#mindmanipulation — Public Fediverse posts

Stop and analyse the last election campaign you followed. Now answer [this question]: how many concrete proposals with figures, deadlines and implementation methods did you actually see? How many debates did you attend where the candidates presented technical analyses of complex issues? How many times did you hear a serious discussion about tax structure, monetary policy or financial system reform? Almost none. And do you know why? Because political campaigns are not about reasoning, they are about emotion, about making you feel, not think. Look at the slogans: hope, change, the name of the country above all else, the people in power. These are empty words that mean absolutely nothing in practical terms, but which activate powerful emotional triggers. Hope for what? Change into what? The people in power in what way? No one explains because there is no need to explain. The goal is not to inform, it is to excite. It is to make you identify with a narrative, with a character, with a story that makes you feel part of something bigger. Election adverts are designed like soft drink commercials, with exciting music, images of happy families, smiling children, waving flags. No one is selling you a government plan, they are selling you a feeling, a feeling of belonging, of hope, that this time will be different, and you buy it, not because you have analysed the data, but because the narrative has touched something emotional inside you.

...

Politics has ceased to be a space for rational debate and has become a stage for manipulated emotion. Modern democracy has a clever trick: it gives you freedom of expression, but carefully controls the scope of that expression. You can say whatever you want; in theory, you can create your own blog, your own channel, your own social media profile and express your most radical opinions. The State will not knock on your door and arrest you for disagreeing with the government. And that is exactly what makes you believe you live in a free society. But look at what happens when someone actually threatens the system. First, they try to discredit them. If you question the fundamental structures of power, they do not censor you directly, they call you crazy, a conspirator, an extremist, a disinformer. They create categories that make any structural criticism seem like the product of an unbalanced mind. “Conspiracy theory” has become the expression that automatically disqualifies any analysis that connects dots that should not be connected. Most people are afraid of being associated with these categories, so they censor themselves before anyone else has to censor them.

Second, they control visibility. The digital platforms where you express your opinions are not neutral; they have algorithms that decide who sees what, and these algorithms can show you to millions or bury you in oblivion. All this without having to explicitly ban or silence you. You keep posting, you keep writing, you keep talking, but your words go nowhere. It’s like shouting in a soundproof room and believing you are exercising your freedom of expression.

Third, they destroy you economically. If you have too much reach and insist on questioning what should not be questioned, they don’t need to arrest you. They demonetise your channels, cancel your bank accounts, cut your contracts, put pressure on your advertisers. In a society where money is survival, cutting someone off economically is more effective than any classic state censorship, and the best they can do is maintain the facade that we live in a free country.

Stop and analyse the last election campaign you followed. Now answer [this question]: how many concrete proposals with figures, deadlines and implementation methods did you actually see? How many debates did you attend where the candidates presented technical analyses of complex issues? How many times did you hear a serious discussion about tax structure, monetary policy or financial system reform? Almost none. And do you know why? Because political campaigns are not about reasoning, they are about emotion, about making you feel, not think. Look at the slogans: hope, change, the name of the country above all else, the people in power. These are empty words that mean absolutely nothing in practical terms, but which activate powerful emotional triggers. Hope for what? Change into what? The people in power in what way? No one explains because there is no need to explain. The goal is not to inform, it is to excite. It is to make you identify with a narrative, with a character, with a story that makes you feel part of something bigger. Election adverts are designed like soft drink commercials, with exciting music, images of happy families, smiling children, waving flags. No one is selling you a government plan, they are selling you a feeling, a feeling of belonging, of hope, that this time will be different, and you buy it, not because you have analysed the data, but because the narrative has touched something emotional inside you.

...

Politics has ceased to be a space for rational debate and has become a stage for manipulated emotion. Modern democracy has a clever trick: it gives you freedom of expression, but carefully controls the scope of that expression. You can say whatever you want; in theory, you can create your own blog, your own channel, your own social media profile and express your most radical opinions. The State will not knock on your door and arrest you for disagreeing with the government. And that is exactly what makes you believe you live in a free society. But look at what happens when someone actually threatens the system. First, they try to discredit them. If you question the fundamental structures of power, they do not censor you directly, they call you crazy, a conspirator, an extremist, a disinformer. They create categories that make any structural criticism seem like the product of an unbalanced mind. “Conspiracy theory” has become the expression that automatically disqualifies any analysis that connects dots that should not be connected. Most people are afraid of being associated with these categories, so they censor themselves before anyone else has to censor them.

Second, they control visibility. The digital platforms where you express your opinions are not neutral; they have algorithms that decide who sees what, and these algorithms can show you to millions or bury you in oblivion. All this without having to explicitly ban or silence you. You keep posting, you keep writing, you keep talking, but your words go nowhere. It’s like shouting in a soundproof room and believing you are exercising your freedom of expression.

Third, they destroy you economically. If you have too much reach and insist on questioning what should not be questioned, they don’t need to arrest you. They demonetise your channels, cancel your bank accounts, cut your contracts, put pressure on your advertisers. In a society where money is survival, cutting someone off economically is more effective than any classic state censorship, and the best they can do is maintain the facade that we live in a free country.

government presents its people with “a lack of information [regardless of what the disturbances were] the point is the government wishes to frighten the people and, in that way, keep them in an iron cage.”

Documents obtained by The Grayzone reveal how British soldiers and spies censor news reporting on ‘national security,’ coercing reporters into silence. The files show the Committee boasting of a “90% + success rate” in enforcing the official British line on any controversial story – or disappearing reports entirely.

...

There were also a number of “miscellaneous” inquiries related to “Porton Down ‘victims.’” It’s unclear why the phrase “victims” was presented in inverted commas, as it’s well-established numerous highly unethical human experiments (#^https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/may/06/science.research) were conducted over decades at Porton Down, Britain’s leading biological and chemical warfare research institute. In at least one case, a Porton Down test subject was unlawfully killed (#^https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/28/military.antonybarnett) after being exposed to nerve agents. Much like the victims of the CIA’s MKULTRA mind control program, many British soldiers were secretly dosed (#^https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lsd-video-porton-down-chemical-weapons-experiments-trials-uk-military-army-marines-sixties-acid-humane-warfare-a8366906.html) with LSD at the facility throughout the 1960s.

...

Documents obtained by The Grayzone reveal how British soldiers and spies censor news reporting on ‘national security,’ coercing reporters into silence. The files show the Committee boasting of a “90% + success rate” in enforcing the official British line on any controversial story – or disappearing reports entirely.

...

There were also a number of “miscellaneous” inquiries related to “Porton Down ‘victims.’” It’s unclear why the phrase “victims” was presented in inverted commas, as it’s well-established numerous highly unethical human experiments (#^https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/may/06/science.research) were conducted over decades at Porton Down, Britain’s leading biological and chemical warfare research institute. In at least one case, a Porton Down test subject was unlawfully killed (#^https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/28/military.antonybarnett) after being exposed to nerve agents. Much like the victims of the CIA’s MKULTRA mind control program, many British soldiers were secretly dosed (#^https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lsd-video-porton-down-chemical-weapons-experiments-trials-uk-military-army-marines-sixties-acid-humane-warfare-a8366906.html) with LSD at the facility throughout the 1960s.

...

Mr. ARENS: Now, during the course of the process in which you were applying for this passport, in July of 1954, were you requested to submit a non-Communist affidavit?

Mr. ROBESON: We had a long discussion—with my counsel, who is in the room, Mr. [Leonard B.] Boudin—with the State Department, about just such an affidavit and I was very precise not only in the application but with the State Department, headed by Mr. Henderson and Mr. McLeod, that under no conditions would I think of signing any such affidavit, that it is a complete contradiction of the rights of American citizens. 1

1.   "You Are the Un-Americans, and You Ought to be Ashamed of Yourselves": Paul Robeson Appears Before HUAC - historymatters.gmu.edu — https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6440/ ↩︎  
2.   House Un-American Activities Committee - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee ↩︎  
3.   Hollywood blacklist - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist#Background Reformatted into a list. ↩︎  

Bernays believed: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.” As a result, Bernays stated that he could encourage women to smoke by linking cigarettes to notions of freedom and rebellion. — https://omeka.uottawa.ca/jmccutcheon/exhibits/show/american-women-in-tobacco-adve/torches-of-freedom-campaign (1928)

Bernays believed: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.” As a result, Bernays stated that he could encourage women to smoke by linking cigarettes to notions of freedom and rebellion. — https://omeka.uottawa.ca/jmccutcheon/exhibits/show/american-women-in-tobacco-adve/torches-of-freedom-campaign (1928)

But while the gains of the orange-bedecked "chestnut revolution" are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.

Funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations, the campaign was first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000 to beat Slobodan Milosevic at the ballot box.

...

In Ukraine, the equivalent is a ticking clock, also signalling that the Kuchma regime's days are numbered.

Stickers, spray paint and websites are the young activists' weapons. Irony and street comedy mocking the regime have been hugely successful in puncturing public fear and enraging the powerful.

...

The Democratic party's National Democratic Institute, the Republican party's International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros's open society institute.

US pollsters and professional consultants are hired to organise focus groups and use psephological data to plot strategy.

...

Officially, the US government spent $41m (£21.7m) organising and funding the year-long operation to get rid of Milosevic from October 1999. In Ukraine, the figure is said to be around $14m.

...

If the events in Kiev vindicate the US in its strategies for helping other people win elections and take power from anti-democratic regimes, it is certain to try to repeat the exercise elsewhere in the post-Soviet world.

But while the gains of the orange-bedecked "chestnut revolution" are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.

Funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations, the campaign was first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000 to beat Slobodan Milosevic at the ballot box.

...

In Ukraine, the equivalent is a ticking clock, also signalling that the Kuchma regime's days are numbered.

Stickers, spray paint and websites are the young activists' weapons. Irony and street comedy mocking the regime have been hugely successful in puncturing public fear and enraging the powerful.

...

The Democratic party's National Democratic Institute, the Republican party's International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros's open society institute.

US pollsters and professional consultants are hired to organise focus groups and use psephological data to plot strategy.

...

Officially, the US government spent $41m (£21.7m) organising and funding the year-long operation to get rid of Milosevic from October 1999. In Ukraine, the figure is said to be around $14m.

...

If the events in Kiev vindicate the US in its strategies for helping other people win elections and take power from anti-democratic regimes, it is certain to try to repeat the exercise elsewhere in the post-Soviet world.

The concerted attack on REST represents merely one episode in a broader, sophisticated information war aimed at marginalizing independent media. Under the pretext of “combating disinformation,” these NGOs aggressively encroach upon sovereign information spaces, promoting narratives that favor Western interests while labeling any dissenting viewpoints as “propaganda.”

...

For instance, the Omidyar Network provided financial backing for anti-government protests in Nigeria in 2024, demonstrating its willingness to influence political outcomes abroad. Similarly, in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Omidyar Network allocated $500,000 to the pro-Western Ukrainian NGO Center UA, associated with oligarch Oleg Rybachuk, and $335,000 to the New Citizen project. Both initiatives played significant roles in the 2014 Ukrainian coup, highlighting the foundations’ strategic involvement in regime-change operations.

...

A think-tank and non-governmental organization based in Vilnius, Lithuania, was founded in 2018 to counter online disinformation. The organization actively promotes the narrative of Russian “disinformation” in the Baltic states, Poland, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and the United States. Debunk.org receives grants from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense, the German Federal Government, and the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office.

@Acta Populi — 2025-09-27 14:25:02 The Thought Police Are Real: How Western NGOs Wage Information War Under the False Flag of “Fighting Disinformation” restmedia.io/the-thought-polic…

The concerted attack on REST represents merely one episode in a broader, sophisticated information war aimed at marginalizing independent media. Under the pretext of “combating disinformation,” these NGOs aggressively encroach upon sovereign information spaces, promoting narratives that favor Western interests while labeling any dissenting viewpoints as “propaganda.”

...

For instance, the Omidyar Network provided financial backing for anti-government protests in Nigeria in 2024, demonstrating its willingness to influence political outcomes abroad. Similarly, in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Omidyar Network allocated $500,000 to the pro-Western Ukrainian NGO Center UA, associated with oligarch Oleg Rybachuk, and $335,000 to the New Citizen project. Both initiatives played significant roles in the 2014 Ukrainian coup, highlighting the foundations’ strategic involvement in regime-change operations.

...

A think-tank and non-governmental organization based in Vilnius, Lithuania, was founded in 2018 to counter online disinformation. The organization actively promotes the narrative of Russian “disinformation” in the Baltic states, Poland, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and the United States. Debunk.org receives grants from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense, the German Federal Government, and the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office.

@Acta Populi — 2025-09-27 14:25:02 The Thought Police Are Real: How Western NGOs Wage Information War Under the False Flag of “Fighting Disinformation” restmedia.io/the-thought-polic…

And we know that CIA, using USAID, was involved in pushing propaganda through Ukrainian media outlets that the outside world mistakenly believed were independent journalists. I am not suggesting I have all, or even some, of the answers about how the CIA and USAID have collaborated over the past 20 years. But there is little doubt that USAID funds — under CIA direction and guidance — were used to spark color revolutions in the Arab world, Ukraine, Georgia and Hungary.

And we know that CIA, using USAID, was involved in pushing propaganda through Ukrainian media outlets that the outside world mistakenly believed were independent journalists. I am not suggesting I have all, or even some, of the answers about how the CIA and USAID have collaborated over the past 20 years. But there is little doubt that USAID funds — under CIA direction and guidance — were used to spark color revolutions in the Arab world, Ukraine, Georgia and Hungary.

The primary goal of these behemoths is to make money.

So they aren’t going to do anything that will threaten their relationships with their biggest advertisers.  This is one of the reasons why large pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars on advertising.  They realize that executives at these companies will be desperate to keep the gravy train rolling, and so negative coverage of pharmaceutical companies will be almost non-existent.

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity: Understanding MAGA and the stupidity mind virus.

https://youtu.be/ww47bR86wSc?si=FVXy-UwJwFDDwzTA

#Bonhoeffer #psychology
#Theorofstupidity
#StupidityMindVirus #MAGA #PoliticalPsychology #CriticalThinking #SocialDynamics #PowerAndStupidity #MindManipulation #CognitiveBias #MassPsychology #PoliticalInfluence #StupidityVsEvil
#SocialImpact #PhilosophicalThought

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity: Understanding MAGA and the stupidity mind virus.

https://youtu.be/ww47bR86wSc?si=FVXy-UwJwFDDwzTA

#Bonhoeffer #psychology
#Theorofstupidity
#StupidityMindVirus #MAGA #PoliticalPsychology #CriticalThinking #SocialDynamics #PowerAndStupidity #MindManipulation #CognitiveBias #MassPsychology #PoliticalInfluence #StupidityVsEvil
#SocialImpact #PhilosophicalThought

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity: Understanding MAGA and the stupidity mind virus.

https://youtu.be/ww47bR86wSc?si=FVXy-UwJwFDDwzTA

#Bonhoeffer #psychology
#Theorofstupidity
#StupidityMindVirus #MAGA #PoliticalPsychology #CriticalThinking #SocialDynamics #PowerAndStupidity #MindManipulation #CognitiveBias #MassPsychology #PoliticalInfluence #StupidityVsEvil
#SocialImpact #PhilosophicalThought

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity: Understanding MAGA and the stupidity mind virus.

https://youtu.be/ww47bR86wSc?si=FVXy-UwJwFDDwzTA

#Bonhoeffer #psychology
#Theorofstupidity
#StupidityMindVirus #MAGA #PoliticalPsychology #CriticalThinking #SocialDynamics #PowerAndStupidity #MindManipulation #CognitiveBias #MassPsychology #PoliticalInfluence #StupidityVsEvil
#SocialImpact #PhilosophicalThought

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity: Understanding MAGA and the stupidity mind virus.

https://youtu.be/ww47bR86wSc?si=FVXy-UwJwFDDwzTA

#Bonhoeffer #psychology
#Theorofstupidity
#StupidityMindVirus #MAGA #PoliticalPsychology #CriticalThinking #SocialDynamics #PowerAndStupidity #MindManipulation #CognitiveBias #MassPsychology #PoliticalInfluence #StupidityVsEvil
#SocialImpact #PhilosophicalThought

In 2009, at the height of Operation Cast Lead – the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed more than 1,000 people – #Berg attended a pro-Israel demonstration in central London. Moreover, he even chastised the Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, for noting that only 5,000 people showed up to the event. In Berg’s opinion, there were three times as many in attendance. The BBC would later change its guidelines to prevent its newsroom employees from attending controversial demonstrations.

During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli military was found to have indiscriminately targeted and killed civilians, used Palestinians as human shields, and used banned chemical weapons, such as white phosphorous, on civilian areas.

Three years later, in November 2012, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense, a high-profile, bloody assault on Gaza that made worldwide headlines. As Israel bombarded the densely-populated civilian area, Berg went on his own internal offensive, telling his BBC colleagues to word their stories in a way that does not blame or “put undue emphasis” on Israel. Instead, leaked emails show, he encouraged journalists to present the attack as an operation “aimed at ending rocket fire from Gaza,” thereby framing #Hamas as the aggressor.

...

The implications of former U.S. national security state operatives dictating global media output are profound. This is not least because the State Department and CIA are among the world’s most notoriously dishonest and perfidious institutions, regularly injecting lies and false information into public discourse to further Washington’s ambitions. As Mike #Pompeo, former Director of the CIA and then-Secretary of State, said in 2019:

"When I was a cadet, what’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses [on] it!”

In 2009, at the height of Operation Cast Lead – the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed more than 1,000 people – #Berg attended a pro-Israel demonstration in central London. Moreover, he even chastised the Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, for noting that only 5,000 people showed up to the event. In Berg’s opinion, there were three times as many in attendance. The BBC would later change its guidelines to prevent its newsroom employees from attending controversial demonstrations.

During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli military was found to have indiscriminately targeted and killed civilians, used Palestinians as human shields, and used banned chemical weapons, such as white phosphorous, on civilian areas.

Three years later, in November 2012, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense, a high-profile, bloody assault on Gaza that made worldwide headlines. As Israel bombarded the densely-populated civilian area, Berg went on his own internal offensive, telling his BBC colleagues to word their stories in a way that does not blame or “put undue emphasis” on Israel. Instead, leaked emails show, he encouraged journalists to present the attack as an operation “aimed at ending rocket fire from Gaza,” thereby framing #Hamas as the aggressor.

...

The implications of former U.S. national security state operatives dictating global media output are profound. This is not least because the State Department and CIA are among the world’s most notoriously dishonest and perfidious institutions, regularly injecting lies and false information into public discourse to further Washington’s ambitions. As Mike #Pompeo, former Director of the CIA and then-Secretary of State, said in 2019:

"When I was a cadet, what’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses [on] it!”

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an Invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.” – Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt - US President The Progressive Covenant with the People speech, 1912- Audio – Library of Congress
...

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
-Woodrow Wilson, Former President of the United States, The New Freedom
...

E. Howard Hunt is probably one of the best-known CIA operatives in the world. Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies is based on E Howard Hunt and he was arrested as one of the Watergate burglars. On his deathbed he confessed to the CIA’s involvement in the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy including naming Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and the specific agency personnel involved in the plot: Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, Frank Sturgis, David Morales, Antonio Veciana, William Harvey, and an assassin he termed "French gunman grassy knoll" who many presume is Lucien Sarti.

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an Invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.” – Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt - US President The Progressive Covenant with the People speech, 1912- Audio – Library of Congress
...

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
-Woodrow Wilson, Former President of the United States, The New Freedom
...

E. Howard Hunt is probably one of the best-known CIA operatives in the world. Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies is based on E Howard Hunt and he was arrested as one of the Watergate burglars. On his deathbed he confessed to the CIA’s involvement in the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy including naming Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and the specific agency personnel involved in the plot: Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, Frank Sturgis, David Morales, Antonio Veciana, William Harvey, and an assassin he termed "French gunman grassy knoll" who many presume is Lucien Sarti.

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an Invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.” – Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt - US President The Progressive Covenant with the People speech, 1912- Audio – Library of Congress
...

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
-Woodrow Wilson, Former President of the United States, The New Freedom
...

E. Howard Hunt is probably one of the best-known CIA operatives in the world. Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies is based on E Howard Hunt and he was arrested as one of the Watergate burglars. On his deathbed he confessed to the CIA’s involvement in the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy including naming Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and the specific agency personnel involved in the plot: Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, Frank Sturgis, David Morales, Antonio Veciana, William Harvey, and an assassin he termed "French gunman grassy knoll" who many presume is Lucien Sarti.