The Patriots

The Patriots, also known as the La-li-lu-le-lo and Cipher, were a secret organization that controlled the United States of America. The group was formed to fulfill the ideal of a unified world that was envisioned by the legendary soldier The Boss and later sought to control the entire world to ensure this.

The beginning of the Patriots
The Patriots were originally formed in 1970 as the reorganized version of the American Philosophers, using funds contained within the Philosophers' Legacy. The Legacy was stolen from the DCI at the climax of Gene's rebellion by former triple Philosophers' agent Ocelot (under Zero's orders). Before killing the DCI, Ocelot proclaimed that [he and Zero] were going to "end the Philosophers and carry on the spirit of the true patriot", explaining that it was, "all part of our plan to make the world [The Boss] envisioned a reality." After Ocelot's intense speech, he executed the DCI in a way that looked like a suicide. Zero later contacted Ocelot and invited him to form part of his new organization, the Patriots. Ocelot agreed under the condition that Big Boss (Naked Snake) joined the organization as well.

Afterwards, Zero recruited Big Boss and Ocelot, along with two FOX comrades (Sigint and Para-Medic) and former Chinese Philosophers' agent EVA. The group then began plans to reunite the world by governing it from behind the scenes. Zero used his influence to turn Big Boss into a messiah-like figure for the world to follow, though Big Boss grew to resent this puppet-like role. The views of the two men also began to differ, in regards to the interpretation of The Boss's will: Zero took the concept to mean control of the entire world by a group, to ensure unification; Big Boss believed that The Boss wanted a world where soldiers were not used as tools by the government.

Les Enfants Terribles
In 1972, Big Boss was gravely wounded from a battle and fell into a coma. Afraid of losing the Patriots' idol, Zero carried out a secret project known as "Les Enfants Terribles", in which Para-Medic would use Big Boss's DNA to create a number of clones. With EVA serving as the surrogate mother, Solid Snake and Liquid Snake were born (a third son would be born at a later date). However, this proved to be the final straw between Big Boss and Zero, and the former left the organization with a determination to oppose them and later formed his own mercenary group in an attempt to carry out his vision of The Boss's dying wish.

After Big Boss left, EVA and Ocelot chose to remain with the group but began to drift away (although the latter remained a spy for them to keep an eye on the organization for EVA). Zero, Para-Medic, and Sigint stayed with the organization and became power hungry. Para-Medic became a morally corrupt medic as the head of FOXHOUND's medical staff and chief geneticist, organizing and developing the Patriots' genetic research programs. Even though military-based genetic therapy was banned under international law, the Patriots were able to get away with it secretly because the laws in question were simply declarations and not actual treaties. Sigint would abuse his position in DARPA by accepting bribes and would participate in the development of AIs.

In 1974, the Patriots (using the name "Cipher") recruited Pacifica Ocean to act as a triple agent within the CIA and KGB. Through Pacifica, they had KGB operative Vladimir Zadornov provide money and technology for Hot Coldman's Peace Walker Project, and the training for his rogue CIA unit, the Peace Sentinels. Cipher also contacted Kazuhira Miller with a business proposal to help expand Big Boss's Militaires Sans Frontieres, and to have them unknowingly participate in the project.

Following the large military expansion of MSF and its defeat of Coldman, Cipher ordered Pacifica to hijack the newly constructed Metal Gear ZEKE and offer Big Boss the chance to rejoin the organization. Cipher intended that the MSF act as a deterrent against enemy forces while it steadily increased its own power, which had been the true purpose of the Peace Walker project. After Big Boss's refusal, Pacifica, under Cipher's orders, intended to frame the MSF as an extremist cult by using ZEKE to launch a nuclear warhead at the United States, which Miller had been unaware of. Ultimately, this plot failed when the MSF damaged ZEKE and prevented the nuclear strike, though Cipher intended to use Les Enfants Terrible as a future insurance policy.

Post-Peace Walker
As time passed, the Patriots increasingly gained control of the American state. During the 1990s, the Patriots, through the Pentagon, orchestrated genetic engineering tests on various United States soldiers during the Gulf War using Big Boss's genes. These experiments resulted in the Gulf War Syndrome as well as various Gulf War babies with various deformities. They covered up the activites by claiming that they were caused by exposure to depleted uranium rounds from various tanks.

During the Liberian Civil War, the Patriots retrieved a child soldier from a relief shelter, through a non-governmental organization. Having been left at the shelter temporarily by his commander, Solidus Snake of Les Enfants Terribles, the child was selected due to the hatred he had for himself, and his denial of what he was. The Patriots later subjected him to experiments relating to mind-control and memory manipulation, and would use him to further their goals in the future.

Big Boss's coups d'etat
In the 1990s, Big Boss attempted coups d'etat against Zero, first in Outer Heaven, and then in Zanzibar Land. However, he was defeated both times by Solid Snake (his own son); Zero's insurance policy having paid off. Zero then had Big Boss placed into a nanomachine-induced coma, to imprison both his physical body and consciousness, and preserve him as the Patriots' icon. Infuriated by this, EVA and Ocelot secretly defected from the organization and schemed on how to destroy Zero and the other members who remained loyal to him. Meanwhile, Dr. Clark (Para-Medic) oversaw the gene research program which would eventually bear the Next-Generation Special Forces: genetically-enhanced soldiers, implanted with Big Boss's "soldier genes."

Entering the 21st century
Due to his increasing age and bitterness over Big Boss's betrayal, Zero became skeptical that his human subordinates would be able to successfully carry out his will. With his immense amount of money (and Sigint's assistance), he commissioned the creation of computer AIs (TJ, TR, AL, and GW) with a fifth head AI that would control the world, even after his eventual death. These AIs became Zero's successors of the Patriots. The AIs were formless, and alloted funds to specific R&D centers and other such companies under the Patriots control. The AIs were "a set of norms", a neural network in its simplest form, designed to decide and eventually manipulate the fate of the world. After the AIs were created, Zero went into hiding.

The Patriots, laying the groundwork for the eventual activation of these AIs, particularly GW's information control capabilities, also gave the populace and government organizations a program that was allegedly supposed to counteract the Y2K bug, that was distributed to all key governmental and military computer systems using full access to the internet, and then given to the civilian population in an OS. This program also contained a sub-program that would be activated once GW's information manipulation and control capabilities were completely installed at a later time.

By the 21st Century, the Patriots had achieved immense political power, effectively controlling the American state as a totalitarian regime. The organization would select who would serve as the President of the United States and would stage Presidential elections in order to please the American public, as well as tricking them into believing they had a small level of control over the government. Presumably, they were also involved in regards to the NMD Program being a success in 2000 under Solidus's command.

In 2002, DARPA Chief Donald Anderson (Sigint) was heavily bribed by ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker to back the Metal Gear REX program and fund its development covertly and to overcome a global trend of military downsizing. A weapon like REX would cause an immediate rift in the global power structure. REX was capable of launching a nuclear warhead without the need for a rocket propulsion system, making it undetectable by radar. It could give any country in the world a first-strike capability that other nations would find hard to counter. This also exploited a specific loophole that existed in anti-nuke treaties, which did not technically apply since weapons fired from a rail gun were not technically ballistic missiles.

In 2003, EVA and Ocelot enlisted the assistance of Naomi Hunter and Gray Fox in order to have Dr. Clark killed. Gray Fox was able to exact revenge on Clark for all the years of torment he had suffered during her gene therapy experiments. Naomi later helped to cover up the incident by claiming that she had died in a lab explosion.

In 2005, DARPA Chief Donald Anderson and ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker were both present at the nuclear disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island, which had been used to construct Metal Gear REX in secret. The aim was to conduct test experiments of Metal Gear REX's nuclear launch capabilities (firing its railgun) in a VR (Virtual Reality) environment and retrieve the test data for the Pentagon.

Acting against the Patriots, U.S. President George Sears directly instigated the Shadow Moses Incident, by having his agent Revolver Ocelot incite Liquid Snake into revolting against the U.S. government. FOXHOUND, which had been overseeing the tests, took over the island facility with the Genome Army and hijacked REX. During a torture session, Ocelot killed Donald Anderson (who was aware of Ocelot's identity) and covered it up as an accident, succesfully eliminating another founding Patriot member.

The Patriots became involved in the incident through the Pentagon, with the use of the DIA's FOXDIE virus. They countered Sears's plan by using Solid Snake in an attempt to rescue Donald Anderson, also using him as a vector for FOXDIE in order to leave REX (along with the bodies of the Genome Soldiers) undamaged for retrieval. The DOD had also sent in Meryl Silverburgh to Shadow Moses prior to the incident, having anticipated its occurence, and used her to force Roy Campbell into cooperating in the mission. To exert their control over the operation, the Patriots utilized Secretary of Defense Jim Houseman, who took charge of the entire operation and who gave the order for Naomi Hunter to inject FOXDIE into Solid Snake. Additionally, DIA operative Richard Ames, who had oveseen the FOXDIE program, forced his ex-spouse Nastasha Romanenko into providing mission support for Snake, thus acting as the eyes and ears of the Patriots.

The Patriots eventually placed Jim Houseman under arrest, after he directly interfered with the operation by ordering a bombing raid on Shadow Moses, ruining the chances for a complete cover up of the incident. The Patriots also intended for Nastasha Romanenko to die at the end of the incident, but Ames relented and gave her the FOXDIE data as well as the Shadow Moses Incident data to keep the Patriots from harming her, lest she leak all the data onto the web.

While Solid Snake defeated REX and Liquid, Ocelot retrieved REX's battle data for President Sears and later leaked the data via the black market. When details of the event became public, the Patriots removed Sears from office and planned to have him killed, though he escaped by going undeground with the help of Ocelot.

Post-Shadow Moses
In June 2007, journalist Gary McGolden was supposedly captured by agents of the Patriots, after travelling to Shadow Moses Island while investigating the truth behind the 2005 incident. According to his article, he was interrogated within a weather station, but was subsequently rescued by an "invisible saviour."

By 2007, the U.S. Marines had initiated a project to build a new type of Metal Gear, in order to counteract the increasing number of Metal Gear derivatives being built after its specifications were leaked onto the black market. This new Metal Gear was Metal Gear RAY, though its development did not fall in line with the Patriots' plans, and the organization decided to reclaim RAY for their own.

In August 2007, the Patriots decided to eliminate the threats posed by both RAY's development and the anti-Metal Gear activities of the NGO Philanthropy. They leaked information on RAY's development to Philanthropy in order to lure out Hal Emmerich and Solid Snake, the latter of whom had become a hero in the wake of Shadow Moses. While Snake infiltrated the dummy oil tanker on which RAY was being transported, the Patriots monitored their Codec communication channels, though this was later discovered by Otacon. Patriot agent Revolver Ocelot took over the tanker with the help of Sergei Gurlukovich and his mercenary army, but he later betrayed them, sank the ship, and stole the RAY prototype (though he claimed to be "taking it back" ), framing Snake and Otacon in the process. For the Patriots, the incident was a success. The Patriots immediately sent a loaded oil tanker to the same location and sank it. This necessitated the construction of the offshore cleanup facility, the Big Shell, which was used to disguise the development of Arsenal Gear.

Arsenal Gear was the Patriots' tool for securing power over the United States and in the world. The Patriots hoped to use Arsenal as a way of shaping the "truth" to fit their agenda. Arsenal Gear served the sole purpose of housing GW, one of their proxy-AIs designed to censor and delete unwanted information that could loosen their grip on the United States. For instance, GW controlled information through the media, television and mainly the free flow of data from the Internet. This was a means to completely censor any data detrimental to the Patriots' rule. This is a method of memetic eugenics, in which memes were artificially selected for or against by GW. Emma Emmerich was the main engineer to the programming for GW.

After the Tanker Incident, the Patriots had also staged terrorist attacks, that would later be attributed to SEALs anti-terrorist squad Dead Cell, killing many of their own allies and civilians alike. This was namely done to have Dead Cell go renegade. In late 2008, the Patriots led an extermination campaign against Dead Cell that eliminated two members (Chinaman and Old Boy) while three members (Fortune, Fatman, and Vamp) survived, as part of the Patriot's master plan. They also manipulated the US President, James Johnson, into defecting to Solidus Snake's Sons of Liberty terrorist group by feeding and denying his ambitions to become a full member of the Patriots, instead of a mere pawn for him to fill in the role of President Baker during the Shadow Moses Incident. At some point during this time, they also injected one of their agents with life-monitoring nanomachines that would take away the injected person's life if one of their pawns failed in a mission, to give Raiden additional leverage later on.

In April 2009, the Patriots staged their plan by manipulating the information that surrounded the Big Shell Incident, the Patriots had proved that they could manipulate world events. Their agent Raiden was sent in to test the exercise and forced Olga Gurlukovich (by holding her child hostage) to assist Raiden. Eventually, Rosemary, Raiden's girlfriend, admitted to her stance as a Patriot agent for the Patriots to keep tabs on Raiden, although she did legitimately fall in love with Raiden. She was eventually removed from the mission and used as leverage for Raiden later on after she admitted this.

After GW was infected with Emma's worm cluster, Liquid Snake (via a second personality in Ocelot's body) had Arsenal Gear crash into Manhattan in order to recover GW, killing many civilians and destroying national landmarks in the process. The master AI, while using The AI posing as Colonel Campbell as well as an AI posing as Rosemary, then contacted Raiden and, after hinting that there were more AIs than just GW, revealed to Raiden that the Patriots were formed as a sort of "non-corporeal consciousness" over the course of many years in the White House, comparing it to the formation and evolution of humanity itself. Using the data they collected from this exercise their AIs (such as GW) would be improved even more. They also explained that they intended to control humanity via the manipulation of information (or in its words, giving it context), as well as revealing that they actually lied to Ocelot in regards to the actual details of their plan, codenamed the S3 Plan, or at the very least telling him a half truth. The S3 Plan did not stand for "Solid Snake Simulation" but "Selection for Societal Sanity", which acted as an experiment for them to see if they could indeed manipulate humanity's personalities and memories. After explaining their plans as well as the reason why they chose Raiden, the master AI then told Raiden to kill the Patriot defecter Solidus Snake, threatening to kill Olga's child and Rosemary and their unborn child if he either failed or outright refused to participate. While goading Raiden to deliver the finishing blow, the master AI also hinted that the Patriots only viewed soldiers and humanity as tools and machines to be discarded after their usefulness had been expended.

After the Big Shell Incident, Philanthropy "traced" the Patriots using information retrieved from Arsenal Gear, but discovered that all twelve members of the Patriots had been dead for at least a hundred years (as early as the 1900s), and that "one of them was [Philanthropy's] biggest contributor." Snake deduced that the information retrieved from the Arsenal Gear was false; it was only a fake lead orchestrated by the Patriots. The names they discovered was most likely the names of the original Wisemen's Committee that founded the Philosophers.

The War Economy
Originally, Zero intended for the AIs to create a unified state by using the military-industrial complex to make economics and politics uniform and devoid of free will, all in the name of Zero's megalomaniacal attempt to erase individuality. However, at an unknown point in their creation, the proxy-AIs began to deviate from that plan by undergoing a mutation that gave them a will of their own and enabled them to decide on a better way to accomplish their goals: war. They created the War Economy and started a battlefield revolution similar to the industrial and digital revolutions that was described as "a new world without ideology, principles, or ideals, not even the thing [The Boss] treasured the most: loyalty. It was a colossal error in judgment – one Zero couldn't possibly have foreseen." To control the flow of information, they would control the economy, by influencing the outcome of these wars through the Sons of the Patriots system which would also allow them to control individual people. The Patriots planned to extend their control down to the civilian level, actively controlling and censoring people through nanomachines, such as the nickname "La-li-lu-le-lo." In this case, members of "the system" were under the Patriots's direct influence could not even mention the name "the Patriots" and were forced by their nanomachines to say the codename.

In 2014, Liquid Ocelot brought the five biggest private military companies to his control under a single mother company called Outer Heaven. The five companies together rivalled that of the US military in firepower, and Liquid was preparing to unleash his insurrection and hijack the SOP system from the Patriots (now fully controlled by JD). To counter Liquid's plans, the Patriots managed to trick and manipulate Meryl Silverburgh and her group (similar to how they tricked Raiden in 2009) and enlisted Drebin 893 (who, unlike the others, knew of his stance as a Patriot agent) to assist Old Snake and Otacon in their mission to terminate Liquid Ocelot. However, the Patriots did not foresee that Snake and Otacon would destroy the Patriots themselves in the process thanks to the true nature of Liquid Ocelot's plan. The Patriots had Drebin unknowingly inject an unassuming Snake with a new FOXDIE virus to kill the rival Patriot faction: Liquid Ocelot, should Snake fail to kill Liquid himself, Big Mama (aka EVA) if Snake crossed paths with her, and Big Boss, should he ever awake from his coma and meet up with Snake.

The Patriots were ultimately destroyed by the FOXALIVE virus (an opposite to the FOXDIE virus) created by Naomi Hunter and Sunny, who borrowed some code from the original virus created by Emma Emmerich to destroy GW, which would infect and terminate JD the other AIs (TJ, TR, and AL) which ran the Patriots, ending them forever. However, Sunny managed to pick and choose parts of society vital to the survival of modern civilization, preventing the "world chaos" Liquid Ocelot predicted in his victory speech.

With the Patriots' AIs destroyed and Liquid Ocelot defeated by Snake, there was one more threat that needed to be eliminated: Zero, the man who started the entire fiasco and the main founder of the Patriots. Shortly after JD had been effectively destroyed, Big Boss awoke from his coma and found the location of Zero's stronghold. After arriving there, he discovered Zero was a mere shadow of his former self: a man, whose advanced years had put him in a vegetative-like state and who was kept alive solely by machines. Big Boss then wheeled him over to Arlington Cemetery, and after explaining to Snake (his eldest son) about the full story of what happened in regards to the Patriots, Big Boss euthanized Zero by cutting off his oxygen supply. Shortly thereafter Big Boss died from the effects of the new FOXDIE virus within Snake, thus ending the Patriots for good.

Founding members

 * Zero (founder)
 * Ocelot
 * Big Boss
 * Sigint
 * Para-Medic
 * EVA

Known AIs

 * JD (John Doe, the core AI)
 * GW (George Washington)
 * TJ (Thomas Jefferson)
 * TR (Theodore Roosevelt)
 * AL (Abraham Lincoln)
 * Peace Walker Project AIs
 * GW-Pupa 5000
 * TJ-Chrysalis 6000
 * TR-Cocoon 7000
 * AL-Aurelia 8000
 * BS-Imago

Agents

 * Revolver Ocelot
 * Raiden (unknowingly)
 * Solidus Snake
 * Jim Houseman
 * Richard Ames
 * James Johnson
 * Fatman
 * Olga Gurlukovich
 * Drebin 893
 * Meryl Silverburgh and Rat Patrol 01 (unknowingly)

Cipher agents

 * Pacifica Ocean
 * Vladimir Alexandrovich Zadornov (KGB associate)
 * Kazuhira Miller (business associate)

Trivia

 * The Patriots were named after the colonial American Patriots, a group of colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies, who rebelled against British Empire's control during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation.
 * The word Cipher in medieval times meant "zero", derived from the Arabic word ṣifr; also means "empty."
 * The names of the AIs (aside from JD --the master AI--) were the initials of the four American Presidents whose likenesses appear on Mt. Rushmore. According to Strangelove, the initials for the AI pods were Coldman's idea.
 * Since 2005, many soldiers have been fitted with nanomachines. As shown in 2007, 2009, and 2014, it was discovered that the Patriots themselves had modified these nanomachines, in that they would force a person to say (or hear) the phrase "La li lu le lo" instead of the word "Patriots." This was done in order to make discussion of the organization difficult and maintain some secrecy.
 * In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure; mirror the nature of The Patriots (an encrypted and hidden organization) and, later, of the proxy-AI (a series of norms and procedures). "Cipher" was the name the Patriots had assumed in its early years during the Peace Walker Incident.
 * In 1964, Major Zero directed Naked Snake to ask "Who are the Patriots?" to identify ADAM or EVA as their contact, the answer to the question is "La Li Lu Le Lo."

Behind the scenes
The English "L" sound (as in leaf or mild) does not exist in the Japanese phonetic alphabet, making "La li lu le lo" an impossible utterance in Japanese. Instead, the Japanese have a sound that can be either L-like or R-like depending on its location in a word, with the English "L" being somewhat unattainable. The idea is that the Patriots chose their name to be a phrase that cannot be spoken or written in Japanese. However, since English does have the "L", this concept could not be translated.

In the Snake Tales story External Gazer, Snake is briefly stuck in a parallel universe and believes that he is Raiden. He and Rose keep getting interrupted while trying to enjoy each other's company. At one point, the "La-li-lu-le-lo" shows up (appearing like the Colonel) on their television set, randomly talking about how to keep toilets clean. They are then joined by two alternate versions, called the "Ta-ti-to-te-to" and "I-ro-ha-ni-ho-he-to", which also give advice. The last version's name refers to Iroha, an old-fashioned Katakana ordering system (the more prevalent ordering is called gojūon). "I ro ha ni ho he to" is the first of seven lines in an Iroha poem that contains each character of the Katakana exactly once, much like the English ABCs song.

Contrary to popular belief, the ask/answer code that Zero supplied to Naked Snake to identify ADAM in Rassvet was not a direct reference to the Patriots, as the Japanese phrases were different. (The Japanese word for the Patriots was 愛国者達, whereas the Japanese word for patriot was 愛国者), and the director's commentary also stated that there was no relation between the two.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Snake can contact Colonel Campbell while fighting Luigi, who will make several disparaging remarks towards Snake's opponent. When Snake questions the Colonel's behavior, he begins repeating the phrase "La li lu le lo," implying that he may actually be a Patriot AI.