The Conspiracy

// The Conspiracy //

ARC DREAM PUBLISHING PRESENTS
DELTA GREEN: THE CONSPIRACY

BY DENNIS DETWILLER, ADAM SCOTT GLANCY & JOHN SCOTT TYNES
DEVELOPERS & EDITORS JOHN SCOTT TYNES WITH SHANE IVEY & CALEB STOKES

ART DIRECTOR & ILLUSTRATOR DENNIS DETWILLER
CARTOGRAPHER KEVIN HAM GRAPHIC DESIGNERS JEN MCCLEARY & C. BRENT FERGUSON

PROOFREADERS BRIAN APPLETON & BOB KRUGER INDEXED BY JESS NEVINS
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL BY SHANE IVEY, ROBERT MCLAUGHLIN & CHRISTOPHER GUNNING

Delta Green: The Conspiracy is published by Arc Dream LLC dba Arc Dream Publishing in arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The
intellectual property known as Delta Green is ™ and © the Delta Green Partnership, which has licensed its use in this volume. This is a work of fiction.
Any similarity with people or events, past or present, is purely coincidental and unintentional except for those people and events described in historical
context. Foreword by Ray Winninger. “Feds in the Nineties” by Shane Ivey with Christopher Gunning. “Mysterious Manuscripts” and “New Rituals”
by Shane Ivey. “Security Classifications” by Robert McLaughlin. All text and illustrations © 1996–2022 the Delta Green Partnership. Quotations
from other sources are © the respective authors. Illustrations by Dennis Detwiller. All rights reserved worldwide by the copyright holders. Permission
granted to print and copy individual pages for personal use as handouts and references in play. For a free PDF of this book with your print purchase,
contact Arc Dream Publishing at arcdream.com; at 522 W. Riverside Ave., Suite #4121, Spokane, WA 99201, USA; or by email, [email protected].
For more Delta Green, visit delta-green.com. Special thanks to John H. Crowe III, John Gallant, Allan T. Grohe Jr., Christopher Gunning, Florian
Hanke, Jonas Hedkvist, Doug Ianelli, Jonathan Keim, Tom Kronhoffer, Ricardo Mendéz, Keith Potter, Graeme Price, and Corey Smith, to proofreaders
Thiago Benedetti, Michael Bourgon, Paul Browning, Noah Cline, Greg Conant, Emma Marlow, Emilio Sanchez, John Smith, Neil Spurr, Andrew
Sturman, Sarah Szell, Peter Wilson, and Nathan Yetton, to playtesters Brian Appleton, Jeff Barber, Larry Brackney, Leann Brackney, Stephen Buck, Jeff
Carey, Charlie Conley, Dennis Detwiller, Jim Ferry, Scott Haring, Peter Link, Jim Longster, Mary Longster, Chris Manteria, Drake McGuinnis, Scott
Miller, Daric Morris, Craig Pettus, Daniel Raab, Blair Reynolds, Don Rice, and Chris Stanley, and to Chris Womack and all the conspirators among
our Kickstarter backers and the Delta Green Mailing List. “I’ve been trying to figure out what to say for days / I need a song I can sing /When I play
my bass I think I've found a dream.”

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Contents THE CONSPIRACY

Contents_________________________________

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22

THE CONSPIRACY Contents

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3

Contents THE CONSPIRACY

THE FATE..................... 160 APPENDICES................... 176

Introduction.............................160 Feds in the Nineties.....................178
Stephen Alzis............................160 The Job...............................178
The Network..............................161 Oversight.............................178
The Lords................................162 FBI Bonds.............................179
The Adepts...............................162 Travel................................179
The Fate.................................164 Communications........................179
Club Apocalypse..........................164 Information...........................180
Firearms..............................180
Robert Hubert.........................166
The Wall and the Stage................166 Security Classifications..................184
The Lower Rooms.......................166 Intelligence Sources..................184
The Club and the Fate.................169 Primary Classifications................184
The Fate in Play.........................169 Secondary Classifications..............185
Using Adepts..........................170 Clearances............................186
Using the Club........................170 Documents............................. 187
Using the Lords.......................170 The Department of Justice.............187
Using the Fate........................170
Using Alzis...........................170 Glossary.................................188
Going Too Far.........................170 Equipment.............................188
Important Individuals: The Fate..........171 Information & Misinformation..........188
Stephen Alzis.........................171 Individuals...........................189
Anton Merriweather....................171 Locations.............................190
Darryl Montgomery.....................172 Miscellaneous......................... 191
Belial................................173 Operations............................ 191
Lt. Jorge Ramirez.....................174 Organizations.........................192
Procedures............................192

The Unnatural............................194
Mysterious Manuscripts................194
New Rituals...........................215

Bibliography.............................220
Index....................................222

44

THE CONSPIRACY Foreword

Foreword

I fell in love with roleplaying games the instant I cast My early experience in the RPG industry was
my first magic missile while learning to play Dun- lucrative and rewarding, but it was also a grind. As a
geons & Dragons in the 1970s. Since, I’ve written freelancer, I worked on as many as twelve to fifteen
a few dozen RPG books, shepherded or otherwise products each year. Detwiller, Glancy, and Tynes each
midwifed maybe a hundred others, and read or played spent more than four years carefully shaping Delta
maybe a thousand more. Across all those adventures, Green’s first volume. Treating an RPG more like art
sourcebooks, settings, and rulebooks—across all those than commerce, giving a project ample time to breathe
decades—I’m familiar with lots of RPG creations and become whatever it needs to be, was a luxury I
that are pretty good and a handful that are great. hadn’t really contemplated before I met the Delta
I’ve encountered just two, however, that are better Green team in 1998. Watching what they were doing
than great. These two are more than just a fun way directly inspired me to begin tinkering with RPGs
to spend a few hours and much more than a show- again after a five-year absence.
case for clever design, sharp prose, and imaginative
world-building. They’re transcendent—paradoxically It’s astonishing that Delta Green is somehow even
accessible and complex at the same time, elementary more relevant today than when it was first released in
yet impossible to emulate, fresh but familiar. They are 1990s. Those who peddle conspiracies theories about
paragraph perfect. secret government agencies battling flesh-eating cults
are no longer harmless kooks selling each other mim-
One is Pendragon, created by the late eographed fanzines; they’re Congressmen. The stars
Greg Stafford. came right for this revised and re-edited version of
Delta Green several years ago now, but I’m glad that
The other is Delta Green, from Dennis Detwiller, Detwiller, Glancy, and Tynes once again took all the
Adam Scott Glancy, and John Scott Tynes. time they needed to get it right.

I’ve been envious of those three fuckers for twen- Ray Winninger
ty-five years. Seattle, 2022

5

Introduction THE CONSPIRACY

Introduction

In the shadows of the U.S. government, a few desper- itself. We have become corrupted, our common visage
ate agents conspire to protect the U.S. from paranor- reshaping itself into a sick imitation of the cruelty we
mal threats. They call their conspiracy Delta Green. feel beyond the stars. That day is swiftly approaching
when, as Old Castro told Inspector Legrasse, “man-
Born of the 1928 raid on Innsmouth and the kind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free
Nazis’ occult studies of WWII, Delta Green existed as and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and
an official intelligence-gathering and espionage group morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing
from 1942 to 1970. After a disastrous operation in and revelling in joy.” Then, we were warned, “the
pre-invasion Cambodia, Delta Green was shut down. liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to
Unwilling to accept this, many of the group’s mem- shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and
bers continued to investigate the unnatural on an ad all the Earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy
hoc basis, but—owing to a nonexistent command and freedom.”
structure and the lack of any central files—many
operations resulted in failure. In 1994, following the Welcome to the holocaust. Welcome to the end of
assassination of a long-time Delta Green leader, the humanity. Welcome to the End Time.
group reorganized into a classic insurgency-style cell
structure. Today, Delta Green remains an illegal con- The unnatural has no “goal” per se, other than
spiracy within the government, doing its best to ferret self-propagation and chaos. But its effect is clear: hu-
out instances of paranormal activity and protect U.S. mans become base and self-destructive, and ultimately
citizens from their secrets by parasitizing the com- we become receptive to the nihilistic mindset of a
mand structure and a centralized intelligence-gather- vacuous cosmos so that all may be as one, which is to
ing of the security state. say that all may be as nothing. We embrace the value
of life and push science ever forward towards preserv-
The challenge of confronting unnatural threats ing it, while at the same time we kill and subjugate
has changed since Delta Green first began to take each other in record numbers. What are all the ravings
shape. Isolated encounters with insidious, noisome of crazed magicians and all the lore of musty tomes by
terrors in remote areas were once the stuff of primal comparison? These things were merely whispers, the
horror. Now, some of us help resurrect and perpetu- fringe manifestations of an insidious evil: the de-
ate these nightmares, driven to insane ends through struction of our common bonds of humanity and the
unspeakable means. As we rocket closer towards the replacement of those bonds with fractious, isolationist
End Times, remote degeneracy is less frightening than self-interest. Our individual lives matter more than the
the decay of society and human order. collective whole, and hence the whole must suffer. We
have made ourselves into chattel, and the day of the
Our belief in monsters receded as the century slaughter is upon us. As we shuffle into the abattoir,
sped by, and with it went the monsters themselves, step by herd-driven step, we see that those with the
scuttling back into the shadows. In their place stood cattle-prods and those who operate the machineries
serial killers, genocidal fascists, racial conflict, and the of death are not inhuman monsters—but rather our
creeping realization that we are destroying our world neighbors, our friends, our leaders, our selves.
by simply living in it. Unnatural monstrosities are not
humanity’s major enemy. Humanity stands opposed to

6

THE CONSPIRACY Introduction

We have done the bidding of the Great Old Ones,
far more successfully and eagerly than Wilbur What-
eley or Joseph Curwen ever did. Now the time is ripe.
Now the feasting may begin.

In these last years of the twentieth century, we
glimpse the fate that awaits us within the grim slaugh-
terhouse of history. It is our end that we see, and that
we seek. As a species, our surrender is complete. Foes
beyond our understanding have already won. All there
is left to do is watch as the global zeitgeist spirals
down into the abyss.

Step this way. The exit is right over here. Pick up
that gun, wave that fist, dump those chemicals. The
abyss awaits, a maw as hungry and as insatiable as
that of every newborn infant sinfully born into this
meat grinder.

Could we have been more stupid? Could we
have hastened the end any faster? Could we have
done a damn thing differently than the foolish choic-
es we’ve made?

No. Our fate is told in the stars themselves. Our
lives have no meaning, our world has no hope. Noth-
ing lies before us but death and coleopterans.

John Scott Tynes
Seattle, 1997

7





Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

Agents and Friendlies

Creating Agents Delta Green makes law enforcement experience a
high priority during agent recruitment, rightly figuring
The Conspiracy features the horrors of Delta Green in that only those intimately acquainted with the stat-
a decade long past. Players use the Agent’s Handbook utes, procedures, and bureaucracy of law enforcement
to create their Agents. It was written for the 2010s can successfully and consistently circumvent them
and 2020s rather than the 1990s, but Agent creation during a Delta Green operation. Their activities can
and professions are the same. be camouflaged under legitimate law enforcement
functions even if the particular agent does not have
If an Agent has experience with the unnatural, law enforcement authority. Law enforcement agents
the player and Handler should define that experience. are likely to have valuable contacts, security clearanc-
What happened? What did the Agent see or learn? Use es, combat training, investigative experience, and other
the DAMAGED VETERANS background options on page useful attributes. Law enforcement credentials are
38 of the Agent’s Handbook to modify experienced vital in executing operations and ensuring the coop-
Agent’s Sanity Points and skills. eration of citizens and local law enforcement. Finally,
the paranormal threats faced by Delta Green agents
Agents present genuine dangers to the lives of agents and
citizens alike, and individuals with law enforcement
Most player characters are agents proper, fully briefed training are believed to be better suited to this haz-
members of the Delta Green conspiracy. Beginning in ardous fieldwork than others with different training
1994, Agents are organized in small cells of trusted op- would be. This is especially true of the many military
eratives. Each has a code name. See CELLS AND SECURITY veterans who turn to federal law enforcement as a
on page 13 for details. second career.

The typical Delta Green agent is a career federal Friendlies
employee in their middle to late thirties, with at least
ten years’ experience. Delta Green agents come from Players can also take the role of friendlies, allies who
many different areas of the government, nearly all aren’t part of Delta Green as such. Many friendlies
of which have law enforcement powers even if the know little or nothing of Delta Green. Friendlies do
individual agents don’t. About half of all Delta Green not take Delta Green code names and are not part
agents come from the FBI, the CIA, and the DEA. The of any cell. For convenience, though, we use “Agent”
other half come from areas as diverse as the IRS, the to refer to player-character friendlies and vetted
National Park Service, the Department of Commerce, agents alike.
the U.S. Postal Service, and many more.
In play, the differences between agents and friend-
Fewer than two dozen Delta Green agents do not lies are minor. The primary difference is that agents
carry a badge and a gun as part of their day-to-day have more access to information, resources, and
work. Some are simply analysts, bureaucrats, or spe- support from Delta Green. They keep Delta Green’s
cialists within law enforcement organizations. Other secrets. Friendlies are kept in the dark as much and
likely professions include technical and academic spe- as long as possible. Some friendlies quickly become
cialists, lawyers, doctors, and so forth. Journalists are de facto agents—and may eventually be recruited
avoided. Delta Green is understandably reticent about as full agents.
recruiting members of the press.

10

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

There are more than 250 friendlies, and only a Friendly Security
quarter of those have law enforcement powers. The
rest are an eclectic mix of researchers, scientists, Agents are supposed to communicate with Delta
academics, bureaucrats, politicians, and civil servants. Green-aware friendlies following the same email and
About 80% of all friendlies are federal employees, but phone protocols as communicating with other agents
friendlies come from all walks of life. A friendly might and to only use the agents’ code names. Friendlies
be anyone from a postal carrier to a retired general to with that level of contact are still insulated from the
a New Age store owner. They might be experts in rare Delta Green cell structure as much as possible, and are
or advanced fields or potential recruits. given no names or code names of Delta Green mem-
bers besides the agents they know.
Types of Friendlies
In the field, however, such distinctions blur. How
Most friendlies are simply contacts made by Delta much a friendly player-character knows about the
Green agents. They have recognized the existence of conspiracy is up to the Handler and the players.
the paranormal and have assisted with an investiga- Besides knowing the other player characters (presum-
tion indirectly, usually through remote consultation ably), each friendly might also have two or three other
and analysis of evidence (whether forensic, financial, Delta Green agents as contacts or past colleagues.
or whatever). Most have no knowledge of Delta The Handler should choose or create those contacts
Green. Typically, they believe they are assisting in a and decide what, if anything, the friendly knows
legitimate, secret investigation and abide by whatever about Delta Green.
instructions they are given regarding the clandestine
nature of their duties, up to and including hiding such Agent Recruitment
duties from their superiors, colleagues, and subor-
dinates. Friendlies can only learn of Delta Green’s Like any fraternity, Delta Green recruits new agents
unofficial and illegal status if an agent informs them, from among friends or from among people with skills
and while Delta Green’s leaders insist that there had or experience they need. Usually Delta Green recruits
better be a damn good reason for doing so, it some- people only after they have had some paranormal
times occurs out of simple camaraderie or to impress experience or have encountered evidence of things
upon the friendly the importance of the threat at hand beyond the explanation of conventional science. Re-
and the need for secrecy. cruiters for Delta Green do not attempt to convince
a potential recruit of the existence of the paranor-
A minority—perhaps 20%—of Delta Green mal, no matter what evidence may be at hand. Delta
friendlies are de facto agents, individuals who have di- Green’s leaders strongly believe that an individual
rectly participated in an operation as a team member. must already believe in the paranormal before he is
Such friendlies are much more likely to know of the ready for recruitment into the organization.
existence of Delta Green, but they usually believe it is
a legitimate organization and believe that their actions The Handler and players can play through the
are sanctioned by the government. recruitment process or can explore it a bit at a time in
flashbacks after the campaign begins.
Then there are agents rendered inactive due to
retirement, mental instability, criminal incarceration, The Incident
or other reasons. These are considered friendlies, un-
less of course they left Delta Green under unfriendly There are a few old-time Delta Green agents who do
circumstances (in which case they’re considered Bad nothing but sift through the files of their respective
News). Inactive agents are not members of the cell agencies looking for reports that have a certain “pa-
structure and have relinquished whatever old code ranormal bouquet.” They sift further for a capacity to
names they may have had. keep quiet. Reports describing paranormal events in

11

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

explicit terms (e.g., “My partner was eaten by zom- Introductions
bies.”) indicate that the agent filing the report may not
have the discretion for Delta Green. Once an appro- The introduction is performed by the supervisor who
priate-smelling case has been dug up, the person filing originally pulled the weird report that the recruit filed.
the report is researched from birth. The agents who took the recruit on the trial run are
also there, along with a couple of others from other
The Interview cells. Usually, there are representatives from the FBI,
the CIA, the NSA, the DIA, and/or the three military
If the recruit is approved, agents who may become intelligence branches. The badges and uniforms need
the recruit’s new partners make the approach. They not be genuine. The intent is to dazzle the recruit with
arrange a meeting about a “sensitive security matter” the sheer number of Top Secret security clearances.
and ask to go over the incident that resulted in the
report that drew the attention of Delta Green. The The recruit is then given a highly-edited version
interviewers do their best to worm the real facts of the of Delta Green’s history and an explanation of its mis-
incident out of the recruit. sion: to protect the citizens of the United States from
paranormal threats, to maintain the security of the
Trial Run United States from paranormal threats, and to gather
intelligence on paranormal phenomena. The recruit
A recruit that did indeed experience something with is led to believe that Delta Green has official sanction
no logical explanation is “tagged” as available to be from the government.
sent on a Delta Green operation with the same agents.
The recruit is temporarily reassigned from their usual The recruit is then asked if the organization can
duties. The operation is camouflaged as an ordinary call on their services sometime. The recruit is given
operation for the recruit’s agency. contact instructions for the Delta Green agents in-
volved in the recruitment operation (under their code
After this second taste of the paranormal, the names) so that Delta Green can be alerted in case of
recruit is sent back to regular assignments, with strict emergency. The recruit is introduced to other Delta
orders not to mention what happened to anybody. Green agents as needed, and only by their code names
The recruit is then placed under observation. A recruit if the contact is going to be brief.
who doesn’t talk, start seeing a psychiatrist, or pick
up a nasty prescription barbiturate habit following In Too Deep
the operation is tagged for another pass. Those that
don’t perform up to expectations are never ap- Perhaps as many as 15% of Delta Green’s agents at
proached again. any given time still think the organization has official
sanction. Eventually, of course, every agent either
Smoke Test stumbles upon the truth or is told by another agent.
By that time, the agent is in too deep and has seen too
Assuming the recruit still looks suitable, the next pass much to back out. By the time the new Delta Green
is made several months later. A Delta Green-connected agent knows the truth, they have probably passed on
supervisor inside the recruit’s agency provides a reg- Top Secret information, misappropriated government
ular assignment, completely unconnected with Delta funds and equipment, and deliberately falsified or
Green. However, the approach and the “temporary re- destroyed government reports to cover up involve-
assignment” are designed to give the recruit the feeling ment in highly questionable activities. All manner of
of impending weirdness. If the recruit goes jumping at federal prosecution and personal ruination becomes
shadows or attaches paranormal explanations to every inevitable if these facts are ever discovered. The threat
occurrence, they never hear from Delta Green again. of prosecution is not held over the new agent, unless it
A recruit who performs competently gets an actual has to be. The agent is never threatened with assassi-
introduction to Delta Green. nation. But the agent is likely to have seen enough to
know it is an option. Most Delta Green agents believe
12 that the threats they face are worth the cover-ups that
go along with the work.

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

Cells and Security (putting it in the address of the email message, or typ-
ing it into the telephone keypad if calling), and their
Each member of Delta Green is a member of a small communication is routed and encrypted automatically.
cell of active agents. Nominally, each cell has three
Agents. Inevitably, some vary. The members of each The phone and email servers and routers are as
cell know the other members of the cell by their secure as modern technology allows, and their phys-
names and occupations. ical locations are known only to the members of
the top cell—and no one cell member knows all the
The Handler should make notes on which cells locations. Should any one cell member be compro-
are involved in the campaign and pick or create Delta mised, that member will not know enough about the
Green NPC agents to fill out any empty slots in the locations of the servers and routers to stop the lines of
cells. Members of a given cell know who their fellow communication from continuing. The encryption used
conspirators are, but Delta Green instructs agents to is unbreakable by current methods, so long as the
follow strict communications protocols. physical security of the servers is maintained. When
the NSA’s capabilities outstrip these security measures,
Members of other cells are known only by code Delta Green will change its protocols yet again.
names. Each member of a given cell is supposed to
know only the code name of the leader of the cell Exceptions and Complications
above theirs as well as the code name of the leader
of the cell below theirs. Ideally, this prevents any cell In practice, of course, things aren’t this perfect. Most
member from directly betraying anyone besides the Delta Green teams involved in an operation are com-
members of their own cell. posed of more than three agents, and naturally agents
within a team learn each other’s names and occupa-
Code names are not nicknames. They must not tions. However, teams are formed of cells not directly
become part of any public-facing pseudonym or false adjacent to each other whenever possible, to minimize
identity. They are used only within Delta Green to damage should an agent be corrupted or interrogated.
protect agents’ identities.” A given agent might be able to reveal the identities of
three or four other agents, who could in turn reveal
Code names are assigned alphabetically by the top another three or four agents; but at some point, the
cell, beginning with the same letter per cell and de- knowledge of actual identities will peter out and the
scending alphabetically. The members of the top cell of organization’s integrity will be maintained. Hopefully.
Delta Green, therefore, are known as Adam, Andrea,
and Alphonse. There are never more than twenty-six An Example of Cell Creation
cells active, resulting in a nominal maximum of seven-
ty-eight active agents. There are five players. Three opt to create Delta
Green agents. The other two decide to be friendlies.
Communications The initial choices for occupations and affiliations
are as follows:
Communication between cells is supposed to be
conducted through electronic mail whenever possible, » Sarah Haring, FBI psychological crimes
using code names only. It is always encrypted and
routed through multiple anonymous computer servers specialist—Delta Green agent
that prevent tracking as long as the servers are not
physically compromised. » Martha Reynolds, CIC criminal investigator—

Phone contact is permitted, but such calls are sup- Delta Green agent
posed to be placed through an automated central en-
crypted telephone router. Agents who need to contact » Jason Roderick, Defense Investigative Service—
other agents outside their cell either send email to one
of the servers or place a call to the router. They only Delta Green agent
need to provide the code name of the desired recipient
» James Grissom, parapsychologist—Delta

Green friendly

» Eric Martin, FinCEN intelligence analyst—Delta

Green friendly

13

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

As agents, Haring, Reynolds, and Roderick are Green or its mission. The players, of course, know far
all part of the Delta Green cell structure. As friend- more than their characters, but among the agents and
lies, Grissom and Martin have contacts with those friendlies there are secrets within secrets.
agents but that may be their only exposure to Delta
After a bit of discussion, the Handler settles on the
following structure:

14 14

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

>>What Do the Agents Know?

About E-Cell… Jason Roderick Sarah Haring Grissom, Martin, F-cell
About F-Cell… (“Frank”) and (“Harriet”) H-cell friendly,
About G-Cell… Martha Reynolds knows… friendly, knows…
About H-Cell… (“Frances”) know… knows…
About I-Cell… code names nothing nothing
nothing Roderick’s and
Reynolds’s real
code names and real code names nothing identities
identities nothing
code names code names nothing
nothing code names and Haring’s nothing
nothing real identities real
code names identity nothing
nothing

15

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

Big Brother From Then to Now criminal gangs and labor organizations, and spying
on political opposition groups was not a government
Most Delta Green agents work in federal law en- agency at all. Rather, it was a private enterprise—the
forcement. They know better than most the strange Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
and conflicted nature of government power in the
United States. Established in 1850 by Scottish-born Alan Pinker-
ton, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was
The development of the U.S. federal government’s performing many of the services J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI
police powers and intelligence apparatus has been would later perform nearly a century later. In 1861,
governed by a single principle: the government is not having been hired by the railroad company trans-
to be trusted. None of the Founding Fathers wanted porting President-Elect Lincoln to Washington, D.C.,
an intrusive, all-powerful federal police force such Pinkerton foiled an assassination plot against Lincoln.
as existed under the French or Russian monarchies. He was subsequently asked to create and run the
As a result of this inherent American distrust of big Federal Army’s intelligence service, the Federal Secret
government, the federal government’s development Service. After 1865, Pinkerton’s Federal Secret Service
of police and intelligence agencies has been slow and (not the same Secret Service created in 1865 to combat
haphazard. The growth and creation of agencies was counterfeiting) was disbanded, and he returned to
the result of reactions to crisis rather than strategic run his National Detective Agency. During the next
planning to address long-term needs. The Congress twenty years, Pinkerton’s agents were used to infiltrate
created federal agencies to deal with very specific tasks labor groups and organized crime gangs (like the Irish
and added to their authority little by little. More often Mollie Maguires), to hunt outlaws (like Frank and
than not, Congress created a separate agency to deal Jesse James), to collect dirt on political figures, and to
with a new problem rather than expand an old agen- conduct industrial espionage. Essentially, they per-
cy’s authority or mission. Fragmentation of power and formed covert operations for the rich and powerful of
authority ensured that no monolithic police or intelli- the United States. The result was that the “Pinkertons”
gence agency could emerge. While the huge collection were thought of by working-class Americans as the
of alphabet-soup agencies in Washington, D.C., may hired muscle of America’s industrialists.
appear monolithic, it is, in fact, a jigsaw construction
unlike any of the truly centralized police and intelli- Fits and Starts
gence apparatuses of Europe.
The federal law enforcement and intelligence commu-
Marshals and Pinkertons nities’ growth truly began with the dawn of the 20th
century. As America began to involve itself deeper
During the first century of American history, there in the affairs of this hemisphere and the Pacific Rim,
was little growth in the federal law enforcement there arose a need for policymakers to have more
community and practically no growth in the intel- information about the capacities and intentions of
ligence community. The federal government’s most foreign governments. The Red Scares and the most-
visible law enforcement agents, both before and after ly mythical threat of anarchist assassins led to the
the Civil War, were the U.S. Marshals patrolling the creation of the Bureau of Investigation, later to be
western territories of the United States. After the Civil renamed the FBI.
War, Secret Service agents saw action against coun-
terfeiters, foreign spies, the Ku Klux Klan, and opium During WWI, America’s intelligence community
smugglers, but they were never as visible as the U.S. was limited to the Department of the Navy’s and
Marshals, who attained a near-mythic reputation in the War Department’s intelligence branches. Neither
the Old West. The only organization during the 1800s was really suited for the task of running networks of
that was keeping detailed criminal profiles, infiltrating agents or conducting covert operations or campaigns
of disinformation. Their capacities were limited to
16

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

military reconnaissance missions (aerial photography to see, the means always justified the ends, and (per-
then being on the cutting edge of technology), radio haps most importantly) the end was clearly in sight.
interception, decryption, and analysis.
The Cold War’s end was never in sight. It was
The business of spying was generally handled clear Stalin was a monster, an even more insidious and
unofficially by the State Department. Domestic coun- powerful monster than the one that had died in the
terintelligence was the duty of the FBI, which also ran depths of his Berlin bunker. The problem was that for
networks of agents in Latin America. Regardless, the five years American propaganda had been building up
professional intelligence officer did not yet exist. the Russians as our friends and allies, and the sudden
switch from ally to mortal enemy was jarring, particu-
Foreign Intelligence larly among those who had personally experienced the
German and Japanese occupations. In East Asia and in
It was not until America’s entry into WWII that the much of occupied Europe, the Communists had been
first American intelligence agency came into being. the oldest opponents of fascism. These former anti-fas-
This was the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS. There cist (currently anti-colonial) guerrillas quickly forgot
were some that said that OSS stood for “Oh So Social,” the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had allied Stalin
and to some extent it was true. The OSS recruited and Hitler. That was ancient history. As far as they
heavily from the ranks of the eastern Ivy League were concerned, the time to throw off the European
schools. The OSS’s intelligence officers were recruited colonial yoke was ripe. These anti-colonialists would
from the ranks of academia (mostly from professors find friends anywhere they could, and the Soviets were
with a particular geographic specialty), from Wall quick to jump on the anti-colonial bandwagon. This
Street, from journalism, and from the military. Even situation pitted the officers of the CIA against some
convicted felons were recruited to share their knowl- of the guerrilla organizations they had built as OSS
edge of forgery, safecracking, and burglary. It was an officers during the war.
eclectic and mismatched group. Its ranks were filled
with names like Kermit Roosevelt, William Colby, The first few years of the Cold War were fought
Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, and Bill Casey. Other outside the public eye. Espionage successes were never
now-famous operatives included movie director John reported and failures were just as quietly swept aside.
Ford, actor Sterling Hayden, and (believe it or not) Disorganized and crippled by political infighting and
noted chef Julia Child. Soviet infiltration, the CIA fed one disastrous mission
after another into the machinery that waited behind
The OSS was designed to perform any activity the Iron Curtain. The CIA’s first public catastrophe
that would support the war effort. It dealt in sabo- was the downing of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy
tage, assassination, espionage, psychological warfare, plane in 1960. However, the CIA’s involvement in the
propaganda, counterintelligence, and the training of affair went mostly unnoticed by the American public.
guerrillas in Axis-occupied countries. The OSS intelli- Most Americans assumed that high-altitude aircraft
gence officers were talented amateurs who learned on were the Air Force’s bailiwick, not the CIA’s. When
the job. All had extensive experience living in the real the U-2 was shot down, it confirmed everyone’s worst
world, outside the sometimes-grotesque and often-ab- fears about Soviet military superiority (although later
surd pantomime of the world of espionage. Perhaps it it was proven that the Soviets just got off a lucky
was this very fact—that OSS officers were not profes- shot with a surface-to-air-missile). But when the CIA’s
sionals—which allowed the OSS to retain a certain Cuban exiles blew it at the Bay of Pigs, few doubted
sense of purity. Perhaps it was the war they fought, or the battle had been lost due to CIA incompetence. The
perhaps it was merely the fact that WWII did not last CIA’s image had begun to tarnish and has been on the
as long as the Cold War. Regardless of the reason, the decline ever since. Today, there is no conspiracy theory
OSS is often thought of as being “the good ol’ days” of about the CIA so vile, ludicrous, or incompetently
American espionage, back when the enemy was easy presented that the public won’t believe it.

17

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

Despite the Bay of Pigs disaster, presidential ad- gangs of the turn of the century. At that time, political
ministration after administration gave the CIA assign- bosses in major metropolitan areas hired the gangs to
ments to “fix” what diplomacy hadn’t and the military enforce their will. By 1929, the gangs were the ones
couldn’t. Every success resulted in more difficult and hiring the politicians to protect their interests. The
unsalvageable assignments. The “exile invasion force,” creation of a national criminal syndicate necessitated
which produced spectacular results in Guatemala in the growth of national law enforcement organizations.
1954, failed miserably in Cuba in 1961 but was used
again in Nicaragua and Afghanistan. The CIA’s use of The history of federal law enforcement is domi-
a secret army for counter-insurgency warfare worked nated by the history of the Federal Bureau of Investi-
well in Peru in 1966, but was an expensive and gation. Other agencies, like the U.S. Secret Service and
time-consuming stalemate in Laos in 1973. the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, enforced federal law
in their narrow bailiwicks, but the FBI is the agency
Covert operations are seldom“covert” when con- that set federal law enforcement’s priorities. The FBI,
ducted on this scale. They were, and still are, halfway prior to J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure as director, was
measures that never apply enough military force to an agency filled with incompetence, corruption, and
get the job done and yet simultaneously eliminate the political nepotism. Despite Hoover’s later failings,
possibility of a diplomatic solution. These operations he can fairly be said to have resurrected the nearly
did, however, generate huge numbers of casualties in defunct FBI and turned it into a professional law en-
far-off lands and bleed the coffers of the U.S. Often the forcement agency.
results were as ambiguous as the Cold War itself.
Hoover’s primary interest was politics, however,
Despite the end of the Cold War, these opera- not fighting crime. The FBI came very late to the battle
tions are being conducted to this day. Some observers against organized crime. Hoover was interested in big
believe that, without the threat of a hostile nuclear (and relatively easy) publicity cases. Hunting the bank
superpower to oppose the United States, covert opera- robbers of the ’30s and the Communists in the ’50s
tions may even become more common and more para- are good examples of this. Hoover was intimidated by
militarized, particularly in the Middle East and Latin the corruptive and political power of organized crime
America. However, the CIA’s covert operations were and didn’t want the headaches involved with pursuing
designed to project force where the direct use of U.S. the Mafia. He was too busy forging the FBI into his
military power would have led to war with the USSR. personal instrument of power and influence. Hoover
Now that the USSR is gone, CIA covert operations may even resisted publicly acknowledging that an organi-
be supplanted by the open projection of U.S. military zation such as the Mafia existed. Under pressure from
power into the world’s hot spots. It remains to be seen public opinion and Attorney General Robert Kennedy,
what ultimate effect the end of the Cold War will have. he finally admitted that, while there was no such thing
as the “Mafia,” there was a national criminal syndi-
Domestic Intelligence and cate called “La Cosa Nostra.” Until the mid-1960s, the
Law Enforcement Treasury Department, particularly the Federal Bureau
of Narcotics, was the main federal weapon against
Federal domestic law enforcement was spurred organized crime.
forward by federal Prohibition laws and then by the
Great Depression. Because of the incredible level of lo- During the 1960s, in order to neutralize the polit-
cal corruption, enforcing the federal Prohibition laws ical and cultural movements that Hoover saw as tear-
fell on the Department of the Treasury’s Prohibition ing the social fabric of the United States apart, Hoover
Unit. But Prohibition’s most lasting contribution was instituted the FBI’s most infamous program: the
the creation of modern national organized crime out Domestic Counter-Intelligence Program, or COINTEL-
of the disorganized Jewish, Irish, and Sicilian street PRO. COINTELPRO was aimed at groups like the
Nation of Islam, the American Indian Movement, the
18

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

Black Panthers, the American Communist Party, the areas of control. Ironically, some of the tactics used
Anti-War Movement, the Ku Klux Klan, the American during the COINTELPRO era were used to great effect
Nazi Party, Martin Luther King’s supporters, Puerto to disrupt organized crime. Another aspect of fed-
Rican independence groups, and any other socially eral law enforcement to emerge during the 1980s
or politically active group that offended Hoover’s was the use of psychological profiling to assist local
sensibilities. COINTELPRO infiltrated “subversive” law enforcement in identifying the perpetrators of
groups or set up bogus “subversive” groups to draw violent psychologically motivated crimes—generally,
membership away from genuine leftist organizations. serial killers.
These infiltrators and phony leftist organizations were
used to disorganize and sow discord among the leftist During the 1990s, federal law enforcement turned
movements. Sometimes, paid FBI informers and agents to the militia movement. During the 1970s and 1980s,
provocateurs were used to steer the infiltrated group these groups were known collectively as “survivalists”:
toward violent action in order to advance their cause, groups that had armed, trained, and supplied them-
thus providing the FBI with crimes for which the selves in anticipation of surviving the eagerly expected
group’s members could be arrested and imprisoned. collapse of civilization, from whose ruins the surviv-
alists would emerge as the kings of the new world. By
Although J. Edgar Hoover disbanded COINTEL- the 1990s, the survivalists had evolved into the militia
PRO prior to his death, it fell to Director William movement, which viewed the United States govern-
Webster to repair the FBI’s image as the instrument of ment as the greatest threat to the life and liberty of the
Hoover’s whims. “De-Hooverization” continues to American people. Escalating from the Branch David-
this day, but J. Edgar Hoover’s influence can still be ian siege, through the shootout at Ruby Ridge and
felt in the FBI. the Oklahoma City bombing, to the standoff at the
Freemen Compound, the right-wing militia movement
The War on Drugs continues to spur the growth has demonstrated a willingness to engage in armed
of federal law enforcement (particularly since 1972), confrontations with federal law enforcement and
with the DEA and the Customs Service being the defy federal law.
recipients of the largest pieces of the federal budgetary
pie. During the 1980s, both of these agencies saw their Conclusions
services paramilitarized by the Drug War, with heavier
and heavier firepower being brought to bear to count- With the millennium’s end rushing toward us, it
er the drug dealers’ arsenals. Armed confrontations would not be surprising to see a rise in the number of
became the norm rather than the exception. The INS, heavily armed apocalyptic cults and survivalist groups.
IRS, ATF, and FBI have also felt more and more of their Considering the terrorist bombings in New York and
resources pulled away from other projects and into Oklahoma City, the shootings carried out by fringe
the War on Drugs. elements of the anti-abortion movement, and the rise
in right-wing hate groups bent on tribalizing America,
During the 1980s, federal law enforcement it would be easy to imagine the 2000s being a decade
concentrated much of its energies on crippling the of political intolerance and extremism.
Sicilian-American Mafia. This culminated with the
1985 indictment of the heads of New York City’s five What is certain is that the feds will be there in the
Mafia families. The “Commission” case resulted in the thick of it, no matter what may come.
conviction of four Mafia dons: Philip Rastelli, Car-
mine Persico, Tony Salerno, and “Tony Ducks” Coral- 19
lo. The feds’ success can be seen in the way the Mafia
has been unable to resist the encroachment of other
ethnic gangs (like the Triads, Yakuza, and Russian and
Cuban organized-crime families) into their traditional

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

Timeline__________________________________________

1789 1877

* WPirtehsitdheentJuGdeiocrigaeryWaAschtinogfto1n78a9p,points * Frederick Douglass commissioned as
the original thirteen U.S. Marshals. the U.S. Marshal for the District
of Columbia. He is the first black
1790 U.S. Marshal.

* TCUhu.etSt.ReerCvoeSanesurteviGMcuaearriadnneda—nlpdartetechruertsUho.erS.RteoCvuetsnhtueoems 1882
Service established to prevent
smuggling and collect import tariffs. * Office of Naval Intelligence true
(ONI) created—America’s first
intelligence-gathering and analysis

organization.

1861 1891 and Naturalization Service
under Justice Department.
* Authority over U.S. Marshals to the * Immigration
transferred from the President established

Attorney General. 1901

1862 * Following the assassination of
President McKinley by anarchist
* Bureau of Internal Revenue founded Leon Czolgosz, President Teddy
(precursor of the IRS). Roosevelt orders the Secret Service
made responsible for protecting
1863 the president.

* United States adopts a 1905
uniform currency.
* SGerceraettWSeesrtveircneLiannvdesFtriaguadteasndthheelps
1865 to convict a U.S. Senator and a U.S.
Representative of conspiracy to sell
* U.S. Secret Service established public land as private property.
by President Lincoln to combat
the counterfeiting of the new U.S.
Treasury notes.

1870 1908

* Department of Justice established. * JIunsvteiscteigDaetpiaorntmeesntta’bsliBsuhreedaubyoforder of
Theodore Roosevelt.
1876
* First federal narcotics
* JSiemcrKeetneSaelryv’iscegatnhgwatrotsstaetatlemLpitncboylnB’isg controls enacted.
casket for ransom.

2200

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

1913 *cs ohBAviTrtfuucenhoonrthtesltteiesehapcrDnefurlsysooetetv1rovsarae9fitth3tdaeAei0hIeccsensfttll,verieneldainsboseenseettgrssacoiaapp.narglloaduiarssotaotsteuiufaehsotftdeonhei,ifbonoratrsnmtnoieathkt.okeeeyfinirnTndrotfhsgebeoetnubrrocseDlyerttyeshhentoeerof

* fIRonertvmeeernrnuaeBluArRceetavueonfoufe19IS1ne3trevcrirnceaealtfeRrseovmtehnteuhee. 1920

1915 * Red Scares begin.
**ri Tt rtoelAhAruFeorvlteminevdoeteaddorelgoPnleeloruaradrruustlnlmaatniemestlidtoayenhohnlrttePnueaiGhrapreeRaraorBinnaneuhifueseidatieors,rdthbsue.astsoi”ratlhrtuhuetiittrAnotoohoe.eVynofeaonbuMrlaolesIpitstfaanithtiwhnvsceeotsedethdanhlsoedaead“tllslrBisliA1ewog,xcs8ilaPtetetstaah.chnhhinluuaoeodmnrcuvnedittinrrtekoeydd.
* Narcotics Control becomes a * aaStTtnthhtdreereiiecSbntueujlctueprerxredepitdlttosSotsehior“rorvRenieemcdtoeshht.uaif”ntvadeirkleiisdln.ltetoTdhhefetihWnaiadcrlttlyis
section of the IRS. * eDTPsirrtveoaiahbssiliubiorisnythieoDodfenpctaUohrnneticmtuPe.rrnrotTehhnisetbelitNytsa.iroucnpotUiintcisst is

1917 1924

*iS caSciseSrsersceycytucpatpohrttitreiiosoogtogingapynrgrnran8aieA8pa—pzdghl“heeeoystedcnfhrecuiebsyMnnMys.iitBaolteljtri.laohtlcreoaTikfrhgHbyeeCertnhrioIBcabldnlemelatabriyecaeta’lknrnsld”YtiC—aNgharaeacdtnmtlicbseoeeynr.al * TAtaTsedhghcameaeapiinonFnBdtiesuasdtrlDteeiorrtazmaahueetlediosoT“fwcnrOha.ehIenainndsovaueilrGstyatdnifuaggarn’aiidstln”isgaoglnttaoohioientsasicHtntagrtdhoiefng
* STgehacenrgeitnifsSaemcroavupistcueOr.setderincoNuenwteOrrfleeiatnisngby * pbmaJreas.oglsfiiuEengmdssnegsesaiadrodnpBiHaruroloreoicecvzeateesuordsr,oscofhaafigrIpeerneevotrfefwosesrttnemihtr,geyva-ictmncriuieeocn.anhet.-,inHge a
* ltHidBahanuurererrgbfiee“ofnasBregutl,catWoacwiWfrkhvIsie.IeTcnnohaTvamghel”daes.eitesnwixtsogprtralostoyGtisseoirenoAmpnmaipensriroonisdvcaeeNabse’oiwstseYuorrsk

1918

* TriudAhennreslaBufafuoliwtrutffetstudacylourildyntygohefododrviuesIesstnrgaaivrninetadnshceNteecdei.iwgBtaauinYtrzdoieeroaniknusn’tCrsbeioertucirynonodnggr-daeuutspceutdlo.tfs
* Prohibition laws enacted.

1919

** ULICT.oRrhSlSie.amiiSMYsnpaoaeruflcsnoihguIaannllbdv.eeeIcdsno,ttmieepglsraletifcigiuoerrnnsssctoerDfiUeovnmfiiastltiehooenfD.eItpRhuSety

2211

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

1929 1933

* The scandal following the discovery * Joseph Zangara attempts to assassinate
that the Black Chamber is intercepting President-Elect Franklin Roosevelt.
and decoding diplomatic cables leads
to Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson * One Bureau of Investigation agent and
disbanding the unit because “Gentlemen do three lawmen die and two are wounded in
not read each other’s mail.” the “Kansas City Massacre” assassination
of captured gangster Frank Nash. One
* War Department organizes the Signals FBI agent survives by feigning death.
Intelligence Service (SIS), headed by Public outcry leads to Crime Control
William Friedman. Acts of 1934.

1930 * Federal Prohibition laws repealed.
Many states and counties retain laws
* Federal Bureau of Narcotics replaces the restricting the production, sale, and
Narcotics Division of the Prohibition importation of liquor.
unit at the Treasury Department
(predecessor of the DEA). 1934

* Twenty-seven-year-old Eliot Ness placed * Crime control acts, including the
in charge of the Chicago Prohibition Unit, Fugitive Felon Act, grant the Bureau of
specifically designed to harass Al Capone. Investigation power to conduct arrests
The unit is dubbed by criminals “the and the authority to carry firearms.
Untouchables.”
* John Dillinger, Public Enemy #1, is
1931 shot dead by Bureau of Investigation
agents led by Melvin Purvis, outside the
* Secret Service agent Frank Wilson heads Biograph Theater in Chicago. After his
the Treasury Department detachment that death, the Dillinger gang, including such
sends “Scarface” Al Capone to jail for notables as “Baby Face” Nelson, is wiped
income tax evasion. out. Three are gunned down by the Bureau,
one is shot during an attempted prison
1932 break, and one goes to the electric chair.

* The Bureau of Investigation’s Forensic * Bank robber and murderer Charles “Pretty
Laboratory is established to examine Boy” Floyd is killed by Bureau of
physical evidence. Investigation agents under Melvin Purvis
while escaping through a cornfield near
* The Lindbergh baby is kidnapped Wellsville, Ohio.
and murdered.
1935
* The Lindbergh Law (or the Federal
Kidnapping Statute) makes it a federal * Bureau of Investigation renamed the
crime to transport kidnapped persons Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
across state lines. This law allows
the FBI to enter a kidnapping case * FBI Training Academy founded.
twenty-four hours after the act, on the * FBI agents led by Melvin Purvis arrest
assumption that the victim has been
transported across state lines. bank robber “Doc” Barker, the eldest son
of kidnapper/bank robber Kate “Ma” Barker.

22

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

* FBI agents kill “Ma” Barker and her 1943
son Freddie after a four-hour shootout
near Lake Weir, Florida. * OSS field-tests the use of marijuana
as a way to “loosen a subject’s tongue”
1936 before interrogation. The results
are promising.
* J. Edgar Hoover “personally”
apprehends former Barker gang * OSS enlists the Sicilian Mafia to act
member Alvin “Creepy” Karpis in New as scouts and provide intelligence for
Orleans, Louisiana. the Allied invasion of Sicily.

1939 1945

* The FBI gains investigation authority * WWII ends. President Truman
over matters relating to sabotage and disbands the OSS as unnecessary in
espionage, as well as the authority peacetime and incompatible with a
to collect intelligence and conduct democratic society.
operations in Latin America with
Special Investigation Service agents 1946
in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.
* The Central Intelligence Group (CIG)
* Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the fugitive is established to coordinate existing
head of Murder, Inc., is tricked into military and civilian intelligence
surrendering to J. Edgar Hoover. organizations.

1940 * Civil Air Transport (CAT), later
called the first “CIA airline,” is
* The FBI Academy is moved to Maine Base created to support operations in East
at Quantico, Virginia. Asia. CAT is headed by General Claire
Chennault, the former commander of the
1942 Flying Tigers.

* The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) 1947
is organized by General William “Wild
Bill” Donovan as America’s wartime * The National Security Act creates the
covert action and intelligence agency. National Security Council (NSC) and
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
* William Friedman of the Signals CIA absorbs the functions and staff of
Intelligence Service deciphers the 1946’s Central Intelligence Group.
“Purple Machine,” the Japanese version
of the German “Enigma” encryption 1948
machine. This leads to U.S. forces
anticipating the Midway attack and * The CIA successfully manipulates
destroying the Japanese carrier fleet Italian elections to prevent Communist
and Socialist parties from gaining
* Operation UNDERWORLD jointly launched governmental power.
by the FBI and the Mafia. The Mafia
was to assist in guarding the eastern
seaboard’s waterfront from Nazi
sabotage during the war.

23

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

1949 1952
* iPBnrLtoUojEeBtcIhtReDAuRasTseIfCtuHhlOenKeECsIsrAeopcfloanhctyeipsnnuoPetrsiosjrmee,cstedarrucghs,
* IFeunoxstreuemalppllutiriagpoceoncnsoceouesfntAotigfhneegnsceCaycInrAdAe’ccsbtyu,bdaugutdethgtheeaotrrCyiefznroetovsrmeartltshhieeght electroshock therapy, and sensory
dpelparnitviantgiopnosfto-rhyipnndoutciicngsuagmgneesstiiao,ns,
of federal agencies. confessions. Field
* In France, the CIA supports the or ensuring performed in Europe. Results
experiments
Catholic-dominated CFTC labor
union while undermining the
Communist CGT union. * iSNneacctorineoctnlauplsrieSvseeic.duernittiyalAgmeenmcoy.crMeoasttesofthtehe
* CIA organizes Radio Free Europe and memo is still classified today.

Radio Liberty. 1953
* CNnlhoIaoiapAtrbviiteeuaohrmrneasmartewslnitaintrasBgllntueodrCdr(mhdsKaiisuM.nnpTatap)Bonoyfdrtrntr1oosso9mrho6toCp1thwhs,heiernnetnoexhCsieoBielmuneKmrtdMumeTnariientsasrtstoso.ipns
The CIA cuts off support. * lCOiIpnAeerstaatwpiisotnhEaitsshtebGe“etBrremaraylneidnArbTmyuynBnHreQilt.ti”eslhepthroanietor
George Blake.
1950
** OoRrmiCppoeinIeeotnArrsuiL-aaersisttvnttuiiesehpoolrupnntt,ao—hnrAloeMitJevoaeAdeShdXrhaa—btamnaayhhmdnretjCoodUioIwfk-iAsMrCnIoaototrsimfhasnmCfenaeuIidnAcIteci–erogosMrahltInp,l6Kioapeawaparnensrmrdetip.itrusinamdneesr
* TabhsyesaPSsuesecirrnteaotteRSiePcrraveniscinedaetfniotoinlHasalriarsnytsaSt.OtseTcmrapurtmatno assault by Soviet forces.
** CFSiphbRoBtnryeelIatopeslregnnuaitrrolznrasctztoomiasorfgsroatroadPtoaifnurinedcooaddtejnshGse.sdoerceruiitEsutpstxsgresBpsoolLetnjiTUrhieoeEienNcnBmotTIeumroMRnsitaroDtenhrrs,sfdeetuKsamlcoioWanornlaCyenecanIstao.tAhsrnneaocdvolPlefOuLaWsinsisd.vte..
* PAteocrRrxnooTupljItecleChroecHilgtOsmleKeeeMErnacKutgaUamumLsswepT.isuRtt,sAhEheexisrppneCestpIryphlAicrramhiocceosueonaogsntcnhtstsPii,crnavooureaojeenpesddeccrrttouoaongntdsiuvcaetsed
1951 * cptDAGaoshrrrfoyr.motpcoyueehuFprrogrC,alhahttonecaegakmoksyimipOcmnwdrlaigieoslttpgosLharnCSra,osDttmruhmapiaeecscsnar’iAtledprslsSeam.eeprydaeitTrcnChMcioheKhaNfeNelemCArwtiIOOhcAMwpYeaIieol.trrChakICtAoti’rhospenss

* TcHtCthoueIheuksAentCtrecuIeedosArbueiefnbnlotoessrefguriritimngnhneseesrntucichfretyeignsreacPsnrsahtciumiyecpltscaiiteipmeasgpecnsni,hdfnnuaeiiplgsnqsa.cuyilecnMushsadotnialynrotgeghiecal MKULTRA program.
warfare operations.

* CIA organizes Radio Free
Asia in Taiwan.

24

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

1954 1959

* The CIA operation TORCH overthrows * CIA involvement with a plot to
Jacobo Arbenz, the leftist president of overthrow Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia
Guatemala, using a small exile-invasion is discovered.
force and massive propaganda.
1960
* MKULTRA scientists branch out with
subprojects on toxins, poisons, * U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot
bacteriological weapons, and irritants down over the USSR. The USSR exposes
such as itching powders and stink bombs. U.S. spying to the world.

1956 * CIA begins forming “L’Armee Clandestine”
in Laos. The force includes thirty-five
* CIA begins U-2 spy plane flights thousand Hmong and Meo tribesmen and
over the USSR. seventeen thousand Thai mercenaries.
The CIA airline Air America acts as
* With MKULTRA Sub-Project 58, CIA tracks this force’s air arm. The operation
down the infamous Mexican mushrooms ends in 1971.
known as “God’s Flesh” and begins to
isolate the active ingredients. Chemist * A CIA plan to assassinate the anti-
Albert Hoffman, inventor of LSD, Western prime minister of Zaire, Patrice
isolates the chemical compound first and Lumumba, is aborted when rebel troops
names it psilocybin. murder him first.

1957 1961

* Vito Genovese’s plans to become the Boss * CIA launches the disastrous “Bay of
of Bosses are derailed when agents of Pigs” invasion of Cuba using a CIA-
the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and New trained force of anti-Castro Cubans.
York State police raid the underworld’s
Appalachian conference and convict him * CIA launches the first spy satellites.
of conspiracy to distribute narcotics. * FBI’s powers to investigate racketeering

1958 and organized crime expanded by
President John F. Kennedy.
* A CIA paramilitary operation to support * CIA establishes JMWAVE, the CIA’s secret
the rebel overthrow of the Sukarno station at the Naval Air Station in
regime of Indonesia fails. Opalocka, Florida. It is used to conduct
paramilitary operations against Cuba.
* The CIA arms and equips secret army JMWAVE is closed in 1968.
of Tibetan exiles in Nepal, organized * Operation FORTY, a CIA plan to kill
around the Dalai Lama. After a Fidel Castro, is aborted after discovery
few inconclusive incursions and by Cuban intelligence.
sabotage missions, the operation is * Operation MONGOOSE, a CIA plan
phased out in 1963. to overthrow the Communist regime
in Cuba through a program of
economic and military sabotage, is
launched. Operation MONGOOSE is
discontinued in 1966.

25

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

* CIA organizes Radio Libertad for 1966
broadcasts to Cuba.
* A CIA secret army in Peru, trained and
* With Operation THIRD CHANCE, the U.S. led by Green Berets, largely eliminates
Army field-tests LSD as an interrogation the Tupac Amaru guerrillas. CIA’s army
tool in Europe. is later dismantled by the Peruvian
government as a threat to its security.
1962
1967
* Deputy U.S. Marshals enforce the court-
ordered registration of James Meredith, * Bolivian rangers trained and advised
an African-American, at the University by the CIA capture Cuban revolutionary
of Mississippi. Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Despite on-site
CIA requests to keep Guevara alive for
1963 questioning, the Bolivians execute him.

* The CIA helps overthrow and assassinate 1968
President Diem of South Vietnam. During
the coup, Diem’s loyal air force is kept * The Federal Bureau of Narcotics merges
grounded through the use of powerful with the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control
laxatives supplied by CIA scientists. to create the Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs (BNDD).
* President Kennedy is assassinated in
Dallas, Texas. Kennedy is the only * James Earl Ray assassinates Dr. Martin
president killed while under Secret Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee.
Service protection.
* Sirhan Sirhan assassinates Senator
* Project MKULTRA is replaced by Project Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles
MKSEARCH. MKSEARCH absorbs MKULTRA’s after Kennedy wins the California
subprojects while continuing the presidential nomination.
behavioral and psychological research
programs at considerably reduced * The Secret Service’s charter is expanded
budgetary levels. to cover the protection of major
presidential and vice-presidential
1964 candidates during election campaigns.

* The infamous “Suicide Letter” is sent * Operation PHOENIX, a CIA assassination
by the FBI to civil rights leader program to eliminate the Viet Cong
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., warning infrastructure in South Vietnam, is
him that he would be exposed as an sanctioned by the Vietnamese government.
adulterer if he accepted the Nobel Peace The CIA withdraws support for the program
Prize and suggesting that he commit in 1972 under mounting public outcry.
suicide instead. It is estimated that more than twenty-
five thousand South Vietnamese civilians
* CIA spends $2.6 million to defeat the were executed as VC, suspected VC, and
candidacy of Salvador Allende for sympathizers, and another thirty thousand
president of Chile. were detained without trial for up
to two years.
* CIA provides B-26 and T-28 bombers
with American and Cuban exile pilots
to the government of Zaire to defeat
nationalist rebels.

26

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

1970 1973

* The Omnibus Crime Act puts the U.S. * The Drug Enforcement Administration
Marshals Service in charge of witness (DEA) formed, taking on the duties
protection and relocation. of the Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs. Federal narcotics
* CIA launches Operation TRACK I to investigations move from the Treasury
destabilize the Chilean economy and to the Justice Department.
rally opposition against President
Salvador Allende. * Two marshals are wounded and two Sioux
are killed during the seventy-day
1971 occupation by American Indian Movement
(AIM) militants of South Dakota’s Pine
* Nixon’s Chief of Staff, John Erlichman, Ridge Reservation.
organizes the “Plumbers” to plug the
administration’s leaks. The Plumbers * With Operation TRACK II, the CIA
include ex-FBI special agent G. Gordon assists the Chilean military in the
Liddy and Howard Hunt, a former CIA overthrow of Socialist President
case officer. Salvador Allende. Allende is killed
during the coup.
* The Secret Service begins protecting
visiting heads of state and * CIA terminates Operation MHCHAOS,
foreign dignitaries. through which the CIA had collected
and collated information on anti-
* The FBI officially disbands its Vietnam War protesters and even
infamous domestic counterintelligence penetrated their organizations in
program COINTELPRO. The program an attempt to discover the groups’
had been aimed at “disrupting” and foreign (Soviet) backers. MHCHAOS
“neutralizing” various political groups represents the CIA’s most serious
seen as threats to national security, violation of its no-domestic-
including minority activist groups. operations charter to date.

1972 * Director of Central Intelligence
James Schesinger orders a report on
* The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and all illegal or improper CIA activities
Firearms (ATF) becomes an independent known to the CIA. The seven-hundred
agency. Prior to this, the ATF’s page report remains classified and is
duties were performed by the IRS. known as “the Family Jewels.”

* J. Edgar Hoover—director of the FBI 1974
from 1924 to 1972—dies.
* Six members of the Symbionese
* Project MKSEARCH terminated, along Liberation Army (SLA) die in a gun
with all (acknowledged) CIA research battle with the FBI and an LAPD SWAT
into bacteriological and chemical team in Los Angeles.
control of human behavior. Rumors
persist that the CIA’s Directorate * IRS Commissioner Donald Alexander,
of Science and Technology is still following revelations of
pursuing research in such fields as “unconventional techniques” used to
hypnotism, parapsychology, “psi- secure evidence in IRS operations
espionage,” and, most importantly, TRADEWINDS and LEPRECHAUN, severely
selective memory destruction.

27

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

limits the IRS Intelligence Division’s * NSA convinces IBM to shorten its first
ability to conduct investigations. publicly marketed data encryption chip,
Most of the IRS’s powers have since known as “Lucifer,” down to a level of
been restored, except the authority to complexity that the NSA could decode
conduct wire-taps. if necessary.

1975 1977

* Patricia Hearst and three other * Navy Admiral Bobby Inman disbands
members of the SLA are arrested in San Naval Task Force 157, a covert Naval
Francisco by FBI agents. intelligence operation. No explanation
for terminating this highly successful
* Two attempts are made on the life of operation is ever provided.
President Gerald Ford. The first is in
Sacramento by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, 1978
a former member of the Manson family.
The second is seventeen days later * Twenty-one former civilian agents of
when Sara Jane Moore tries to shoot Naval Task Force 157 go to court to
Ford in San Francisco. demand civil service benefits for
their work with the Navy intelligence
* For the first time, the Secret Service unit, which officially did not exist.
adds women to their assassin profiles.
* IBM’s “hobbled” Lucifer chip
* Two FBI agents and one member of the becomes the computer industry’s Data
militant American Indian Movement Encryption Standard (DES). Privately
(AIM) are killed in a shootout at the produced encryption will not appear on
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. the market until the 1990s.

* The CIA begins its support of 1979
Joseph Savimbi and the UNITA rebels
in Angola. Support will not be * Operation EAGLE CLAW fails in its
withdrawn until 1991. attempt to rescue the fifty-two
American hostages in Iran, when a
* CIA station chief Richard Welch Marine helicopter crashes into its Air
assassinated by extremists in Athens Force refueling plane. Five airmen and
after his cover is blown by an three Marines die.
American covert-operations magazine.
* The CIA begins operations to arm and
* With Project JESSICA, the CIA recovers train the Afghan Mujaheddin to resist
half of a sunken Soviet Golf II the Soviet invasion.
diesel-powered ballistic missile
submarine northwest of Hawaii. * Joseph Ryan kills a Secret Service
agent at the Service’s Denver
1976 office before being shot dead. He
had previously been committed for
* The Secret Service makes a record haul trying to crash his car through the
in the Bronx, New York City, from a White House gates.
counterfeiting ring that had produced
twenty million dollars in bad bills.

28

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

1980 * Car-bomb attack in Beirut against the
U.S. embassy kills eight CIA employees.
* The FBI begins use of lasers to detect A similar attack destroys the Marine
fingerprints previously undetectable to barracks at the Beirut Airport and
chemicals or powders. kills over two hundred U.S. Marines.

1981 * Robert Kahl, head of the militant anti-
tax group Posse Comitatus, is killed
* John W. Hinckley, Jr., attempts to after a two-hour gun battle with the
assassinate President Ronald Reagan FBI. Kahl was wanted for the fatal
in Washington, D.C., wounding the shooting of two marshals.
president and three others.
1984
* FBI agents arrest Wayne B. Williams,
subsequently convicted as the Atlanta * CIA-trained seaborne commandos mine
child murderer. Atlantic- and Pacific-coast Nicaraguan
ports. Congressional outrage over the
* The CIA and the Army’s Intelligence damage to non-Communist Bloc shipping,
Support Activity (ISA) smuggle as well as repeated stories of Contra
Christian Phalangist leader atrocities, results in the Boland
Bashir Gemayel back into Amendment, cutting off Contra military
Lebanon, circumventing a Syrian aid until 1987.
assassination plot.
* National Security Council Director
1982: Admiral Poindexter orders Lt. Colonel
Oliver North to arrange for “private”
* The ISA plays a role in the rescue of military assistance to the Contras.
Brigadier General James Dozier from This operation would later be
Italian terrorists. revealed to the public as the Iran-
Contra scandal.
* CIA personnel numbers double at the
station in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as * CIA station chief of Lebanon William
the CIA begins to train and equip the Buckley is kidnapped and tortured to
newly formed Contra rebels in Nicaragua. death by Islamic terrorists.

* CIA-trained saboteurs begin a campaign * National Security Directive 145 charges
of sabotage against the Sandinista the NSA with maintaining the security
government of Nicaragua. of the U.S. government’s civilian
computer systems.
* The CIA distributes “invisible ink” for
hand stamps at voting booths in El * Robert Mathews, founder of the white
Salvador to prevent retaliation by FSLN supremacist group The Order, dies in a
rebels against those who voted. fire caused by an FBI tear gas grenade.
Mathews was wanted for murdering Jewish
* Operation QUEENS HUNTER is launched, a talk-radio host Alan Berg, as well as
joint CIA-ISA operation tracking FSLN robbing an armored car and shooting
rebels through their radio activity. an FBI agent.

1983 29

* CIA-trained seaborne commandos use
mortars to ignite 3.4 million gallons
of fuel in storage tanks at the
Nicaraguan port of Cortino.

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

1985 1987

* The FBI uncovers the Walker * 1984’s National Security Directive
family spy ring. 145 is withdrawn; the NSA now only
oversees security for Department of
* An FBI and Justice Department Defense computer systems.
investigation culminates in the
indictment of the heads of New York 1988
City's five Mafia families. Four
Mafia leaders:Philip “Rusty” Rastelli, * The Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan.
Carmine “The Snake” Persico, “Fat Tony” The CIA’s Afghan operation is touted
Salerno, and “Tony Ducks” Corallo—are as a major success.
convicted under the new Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations 1990
(RICO) Act. “Big Paul” Castellano is
assassinated by his successor John * The U.S. Marshals Service arrests
Gotti to prevent Castellano from Gen. Manuel Noriega in Panama City in
becoming a government witness. Operation JUST CAUSE.
* DEA agent Enrique Camarena tortured
to death by drug dealers in * The Secret Service raids Steve
Guadalajara, Mexico. Jackson Games and confiscates several
* Major Arthur D. Nicholson, a member computers. The Secret Service was
of U.S. Military Liaison Mission under the misapprehension that the
to East Germany, is shot dead by in-development GURPS Cyberpunk RPG
a Soviet sentry while touring a sourcebook was a computer crime manual.
Soviet Army base. SJG files a lawsuit in response,
* CIA stops organizing El Salvadoran aided by the non-profit Electronic
anti-guerrilla units who track FSLN Frontier Foundation.
rebels in the mountains.
* CIA Operation TULIP begins support for 1991
the anti-Quaddafi National Front for
the Salvation of Libya. * This year brings a massive
intelligence community mobilization
1986 of assets and resources during the
Gulf War with Iraq. The CIA is widely
* On the bloodiest day in FBI history, criticized for underestimating the
two agents killed and five wounded effectiveness of the Allied air war
during a shootout with bank robbers in and for its failure to locate either
Miami. Both bank robbers are killed. the Iraqi SCUD missile launchers or
Saddam Hussein. CIA Director William
* The CIA receives authorization to arm Webster resigns due to these failures.
and train the Mujaheddin in the use of * After three unsuccessful attempts,
Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. the FBI and the Justice Department
finally convict John Gotti, head
of the Gambino crime family, of
federal offenses.

30

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

1992 * Four ATF agents and as many as ten
Branch Davidian cultists die near Waco,
* Fugitive white supremacist Randy Texas, during the initial attempt to
Weaver surrenders to FBI agents after serve a warrant on the cult’s leader,
an eleven-day standoff at Ruby Ridge, David Koresh, for federal firearms
Idaho. The initial attempt by U.S. violations. Fifty-one days later, the
Marshals to arrest Weaver resulted FBI’s attempt to flush the cultists
in a shootout that claimed the life out of their fortified compound
of one marshal and Weaver’s son. An with tear gas results in the deaths
FBI sniper killed Weaver’s wife of ninety-three cult members. This
during the siege. Right-wing fringe incident further spurs the militia
groups (such as militias) point to movement of right-wing extremist
this incident as a clear example of groups in the U.S.
outrageous and actionable behavior by
the federal government. * The World Trade Center bombing kills
six and injures one thousand. The FBI
* The FBI arrests Sol Wachler, the Chief charges Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and
Justice of the Supreme Court of New fourteen others in the bombing and
York, on charges of extortion and conspiracy to commit further acts of
conspiracy to commit kidnapping. terrorism in the Manhattan area.

* The FBI unsuccessfully lobbies * CIA case officer Freddie Woodruff
Congress to outlaw the use of DES is accidentally killed in Tiblisi,
encryption chips in digitized Georgia, during an attempt to kill the
cellular phones. The DES encryption Georgian Minister of the Interior.
chip provides anyone with secure
communications. * ATF Director Stephen Higgins announces
his resignation because of disputes
1993 over the findings in a report
that criticized the ATF’s role in
* Two CIA employees are murdered outside the Waco fiasco.
the front gates of the CIA’s Langley
headquarters. The gunman, Mir Aimal * President Clinton names retired
Kansi, is still at large and believed admiral Bobby Inman to take over as
to be in Pakistan. Secretary of Defense. Inman has served
as Chief of the ONI, Director of the
* Steve Jackson Games wins its lawsuit DIA, Deputy Director of the CIA, and
against the Secret Service arising Director of the NSA.
out of the seizure of computers and
other property. 1994

* A special agent of the Fish and * Admiral Bobby Inman withdraws his
Wildlife Service, disguised as a candidacy for Secretary of Defense.
gorilla, arrests a Mexican zoo
director in Miami on charges of * Aldrich Ames, CIA head of Soviet
purchasing an endangered species Counterintelligence, and his wife are
without proper license. arrested by FBI for spying for the
Soviet KGB and its successor agency in
Russia, the SVR, since 1985.

31

Agents and Friendlies THE CONSPIRACY

* The Clinton Administration continues to * A truck-bomb explosion at the Alfred
back the FBI and NSA as they lobby the P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma
computer and telecommunications industry City, Oklahoma, kills 168 people and
for standardization of encryption wounds four hundred. Initial suspects—
technology for both digital telephones Timothy McVeigh, and brothers Terry and
and computer data. The Digital Signature James Nichols—have possible connections
Standard (DSS) and the “Clipper Chip” to the nationwide collection of anti–
were both designed by the NSA to provide federal government movements known as
a back door for law enforcement officers
to crack otherwise-unbeatable encryption. the militias.
* The Unabomber, whose bombs have
* The DSS is adopted by the federal
government as its data security standard. killed three and wounded twenty-three
Communications corporation RCA adopts since 1978, mails his anti-technology
DSS as its standard for secure satellite manifesto to The New York Times, The
communications and AT&T replaces the DES Washington Post, and Penthouse,
encryption chips in their cell phones promising to refrain from more attacks
with “Clipper Chips.” if his manifesto is printed.
* The Secret Service is granted permission
* Frank Corder dies by crashing his to close Pennsylvania Avenue to street
single-engine plane into the White House. traffic in front of the White House
There are no other fatalities and minimal in order to protect the presidential
damage to the White House. residence from potential car-bomb
attacks. Shortly thereafter, Leland
* Francisco Duran is arrested for Modjeski jumps the White House fence
spraying the White House with gunfire. armed with an unloaded firearm. A Secret
His defense that he was attacking Service uniformed officer and Modjeski
a “strange mist” on the White House are wounded by a single gunshot fired
lawn does not prevent his being during his capture. That same week,
convicted for attempting to assassinate another man attempts to breach the
President Clinton. White House’s security and is arrested
without incident.
1995 * FBI arrests Malcolm X’s daughter,
Qubilah Shabazz, on suspicion of
* CIA Director James Woolsey resigns amid planning to assassinate Nation of Islam
criticism that his handling of the leader Louis Farrakan. Charges are later
Aldrich Ames spy case did not lead to dropped in exchange for assurances
enough firings and dismissals. that Ms. Shabazz would seek drug and
psychological counseling.
* World Trade Center bombing mastermind * New anti-terrorism legislation passes
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef is extradited to the Congress, giving the FBI broader
U.S. from Pakistan. He was located by a authority to investigate organizations
joint CIA/FBI operation. that advocate the violent overthrow of
the U.S. government.
* The FBI opens a liaison office in Moscow
and an FBI Law Enforcement training
center in Budapest, Hungary.

32

THE CONSPIRACY Agents and Friendlies

1996 * The FBI continues its crackdown on
armed militia groups. Seven members of
* Charges of check forgery, fraud, and the West Virginia Mountaineer Militia
threatening public officials lead are arrested after Ray Looker, a leader
the FBI to attempt to arrest the of the group, tries to sell a blueprint
leaders of a group of anti-government of the FBI Fingerprint and Database
radicals known as the Freemen. The Center to an FBI agent posing as a
group’s leaders refused to surrender Mideast terrorist. Three members of the
and a standoff at their compound Georgia Republic Militia go on trial
near Jordan, Montana, lasted several for manufacturing pipe bombs. Twelve
weeks, culminating with the peaceable members of the Arizona-based Viper
surrender of the Freemen to the FBI. Militia are arrested on charges of
conspiracy to bomb federal
* The publication of the Unabomber’s * TWA Flight 800 explodes. A buildings.
manifesto leads the FBI to arrest Ted massive FBI,
Kaczynski, a former UCLA-Berkeley FAA, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Navy
professor who has lived a hermit-like search operation begins, which salvages
existence outside Lincoln, Montana, most of the passengers and significant
for the past twenty-five years. Bomb- sections of the aircraft from the
making material and extensive plans and
journals link Kaczynski with many of waters of Long Island. Early evidence
the bombings. suggests some kind of explosive device,
raising the spectre of terrorism
* Former CIA Director (and former on U.S. soil.
director of the CIA’s Project PHOENIX
during Vietnam) William Colby drowns
while canoeing on the Potomac River.

* A pipe bomb explodes in Centennial Park
during the Olympic Summer Games in
Atlanta, wounding dozens and killing
one. The FBI focuses its investigation
on the man who found the bomb—
security guard Richard Jewell, whose
life is quickly turned into a media
circus. The investigation eventually
exonerates Jewell, and the FBI is
highly criticized for leaking Jewell’s
identity to the press.

33





The Campaign THE CONSPIRACY

The Campaign

The Handler contacts while retaining a strange air of occult mystery
that balances nicely with the conspiracy/paranoia tone
As the Handler of a Delta Green campaign in the era of the rest of the campaign. These two groups could
of The Conspiracy, you have a number of choices you prove instrumental in taking down the Karotechia, but
should consider carefully before diving headlong into they’re naught but victims to something like MAJESTIC.
running an initial scenario. Should your players focus on these groups and ignore
MAJESTIC, have the Fate smack them around enough
Laying the Groundwork to realize that they’re out of their league—the leader
of the Fate, after all, is quite possibly Nyarlathotep.
Review the options in this book and decide what
major and minor plots you want to incorporate. Will Use the characters in this book. Many Handlers
your campaign focus on the conflict between Del- keep the players at such a distance from the heart
ta Green and MAJESTIC? Or do you think all that of things that the most important NPCs from Delta
UFO stuff should be drop-kicked and you’d rather Green and MAJESTIC never appear in their campaigns.
have Delta Green battling the Karotechia? Or does That’s a waste. Open the door so your Agents can step
the intrigue of the Fate and Club Apocalypse push through. Let them experience the full consequences of
your buttons? knowing too much.

Realistically, you should probably pick a primary Of course, the campaign structure described
focus for the campaign and encourage the investiga- here is only one of several permutations. It is the one
tors in that direction. But that primary focus should best-supported by this book and the simplest to put
take a nice long time to deal with, and so you ought into practice; it’s certainly been organized along those
to pick one or two smaller foci toward which to direct principles. However, if you’d rather descend into nasty
the investigators. occult horror, ignore all that MAJESTIC stuff, and
make the Fate and Stephen Alzis the focus of your
As an obvious example, we suggest making MAJES- campaign. This would dovetail nicely with the Nyarla-
TIC the major villains of your campaign. They have an thotep-led Cult of Transcendence.
incredible amount of power, they’re tied up with the
mi-go, and they help foster a sensation of paranoia Or you could take a different path through the
amongst the players. With this settled (for purposes labyrinth. You could make your own maze.
of our example), we’d suggest making the Karotechia
a straw man: they’re a nasty little group, but they can You could call this freedom. Maybe even believe
be identified and dealt with readily, providing your you’ve escaped.
players with a sense of accomplishment and setting
them up for the major climax with MAJESTIC in future. The choices, as always, are yours.

Assuming that the Karotechia will be your prima- Getting Ready
ry subplot, we further suggest that SaucerWatch and
the Fate/Club Apocalypse be minor plots, to be used With the major and minor plots of your campaign
or ignored as your players wish. SaucerWatch can be chosen, you need to prepare notes on how the inves-
a minor annoyance—or a minor ally useful in dealing tigators are going to learn about the “Big Secrets” of
with MAJESTIC—but having little or nothing to offer your campaign. This primarily means planning out
on the Karotechia. The Fate and Club Apocalypse can investigations, vignettes, Bond interactions, and other
be a useful source for paranormal information and such background information.

36 First, figure out how to hook your Agents into
the story. If you’re using the Fate, who first tells the

THE CONSPIRACY The Campaign

investigators about the group? Does Stephen Alzis Given that a number of sinister organizations may
contact them out of the blue with some enigmatic be interested in the Agents’ actions, nobody should
offer related to their current investigation? Does a ever be sure just who is harassing them, or why.
scribbled name on a bloody napkin lead the investiga-
tors to Club Apocalypse? Clues are all the Agents have Questions and Connections
to work from, but clues are a lot like food you find
on the ground: it’s either there because someone was Be prepared to answer questions. As the Handler, you
careless...or it’s bait. are the crime scene, victims, witnesses, perpetrators,
media, and judge all rolled into one. If the investiga-
What adventure are you going to run first? We tion learns something, it’s because you knew it first.
suggest “Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays” of course,
but you may have something else in mind. The oppor- If the investigators learn Nazi occult scumbags are
tunities for adventures are extensive, especially given the ones who blew up their car last month, they’re go-
the decades of UFO/paranormal craze media from ing to ask you something like “How can we find some
which to pull inspiration. With your first adventure set, Nazi occult scumbags?” Your reaction shouldn’t be
you should look at what you might like to do for the “Uhh…”; instead, create a simple NPC who can lead
next storyline—and then see if there are opportunities the investigators a little closer to the group in question.
to connect the two. Even if the storylines themselves So when the investigators go to the local scumbag
are not connected, you might be able to introduce an bars and ask around for well-connected racist scum-
NPC or two in the first adventure who can be contact- bags, you’ve got an NPC ready to be slotted into the
ed in the second. Work to plan out these connections local milieu who just happens to be a contact for the
so that your campaign materializes in the mind of Karotechia: one who can pass the contact information
players as a dreadful, inescapable whole, rather than a once the Agents have kicked his ass around the block
creaky collection of isolated incidents. or threatened him with an audit.

Risks and Blowback Set up entry points like this appropriate to your
campaign, so Agents can knock on the right doors
Since you know which organizations play major and and make progress. Consider constructing a flowchart
minor roles in your campaign, what are the goals of showing how various clues (or even types of clues,
those organizations in reference to your Agents? How such as airplane tickets, telephone records, or what
do these entities react to scrutiny? To opposition? have you) connect the Agents to an entry point, and
If MAJESTIC has a major role, are the investigators from there to someone else, and from there to the bad
being followed? If the Karotechia has that role, have guys, or whatever. Leave the clue paths general (“Talk
local hate groups targeted any Agents or Bonds to a junkie” rather than “Talk to Ray Gitelman, the
for harassment? junkie in Chicago”) so that you can simply add specif-
ic details (name, affiliation, locale) on the spot without
Keep in mind who might be watching, and when blowing your structure or having to make up a whole
they started doing so (even if it be before recorded new path of clues.
time). When sinister eyes spot your players, reserve
part of your attention for considering this question: Getting Started
if a group is watching the Agents right now, what are
they seeing, and what does it mean to them? If the Finally, the last thing you need to decide is whether
Karotechia are watching them, they might completely the investigators in your campaign will already be
misinterpret the Agents’ actions and attempt to sabo- members of Delta Green, or whether they should
tage them, not realizing that the cell was just trying to experience the process of recruitment and indoctri-
bust an inbred Cult of Cthulhu remnant that hap- nation firsthand. If the former, you can just hit the
pened to include members of the local Karotechia-con- ground running with whatever scenario you care to
nected Ku Klux Klan. use. If the latter, we suggest that you first run “Pup-
pet Shows and Shadow Plays” for only one or two of

37

The Campaign THE CONSPIRACY

your players, who should be FBI agents; they should The Unnatural in the Nineties
then (as described in the scenario) be recruited by
Delta Green. Predatory forces of awesome scope circle us every day.
We see them in crack houses, corporate euphemisms,
Then, for the next scenario (probably one of your and ethnic cleansing. Horror of cosmic depth has per-
devising, or else “Convergence”) the newly minted vaded our thinking to the point that we are no better
Delta Green investigator would recruit the other than the Deep Ones or the other shuddersome beasts
investigators into the organization (or perhaps some that once stalked our nightmares.
of them could already be members). This tactic is
interesting since it reinforces Delta Green’s conspira- Yet, even amidst the peril of daily life, these beasts
cy structure—some investigators might even be kept stalk us still. They have retreated from the frequent
in the dark about Delta Green for a scenario or two forms of direct action seen in decades and centuries
before the truth is revealed! All sorts of intrigue can past, but they remain. The rise of mass communi-
occur along these lines, with the goal being to impress cation and rapid transit has reduced the distance
on everyone the importance of Delta Green’s secrecy between us. It has also reduced our distance from the
and methods, and to encourage the players to think past, where the scars of every insane cult in history’s
like paranoid conspirators. attempt to slash through reality still bleed.

With your opening gambit picked out, your The horrors of the unnatural appear less often to-
scenario primed and ready to go, and your plotlines day than in decades past. No longer does coastal New
and entry points set up, it’s time to cook with gas. Get England quiver in fear that a small town could be con-
reading, friend, and get busy: there’s a war on, of a sumed by interbreeding with Deep Ones. No longer
sort, and we need all the help we can get. do reclusive sorcerers stir the ire of the solid townsfolk
who would come marching with torches and flintlocks.
Who is “we”? Those sorcerers are more likely to appear on cable
That would be telling. television, proselytizing for their New Age religions.
Major credit cards accepted.

38

THE CONSPIRACY The Campaign

When the forces of the unnatural take action and scientific knowledge as a result. MAJESTIC has
today, it is almost always at the behest of humans. even negotiated a treaty with the aliens that pro-
People who have been so corrupted as to seek gro- vides governmental sanction and protection for alien
tesque supernatural power accept the consequences activities on Earth (even those that result in the injury
of calling up beings antithetical to human life. Hu- or death of U.S. citizens) in exchange for information
mans invite their own destruction, and that of their and cooperation. MAJESTIC’s leadership has large-
fellows, instead of falling prey to the random chance ly become corrupted. Some members of MAJESTIC
of a loathsome creature lurching out of the swamp to have used the information provided by the aliens for
menace the innocent village. personal gain, including increased (perhaps indefinite)
longevity and financial reward. MAJESTIC is incredi-
It almost makes one nostalgic for the old days, bly powerful; however, its members are being played
when humans were prey and the monsters our hunt- for fools. The “Greys” (as the aliens are popularly
ers. We can at least understand hunger. Now, humans known) are nothing more than biological automatons
prey on themselves, and the unnatural is a tool for our constructed by the mi-go—the Fungi from Yuggoth—
own self-destruction. Yet when humanity is gone, the as part of their ongoing effort to study humankind.
unnatural shall remain—then, who was the tool? MAJESTIC has fallen for the mi-go ploy hook, line, and
sinker. It does not yet realize just how terrible a Faus-
Major Organizations tian bargain it has made. Delta Green suspects, how-
ever, and considers the aliens and MAJESTIC a major
These organizations are profiled in this book. All are threat to U.S. security.
affected by the terrors of the unnatural.
The Karotechia
Delta Green
While not a major player on the world (or even
Delta Green’s official existence began on 16 JUN 1942, national) stage, the Karotechia is nonetheless an im-
when it was established as a psychological-warfare portant organization, and one with vital ties to Delta
unit within the Office of Strategic Services. It survived Green. In WWII, the Karotechia was a secret Nazi
the disbanding of the OSS and continued to perform organization devoted to the exploitation of occult and
its curious duties as a special office operating directly paranormal power for the benefit of Hitler’s regime.
under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Delta Green’s offi- The wartime Karotechia had access to the conquered
cial existence came to an end on 23 JAN 1970, after libraries of Europe, from which they stole valuable oc-
a disastrous operation in Cambodia brought the cult knowledge for carrying out terrible experiments.
organization to the attention of its masters in the The Karotechia was thwarted by Delta Green during
Pentagon, most of whom had apparently forgotten the war, but a handful of survivors have reformed the
about the organization’s existence. But the history of group in South America. Led by a manifestation of
Delta Green begins much earlier, in the catastrophic Adolf Hitler himself (or so It claims to be), a trio of
revelations of Innsmouth in 1928, and its influence aging Nazis use sinister magics to prolong their lives
continues to this day. and exert their control. The group is building a global
network of neo-Nazis and fascist groups; with their
MAJESTIC help, this self-proclaimed Fourth Reich plots conquest.
At present, the Karotechia lacks power, and its central
Operation MAJESTIC, sometimes called Majestic-12, organization is both small and vulnerable. The local
is a high-level, top-secret group formed to look into actions of Karotechia-related hate groups, however,
the UFO phenomenon, started in the wake of the 1947 are likely to draw the attention of Delta Green.
Roswell incident. They succeeded in making contact
with the aliens and acquired valuable technological

39

The Campaign THE CONSPIRACY

SaucerWatch focus for New York’s occult underground since it was
founded in 1969. It has been managed from the start
This UFO research and investigation group is another by Robert Hubert, better known as Belial. He appears
minor player, but an unusual one. UFO study groups to be in his mid-twenties, and has looked the same
are a dime a dozen, but SaucerWatch is perhaps since he allegedly graduated from Barnard in 1960.
unique in the professionalism of its work and in the Belial has been an acquaintance of numerous celeb-
substantial degree of financial backing it has, owing rities, who often meet untimely deaths. His connec-
to an endowment created by a wealthy patron and tions in the occult world are stunning, and he knows
member. As a result, SaucerWatch is one of the few more of the unnatural than any apparently sane man
UFO organizations to have acquired genuine credibil- should. Even more mysterious is the man rumored to
ity (among those willing to give any credit to a UFO be the secret owner of Club Apocalypse, the aforemen-
group, at least), and SaucerWatch has played an im- tioned Stephen Alzis. Alzis frequents Club Apocalypse,
portant (if unwitting) role in the Delta Green/MAJES- though he denies owning it. The club is, naturally, a
TIC conflict. Members of the organization have shown key contact point for the Fate. The house band for
up in multiple operations where UFO activity was re- Club Apocalypse is known as Charnel Dreams, front-
ported. SaucerWatch’s continued existence is allowed ed by Anton Merriweather, a friend of Belial’s. Mer-
because, despite their occasional fits of journalistic in- riweather and his band have heavy connections with
tegrity, SaucerWatch’s largely freelance employees can unnatural powers, and their goals are unknown. Belial
make for useful propaganda, counter-intel, or cut-out (or Alzis) has been known to put Agents in touch with
assets for both Delta Green and MAJESTIC operatives. vital information, items, or contacts they need for their
investigation.
The Fate
Alien Intelligences
A shadowy, occult criminal syndicate based in New
York, the Fate (more widely known as the Network) This lore can inform the Handler in creating opera-
have their fingers in all sorts of standard illegal tions for a Conspiracy campaign. If any of it is known
activity—drugs, prostitution, smuggling, political to individuals in Delta Green, it is only in fragments
corruption, and so forth. However, the Fate’s leaders that contradict each other more often than not.
are also sorcerers of substantial knowledge and power,
and they run their organization more like a cult than Deep Ones
a gang. The Fate have substantial magical resources,
and often use unnatural spells and creatures to deal Among all the beings that serve the Great Old Ones,
with their problems. The leader of the Fate is named the Deep Ones have always practiced the highest level
Stephen Alzis, and rumor has it that he’s actually of interaction with humanity. The Deep Ones seemed
Nyarlathotep (the Fate thinks so); some individuals to work with a definite agenda and understand the
occasionally claim to possess evidence (death certifi- value of slow corruption.
cates, newspaper obituaries, and so forth) that “Ste-
phen Alzis” has died fifteen times since 1930. These Today, their old tactics rarely work. Coastal
individuals tend to disappear without a trace, or else towns are no longer the isolated enclaves they once
they fall victim to spontaneous combustion. were. Most are within four hours’ reach of a national
satellite television broadcasting unit. The kind of slow
Club Apocalypse corruption once practiced so expertly by the Deep
Ones is no longer effective. Humanity’s increasing
Described alongside the Fate, Club Apocalypse is a mastery of ocean travel has also made the Deep Ones’
curious nightclub in the upper east side of New York. operations vulnerable, as seen in the torpedo attack
Frequented by slumming yuppies and other young on Devil Reef in 1928.
go-getters and scene-makers, the club has been a

40

THE CONSPIRACY The Campaign

As a result, the Deep Ones have retreated. Perhaps 41
they have played out their portion of the great game.
They know the time is nearly at hand when their lord
Cthulhu shall rise from the waves. There is no longer
the need for them to reach their talons into the body
of humanity and pull from it its beating heart.

The Deep Ones now seem to desire only secrecy.
They wish to live undisturbed until the stars come
right and R’lyeh rises from the depths. Until that time,
they lie low, cover their tracks, and avoid contact with
humans. Humans are, quite simply, no longer worth
the trouble. All the Deep Ones need to do is float and
wait. They pose a menace to deep-sea exploration,
military submarine maneuvers, and other such endeav-
ors, but to the rank and file of humanity they pose
little threat. Their work is already done.

Dimensional Shamblers

These obscure beings have become more commonly
encountered on Earth. This is due in large part to the
Fate—the cult at the heart of the Network, a peculiar
occult criminal syndicate based in New York—who
use these creatures to dispose of evidence of their
crimes and other things that shouldn’t fall into the
hands of the police. Those who anger the Fate are
likely to hear the crackling of a dimensional shambler
behind them, just before they disappear forever in the
creature’s unhallowed embrace.

Elder Things

The creators of the shoggoths, and the architects of
the great city located within Antarctica, seem to have
disappeared from our world. The mountain range de-
scribed by William Dyer in his informal comments on
Miskatonic University’s ill-fated 1930 expedition has
been seen by no one since. Nor has the fantastic city
he saw. Just what happened on the expedition, and
just what the writer of that strange account exaggerat-
ed (to scare others away) or concealed (to protect the
public) is uncertain. What is certain is that neither the
mountains nor the city exist today on the continent.

Assuming that the account is reasonably accurate,
one must ask: What happened to the eight intact Elder
Thing specimens recovered by the expedition but

The Campaign THE CONSPIRACY

never seen again? Innuendo suggests that they were wizened corpse-eaters insist that it is not their place
not dead, and that the scientists accidentally revived to casually take the lives of humans—they are
them to the detriment of their own survival. We could charged with the consumption of the dead as part
conjecture that these eight awoke others like them- of a ritualized practice handed down across the ages.
selves, who had long since been hidden or buried in Becoming kidnappers and killers is beneath them.
the ice; and that, in turn, this clutch of beings reen- Younger ghouls insist that food is food, no matter how
tered their abandoned city and somehow removed it it is obtained.
from the eyes of the modern world. Perhaps it is still
there, cloaked in illusion. Perhaps the Elder Things, The Great Race of Yith
the city, and the mountains that surrounded it all left
our world for someplace else. This latter possibility The history of the Yithians is inextricably intertwined
seems the most likely. The Elder Things have no vested with that of other unnatural forces, as they exist
interest in seeing the Earth as we know it destroyed. simultaneously on either side of human history. They
Neither do they have any reason to stick around have cast their minds forward from the past and
while it happens. seized control of the race of coleopterans who will
succeed humanity on this planet. The Yithians have
Ruins of their cities may yet survive beneath the seen it all, and they record all that they can into their
Antarctic ice, or on the ocean floor of the extreme great metal tablets of knowledge.
southern hemisphere. Like rats from a sinking ship,
the Elder Things may very well have taken their leave From other times, the Yithians swap minds with
of us before it was too late. If this is the case, it is present-day humans. A human mind imprisoned in
unlikely that we shall see them again. a Yithian body is forced to record all that which it
knows, while the Yithian mind in the contemporary
Ghouls human body learns all it can. After several years, the
mind exchange is reversed and the victim abandoned
These ancient corpse-eaters once roamed graveyards to the confusing remainder of their life. Beyond surviv-
with impunity and devoured the flesh of the dead in al and the preservation of knowledge, the goals of the
great underground feasting halls. The passage of time Yithians are as inscrutable and unpredictable as the
has not curtailed their activities, but they have had to future. They seem to have no particular desire to harm
become much more careful. Many that once haunted humanity. Why hurt what has always been dead?
the United States have moved to Africa, South Amer-
ica, and Asia, where civil unrest generates a healthy Today, the Yithians have much to study. So many
body supply and chaos covers their tracks. They pass forces of human society are acting in concert to bring
through deep tunnels into the lands of dreams and about destruction that the contingencies must be
back out into different parts of the waking world. fantastically complicated to record. Yithians walk
among us in possessed human bodies, though the most
Those ghouls remaining in the United States have obvious cases of such long-term amnesia and pos-
gravitated to large cities, particularly New York. There session seen in decades past are no longer among us.
they use not just their own tunnels but also the many Perhaps they have refined their methods as their un-
miles of sewer lines, subway tunnels, forgotten service derstanding of modern social structures and behavior
shafts, and all the incredible construction that lies has increased, so that we do not notice when a friend
unseen beneath the streets. Such ghouls have typically is taken over. The Yithians adapt to the times through
abandoned the practice of grave robbery (urban cem- which they swim. We cannot guess why.
eteries being a rare commodity) and instead kidnap
living humans off the streets or subways. These unfor- Haedi Nigritiae
tunates are taken below ground, killed, and consumed.
These infamous spawn of Shub-Niggurath are rarely
An old guard of ghouls opposes such activities. encountered. They come when they are called, mate-
Remaining faithful to ancient charnel gods, these rializing from someplace else, but they do not roam

42

THE CONSPIRACY The Campaign

dark woods and linger in ruined churches as once they Serpent Folk
might have. Isolated individuals who pay obeisance to
Shub-Niggurath may well still bring these nightmares Few, if any, of these ancient sorcerers have survived
to Earth, but it is almost always for purposes of a continuously to the present day. A number of serpent
single ritual or ceremony. They rarely, if ever, serve as folk, however, now walk our world after traveling
general watchdogs. through temporal gates, or else awakening after cen-
turies of supernatural slumber. There are perhaps no
Insects From Shaggai more than a few dozen serpent folk active today in the
entire world, but it is safe to assume that every such
The peculiar insects known as Shans are, at best, a extant individual is a powerful sorcerer, well hidden
trifle within the grand scheme of cosmic terrors. and well established in whatever area it calls home.
Earth-bound Shans are trapped here, either seeking an Their goal is generally the acquisition of occult knowl-
immediate escape or building their network of support edge and the security of their own survival. When they
to make an eventual escape. The Shans on Earth have are encountered, they are likely to take swift action to
no desire to be around when the stars come right and protect their privacy. Alternately, they may simply dis-
only want to flee Earth for some other home. Still, appear, taking another disguise from among countless
they realize that they have the time to build up their human victims.
personal power, and as a result they are still active in
corrupting humans to help them in their goals. Tcho-Tchos

In recent years, the Shans have acquired a minor The Tcho-Tchos are adaptable doppelgangers sent
enemy. The Army of the Third Eye is a small British from somewhere else to infest our world in disguise.
sect of people who have been infested by the Shans No more human than Deep Ones and ghouls, this
but destroyed the infestation through drastic self-tre- utterly alien species only masquerades as humanity.
pannation. Most are insane, but they hate the Shans Parasite and predator, it lives near and within fear-
with a passion. See Delta Green: The Millennium for ful human communities that are its prey. It can take
more on the insects from Shaggai and the Army of any guise and has been found in every part of the
the Third Eye. world, but it is best known as the so-called Tcho-Tcho
people of Tibet and Southeast Asia. The Tcho-Tchos’
The Lloigor influence is minimal at best, but they are violent and
destructive, and are likely to attract Delta Green’s
The Lloigor are still among us. Invisible and subtle, attention. See Delta Green: The Millennium for more
they run little risk of discovery. The Lloigor are still on the Tcho-Tchos.
served by the mad and the desperate, and they still ex-
act a terrible price from those who aid them. It seems, Great Old Ones
however, that the Lloigor are beginning to disappear.
They were never numerous in our world to begin with, That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with
but today they are perhaps at half the number that strange aeons even death may die.
were active a hundred years ago. Those who remain
say only that those who are gone have “passed on,” Cthulhu
and whether this means those Lloigor have died or
simply travelled to some other place or state of being The ancient Cthulhu cult that claimed the lives of Pro-
is not known. fessor Angell, Francis Thurston, and many others is
all but eradicated. It was an old cult in 1926, steeped
Mi-Go in old rituals and old practices; the modern world
did not take kindly to groups of disgusting, half-mad
For a number of reasons, the mi-go are the principal revelers in swamps and on lonely islands. The cult of
villains of this book. They receive a chapter of their
own, beginning on page 76. 43

The Campaign THE CONSPIRACY

Cthulhu survives in tiny enclaves (especially familial group of private investigators. In the aftermath of this
ones) in the backwater towns of the world, but the stupendous failure, the temperamental and vengeful
cult’s global threat is long since ended. Cthulhu does Old One rained death and destruction on the leaders
not need the cult. Its loss is not a great one. of the cult that failed it so spectacularly.

The astute modern-day investigator looking into Itla-shua is no more or less powerful than it has
the secret history of our times will doubtlessly ferret been for the last few millennia. Its cult, however, is
out the odd fact or relic of the Cthulhu cult but need a shambles. Global schemes and intricate networks
no longer fear that the worshippers will track him or that arose out of the spiritualist movement of the
her down with murderous intent. The cult was mad 19th century have long since collapsed. Only isolat-
and was effective only as long as isolation could pro- ed groups of true believers follow the old religions,
tect it. Those days are gone. whether they are groups of enlightened individuals in
Toronto or slow-witted farmers on lonely homesteads
Great Cthulhu, of course, still waits and still in Great Britain.
dreams. He still has his worshippers, but most are
mostly traumatized sailors bobbing on the high seas, A handful of individuals among these scattered
haunted by the dream-call of their unseen “master.” and unconnected groups still retain the knowledge
Should you begin to examine the rich and powerful of of their forebears. They prepare for a challenge that
the world, though, you would find a surprising num- waits four decades from now, when the passing of a
ber who pay tribute to Cthulhu. Most do this secretly hundred years might open the way for Itla-shua again.
and alone. Sometime soon, however, the dreams will That is a great challenge indeed, given the collapse and
come, their eyes will be opened, and they will real- appropriation of genuine indigenous beliefs and the
ize that they are not alone in their adoration of the general loss of faith in religion found in most Western
dweller in the deep. At that time, the cult of Cthulhu nations. Of course, these devoted fanatics are also
will be reborn, made up now of the cream of society, assuming that the stars will not come right before the
commerce, and politics. At that time, they will do all 2030s. Their efforts to restore communication and lay
they can to orchestrate the events of the End Time. plans may well draw the attention of Delta Green.

Until then, they are each alone, and may perhaps The King in Yellow
be dealt with. But there are so many, so very many…
The influence of the King in Yellow has increased
Glaaki dramatically in the last few decades, as the corruptive
influence of the play that bears his name has wormed
Glaaki lives still, submerged within its lake in the its way into the avant-garde and the intelligentsia of
Severn Valley of England. Isolated individuals there our modern world. Trendsetting intellectuals, writers,
worship it, and it still takes the occasional undead artists, poets, and philosophers in a group called the
servant. Glaaki has also manifested in lakes elsewhere Secret Senate—Percy Shelly described poets as the
in the world over the years, generally to wreak havoc “secret senate” of the world—have all encountered
briefly with the aid of a local cult. Such cults are few the play The King in Yellow and experienced strange
and far between, but when they do crop up, it is with dreams emblematic of the King itself.
the direct support and patronage of Glaaki—making
them very dangerous indeed. The goal of the King in Yellow today, or at least
his most apparent endeavor, is to corrupt the art, aes-
Itla-shua thetics, and morality of the next generation of humans
by seducing the trendsetters of today’s generation
As recently as the 1930s, Itla-shua was worshipped and leading them down paths of nihilism, insanity,
under many different names by cults that collaborated and sociopathy. Today’s avant-garde is tomorrow’s
in a plot to open the whole world to its power. They mainstream, after all. By targeting the unknown but
were only thwarted by the impressive efforts of a influential creative people of today, the King can have

44

THE CONSPIRACY The Campaign

global effects on peoples to come. Or do we only Shub-Niggurath
strive to see a goal, to see purpose, in the madness of
inevitable effect? Shub-Niggurath has a long history on Earth, one that
is only now coming to light. Shub-Niggurath was
Themes relevant to the King in Yellow are be- the truth that lay behind the masks of many human
coming increasingly common in popular culture. At fertility deities, even among those humans who be-
least one major motion picture of the last few years lieved that their patron was peaceful and interested
has even been so bold as to feature a fleeting glimpse only in encouraging life and growth. This is accurate,
of the Yellow Sign. This will happen more and more more or less, but short-sighted: the life encouraged by
in times to come, as the agents of the King in Yellow Shub-Niggurath is malignant. Worshippers of various
prepare humanity for the self-slaughter that will occur earth/crop deities in millennia past were insidiously
as the stars turn right. corrupted along paths of cruelty and avarice.

Nyarlathotep Shub-Niggurath still hides behind innocuous
masks and has found a particularly fertile source of
Nyarlathotep, the mind and soul of the Outer Gods, worshippers in adherents of the fertility goddesses in
has been as active as ever. His role as chief meddler in the New Age movement. Some of these worshippers
the affairs of humans means that he has remained at have inadvertently latched onto Shub-Niggurath and
the forefront of the relationship between humans and are slowly being corrupted.
the Great Old Ones. If humanity’s present sorry con-
dition has any conscious architect, it is surely Nyarla- The physical properties of Shub-Niggurath have
thotep, who hides behind so many masks that his true also attracted the attention of fringe scientists interest-
influence can never be fully known or understood. ed in peculiar biological accelerants and mutagens.

Perhaps Nyarlathotep’s most far-reaching en- Y’Golonac
deavor—which itself is almost wholly invisible and
unacknowledged among humankind—has been the The Severn Valley in Great Britain remains a fertile
formation and growth of the Cult of Transcendence. ground for unnatural activity, and Y’Golonac (as well
This peculiar group is ruled by a handful of abased as Glaaki) has active followers there. Y’Golonac’s
and degenerate adepts seeking to gain admission influence is marginal at best, but the actions of his
to the Court of Azathoth. On Earth, they work to followers remain both public and disturbing. Outside
encourage the erosion of humanity and the propaga- that valley, Y’Golonac’s influence is rarely encoun-
tion of sociopathy as a way of life. The Cult works tered, but it’s still devastating on the rare occasion
through a bewildering variety of front organizations, something leaks from its nest.
much like any traditional conspiracy. But instead of
gathering power for the sake of power, or for wealth Yog-Sothoth
or status, the puppet groups manipulated by the Cult
seek to undermine the bonds of humanity through the Yog-Sothoth, appearing in various forms and names, is
encouragement of factionalism, racism, nihilism, and still sought out by those trying to expose what lies be-
other broad precepts. hind the mask of accepted reality. Seekers after truth
still stumble across Yog-Sothoth. The being’s manifes-
The hand of Nyarlathotep can also be found, in tations and powers are so broadly based as to result
localized form, in the New York establishment known in a staggering variety of malignant events. However,
as Club Apocalypse (page 164). The enigmatic sorcer- since Yog-Sothoth’s followers are almost exclusively
er named Stephen Alzis—who may or may not own solitary individuals who learn too much, their global
Club Apocalypse but certainly frequents it—is widely influence is minimal at worst.
rumored in occult circles to be another mask behind
which Nyarlathotep works. Whether Alzis truly is
Nyarlathotep or simply acts in his name is unknown.

45





Delta Green THE CONSPIRACY

Delta Green

Genesis Robert Marsh was killed by Marines while resisting
arrest, so the tablets remained undecipherable until
The genesis of Delta Green was the raid on Innsmouth. ONI turned to the Black Chamber.
During the winter of 1927–1928, U.S. Treasury agents
investigated the small Massachusetts town of Inns- The Black Chamber
mouth and reported their findings to President Calvin
Coolidge. Having once ordered a similar round-up of The Black Chamber was a joint War and State De-
“Reds” while serving as Governor of Massachusetts, partment signals intelligence and cryptography unit
President Coolidge authorized a raid on Innsmouth. that had operated during WWI as Section 8 of the
Delta Green would eventually designate the raid Proj- Military Intelligence Division (MI-8). During the 1919
ect PUZZLEBOX. Versailles negotiations, the Black Chamber—operating
as MI-8—had provided communications security for
The Office of Naval Intelligence, the U.S. Marine the U.S. Later, at the 1922 Washington Naval Confer-
Corps, the U.S. Coast Guard, and even a U.S. Navy ence, the Black Chamber broke the Japanese code and
submarine were brought in to provide manpower and provided crucial intelligence to the U.S. Needless to
firepower. The Justice Department’s Bureau of Investi- say, ONI was impressed with the abilities of the Black
gation, with director J. Edgar Hoover on site, provided Chamber. ONI decided to turn the tablets and seized
the legal authority to seize the “suspected aliens and papers from Innsmouth over to the Black Chamber’s
seditionists” for deportation. cryptographers for translation. The Black Chamber’s
cryptographers received the tablets in April 1928, and
Organizational delays resulted in the raid being by November 1929 they had completed their trans-
launched in February 1928. Afterward, the Secret lation of the tablets they called the Book of Dagon.
Service and Treasury Department presented President Their report would be President Herbert Hoover’s first
Coolidge with photographic evidence of the “curious exposure to the Innsmouth situation, and the news
condition” of the town’s population. Artifacts demon- was not welcome.
strated a pagan religion amongst the townspeople.
The Office of Naval Intelligence didn’t want to present The Hoover administration was very busy in
its full report until all the materials gathered in the 1929. First, the Japanese were bucking against the
raid could be analyzed and translated. In light of this limits imposed on their navy by the Washington Naval
evidence, the Coolidge administration decided to Conference and were charging the Americans with
wait for the raid’s final report before deciding on any negotiating in bad faith when the Black Chamber
further action. intercepted Japanese diplomatic radio traffic during a
crucial U.S.-Japan summit. This scandalized the Black
During the raid, ONI had detained 200 or so Chamber. Then, following the St. Valentine’s Day Mas-
Deep One hybrids. ONI also seized a copy of the log sacre, the Treasury Department and the Secret Service
of Obed Marsh’s ship, the Sumatra Queen, and a were under heavy pressure from Herbert Hoover to
Marsh family history dated 1862. They seized two bring Al Capone to justice. Finally, on 24 OCT 1929,
copies (one badly burnt) of the unnatural manuscript the stock market crashed.
the Ponape Scripture and five conical stone tablets
inscribed with glyphs. Also recovered were incomplete It was particularly bad timing that the Black
translation notes for the strange glyphs, compiled over Chamber was ready with its finished report on the five
many years by Robert Marsh, one of the townspeople.

48

THE CONSPIRACY Delta Green

tablets on 2 NOV 1929, a week after the crash. The ex- 49
hausted President Hoover was not in a receptive mood.
It was his opinion that “these cryptography eggheads”
had ruined a perfectly good naval treaty with Japan
and now were telling fairy tales about aliens under the
sea. He ordered Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson
to disband the Black Chamber. Using the Washington
Naval Conference scandal as cover, and declaring that
“gentlemen do not read each other’s mail,” Stimson
disbanded the Black Chamber. Hoover then had
Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury, reassign
the Secret Service and other Treasury agents of Project
PUZZLEBOX to the Chicago and Midwestern Prohibi-
tion units. J. Edgar Hoover, desperate to placate the
administration, claimed to have seen nothing unusual
during his participation in Project PUZZLEBOX. Except
for seeing a few Deep One hybrids and strange arti-
facts, this was basically true.

Sensing the administration’s mood, oni’s officers
covered up any knowledge or evidence of supernatu-
ral events, despite the fact that their officers and men
had seen more of Innsmouth’s horrors than any other
participants. The naval intelligence officers were par-
ticularly concerned with the implications for U.S. naval
supremacy presented by the possibility of an aquatic,
hostile civilization. The Treasury Department, the Jus-
tice Department, and the White House could delude
themselves into ignoring this threat, but the Navy
could not. The Office of Naval Investigation moved
their Project PUZZLEBOX veterans to the little-known
Parapsychology, Paranormal, and Psychic Phenomena
Desk, abbreviated P4.

P4

P4’s primary mission during WWI was investigating
bizarre and inexplicable phenomena. It shrank quickly
after the war. By 1928, its staff had dwindled from 50
to two officers with six support staff. Its officers spent
their time clipping world newspaper articles on ghosts,
psychic oddities, and spiritual phenomena, only very
occasionally passing something up to headquarters.
Other ONI desks, assembling files of intelligence on
the navies of the world, thought P4 was a joke.

Delta Green THE CONSPIRACY

50 After Project PUZZLEBOX, P4 scoured the world
for more information about beings like the ones
encountered in Innsmouth. It was headed by Marine
Colonel James Whelan, the ranking military officer of
Project PUZZLEBOX. P4 quietly obtained the services
of as many former Project PUZZLEBOX Treasury
Department personnel as possible, along with those
cryptographers who had translated the Book of Da-
gon. It also collected the books and papers seized in
the raid and shifted the captured hybrids to a prison
facility disguised as a naval air station in south-
eastern Arizona.

From 1929 to 1942, P4 collected dozens of
documents and books that explored the myths and
very real powers embraced in Innsmouth. The search
for intelligence about the Deep Ones led to a wider
picture of alien organisms living in the benighted
depths of the sea.

Not everyone at P4 was convinced that there were
other horrors besides the Deep Ones, but the hybrids
collected at the Arizona containment facility were
an unpleasant reminder that nothing was impossible.
Numerous artifacts connected to the hybrids were
recovered and the hybrid prisoners were studied, with-
out much success. Those that died in captivity were
subjected to extensive post-mortem examinations. Na-
val expeditions crossed the globe looking for evidence
of Deep Ones.

P4 succeeded in disrupting two Deep One colo-
nies. The first incident took place in 1930 on a small
island in the Philippine archipelago that was found
to be infested with hybrids. A raid by U.S. Marines
and Filipino scouts shattered the island’s organization
and defenses. When the general location of the Deep
One undersea colony was ascertained, the U.S. Navy
dropped depth charges on a certain coral reef. Mus-
lims from nearby islands, who had long suffered from
the hybrids’ depredations, came to the island after the
Marines left with prisoners and finished off those cult-
ists who had escaped the round-up. Captured cultists
and hybrids were imprisoned at the secret Arizona
containment facility.

The second incident took place in 1933 on the
Pacific coast of Nicaragua. P4 officers, undercover as