Stasi Zersetzung (Decomposition)

Summary

Zersetzung (German for "decomposition" or "corrosion") was a psychological warfare technique developed by the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi) to systematically destroy targeted individuals without leaving physical evidence. These tactics have been adopted and refined by modern intelligence agencies for use against citizens in Western countries.

Definition

Zersetzung generally involved the disruption of the victim's private or family life. This often included psychological attacks such as breaking into homes and messing with the contents - moving furniture, altering the timing of an alarm, removing pictures from walls or replacing one variety of tea with another.

Historical Context

The Stasi

The Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit or Ministry for State Security) was the state security service of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1950 to 1990.

Scale of Operations

• Vast network of citizens turned informants (watchdogs)
• If part-time informers are included, some estimate 1 out of every 6.5 citizens were informants
• Operated its own penal system for political offenders
• Coordinated with Soviet Intelligence Agencies

Official Stasi Directive on Zersetzung

Aim and Areas of Application

Measures of decomposition are to be directed at evocation, as well as exploitation and reinforcement of such conflicts and differences between hostile-negative forces, through which they crack, get paralyzed, become disorganized and isolated and their hostile-negative plots, as well as their impacts, get precautionarily prevented, essentially constrained or altogether prevented.

When Applied

Zersetzung measures were applied:

1. When necessary proof for criminal proceedings could not be developed
2. In connection with criminal proceedings to destroy enemy forces
3. For effective preventive suppression of state-hostile activity
4. Against leaders and backers of state-hostile action
5. Against people, groups, and organizations disseminating political-ideological diversion

Approved Methods of Decomposition

Psychological Methods

Operational Methods

Similarities to Modern Gangstalking

Stasi Tactics Used Today

The Stasi employed tactics virtually identical to those now used by Western agencies:

1. Spied on population through vast informant networks
2. Used overt and covert methods of attack
3. Psychological warfare for psychological destruction
4. Surveillance of mail and telephone communications
5. Analyzed garbage for intelligence
6. Sabotage of personal property
7. Armed forces deployment
8. Operated in foreign countries
9. Coordinated with allied intelligence agencies
10. Trained other nations' secret police

Zersetzung Tactics

• Drilled holes in apartments and hotel rooms for filming
• Formal categorizations of victims
• Informants made to feel important with material/social incentives
• Blackmail used extensively
• Spouses spied on one another
• Gas lighting and psychological harassment
• Property damage and sabotage of cars
• Purposefully incorrect medical treatment
• Smear campaigns with falsified photos
• Provocation and psychological subversion
• Wiretapping and bugging
• Mysterious phone calls and unnecessary deliveries

The JTRIG Connection

The 5 D's

The Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), a branch of the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), operates based on the 5 D's:

1. Deny
2. Deceive
3. Disrupt
4. Degrade
5. Destroy

These are "soft-kill" methods which ruin lives while leaving a "negligible footprint" - little to no evidence.

Modern Implementation in America

DHS and Stasi Personnel

Ex-Stasi personnel were hired by the Department of Homeland Security. Markus Wolfe, the former head of the Stasi, helped form DHS and assisted in the deployment of covert and overt tactics utilized by the Stasi to oppress the East German citizenry.

Current Infrastructure

The FBI, DHS, and NSA are now engaged in utilizing unconstitutional Stasi techniques called Zersetzung. A huge civilian spy branch has been deployed in the United States for more than a decade.

Key Differences

Why Secrecy Matters

In East Germany, the Stasi wanted citizens to be aware that their society was infested with spies because it furthered the communist party's goal of political control. In the US, public awareness would trigger a backlash against the abuse of power, so it is kept under the radar.

Targets of Modern Zersetzung

Who Gets Targeted

• Politically outspoken individuals
• Academics
• Activists
• Investigative journalists
• NRA members
• Veterans
• Anti-abortion protesters
• Tea Party members
• Conservatives
• LGBT community members
• BLM/Occupy Wall Street participants
• Americans who own property abroad
• Out-of-the-box thinkers
• Americans married to foreigners
• World travelers
• Scholars researching military subjects
• Whistleblowers

Selection Philosophy

Rogue factions within the federal government do not like empowered individuals or independent thinkers who can't be shuffled around and manipulated like mindless sheep. They want malleable people who are easy to influence.

The No-Touch Torture Connection

Modern Adaptation

Organized stalking methods used today are essentially a form of "no-touch torture" - cowardly, unethical, and often illegal, but difficult to prove legally because it generates minimal forensic evidence.

Psychological Operations

Methods specifically chosen for their:

• Lack of easily-captured objective evidence
• Cumulative psychological effect
• Plausible deniability
• Ability to mimic mental illness symptoms

Fighting Back

Exposure as Achilles' Heel

The Achilles' heel of gang stalking is exposure.

The primary difference between Stasi operations and modern Western operations is that in the US it is illegal. This means perpetrators need to keep it secret.

Two-Front War

Targets must:

1. Act locally - Expose harassment to neighbors and others
2. Expose nationally - Make the broader public aware

The Streisand Effect

Efforts to suppress information often cause increased attention to that information. Gang stalking perpetrators cannot effectively suppress exposure without attracting attention to their crimes.

Historical Warning

Hubertus Knabe, German Historian

The Stasi often used a method which was really diabolic. It was called Zersetzung... The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships.

East Germany was a very modern dictatorship. The Stasi didn't try to arrest every dissident. It preferred to paralyze them, and it could do so because it had access to so much personal information and to so many institutions.

Key Insight

Gang Stalking is really a culling program which has been implemented by the government in an attempt to control or nullify empowered people, natural leaders, intellects or anyone else who they feel threatens their agenda.

Related Content

• gangstalking|Gangstalking - Modern operations
• predatory-gangstalking|Predatory Gangstalking - Detailed tactics
• cointelpro|COINTELPRO - American precedent
• no-touch-torture|No-Touch Torture - Torture methodology