How the Norwegian Government Brought an End to My Iraq Research
by Reidar Visser
I sometimes wonder why it took me so long to write in the first person about police stalking.
I wanted to exhaust every other possibility first. To make sure that there was no other conceivable road back to the life I once lived. I had been happy as an historian based in Oslo in Norway, working on Iraq and its transition to democracy and the rule of law.
Back in early 2011, when the Oslo police began giving me unwanted attention due to my street photography, I reacted with shock and fear. At the time, my own jurisprudence regarding photography was unrefined and mainly based on induction and analogy: If a Japanese tourist could take mobile camera photos, then so could I. When a fleet of uniformed and unmarked police cars suddenly began chasing me around the streets of Oslo in February 2011 in a so-called police stalking operation (aka “conspicuous surveillance”), I panicked and got worried I might have overlooked some kind of newly introduced regulation specifically relating to the use of mobile cameras. The harassment, I suspected, could be intended as warm-up before questioning and prosecution.
But when the police persecution continued around the clock for several weeks – escalating to regular sleep disturbance as plainclothes police deliberately woke me up several times every night – I changed my interpretation. I concluded that the more they harassed me, the less they could prosecute me. I was also increasingly convinced that my photography, mostly snapshots taken in broad daylight on the way to and from work and intended for a future sociological project on street fashion, was perfectly legal. Since health issues limit my ability to travel to Iraq, I have always explored various asides as potential alternative research areas for the future.
My next idea was to offer the police some kind of satisfying “result”. In retrospect, this looks stupid and defensive, but back then it seemed to me that I was in a conflict with the police where prosecution was impossible but where they were bent on punishing me extra-judicially anyway. Instead of starting an uphill court struggle or accepting more harassment, I decided I would simply leave the country and continue to do my Iraq work from elsewhere. Norway is not exactly the centre of the universe with respect to Middle East studies. If the Oslo police thought my photography was a problem they could celebrate their little triumph, and that would be the end of the matter.
In late March 2011, I travelled to London with the intention of finding a flat. When Norwegian police came after me and managed to get police in London to replicate the 24/7 harassment protocol they had started in Oslo, I panicked again. The use of resources and manpower seemed insane compared to the trivial nature of my supposed “crime”. Had the Kafkaesque response perhaps been triggered by some kind of translation problem?
Thinking that a huge, federal country would be more difficult to navigate for a Norwegian police team on a profoundly illegal mission, I decided to fly to the United States. In the past, the US government had shown considerable interest in my Iraq research, to the point where they had paid me to fly over from Oslo to DC to give lectures and presentations on political and constitutional issues several times every year since 2005. Why couldn’t I work for them instead? If they paid me a salary instead of all the air tickets, the difference wouldn’t be that big.
The Norwegians came after me to the United States as well. Easily recognisable officers of the organised crime unit within the Oslo police even followed me into research libraries where they deliberately sat next to me and made noise in order to disturb my work on Iraq. Instead of working into the small hours with Iraq analyses in the way I had used to, I now had to stay focused just on trying to get some hours of sleep. With a whole team of police officers paid by the Norwegian government for the sole purpose of harassing me 24/7, the odds were stacked against me.
With all the police around, I was reluctant to make the first move towards the US government. I met friends at the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA, and considered my options for reaching out to someone high up to explain my predicament. But even meetings I had at these institutions had evidently been infiltrated by the FBI on the request of the Norwegians. When I got invited to a Middle East event in Qatar in May I decided to go there first instead, hoping that the harassment would stop simply due to the complications of geography and culture. This, in turn, would enable me to safely reach out to people in Washington through a US diplomatic mission. To have Norwegian police in Qatar would be absurd, I thought.
When the same Norwegian police officers came after me to Qatar anyway, I decided to travel to one more Middle Eastern country before contacting a US embassy. I flew to Jordan and on 17 May 2011 offered my services to someone who said he was a CIA station officer at the US embassy in Amman. I basically told him I would be happy to work for the US government anywhere in the world on Iraq or Middle East related subjects as long as they could bring the illegal police harassment to an end. This was not entirely implausible: I am the only academic to have appeared on the prestigious annual Iraq conference of the Office of Iraq Analysis within the CIA five years in a row between 2006 and 2010. The US government has a chronic shortage of people who can read Arabic, and has even fewer who can navigate issues like Iraqi federalism, Shiite internationalism and Iraqi constitutional issues using primary Arabic materials, advanced searches and Deep Web exploration. The areas that I have expertise in are among the core drivers that decide global oil prices and developments in Islamic radicalism; not even a superpower can afford to ignore them.
Nothing came out of my initiative in Jordan. Until this day I am not convinced that the person I met in Amman was really CIA. There were FBI officers travelling with the Norwegians to Qatar, so it is quite possible that they were in Amman too. I can’t claim it was an attempted sting operation (at times they seemed more interested in asking about the reason for my conflict with the Oslo police than about Iraq), but I am pretty sure it wasn’t the real thing.
By the time I came to the Netherlands in June 2011, the idea of going public with the whole affair began to mature. But blogging about my story was not the number one option. First, I thought that by simply staying over a long period in the Netherlands, Norwegian police would find it even more difficult to justify their continued involvement in the expensive and irrational harassment operation. Surely the Dutch police, in turn, would lose interest and shelve the increasingly scandalous project. Remember that the police stalking went on day and night. The authorities were wasting the money of taxpayers in both Norway and the Netherlands, and even criminalised some of them by luring them into cooperating with the illegal operation against me.
However, the nightmare continued in the Netherlands, with an increasingly heavy health toll for me. I suffer from a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis) and due to severe constipation during the worst sleep deprivation episodes in Norway in February 2011 I developed gastro-intestinal injuries which Dutch surgeons since have told me have become chronic. In November 2011, I sent an e-mail to several members of the Norwegian cabinet outlining my predicament in considerable detail and made it clear that my only desire was to live undisturbed somewhere and quietly continue my Iraq research. No response materialised. The Norwegian Labour party has a track record of supporting and promoting untraditional police methods, including police stalking.
In November 2011, I finally tried to enter into dialogue with the Oslo police through a Norwegian lawyer. The police failed to recognise the harassment operation, but did issue a letter to the effect that they had no criminal case against me. That gesture was however of limited value since the police kept instigating people in Norway to send me e-mail messages calculated to cause intimidation. Similarly, in the Netherlands, the stalkers were deliberately parading symbols associated with Norway all the time, including the Norwegian flag. I concluded that if I returned home, the harassment would most likely continue unabated and that it would be better to stay in the Netherlands. My hope was that by focusing on my Iraq research, I could convince the government there I was doing more good than harm.
However, even as I was covering the critical period of transition after the US withdrawal from Iraq in December 2011, the Dutch government kept sabotaging my Iraq research with daily and nightly disturbances. Police stalking is a well known method among Dutch police.
By April 2012, I had a satisfactory overview of the legal aspects of the case: Whereas what I had done in terms of street photography was perfectly legal (my photos were not even close to any of the two main legal red lines, i.e. nudity and/or stalking), almost every step the Norwegian police had taken was illegal and punishable with a maximum of 15 years under article 117a of the Norwegian penal code (psychological torture). I had been able to identify a handful of the most savage ringleaders in the Oslo police and some of the Dutch by full name and rank. Armed with this information, I submitted a formal complaint to the Norway’s independent police commission (Spesialenheten).
My complaint produced no immediate result. Having exhausted most other channels to no avail, by June blogging finally seemed a sensible alternative. But I decided I would do one more attempt to generate what I needed most: Witnesses willing to publicly confirm my unusual story. By that time I could name around 200 people, mostly in Norway and the Netherlands, who had cooperated criminally with the police against me. Some were even academics and people I formerly considered friends. However, only with the support of investigative journalists was it realistic that anyone would come forward and confirm the story.
I thought a third-person version of my case, timed to coincide with the release of the independent commission report on Norway’s 22 July 2011 terror attacks, might generate some media interest in Norway due to the close links between the two cases. Whereas the Oslo police had spent much of their undercover capacity on trailing me across the globe during the critical months before 22 July 2011, they had paid no attention whatsoever to the right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik (despite the existence of tipoffs relating to him). The sharp contrast between the vast resources spent on illegalities against me and the failure to even follow up on Breivik is clearly the stuff of a major scandal. Accordingly, one week before the release of the official Norwegian 22 July report, I published my own version (still in the third person), outlining how the failed priorities of the Oslo police and their waste of taxpayer money had prevented them from tracking down Breivik prior to 22 July.
So far, the response to my blogging about police stalking has been underwhelming compared with what I experienced with writing on Iraq. It is depressingly more difficult to find readers who are interested in human rights abuse in Norway than in Iraq! The most specific result so far is that my employer, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, has intensified its effort to sack me for speaking out against torture by Norwegian police. Administratively, the institute is within the sphere of the ministry of education/knowledge. Meanwhile the ministry of justice appears to continue to finance the participation of personnel and resources of the Oslo police in the daily harassment operations which continue where I now am in the Asia-Pacific region.
Shifting to the first person should hopefully help address some credibility issues in my story. To anyone who may have doubt about the veracity of what I am describing, try to see this whole situation from my point of view: I was a successful Iraq analyst who got invited to conferences around the globe. 3,500 people subscribed to my website newsletters. I had a well-paid government job in an oil-rich country with one of the highest standards of living on the planet. What would be the rationality of suddenly complaining about Norwegian police persecution if there was no substance whatsoever to my story? Why would I put all my credibility and livelihood on the line with serious allegations if it was all a concoction?
I hope more people will now be able to understand that I cannot possibly write as much on constitutional and rule of law issues in Iraq as I used to. To lecture the Iraqis on democracy when I am being harassed extra-judicially and even tortured by my own so-called democratic government would amount to hypocrisy. Some of my most fundamental human rights under the UN and EU charters have been taken away from me by the Norwegian and Dutch governments. Each and every day for more than one and a half year these so-called democratic governments have paid officials overtime for the single purpose of making noise and wake me up at night. When I experience such conditions at home, how can I criticize conditions in Iraq with a straight face?
The reason that I am now a staunch critic of the police in Norway and the Netherlands is simply that they transformed me into this role. They gave me no other choice. I had signalled my willingness to move and settle down in a banana republic and quietly remain focused on Iraq if they would only stop mistreating me. But they cannot stop. The project is just too enticing in terms of the luxury hotel stays and the air miles earned by the police officers that take part in the “international cooperation effort” against me. Outside the police, no bureaucrat, politician or citizen collaborator has the courage to blow the whistle. The governments of Norway and the Netherlands don’t seem to give a damn about the fact that my Iraq work is still being read on a daily basis by analysts in NATO ally countries like the United States.
That’s why henceforth I shall not be debating the authoritarianism of Iraqi PM Maliki but instead pay attention to Norwegian PM Stoltenberg and his polices. That’s why I shall give up my research on Iraqi political parties and instead do my best to follow in the footsteps of the eminent Norwegian historian Jens Arup Seip, who in a path-breaking lecture in 1963 addressed what he saw as the “Stalinism” of the Norwegian Labour party. And that is the reason why I shall be revealing torture and other illegal methods used by the organised crimes unit of the Oslo police, and how political cover from certain pro-Labour figures in high places in the Norwegian government enables the Oslo police to engage in one of the most totalitarian police operations seen in peacetime Europe. Conversely, the transgressions of the Iraqi secret police and the interior ministry special forces I shall henceforth leave for others to debate. For sure, I will still try to keep track of Iraq with one eye and publish the occasional Iraq article, but the main focus of my research is now Norwegian police criminality. I have no other choice.
I hope readers with a declared interest in human rights will remain interested also when the focus moves to Western democracies. After all, to have a narrow regional focus on a subject like universal human rights can easily become something of a contradiction. In the end, only those who dare to stand up against human rights abuse at home will have true credibility when they address such issues in distant foreign countries.
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My thoughts and prayer are with you in this tough time. I was surprised to see that you decided to move away from Iraq analysis and now it makes sense. Looking forward to reading your future work to defend democracy in the West!
How dreadful! I hope you’re able to overcome this disgusting misuse of authority and get a good night’s sleep.
Hi Reidar,
a big thank you for the valuable insight you gave on Iraq. I look forward to your insight in your new research field and I am sure it will be of the same quality and depth as what you gave us on Iraq. Please let me know if or where I could help in your new endeavor.
The only thing I could do right away was mentioning your change of field at my blog (http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/09/reidar-visser-changes-his-field.html) If there is more I could do please let me know.
On that “underwhelming” response: what can one say? The police are dangerous creatures, everyone knows this. Obviously, having the Attorney General AND the cop’s own lawyer on the same side of any criminal action against the police militates against dis-interested justice.
“I had been able to identify a handful of the most savage ringleaders in the Oslo police and some of the Dutch by full name and rank. Armed with this information, I submitted a formal complaint to the Norway’s independent police commission (Spesialenheten).” I hope this was pro-forma on your part.
This is of course an outrage and i cannot begin to envisage the mental and physical harm this police state intrusion has caused you. That said, have you thought of a “safe Haven” – with an application for political asylum based on the human rights abuse ???
RV
Intriguing post indeed! I guess I am at a loss for understanding what exactly has so alarmed the Norweigan police that they have applied this kind of pressure on you? All this because of concerns over street photography?
Have you entertained the possibility that some interested party is not happy with your Iraq analysis and is exerting undue influence on the Norweigan police?
What did the authorities literally tell you or convey in writing?
Have you and a lawyer sat down and tried to get to the bottom of what the police are so concerned with?
It just doesn’t add up otherwise.
Regards
M
Hi Reidar, I have for some years enjoyed your knowledge about Irak and I´m grateful for your answers to my questions and for what I learned from your blog. Just now, I read about how you have been threated by the Norwegian Police and I´m honestly still deeply schocked, not realizing that such things could take place in Norway and consequently probably also could in my own country Denmark .I simply don´t have words, but you have my full sympathy.
Thanks everyone for the kind feedback.
The problem with making an asylum application is that normally when I arrive in a new country the police has already been informed and the harassment starts at the airport.
Mohammed, I have tried to think of the police’s motive but I don’t think there is any basic driver other than bureaucratic madness plus the desire of the Oslo police officers to keep working on a project that gives them lots of interesting travel experiences and air miles.
Just to explore what you suggest with regard to Iraq, it is true that I have enemies in Norway because of my criticism of DNO activities in Kurdistan, and at one point I had threats against my life issued on the internet for this reason. However, I have no specific reason to believe there is any “DNO lobby” or a “Kurdish lobby” inside the Norwegian police.
I think this is just a case of bureaucracies gone mad. Remember that in some senses, Norway is the Qatar of Europe, with plenty of oil money to go around. It means that sometimes, extremely incompetent people get very high positions and can accumulate extreme degrees of power. I think this is what we are seeing here. It probably just started as an idea to “teach me a lesson” for doing something that was unusual but legal. They had never dreamt that I would react to the fundamental breaches of my human rights by refusing to go back to the country which had conceived the illegal punishment operations. Then it snowballed. When they followed me to the UK, they couldn’t just stop. They had to go to the US, etc. The police appear to be institutionally incapable of ending the harassment. Whenever I travel to a new country, Norwegian police asks the police of that country to cooperate and as long as it stays at the level of police to police contact, “international cooperation” is considered sweet music and an opportunity to build relationships etc.
Nevermind that this kind of cooperation constitutes a gross attack on the idea of national judicial sovereignty…
I got really surprised here, and to be honest, I got the impression (and I know you know this is coming) that you’ve become paranoid. Im not sure wether to hope Im right or wrong. I hope Im right because I hope the police isnt like you say, and I hope I’m wrong for your research and your personal sake.
As a norwegian DNO shareholder I find your Iraq articles (and the comments) interesting and valuable, even if if think they are a bit pro-Maliki (wich still could be right). I dont have a huge fortune placed in DNO, but I see on chat forums that there is a lot of people having a lot of money invested. Also I get the impression of gamblers being all-in. While by reading “wild” forums like Hegnar online, I get the impression that not all of them are – should I say – “psycically stable”. And if I reluctantly should go down this path, I would suspect some criminals or criminal organization before the police. But you prob know more about this (too) than me.
But tbh, if I were in your shoes, Id move back to Norway and ask a tv team or reporter to folllow you 24/7, even if it was for months. If they kept away, at least you would get some sleep.
Morten, thanks for the feedback. I should perhaps start by stressing that many DNO shareholders have been very constructive in their comments, too.
Unfortunately, I am not making this up. Of course, when you get exposed to something like this, you inevitably do develop some extra paranoia. But there is a real problem at the heart of the situation. I mean, I can name Norwegian police officers who followed me to Qatar. Norwegians stand out in a crowd in Doha.
To those who tend towards believing I am mad, please see also some of my comments on this at http://policestalking.wordpress.com/about-2/ In an attempt to appease my parents I voluntarily met regularly with a psychiatrist when I was in the Netherlands. She declared me non-psychotic and prescribed no drugs.
Thanks for the suggestions also. The reason I am not coming back to Norway is that even though I still have faith in the courts, the police could lock me up for a weekend for no good reason and mistreat me. Norway has a horrible reputation for pre-trial detention – and that estimation comes from Amnesty International, not from me!
Wow, who woulda thought Norway would do this to an upstanding law abiding citizen? You Europeans are strange birds, but hey man like the saying goes “just because your paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you”. I think that’s the saying anyway. Good luck dude and I’d take pics of the cops that are following you. If its the same guys then you could post em kid.
Peace.
I particularly like Fernando’s idea – you should do a photographic document of your tormentors. You have my full support & continued readership, as basic & insignificant that may be.
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. As you can imagine, since photography was what brought me into trouble here, at first I was reluctant to use my camera to document my travails. However, once I had obtained a good legal overview, circa October 2011, I began taking photos & video and have plenty of footage of events relating to my harassment.
Still, having myself seen the presumption of innocence violated, I’m not going to fall into the same trap and accuse lots of people for human rights crimes by posting photographs of them where they can easily be identified. It’s the job of the courts to pass judgments. That’s why I am focusing on a written account of what is going on without identifying people by full name.
I personally experienced the extent of police brutality when i was a teenager, i was severely beaten up for smoking marijuana (without any kind of disorderly behaviour) in my small home town, and i’ve known for a long time that the more you give power to idiots (and let’s be realistic, most cops are moronic bullies with an IQ very short of mental retardation), the more they’ll abuse it. Still, i’m completely astonished at your story, i believe you, of course (i don’t see why you would invent something like that), but i don’t understand it.
Even if i’m not very familiar with the whole of your Iraq research, i’ve read some of your pieces, and i really don’t understand why the police (or the Norwegian government, as it is probably involved in some way) would waste such a huge amount of money and personnel to harass you like that, following you in various countries, disturbing your work, even in libraries (such a childish behaviour, typical of school bullies is archetypal of police in action). It is flabbergasting. Do you have an idea why this whole thing started ?
It is also very depressing. As a belgian, my whole life, i’ve been looking up to the scandinavian countries. The social model, the peaceful nature of the people, the prosperity, the human rights defending voices, Sweden’s neutrality and attempts at a more balanced position during the cold war, feminism, all these things made me consider the northern countries as the apex of civilization.
Of course, several dents have begun to appear in this ideal image i had, Denmark and Norway’s involvment in the Iraq invasion and occupation, Sweden’s treatment of Julian Assange, the rise of racist right-wing political parties, but this is a new low i wouldn’t have expected.
I’m really sorry you had to leave you country, it is utterly unfair and so frustrating to feel helpless about that. I think you’re very right to switch the focus of your research to the Police State in our so called democracies. Many people are writing about the middle east (unfortunately, most probably lack your expertise), but very few strong voices are criticising the culture of brutality, corruption and impunity that reigns in police forces in our western countries (even in the supposedly most advanced ones).
On the contrary, the advent of crime news as major news items (cleverly used by government to divert attention of the important things, and by the mainstream media propaganda to instill fear, propping up their sales) has contributed to an insane glorification of police work, fortunately balanced by the constant brutality of cop behaviour, experienced everyday by large parts of the population.
Essential initiatives like Cop Watch internet sites, where police racism, torture and illegal actions are denounced and where cops are identified and named (accountability, anyone?), are regularly targeted and taken down by our supposed ‘liberal’ governments. We need educated voices like yours. It’s a long fight, a lone fight, and probably a losing fight, but what the hell, you’ve already being forced out of your contry and harrassed 24/7. I will listen to you and relay your message.
Kudos, thank you, and good luck
I know that government authorities can do these kinds of things, but the mind also can do the same thing to people. Have you seen a psychiatrist to ascertain that this isn’t a case of schizophrenia you are suffering from?
Dear RV – nothing less than heroic that in all the months of 2011 when you were being persecuted through Norway, London, USA, Qatar, Jordan and Netherlands you were able to make so many postings on the Iraq blog and comments as well, so much so that none of us suspected a thing.
Also everybody must be intrigued with the revelation of your close association with CIA for all these years, culminating in making an offer to work for them. Now that’s something I wouldn’t have picked.
Still there has to be a lining of light to every cloud, and it surely must be your epiphany that the authoritarianism of Norway PM Stoltenburg and his policies dwarf those of PM Maliki and his policies.Santana and Observer would be wise to advise their compatriots of the dangers of seeking asylum in Norway or the Netherlands now that the Iranian lackey sadrists have betrayed them yet again..
Personally I think the proportional representative electoral system is the cause of it all, and perhaps you should have a look at the UN which is still promoting this invidious system?
RV
There is no reason to doubt your claims (leaving aside how strange the situation is), and there are strong arguments to be made for the validity of what you say (which you have provided above). Taking this as a given, I must say that your account of your experiences is shocking to say the least.
I know you said that;
“I have tried to think of the police’s motive but I don’t think there is any basic driver other than bureaucratic madness plus the desire of the Oslo police officers to keep working on a project that gives them lots of interesting travel experiences and air miles.”
but I still think this does not provide sufficient explanation. Something does not add up. Even in the “[maddest]” police forces, carrying out the extensive surveillance operations operations that you have described for such a lengthy period of time requires either:
the knowledge and complicity of too many people and departments for this to simply be a case of bureaucratic madness
or;
the case to have been directed from ‘high above’.
In either scenario, it seems highly improbable that the surveillance was simply in reaction to your photography that then snowballed into what amounts to an avalanche in relative terms, irrespective of the possibility of there being incompetent high-ranking officials.
Something is missing here; whether the explanation can be simplified to an issue of some sort of personal vendetta or some altogether more sinister conspiracy, you must have an idea about causes other than what you have mentioned. Perhaps you do know something further but do not, for whatever reason, wish to share it here and now. Perhaps not. Either way, I am not yet convinced that the explanation is as simple as you have put it.
I wish you success in your future endeavours.
Ali D
Reidar:
I guess this is really none of my business, but since you are discussing this publicly, as a reader and fan of yours’, I must say that I am simply lost by all you have described. This just doesn’t add up.
As you know from our Iraq discussions, I assume everybody is pretty much a rational actor to some extent; but people also come with some baggage, noise, and emotions that may cloud one’s rational thinking from time to time. Of course, having a rational thought process does not preclude one from simply being wrong.
The Norweigan police may be unethical slime bags, but I must assume that they are rational for the most part. What I failed to understand from your explanations are concise description of what is driving the Norweigan police to do this to you. You provided an explanation of your street photography as a possible action of yours that has attracted their attention. Is this the photography issue something that THEY brought up with you when you and your lawyer discussed this harassment, or are you assuming this is the reason? Did they have a specific complaint about your photography in regards to violating known Norweigan law? I can’t believe that they would send officers to tail you even in other countries. If it was merely for having a great time in luxury hotels, why wouldn’t they just go to those hotels and lie about following you (by writing bogus reports), and instead enjoy a pina colada poolside and let you go about doing your business? Why spend that kind of energy to follow you?
Furthermore, what would you imagine that they are telling foreign govts (UK or USA) about you? Obviously, simply telling them to be on the look-out for Reidar Visser because we think he may be somebody who likes to take pictures of interesting street scenes is probably going to make the Oslo police look like fools in front of their counterparts in the rest of the world.
Thus, if they are rational (and I assume that they are), there must be a bigger fear about you that would motiviate them to spend this level of financial and political capital to annoy you. Benign photography just doesn’t make sense as a motivation for them. By the way, have you published your photographs online?
Of course the other possibility is that annoying you and making your life hell IS the goal (rather than enforcing any laws or protecting society)—in which case, I go back to my earler question, some powerful person who can pull the strings doesn’t seem to like you for some reason (I go back to your writing about Iraq).
I am sorry if I am asking too much here Reidar. But I am just frustrated when I read this. If this kind of stuff can happen to you, it can happen to any of us anywhere in the world, and that is indeed a frightening thought.
Keep up your spirits and fight the good fight!
Mohammed
Dear Reidar,
I now had the time to read your entire blog on the police stalking subject.
I can understand Morten in the recent comments, where he politely raises the issue of paranoia, for this story will certainly be unbelievable for many north Europeans.
However, personally I thrust in your perception of events , as you follow the same pattern of logic and objectiveness as I saw in your approach to Iraq.
However, I also believe there must be another explanation for all this, than taking photographs and this is in no way an attempt to offend you, because I am really ready to help, maybe by using some of my danish journalist contacts to get attention and further insight to this story,
The first realistic reasons I thought of were these ;
In the years up to 2011, I would say that it was DNO being targeted publicly by press, police/tax authorities in a way comparable to the way you were being targeted recently. In fact some DNO shareholders felt you were part of that “stalking” towards DNO.
So as you also say yourself, there is no logic in a “DNO lobby in the police” – rather an anti-DNO lobby if any.
Much more logic would be, that you in your intensive research in Iraq, KRG (incl. DNO, Galbraith etc.) may have found or been close to finding something political sensitive, which could embarrass the Norwegian government or someone highly placed or influential and in that scenario, I think it would be more appropriate to talk about a Statoil lobby than a DNO lobby.
In the case of something political sensitive which could damage the perception of a neutral Norway or damage highly placed persons, it would make “sense” that the “police” used the ressources they were doing, to assure that you would back of and understand future consequences.
However , they would have warned you, and in that case it doesn´t make sense that you should have invented this police stalking subject, unless you simply missed the point..
Another possibility would be that they suspected, that you had pro Irak or Iran ties. The latter would absolutely justify some interest from the “police”. However, I find that unlikely in the view of the “US clearance” you had at that time. Also personally, I have always perceived you as rather neutral, though your views often were contrary to my own pro KRG views.
So I find my first explanation most likely, but the second being a very useful cover up for requesting assistance from authorities in other countries.
At this stage my mind is not ready to accept public pictures as explanation, but I will follow your blog closely from now and be assured, that if you want help in getting your story more public in Denmark, I will gladly make a try. I hope your life right now is acceptable.
Thanks everyone for the input. I realise that many believe I am paranoid, especially perhaps those who haven’t read my Iraq work on a weekly basis over the past year and a half.
Just to underline that I am perfectly aware that what I describe could easily be seen as paranoia, in order to reassure my parents I myself suggested that I should see a psychiatrist when I was in Holland. We had regular meetings between October 2011 and January 2012 and she saw no need for diagnosis or medication. I have not read much psychology myself, but I think it is a common feature that people with psychiatric conditions may be reluctant to engage in exercises where their psychological health is put under scrutiny. So just to be clear on this: You are welcome to ask me anything you want, and as long as you stay within the parameters of normal academic debate, feel free to raise concerns relating to my psychological state of mind.
Interesting, too, that many of those of you who are prepared to believe me think there must be some kind of ulterior motive on the part of the Norwegian government. It kind of reminds me when I was sitting in the office of a Joe Biden aide in 2007 and he dismissed my argument for a unified Iraq because it was not a sufficiently “compelling narrative”! In fact, exactly in the same way I always maintained that US policy in Iraq sometimes inadvertently pushes in the direction of partition but without there being any grand, deliberate cconspiracy to partition the country, I believe sheer bureaucratic incompetence can snowball into police operations of the kind that I am describing here. Consider how funding in Western governments work. Normally, there is a lot of cost/benefit analysis going on, and things like what I describe would be impossible. However, sometimes there are special “projects” that can generate a lot of funding not because they are useful but because they are trendy and contain the right catch phrases. For example, in academic research, it was sometimes impossible for Norwegian academics to get research money for several mainstream themes. However, if research could be dressed up as a “European cooperation project”,even the most hilarious schemes could receive funding. One of my theories is that international police cooperation is a driver in this operation, although I’m still keepin g an open mind as to who is paying for it (i.e. Norwegian/Dutch government vs possible Europol support or something like that). Also, in general, the appetite among government employees for fancy travel and air miles should never be underestimated.
In any case, thanks for reading, whether from a critical, concerned or sympathetic angle. Much better than indifference!
Good luck Reidar. I agree with others that you must start taking photos and posting them.
reidar, in all your writings on this issue you have never once provided a reference or citation from any sources to support your allegations of widespread police stalking operations. Not once.
If you are not able to do this, then I strongly urge you go back to Norway to your family. They must be beside themselves with worry and concern about you, as I’m sure are your loyal commenters here.We care about you very much.
Bb, I hope you are not suggesting that I should produce academic citations relating to my own case? It’s like complaining to someone who has been recently tortured that his case isn’t properly described in the literature. If you on the other hand mean police stalking as a general phenomenon, please look at my footnoted and/or referenced articles on Norway and the Netherlands:
http://policestalking.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/police-stalking-in-norway-step-by-step-pursuit/
http://policestalking.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/police-stalking-in-the-netherlands-persoonsgericht-verstoren-and-other-disturbance-methods/
[Received via e-mail]
As an American, I am saddened to read your latest post on the reasons for ending Iraq’s research. I am writing to you as a reader of your blog and do not represent any group or entity, political or other.
Your harassment by the police raised few questions in my mind and this reply is just speculations.
The most important question is who benefits from this harassment and what is the intended effect?
First, who benefits? possibilities listed:
1.No real motive by the police, but can be explained by pure incompetence. Don’t attribute to malice what can be easily explained by incompetence. Likely
2.Person or persons (Norwegian, arab, Iraqi, others) who are adversely affected by your Iraq analysis or there is some incrementing evidence you collected while taking photographs. For example, one or more photographs contain glimpses of meeting between questionable people of character with the police – Highly likely
3.Internal dispute within your own organization – somewhat likely
4.Paranoia on your part – Highly unlikely.
Second, what is the intended effect; possibilities are which are linked to who benefits:
1.Pure stupidity and childish behavior by imbeciles; have not thought through of consequences.
2.Stop your Iraq research.
3.Get you to quit your Norwegian institution indirectly.
Third, the methods used by the police:
1.Actions appear to be amateurish that you can easily spot suggest that the intention is not to stop you from taking pictures. For example, if you stop taking pictures, would this stop the harassment? It is worth thinking about whether the Norwegian police are acting alone (self interest) or just being used as a way to get you to do something!
2.Police as a tool to get you to do something – react in a way to achieve the end goal (whatever that may be).
3.Is the police used alone or in conjunction with other tools such as threats of losing job?
Thanks, Anonymous. Here are my picks from your alternatives:
Reason: Don’t attribute to malice what can be easily explained by incompetence.
Goal: Pure stupidity and childish behavior by imbeciles; have not thought through of consequences.
As for methods, you ask: Is the police used alone or in conjunction with other tools such as threats of losing job?
I think the goal was initially just to teach me a lesson and force me to leave the country, subsequent to which they had expected me to return to Norway. What they would then do, I don’t know. If the goal had been prosecution, they would have used razzia-like tactics at an early stage instead of letting me travel around. It is true that many cops actually believe they can penalise photography (the courts once had to step in to save a man who had been unlawfully fined for filming the police), but it would be strange if they used this much resources without first doing a proper job on the legal aspects of the case. My hunch is they concluded I was unprosecutable but that they would have some fun with extra-judicial methods abroad until a point where I would be forced to return back home, in fear and subjugated.
Also, just to be clear, once I found out that the police was giving me unwanted attention, I immediately stopped photographing since that was the only slightly unusual activity I was involved in. I took no photographs between February and October 2011, at which point I began taking photos again, this time for the purpose of documenting the ongoing harassment. Accordingly, for eight months they could see that I was not interested in resuming the previous street photography project. If they were unhappy with that, they had achieved their goal as far as its discontinuation was concerned. When they persevered with the operation, the only result is that I am collecting photos of the police and their collaborators.
I assume that gradually, when they saw that I wouldn’t return to Norway, having me sacked from my job would be a logical alternative goal. The methods by which my employer has tried to get rid of me are scandalous to say the least.
Hi Reidar:
Point of clarification: at no point in my review of any of your account do I consider a clinical diagnosis of paranoia to be likely. Of course I am not a psychiatrist, but I have done a few psychiatry rotations during my medical training, and seen enough real paranoid people to understand the differences. Your thoughtfulness, insight into the problem, and logical, structured thinking are not characteristics of a paranoid person.
The point of my inquiry was more to understand your ordeal a little better. If I put myself in your shoes, a flurry of questions come to mind, and that is why I asked them:
1) Have you spoken directly to the police about this ordeal? If so, are you at liberty to divulge the essential aspects of the conversations? If you haven’t had direct conversations with them, why not? I ask this because if I found myself surrounded by people who were following me, the first thing I would do is go to the police, FBI, you name it…I would want answers. I would show them all my pictures, I would tell them “go ahead and ask me anything you want…I have nothing to hide, I just want my life back.” Your narration does not describe you going through such a phase..
2) Do you have any knowledge of what the Oslo police have told other police agencies throughout the world so that they are permitted to track you everywhere?
As far as I can tell from your writing, you really have not provided much detail regarding your direct interactions with the police (except to say that they admit to not having a court case against you).
I am generally against conspiracy theories (like powerful people are after you because of your Iraq writing), but if you cannot provide detail enough to back up your contention that this is really about harmless street photography, then a conspiracy theory centered on getting you out of the iraq analysis business seems just as plausable as a world wide witch hunt determined to stop you from taking pictures of street fashion.
If you could answer these questions (as long as it would not be harmful to you), then I think this would go a long way to make your readership understand your situation better. As of now, based upon the responses, many who have choses no respond seem to be sceptical.
regards,
M
p.s.
one other question: what have friends and family thought about all of this? I imagine somebody like you has many friends. Have the police interviewed them or followed them too? Before you went public with this, did your friends even know you were going through all of this?
Mohammed, thanks, it is actually good to know that a medical doctor has been monitoring my writings ever since my ordeal began! Given the amount of materials I have written since February 2011, I think you would have detected it if at one point I became mentally unstable.
Regarding my contacts with the police, I have had only one direct contact which is described in the most detailed dossier of my case, i.e. http://policestalking.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/when-police-stalking-goes-awry-an-example-of-a-multi-national-harassment-operation/
They stopped me on the street only moments after I had taken some pictures and said they wanted to check me due to a supposed knife episode on the tram. This is pretty unusual in Oslo, but I didn’t understand afterwards that it was all bogus intended to get me to focus on them. At the time, my parents were abroad and most of my friends are Iraq-related and thus spread across the globe, so that’s why I decided to travel rather than seek the support of people at home. At the time, I didn’t understand what was going on and had an incomplete legal understanding, so I deleted the pics. Of course I regret that now. But the point is, it wouldn’t matter much if I could show them, because any photography in the public sphere is legal as long as it is not nudity and/or stalking.
From March to June 2011 I tried to solve the problem by travelling. Then I began working judicially and got a lawyer to contact the police in Oslo. They issued a letter to the effect that they have no criminal case against me. And yet Norwegian police was on the plane when I left the Netherlands for Taiwan in July.
Hi Reidar:
thanks. for the quick reply.
Based on your response, is it fair to say that the idea of street photography being the activity that attracted the police to you is conjecture on your part? No legal entity has every complained to you officially or unofficially about your photography (at least you have not provided any details of such a complaint from officials).
I guess you arrived at your conclusion based upon timing (stalking began soon after you started up again with street photography). However, you admit to having stopped taking pictures, but the stalking continued unabated. Therefore, while your initial photography may have piqued their interests, is it not reasonable to entertain the possibility that they are now following you for other reasons?
One of the aspects of your Iraq analysis that really stands out from other analysts is that you seldom speculate on issues. If you didn’t have direct knoweldge of facts, you usually refrained from making conclusive statements (it drove the Iraqiya supporters crazy to say the least!).
In your personal ordeal, it seems to me that you are speculating about an underlying motivation. I believe they are stalking you 100%. But based on your writings, I haven’t the faintest clue why. Did your lawyer directly ask this question? Finally, when you are in other countries and being followed, did you complain to local law enforcement agencies? What was their response?
Instead of running around to other countries, I would want to know why? If they are spreading horrible lies about you to governments of other countries, it can do a great deal of harm to your reputation and ability to find employment.
For once listen to Donald Rumsfeld:
“There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don’t know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know, we don’t know.”
Until you have an official explanation for all this, I have to chalk this up to “known unknown” and for the conspiracy theorists (those who think this all about getting RV to stop writing about Iraq), it could even be an unknown unknown.
Sorry for the humor, but sometimes I find it to be a good medicine (and you certainly have had enough stress through this ordeal, dealing with UC, as a physician I can tell your readership that it is a nasty chronic disease to have and it can severely impact a normal lifestyle if it is not controlled).
regards,
M
Hi again Mohammed. Thanks for engaging with this Byzantine story! My first and only confrontation with the cops was 1 minute after I had taken a photograph. Half an hour earlier I had photographed a group of people which I have since found out included a plainclothes policeman of high rank within the Oslo police. I assume he may have called the uniformed police who stopped me later in what I think was a bogus stunt. He was later among the people who followed me to London.
Also, the plainclothes police from the very beginning made a point of demonstratively taking photographs with their mobile phones wherever I went. They typically choose unlikely settings or motives (taking pictures in complete darkness, of the empty sky, straight against the sun etc.) It sounds crazy, like a medieval culture of justice, but this is the intellectual level of those who designed the operation.
RV,
first let me express my sympathy. I know that many are probably questioning your “grasp on reality” and that there is no way that the “officers of the court” would go after the wrong guy and that there must be something underlying the smoke. I have a relative who is a lawyer and through him I have found out that the police forces are full of people who are hungry for power and hungry for promotion and would not think twice about violating the law to get to wehre they want to get.
Having said the above, I will also say that those I have enough faith in the justice system in the US (and by extension the west) that I have no doubt in my head that justice will prevail as long as justice is being handed out by a jury. Persist my friend and you will prevail. You have stood up for free speech and it is now time for those who profess a belief in free speech to stand up for you. It is in times of trouble that true friends are found.
I would love to help in a letter writing campaign to make the higher ups in your country wake up and realize that something is “rotting”. I know that your distractors can trace my IP and they are welcomed to come over here (well at the moment I am not in Iraq, but in Jordan) and question me on my post and they will know soon enough that I never met you in person and that I have only followed your writing.
Bu the larger point I want to make is that your quitting the Iraq thread is a loss to us all who are interested in Iraq. I understand your need to set things “right” in your country, but let me t tell you that you will prevail in your country as in the end justice will prevail. We have no such assurance in Iraq where justice is purchased with a promise of a house and a reward or a threat of a death by silenced guns.
Hell, if you want to work in Iraq, I can arrange it
cheers
Hi Mr Visser, My sympathy is for you on this painfully case , suffering the police abuse being innocent about whatever crime ,is an experience that no one want pass through ,I tell this after my own personal experience .My salutation and best wishes for your right cause .
Observer, thanks for your kind words. With my criticism of Hakim and the Barzanis over federalism; with Allawi supporters thinking I am a Maliki stooge and Maliki supporters convinced I am with Allawi, with my occasional strictures on the Sadrists…. I am just not sure I have prepared myself particularly well for a peaceful Iraqi exile!
Dear Reidar,
Let me quote Observer:
“By the larger point I want to make is that your quitting the Iraq thread is a loss to us all who are interested in Iraq” and “it is now time for those who profess a belief in free speech to stand up for you. It is in times of trouble that true friends are found” – both are so true .
When that is said, I recommend you to return to Oslo, confront your opponents in both work and Police and continue your excellent work on Iraq, hopefully including the blog (It was almost like a family gathering, seeing all those well known blog names again) There is so much to be told on the story of Iraq looking back and forwards, and the lack of your contribution is indeed a great loss.
I am sure that your high standards of work and knowledge again will be noticed internationally and with Iraq and surrounding countries being of great interest in global politics, this will surely contribute to future job possibilities and recognition, that will support the end of your harassment by the Oslo police and even give further credibility to any future work of yours against police stalking in general .
However, I would recommend, that you temporarily pause or downsize the public part of your Police stalking project upon your return, but of course document any continued harassment. The documentation you have provided so far in public and the witnesses (and friends) you have by now, will be a support in a direct “confrontation” (many good suggestions have been given)with the police in Oslo and I honestly think they will lay down arms, unless they are very stupid or have an extremely good case of some kind, which I very much doubt, and I am sure they are reading with us.
Any continued harassment in Oslo could easily be documented by neutral parties , and don´t forget all the journalists who were following your Iraq work via twitter ; “It is in times of trouble that true friends are found” .
Mr Visser, firstly I have to say a very large thank you for the excellent research and analysis you have done regarding the transition to democracy in Iraq. I have found it truly enlightening and you will be sorely missed. There are truly few like you in this particular field.
Secondly, I’m afraid I must tae issue with this statement:
“After all, human rights are an essentially universalistic theme. Unless the «Western» house is kept in order, it becomes rather hypocritical to argue for the export of such lofty principles to the Middle East.”
Like you, I’m a westerner with an interest in and a convinced belief in the importance of democracy and an open society. However, I do not premise that on any idea that I live in a perfect democracy and I am advocating its “export” to other countries. Quite the contrary. I am very aware of the flaws of democracy in many western countries. I am also aware that the implementation of democracy in countries like Iraq will, of necessity, take very different forms from that of democracy in places like England or Norway.
So please, fight your battles as you need to in Norway. But please never feel that this should inhibit you from describing the creeping authoritarianism of al Maliki or indeed any other politician, foreign or otherwise.
Hi Reidar:
I was just glancing at an English-language Norweigan newspaper and ran across an article that stated 70% of Norweigans want MORE surveillance of the population by the authorities! See: http://www.norwaypost.no/news/norwegians-favour-more-surveillance-27478.html
A thought did occur to me as to whether or not you contacted media outlets in Norway now that you have gone public. I am sure the public would be interested. But after reading the above article, I am not so sure what the reaction would be?
Mohammed
Mohammed, thanks. To be honest, I don’t think Norway is a police state in the sense that people are prepared to do anything to please the police. Actually, until I was targeted, I myself used to make light of people who had surveillance concerns. I always thought that as long as you have nothing to hide, it is those who spy on you who run the risk if they are abusing their powers. I now realise there is institutionalised abuse of police power in Norway, though I do not think it enjoys the support of the majority of the population in the way it appears to do for example in the Netherlands.
This story will be posted on http://www.davidicke.com/headlines tomorrow.
I have sent it over. Kind regards atle.
Mr. Visser, I am at a loss of words after reading this. I say this with your book “A Responsible End?” The U.S. and the Iraqi Transition 2005-2010″ sitting on my desk, as it is important to my own doctoral research. I would love to invite you to come to Canada, particularly Osgoode Hall Law School, to speak of your experience. More people need to know about this. I have hope that academics here would provide a support network for you. Please consider it.
Atle and Ruba, thanks for your support!!
Hi Reidar,
Greetings. I have come across this from David Icke’s headlines. Do you know of his work? You may not feel all of it is researched to your high level but he has great experience with people having similar experiences. Worth checking out for yourself and not dismissing him as the media do without reading or researching his work.
It sounds a tragedy that you will give up your work. I hope not. There are many ways to ease your health problems through diet. I recommend Donna Gates’ “Body Ecology” or Dr Mercola. Yes, our esteemed doctor will cringe but taking responsibility for our own health is crucial. Perhaps learning to meditate would also help. That is my field. It costs nothing, anyone can learn to do it and the personal benefits are amazing. It also helps to bring us together so all these false labels and divisions are left behind.
Many blessings. Love.
Reidar – So sorry for the drama you have been through at the hands of those who are supposed to be watching over the “bad guys”. Do not give up your work for anything! If you do, they win. If you want to go forward with your research into police corruption, look no further than the motorcycle community who is constantly harassed by Norwegian police. I have myself been at a biker party in Stavanger that literally had 15 police officers on the road, fingerprinting and taking photography of party guests while an elderly woman – just down the road – was trapped in her burning home and the police said they had no resources to go help her (so of course they need more funding to be able to save old ladies in the next round of budget increases!). The stories of police surveillance and harassment of people who ride motorcycles are myriad in Norway while real problems go uninvestigated. I have myself called out Norwegian media who report on the non-existent public threat of bikers only to have them dismiss me with “the police told us so, so it must be true” comments. Not to say there aren’t a few people in the biker community who have been in jail for various crimes, but compared to the number of police officers in Norway who have criminal complaints against them – and dropped -, it is a mere fraction. You are not alone in your harassment by police, most just stay quiet about it. I am sure the harassment goes deep into other communities and cultures in Norway as well. With your skills, you could be doing the public a huge favor in continuing your investigations. These crimes, and harassment is a crime, can only go on while we all stay silent. And most have stayed silent for too damn long, especially in this country of kind forgiving people who need to start standing up too.
Thanks for your support Juliana, it really helps a lot. I share your impression that bikers are over-represented at the receiving end of police harassment operations in Norway. Actually, it was by reading about how bikers get abused by police I learnt more about how police criminality has been institutionalised in Norway, especially in the so-called organised crime unit of the Oslo police. It is a very suitable name: They organise crime! I have written a little bit more about it here: http://policestalking.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/police-stalking-in-norway-step-by-step-pursuit/
I live in Oslo and am a Norwegian and American trained lawyer. The starting point is to stress the limited nature of control that a liberal democracy has over misuse of police power. What is happening to you is sort of a diluted version of what, for example, the FBI did to the Black Panthers and some white activists in the sixties (Dr. King and many others). It was serious and if proved then would have been enjoined; a famous white actress linked with the Panthers committed suicide due to the FBI harassment. But it is different since the government feared the Panthers and activists, whereas Norway has no national interest in Kurdistan.
So how does harassment happen in Norway? Well, I think it always has. A reality is that Norway is a hierarchial society, and those at the top stay there by working on behalf of others on the top, like those in DNO. An appointments to be police boss in Norway is politically based, just like an appointment as head of NRK or fylkesmann; job tenure means satisfying people who could help or at least not hurt you.
At the risk of getting my very own police escort and early wake-up calls, I would like to suggest some reactions:
1) use your camera to photograph the people you suspect are harassing you;
2) record everything coming thru your telephone;
3) when going out, see if you can have a friend or sidekick with you;
4) start being friendly with journalists from Morgenbladet and Høyre and FrP politicians…they are not (yet?) wedded to the Labor policy of how to exercise influence
5)write a dedicated journal of everything suspicious you think happens, and link it to evt. pictures and phone & email messages.
6) see if– in accord with personal integrity–there is anything good of an academic standard you can write about DNO in Kurdistan…even if the negatives from DNO’s engagement are far far worse than the good, DNO might decide that it is sufficiently appeased…and if DNO is behind all this, it might stop.
Police do have many other things to do—which are not done due to overwork, distance from a “donut shop” or lack of manpower—, and realistically they will eventually tire of allocating resources to stress you. In a sense, you are experiencing the famous janteloven. They bother you because you matter.
Last time i checked your blog latest entries was in early September , so you can only imagine my surprise when i was thrown in this Scandinavian thriller that you’re unfortunately testing on your own skin…I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through!
I’ve been following your research on Iraq since 2005, so i know the value and the accuracy of your analysis and the loss that it would be for all of us that love the Middle East and its history , so i was relieved when i read of your determination to do your best to cover the next stages of the local election in Iraq! Reider don’t give up, preventing you from doing your magnificent work they will deprive you of your greatest talent, that is the worse thing to loose apart from freedom!
Have you ever thought to ask for help to some ONG that care about Human Rights, as Amnesty?They could give your story the coverage that deserves!
Dear Reidar,
I, like many others here, have long admired your work on Iraq.I have appreciated your input to the global discussion on Iraq for years, and am saddened that you cannot contribute as extensively as before into this discussion.
You approved informed contemplation on possible psychological explanations to your ordeal – an experience of which I do not doubt for a second has been nightmarish to say the least. I wish to emphasize that I do try to look at your experience from every angle as closely as possible – and being an avid reader of your work, I have no concerns as to your intellectual and analytical capacity, or your professionalism. I highly esteem your work up to today, and follow your blog on a weekly basis.
All this in mind, I wish to share with you that I come from an Addams family of weird mental problems. I have grown up surrounded by chronically depressed, alcoholic and people suffering from drug addiction. Even more, I have grown up with one manic-depressive, as well as three schizophrenics, the latter three all in my immediate family. To my relief, I have never had any mental issues aside regular stress and a teen-age period of eating disorder, but I can definitely relate to how some people can see the world so differently to the ‘norma’ (whatever that is), and can also related to deformed perceptions of reality and the self (common in eating disorders too).
This is just my penny of thought and you can decide if you think it relevant to publish on your wall to continue this discussion; if you feel like clarifying some of your story lines in this regard; or if you wish to dismiss this thought altogether without thinking. I also admit this is all ‘pop-psychology’ as I don’t have a degree in the field, but I draw strongly from literature as well as from my personal experiences.
—–
I do not want to share the names of my immediate family members, so I will refer to my schitzophrenic members as S , C and P.
S (now deceased) and P were diagnozed paranoid schizophrenia; and C’s diagnosis is not yet confirmed but is waving between schizophrenia and delusional disorder. C suffers from persecutory delusion, which is its own subtype of delusion, and involves a certainty of one being spied and chased or otherwise persecuted on. There is also a disorder called Querulous Paranoia or Litiguous Paranoia, where a person who is certain of having been wronged obsessively pursues justice for the wrongs. Querulous Paranoia is actually very common ( see e.g. http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/184/4/352.full.pdf).
…and so is paranoia in itself:
According to one study done by clinical psychologists, 1/3 people in the UK regularly suffer from paranoid or suspicious fears. 5% believe there is a conspiracy to harm them, and 10% think ‘someone has it for them’. 20% worry for being followed or stalked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5126208.stm
A website was opened following the study:
http://paranoidthoughts.com
Statistics about paranoid schizophrenia are harder to establish due to the extensive process required for diagnosis, and lack of access or willingness of many to seek one. Some estimates say approx. 1% of the population are schizophrenic, of which up to 40-60% are paranoid schizophrenics. (sorry, couldn’t find the study I am referring to just now).
What might be often easy to dismiss is the fact that many people suffering from these various types of paranoia and delusion are _highly functioning individuals_. Many are academics who are able to conduct impeccably argued research; many are functioning highly educated professionals, lawyers, businessmen, intellectuals, you name it. John Nash was a paranoid schizophrenic.
In paranoid schitzophrenia or persecutory and auditory delusions the individual is convinced that s/he is being singled out for harm. Common type is the conviction that the government is tailing you. Most of these individuals, as said, are smart, capable, entirely ‘normal’ in most of their life, and it can be difficult for the individual and his/her immediate family and friends to recognize that the claims and beliefs are delusional. This is because many are able to rationalize, explain and argue for their belief very convincingly. Especially academics and successful professionals who suffer delusions are easily taken as healthy individuals. For me as well, my initial reaction to my C’s rationalized, well argued claims of being persecuted, was to believe him without a doubt. Had it not been for my experience with such symptoms I might still continue believing him, but instead, I searched for other answers.
–> Some reasons I started thinking this might indeed be the case in your story as well, if you allow me:
1) you’re extremely intelligent, and your level of abstract and logical thinking is undeniable. You probably possess an IQ above Mensa levels, I would not be surprised.
This in mind: if I was a persecuted individual, there is one thing I would logically think of doing immediately: Gather Evidence. After 1,5 years, I would have already collected: car license numbers; photographs; video material of one and the same car going around and around my building at night to keep me awake; having someone with me secretly to witness these stalkings, etc.
–> The reason I think you have not done this is simply because paranoia is a strong measure of self-identity: my paranoid schitzophrenic family members would never allow me to help them collect evidence, or do anything else to prove or unprove their claims (thus failing the ‘Popper’s falsification thesis’ so to speak). They would promise to gather evidence for me for next time, and they never did. Not because the stalkers were so subtle and well hidden; but because they didn’t exist. I would sleep with C in the same room, and C would tell me ‘there they are, did you hear them?’ and I would hear nothing.
(And the strange thing is: I _too_ wanted to believe, rather than consider the alternative. I wanted to believe!)
And this leads me to..
2) …In other words, once the paranoid has started rationalizing, and building his/her self-image and world image, s/he will resist attempts to dismantle it, just like heavy Intelligence Design-theorists resist all attempts at proving their science is pseudoscience.
It is, what in social psychology is called, “cognitive dissonance”: the feeling of discomfort when witnessing two conflicting world views or evidences. The state of dissonance is what motivates many people to resort to solutions to reduce this dissonance by e.g. finding people who strengthen one’s perception of reality (joining a cult, or finding like-minded ‘believers’ like in your blog!), or by selectively picking up evidence to support one’s theory, ignoring all counter-evidence.
Dissonance is strong among paranoids, hence they avoid situations that might force them to confront their conflicting world views.
In the ‘cult’ example an effective way of avoiding confrontation is by surrounding oneself with likeminded people, and avoiding confrontation with critics. This might be the reason you used the third person narrative first: subconsciously perhaps you wanted to establish a base of supporters before ‘coming out’ with your real identity.
(…and this blog is an example of such an established support space. Have you moderated all strongly sceptical opinions out? )
Which leads me to…
3) Once you have ‘come out’ with your first-person narrative, confronting becomes all the more difficult to your subconscious fear of dissonance.
Now you are in public: everyone knows the highly regarded Iraq-scholar’s strange story with the Norwegian police. The more you write about it, the more followers you get, the longer your journey continues, the more and more difficult it will be to even stop for a minute to think, if perhaps you had been mistaken.
_Facing that possibility might be excruciating, and you might not even give yourself a moment to think._
It’s like when you have lost the love of your life or your family member has died: you try not to bear a single thought on her, knowing that the thought would crush you. Your functionality, your identity needs to stay stable, so you cannot risk crushing it. You push the thought to the back of your mind. ‘Not now’, you tell yourself.
Doubt is a troll that’s hiding in your house, and you want to keep him hidden:
As years go by, there will (if my narrative is close to the truth) be – like all my paranoid closed ones – moments of doubt. These moments are truly painful to experience. Perhaps you already had them. But you know it inside you that the doubt is there, nagging inside.
These doubts are there for a reason. If the police were really after you, you probably would never have these doubts, I imagine. The doubts are your subconscious trying to tell you something, I would suspect.
The question you have to ask yourself – and perhaps you already have – is just that: do you ever doubt? You may not share your answer here with us, but you will know the answer yourself. What does that mean if you do? Your subconscious will probably try to tell you that. The matter is, if you are listening.
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C and P have both admitted to their condition, but it took them years. For years C denied any possibility of delusion, yet continued evading possibilities to collect evidence. C’s condition was sometimes so bad he would attempt to harm one of us, as he were sure we had turned against him. In four occasions he had attacked a passer-by on a street, twice physically and at least twice vocally, accusing them of stalking. There were also episodes he rejected food or drink he was offered for fear of them being poisoned, and he regularly stopped visiting certain restaurants after having seen a ‘stalker’ and becoming convinced the food would be poisoned
(he regularly suffered stomach pain, mind you: possibly due to his heavy beer intake, or simply the stress which had developed an ulcer in his stomach.)
Our lives are changed now, ever since C and P were diagnozed. (S died a long time ago, but she too had been on medication for years by that time.) They are both on medication for their respective conditions, and are doing well. Both are completely functional in their lives, and absolutely no one in their circle of friends or family have turned their back on them because of this diagnosis. They are still respected in their fields of speciality, admired friends and colleagues, and live just a normal life.
It was a big pill to swallow, to finally admit to the possibility of delusions and get treatment. The delusions are gone when they regularly take medicine, but sometimes they relapse, and have to be convinced to take the pill again. But it’s been worth it. They live a relatively normal life now, surrounded by loved ones. They are much less stressed now that they were when they lived in fear, and fought with their cognitive dissonance.
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As an end note to this long message: John Nash, the famous mathematician, was a schitzophrenic. He also suffered from persecutory paranoia, and tried to apply for asylum in France and East Germany. Nash himself has talked openly about his journey towards diagnosis, and for example he writes:
“I began to tire of certain types of irrational thinking. I was doing things at the time, studying or doing some calculations. So it may be that the delusional thinking began to come unsatisfying. I think people become mentally ill when they’re somehow not too happy – not just after you’ve won the lottery you go crazy. It’s when you don’t win the lottery.”
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/001617.html
Lionel Aldridge, the football player, had also talked openly about his condition:
“I didn’t consider myself a drifter; I was just a victim of schizophrenia,” said Aldridge, who lost both of his Super Bowl rings while he was homeless. “I had gone 10 years without getting any kind of treatment. Once I accepted and cooperated with the treatment, I started to beat the illness.”
He felt happy for having come out:
“It’s something that has been very well received and people seem to want to hear about it wherever I go. It’s exciting for me.”
http://www.schizophrenia.com/stories/aldridge.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-10-27/sports/sp-16847_1_lionel-aldridge
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So I guess this is the end of my long and speculative message. As I said, I do not expect you to publish this on your wall, or even comment on it in anyway.
There is even the chance you might dismiss this without another thought, but then again, as a scholar I have never seen you dismiss anything without consideration. That is why I leave it to you to think about.
Perhaps I’m wrong, perhaps your story is as real as you believe it to be. But I want you to know, that no matter what is the case, my admiration for your scholarship is not diminished, not in the least.
All the best to your struggle, and I sincerely hope you can live a normal life again one day, and keep contributing to Iraq scholarship.
Warm Regards,
SS.