly ripped off the second, "The Art of War," a book which allegedly turned the tides in Mao's favor during the Chinese revolution. Additionally it is widely considered one of the best strategic manuals for military and other applications, such as business.

The future of this blog

OK, this blog thing seems to be taking off, bit by bit. so here's an idea of what we can look to for the future. First, I might start embedding videos in post in addition to having the new (and kinda snazzy) auto-generated video playlist on the side. Also I will be thinking of new keyword combinations to make better, newer, cooler sets of four every so often. Second, you can expect a more frequent posts in the future hopefully, this is three days in a row now and the fourth in five days. Third, original journalism posted here! This is exciting because it will make my blog more interesting/unique/noteworthy. The first, and only piece planned at this point will be an interview with an a-then-te-que revolutionary and former active urban guerrilla. I can't say when exactly this will be happening, so stay tuned! or I guess more fitting for this medium, stay linked!

Please tell your friends, your cool friends who would enjoy it and learn from this blog because it would be great if somebody read it. also I would love feedback, I got a little on color choices from my friends on essembly which helped a lot. I think the motif that I got now is stellar.

Know thy Enemy

One of the interesting things about guerrilla warfare how counter-insurgent groups read and publish about insurgent strategy, which insurgents groups read, modify their strategy, and the process is began all over. The CIA's manual on psychological warfare, which I have mentioned in previous posts is a perfect example of this. The Rand Corporation is a think tank devoted to such activities. More recently they have published studies on insurgent networking through the Interweb, the name of which is escaping me now. In this spirit, I suggest Army Field Manuals for two reasons. The first is to learn their counter-insurgency tactics (such as FM 90-8) so you can better defend yourself against them. The second is that the U.S. Army spend millions of dollars researching and developing these manuals about everything a soldier needs to know. In other words, they teach you to be a soldier. Topics covered include everything to weapons manuals to survival techniques. There are also DOD Manuals and other Army manuals on Amazon on building your own explosives, special forces tactics, etc. But also read about guerrilla movements and the guerrilla warfare manuals mentioned in my blog.

AK-47 vs. AR 15/M-16/M-4

Wow, I guess that all this research have inspired me to post a lot. Probably just cause I want to procrastinate...
But really which is better, the AK-47 or the M-16? For guerrilla warfare it is no contest. Here is how it breaks down

AK-47:
+ Reliable (through hell and back, almost), MUCH cheaper gun to buy, more stopping power, easy to DIY, more bad-ass
- non-ambidextrous, shorter effective range (200-300m), less accurate, fewer modification possibilities, fewer accessories

M-16:
+ very accurate, longer effective range (700m), lots of accessories and modifications available, ambidextrous (M4 only)
- Expensive to buy, maintenance intensive, jams easily (not reliable), less stopping power, tool of imperialists!

It should be pretty obvious why the guerrilla would choose the former over the latter given the choice. but often times you don't have a choice. Remember one of the first rules of guerrilla warfare is to use the same ammo as your enemy. This is because ammo is hard to come by in the jungle, so you better be able to pick it up off the corpses of the minions of the capitalist insects. besides in guerrilla warfare most shots aren't more longer than 300m, there are too many trees, buildings etc. Also just look at the two sets of ballistic penetration tests in my previous post. The AK rips shit up, the AR just doesn't.

Penetration Tests in Urban Environment

I guess urban guerrilla warfare is going to be a popular topic for me. I recently found this Marine Corps video testing different weapon system against buildings typical of urban environments. The lesson to be learned is one echoed on The Box of Truth's penetration tests against a car and cinder/concret blocks, CONCEALMENT IS NOT COVER. Cover will provide you with a decent amount of protection from enemy fire; concealment will not

Urban Guerrilla Warfare, cont.

Sorry that I haven't posted in a long time. I have been pretty lazy/busy with research, etc. One thing that I have come upon that will interest people is the writings of Abraham Guillen, a Spanish scholar who worked with the Tupamaros in Uruguay. Look for Philosophy of the Urban Guerrilla: The Revolutionary Writings of Abraham Guillen on amazon or at your local (university) library. He critiques and offers alternatives to the mistakes (tactical and otherwise) made by various urban guerrilla movements, which I found very interesting and potentially usable if one was in similar situations. I was really blown away and the tactical/stategical advice was much easier to understand than Che's book.