Cointelshow A Patriot Act

Inform yourself! Inform on your neighbor! Follow Special Agent Christian White on a cheerfully creepy tour of declassified government surveillance documents. White probes the redacted (blacked-out) texts of the FBI's notorious Counterintelligence Programs, searching for the words erased in the name of the Freedom of Information Act. Learn fun techniques for the infiltration of activist groups, how to earn benefits and a pension as an agent provocateur, and how to, in the words of J. Edgar Hoover, "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize" your neighbors! These are our tax dollars at work, folks; we might as well enjoy it. This script has been performed by writer/activist L.M. Bogad in theatres, galleries, labor halls, and community centers for the past twelve years. The pamphlet also includes a preface by Guillermo Gomez-Pena, and a companion essay by Bogad about the history of domestic surveillance/harassment, and a "how to" for would-be performers of the script.

Lawrence Bogad works on the intersection between art and activism, and on the role of humor and imagination in organizing social movements. His book, Electoral Guerrilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements (Routledge 2005), is an international study of performance artists who run for public office as a prank. Bogad's produced plays have covered topics such as the Haymarket Square Confrontation, the FBI's COINTELPRO activities, the Pinochet coup in Chile, and global climate chaos. He is a veteran of the Lincoln Center Theatre Director's Laboratory, and a cofounder of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. Bogad was a lead writer/editor-in-mischief on two Yes Men prank newspaper projects that garnered international attention. These “special editions” of the International Herald Tribune and the New York Post were attempts to draw greater public attention to the Copenhagen Climate Summit and the larger issues of climate change. Bogad has been a commentator on political performance for Air America, NPR, Pacifica, Peace Radio, and other radio stations and programs.