Category Archives: Sean

Dear Governor Kasich,

Dear Governor Kasich,

I’m writing to you with a golf pencil from the special management unit of Mansfield Correctional Institution. I’m waiting to be sent to Supermax.

If Ohio courts followed Ohio law, I never would have come to prison. But Erie County Common Pleas Court Judge Ann B. Maschari refused to follow a higher court mandate when I was ordered a pre-trial, so I’ve remained in prison for 21 years now, for a crime I didn’t commit, without a lawful conviction.

No one will make Ohio courts follow Ohio law… including you.

So, if not for Ohio courts’ lawlessness, I wouldn’t be in Ohio and you wouldn’t be hearing from me. But, alas, here I am.
Then, if the Ohio Adult Parole Authority followed the law, I probably wouldn’t be here. But, they held a full board hearing without notifying my counsel as required by statue and board member Gary Croft participated in giving me 5 more years in prison while my civil action against him was still pending – a civil action for atrocities Gary committed in his previous position.

Ol’ Gary never runs out of atrocities.

So, if not for Gary Croft’s (and the rest of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority’s) complete lack of regard for Ohio law, I probably wouldn’t still be in Ohio. You wouldn’t be hearing from me. But, alas, here I am.

Nobody will make the parole board follow the law… including you.

So, instead of being free – as I would be if the law mattered in Ohio – I’m now on my way to Supermax for two reasons. First, my religion and second, my objection to your appointees giving away Ohioans’ private information to wealthy golf buddies without consent.

First, my religion – as a Neolithic Indigenist, I believe non-tribal, hierarchical systems are a rebellion against the creator. Because of this deeply-held belief that is part and parcel to my state-approved religion, I have been “ideologically profiled” by prison investigator Angela M. Hunsiger. My ideology is the rationale for sending me to Supermax.

Second, Gary C. Mohr, the former Corrections Corporation of America lobbyist you appointed as ODRC Director decided to take the private information of 750,000 unsuspecting citizens who trusted your administration to safeguard their private information, and he handed it over to Florida fat cats who now profit off of those 750,000 unsuspecting citizens’ identities. So when I wrote an article questioning the legality of selling my elderly parents’ identities to a Florida corporation and thereby turning Ohio government into a sock puppet for out-of-state corporations that buy off politicians like you with huge campaign contributions, director Mohr’s underlings used my religion and my Jpay opposition to say I’m a gang leader and a criminal.
I’m going to Supermax.

Gary C. Mohr is going to the bank.

You’re going with him.

Ohio tax payers are going broke.

Something in all of this seems fundamentally unfair. I have to think that I’m not the only one in Ohio who notices. No offense, Governor, but if the rest of your appointees are as big of ass-clowns as the people you’ve got running your prison complex, I’m surprised nobody has burned down the statehouse yet.

So, I noted that Article 1, Section 2 of the Ohio constitution provides that the people have the right to abolish the government. To me, that sounds like a solution. And I can’t imagine I’m the only one to feel that way, seeing how Gary Mohr just bundled up 750,000 citizens’ identities and gave them to identity pirates.

I bet they’re mad too.

My plan is called “Ohio Spring,” an international convergence on Ohio, May 1, 2013 to shockupy the system and abolish it once and for all. I hope to see you there. It hasn’t been since the French revolution that government officials have been stripped naked and kicked down the steps, into the angry arms of the people they betrayed. Hopefully, we can change all that.
And if that doesn’t pan out, I’ll be running against you in 2014. I’ll be running as a write-in candidate from Supermax. Legally, I can’t have my name on the ballot, but voters can vote for me.

Nobody knows their pain and anger about having this government not work for them better than I do. Nobody. I’ll be the guy who tried to tell them the truth, the only one, and got sent to Supermax for it.

I don’t just plan to run, I plan to win. And when I win, I’m abolishing the state government. I don’t know what comes after, because that’s up to the people. But I know this: if you and this government are the best it has to offer, then we’re better off scrapping it completely.

And we will.

So here’s to freedom, which means a world without you running it.

Ohio Spring
May 1, 2013.
Shockupy

Freedom or death,
Sean Swain,
Political Prisoner
Manci Special Management Unit
21 Nov 12

An open letter to ODRC Director Gary C. Mohr

-For Posting-

Dear Director Mohr: 05 Nov 12

We both know that you are now carrying out a plan to have me murdered. You are having me framed for prison rule violations to have me transferred to higher security where it is arranged that I will be permanently silenced, all because I challenged the legality of JPay in an on-line article and threatened the profit margins of your friends and you, and all investors in JPay.

On 12 September I was a model prisoner; on 19 September I was placed in a torture cell and treated as a terrorist. What transpired between those two dates? A friend of mine wrote to me and in the mail screening, staff saw print-outs from seanswain.org. I was then segregated, branded a gang leader, accused of inciting a riot, and accused of furthering non-existent criminal activity – all without evidence to support any of those claims.

You and I know what I really did; I stood in the way of your get-rich scheme – and now a reporter from New York City is researching JPay and its legality. That is the reason you are having me framed, and why you intend to have me murdered.
I’m writing this to let you know that I won’t try to stop you. I accept what is going to happen. I suspect it has to happen, just as it had to happen that an Egyptian merchant had to immolate himself before his countrymen could be provoked to sweep away a corrupt system and strive for freedom. I accept that you will have me killed. But before I die, I think it is appropriate that you should know who I am. I would like to take the time to share with you my account of the life you will be ending.
My parents Paul and Nancy were poor. My dad worked full time but had no health coverage, so when I was born, he had to spend nights and weekends digging a basement by hand to pay off the hospital bill. I’m their only child.

My dad was lucky to get hired at Ford, and when I was 3 years old, we moved to Michigan because the plant in Iowa closed. I grew up in a small town called Anchorville, Michigan. We lived in a trailer park my Gramma lived with us because her health was bad, so when other children made fun of me because of where we lived, I knew the real reason we lived in a trailer park was that my dad was a good man who supported his mother in law when her 4 sons didn’t.

I grew up at the feet of my Gramma. She told me stories from before I was born, mostly of my Grandfather who died before I came along. My Grandfather lived through the Great Depression and when others would hire traveling workers to do yard-worked for food and feed them on the porch, my Grandfather invited them to eat at the table with his family – if they worked or not. He had his own heating & plumbing business run from his garage and when my Gramma had told him they couldn’t afford to feed those men, he said, “We can’t afford not to.” He always wiped his feet on the white rug she kept at the kitchen door, and she’d yell at him for it every day. When he died, after the funeral, my Gramma was in the kitchen and started crying. She pointed toward the door and said, “Well look there, I still have that damned white rug.” She never remarried. He was the only man she ever loved.

I grew up on stories of my Grandpa’s honesty and hard work and compassion.

We got a kitten when I was little but she kept falling over and her back end would pass her front end when she was running. My mom took her to the vet who explained that the kitten’s mom had had distemper and the kitten had brain damage. My mom then called the pet store & told me the store would take the kitten back if we wanted another one. I absolutely refused. I said “What if we can love her like she is but nobody else can?” and the reason I felt that way was because I stuttered, and other kids could be mean, but my parents & Gramma loved me as I was. Didn’t that kitten deserve the same from me?

We named her Casey.

I collected just about every stray cat in the universe.

In school, teachers wanted to advance me in grades but my mom resisted. Who wants to be 3 years younger than their classmates?

I was really shy because I stuttered, up to high school, I stove to be invisible. I lived completely petrified that I would be noticed. I had outgrown my stutter, but I still stuttered on the inside. Then, in high school, I took the journalism class and ended up on the school paper. I wrote & people responded. It turned out, almost everybody felt the way I did, and what I wrote, everyone else identified with. I found my own voice and others found their voice through me.

Paul Rogers, the journalism instruction, owned the local paper and was an attorney. He hired me to write for the local paper and I learned first amendment law from him. Good journalism challenged power & kept power honest. It stopped government form becoming a bully. According to Mr. Rogers, good journalism was “something to offend everyone.” If my writing did not challenge anyone, what use was it? The editor had a poster in his office with the faces of Hitler, Stalin, and other dictators. The caption under it said “The experts agree: censorship works.” So it was out of patriotism & belief in freedom that writers speak truth to power… no matter the personal consequences.

My dad’s job transferred to Sandusky, Ohio. After high school, I joined the army. I believed in my country & in freedom, but in my time in the service I saw that this nation does not do what it says it does. Contrary to the great story, this country pushes people around & causes suffering & resorts to dirty tricks. So I left the service after one enlistment.

Returning to Sandusky, I was disillusioned and lonely. I got involved with Diane Chiow, who had 2 children from 2 previous, abusive relationships. The father of her younger son, Andrew Crouch, had tried to light her on fire; hit her while she was pregnant; threw her down stairs; fought responding police. But he was the nephew of the clerk of courts, so he didn’t have to answer for his crimes.

He kicked in my apartment door, threatened me, and reached for what I believed was a weapon. In a panic I stabbed him and then called 911. Police responded, covering up proof of the break-in that I have only recently received – photos that withheld at trial.

I passed a polygraph. I got out on a $2,000 bond payment while charged with murder and I didn’t flee like a guilty man would have.

I was convicted of a crime I didn’t commit. The appeals court said my trial was unfair and ordered a fair one by the trial court refused to follow the order. By Ohio law, your law, Mr. Mohr, I have been held for 21 years without a legal conviction or sentence.

In these decades of imprisonment, I have lost respect for the justice & corrections systems. I have seen abuse & corruption, suffering, brutality, & trauma. So much so, it seems to me that the system is not broke, but designed this way.

I studied psychology and was fortunate to have caring professors. They sent me boxes of books. I read everything about crime and justice and rehabilitation, and came to see that if your system, Mr. Mohr, really wanted to reform offenders, it does everything almost perfectly wrong. And that’s why you spend billions to fail more than 80% of the time.
Crime is a big business.

If you mangle prisoners, you guarantee future crime.

You create a pool of unemployables used by big business to depress worker wages.

I was very naïve. I get involved in reform, thinking if only people in power like you knew what was really going on…

I was told to shut up.

When I reported crimes against prisoners as any good citizen should, I was targeted as a whistle-blower. I was assaulted and subjected to trauma. I was transferred to higher security.

I wrote a book. It’s called Freedom: the Insight, Rage, and Fury of Political Prisoner Sean Swain. Long title, I know. And I’m a political prisoner because I never committed a crime and I am in prison because the state breaks its own laws to keep me here.
When the state breaks laws to punish a prisoner who doesn’t, that is not justice.

A year after I wrote that book, prison officials punished me for it, lying and claiming I wrote something I never wrote. And please, don’t take my word for it. Read Freedom for yourself. I didn’t encourage a work stoppage. I made prison officials mad because I told the truth.

I had the audacity to act like a good citizen.

Your system punished me for it, and I knew that such a false report on my record would prevent me from getting parole,
A parole for a crime I didn’t commit.

A parole from an invalid conviction & sentence.

My parents are old, I need to get home. I’m an only child.

So, I had to go to court to get that false report out of my record. But the chief inspector, Gary Croft, wouldn’t let me get to court. I had to sue him to get him to answer grievance appeals so I could proceed to court; then I suffered retaliation because I was suing people, but I never wanted to; I only wanted that lie out of my file so I could get parole.

My parents are old. I’m an only child.

In prison, I received my college degree, took a vocational trade, took every program available to me, and donated thousands of hours to community service until the day you shut the program down. In 20 years, I had not one single fight, no drug use, no alcohol, no violence, not one single serious rule infraction.

I’m not a criminal

I passed a polygraph.

I was released on $2,000 & didn’t run.

My conviction was reversed and I never received the fair trial required by Ohio law.

I just wanted that lie taken out of my file. Federal Judge Jack Zouhary dismissed my case (Swain v. Fullenkamp, et. Al. U.S. District case #3:09-cv-02659). I urge you to read what I filed.

I went before the local panel of the parole board last September. I had served 20 years. They recommended me to a full board hearing, where my counsel, Andrea Reino, could present my case & show the photos of the break-in that police withheld at trial.

But the parole board never notified my counsel. They ignored statute, ignored law, and held the full board hearing without my attorney. And they gave me 5 more years to serve.

They said I need more programs even though I took everything available to me.

They said I need to improve my conduct record even though I may be the best-behaved Ohio prisoner in history.

They said facts of the case that resulted in a 20 to life sentence warranted serving 25 years.

Did I mention that former chief inspector Gary Croft was on the parole board and that he gave me 5 years and violated the law while I had a civil action still pending against him?

My trial court broke the law.

My captors broke the law.

The parole board broke the law.

Do you see a pattern? I do.

I want to get home. My parents are old. I’m an only child. So, this September, I had my status lowered so I could go to Marion to get programs unavailable here. I was to go to medium security.

Seven days later I was put in a torture cell for 48 hours until friends protested my treatment. I’ve been in segregation ever since. I’ve been charged & found guilty of gang activity even though investigator Angela M. Hunsinger admits I engaged in none of these activities promoted by The Army of the 12 Monkeys, the gang she says I formed. I was found guilty of inciting a riot even though investigator Hunsinger admitted I had no connection to any inciteful material. I was found guilty of using mail to further criminal activity because I sent an open letter for publication to a website, which investigator Hunsinger admitted was not a crime, and the open letter is still posted on-line – with no one charged with a crime.

I’m hoping the recorded disciplinary hearing will be made available publicly so all Ohio tax-payers can hear what your underlings forced them to pay for. I would be glad to make it available at seanswain.org. You could order that. I think you should.

Investigator Hunsinger says my “ideology” matches the 12 Monkeys. She says I am an anarchist and so are the 12 Monkeys. But the fact is, I am an indigenist. The chaplains here approved my change of religion to Indigenist. The warden here granted my religious accommodations. But because as an Indigenist I believe our creator designed us for non-hierarchial, tribal life, investigator Hunsinger calls me an “anarchist.” So, because I believe tribal structure is superior to rigid hierarchies, my “ideology” matches a gang who flushes toilets to break pipes.

That is the case to justify sending me to maximum security. So, I think we both know – and the whole world now knows – I’m not being sent to Lucasville for gang activity, or incitements, or using mail for non-existent crimes. No, I’m being sent to Lucasville because your staff discovered seanswain.org between 12 September & 19 September, and Lucasville is where you try to send critics like Timothy “Little Rock” Reed, who was granted asylum by the New Mexico Supreme Court when he proved Ohio prison administrators planned ot have him sent to Lucasville where staff would murder him – to silence his published criticism.

I’m not a criminal.

I passed a polygraph.

I never received the fair trial that Ohio law required.

The parole board broke the law to keep me in prison.

And now I’m going to die in prison at Lucasville, because I opposed the illegal transfer of my elderly parents’ private information to identity pirates in Florida without my parents’ consent.

Your friends’ profits matter more than my life, that my parents, than my friends and extended family.

You should be ashamed.

For my part, I won’t stop you. You and the Ohio prisons have been killing me in installments for a long time. You’ve murdered my children before they were born. You destroy lives as a part of a profit-driven industry.

Again, you should be ashamed.

For purposes of your future and the future of JPay, it doesn’t matter what you do to me. You can send me to Lucasville or you can check out what I’ve written here & order a rehearing by the parole board, leading to my release. Either way it doesn’t matter, Investigative journalists are investigating JPay and the illegal information transfer you facilitated. Its only a matter of time before that scandal breaks.

But if you want me sent to Lucasville to die, I won’t talk you out of it., I don’t’ think I’m significant enough to be such a target, and I think you overestimate my importance. I think you’ve made a critical error by elevating me to this position. I suspect it will be even worse for you & your shameful, corrupt system, when you exile and martyr me. I think you have already made your own situation impossible. By killing me, you will create 5 more of me. And then 10. and then 50.

You will get tired of killing me before I get tired of dying.

But your biggest problem isn’t prisoners. The world now knows who I am, and the world knows who you are. And the world knows what is happening here.

The eyes of the world are watching.

Nobody likes a bully.

If you send me to Lucasville to die, you aren’t just killing me, you’are killing the illusion that holds millions captivated.
Just as the death of that merchant in Tahrir Square was the death of the Egyptian regime, I think perhaps sending me to die will signal the death of the Ohio prison system. And the death of the Ohio prison system is the death of this state of Ohio as we know it.

I’m thinking of that future.

I’m ready for you to kill me.

I will live on in those struggling to be free.

Freedom or death,
Sean Swain

Open Letter to ManCI Warden Terry A. Tibbals

November 2, 2012

Yesterday, I was notified that you affirmed the decision of the Rules Infraction Board (R.I.B.), which should already be posted unless your lawless staff removed it from my outgoing mail to conceal the ridiculousness of this whole debacle. If they did, I’ll just have to send another copy. You lawless fascists will get tired of digging through my mail before I get tired of telling the truth about your ineptitude and corruption.

At any rate, I didn’t get a copy of your decision yet, but it was read to me, and according to Lt. Lynch, you wrote that there was “sufficient evidence” to find me guilty of all 3 charges. So, if you don’t mind (and even if you do) I’d like to discuss your conclusion with you- in front of the eyes of the world. I think it’s important for this to be public since their dime is paying for what you do.

So this is the issue I have: you claim there was “sufficient evidence.” If you don’t mind, I’d like to know what it is. Not being funny here, but I was at the hearing. The only evidence before the R.I.B. were three fliers. Nothing else was presented. That means your crack investigator – I mean, “Ideology expert” – proved the Army of the 12 Monkeys exists… But the whole world knows that. There were thousands of fliers on the compound and your crack investigator- I mean, “ideology expert,” sorry – managed to get her hands on three of them. But in her testimony, she admitted that someone else copied and disseminated that stuff, not me. So, the only evidence presented- 3 pieces of paper- had nothing to do with me.

What else was there? I mean, in terms of evidence. You know, real, tangible evidence? Something you could set down in a circle drawn on your desk.

Exactly. No evidence at all connected me to any 12 Monkeys activity, to any incitement, to any crime furthered by mail… unless writing a letter posted to the internet constitutes a crime, in which case, you’ll have to come on back here to segregation and arrest me again. I’ll wait.

In the absence of evidence- and just to be clear here, evidence is something real– your “ideology expert,” Angela M. Hunsinger, fabricated “ideological” evidence to connect me to the Army of the 12 Monkeys. And again, to be clear here, an ideology is a framework of thought and belief. So, when Angela M. Hunsinger says my ideology matches the Army of the 12 Monkeys’ ideology, what she is saying is that 1. I have an ideology; 2. she can comprehend the full depth and scope of my ideology; 3. the Army of the 12 Monkeys has an ideology; 4. she can fully understand that ideology based on her three pieces of paper she rounded up out of thousands; and 5. she is an actual ideology expert.

No offense, but if that blank-eyed person is an ideology expert, I’m a NASCAR champion… and you‘re a personal trainer. Simple reasoning here warden, but if Hunsinger had the aptitude for analyzing ideology, would she make a career out of kicking around cargo on the slave-ship Amistad? I think not.

Now, don’t take that wrong. I’m not saying that because you run an Ohio prison, that you’re a replaceable lackey serving the ulterior political, social, and racial/demographic interests of a tyrannical state.

Okay, well, maybe I am. But we ventured off point here. My point is, Angela M. Hunsinger knows as much about ideology as you know about the Iron Man decathlon.

So what does it mean when Hunsinger testifies that my ideology- my framework of thought and belief- matches the 12 Monkeys? Isn’t she saying that, in her opinion, I seem like the kind of asshole who would do the same stuff those other guys are doing? I ask this because we’re not exactly dealing with C.S.I. using science to match ballistics here, are we? We’re dealing with an opinion. What Hunsinger thinks.

But instead of writing, “it’s my opinion that Swain seems like the kind of asshole who would do this type of stuff,” she cleans it up to make it sound like evidence by saying my “ideology” matches the 12 Monkeys… my volumes and volumes of published academic work matches three fliers about flushing toilets to break your pipes.

So, to you, that is “evidence.” No, there’s only 2 possibilities here. Either 1. you really believe that, or 2. you don’t. Let’s go with the second one first. If you don’t believe the random thoughts bouncing around in Hunsinger’s head are evidence, then you lied. You lied and said there was “sufficient evidence” when there wasn’t. You lied and scapegoated me, perhaps because you’re under pressure from Gary Mohr to neutralize my JPay criticism, or you’re under pressure to regain control of your prison and you don’t want your bosses to know that you haven’t caught any of the legitimate ringleaders of this widespread uprising that had literature in all 16 blocks; you don’t want the world to know that a widely-organized resistance is still under your nose, getting bigger and planning actions.

So either you’re a moral coward with no spine who protected his mediocre retirement package by flushing my life down the shitter, or you’re a hapless buffoon hiding his ineptitude from his boss by flushing my life down the shitter. That’s if you don’t believe Hunsinger’s random thoughts are evidence.

But if you do believe Hunsinger’s random thoughts are evidence, you’re dumber than a picnic basket full of socket wrenches. So, here. Let me try to work on your level. If Hunsinger’s “ideological evidence” is compelling, then here- I’ll present to you this pouch of moon-beams, a sprinkling of faerie dust, and a pocketful of magic beans. You can also accept the testimony of this unicorn I’m riding.

All of that is on the level of Hunsinger’s “ideological evidence.”

“I know Swain is guilty. His ideology did it.”

And what is my ideology anyway? You should know. You have a multi-page affidavit on file from me, telling you exactly what I think and believe. Your religion experts approved my change of religion based on that affidavit. You personally signed off on a religious accommodation for my ideology.

Now my religion is a thought-crime, an ideological offense magically discerned from Hunsinger’s tea-leaves, and that’s enough to make me die in prison.

So, I’ve got an idea. See, my thinking is, tax money bought that computer and digital recording system that stored every moment of my R.I.B. hearing. Tax money paid the two irremediable ass-clowns who posed as the R.I.B. Tax money paid “ideology expert” Hunsinger for her testimony, and paid you to pretend like you believe it is evidence.

So what do you say? Let the people whose money funded this atrocity listen to the proceedings. Make the tapes public. We can post the audio right on seanswain.org for the world to hear it. Then the whole world can decide whether you’re a liar or an idiot, whether you willingly participated in my future inevitable murder, or whether you’re actually an idiot. Personally, I think public disclosure of a public recording is a fantastic idea. Unless you’re an incompetent scumbag abusing power and subverting justice, you shouldn’t have anything to hide, right?

Excellent. I’m in cell 2070 in SMU 3, back in segregation. Stop on back and let me know how we can get this recording on my site.

I’m really excited about this.

Transparent government. Democracy.

Or, you can try to hide… and the whole world will know what that means.

Freedom or death,

Sean Swain

PS Holding me in a torture cell for 48 hours and then holding me incommunicado for an extended time likely triggered release of a sworn statement that has international implications. Nice work. Can’t wait to see what you step in next…

PS: If you scapegoated me just to save your pathetic career… How do you think that‘s working out for you???

Call-In Day to Prevent Sean’s Transfer to Supermax Friday, November 23rd

A group of prison bureaucrats calling themselves the “Status Review Committee” will convene either this Friday or next Friday to determine whether or not to transfer Sean to the supermax prison in Youngstown, OH. We are asking friends and supporters to please call the prison on Friday morning (November 23rd) to implore them not to transfer Sean to supermax.

If transfered to supermax (called the Ohio State Penitentiary) Sean will live in a segregation cell for 23 hours a day, receive an hour of “rec” a day in a dog kennel, will no longer have contact visits and will have almost no physical human contact at all, potentially for the rest of his life. Although being in Mansfield is horrible as it is, this transfer would be a significant reduction in Sean’s quality of life.

Before the recent allegations associated with the sabotage campaign carried out by the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, Sean was scheduled for a reduction in security status and a transfer to Marion Correctional Facility. We are asking the prison to proceed with this scheduled transfer.

Please call Kenneth Black at Mansfield Correctional Institution:

419-525-4455 ext 806-4300 (the voicemail still says Tom King because they haven’t updated it yet, but it’s the right number). Please leave a message if he doesn’t pick up.

Say you are calling in regard to Sean Swain, number 243-205

Please call on Friday Morning, Eastern Standard Time.

 

Talking points:

-There is no evidence whatsoever that Sean violated any prison rules.

-Sean is being punished for his legitimate political beliefs and expressing those through his published writings.

-Sean is in no way a security risk, as his model conduct reports have shown over the course of more than 20 years of incarceration. He is not a threat to the smooth functioning of the facility.

-We are concerned about Sean’s mental and physical health if he is transferred to a supermax facility.

-Sean’s security level should be dropped and h should be transferred to Marion Correctional Facility as scheduled.

Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain Blamed for Sabotage Campaign

In September 2012, copies of a “resistance manual” and flyers promoting “a joyous class war” and sabotage within the prison appeared within Mansfield Correctional Institution (ManCI). According to a conduct report filed against alleged leaders, these materials “instruct inmates to bring the prison system to the brink” by engaging in a wide range of activities. The flyers were distributed by a group calling themselves the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, a reference to a 1990’s science fiction film.

The flyers promote three types of activities. First, wasting resources: “run electrical appliance and flush sink water all day” and “demand all food, clothes and medical/dental you are entitled to”. Second, damaging prison property: “break machines in the kitchen and OPI… pour salt water in staff computers… cut phone and computer lines… put gum, paperclips, and staples in door locks”. Third, broader organizing calls: “gang members to unite against our common enemy” and “steal, sabotage, organize, strike, resist”.

On September 19, three inmates were searched as suspected leaders of the Army of the 12 Monkeys. Searching Leslie Dillion and James Dzelajiljia’s cells allegedly uncovered original documents used to make copies and drafts of further writings. The prison authorities also took a copy of “Errico Malatesta, His Life & Ideas” into evidence from Dzelajiljia’s cell. In Sean Swain’s cell, they did not find anything related to the 12 Monkeys. Instead, they took a copy of a recent article Swain wrote opposing the ODRC’s privatization of inmate accounts into evidence. Swain had sent the article to outside supporters for posting on SeanSwain.org. This essay does not mention prison sabotage or the “army of the twelve monkeys” but was taken into evidence because, according to the conduct report, it has “wording and ideologies that matched the 12 Monkey resistance movement”.  Swain also has a tattoo inspired by the science fiction movie that inspired the logo for the Army of the 12 Monkeys.

While held in segregation under investigation, the prison administrators opened the prisoners’ outgoing mail to seek further evidence. They allegedly found Dillion and Dzelajiljia sending letters written under pseudonyms of the 12 Monkeys, but no such letters by Sean Swain. Instead they mis-characterized an intercepted article for posting that merely described the situation and activities of the Army of the 12 Monkeys as a confession.

Dillion and Dzelajiljia are still awaiting a rules infraction board hearing, but Sean Swain has been found guilty. Swain was not allowed to question the investigator at the hearing. He denies having any connection or ideological affinity with the Army of the 12 Monkeys. He describes himself as an anarchist and a “neolithic indiginist” and the 12 Monkeys as a Maoist organization, who never use the word “anarchy”. Swain insists he has actually been targeted because of his opposition to JPay. In the article Swain described how the ODRC released private information of all prisoner visitors, and created additional fees when they hired JPay to administer inmate funds accounts. He characterizes this deal as a “get-rich scheme” to benefit ODRC Director Gary Mohr’s “Florida golf buddies”.

From September 19th – 21st Sean Swain was held in a suicide cell, with no pen, heat, shower, toothbrush or bed. From the 25th until the present he has been in administrative control while under investigation. His incoming mail has been delayed, monitored and withheld. His, Dillon and Dzelajiljia’s  outgoing mail has been opened and tampered with. They have been denied access to basic commissary, reading and writing materials, and other necessities they are entitled to while in segregation. During Swain, Dillon and Dzelajiljia’s time in segregation, 12 Monkeys activities continued among the general population.

The Rules Infraction Board’s conduct report admits that they have no evidence of Swain participating in, promoting, or writing for the Army of the 12 Monkeys. They have found him guilty based exclusively on an alleged “ideological affinity”. They have found him guilty of being a neolithic indiginist, a religious belief system that has been approved by the ODRC who granted Swain a religious practice exemption. Swain is appealing the decision on the basis that it does not meet the Rules Infraction Board’s very low “some evidence” standard. He is looking for a new lawyer, as the counsel he had hired only met with him once and offered no real assistance during the investigation. Descriptions of this experience in Swain’s own words can be found online at SeanSwain.org.

Rules Infraction Board

Sean Swain was found guilty by the rules infraction board, in spite of the lack of any evidence that he was involved in any activities. See this Conduct Report for the prison investigator’s “evidence”.

Swain is appealing the decision. Here is his appeal and his statement:

STATEMENT OF APPEAL

I arrived in ManCI in November of 2009. I have not had a single disciplinary infraction in 3 years: I was housed in an honor block. I am 43 years old and have never had any history of gang activity. I usually only leave the unit for meals and I spend hours each day playing dungeons and dragons with a group of geeks on the block.

On September 12, my status was dropped to medium. I saw the parole board last year and they advised me to get programs to earn a parole, so i was to go to Marion to take those programs. If I am found guilty here, I will not get to medium security, will not get thoese programs, and the parole board will have justification to make me die in prison.

In all that the investigator wrote, there are only 2 items at the basis of accusations against me. One is a tattoo unlike the logo used by the group on the compaound. The other is a statement i wrote that was mailed to a friend for posting on a website, which the investigator has falsely claimed to be a confession when it was not.

So, the question before you is not just whether a years-old tattoo that the investigator has misrepresented justified investigating me in the first place, but whether that years-old tattoo which differs significantly from the logo used by the Army of the 12 Monkeys and whether a statement I wrote in my defence for posting on a website – a statement that does not say what the investigator says it does – warrants making me die in prison.

I ask you only to give me the chance to fully present questions to the charging authority, and that you judge fairly, with courage and integrity.

 

 

An Open Letter to ManCI Warden’s Assistant Scott Basquin

Dear Mr. Basquin:

I write this letter to you further to my disciplinary appeal that is pending before you so that you will know, before the eyes of the world, the full implications of what you are about to do to me. Before sending to you this copy, I have sent a copy for posting to the worldwide web. I have no doubt that you or your boss, Warden Terry A Tibbals, will concoct a rationale for blocking my outgoing mail in order to silence me, but this letter will already be out, and the world will already know the truth, the story of what you participated in doing to me.

This is the story the world will know:

I am a Neolithic Indigenist. That is my religion. I converted to Neolithic Indigenism here at Manci and your chaplains, both formally trained in religion, provided state recognition of my faith system. As my multi-page affidavit reveals- on file in the chaplain’s office- a Neolithic Indigenist rejects, on religious principle, the hierarchical ordering of society as unnatural and against the will of our Creator. Neolithic Indigenists, as consciously tribal people, reject hierarchy. In that way, every indigenist is “against hierarchy,” and is therefore, de facto, an “an-” “-arch” (stratified organization).

I have a right to this religious belief. To Warden Tibbal’s credit, his administration has not only recognized the validity of my religion but has personally approved a religious accommodation for me as a Neolithic Indigenist, allowing me to refrain from cutting my hair. All these documents are on file with the chaplain. If they mysteriously disappear, I have copies soon to be posted online that have the chaplain’s and warden’s signatures.

Unfortunately, Manci investigator Angela M. Hunsinger has not been so accommodating. Her office has persecuted me for my deeply-held spiritual beliefs despite my several efforts to persuade her to stop. She has had me profiled on the “gang list,” despite the absence of any disciplinary action for gang activity, contrary to stated DRC policy. Her reason for violating policy and statute to keep me on the gang list? My thoughtful, spiritual, principled rejection of the hierarch system.

To my knowledge, I am the only Ohio prisoner to be persecuted this way, to be labeled as a gang member, absent gang activity, on the basis of a recognized religious belief recognized by the state.

Recently, Angela M Hunsinger took this religious intolerance and persecution to a new level by declaring the spiritual rejection of hierarchy to be a crime. That means being an “an-arch,” and thereby, being a Neolithic Indegenist, is criminal activity.

“An-archs” are the new Jews.

I refer you to Manci-12-007219, the disciplinary case against me for gang activity, inciting a riot, and using mail to further criminal activity. These charges were brought against me by Investigator Angela M Hunsinger, ostensibly for my alleged participation in the Army of the 12 Monkeys.

For those reading online who are unfamiliar, The Army of the 12 Monkeys emerged here at Manci about the beginning of September. Flyers, pamphlets, and manuals circulated on the compound by the thousands, promoting sabotage and destruction. Locks were jammed and other disruptions occurred.

On September 19, only seven days after my security status was lowered as a reward for my model conduct and I was recommended to go to Marion Correctional, I was placed under investigation by Angela M Hunsinger, suspected of being the creator of the Army of the 12 Mondays. I was later issued the nine-page conduct report that charged me with gang activity. Inciting a riot, and using mail to further criminal activity.

At my hearing before the Rules Infraction Board on October 24, I questioned Angela M Hunsinger. In her testimony she admitted that there is no evidence to indicate that I engaged in any of the nine listed gang “activities.” That means that I was not accused of “gang activity” based upon my activity. According to Angela M Hunsginer, I was accused of “gang activity” because my “ideology” matched the ideology of the Army of the 12 Monkeys.

My “gang activity” was my thinking. My beliefs. I reject hierarchy on spiritual grounds approved by the State of Ohio in a religion given accommodation by Warden Tibbals, but my beliefs are now outlawed, so my “gang activity” was that my beliefs resemble what Angela M Hunsinger supposes that the Army of the 12 Monkeys holds for an ideology.

Angela M Hunsinger appointed herself as an “ideology expert,” then assigned the Army of the 12 Monkeys a comic book villain definition of “anarchy” as an ideology, and has assigned to me the same ideology simple because I reject hierarchy.

Both R.I.B, panel members agreed with Angela M Hunsinger, affirming that being an “An-arch,” one who rejects hierarchy (like a Neolithic Indigenist), is someone who wants “chaos” and “destruction.” Again, “ideology” from a comic book.

On the charge of “inciting a riot,” Angela M Hunsinger admitted under questioning that there was no evidence of any connection between the thousands of pages of 12 Monkey literature and me; that she had discovered the origin of that material and it was not me. To her knowledge, I never had possession of a single page of literature inciting a riot. So what is it that constituted the charge of “inciting a riot”? My “ideology.”

My religion.

My rejection of hierarchy on spiritual grounds.

The word “anarchist” appears five times in the nine-page conduct report; it appears zero times in the thousands of pages of 12 Monkey literature.

An “ideological” match, according to your self-appointed “ideology expert” and her comic books.

An “ideology” is a framework of thought… like Neolithic Indigenism and its rejection of hierarchy.

Again, anarchists- as defined by Angela M Hunsinger’s comic book- are the new Jews.

On the charge of “using the mail in furtherance of criminal activity,” the supporting facts are that I sent an open letter for publication out to a friend of mine who, like myself, rejects hierarchy in favor of another way of life preferable to him. That open letter criticizes the DRC’s new JPay policy.

The nine-page conduct report refers to JPay four times; the thousands of pages of 12 Monkey literature referred to JPay zero times.

Is it a crime to oppose a policy of the DRC in a published article online? Angela M Hunsinger testified that there was no underlying crime. Both RIB members agreed. Then they found me guilty of all 3 charges, including “using the mail in furtherance of criminal activity.”

What is the implicit crime? Rejecting hierarchy. Anarchists are the new Jews.

It is my hope that counsel will acquire a copy of my hearing for posting online so the world can hear what was done to me. RIB chair, Lt. Dalby, said his mother died 2 weeks previously and he didn’t care about this case; he said he was instructed to find me guilty and it was out of his hands.

Any order to find me guilty, Mr. Basquin, would necessarily come from his supervisor. That supervisor is you, the official currently reviewing my appeal. So now we must ask, why would you order that I be found guilty of gang activity (in the admitted absence of gang activity), and inciting a riot (in the admitted absence of any connection between me and the inciteful materials), and using the mail in furtherance of criminal activity (in the absence of criminal activity)? And that brings us back to JPay.

For everyone reading online who is not familiar with JPay, we should give some background. In August, without warning, the ODRC changed policies related to funds sent to prisoners by those on prisoners’ approved visiting lists. Previously, funds were sent to the prison and processed without charge by the prison cashier. Under the new policy, all prisoner funds must be sent to a private company in Florida called JPay, owned by ODRC Director Gary Mohr’s rich golf buddies. Gary Mohr was previously in the private prison business with Corrections Corporation of America, so he once shared laughs in the locker room with corporate lobbyists for JPay and others.

The problem with the JPay policy is, my elderly parents and my other visitors, and approximately 750,000 Ohio prisoner visitors, entrusted their personal information to the State of Ohio for purposes of being added to prisoners’ approved lists; not so that Gary Mohr could bundle all that private information without the consent of those 750,000 people- including my elderly parents – and give it to JPay for forming a database to check approved visitors.

My parents trusted you with private information. You gave it away to identity pirates in Hollywood, Florida- the pill-popping capital of the world.

So after I wrote a published critique of this illegal get-rich scam and free-world people began to organize a legal challenge, threatening to ruin Gary Mohr’s backroom deal, the Army of the 12 Monkeys mysteriously popped up on the compound, complete with computer-generated flyers and scanned images. And suddenly, the model prisoner slated to go to the most-privileged medium security prison, without any evidence, is found to be the villainous mastermind of this new gang, and he is to be sent to Lucasville, a maximum security prison.

Did Angela M Hunsinger ever check your computer, Mr. Basquin? Did she check your scanner or printer? What about Warden Tibbals’? The reason I ask is, I find it very strange that thousands of pages of inciteful literature could pass through stringent mail monitoring, or that prisoners could get thousands of pages around to every single block. That is unprecedented in all of penal history. So that means your boss is the most inept warden in all of penal history and Angela M Hunsinger, unable to detect and prevent this plot, is the most incompetent prison investigator in all of penal history, or else you were all just taking marching orders to fabricate a rationale for an “ideological” cleansing.

Anarchists are the new Jews.

When you sign off on my disciplinary appeal and send me off to Lucasville at the request of Gary Mohr, to silence me and protect his golf buddies’ ill-gotten profits, you will be participating in an “ideological” cleansing. You will be sending a man to his prearranged death because he was designated by Angela M Hunsinger as an “ideological undesirable” due to his deeply-held spiritual belief that a better world is possible.

You will be participating in my murder, Mr. Basquin.

I say that because Lucasville is long the place of exile where prison administrators send critics and whistle-blowers. I refer you to the case of Timothy “Little Rock” Reed, an Ohio prisoner granted asylum in New Mexico by that state’s Supreme Court when he proved that prison officials conspired to send him back to prison without cause, and send him to Lucasville, where a prearranged plan to murder him was in place. The reason? Reed’s outspoken criticism of Ohio’s prison system.

So, we both know my fate. You are going to deny my disciplinary appeal and affirm the RIB decision, despite no evidence of any rule violations. You are going to play your assigned role in my eventual murder, which we both know is coming. You will participate in my murder because Director Gary Mohr has ordered you to do it, and just like Adolph Eichmann and every Nazi official before you, you will send innocent human beings to their deaths for a moderate salary and mediocre benefits.

Zeig heil.

So, I have written this, Mr. Basquin, long before any “accident” where I fall over the range, or any “suicide” where I’m found hanging from my bedsheet in a block with no cameras, or any “unsolved” stabbing where I’m found in a pool of my own blood. I have written this, though I possess no psychic abilities, because I know that you, Angela M Hunsinger, Lt. Dalby, and Warden Terry A Tibbals are accomplices to Gary C Mohr’s murder of me, a murder to protect corporate profits.

I have also written this so there is a testimony to who I am, that I am your victim, that I am a man who spoke the truth and believed in his soul that a better world was possible; and for that, you and your co-conspirators plotted my extermination. And that speaks to who you are too.

All of you.

But the world will know.

No one can deny this truth, Mr. Basquin.

Gary Mohr and all of you will murder me, but the eyes of the world will be watching. The world will know who I was… the world will know who all of you are…

No one is going to believe the official lies.

No one.

I am reminded of an insignificant merchant in Egypt denied the chance to support himself and his aging mother, who lit himself on fire as a statement of his frustration. Although few knew him, millions identified with this insignificant merchant, and they felt his rage, and they took to the streets; so far, 3 governments have been toppled.

I too am insignificant, but I am a man with 2 elderly parents he loves dearly, and extended family, and loyal, compassionate friends who care deeply and live passionately. I believe in them, and in the people of the world. I believe that when Gary Mohr’s “ideological cleansing” succeeds and I die, that the people of the world will avenge me as they did that merchant in Tahrir Square.

And when they do, there will be nowhere you can go. There will be nowhere any of you can hide. You will all face the world you have systematically robbed and ruined.

You thought the 12 Monkeys were a problem?

Wait until the world avenges your murder of me. Then all of you will confront a problem.

The eyes of the world are watching.

Freedom,

Sean Swain

Update on Sean’s Situation

On Wednesday Sept 19th Sean Swain’s cell was searched  and he was transferred, first to a suicide cell, and is now in administrative segregation.

We’ve received letters from him recently, and he definitely still has the fighting spirit.

The prison administrators have blocked him from commissary, reading materials, writing materials, and continue to delay and mess with his mail. Things are eventually getting through to him, so keep writing! The only way he can get envelopes or paper is if we mail it to him, so include a few sheets and a few embossed envelopes with your mail, if you can. You’re allowed to send 5 sheets of paper total (including the ones you write on) per letter, and 3 envelopes. If you enclose any blank sheets or envelopes,  make sure you mention it in the letter you write, so he knows he’s supposed to get it.

The reports of a disturbance involving fire-hoses at the same time as Sean’s transfer were about a fight at the minimum security camp. Sean says that’s an unrelated incident he had nothing to do with.

Sean says he is being investigated by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the FBI. We don’t know what, if anything, he’s been charged with.

You can help by calling the prison and demanding Sean be given his mail, including reading materials, and access to pens and writing materials.

Mansfield Correctional Institution (419) 525-4455

Ask for Lt Lynch, who is in charge of Administrative Segregation.

Greg Morrow- Caseworker ext. -4310

Terry Tibbals- Warden ext. -2005

Scott Basquin- Assistant Warden ext. -2004

 

Declaration by Sean Swain

IN THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES

SEAN PAUL SWAIN,                                              : CASE NO. P-688-10

Petitioner,                                                                  : DECLARATION OF SEAN PAUL SWAIN

vs.                                                                                  :

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et. al., :

Respondents.                                                            :

 

COMES NOW Sean Paul Swain, being duly sworn, and deposes to state:

  1. I have been held captive by the alleged State of Ohio1 since 1991, wrongfully convicted of crimes for which I am actually innocent. I can objectively demonstrate that I was not provided the protection of Ohio law regarding my criminal proceedings and appeals.
  2. While held captive by the alleged State of Ohio, I was subject to retaliatory and repressive treatment, to include treatment which the United States in highly-classified documents admits to be “torture.” I appropriately attempted to address this treatment through the available administrative remedies (i.e., prison grievance procedure) and I additionally reported my treatment to the Corrections Institution Inspection Committee of the Ohio Assembly. I thereafter wrote a book, FREEDOM: The Insight, Rage and Fury of Political Prisoner Sean Swain. When prison officials discovered that my book had been published, I was subjected to repression and retaliation, including treatment the U.S. admits to be “torture.” I attempted to address this treatment through available administrative remedies and through contacting the Corrections Institution Inspection Committee. This proved futile.
  3. With no other alternative, I filed a civil rights action in federal court, Swain v. Fullenkamp, et. al., U.S. District Court Case Number 3:09-CV-2659. The action was dismissed as frivolous, the court finding that prison officials had an interest in punishing me for my expression of views and beliefs beyond prison walls– contrary to well-settled precedents.2
  4. I appealed, Sixth Circuit Case Number 10-3755. The U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of claims. In so doing, the court has implicitly declared that prison officials can now regulate what information may enter the public forum from prison; prison officials can control what the public can know about the operation of public facilities. Far more troubling to me personally, the U.S. courts have effectively stripped me of all constitutional protections. Potentially, anything I have said or written to anyone can serve as a cause for prison officials to subject me to inhumane and mind-numbing deprivations that the U.S. courts have otherwise found to be unconstitutional.3
  5. I am stripped of all constitutional protections. I am left no recourse to the government of the United States nor to the alleged State of Ohio. My captors have been given free license to subject me to treatment that the United States government has referred to as “torture.” I have been left to my own devices to protect myself against an inimical and all-powerful government entity in order to maintain my own physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual integrity.
  6. I prepare this declaration out of necessity and where under duress, in the absence of recourse to courts for the protection of my rights, in order to secure my own safety. It is my intention to transmit copies of this declaration to proxies. Also transmitted to these proxies will be specific and explicit protocols that will govern the release and distribution of this declaration to media, to foreign governments, to the United Nations, to the Organization of American States, and to internet websites including Wikileaks, if and when protocols are triggered. Depending upon the triggering event, this declaration and other accompanying documents may be released incrementally from multiple sources, or may be released en masse. There will be no warning nor communication to the government or its agents by third parties possessing this declaration. There is no contingency in place for me or for anyone else to prevent transmission of materials once protocols are triggered.
  7. There exist multiple channels by which third parties maintain constant information as to my status. These multiple channels provide a fail-safe, preventing an accidental release of this declaration without legitimate cause.

 

Summary

  1. The United States government has undertaken a number of covert and illegal operations involving the United States Army’s School of the Americas (“SOA”). Those illegal operations include the training of foreign troops in state-sponsored terror operations; a program of compromising military personnel attending SOA training to become intelligence assets for the U.S., engaging in treason against their countries of origin; the maintenance of an illegal network that involves media personnel and State Department officials; the illegal training of drug cartel security personnel at the SOA in order to protect cocaine cartels and their smuggling operations; the smuggling of cocaine and arms by agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) and their proxies; and the covert political assassination of Communist Party Secretary Hu Yaobang of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) on April 15, 1989, contrary to international law. This declaration also demonstrates the existence of a direct link between (1) the CIA, (2) former President George H.W. Bush, (3) former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega, (4) the SOA, (5) the cocaine smuggling pipeline, and (6) the U.S. government’s employment of a known terrorist and mass-murderer to orchestrate arms-smuggling and terror operations in Central America.

 

My Background

  1. In my senior year in high school I scored in the top 5% of those who took the military aptitude battery. After moving to Sandusky, Ohio, in May of 1987, I was thereafter contacted by Orlando Rodriguez, who claimed to be a Cuban national. He worked in a free-lance capacity for the C.I.A. Like many others associated with military and quasi-military U.S. operations, Rodriguez had no formal relationship to the U.S. government. Operatives like Rodriguez floated from one unofficial status to another, sometimes employed by non-governmental organizations that served as fronts for military/intelligence services, sometimes hired as consultants or contractors. GeoMiliTech, DynCorp, and the ubiquitous Blackwater are all examples of ostensibly-private sector organizations that translate operatives and assets to and from the military and intelligence networks, their relationships to the government always plausibly-deniable. These are important facts to bear in mind when attempting to understand how military and intelligence systems operate in the real world.
  2. I entered basic training on November 4, 1987, at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. I attended Advanced Training at the Quartermaster School in Ft. Lee, Virginia. I arrived at my permanent duty station, Ft. Benning, Georgia, in February 1988. I was assigned as a supply clerk and armorer for a basic training unit, D-4-30. In addition I performed editing duties for the School of the Americas, integrating and synthesizing newly-developed information on irregular warfare into the already-existing S.O.A. manuals.

 

Background, SOA

  1. The SOA was made operational during the Kennedy Administration. It was a response to the emergence of Fidel Castro in Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The SOA was a component in the shift of U.S. foreign policy, which became largely influenced by anti-Castro Cuban refugees. Many of these Cuban refugees were centered in Miami, and the CIA established its only domestic station there.
  2. Through Miami Station, the CIA secretly funded a number of anti-Castro/anti-Communist organizations that recruited Cuban refugees in large numbers, sometimes training in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. The cadre for the illegal Bay of Pigs invasion would be pulled from these ranks, as would a number of operatives later assembled to conduct the Watergate burglary and Iran-Contra operations. Rolando Martinez and Frank Sturgis, both Watergate burglars, began their intelligence careers in the ranks of these secret CIA operations. Frank Sturgis trained guerilla warfare in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. A number of Iran-Contra operatives including ChiChi Quintero, Manuel Artime, and Felix Rodriguez emerged from these CIA operations. Otto Reich, later the chief of the PLD, emerged from these groups; he would later plant propaganda in the New York Times and the Washington Post in order to generate public support for the Nicaraguan Contras. As all of these secret operations occurred through Miami Station, Miami Station became the central fixture for U.S. intelligence.
  3. It is important to note that, in the cases of the operatives and assets mentioned, most had no official relationship tot he U.S. government. Still, they became deeply-entrenched in the intelligence community, developing informal and personal connections to those who rose through the ranks in the formal intelligence and military services. These operatives, funded by slush-funds set up by the CIA, shared the values, worldviews, and agendas of their friends at Miami Station and often worked as a kind of out-sourced “shadow” operation. These shadow operations often accomplished the goals of U.S. intelligence that were in direct contradiction to the stated official policy of the U.S., and sometimes in contravention of U.S. law.
  4. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many anti-Castro operatives joined the military or otherwise received military training. Among them Chi-Chi Quintero, Felix Rodriguez, Manuel Artime, and Luis Posado Carriles all had connections to Ft. Benning, Georgia, an Army base in relatively close proximity to Miami Station, the only domestic C.I.A. station.
  5. 1960 saw the formation of the 5412 Group, also known as the 40 Committee , the 303 Committee, and the Special Group, to formulate direct and covert action against Fidel Castro’s Cuba. This secret committee involved Robert F Kennedy, then U.S. Attorney General, and it shaped U.S. covert operations. The planning and organization of activities under the 5412 Group was carried out by many of the same operatives who conducted the 1954 CIA-sponsored coup against Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. The SOA became operational in this context, while the U.S. government orchestrated covert operations against Cuba and Miami Station enlisted anti-Castro Cubans for military operations against Cuba.
  6. Ostensibly, the SOA was to serve as a training facility where American military instructors would instruct visiting military personnel from nations in Central/South America in the strategies and tactics of irregular warfare. The stated purpose of this training was to form a bulwark against Communist destabilization of the hemisphere and to protect democracy throughout Latin America. In this view, the SOA was a component of an anti-Communist framework that included U.S. economic aid, sometimes in the form of military technological hardware, to those nations that opposed Communism (i.e. opposed Fidel Castro). Thus, the larger goal was the isolation of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. From a more realistic view, however, the SOA was part of a larger U.S. strategy to maintain hegemony, propping up dictators in “banana republics” with U.S training, guns, and money, thereby securing U.S. corporate investments. In this regard, the SOA was part of a larger plan to subvert real democracy and suppress human rights in the Americas by assisting undemocratic puppet regimes to maintain power throughout Latin America.

 

My Function at the SOA

  1. There are three (3) operational levels at the SOA, often referred to as “white,” “gray,” and “black” operations. White operations consist of those lawful operations that the government admits. Gray operations are the unlawful and denied operations that are often incorporated into white operations. Black operations are those operations not associated directly to white operations, and their existence is denied by the government. All three (3) levels are present at the SOA.
  2. With my first handler, rigid protocols were followed and I never exchanged any sensitive information with anyone by my handler. However, after his transfer in early 1988, I would become informally incorporated into the SOA intelligence community, exposing me to white, gray, and black operations conducted by those personnel.
  3. In 1988, the U.S. Senate investigated what later became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. Iran-Contra was a complex intelligence and military operation that violated U.S. law and subverted congressional authority. It involved U.S. military and intelligence operatives training and funding illegal proxy death-squads for the purposes of destabilizing the duly-elected government of Nicaragua. While the senate investigated these matters, I was synthesizing reports from the Nicaraguan combat theater into training manuals for use at the SOA. I was incorporating information from the illegal Contra war into SOA training manuals. I received uncensored materials that contained notes, references, and signatures from Colonel James Steele, Lewis Tambs, Jose Fernandez, Max Gomez, and Ramon Medina. All of these personnel were directly involved in supporting Contra death squads.
  4. I would later learn that “Max Gomez” was an alias name for CIA operative Felix Rodriguez. Rodriguez was a central figure in Iran-Contra, linked to (1) George H.W. Bush advisors Sam Watson and Don Gregg, (2) Air America II operations that smuggled cocaine into the U.S., and (3) Columbian drug cartel accountant Ramon Milian Rodriguez. This “Max Gomez” tied together the Contra death squads with the cocaine pipeline, George H.W. Bush, and Columbian drug cartels.
  5. I would also learn later that “Ramon Medina” was the alias of Luis Posada Carriles, an international terrorist and mass-murderer who was trained in the U.S. and employed by the CIA. In his capacity as a CIA operative, he once bombed a Cuban airliner, killing more than a hundred civilians. As “Ramon Medina,” he worked for the CIA coordinating logistics at a Salvadoran air base, supporting illegal Contra death squads in Nicaragua.
  6. My synthesis of death squad reports into SOA training manuals occurred under the supervision of Lieutenant Colonel Lou Rodriguez beginning in 1988. One of the consultants for the CIA involved in illegal SOA activities was Joaquin Powell.

Nature and Character of U.S.-Sponsored Terror Operations Recounted in Reports

  1. Some of the materials I synthesized related to infiltration of civil rights groups, the targeting of union organizers, torture of opposition leaders, and political assassination.
  2. Many reports detailed the successful use of terrorist bombings against both civilian and government targets in Nicaragua. I learned from these reports that the power of explosives is expressed in relation to TNT. If a demolition requires 1200 pounds of explosive, for example, that amount is a reference to the pounds of TNT required, However, C4 is two and a half times as powerful as TNT so that, if a demolition required 1200 pounds of TNT, that would translate to 480 pounds (or 60 blocks) of C4.
  3. As a general rule, demolitions of concrete or brick structures such as schools, courthouses, jails, or embassies require four pounds of explosives per square foot. I learned this by synthesizing reports of U.S.-sponsored death squads involved in terrorist attacks against Nicaragua’s infrastructure.
  4. U.S.-sponsored death squads reported pouring acid from batteries into glass cylinders adhered to the tops of gas lines. The acid would corrode the pipes, releasing natural gas, and causing explosions. This was used against both government and civilian targets.
  5. U.S.-sponsored terrorists used vans as explosives. They would place acetylene and oxygen tanks in the backs of vans, filling the vans with nails, bolts, bearings, and other projectiles. They duct-taped the vents and air-proofed the insides of the doors. They would use the electrical current through the filament of the dome=-light as the detonator. Parking the van in front of their target, they would disconnect the battery and screw in the dome light with a hole drilled through the casing. They would turn on the acetylene and oxygen tanks, then re-connect the battery and report the van as a suspicious vehicle. When authorities would open the van door, the electricity in the filament of the dome light would spark the oxygen and acetylene mixture, causing a tremendously destructive explosion.
  6. U.S.-proxy terrorists increased the explosive power of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel by as much as 60% by adding aluminum or other oxidizers. This is the same kind of explosive used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh attended basic training at Ft. Benning. I synthesized reports regarding these explosives at Ft. Benning. I have often wondered if Timothy McVeigh learned to make explosives by reading the training manuals I edited for the SOA.

 

Interrogations and Torture

  1. Information related to U.S.-sponsored death squad interrogations and torture was synthesized into SOA training manuals. I was also provided portions of The KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual and Human Resources Exploitation Training Manual, both used by the CIA. Those manuals dealt with interrogation and torture, and both manuals used the term, “torture”. I integrated training in techniques of torture into SOA training manuals. The following paragraphs contain direct quotes from those CIA manuals.
  2. “The following are the principal [sic] coercive techniques of interrogation: arrest, detention, deprivation of sensory stimuli through solitary confinement or similar methods, threats and fear, debility, pain, heightened suggestibility and hypnosis, narcosis, and induced regression.” According to the manuals, the important objective is to cause three responses: “debility, dependence, and dread.” These “techniques… are in essence methods of inducing regression of the personality to whatever earlier and weaker level is required for the dissolution of resistance and the inculcation of dependence… As the subject slips back from maturity toward a more infantile state, his learned or structured personality traits fall away in reversed chronological order…” These “[c]oercive procedures are designed not only to exploit the resistant source’s internal conflicts and induce him to wrestle with himself but also to bring a superior outside force to bear upon the subject’s resistance.” This process serves to “obliterate the familiar,” so “as the process [of segregation and sensory deprivation] continues, day after day if necessary, the subject begins to try to make sense of the situation, which becomes mentally intolerable. Now he is likely to make significant admissions…” In other words, intolerable conditions break the subject’s will.
  3. At Toledo Correctional Institution, these techniques were used on me in an effort to break my will to complain, grieve, speak out against crimes, and litigate. In my time in segregation, there were suicide attempts on nearly a daily basis due to the intolerable conditions consistent with what is described in CIA manuals.
  4. As the CIA manuals describe, “What we aim to do is to ensure… the maximum amount of discomfort in order to catch the [subject] off balance and deprive him of the initiative. The CIA manuals instruct in techniques to most-effectively subject someone to will-breaking deprivations. These deprivations are employed at Toledo Correctional Institution: “The more completely the place of confinement eliminates sensory stimuli, the more rapidly and deeply will the subject be affected. Results produced after only weeks or months of imprisonment in an ordinary cell can be duplicated in hours or days in a cell which has… weak artificial light which never varies… An early effect of such and environment is anxiety… the [captors] can benefit from the subject’s anxiety… The deprivation of stimuli induces regression by depriving the subject’s mind of contact with an outer world and thus forcing it in on itself… in the simple torture situation that contest is one between the individual and his tormentor…”
  5. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction employs techniques that the United States government refers to as a “simple torture situation.” In addressing this “simple torture situation,” the federal courts have declared that such conditions do not violate the constitution prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.4
  6. The CIA manuals advise to cause the subject serious psychological pain in such a way that the subject begins to identify himself and his resistance as the cause of pain, thereby diminishing the tortured subject’s “motivational strength.”
  7. The SOA training manuals produced through my editing and synthesizing were used to train troops from Central/South America in SOLIC (Special Operations and Low-Intensity Combat), to include state=terror employed against unarmed civilians and the liquidation of entire villages. The manuals instructed in torture, to include “simulated drowning,” now referred to as “water-boarding.” Some of the manuals described the process of out-sourcing state-terror operations to plausibly-deniably government-supported death-squads, a practice I believe to be particularly significant in light of the evolution of this practice: from U.S. use of DynCorp in the invasion of Panama to the CIA’s creation of Al Qaeda to fight a proxy war against the Soviets’ to the use of Blackwater as “consultants” in the U.S. Oil Wars. The implications of this evolving trend to out-source terror operations to non-government entities are vast.

 

SOA Training Drug Cartels

  1. Over the course of approximately eighteen (18) months I learned of the black operations conducted at the SOA under the direction of CIA case officers who were “consultants” and “contractors” who often worked through Miami Station. Many of these case officers had direct experience in the anti-Castro operations, to include the Bay of Pigs, and many had been transferred in and out of the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan theaters during the illegal Contra war. Some were involved in illegal black operations in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during the Vietnam War.
  2. While the SOA black operations were highly classified and well above my security clearance, a very loose atmosphere prevailed among the intelligence community. They operated very informally on the basis of personal trust rather than following rigid protocols. Many operatives and case officers appeared to snub procedure with bravado as if they resented the imposition by bureaucrats who did not comprehend the reality on the ground. Their cavalier attitude toward security protocols made me party of a great amount of highly sensitive information for which I did not possess the appropriate security clearances.
  3. SOA profilers in a section typically called PSYOPS5 reviewed the personnel files that accompanied all of the SOA trainees upon their arrival. This was done in order to identify possible targets to compromise. Once identified, they would manipulate the subject in an effort to coerce him into betraying his country of origin and work as an intelligence asset for the United States. For these purposes, SOA trainees were highly monitored. The CIA had dancers at local strip clubs on pay-roll for purposes of seducing trainees so that their infidelities could be used for purposes of blackmail. One of the PSYOPS operatives once bragged that a mid-level officer married to the daughter of a general was compromised in this way and became a source for information on everything that the general did. Another operative bragged that another trainee was compromised for the cost of a Cabbage Patch doll for his daughter.
  4. These covert operations were conducted in order to turn trainees into spies against their countries of origin and it must be remembered that all of those countries were allies of the United States. The U.S. was engaged in illegal espionage against its friends.
  5. Files of the compromised SOA trainees were sent up through intelligence hierarchies and then transferred to the State Department so that CIA personnel assigned at various embassies in those countries could be assigned as handlers for the compromised trainee-turned-asset. As a consequence of this covert operation, the U.S. illegally developed the largest and most extensive spy network in the Wester Hemisphere without risking the lives of American assets abroad. The U.S. relies upon soldiers and agents embedded in allied nations’ military and intelligence services to provide a vast array of information.

 

SOA Training of Drug Cartels

  1. As part of its daily operations, the SOA trains in crop detection and eradication. This training is related to the stated objective of fighting a war on drugs. However, the trainees attending these classes are not military personnel but are, instead drug cartel enforcers. The cartel personnel can be identified by the tattoos between their thumbs and forefingers. Their employment for drug cartels is an open secret among SOA cadre.
  2. The U.S. government trains the enforcers of drug cartels in the latest techniques and technology for fighting the war on drugs. The cartels then use this training in order to protect their lucrative businesses. This trend of training drug cartels is linked to the CIA’s direct involvement in smuggling cocaine into the United States.

 

The CIA and the Cocaine Pipeline

  1. When smuggling weapons to the Contras during the Iran-Contra Affair, CIA smugglers established a lucrative business of smuggling cocaine into the country on return trips. Air America I6 pilots in Miami and New Orleans flew cocaine back into the country on return from El Salvador and Nicaragua. Some of the funds from the cocaine smuggling industry were diverted to supporting illegal wars in Afghanistan7 and Central America. CIA operatives Tom Clines, Ed Wilson, and Chi-Chi Quintero engineered the Air America II cocaine pipeline into the U.S., laundering money through a number of companies including GeoMiliTech Consultants, Southern Air Transport, Corporate Air, Energy Resources International, and Lake Resources, Inc. Many of these companies had financial connections to Panama, largely because Panamanian President Manual Noriega was directly involved in the CIA smuggling and laundering operations. Noriega’s side, Jose Blandon, worked as a liaison between “Max Gomez” (Felix Rodriguez) and an accountant for Columbian drug cartels named Ramon Milian Rodriguez. Ramon Milian Rodriguez provided the CIA cocaine smugglers with the blue-print for setting up “dummy” corporations and laundering cocaine money through them. He also assisted in coordinating cocaine shipments between the drug cartels and the CIA.

 

The CIA Cocaine Pipeline and George H.W. Bush

  1. Felix Rodriguez was directly involved in Contra death squad support under the alias name, “Max Gomez.” Felix Rodriguez was also linked to Manuel Noriega through Noriega’s aide, Joe Blandon. Felix Rodriguez also had direct ties to Columbian drug cartel accountant Ramon Milian Rodiguez. In this way, Felix Rodriguez was central to the weapons smuggling operations supporting Nicaraguan death squads and he was also central to the CIA cocaine-smuggling pipeline. In addition, Felix Rodriguez was directly linked to George H.W. Bush advisors Don Gregg and Colonel Sam Watson. Felix Rodriguez, in fact informed Bush advisors prior to the exposure of Iran-Contra, giving then Vice-President Bush the opportunity to destroy documents and conceal any links between himself and the illegal operations conducted in and around Nicaragua.8
  2. Felix Rodriguez’s connection to the White House was established by his own testimony before Congress on July 14, 1988. While Rodriguez testified, I was synthesizing his notes from his Contra death squad experiences into the SOA training manuals.
  3. Former President George H.W. Bush was involved in Iran-Contra, in the CIA cocaine-smuggling pipeline, and was connected with Columbian drug cartels and former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega.9

 

Political Assassination

  1. In late 1988 and through 1989, Anti-Castro CIA case officers who directed black operations at the SOA through Miami Station were consulted in an ongoing operation entitled, “Operation Glass Monkey.” This operation dealt primarily with the social and political de-stabilization of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). As part of this operation, prior to the involvement of anti-Castro case officers, the CIA had infiltrated the student protests in China, monitoring and manipulating student leaders Han Dongfang, Zhou Fengauo, and Xiang Yan.
  2. A meeting between Soviet and PRC leadership had been announced for May 15, 1989. It was determined to be essential to sabotage this meeting in order to hasten the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. Up to this point, the U.S. proxy war in Afghanistan had financially crippled the Soviet Union and the Soviets were seeking an exchange of technology-for-loans from the PRC. If the U.S. could obstruct this exchange, it was believed that it would be possible to hasten the economic collapse of the Soviet Union.
  3. Anti-Castro case officers were consulted to review a possible plan for political assassination to disrupt the May 15, 1989 summit. On the short-list of possible assassination targets was Premier Li Peng. This U.S. intended to use operatives it had placed in the inner circle of Zhou Ziyang, some of whom were later arrested and interrogated.
  4. The plan developed by anti-Castro case officers was to use a topical solution that had been developed for the intended assassination of Fedel Castro. As part of “Operation Mongoose,” and under the authority of the 5412 Group, a number of so-called “designer toxins” had been developed. Of specific interest were topical solutions that could be applied to a target’s skin and thereafter remain dormant for an extended period of time. These toxins could be activated by any number of triggers, to include the target’s body temperature or changes in the target’s Ph levels in the blood stream. Once activated, the toxins would simulate the symptoms of any number of fatal conditions such as a heart attack, a stroke, an aneurysm, or an epileptic seizure.
  5. One month prior to the Sino-Soviet summit, on April 15, 1989, Communist Party Secretary Hu Yaobang of the People’s Republic of China was assassinated by appearance of death by natural causes. In his absence, other PRC leaders took a hard-line approach to student protesters, leading to the Tienenman Square Massacre. In the midst of this social and political upheaval, the Sino-Soviet summit was derailed. That upheaval, during the summit and afterward, was largely facilitated by direct efforts to create international outcry over the Tienenman Square crack-down and foster a toppling of the ruling regime in the PRC. To this end, the CIA transmitted film from the CNN offices on the 14th floor of the Beigjing Hotel to New York on June 3, 1989. During these events the CIA relied heavily upon assets embeeded in the news media, including Nick Kristoff (New York Times), TD Allman (Vanity Fair), and Jim Sterba (Wall Street Journal). Since that time, the CIA has made a practice of using media personnel as spies, some of whom have been arrested and detained in foreign countries.
  6. In the absence of a technology-for-loans exchange, the Soviet Union economically collapsed shortly thereafter. The assassination of the PRC Communist Party Secretary Hu Yaobang by the United States government greatly contributed to this collapse.
  7. The CIA’s training manual for assassinations, A Study in Assassination, lists six (6) general categories of assassination: (1) manual, (2) accidents, (3) drugs, (4) edge weapons, (5) blunt weapons, and (6) firearms.

 

Conclusion

 

  1. I prepare this declaration out of necessity and under duress, as I possess no other means to protect myself from the crimes of my captors. I am willing to sign a release for anyone receiving this declaration to review my medical and psychological files currently held by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. I believe myself to be of sound mind and body. I currently take medications for high blood pressure and for low thyroid.
  2. I believe that within a year of the release of this declaration that I may die quickly from a quickly-metastasizing form of cancer.10 If the United States government kills me, my death will constitute a triggering event.
  3. I sign this declaration pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1746.

DECLARANT FURTHER SAYETH NAUGHT.

 

 

Sean Swain, Declarant

Prison Reg. A243-205

ManCI, P.O. Box 788

Mansfield, Indian Territory 44901

 

July 4, 2011

End Notes

1 The majority of Ohio was established as “Indian Territory” by the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. That treaty was never superceded. As a consequence, Ohio’s incorporation as an alleged state conflicts with U.S. treaty obligations and violates the U.S. Constitution. Ohio’s statehood is currently under challenge in the Inter-American Court for Human Rights, Organization of American States, Sean Paul Swain v. The United States of America, Case No. P-688-10.

2 See U.S. Supreme Court cases Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 94 S.Ct. 1800 (1974), and Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401, 109 S.Ct. 1874 (1989). See also, Abu Jamal v. Price, 154 F3d 128 (3rd Cir., 1998).

3 Filthy environs and pest infestations, Gates v. Cook, 376 F3d 323 (5th Cir., 2004), Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 687, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 2571 (1978); lack of adequate sanitation and laundry, Green v. Ferrell, 801 F2d 765, 771 (5th Cir,. 1986), Ramos v. Lamm, 639 F2d 974, 978 (2nd Cir., 1972) all constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment– unless you’re Sean Swain.

4 See, Swain v. Fellenkamp, et. al., U.S. District Court Case No. 3:09-CV-2659, Sixth Circuit Case No. 10-3755.

5 “PSYOPS”: Short for “Psychological Operations,” more commonly applied to departments of phsychological operations conducting hostilities against enemies during war but, at the SOA, it was commonly (if not inaccurately) used to refer to the psychological section.

6 CIA pilots who flew covert and illegal missions into Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam War were called “Air America.” They established a lucrative opium pipeline into the U.S., creating the heroin boom of the 1970s. Pilots flying into El Salvador and Nicaragua, some of whom had experience in Air America, were dubbed “Air America II.”

7 At the time of the U.S. invasion, Afghanistan was the largest opium producer in the world.

8 Felix Rodriguez was a CIA operative during George H.W. Bush’s tenure as CIA Director.

9 Within this context, it is much easier to imagine the actual motive for President George H.W. Bush to order the invasion Panama and the arrest of Panamanian President Manuel Noriega– an invasion and arrest unprecedented in American history and not rationally related to any security interests whatsoever.

10 The U.S. government has long developed a weaponized cancer conspicuously like that which killed Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald served as a military intelligence asset at the time of the Kennedy assassination (HIDELL, Alex J., SSN: 433-54-3937; DOB: 18OCT39; EYE: Gray; HAIR: Brown; HT: 71”; WT: 145 lbs.; SERVICE NO. 1653230). It is also suspiciously like the cancer that killed Idaho Observer Editor Don Harkins in 2008.

New Update on Sean’s Condition and Coordinated Rebellion at Mansfield Correctional

We have just received confirmation that between the night of Wednesday, September 19th and Monday, September 24th, Sean was held in a suicide cell in the medical wing of the prison, despite the fact that he is not in any way a suicide risk. Apparently the prison maintains a special cell behind the medical department to be used as punishment for inmates: “torture cell number 112.”

This cell does not have a bed, just a concrete floor that Sean was forced to sleep on. The cell had no heat and Sean did not shower, have access to incoming mail, pen, paper or any of his belongings. He also did not eat for two days.

Please take a few moments to call the prison (see numbers below) and ask them about their treatment of Sean and the prison’s use of suicide cells as a form of punishment for inmates who are not suicidal. These calls and the resulting pressure really does help Sean, if you were wondering. They are most likely the reason Sean was moved from the suicide cell.

Sean is now being held in “normal” segregation pending an investigation that now involves the Ohio State Patrol (which has jurisdiction over criminal investigations within the ODRC).

Apparently, these trumped up charges are somehow related to the recent uprising at Mansfield Correctional on Wednesday, September 19th in which guards used fire hoses to quell the rebellion. Inmates calling themselves “The Army of the Twelve Monkeys,” powered by anger sweeping through the prison over the negative impact of the recent privatization of the prison commissary, have created mayhem throughout the institution.

Despite the fact that Sean does not seem to have been involved in the riot, it seems like the prison is attempting to pin Sean as the “leader” of this movement. This is most likely based solely on the fact that Sean, as a prolific writer and harsh critic of prisons, recently penned a critique of the new privatization plan.

Called JPay, the new system requires friends, families and supporters to send money orders to a private corporation in Hollywood, Florida, rather than directly to the ODRC as in the past. In addition, JPay takes a chunk of the money as a “service fee.” The only people allowed to put money on an inmate’s books are those on their visitation list.

Please take a minute to send a letter, article, some paper (up to 5 blank sheets per envelope) or a couple embossed envelopes to Sean. He could really use our encouragement and support right now, as well as the impact it has on the prison to see a targeted inmate receiving a ton of mail.