This site makes reference to a "CIA Sabotage Manual": click here. The manual was supposed to have been created and distributed during the 1980s. I'd like to find out if the document is real or fictitious. If real, I'd like to read up on its history and use. Also, I'd like to find any other illustrated "manuals" of this sort (used for political purpose, i.e., propaganda) that might exist.
Any other sources on this manual and ways person could find similar manuals appreciated — use the "Add New Comment" feature at the bottom of the page. Thanks to other rad reffers who helped with this question.
What exactly was the comic you saw on the internet and is it real?
This is the complete reference for the manual you saw pictures of on the internet.
The Freedom fighter's manual: practical guide to liberating Nicaragua from oppression and misery by paralyzing the military-industrial complex of the traitorous marxist state without having to use special tools and with minimal risk for the combatant.
New York: Grove Press, [1985?] ISBN 0394620356
If you put the ISBN number (0394620356) into http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch click on the first result, then type "usa" in the location box you will see US libraries that have a print copy of the manual. If there isn't a library near you with it bring the reference to your local library and they can request it for you through interlibrary lending.
More sources…
It seems in the 1980s there were TWO separate controversies over CIA produced manuals for Nicaragua. One was an actual manual for torture, the other was a comic book, which is what you saw on the internet.
Central America Probing the Murder Manual. Newsweek. November 5, 1984. Pg. 56
CIA Murder Book That Sparked Uproar . US News and World Report. October 29, 1984. Pg. 11.
C.I.A. Linked to Comic Book for Nicaraguans. New York Times. October 19, 1984.
Section A; Page 8, Column 4
For more information on the torture manual, start with this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Operations_in_Guerrilla_War
For more research on this topic you will probably have to use article databases — news and analysis from the time of the Freedom Fighter's Manual isn't in Google News or free online sources. Your local public library and college library (ask if they allow walk-in users) will have databases with news/magazine articles.
You might also look up books about the CIA and/or Nicaragua that might have a section on the Freedom Fighter's Manual.
Similar Manuals/Comics
We didn't have a lot of luck finding more illustrated comics/manuals similar to Freedom Fighter's Manual, although we did find a web site that says the CIA produced and air dropped this comic book into Grenada in 1984, under a phony front name: "Grenada: Rescued from Rape and Slavery"
and a link to a US produced (armed forces, I think) comic from South Vietnam during the war, part of Operation Phoenix: Phoenix Program PSYOP Comic
I also found a link to this CIA produced material: Black Panthers Coloring Book
See this conversation in Metafilter for discussion concerning the authenticity of these types of publications: http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/21834
Find a library near you: www.libdex.com
Find books in libraries: www.worldcat.org