Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, February 18, 1985
OPINION
Learning how to overthrow local
government can be fun and easy
A week or two
ago a friend of
mine lent me the
February 1985 is
sue of “Soldier of
Fortune.” “SOF” is
not normally on
my list of monthly •
reading, but this
issue contained a
r e p rin t o f the
CIA’s Guerrilla
War Manual which was distributed to
Freedom Fighters in Nicaragua.
The government calls the manual
“FM 95-1 A,” which translates into En
glish as “How-to Overthrow Your Local
Government.” The document is a liter
ary masterpiece comparable to an in
come tax form. It uses such words as
“neutralize” when referring to ways of
dealing with enemy sympathizers in a
given area of operations. The “comba
tant-propagandist guerrillas” can use
their imaginations to decide if the term
means relocate, kidnap, or turn into fer
tilizer.
Using largely communistic tech-
niques, the manual advocates tricking
established citizens into supporting the
guerrilla movement by using a series of
“facade organizations.” How to win a
crowds favor, lead a mass uprising, con
ceal weapons on troops and make guer-
people are just a few of the topics cov
ered in the book.
“If possible, professional criminals
will be hired to carry out specific selec
tive ‘jobs’,” the manual states. Earlier in
the document, the Sandinista govern
ment is labeled as “illegal.”
The following is what the manual de
scribes as “the essence of armed propa
ganda:
“An armed guerrilla force can occupy
an entire town or small city which is
neutral or relatively passive in the con
flict. In order to conduct the armed
propaganda in an effective manner, the
following should be carried out simulta
neously:
• Destroy the military or police in
stallations and remove the survivors to a
‘public place.’
• Gut all the outside lines of commu
nication: cables, radio, messengers.
• Set up ambushes in order to delay
the reinforcements in all the possible
entry routes.
• Kidnap all officials or agents of the
Sandinista government and place them
in ‘public places’ with military or civilian
persons of trust to our movement.”
The manual goes on to explain that if
a citizen tries to leave the town, it would
be necessary to shoot him or her, but the
guerrillas should push the blame on the
government. The victim should be pro
claimed an enemy of the people and the
guerrillas should point out that the gun
they used was one recovered from
Sandinistan forces.
The most intet'esting part of the doc
ument is entitled “Selective Use of Vio
lence for Propagandistic Ef fects.” When
neutralizing “carefully selected and
planned targets,” the GIA says one must
consider:
• the degree of “violence necessary
to carry out the change.”
• the amount of “violence acceptable
to the population af fected.”
• the “degree of violence possible
without causing damage or danger to
other individuals in the area of the tar
get” ...
The GIA hopes this crash course in
violent governmental overthrows will
aid the Freedom Fighters in establishing
a democratic administration in Nicara
gua. President Reagan said Tuesday aid
to the rebel forces is “necessary” and
“desirable” because “the Sandinista gov
ernment seized power out of the barrel
of a gun.”
Obviously, Reagan hasn’t read Feb
ruary’s “Soldier of Fortune,” or if he
has, he hasn’t realized that the Freedom
Fighters are also trying to “seize power
out of the barrel of a gun.”
Loren Steffy is a sophomore journa
lism major and a weekly columnist for
The Battalion.
nllas look like heroes in the eyes of the
San Francisco bathhouses 'inherently unsafe'
Loren Steffy
AIDS a reason for legislating
SAN FRAN
CISCO — Well,
says Mervyn Sil
verman, suppose
someone opened a
Russian — rou
lette parlor, where
adults so inclined
could go risk their
lives. Could the
city be indiffer
ent?
Silverman recently resigned as direc
tor of health in this city, where there is
currently a death a day due to AIDS (ac
quired immune deficiency syndrome).
Two new cases are reported each day,
which means that a year from now there
will be two deaths a day.
I his citv is — depending on your idea
of civic virtue — famous or notorious
for its tolerant attitude towi/rd homo
sexuality. Fen to 15 percent of the pop
ulation (75,000-100,000) are male ho
mosexuals. Among many such men,
unlike among lesbians, there is a pattern
of promiscuity.
Bathhouses, featuring private rooms
and saunas or whirlpools, are relics of a
generation ago. Before homosexuals
felt able to “come out of the closet,” such
establishments were used for assig
nations by people who felt they had no
where else to do what they were deter
mined to do. Today, Silverman says,
bathhouses are less used for that, al
though they still are used by, for exam
ple, bisexual married men or others
who desire secrecy. But bathhouses are
symbols of “homosexual rights,” so
there was protest last April when Silver-
man promulgated regulations to pro
hibit “unsafe sex” in bathhouses.
San Francisco’s yeasty political proc
ess stopped the regulation, so Silverman
ordered the bathhouses closed. The
owners “won” in court, but the court, in
allowing them to remain open, essen
tially imposed Silverman’s “unsafe sex”
regulations, requiring monitoring of ac
tivity, forbidding private rooms and re
quiring lights to remain on.
Silverman argues that because of
AIDS (and some less-harmful diseases)
bathhouse sex is inherently unsafe.
Bathhouses are frequently used for
forms of group promiscuity that should
not be described in a newspaper.
To persons who say that the regula
tions will merely change the. venue, not
the quantity or nature, of homosexual
activity, Silverman says: If couples meet
in separate locations, the quantity of es
pecially dangerous contacts will decline
because group sex will decline. He says
this is already happening under the tu
telage of death: Watching a friend die is
educational. When we see a wreck along
a highway, Silverman says, we drive
more slowly for the next few miles, then
soon speed up. But AIDS has a more
lasting deterrent effect.
San Francisco spends several million
dollars a year on education and counsel
ing about sexually transmitted diseases.
Information is, Silverman thinks, the
primary reason for the changed behav
ior that has resulted in a 75 percent re
duction in cases of rectal gonorrhea.
Sexually transmitted diseases are par
adigms of many of today’s principal
public-health problems, such as traffic
accidents, cancer from smoking, alco
holism. They are “optional” diseases in
the sense that they can be radically re
duced by the dissemination of informa
tion that modifies freely chosen behav
ior.
Silverman is opposed by libertarians
who say the regulations violate “civil
rights.” They say that publicity about
AIDS has been so effective that almost
everyone is informed,, and that sexual
activity in private between informed
and consenting adults, even when dan
gerous, threatens only the consenters
and thus is no business of government.
Silverman argues that even if the
facts about AIDS have passed the
threshold of public understanding that
can be called “common knowledge,”
there are still victims who have never
given “informed consent” to the risk of
infection. Victims include women who
have sexual relations with bi-sexual
men, drug addicts who use tainted nee
dles and recipientsof tainted blood.
But the argument for Silverman’s
policy is most interesting when it moves
beyond nuances about informed con
sent, and beyond the sort of argument
used to justify laws requiring seatbelt
use, or requiring motorcyclists to wear
Chalk up one moreTT
for the old "Gippeffo
By ART BUCHWALD
Columnist lor The Los An/felt's Times Syndicate
B)
The secret of President Reagan’s
popularity is that he has the ability to
make us all feel good, when we know we
should feel bad.
that the president was avoiding the
of how he expected to reduce the In
get deficit without raising taxes'" The !
"Frankly, I wasn’t listening ihai ence ‘l 11
know is what he tolduiBr.. 1 /!' 1
MIr
His last Stale of the Union speech was
another triumph for the “Gipper."
I have no idea how it played in Peo
ria, but from what I could tell it went
over quite well in Washington.
“What did you think of the presi
dent’s speech?” I asked a secretary in my
building.
“1 thought it was wonderful,” she
said. “He leveled with the American
people.”
“When did he do that?”
sely. All
count i
it’s going to get
passes all of Mr. Reagan’s programr Dr. H
“That’s a big ‘if.’”
ry’s in excellent shape lw Ij»i t i () |]
ling to get even better if C()J we en th
eral art
policy a
“Well, they sang Happs hinhc United !
him.” fivlconi
"Was there anything about thes^^'j M '
you didn’t like?” iMf () f
“I was very annoyed when Gs| )en p ^
Bush and 1 ip O’Neill kept talking; 1
, ■ , 1 . r , • s JU)t ( hit
the president was speaking
shouldn't have done that.”
ism.
Harcii
“When he asked the lady cadet f rom
West Point to take a bow f rom the balco-
ny.
“You felt that was the highlight of his
address?” I inquired.
“That and when he asked the lady
from Harlem to also take a bow, because
of what she had done for little babies.”
“Yes, but what alxrut the fact that the
president glossed over the budget defi
cit and indicated that he wanted to pro
ceed with the MX missile and ‘Star
Wars’? Did you have any feelings on
that?”
“Not really. I just thought Nancy
looked beautif ul in her red dress."
A young man working as an intern on
my floor said, “I thought it was a good
speech and it was about time someone
came out for the p<x>r people and the
farmers and the urban centers and tie-
regulation of the airlines and the Peace
Corps.”
“Then you didn’t get the impression
“Perhaps they weren't paying n _ K | t j ca l
tion because the president had '
same speech before,” I suggested. j ta ij st j< s
“it doesn’t matter if they heard fined as
fore. I hev should have pretendei mea , n ? ()l
didn't." . A
has exp;
My third survey victim told mtlyels woi
thing she liked about the speech* diifc sak
president’s tie.
“Is there anything else you rerocL^^I
alxHit it In-sides the presidents tie:
. “No,” she said. “Was I supposed 1
“Forget the president’s speech[S
moment. What did you thinko! I
Democratic reply?” HOI'
\\ hat reply." cation rt
“They put on their own reply ling felt i
president’s State ofthe Union speed* 16 , H<)1
Rodeo, i
“I didn’t hear it. I was watcninj. junioi
nasty.’”
“Don’t tell me you’d ratherwatdifj
nasty’ than hear the Democrats(
their party."
She said in disbelief,
putting me on.”
morality
helmets. (If a cyclist scrambles his brains
and becomes an invalid, his act is not
just, as philosophers say, a “self-regar
ding” act. Rather, it is “other-regarding”
because, thanks to the insurance indus
try and extensive government involve
ment in the provision of medical re
sources, we have socialized the burdens
that result from individual irrationality,
however consensual.)
The form of ethical argument natural
to Americans and favored by libertari
ans favors libertarianism. It turns on
strict individualism — the individual’s
information, the individual’s consent
and the individual’s rights, including his
right to have government share the bur
dens he incurs. Such an argument skews
policy debates because it excludes com
munitarian concerns, especially con
cerns for community values.
The soul of Silverman’s argument is
that the city is not interfering with any
one’s right to commit any sexual act, but
only with the bathhouse owner’s right to
facilitate dangerous sexual activity. He
says the reason the city is right to inter
fere is the same reason that a civilized
city would close a Russian-roulette par
lor: Life is good, and the law, a powerf ul
teacher for good or ill, should affirm
the preciousness of life by discouraging
behavior that cheapens it.
Is this an argument for
morality”? Yes.
‘legislating
George Will is a
Washington Post.
columnist for the
Shelley Hoekslra. ManagingEdiw
Ed C tassavoy. City Editor
Kellie Dworaczyk, News Editor
Michelle I’owe, Editorial Page EdiK
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
FALCON
SNOWM1
MRS. SO
MICKI &
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editors J JEWS
Kari Fluegel, RhondaIf;
Assistant News Editors Hffll
s:ty«W
Cami Brown, John Hallett.K;
Assistant Sports Editor
CliareanWil
Entertainment Editors...
Shawn Behlen, Eeigh-EIW
Staff Writers CathieAntlti
Brandon Berry, DainaliBull
Ann Cervenka, MichaelCrjd«
Kirsten Dietz,
fat rice Koranek, Trent Leo
Sarah Oates,Jem
Tricia Parker, LynnRac
Copy Editors .Jan Perry, Kellt)
Make-up Editors Karen
Karla!
Columnists Kevin hula, Loren!
Editorial Cartoonist Mike
Sports Cartoonist Dale
Copy Writer CathyBeK
Photo Editor KatherineB 1
Photographers Anthony h
Wavne Crabein. Bill Hughes, Frank In 1
ter R
Specials
Mua^
John Makely, Peter Rocha, Dean! ^
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