Foundation to Inhibit State Treason

Foundation to Inhibit State Treason (F.I.S.T.) is a survivalist militia organization that appears in Syphon Filter 3. Its founder and leader is Earl Oakton. The organization distrusts the U.S. federal government and its members are not above shooting a federal agent on sight, even if the federal agent in question is not fighting them, displaying a degree of paranoia of the government. F.I.S.T. is based in the mountains of Paradise, Montana, where their compound is located. Earl Oakton and the organization seem to have gathered enough resources to build a relatively large compound with bunkers underneath it, obtain weapons such as the M-16 and shotgun, maintain their survivalist way of life and even use modern technology such as computers to store their data. The compound's bunker features several American flags, which shows the organization's loyalty to the U.S. as a country.

F.I.S.T. appears in Teresa Lipan's flashback during her time as an ATF agent in the early or mid 1990s. In this time, a satellite of the Department of Defense, containing top-secret data, crash-landed in the mountains of Paradise, Montana, not far from the organization's compound. Earl Oakton managed to recover the satellite data which Floyd, a militia member, hid in a deer head in the compound. A group of corrupt National Security Agency personnel headed by Commander Silvers, masquerading as Federal Bureau of Investigation members, sought to recover the data for their own means, which brought the militia and the NSA into direct conflict with each other. The engagement also attracted the attention of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which sought to investigate the militia organization based on the findings of the "FBI", with Teresa Lipan being tasked to scout and recon the area since she used to spend her summers in the Paradise mountains with her grandparents and thus knows the area well. However, during her mission, some militia members managed to capture ATF agent DeMarco and intended to use him to lure other ATF agents in an attempt to ambush and eliminate them. Teresa foiled their plans by eliminating these militia and rescuing DeMarco.

Initially, Teresa assisted the "FBI" agents to eliminate the hostile militia, but she eventually learned of their true identity and motives after witnessing them callously executing the militia leader Earl Oakton. In light of this, Teresa decided to rescue Earl Oakton's family and help the militia fight against the NSA with the help of Gabriel Logan, a spy within the NSA whose mission was to also get the satellite data and track Commander Silver's movements. The militia at this point were still hostile to Teresa but when she infiltrated the compound and rescued several militia members (including Floyd, Uriah and Peter) from the NSA, the locals eventually trusted her to lead her to the bunkers where Earl Oakton's family were. They also revealed the location of the hidden satellite data to Teresa and asked her to get it out of there since it had caused so much trouble to their group. During this time, many militia members were taken hostage, wounded or even outright killed ruthlessly by the NSA. Some militia members also captured ATF Special Agent Kelly but spared him. Teresa eventually managed to rescue Earl Oakton's pregnant wife and son, and get them out of the bunkers safely. Before getting out of there, Dusty Oakton (Earl Oakton's son) backed up some of the organization's data files and then destroyed the computers to prevent F.I.S.T.'s data files from falling into the hands of the NSA agents. After rescuing the Oaktons, Teresa gave the satellite data to Gabriel Logan. It is unknown what becomes of the militia organization after the NSA incident.

The militia group's attire generally consists of a grey sweater emblazoned with the group's symbol (which consists of a black clenched fist in a white and red background) on its back as well as on the sweater's front left pocket, black trousers, black boots and black cap. Some of the members also have black markings on their faces or wear a black ski mask. Many members had Southern accents.

Members

• Earl Oakton (founder and leader, executed by NSA agents)
• Debbie Oakton (wife of Earl Oakton)
• Dusty Oakton (son of Earl Oakton)
• Floyd (hid the satellite data in the compound, taken hostage by the NSA, rescued by Teresa)
• Randy (executed by the NSA agent posing as FBI)
• Billy (executed by the NSA agent posing as FBI)
• George (assists Teresa fight against the NSA)
• Jeb (assists Teresa fight against the NSA)
• Uriah (Peter's brother, taken hostage by the NSA, rescued by Teresa)
• Peter (Uriah's brother, taken hostage by the NSA, rescued by Teresa)

Appearances

• Paradise Ridge
• Militia Compound
• Underground Bunker

Trivia

• The survivalist militia may be based on the real life Militia of Montana, a far-right paramilitary organization that distrusted the government, especially federal agents.
• Teresa Lipan's series of flashbacks, set in early-1990s Western Montana, strongly reference the real-life sieges of Ruby Ridge, Idaho (1992) and Waco, Texas (1993).
  • These real-life events helped contribute to the rise of the militia movement and organizations across the United States.
• The Gadsden flag appears in one of the rooms of the bunkers. The Gadsden flag is usually associated with libertarianism, which seems to be one of F.I.S.T.'s key ideologies. The flag is also associated with the Tea Party movement, a right-wing political movement in the United States.

Syphon Filter

Syphon Filter 2

Syphon Filter 3

Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain

Syphon Filter Combat Ops

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow