Dan Clore
2003-12-03 09:20:49 UTC
THE ZERO FILES
Shadowy worlds of conspiracy, mind control and paranoia, all
in the hands of the FBI. . .
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, November 30, 2003
San Francisco Chronicle
URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/11/30/ZEROFILES.TMP
What I am about to write will sound like a total paranoid
fantasy, I had even come to believe that myself and was
about to take steps to get an evaluation for myself as I was
frightened I was going mad. . . . I ask you to help in any
way you can.
-- From the FBI's Zero Files, 11/19/96
They are, in a way, the real-world equivalent of
television's "X-Files," the fictional secret collection of
FBI cases involving alien abductions and grand conspiracies
that kept legions of fans entertained for nearly a decade.
But while Fox Mulder and Dana Scully have long since retired
to the compost bin of syndication, the FBI's Zero Files
thrive in obscurity -- remaining, in their own way, very real.
They exist on nondescript shelves deep in the archives of
FBI offices in San Francisco and across the nation, within
thick file folders tucked anonymously among thousands of
manila clones. And until now, when The Chronicle received
permission to examine the folders, the Zero Files had never
been opened to public review.
Most of the folders in the FBI archives contain the details
of closed homicide cases and long-solved bank robberies,
rarely seen as they await judgment day or the office
shredder. But the Zero Files, each marked with a case number
containing the digit "0" in its heart, are different -- very
different.
They are letters, faxes, e-mails and photographs, diagrams
and maps, legal papers and photocopies. Some are a single
scrap of scribbled paper, others reams of carefully typed
explanation, replete with references and footnotes. Some
were forwarded to the FBI by courts, police officers or
businesses; most were submitted to the bureau by the authors
themselves.
Each describes a unique delusion, a single person's fantasy
committed to paper and recorded for posterity. Conspiracy
theories. Claims of paranormal abilities. Celebrity
fantasies. To flip through the Zero Files is to peer into a
palimpsest of lunacy, a travelogue of realms where the
residents wish very much to leave.
I had a visit yesterday from two gentlemen who said they
were from the SECRET SERVICE! They were looking for the
HAMBURGLAR who said the PRESIDENT might choke on a
CHEESEBURGER on AIR FORCE ONE! No wonder they can't balance
a TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET in DC, they have to check out all
the MCDONALDS in AMERICA for the DEADLY CHEESEBURGER that
might KILL the PRESIDENT! This is not a JOKE!
-- From the Zero Files, 8/15/1995
Almost anything can be a Zero File -- the phrase simply
refers to items received by the FBI that are
"non-actionable," and can include anything from cases handed
off to local police to "attaboys" from other agencies.
But when agents refer to the Zero Files amongst themselves,
and joke about whose turn it is to feed the captive alien,
they are almost always referring to a special category of
report -- one that almost defies further description.
Recently, before these terrorist acts, I made a usual
request that you investigate the Necronomicon. I do not know
if you took me seriously, as I realize you are still
enslaved by the physical realm and refuse to open your mind
to this spiritual war that is clearly discussed in
Revelations, but in case you did, I wanted to add a little
information.
-- From the Zero Files, 10/22/2001
Nobody within the bureau has an exact count of how many Zero
Files the FBI has filed away across the nation, but the
agency's San Francisco office, a midsize bureau, has a
database listing 17,000 items stretching back to the 1970s.
And the files demand far more from the FBI than mere shelf
space. Each Zero File item landed there only after passing
across the desk of at least one agent who spent time making
sure they did not relate to any active investigation,
represent a threat or offer any avenues for future
investigation.
"A piece of paper was generated for each one of these, and
somebody had to review it," said FBI special agent Pete
LeFranchise.
Most agents come to know repeat writers -- "frequent fliers"
-- after a few shifts on the duty desk. A glance through the
files shows that some agents found themselves acting as
counselors of last resort.
"It's almost like being a social worker when you're on the
desk," LeFranchise said. "There's probably been at least
three or four times . . . where I've just had to say, 'Look,
sir, you need to seek clinical or psychiatric help.' "
Jensen called resident agency with nonspecific complaints
about surveillance and mind control. . . . Someone was
communicating with him via subliminal messages over the
company public address system, attempting to control his
thoughts. . . . Jensen denied being under doctor's care and
it was suggested he should be.
-- From the Zero Files, undated
Some files, however, are eerie in their seeming prescience
or certainty: the poem from a young man that seems to hint
at the massacre at Columbine High School, the anonymous
caller offering impossible theories of a conspiracy
involving the CIA who leaves a return phone number that
connects to an internal CIA office number.
This, the FBI says, is the reason the Zero Files stay out of
the circular file, why they are searchable and
cross-referenced. The Zero Files are kept, agents say,
because you just never know.
Subject: Increased security at airports due to Islamic
terrorist activity due anytime. . . . It is my personal
opinion that if Hamas and Hezbollah are planning a 'joint
venture' the most logical day may very well be this week. .
. . I feel Islam declared WWIII on America with the World
Trade Center bombing and we just haven't awakened.
-- From the Zero Files, 8/14/1995
To those who study the vagaries of the human mind, the Zero
Files are a kind of disorganized textbook, orderless
definitions for a dictionary whose entries include terms
like "systematized delusions," "delusional disorder" and
that old chestnut, "paranoid schizophrenia."
Experts who reviewed excerpts of the files said that despite
the grand variety of language, content and topic, many of
the authors shared certain characteristics common to
delusional disorders. Leading those, they say, is the view
that the world is a hostile place, filled with persecutors
and conspirators, a world where the writer holds a special
place as victim, savior, or both.
In such a world, the experts said, everything has personal
significance, everything is a hint to the grand plan, from
the type of lettering used on a can of instant coffee at the
grocery store to the nightly adventures on television sitcoms.
People such as Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, Michael
Jordan, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Harry Anderson, Richard
Starkey, Rod Stewart, Rachel Hunter, Tom Petty, George
Lucas, Jack Nicholson, Natalie Merchant, Sting, Sheryl Crow,
Michael Eisner, Amy Grant, Will Clark, Troy Aikman, Zack,
Patrick Swayze and wife, Bob Dylan, Woody Harrelson, Al
Franken, Rosie O'Donnell, Ivana Trump, some members of the
Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd . . . have watched me in the
privacy of my own home off and on for several years.
-- From the Zero Files, 12/2/1996
"They tend to interpret it from their assumption," said Lisa
Butler, a senior research scholar with the department of
psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
"Their assumptions are wrong, but the way they take in the
world actually makes more sense if you understand the
assumptions."
In a world where everyday experiences are part of a
secretive criminal conspiracy, the experts said, little
wonder that the FBI -- a secretive organization that
specializes in uncovering such conspiracies -- would attract
attention, either as enemy or friend. Imagine, one expert
said, what the CIA has in its version of the Zero Files.
Another unifying thread in the files, the experts said, is
the number of writers who seem to know that they are
suffering from a mental illness -- or at least that others
think they are. But when you see the world through a lens
where Steven Spielberg can be plotting against you, the
experts said, so can the doctor who is trying to help.
No matter how it looks to outsiders, living in that world is
very real -- and very frightening. Which might explain why
so many people want out.
My mind is being toyed with. I started hearing all these
people talking up through me. My mind is being talked to a
little as I write this letter now. . . . I need a little
help with this could you please help.
-- From theZero Files, 3/13/1996
To Todd Gitlin, a media sociologist at Columbia University,
that thread of hope for help is the most remarkable thing
about the Zero Files.
"What's poignant about these excerpts is that all these
people think there's an agency capable of addressing their
various paranoias," Gitlin wrote in an e-mail. "For all that
we're supposed to be living in a period of antiauthoritarian
skepticism, these people have a touching faith in authority.
"They not only think the world makes sense (the
hyper-rational faith of all paranoids), they think the FBI
will recognize their hyper-rational deductions and act on them.
"As I say -- in a way, it's touching."
Or is it?
I am literally on the run, sleeping under trees, and
enduring unremittant surveillance. The authorities grow more
desperate to discredit me with each passing day now that
they know my intent of taking this story public. . . . As
one person said, "It sounds like a delusional disorder.''
That is exactly what the FBI would like you to believe.
-- From the Zero Files, 7/10/1997
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608
Shadowy worlds of conspiracy, mind control and paranoia, all
in the hands of the FBI. . .
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, November 30, 2003
San Francisco Chronicle
URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/11/30/ZEROFILES.TMP
What I am about to write will sound like a total paranoid
fantasy, I had even come to believe that myself and was
about to take steps to get an evaluation for myself as I was
frightened I was going mad. . . . I ask you to help in any
way you can.
-- From the FBI's Zero Files, 11/19/96
They are, in a way, the real-world equivalent of
television's "X-Files," the fictional secret collection of
FBI cases involving alien abductions and grand conspiracies
that kept legions of fans entertained for nearly a decade.
But while Fox Mulder and Dana Scully have long since retired
to the compost bin of syndication, the FBI's Zero Files
thrive in obscurity -- remaining, in their own way, very real.
They exist on nondescript shelves deep in the archives of
FBI offices in San Francisco and across the nation, within
thick file folders tucked anonymously among thousands of
manila clones. And until now, when The Chronicle received
permission to examine the folders, the Zero Files had never
been opened to public review.
Most of the folders in the FBI archives contain the details
of closed homicide cases and long-solved bank robberies,
rarely seen as they await judgment day or the office
shredder. But the Zero Files, each marked with a case number
containing the digit "0" in its heart, are different -- very
different.
They are letters, faxes, e-mails and photographs, diagrams
and maps, legal papers and photocopies. Some are a single
scrap of scribbled paper, others reams of carefully typed
explanation, replete with references and footnotes. Some
were forwarded to the FBI by courts, police officers or
businesses; most were submitted to the bureau by the authors
themselves.
Each describes a unique delusion, a single person's fantasy
committed to paper and recorded for posterity. Conspiracy
theories. Claims of paranormal abilities. Celebrity
fantasies. To flip through the Zero Files is to peer into a
palimpsest of lunacy, a travelogue of realms where the
residents wish very much to leave.
I had a visit yesterday from two gentlemen who said they
were from the SECRET SERVICE! They were looking for the
HAMBURGLAR who said the PRESIDENT might choke on a
CHEESEBURGER on AIR FORCE ONE! No wonder they can't balance
a TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET in DC, they have to check out all
the MCDONALDS in AMERICA for the DEADLY CHEESEBURGER that
might KILL the PRESIDENT! This is not a JOKE!
-- From the Zero Files, 8/15/1995
Almost anything can be a Zero File -- the phrase simply
refers to items received by the FBI that are
"non-actionable," and can include anything from cases handed
off to local police to "attaboys" from other agencies.
But when agents refer to the Zero Files amongst themselves,
and joke about whose turn it is to feed the captive alien,
they are almost always referring to a special category of
report -- one that almost defies further description.
Recently, before these terrorist acts, I made a usual
request that you investigate the Necronomicon. I do not know
if you took me seriously, as I realize you are still
enslaved by the physical realm and refuse to open your mind
to this spiritual war that is clearly discussed in
Revelations, but in case you did, I wanted to add a little
information.
-- From the Zero Files, 10/22/2001
Nobody within the bureau has an exact count of how many Zero
Files the FBI has filed away across the nation, but the
agency's San Francisco office, a midsize bureau, has a
database listing 17,000 items stretching back to the 1970s.
And the files demand far more from the FBI than mere shelf
space. Each Zero File item landed there only after passing
across the desk of at least one agent who spent time making
sure they did not relate to any active investigation,
represent a threat or offer any avenues for future
investigation.
"A piece of paper was generated for each one of these, and
somebody had to review it," said FBI special agent Pete
LeFranchise.
Most agents come to know repeat writers -- "frequent fliers"
-- after a few shifts on the duty desk. A glance through the
files shows that some agents found themselves acting as
counselors of last resort.
"It's almost like being a social worker when you're on the
desk," LeFranchise said. "There's probably been at least
three or four times . . . where I've just had to say, 'Look,
sir, you need to seek clinical or psychiatric help.' "
Jensen called resident agency with nonspecific complaints
about surveillance and mind control. . . . Someone was
communicating with him via subliminal messages over the
company public address system, attempting to control his
thoughts. . . . Jensen denied being under doctor's care and
it was suggested he should be.
-- From the Zero Files, undated
Some files, however, are eerie in their seeming prescience
or certainty: the poem from a young man that seems to hint
at the massacre at Columbine High School, the anonymous
caller offering impossible theories of a conspiracy
involving the CIA who leaves a return phone number that
connects to an internal CIA office number.
This, the FBI says, is the reason the Zero Files stay out of
the circular file, why they are searchable and
cross-referenced. The Zero Files are kept, agents say,
because you just never know.
Subject: Increased security at airports due to Islamic
terrorist activity due anytime. . . . It is my personal
opinion that if Hamas and Hezbollah are planning a 'joint
venture' the most logical day may very well be this week. .
. . I feel Islam declared WWIII on America with the World
Trade Center bombing and we just haven't awakened.
-- From the Zero Files, 8/14/1995
To those who study the vagaries of the human mind, the Zero
Files are a kind of disorganized textbook, orderless
definitions for a dictionary whose entries include terms
like "systematized delusions," "delusional disorder" and
that old chestnut, "paranoid schizophrenia."
Experts who reviewed excerpts of the files said that despite
the grand variety of language, content and topic, many of
the authors shared certain characteristics common to
delusional disorders. Leading those, they say, is the view
that the world is a hostile place, filled with persecutors
and conspirators, a world where the writer holds a special
place as victim, savior, or both.
In such a world, the experts said, everything has personal
significance, everything is a hint to the grand plan, from
the type of lettering used on a can of instant coffee at the
grocery store to the nightly adventures on television sitcoms.
People such as Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, Michael
Jordan, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Harry Anderson, Richard
Starkey, Rod Stewart, Rachel Hunter, Tom Petty, George
Lucas, Jack Nicholson, Natalie Merchant, Sting, Sheryl Crow,
Michael Eisner, Amy Grant, Will Clark, Troy Aikman, Zack,
Patrick Swayze and wife, Bob Dylan, Woody Harrelson, Al
Franken, Rosie O'Donnell, Ivana Trump, some members of the
Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd . . . have watched me in the
privacy of my own home off and on for several years.
-- From the Zero Files, 12/2/1996
"They tend to interpret it from their assumption," said Lisa
Butler, a senior research scholar with the department of
psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
"Their assumptions are wrong, but the way they take in the
world actually makes more sense if you understand the
assumptions."
In a world where everyday experiences are part of a
secretive criminal conspiracy, the experts said, little
wonder that the FBI -- a secretive organization that
specializes in uncovering such conspiracies -- would attract
attention, either as enemy or friend. Imagine, one expert
said, what the CIA has in its version of the Zero Files.
Another unifying thread in the files, the experts said, is
the number of writers who seem to know that they are
suffering from a mental illness -- or at least that others
think they are. But when you see the world through a lens
where Steven Spielberg can be plotting against you, the
experts said, so can the doctor who is trying to help.
No matter how it looks to outsiders, living in that world is
very real -- and very frightening. Which might explain why
so many people want out.
My mind is being toyed with. I started hearing all these
people talking up through me. My mind is being talked to a
little as I write this letter now. . . . I need a little
help with this could you please help.
-- From theZero Files, 3/13/1996
To Todd Gitlin, a media sociologist at Columbia University,
that thread of hope for help is the most remarkable thing
about the Zero Files.
"What's poignant about these excerpts is that all these
people think there's an agency capable of addressing their
various paranoias," Gitlin wrote in an e-mail. "For all that
we're supposed to be living in a period of antiauthoritarian
skepticism, these people have a touching faith in authority.
"They not only think the world makes sense (the
hyper-rational faith of all paranoids), they think the FBI
will recognize their hyper-rational deductions and act on them.
"As I say -- in a way, it's touching."
Or is it?
I am literally on the run, sleeping under trees, and
enduring unremittant surveillance. The authorities grow more
desperate to discredit me with each passing day now that
they know my intent of taking this story public. . . . As
one person said, "It sounds like a delusional disorder.''
That is exactly what the FBI would like you to believe.
-- From the Zero Files, 7/10/1997
--
Dan Clore
Now available: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.wildsidepress.com/index2.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587154838/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/
News for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"It's a political statement -- or, rather, an
*anti*-political statement. The symbol for *anarchy*!"
-- Batman, explaining the circle-A graffiti, in
_Detective Comics_ #608