These are only two of numerous false and defamatory labels which have been slapped on me by pathological liars, malicious gossips and disinformers.

Unfortunately, some people will believe anything they see in print or any scuttlebutt they hear; especially if it's juicy enough to whet their appetite for the forbidden. The shadowy world of covert operations seems to posess a dark force of gravity, compelling in and of itself. Perhaps, for the gullible, the ignorant or the just-plain-stupid, such sensational rumours have 'sex appeal'. Perhaps they serve to distract from the dull routine of everday life. Who knows ?

But the stories which may well be a source of lurid entertainment for the masses-of-asses, seeking a cheap thrill or some risk-free, vicarious cloak-and-dagger intrigue, can bring only distress and dismay for the undeserving subject of such rumors. Alas, disinformation about myself and my background just keeps on coming, as assorted provocateurs, nutcases and wannabes, one after another, appear out of the woodwork to make my life even more difficult and stressful than it already is.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not looking for sympathy. Any whistleblower - especially a survivor of government black operations - who places herself in the public arena to engage in political activism should expect to become the object of public scrutiny and should understand that she will inevitably be targeted for some degree of disinformation. It comes with the territory. But as happens from time to time, I need to set the record straight, lest the disinformation being spread about me through the toxic grapevine, sown of malicious intent and delusional fantasies, take root and do even MORE damage, and the last thing I need is more damage. So once again, it's time for a little damage control.

Shirley Anderson: A Case Study in Hysteria

Not too long ago, it came to my attention that I had been targeted for the spreading of sensational rumors and libelous disinformation by a woman named Shirley Anderson. I had never heard of Shirley Anderson up until a couple of months ago. Indeed, I lived in blissful ignorance of Ms. Anderson's existence and of her apparent paranoid fantasies, until I started receiving numerous e-mail messages with a distinctly melodramatic and desperate tone, insisting that she needed me to call her; describing herself thusly: "MK Resister". As such, Ms. Anderson claimed to be seeking my "help".

I get hundreds of e-mail messages every week, some of them invariably requests for assistance. Due to time constraints, I cannot possibly answer them all. I don't even have time to READ most of these messages. That is why I have an announcement, CLEARLY displayed on the front page of my website, explaining that "I do not have the time nor resources to investigate individual cases involving mind control, nor of those targeted for harassment, so please do not send me personal testimony of that nature. There are organizations who provide networking and e-mail groups for those seeking information and contacts on these issues...." . And I provide for the interested parties some names of organizations, such as Citizens Against Human Rights Abuse.

It's not that I don't care, in a general humanitarian sense, about people who are being abused or who have been targeted for persecution; I most certainly do. That's one of the main reasons I became a whistleblower about government corruption and violations of human rights to begin with. But just because I have made my own case public, as well as investigating and publicizing a number of others, that does not mean that it is my personal responsibility as an investigator to take on every case that comes down the pike.

Let me make a few more things clear. I do NOT run an organization; I don't have a staff; I don't have a budget. I'm just one person working out of my home, making do with a corner of my living room as an office. And being financially destitute (a result of the persecution directed against me) I have a tough enough time just keeping a roof over my head and paying the monthly bills, all the while fending off the spooks and goons who are harassing me in their relentless campaign to neutralize me. I don't get paid for my work, not per se. I live from hand-to-mouth, month by month, hoping and praying that I can meet the barest living expenses on contributions from supporters; which over the past few years, have for the most part, been few and far between. That too, is clearly stated on my website in my URGENT APPEAL for funding.

But the polite and clear announcements on my website didn't stop Shirley Anderson from repeatedly and aggressively e-mailing me, after I did not reply to her first few messages, even though she made it clear she had visited my website. What's worse, she copied her personal messages to me to numerous others on a large e-mail list, including public message boards - messages which included her wild speculation and worse, outright disinformation about me and my background.

Here, a few excerpts from Anderson's public e-mail messages to/about me.

" Dear All,
It is very strange that Ms Hartwell's computer crashed just after/about the time----THEE VERY DAY----I sent the attached note. This is the note I sent BH Oct 29, 2002:

I would like Barbara to phone me if she knows anyone who could help my situation. Homicide survivor, (with a filthy fabricated dossier, natch), MK-resistor "stalked unto the death," and Mom of 3 boys abducted 12 yrs ago by the MK law LE fags, pedos in Tacoma. (Ex works for the Satan mob, onns half mill house). Sincerely, Shirley "

" I have written you several notes and nary a one reply. Perhaps your letter [ I don't know what 'letter' she refers to, as I have written many public letters and articles] explains it all. Your life sounds like mine with two major differences-maybe three.
1-They could not train me to assassinate--not even though they abducted my 3 previous boys, Jason, Jared and Justin, then, a dozen years ago, 16, 6 and 3. (Nor could they convince me to marry and faggot cop and take alezzie lover to be like the high muckety-muck filth of Tacoma/Pierce County law and LE. This one doesn't apply to you. No analogy intended).

2-They didn't abduct your babies.

3. They didn't leave you mangled for dead.

Likely the rest---you've the same stories. Drugged, posoned, maced, raped, beaten, shot at, shit-can white trash sent at you believing the govt will pay them to help steer you to your death. "

"Feds have it this lifelong Christian RN Mommy is a drugge, alkie, whore, nut case, ex-con a,d lezzie dyke. Hey, am I versatile or what? Try reality. Sex? Isn't that where on an employment ap you mark "F" if you're a girl, " and "M" if'ns yuoose a boy wif dem dar fancy parts stuff? "

Well, it sure sounds like Shirley Anderson has led a rough life..... It also sounds like she comes from a questionable (to put it mildly) social background and has been involved with quite a few sleazy and demented characters.

However, as per the events and the people she describes, I can assure her, as well as any other recipients of these messages, that her life bears absolutely NO resemblance to mine. WHY she would assume so is anyone's guess. I certainly do not appreciate these sorts of comparisons. People who jump to wild conclusions and make erroneous suppositions annoy the hell out of me, in fact they make me mad - to the blood-boiling point!.... especially when their public allegations and assumptions about ME are so far off the mark and so potentially damaging to my professional reputation.

To hear Shirley Anderson tell it, in her unmerited comparison of her 'stories' with mine, the readers would form a mental picture of the lowest ilk of 'white trash'; sexual deviates; the functionally illiterate; and debauched mental cases. Maybe so, in Anderson's case.....as regards myself, nothing could be further from the truth.

Anderson rants about ill treatment by the 'Feds.' As for myself, I've made it very clear in my public reports that various agencies of the government have some 'issues' with me. Many view me as an 'enemy of the state'; a 'high-profile subversive'; or a 'threat to National Security'. Having broken away from the CIA, they certainly may see me as a 'rogue operative' or 'loose cannon'. And from their perspective, misguided though it may be, I can understand why.

But they have never called me a "whore"; a "drunk"; a "lezzie" nor anything remotely resembling such epithets. They are perceptive enough to know (at the very least) that I come from a family and background of 'good breeding' and that there are no such exploitable skeletons in my closet, certainly not of the type that Anderson describes.

Most of the Feds I've known (and over the course of a lifetime, I've known more than I care to recall) are woefully corrupt, but unlike Ms. Anderson, at least some of the Feds have their facts straight and not all of them are stupid. It needs to be pointed out that Anderson never worked for the CIA; and I doubt that anyone in the intelligence community has ever heard of her. Her self-applied "MK resistor" label? Dubious at best. And as far as being considered a 'threat to National Security'? Anderson need not worry herself on that score.

Anderson makes baseless assumptions about what DID and DID NOT happen to me, without knowing me; without knowing anything that is real or true about me, except perhaps what she may have read on the Internet of my own testimony. And clearly, she has neither eyes to see nor ears to hear. Please, Ms. Anderson, speak for yourself and leave me out of your sordid 'MK resistor' scenarios !

Anderson also sent me a defamatory message about a friend and colleague (whose name I won't mention, since his privacy has already been grossly violated by Anderson) accusing him of all sorts of dastardly deeds, and going so far as to name his ex-wife and family members; describing him as a "nutcase". This is a man I've known for years, a reliable source of information; ex-military and retired from law enforcement; a whistleblower and totally professional in every way. When I forwarded Anderson's hysterical tirade about him to my friend, out of loyalty and as a professional courtesy, he didn't seem surprised. Disgusted, for sure, but not surprised. And I didn't really need him to tell me what, by that time, I had already figured out: That Anderson is the REAL 'nutcase' here; and that, as these characters have a tendency to do, she was projecting her own psychopathology upon him; just as she had projected her own sordid experiences and lifestyle upon me.

In an attempt to nip Anderson's further spreading of public misinformation in the bud, I wrote a polite formal response to her, explaining that I did not appreciate her violations of my privacy, nor her disrespect for my personal boundaries. I told her that I had no wish to correspond with her; no wish to share information about my private business with strangers, including her; was not available to investigate her case. I also issued a directive for her to stop sending out these public messages. I assured her that she was incorrect in her many and varied assumptions about me and that she was presumptuous in attempting to draw a comparison between her experiences and my own. I copied this message to everyone included on Anderson's e-mail list.

But predictably, as is typical of these intrusive and meddlesome types, Anderson disregarded my directive and instead of leaving off her transgressions, became even MORE aggressive and obnoxious. She sent me a couple of nasty letters, accusing me of being "sick" and claiming that my reply - which in point of fact was a simple attempt to set the record straight; get Anderson off my case; and protect myself against further intrusions of my privacy and public disinformation - was an "assault" upon her.

Here, some excerpts from Anderson's harassing messages, after I politely directed her to leave me alone. She says:

"I live in a real world. I have no spin-control web site. I do not fabricate. I was told you were a real person, a recovered assassin of MK-Ultra."

"I then perused your site in which you elaborate about your life and attempted to help you by explaining reality about a disturbed person I HAVE MET [the man Anderson had been libeling] and likely, you have not, but air his articles, most of which are exceedingly histrionic and wishful."

"You, lady and paradoxical and self-contradictory: you say you are very private and yet have a site describing that you were a sucker. "

"you begin your letters with some self-import "LEGAL DEFENSE FUND" BULLCRAP, while rayelan beggs peopple on her site to pay your household expenses. "

"You clearly have demonstrated in print that you are votatile and confused. "

Volatile and confused? Spin control website? LEGAL DEFENSE FUND BULLCRAP? Sucker? Assassin?

Nowhere in print ( including on my own site) have I EVER stated that I am a "recovered assassin of MK Ultra". And NEVER in any public lecture, nor on radio, have I as much as intimated such a thing.

Beginning to get the picture? Clearly, Shirley Anderson is the one who is "volatile and confused" and obviously projecting her own emotions, psychopathology and character flaws onto me.

Instead of showing some basic courtesy and respect for my personal boundaries, Anderson just keeps getting more obnoxious, aggressive and insulting. Talk about an 'assault'......

What's more, she has the effrontery to regard me as some sort of 'public utility'; and seems to assume that I am obligated to come to the rescue, as if I were on call as a Universal Social Worker, every time some nutcase like herself accosts me with a sob story.

I don't know who Anderson thinks she is. And it's very clear that she has no idea who I am. But I do know that this is a woman with whom I have nothing whatsoever in common and with whom I wish to have no dealings.

But it gets worse..... much worse. Shirley Anderson did not stop at sending me the nasty, harassing letters which I've quoted from. No indeed. She continued her harassment by forwarding the libelous and defamatory message which she wrote about my ex-military/law-enforcement friend to many other people. And, worst of all, her subject header stated : "Letter to Former CIA Assassin Barbara Hartwell."

FORMER CIA ASSASSIN ?????

So now, to add insult to injury, outrage to injustice, Anderson PUBLICLY labels me a "Former CIA assassin". I have no idea where Anderson picked up this piece of pernicious disinformation, and frankly I don't give a damn. But whomever her misinformed sources may be, Shirley Anderson herself will be held accountable - by me - for perpetrating this sort of harassment and for publicly accusing me of being a de facto murderer. That alone is a libel lawsuit just ripe for the picking!

And I can assure Shirley Anderson that she is messing with the WRONG woman and will take the consequences for her transgressions. I may not be a 'CIA assassin' but when anyone crosses my line, I do have the temper of a hellcat! If Shirley Anderson knows what's good for her, she had best stay out of my way and take her hysterical provocateur act elsewhere.

A couple of months after the 'CIA Assassin' label was slapped on me, and sent out in a flood of public e-mail, I got a phone call from some friends, Dennis and Ann Bossack of New Mexico. They have a radio program addressing political topics on which I have been a guest and a website for which I am a regular columnist. The reason for their call to me was to ask my opinion of none other than....you guessed it...... Shirley Anderson. Golly gee, what a coincidence......

It seems Anderson has been a busy little bee......continuing to obsessively target God only knows how many of my friends and associates, spreading her lurid stories about me.

Dennis and Ann told me that Anderson had recently contacted them, by both phone and e-mail and that she had been relaying to them more slanderous and libelous stories about me and some of my professional associates. Anderson attempted to insinuate herself into their good graces and even told them she wanted to come to New Mexico and MOVE IN with them, offering her services as a nurse for an elderly relative living with the Bossacks. I advised them, based on my considered professional opinion as a psychotherapist, that I believe the woman to be mentally unbalanced, if not totally deranged. I told them that if nothing else, she is a troublemaker and provocateur who would only bring distress and disruption into their lives. Personally, I wouldn't let a nutcase like this within a stone's throw of one of my family members !

Anderson also targeted another friend and colleague of mine, Federal Whistleblower Stew Webb, throwing his name out in public e-mails in connection with mine. When Stew began receiving Anderson's spurious and defamatory messages about me, he commented, "Who IS this crazy woman ?.... she sounds like another Brenda Negri !". Interestingly enough, several other people who received Anderson's idiotic messages made the same comparison. And I couldn't agree more. Negri and Anderson are birds of a feather. Obnoxious, aggressive, intrusive, nosy, vulgar..... all-around nuisances who just won't let up once they set their sights on a target; and they just won't take NO for an answer.

Could it be one of those strange cases of twins, separated at birth ?.... Sure seems like a possibility to me......

Brenda Negri: Malicious Provocateur & 007 Wannabe

Which brings me to Brenda Negri aka Ranger Rick, another nutcase and provocateur, hell-bent on wreaking havoc on legitimate survivors of covert operations and whistleblowers. This mentally unbalanced troublemaker is responsible for a plethora of defamatory writings and postings all over the Internet, about myself and others, including some of my colleagues and friends. Among Negri's primary targets are Iran Contra Whistleblower and ex-ONI Officer, Al Martin; Federal Whistleblower Stew Webb; Editor of Rumor Mill news, Rayelan Allan; Ex-FBI agent Geral Sosbee and of course, myself.

Negri started her scams in the fall of 2001 by concocting a website she calls "The Fifth Horseman", posing as an FBI agent known as 'Ranger Rick'. When she was exposed as a pathological liar and imposter, and thoroughly discredited by those of us whom she had targeted, she scrambled to cover herself by pretending to be the mastermind behind a Psy Ops campaign, boasting that she, the 'Ace-Psyopper', could take credit for having "exposed" us ( the REAL whistleblowers and investigators) as CIA plants; disinfo agents and scamsters intent on bilking folks of their hard-earned cash.

Negri is also notorious as a law-enforcement/intelligence groupie and for her sexual harassment of high-profile whistleblowers such as Al Martin and Stew Webb. When her sexual advances are invariably rejected by the men she stalks in cyber-space, over the phone or in face-to-face meetings, she goes on a rampage of nasty and defamatory postings, spreading sleazy gossip which she fabricates at her whim, about the latest man who has dismissed her as a bona fide nutcase and nuisance.

Here's a little sample of Negri's more recent character assassination regarding myself and my friends and colleagues Rayelan Allan, editor of Rumor Mill News, Federal Whistleblower Stew Webb and ex-FBI agent Geral Sosbee.

PSYOPS TO GAG ON - For those truly bored or those just dying to see just how far the rogue CIA/Black Ops set will go to snag new, unknowing victims and draw them into their web of deceit, check out Bab's Hartwell's latest: a new website. The honey trap trickster is diving to new lows, as evidenced on her new site. Next it'll be outright porn, right? Well, how many times she can use the ol' "I'm about to get evicted out of my house" trick, remains to be seen, right? Meanwhile, we hear via Ted Gunderson that Stew Webb has officially been given an FBI informant number, and is relocated to Denver. Denver. Hmmmm..."

Gunderson further stating that he has Webb on a video tape bragging how he's turning in intel to the Feebs on militia types. Chew on that one, for what it's worth: either hype disinfo, or maybe a shred of truth? We ain't decided. Yet.

RAYELAN BEGGING FOR ALMS. AGAIN... - We sniffed out the latest bogus money raising ploys over at Rumor Mill News: Rayelan sending these cutesy e-mails out to everyone on her list talking up the "seed money" trick. Another bogus ploy to raise funds and drain the resources of well meaning patriotic types or real investigators. Steer clear of her, Webb, Hartwell, and that "former FBI Agent" of hers at all costs: they are all Smoke and Mirrors, Inc

What is Negri's M.O. in fabricating her lies? How does she come up with her ludicrous allegations? Let me count the ways........

First, she combs all the websites and message boards on which her targets' articles are likely to appear. She then zeroes in on any small piece of information she thinks she can use..... and twists it into a grotesque parody of the truth. When she can't find a tidbit of truth to twist, no problem for Negri, she just makes up outrageous lies out of whole cloth.

Like Anderson, Negri has no respect, nor seemingly even a RECOGNITION of others' personal boundaries.

Negri, again like Anderson, has a habit of projecting her own psychopatholgy and character flaws onto others. So it's almost a sure bet that what she falsely accuses her targets of is very likely to ACTUALLY be true of herself....or if NOT true of herself, what she would LIKE to be true. As a 007 wannabe with no background or training in intelligence work, Negri has repeatedly referred to herself on her idiotic website as a 'spook'. She has repeatedly accused me of continuing to work for CIA, as a 'rogue operative'. Envious spite on Negri's part is a transparent motivation for the lies she fabricates about myself and others.

Negri has also repeatedly labeled me a 'honey trap' or her latest epithet, 'Honey Trap Trickster'. She accuses me of using sex to lure men into my Black Widow's web, with the intent of conning them out of their hard-earned money to run my nefarious 'Rogue CIA Black Operations'. Judging from Negri's own track record of miserable failure in attracting the men she so desperately seeks approval and attention from, it's small wonder that she would accuse someone of whom she is envious, of 'successfully' doing just that.

It's laughable really.....the irony here is that the picture Negri attempts to paint of me, as some Siren of the Spook World, some Mata Hari who uses sex as a weapon to ensnare her hapless victims, is about as far from reality as any of the delusional fantasies Negri cooks up in her own convoluted mind.

As it happens, most of my friends and associates are men and most are also retired from the military, intelligence or law enforcement. But my dealings with these men are in no way based on devious and unethical motives, as claimed by Negri. These are simply men with whom I have common interests and goals on which to base a friendship and/or professional affiliation.

There are no romantic liasons here, shady or otherwise; no Black Widow's web; not even a smidgen of romantic interest, at least not on my part. Good God, I haven't even accepted an invitation for a 'date' in years! Not that it's anyone's business, but I don't mind if it's known that I live a solitary and celibate life, by my own choice. After all the arranged marriages and set up relationships I've had, who could blame me ? And even if I should decide at some future time to involve myself in a romantic relationship, it will be with a man of my OWN choosing - not hand-picked by the CIA. My standards are sky-high where men are concerned, unlike those established by the CIA, where expediency is the order of the day and where such insignificant details as 'falling in love' are dismissed as frivolous luxuries.

Once again, Negri projects her OWN character flaws, sleaziness and psychopathology onto me, and I'm damned sick and tired of this hormone-crazed bimbo sullying my professional reputation with her outrageous lies. But interesting, is it not, that my friends and associates are the VERY type of men that Negri lusts after and stalks?..... making a fool out of herself in her bumbling efforts to reel in any non-civilian male who comes across her licentious radar screen.

But don't take my word for it..... better to let Negri speak for herself.... here's a perfect example (one of many, just the latest !) - a salacious little gem taken from Negri's website, The Fifth Horseman, dated December 13:

"IT'S RANGER RICK'S BIRTHDAY. NO, NOT THAT RANGER RICK. THE OTHER ONE. SO WHAT'S BETTER...THAN CHOCOLATE FROSTING...ON A SCANTILY CLAD G-MAN?"

Get the picture ? Enough said.

Moving right along, Negri accuses Federal Whistleblower Stew Webb, one of her favorite targets (one of the men she had sexually harassed, until he told her in disgust, to get lost) of being a government informant, based on information she says comes from retired FBI Senior Special-Agent-in-Charge Ted Gunderson.

Negri loves to drop names, intimating that she is privy to "insider info" from well-known intelligence community and law enforcement sources......

Unlike Negri, who is living in a fantasy world of her own making, I know Ted Gunderson well. I worked with him for three years, until I broke off the association because of irreconcilable differences. In fact, I recently got a phone call from Ted, though I hadn't spoken to him since January 2000. And then I received in the mail the very same videotape which Negri makes reference to (which she obviously has not seen) sent to me by Gunderson himself, along with a handwritten letter, telling me that I should stop "putting out the B.S." on him. But I don't deal in B.S. I deal in facts and evidence, and no matter how my heart has been broken by Ted (believe it or not, I still care about him and pray for him every day) I will still stand up for what is right, no matter the consequences.

By the way (unlike Negri) I DID see the tape Ted sent me, which consisted of Stew's testimony, mostly related to the Bush Crime Family, the drug-running and illegal covert ops by CIA and the Grand Jury Investigation he has attempted to file, but which has twice been thrown out by the Supreme Court.

The investigation and the lawsuit have merit. I should know, I'm one of the witnesses, a whistleblower out of CIA black ops, as Stew mentions on the tape. And Stew has the documents to back up his claims about criminal actions; malfeasance; high crimes and treason committed by the highest government officials (current and former) in the land.

Government goons have already killed people over those documents; attempted to kill others whom I know personally; and have threatened some of us (including myself) in their attempts to cover up their crimes and atrocities and to silence the witnesses.

But back to Negri's 'newsflash' about Stew Webb being an "FBI informant" and his alleged admission on tape. At no point in the tape does Stew 'confess' to such a thing, as claimed by Ted Gunderson. As for Negri, she's nothing but a notorious scavenger who digs up second-hand information from dubious sources and then spreads it around like so much horse manure. As my father (G-2 and CIA) used to say, "There's no substitute for stupidity"... and Brenda Negri is certainly living proof of that.

Brenda Negri and Shirley Anderson both accuse Rayelan of "begging" for alms. Rayelan is no beggar. She is a hard-working professional and she could not continue her work, or keep Rumor Mill News online without funding. I consider myself blessed to have such a friend, who would put out appeals for funding on my behalf, as well. If it weren't for Rayelan and the kindness and concern shown for me by Rumor Mill News readers who sent their contributions, I would have lost everything last month, including the very roof over my head.

Negri accuses me of repeatedly faking an eviction from my home, in order to scam people out of money. But the truth is that I have come very close, several times over the past few years, to losing my home, simply because I did not have enough money to pay my rent, and unfortunately, it's an anxiety I live with, month after month after month....with no end in sight.

But it's getting late and this 'Former CIA Assassin' and 'Honey Trap Trickster' has grown tired of typing. Tired too, of Shirley Anderson and Brenda Negri; their malicious lies and idiotic exploits. People sometimes ask me why I even bother wasting my time addressing these fools or defending myself against the lies and disinformation they seem obsessed with disseminating.

The answer is simple: God has given me a love of the truth, and besides.....

It makes for great entertainment !

--Barbara Hartwell

December 18, 2002

"I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."

- Harry Truman -