Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays designed tactics that people currently employ to discourage dissent and immobilize inquiry. They are meant to produce a herd mentality, a comfortable consensus, within an amenable population that will publicly censor others whose views differ. Individuals then quickly reconsider their rhetoric and remain silent when they see others discredited for independent opinions similar to their own. These devices, which disdain and almost prohibit objective thinking, discourage others from thoroughly examining certain events and circumstances. To influence public opinion, key opinion leaders (KOLs) use various methods to build a consensus.

In the 1950s and 1960s, using Bernays’ methods, Olaf Helmer, Norman Dalkey, and Nicholas Rescher working with the Ford Foundation-funded Project Rand, institutionalized collectivized thinking and developed the Delphi Technique for the Air Force. It is based on the hypothesis that a group of experts and their decisions are far more authoritative and convincing than individual judgments. The skilled coordinator of the Delphi Technique is the facilitator who manages the opinions and contributions of a panel of experts which were each chosen primarily for their identifiable views and opinions. Given that the population has an ever-decreasing attention span and ever-increasing demands on its time, it is easier to adopt the views of a panel of experts.

Dr. James Fetzer, in many of the books that he has edited uses so-called “experts.” He is obviously quite aware of this aspect of the Delphi Technique. In his book, No One Died at Sandy Hook, he promotes the idea that there are thirteen contributors, including six current or retired Ph.D college professors. Fetzer claims that Wolfgang Halbig is the “leading researcher.” Halbig, who a criminologist called a malignant narcissist, is the ONLY source of his expertise and history. Amazon discontinued the sale of the book because of copyright issues. This book was published AFTER all of its claims had been thoroughly refuted. Facilitators evade direct questions by hawking their claims and refuse to even acknowledge corrections. However, whether they are correct about an issue or not…provocateurs are not interested in any exchange of ideas. [1]

We have all been obedience trained into a group-think comfortable mentality – per the Delphi Technique. Former trustees and/or researchers for RAND include Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Francis Fukuyama, and Zalmay Khalilzad. Rumsfeld, who facilitated the widespread use of the deadly neurotoxin, aspartame, was Chairman of the RAND Corporation (1981-1986).

A fact is a reality that cannot be logically disputed or rejected. It is something that exists, may be seen visually, and is verifiable and empirically testable. Facts are objective rather than subjective. Facts are not just something that one believes but they can be observed firsthand, or through the senses. Truth or belief about an issue or a matter, a person, a place or an event is what an individual believes to be true. If an individual believes that something is true, then it is true. [2]

Facts are concrete, measurable, consistent, and confirmable while truth is flexible and subjective. Facts are more objective whereas truths are more subjective, often based on circumstances. Facts are more permanent while truths may be temporary. Facts exist in reality, whereas truths are based on things that one feels are currently true. Feelings, intuition, convictions or beliefs, often based on cultural or personal faith are not factual. [3] There are also assertions that are ill-conceived opinions based on insufficient or unexamined evidence. An individual may only determine whether something is factual by objectively researching the evidence.

Persuasive provocateurs are expert marketers who successfully sell individuals an idea they may not have conceived without external inducement. That is their main objective. The provocateurs have honed their ability to “make facts and truths interchangeable.” The two words are related but there are distinct differences between the two. An effective provocateur, to make truths and facts interchangeable, eases individuals away from their actual views about a topic, outside of “the context of their own experience.” [4]

Provocateurs are very good at creating a hypothetical environment which places individuals into a situation that is categorically unfamiliar to their personal understanding or experience. This necessitates one’s involvement in “a game of what-would-you-do-if scenario.” An agent distracts individuals from what they personally know or believe. The agent restructures the situation to a “we’re-all-in-this-together” issue. The entire purpose of change agents and facilitators is to convert people who share similar views into a “we’re-all-in-this-together” mode. [5]

On Monday, April 7, 2014, at 8 p.m. ET, Dave Gahary moderated a debate between CW Wade and Wolfgang Halbig. This was sponsored by the American Free Press (AFP). I have used audio clips from that “debate,” from Halbig’s “debate” with Keith Johnson, from Fetzer’s interview of Halbig (1/24/2018) and from my interview of Halbig. Fetzer initially introduced Halbig’s name to Gahary on January 23, 2014. Gahary then interviewed Halbig which was released February 11, 2014 and it went viral, as they say. Halbig then set up his business, Sandy Hook Justice and began his sales pitch for donations on April 12, 2014. He raises money based on his questions and claims, none of which are provable in a court of law. If a person uses deceit to raise money, that person has committed a fraud. YouTube University advocates prefer to watch a video rather than look at evidence and think objectively. Halbig, for the first time in his various efforts to collect money, found a perfectly-programmed audience and he has finally struck the mother lode.

The alleged objective of the “debate” with Wade was to initially answer Halbig’s “sixteen questions that demand the truth” relative to the event that took place at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. The official reports contain all of the answers to Halbig’s questions. The first four audio clips are perfect examples of how a facilitator places an individual into a hypothetical situation in order to attempt to alter her/his views using emotion and deception. The first audio clip is from a call that Halbig made to my AFP program on February 11, 2014. The next three are listeners who called into the AFP program following the so-called “debate.”

Susan Carnicero, a former CIA officer who teaches people how to spot a liar says, “Invoking religion is another tactic liars often use to draw you in and manage your perceptions of them.” Saying things like “I swear on a stack of bibles” is such a device. Similarly, Halbig said, “I promise you with my heart…” “I promise you…” ” I will promise you…” He also implies in his call that he was at Columbine. There is no evidence whatsoever that he was there. Halbig is a classic compulsive liar. Talk about hyperbole, he says, regarding the parents of a dead child, “not one of them didn’t kick that door down.” This is outlandish, yet people buy into his emotional subterfuge.

 

 

How many listeners, who did not call in, embraced the sentiments of those who said nothing could keep them from the school and now felt that they were all in the big campaign to find the truth?

Someone, using Halbig’s model of a game of what-would-you-do-if scenario asked me if I would leave my child in a pool of blood for sixteen hours. I have no idea where they got that time frame as no one was left in a pool of blood at SHES. I responded rationally:

 

Halbig, the facilitator, established and then controlled a “psychological environment,” during the debate which provided a platform, making it easier for one side to control the rhetoric while preventing the other side from presenting its views. This environment is present in the so-called alternative media where people discourage critical thinking. [6] This situation creates a mass neurosis and those who reject the consensus are marginalized. The psychological condition creates uncomfortable cognitive dissonance and “irreconcilable conflict.” People then vacillate…lose their frame of reference and become alienated…The Irreconcilable Conflict Cognitive dissonance keeps an individual from thinking for himself and instead he “defaults” to group-think…” [7]

According to Karl Marx, people make every effort to avoid ridicule. Marxist, Saul D. Alinsky “emphasized the necessity of humiliating and marginalizing potential opponents, whether they were correct about an issue or not…provocateurs are not interested in any exchange of ideas.” [8] I am reminded of the often-used but undiscriminating concept: My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts. Stated in another way, I am so brainwashed that I will reject any information that counters my indoctrination. Some people have a padlocked mind. In my interview of Halbig, he suggested that I was trying to discredit him and I responded that people discredit themselves by their words and their claims. No one likes to be lied to or to be made a fool.

About five minutes into the “debate,” Halbig, who chose to speak first, gave his opening remarks. He claimed to be totally transparent and honest and gave his address and phone number which he does on many radio programs, perhaps to establish trust. He subtly implied that Wade is not honest or transparent. His statements were geared towards his selective openness and his claims about his occupational history, being a national school safety expert, a former Florida State Trooper, and a Customs Agent, etc.

 

“All U.S. airport customs officers attend 15 weeks of intensive paid training before beginning work. Training consists of classroom lessons and field instruction on topics including how to properly use a firearm.” Those who work in Puerto Rico, Miami, Florida…“ must pass a Spanish proficiency exam or take six weeks of Spanish training classes.” [9] Applicants also must be younger than 37 years of age. [10] He was born in 1946; he was too old for the position. In Halbig’s resume, he stated that he was a customs inspector (1993-1994) (age 47) and on my program from 2002 for about a year to a year and a half or two (age 56). Halbig lied, imagine  that!!!!!

During the “debate”, he said that he would not even be doing what he is doing if the two officials from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office had not come to his house in December 2013. He claims that they told him to stop asking questions about Sandy Hook. However, there is another version of that visit:

He also harassed another company regarding who supplied the porta potties. Kelley Watt is also guilty of harassing officials in Connecticut. She admits to making hundreds of phone calls.

His comment, “hello Deanna” is ridicule which is a Delphi Technique tactic.

He claims to be an instructor for the National Incident Management System which requires extensive training, not just one measly certificate that he acquired online in three hours or less. If Halbig had any additional certificates, he would proudly display them – he doesn’t.

We have more lies; one cannot teach without proper certification which he does not have. Further that 3 hour certificate expired in 2009.

 

Gahary actually muted Halbig so that Wade could explain how the FEMA policies were established after 9/11. Halbig, as is his usual practice had been harassing people again, this time about porta potties. The hoaxers cannot even get their claims right in Fetzer’s book. Halbig knows that the porta potties were delivered in the afternoon on 12/14/2012 while Allan Powell says that the porta potties were delivered in the morning before the alleged drill.

In his interview with me, Halbig said that school records are public. That is not true. “School records, which may include medical, legal, criminal, or mental health information, are not public records.” Halbig makes preposterous statements and people rarely hold him accountable or even question his ludicrous claims.

 

Halbig, living in his fantasy world claims that he depends on his dispatchers as his lifeline. This is pathetic! Halbig directed a lot of contempt towards Wade and ridiculed him at every opportunity. Wade did not respond in kind but was a total gentleman in every way. Wade said that he regretted putting a Pinocchio nose on Halbig in one of his videos. Wade explained how he began making videos. He admitted that he is not an expert and does not raise money for his work.

Halbig does raise money which he states is essential in trying to find the truth. People who donate to Halbig are financially invested as well as emotionally invested. To look proficient, Halbig orders documents that he does not release and probably does not read. He is NOT a scholar having graduated from high school with a 1.0 GPA. His last comment in this clip demonstrates his lack of mental acuity.

Wade really just took issue with Halbig and his attitude towards the official reports that Halbig claims to have read but, as Wade points out, he misrepresents the information. Halbig also claimed that he had read the report during my interview of him.

He stated that he read the report or he could not have been on my “talk show.” He lies when it is expedient to do so and yet later, in the same program, discredits the report.

Halbig says that experts witnesses have to read reports.

After talking about the necessity of reading the reports, he says, Oh, my God, no wonder we are in trouble.

At times, it was difficult to determine if Halbig, often impatient with and ridiculing Wade, was the moderator or if Gahary was the moderator.

 

(Don’t read the books)

In the sixth audio file, Halbig all but admits that he has not read the report when he states that only two people have read the report.

The only people who will be hurt are those that do not read the report, actually do the necessary research, draw their own conclusions and instead rely on Halbig, who has faked his occupational and military credentials, and who is raking in money so he can tell people what to think. He is afraid that people will actually read the reports and find the truth. He does not want to be fact-checked.

Susan Carnicero also stresses the importance of differentiating between convincing statements and those intended to convey information. The former is an indication of lying. For instance, if you ask a person a direct question s/he may launch into a “long response about their good employment history and trustworthiness, those are convincing statements that, while they sound true, signal a lie.” Additionally, liars often use “perception qualifiers” such as “honestly,” “to tell you the truth” and “quite frankly,” which are used to verbally “dress up a lie.” Halbig repeatedly says, “I’ll tell you what.”

Wade confirms that Halbig’s sixteen questions are answered in the report and are really not even relevant to the deaths of the children. Wade only brought up Halbig’s sixteen questions when he began doing radio programs. Wade mentions that the forty sworn eyewitness statements are more relevant to the crime than who ordered the porta potties.

Although Wade addressed many of Halbig’s questions such as Halbig’s claim that no EMTs were allowed into the school and that helicopters should have been called. Yet, Halbig admits that two children and two adults were transported to Danbury Hospital. Who does he think prepared them for transport unless if there weren’t any EMTs?

Halbig continued to bring up those talking points throughout the program as if Wade had not even explained these issues in detail. Halbig was not interested in any information that Wade offered. As mentioned earlier, Saul D. Alinsky “emphasized the necessity of humiliating and marginalizing potential opponents, whether they were correct about an issue or not…provocateurs are not interested in any exchange of ideas.” [11]

At about sixteen minutes, after Wade’s opening statement, instead of acknowledging Wade’s remarks, Halbig again marginalized and criticized Wade for not calling him to talk about the sixteen questions. He also criticized Wade’s alleged lack of transparency. Then he proceeded to discredit the official reports with off-hand comments by members of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission.

He said he had the media crawling over fences and parents trying to tear down the fences. Really, Wolf, parents were trying to tear down the fences? The report was redacted for the general public but SHAC, the officials at the Office of the Child Advocate and the parents had full access to the unredacted report.

He continued to imply that Wade was inept and naive and lacks common sense.

More delusion by Halbig, “You have to understand how we work in the system.”

Again, he demonstrates ridicule.

Halbig introduces false information by stating that Adam Lanza drove by eight schools that morning. There are only eight schools in Newtown including pre-school. Police officials indicate that Lanza’s Garmin GPS device showed that he drove past Sandy Hook Elementary on the day before the shootings. It took twenty-three minutes round-trip from his home.

Halbig continues to dismiss the official reports while claiming his previous Florida State Trooper (1974-1975) experience as if he were still engaged in such work. He did not pass the probationary period as a trooper and only pretends or wishes that he were still in law enforcement. He might have a delusional disorder which is a serious mental illness in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. The primary characteristic of a delusional disorder is the presence of one or more delusions that persist for at least one month. Halbig certainly fits the description. The next audio clip is from the call he made into my program on February 11, 2014.

During the entire “debate,” Halbig interrupts and talks over Wade who continues to be a gentleman. Halbig also claims that Wade lacks the occupational background that he has.

 

 

It is often the case that people who engage in fabrication deflect or project attention away from themselves by accusing others of doing what s/he is doing – making things up.

He didn’t know what book 6 is; he just wanted to confabulate. Susan Carnicero said, “If you have somebody who jumps down your throat because you ask them a question …you’ve got a problem.” There are also other “tactics of evasiveness, which are major clues that a person is not being candid, such as the failure to provide information that has been requested. The person may “go on at length but not answer questions you have asked.” They brush off important questions as inconsequential.”

Halbig is a masterful confabulator and often appears to be delusional which may be due to a mental situation. “Most cases of confabulation are the result of dementia, brain damage…People who confabulate stories are often very confident in their memories even after being shown contradicting evidence. These stories can vary from slight truth alterations to completely unbelievable or bizarre tales. Even when the stories are completely false, the person appears coherent, consistent and relatively normal…A provoked confabulation is when a patient invents an untrue story in response to a question. These tend to be quite common among patients with…dementia.” [12] Halbig said the Sandy Hook event was divisive and in his nearly-illiterate rhetoric stated, “other people in the home being told that they have serious mental health issues as the case is in my house today.” The next clip is from James Tracy’s interview of Halbig on April 13, 2015.

He could probably talk with his doctor about the nearest hospital. In 2009, his doctor prescribed Effexor which Halbig felt was ineffective. His doctor sent him to Dr. Micah Baxley who practices Geriatric Psychiatry. One of his areas of expertise is Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Baxley prescribed two prescription drugs, Cymbalta and Wellbutrin. He was still taking those drugs in May 2012 according to a deposition he gave in one of his many law suits. Presumably, he is still taking those drugs. Withdrawing from Eli Lilly’s Cymbalta, because of its severity, can cause its own diagnosis – Cymbalta Discontinuation Syndrome.

Not only is Halbig delusional, he is also a liar on multiple levels.

No kidding, a hundred autopsies!!!! Did you assist or just observe? In what capacity did you witness a hundred autopsies? Was that while Halbig was a state trooper from 1974-1975?

Halbig, an apparently unsupervised con-man still acts as if he is a cop and people fail to hold him accountable.

Halbig claims that there were no 911 calls that stated “shots fired.” [13] Notice the way that Halbig ridicules Wade.

 

More ridicule from Halbig as he authoritatively instructs Wade to “stay focused.” While Halbig was cordial to callers who agreed with him and had made donations, even anonymous donations, despite the fact that he derides anonymity. In this next audio clip, he ridiculed the last caller. Given all of the verbal guffaws and lack of writing skills, he certainly has no right to accuse others.

In my interview with the pied piper, Halbig, a classic compulsive liar, suggested that I was trying to discredit him and I responded that people discredit themselves by their words and their claims.

 

According to Susan Carnicero, a former CIA officer who teaches people how to spot a liar said that aggression and anger are often signs of lying. I guess that was especially true when I caught Halbig in a lie.

It is interesting that YouTube allows videos that claim thousands of people are guilty of participating in a hoax in Newtown while removing videos that exonerate those individuals. Some entity has a lot of power, not only for YouTube but the entire “alternative” media. The videos claiming that Sandy Hook was a hoax provoke some people to acts of violence, the stalking of children in Newtown, and the desecration of private property. Yet, YouTube does not remove those videos.

[1] B. K. Eakman, Push Back!: How to Take a Stand Against Groupthink, Bullies, Agitators, and Professional Manipulators,  Skyhorse Publishing, Kindle Edition pp. 30-31, 36-41

[2] Difference Between Fact and Truth, http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-fact-and-truth; retrieved 1/28/2018

[3] Difference Between Fact and Truth, http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-fact-and-truth; retrieved 1/28/2018

[4] B. K. Eakman, How  to Counter Group Manipulation Tactics, 2001, p. 13

[5] B. K. Eakman, Push Back!: How to Take a Stand Against Groupthink, Bullies, Agitators, and Professional Manipulators,  Skyhorse Publishing, Kindle Edition pp. 30-31, 36-41

[6] B. K. Eakman, Push Back!: How to Take a Stand Against Groupthink, Bullies, Agitators, and Professional Manipulators,  Skyhorse Publishing, Kindle Edition pp. 30-31, 36-41

[7] B. K. Eakman, Push Back!: How to Take a Stand Against Groupthink, Bullies, Agitators, and Professional Manipulators,  Skyhorse Publishing, Kindle Edition pp. 30-31, 36-41

[8] B. K. Eakman, Push Back!: How to Take a Stand Against Groupthink, Bullies, Agitators, and Professional Manipulators,  Skyhorse Publishing, Kindle Edition pp. 30-31, 36-41

[9] Laura Woods, Requirements to Become a U.S. Airport Customs Officer, http://work.chron.com/requirements-become-us-airport-customs-officer-25722.html; retrieved 2/3/2018

[10] Border Patrol Edu, https://www.borderpatroledu.org/become-cbp-officer; retrieved 2/3/2018

[11] B. K. Eakman, Push Back!: How to Take a Stand Against Groupthink, Bullies, Agitators, and Professional Manipulators,  Skyhorse Publishing, Kindle Edition pp. 30-31, 36-41

[12] Traci Pedersen, Confabulation, https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/confabulation; retrieved1/31/2018

[13] CW Wade, Sandy Hook 911 Call Shot Analysis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK1KgJx8yh0; http://sandyhookanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/11/sandy-hook-911-shot-analysis.html; retrieved1/31/2018