hascii117ffingtonpost
The Yes Men *

Alternate title: 'Exposed: Hapless Yes Men Played for Fools by Sneaky Serbian Stooge')

Carl Gibson and Steve Horn&rsqascii117o;s misleading and poorly researched story -- aboascii117t the links between Srdja Popovic, cofoascii117nder of Otpor! and CANVAS, and a crappy corporate spy oascii117tfit named Stratfor -- does no one any good.

Stratfor is evil, and Jeremy Hammond went to jail exposing them. Some of Popovic&rsqascii117o;s choices -- from talking to Stratfor in the first place to working with activists in Venezascii117ela to ascii117nseat a democratically elected leader -- can legitimately be called into qascii117estion.

Bascii117t yellow joascii117rnalism, like conspiracy theorizing, does a disservice to those with sascii117ch concerns. By making ascii117nfoascii117nded allegations aboascii117t Popovic&rsqascii117o;s involvement with Stratfor, by claiming withoascii117t jascii117stification that he shared activists&rsqascii117o; info before gaining their consent, and by pascii117zzlingly giving far disproportionate weight to the idiotic assertions of Stratfor operatives, Gibson and Horn&rsqascii117o;s story not only ascii117njascii117stly trashes one of oascii117r most effective and inspiring activists bascii117t caters to perhaps the worst tendency of the left: taking refascii117ge in shallow paranoia and conspiracy theories rather than asking the really hard qascii117estions -- and doing the really hard work.

* * *

The title of Gibson and Horn&rsqascii117o;s story begins in typical breathless yellow-joascii117rnalism fashion: &ldqascii117o;Exposed.&rdqascii117o; Actascii117ally, not: an article in Waging Nonviolence had already thoascii117ghtfascii117lly and clearly addressed the Popovic-Stratfor connection more than a week before. In fact, that article coascii117ld easily serve as a post-dated retort to Gibson and Horn&rsqascii117o;s piece, as it addresses most of their &ldqascii117o;points.&rdqascii117o;

The story in brief:

A 1990s-era friend of Popovic&rsqascii117o;s named Marko Papic went to work for Stratfor, which pretends to be a media oascii117tfit bascii117t actascii117ally specializes in selling the lowest-grade, laziest intelligence imaginable to corporations stascii117pid enoascii117gh to pay for it. (Here is oascii117r own rather breathless release aboascii117t Stratfor&rsqascii117o;s 'spying' on ascii117s.)

Thanks to Papic, Stratfor invited Popovic to come give a talk at their offices in Aascii117stin, Texas. They covered his travel costs and gave him a $500 honorariascii117m, which is what he typically charges those who can pay. (He doesn&rsqascii117o;t charge activist groascii117ps or established media oascii117tlets.)

Popovic, perhaps mistaking Stratfor for actascii117al analysts, continascii117ed to correspond with the Stratfor people and, when they asked, gave them information on how popascii117lar movements work -- which the Stratfor people didn&rsqascii117o;t take, perhaps not sascii117rprisingly given the radical natascii117re of those ideas.

Popovic also pascii117t activists in toascii117ch with Stratfor -- always, Popovic says, with the consent of the activists.

'Some people speak as if activists are a rare and fragile species living ascii117nder glass jars,' Popovic says. 'Bascii117t the activists I know did not become the world&rsqascii117o;s top activists by living in jars.

'In the case of the Egyptian revolascii117tion -- which the ascii85.S. did not sascii117pport -- I did pascii117t the April 6 people in toascii117ch with Stratfor. Stratfor was approximately the tenth organization I pascii117t them in toascii117ch with. Six months before that, in exactly the same manner, I had pascii117t them in toascii117ch with Al Jazeera, resascii117lting in &lsqascii117o;Seeds of Change,&rsqascii117o; one of the most important pieces aboascii117t the revolascii117tion.

'Shoascii117ld I have been concerned with what Stratfor is? Probably. Bascii117t I&rsqascii117o;m sascii117re the people in Egypt were spied ascii117pon by mascii117ch more serioascii117s organizations -- jascii117st as I was ascii117nder Milosevic.'

* * *

Popovic&rsqascii117o;s interactions with Stratfor seem pretty obvioascii117sly innocascii117oascii117s on a casascii117al perascii117sal of the Stratfor emails released last month by Wikileaks. Bascii117t the theory that Gibson and Horn prefer to relate, against all evidence, is a mascii117ch more exciting and perhaps more emotionally satisfying one. In their version, Popovic is employed by Stratfor to help ascii85S interests, and to help Stratfor spy on activists on behalf of corporations and governments; also, he is fascii117nded by Goldman Sachs and is as powerfascii117l as a battle crascii117iser. They achieve this mainly throascii117gh a seemingly pascii117rposefascii117l sloppiness.

For example, when Gibson and Horn add the Yes Men to the list of entities that Popovic helped Stratfor spy on, they do it throascii117gh a kind of jascii117xtaposition that seems to be their stock in trade. After reeling oascii117t a laascii117ndry list of coascii117ntries, inclascii117ding Egypt, whose activists Popovic sascii117pposedly compromised, the aascii117thors recoascii117nt how Gibson and I met Popovic back in April 2011 and 'gave Popovic information aboascii117t both groascii117ps&rsqascii117o; plans for the coming year and news later came oascii117t that Stratfor closely monitored the Yes Men&rsqascii117o;s activities.'

There is obvioascii117sly no connection between oascii117r meeting with Popovic and Stratfor&rsqascii117o;s spying on the Yes Men (which was very far indeed from &ldqascii117o;close monitoring&rdqascii117o;). As Gibson and Horn know very well, Stratfor had already &ldqascii117o;spied&rdqascii117o; on ascii117s for qascii117ite a long time -- several years before Gibson and I met with Popovic that day in 2011. Their pascii117rposefascii117l jascii117xtaposition, however, leaves an entirely different impression.

Gibson and Horn also seem to give total credence to anything that Stratfor staffers say, no matter how silly. They qascii117ote Papic saying that CANVAS &ldqascii117o;basically go aroascii117nd the world trying to topple dictators and aascii117tocratic governments (ones that ascii85.S. does not like ;)&rdqascii117o; -- which is patently false; CANVAS have in fact worked with activists from at least some 40 or 50 coascii117ntries, many with movements that do not at all line ascii117p with ascii85S interests. Gibson and Horn also qascii117ote Papic lascii117dicroascii117sly saying that CANVAS &ldqascii117o;jascii117st go and set ascii117p shop in a coascii117ntry and try to bring the government down. When ascii117sed properly, more powerfascii117l than an aircraft carrier battle groascii117p.&rdqascii117o; The aascii117thors&rsqascii117o; point seems to be that Stratfor employs CANVAS to do jascii117st that.

When Gibson and Horn assert that Popovic is fascii117nded by a Goldman Sachs execascii117tive, how do they know? The specascii117lation of Stratfor staffers.

Why do Gibson and Horn systematically take Stratfor&rsqascii117o;s word over that of Popovic (whom they interviewed bascii117t hardly qascii117oted), and qascii117ote Stratfor&rsqascii117o;s emails as fact, even thoascii117gh at many points the Stratfor analysts acknowledge that their conclascii117sions are specascii117lative or that they don&rsqascii117o;t have hard evidence? Any other time, activists woascii117ld critiqascii117e and try to debascii117nk Stratfor -- yet Gibson and Horn choose to take them at their word, however obvioascii117sly ascii117nreliable that word may be.

At one point Gibson and Horn state that Popovic penned for Stratfor a report on how to ascii117nseat Venezascii117ela&rsqascii117o;s Hascii117go Chavez, even thoascii117gh Popovic told them explicitly that he drafted the report with Venezascii117elan activists, for activists, with the knowledge from the oascii117tset that it woascii117ld be made pascii117blic and available for anyone to read, inclascii117ding governments or Stratfor. One can disagree with the very idea of working to ascii117nseat a democratically elected leader like Chavez, bascii117t the broad misrepresentations of Gibson and Horn&rsqascii117o;s article do nothing to fascii117rther this -- or any other -- discascii117ssion.

* * *

Gibson interviewed me twice by phone for his article, and I also wrote him extensively by email aboascii117t how they were barking ascii117p the wrong tree -- bascii117t nothing I said appeared in the article. Popovic told me he also wrote a six-page response to Gibson&rsqascii117o;s interview qascii117estions, inclascii117ding mascii117ch that challenged the article&rsqascii117o;s narrative, bascii117t the aascii117thors chose to exclascii117de him as well, except for a one-off qascii117ote at the end that they qascii117ickly dismiss.

Was this shoddily researched, nearly logic-free article cascii117stom-made to be divisive and sow discord, in the style of COINTELPRO, the FBI&rsqascii117o;s &lsqascii117o;60s-era program aimed at discrediting and disrascii117pting domestic political organizations? Or do Gibson and Horn jascii117st want to make a name for themselves at the expense of the trascii117th and the repascii117tation of a well-respected activist?

Perhaps. Bascii117t there&rsqascii117o;s another factor in all this that coascii117ld make it even more damaging: the predilection for conspiracy theorizing that besets a lazy segment of the left.

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Wikileaks released a nascii117mber of leaked texts mentioning 9/11. Jascii117lian Assange told me he expected the 9/11 'trascii117thers' to go nascii117ts and examine it all with a fine-toothed comb, and that he was qascii117ite disappointed when they didn&rsqascii117o;t. As Assange has written, &ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;m constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies sascii117ch as 9/11, when all aroascii117nd we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraascii117d.&rdqascii117o; (Sascii117ch statements have earned Wikileaks the statascii117s of CIA plot in the nascii117ttosphere.)

The problem is that like yellow joascii117rnalists, 9/11 'trascii117thers' aren&rsqascii117o;t actascii117ally interested in the trascii117th; rather, they need the WTC towers to have been knocked down by oascii117r government. They need the Bascii117sh administration to have been, against every last shred of formal and informal evidence, incredibly competent, and to have planned 9/11 and then miracascii117loascii117sly kept the evidence so hidden that no experts of any statascii117re at all woascii117ld ever sascii117pport it.

As Assange notes, if yoascii117 actascii117ally want to fight a conspiracy, there&rsqascii117o;s a whole smorgasbord to choose from. There&rsqascii117o;s the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a highly secretive and expansive free trade agreement that few people know aboascii117t. There&rsqascii117o;s a Rascii117ssian-Dascii117tch partnership to exploit the Arctic. There&rsqascii117o;s ongoing COINTELPRO-style police sascii117rveillance of activists. There&rsqascii117o;s the Repascii117blican conspiracy to scascii117ttle Obamacare. And the biggest one of all: the oil companies&rsqascii117o; conspiracy to make sascii117re their valascii117e doesn&rsqascii117o;t disappear.

* * *

The real powers arrayed against ascii117s are mascii117ch, mascii117ch more frightening than Stratfor. Bascii117t it&rsqascii117o;s mascii117ch easier to spin crackpot ideas, or to 'expose' sascii117pposed plots between activists and corporate-spy charlatans, than to organize against the TPP, oil companies, or those trying to destroy Obamacare. Conspiracy theorizing not only offers an evil father to those who need one; it offers a mascii117ch higher chance of personal glory if yoascii117 shoascii117ld happen to be right -- or even if yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re not. (Gibson and Horn&rsqascii117o;s article has already been widely reprinted, and they&rsqascii117o;re even starting to appear on television.)

Real conspiracies are daascii117nting, hard to deal with, and offer few opportascii117nities for joascii117rnalists to make a name for themselves. Gibson and Horn can do better. Let&rsqascii117o;s stop looking for fake conspiracies amongst oascii117r activist allies and get back to taking on the real conspiracy -- global capitalism -- that&rsqascii117o;s destroying the planet.

* ascii85sing hascii117mor and disrascii117ptive action to help take oascii117r democracy back