unibomber-manifesto

INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUT\JRE
UNABOMBER'S
COMMUNIQUE
From NfI't' York llmes. Wedoesdllly, April 16, 1995
nus IS A MESSAGE from th tell'orist group Fe.
W blew up Thomas Mosser last December becauJe be wu a Bunlon·Marsteller executive. Among
other mhdeeds, Bunton-Marsteller helped Exxon clean up i15 public imag after the Exxon Valdez
incident. But w mackcd Bun:too-ManteUcr le.u for i15 specific misdeeds than on gencrn.l
princip1el. Bunton·MalSlcller is about the bidesl OlJaniurion in tb public relations field.
This means (hal: its bwines. is tbe development of I&hniqucs for m&ni.pulating people's aniludC$. II
wu for lhiI mocc tbaJi for its actioOl in specific casea thu we lcut a bomb 10 an eMlCutiv of lhis
company.
Some newl reports have made tbe misleading Italement that we have been attacking universitieli or
scholars. We have nothinj: against univemtiu or scholltl as such. AJllbe university people whom
we have anacked have been Ipecialistl in technical fields. (JIe consider c;c::rtain IlUS oC applied
psychology, luch u behaviour modification, to he tuhnical fields.) We would oot wanl anyone to
think tha! we have any deIire to hun profeuon who study 1Ud!aeo1ogy. history, Iilenuure or
harmless Ruff lim thu. The people we art: oue to gea art: the scientists and engineers, especially in
critical field. like compu1erJ IlId genetici. A.J for the bomb planted in the Business School lU the U.
of Utah, thll was a botched openlliOIL We WOQ say bow or wby it was botched because we don\
want to give the FBI any clues. No one was hun: by that bomb.
In our previous lener to you we called oursclVCl I.II4IChists. Since "an.arclUst" is a vague word Ihat
has been applied to a varidy of attitudes, funha- explanllion is need We call oursclves anarchists
becauJe we would li.k.e. ideally, to break down all socicIy into very small. completely aulonomous
uciu. Regrettably. we don't iCC any clear road to this goal, 10 we leave il to the indeftnile fmure. Our
more immediale goal, whieh we think may be attainabie III some lime during !he IlQl several
dccadC.l, is the destructioo or the worldwide industrial IYltem. Through our bombings we hope 10
promote iOcial. instatility lD industrial society, propagale anti-industrial ideus and give
encouragement to thoac who hale the industri&l IYilem.
The FBI h.u uied 10 po\tJll.y the&e bombingl lS the work oC an iJolalcd out. We won'! waste our time
1IlIui.ns about wbethct we are nw, but we oertainly art: DOt isolated. For security reuons we won
reveal the number of membcn oC our aroup. but anyone who will read !he J.lWIfehisl and f1Idieal
environmentalist journals will &CC thlll opposition to the industrial-lechnologic.al syslem is
widespread and growing.
Why do we announce our goalii only now, though we made our first bomb some seventeen years
ago? Our early bombl were too ineffoduai to Ilttact much public mention or give eocouragement 10
those who hate the lyittQl. We found by expedeoce thal gunpowder bombs, if small enough to be
ean1cd inconspicuously, were too feeble to do muclt damage, $0 we tool: a couple of years off 10 do
some perimenting. We learned bow to mate pipe bombs lhal: were powerful enough, and we used
these Ul a couple of succcuCui bommnas 8.1 well IS in some WlSucccufui enu.
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( p asaage deleted in originAl pub1icadon II the request of tile FBI:
presumably design details of dcviCCl for corroberalive purpoSCl]
lHE UNABOMBER
Since we no longer have to confine the explosive in a pipe, we are now free oflimilationl On the size
and shape of our bombs. We arc preny lure we know how to inaea5e the power of our explosivu
and reduce the number of bancries needed to set them off. And. as we've just indica[cd, we think. we
now have morn effective fragmentation material. So we exped 10 be able to pack. dea.dly bombs into
ever. smaller. lighter and more harmlCJS looting pacbgell. On lhe other hand. we believe we will be
able 10 make bombs much bigger than any we've made before. With a briefcase-full or a suitcase-full
of explosives we lhould be able to blow out the walll of Iiubstantial buildings.
Clearly we are in a position to do a great deal of damage. And it docsn' appear thal: the FBI is going
10 caleh us any time soon. The FBI is a joke.
The people who are pllllhing all this sro,wth and progress garbage lbave 10 he sevaely punished.
But our goal u less to punish them than 10 propagate Ideas. Anyhow we art: getting tired of making
bombs. It's no fun having to spend ill your evenings and weekends preparing dangerous mixtmu,
fi.ling trigger mechanisms out of IcrapS of metal Of searching tnc: siems for a place isoilled enough
10 lest a bomb. So we offer a bargain.
We have a long article, between 29,000 and 37,000 words. that we wanl lO have publiJhed. If you
can get it publiJhed accotding to our requirements we will permanently desirt from lmorul
activities. II must be published in the New York Times, TIme or Newsweek , or in some OIher
widely rend. nationally distributed periodical. ikcaWle of iu length we IUPPOse il will have 10 be
sc.rialb.cd Alternatively. it can be published as I smail book., bUllhe book must be welJ publidw:l
and made avail able at a modcmtc price in bookslores narlonwidc and in at least some places abroad.
Whoever agrees 10 publish the mllerial v.iU have exclusive righU to reproduce It for a period of sI.x
months and will he wclcome to any profits they may make from it. After six months from tbe first
appearance of the article or book. il must become public property, so that anyone can tq)roduce or
publish it. (If material u serialized, first instalment become public propcrt)' six months after
appearance of fin-t instalmenl, second instalment etc.) We must have tnc: right to publilh in the New
York Times. Time or Newswcek , each year for thrt:c yean after the appearance of our article or
book., Ihree thousand words expanding or clarifying our material Of rebutting criticisms of it.
The article will oot explicitly advoeal:e violence. There will be an unavoidable implication tbat we
favour violence to the extent thaI it mly be neceuary, since we advocate eliminating industrial
sociCly and we ourselves have been using violence 10 that end.
But the article will not advocate violence explicitly. nor will It propose the ovctthrow oC the United
Statu Govc:rnment, nor will it contain obscenity or anything else that you would he likely 10 regard
as unaccepcabl.e for publication.
How do you know that we will keep our promise to desist from tertorum if our conditions are mea?
It will be to our advantage to ke.cp our promise. We want 10 win acceptance for certain ideas. If we
break our promise people will lose resped for us and 50 will be less likely 10 aoccpllhc ideas.
Our offcr to desist from rrorism is subject to three quali.fica.r:lons. First: Our promise to desist will
not take effect until aJ.J para of our article or book have appeamt in print. S,cond: H the authorities
should succeed in tracking us down and an attempt is madll to arRlI any of us, or even 10 question
us in connc.etion with the oombingJ, we rt.IiCIVII the righl 10 lISe violence. Third: We diJtinguish
belwccn terrorism and sabotage. By lerrorism we mean actions motivated by . desiJe to inllueoce the
development of a .society and intended to cause injury or dwh to human beings. By 51bo1age ...-e
mean similarly motivated actions intended 10 destroy property without injuring human beings. The
promise we offer iJ to desist from lenuri.sm. We reserve the right to engage in sabotage.
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