Here the harassment was intended to force sinners to repent or drive undesirables out. The version that existed in the Germany of the 1930's was called "Jew baiting". Anti-Jewish sentiments were already running high in Germany.  Prior to this the police could not arrest a Jew for any reason whatsoever. Locals would "bait" Jews into violent outbursts by subjecting them to systematic, sustained harassment. When the Jew reacted, he/she would be arrested then sent to a concentration camp. Similar methods of attack have been identified with extremist organisations. One example is the KKK in America that is known to have used covert warfare against African Americans. The East German Secret Police, of which most Western Police Forces are now modelled on used extensive gang stalking and psychological terrorism againsts dissidents and was called Zersetzung.

The practice of covert warfare is also known to have existed in the feudalistic era where it was known as "blacklisting". The origins of the word "blacklist" originated in 1660 when England's King Charles II made a list of the fifty-eight judges and court officers who sentenced his father, Charles I, to death in 1649. When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, thirteen of these were executed and twenty-five sentenced to life imprisonment.

It is a well known historical fact that during the 17th century and long before that, rich families persecuted and prosecuted the poor and  eliminated threats to their standing in society through similar methods of attack. Some argue that the very rich families of old are behind the present, rapid expansion of covert warfare and the surveillance big brother police state. The present growth of the practice is then explained as being in part a continuation of an activity that is expanding and becoming highly visible in the present due to the mistrust and fear held by these families of the freedoms the populace at large currently enjoys, bolstered in large part by the advent of technology that makes inter-cultural and international communication and sharing of ideas possible. Their privileged position is under threat so that they feel forced to use the back end of the system accessible to them by virtue of their social positioning  to launch covert campaigns they percieve as threatening to their standing.

As covert harassment, intimidation and elimination (zersetzung)  has become so extensive and commonplace in so many disparate cultures in our modern times,  the political motive alone appears to be the major reason as to why such an expansive covert network of citizen harassment networks have been created. In their formative years political parties are known to have used similar methods of using citizen harassment teams to win elections, and once they are in power, the very same methods ensure the government stays in control. In this sense, the covert harassment and elimination of citizens who pose a threat to those in power becomes institutionalised, which means it is not only entrenched in the system, an identifiable aspect of it, but an activity vital to the functioning of the system itself.

The phenomenon of citizen harassment and elimination we are seeing in our day is not exclusive to our times. It has been identified for as long as the present system has lasted. It has been handed down from centuries past where it has become as integral to the system as the visable judicial system that it runs parallel to it.

Traditionally, it is the duty of every intelligence agency to keep ahead of foreign, as well as internal threats to national cohesion. Only when threats to the government come from citizens of a given country who are subject to the laws that govern the land, and these activities have not broken any of these laws , does there arise a situation when extra-judicial measures are necessary to curb the threat. This is where covert warfare against civilians is conducted by the government against its own citizens.

Covert warfare on civilians is a powerful way of controlling populations at large because it keeps them embracing the illusion they are free people, especially since it rids the populace of those who would remind them otherwise, those who have found out truths hidden from the general population through their own hard work and research.

The point of covert warfare is to AVOID OVERT shows of violence that reveal to the masses the oppression they live under which would force them to protect themselves. This is easily shown in the pattern of attacks and more especially the profile of people that get attacked. This should be self evident from the fact there is something very wrong with a goverment covertly silencing a whistleblower or activist when society already has structures designed to prosecute those in the wrong, especially those who pose a threat to it.

The number of times influential and even ordinary people can be killed in accidents or in encounters with madmen without raising eyebrows is limited. When citizens over step the threshold and cross over some hidden line, their continual and overt elimination is sooner or later likely to backfire on the government. Means of elimination of opposition that leave NO SIGNS of foul play is the preferred method which falls under covert warfare, is the better method of solving such problems.

An example of Overt assassination programs conducted by the CIA in South America from the 1970's. -