This article was first published by GR in January 2004
Environmental warfare may sound new to some, but
it has been researched extensively in military circles for years. The
first public description of weather modification techniques as a weapon
of war was made on 20 March, 1974. At that time the Pentagon revealed a
seven-year cloud seeding effort in Vietnam and Cambodia, costing $21.6
million. The objective was to increase rainfall in target areas, thereby
causing landslides and making unpaved roads muddy, hindering the
movement of supplies. (1) But interest in the exploitation of the
environment for military purposes did not end there.
Air University, located at Maxwell Air Force Base in
Alabama, describes itself as a “center for advanced education” that
“plays a vital role in fulfilling the mission of the United States Air
Force” and whose “service members must place the nation’s defense above
self.” The Chief of Staff of the US Air Force tasked Air University to
“look 30 years into the future to identify the concepts, capabilities
and technologies the United States will require to remain the dominant
air and space force in the 21st century.” The study, completed in 1996,
was titled Air Force 2025. One component was of the study was a paper
titled Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025. It is a
chilling document. It is evident that the authors regard our
environment as nothing more than a resource to be exploited for military
purposes. They claim that by 2025 US forces can “own the weather” by
“capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those
technologies to warfighting applications.”
The authors describe weather modification as having
“tremendous military capabilities” which “can provide battlespace
dominance to a degree never before imagined,” claiming the project would
be “not unlike the splitting of the atom.” The paper goes on to discuss
how ionospheric research (The ionosphere is a region of the earth’s
atmosphere ranging from about 30 – 1200 miles above the surface of the
earth.) is necessary to achieve goals in both enhancing US communication
capabilities and as a method of disabling enemy communications. “By
2025, it may be possible to modify the ionosphere and near space,
creating a variety of potential applications.” (2)
Dr. Bernard Eastlund, while working as a consultant
for Advanced Power Technologies Inc. (APTI) in the 1980s, patented
devices that are described as capable of “causing…total disruption of
communications over a very large portion of the Earth…missile or
aircraft destruction, deflection or confusion…weather modification…” (3)
These patents were based on the ideas and fundamental research of
Nicola Tesla (many of his ideas were stolen by US corporations). Some of
Eastlund’s patents were temporarily sealed under a US Secrecy Order.
APTI and Eastlund’s patents were quickly purchased by E-Systems, a
company that is home to many retired and currently employed CIA agents.
In 1993 E-Systems received $1.8 billion in classified contracts.
Raytheon, the fourth largest US defense contractor and third largest
aerospace company, currently holds the patents. (4)
In light of the above, it is significant to know that
since the early 1990s the US Air Force has been sponsoring the world’s
largest ionospheric modification project called HAARP (High-frequency
Active Auroral Research Program). HAARP, located in the remote bush
country of Gakona, Alaska, is a small version of the antenna discussed
in the Eastlund patents. APTI initially won the contract to build HAARP.
Eastlund feels that the current version of HAARP, although the largest
ionospheric heater ever built, is not yet powerful enough to bring the
ideas in his patents to fruition, “But,” he says, “they’re getting up
there. This is a very powerful device. Especially if they go to the
expanded stage.” (5) What they have done to date is definitely a
necessary first step in the overall objective. Eastlund says, “The
military was interested [in his patents] because, in the event of a
Russian nuclear attack on the United States, an Alaskan site would be
under the path of the incoming warheads.”(6) HAARP is currently a part
of the ongoing Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly known as
“Star Wars”. (7)
A 1990 internal document obtained by Popular Science
describes applications of the HAARP project as “Creating a “full global
shield” that would destroy ballistic missiles by overheating their
electronic guiding systems as they fly” and for “manipulating local
weather.” (8) The word “local” was used because some 150 international
treaties prohibit “weather warfare”. (5) However, Pravda reported: “the
works continued anyway, despite the signed document. It was simply
conducted under the disguise of scientific research or the development
of double-purpose technology.” (9)
HAARP is presented as a harmless scientific project,
but The Washington Post reported that a growing number of physicists and
others in the scientific community are becoming increasingly skeptical.
A “small group of American physicists, some of whom have aired
complaints in scientific journals…fear HAARP may not simply be the
benign research experiment advocates describe, but possibly phase one of
a secret US military program that could be seeking ways to blow other
countries’ spacecraft out of the sky or disrupt communications over
large portions of the planet.” (6) Richard Williams, a physicist and
consultant to the David Sarnoff laboratory in Princeton alleges HAARP
constitutes “an irresponsible act of global vandalism.” He and others
fear a secret second stage where HAARP would “beam much more energy into
the ionosphere. That could produce a severe disruption of the upper
atmosphere at one location that may produce effects that spread rapidly
around the Earth for years.” (6)
In 2002 the website globalresearch.ca reported that
the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs and Defence Committee
expressed concern that “Under the HAARP program the USA is creating new
integral geophysical weapons that may influence the near-Earth medium
with high-frequency radio waves…the significance of this qualitative
leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or
from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons.” The deputies demanded an
international ban on large-scale geophysical experiments of this sort
and sent the appeal to President Vladimir Putin, news outlets,
scientific groups, the UN and others. The article went on to say that
the HAARP program “will create weapons capable of breaking radio
communication lines and equipment installed on spaceships and rockets,
provoke serious accidents in electricity networks and in oil and gas
pipelines and have a negative impact on the mental health of people
populating entire regions.” (10)
Dr. Nicholas Begich, co-author of the book Angels
Don’t Play This HAARP, depicts HAARP as “a super-powerful radio wave
beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam
on them and then heating them. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back
onto earth and penetrate everything – living and dead.” This ability
allows for better communication with submarines and wide-area
Earth-penetrating tomography (similar to radar) that can be used to
locate underground missile sites, bunkers and oil reserves. Through his
research he has come to the conclusion that HAARP has the potential to
jam global communication systems, change weather patterns over large
areas, interfere with wildlife migration patterns and negatively affect
human health. It is also capable of potentially triggering targeted
floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. (11)
Dr. Rosalie Bertell, author of Planet Earth: The
Latest Weapon of War and founder of the International Institute of
Concern for Public Health, while writing on the background of HAARP
says, “It would be rash to assume that HAARP is an isolated experiment
which would not be expanded. It is related to fifty years of intensive
and increasingly destructive programs to understand and control the
upper atmosphere… It would be rash not to associate HAARP with the space
laboratory construction which is separately being planned by the United
States…The ability of the HAARP/Spacelab/rocket combination to deliver
very large amount of energy, comparable to a nuclear bomb, anywhere on
earth via laser and particle beams, are frightening…The project is
likely to be “sold” to the public as a space shield against incoming
weapons, or, for the more gullible, a device for repairing the ozone
layer.” (12)
Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the
University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on
Globalization, says that “there are very clear statements by the US Air
Force to the effect that weather modification technology is available,
HAARP is fully operational and could be used in actually military
situations. It is evident weather warfare does constitute an instrument
of the Air Force, they even identify the scenarios of its use.” He said
his interest in the topic was sparked by the fact that it is possible to
change climate and disrupt electricity over large areas of the Earth,
effectively destabilizing portions of the globe and paralysing national
economies. This can be done without the enemy even knowing the source of
it. The health and economic prosperity of entire regions could
potentially be devastated through climatic manipulations without the
deployment of a single troop or the firing of any munitions. It is naïve
to assume that those who ordered the development of the nuclear bomb
would not want total control over this technology. Chossudovsky says
HAARP can act as a “weapon of mass destruction” because it can destroy
industry, infrastructure, agriculture and cause loss of life. He
questions whether HAARP should be used at all since it has “global and
environmental implications” and because it affects the electromagnetic
field of the Earth. (13)
In September 2003 the website globalresearch.ca
reported that a scientist who works in ionospheric research expressed
concern that the 14 August, 2003 blackout might have been “a secret
government test” that served multiple purposes including “fulfilling
requirements for sophisticated warfare and security response.” The
author poses the question: Could a secret HAARP experiment have caused
the blackout? This article was based on a number of facts that seemed
oddly coincidental given the circumstances. For example, the power went
out a few minutes after the closing bell on Wall Street and a few
minutes after HAARP was turned on that day. The power grid that was
affected was not the vulnerable California grid. The data that would
show where the effects of HAARP were directed, by providing a picture of
the ionosphere, were not posted on the day of the blackout. He also
commented on the possibility that the HAARP heaters were directed at the
power grid’s bottleneck while the grid was operating near full power.
“The sudden presence of electromagnetic energy could easily force an
unexpected increase in the power flow which could in-turn cause a
critical failure such as the one seen on August 14, 2003…The only
requirement to achieve geographic precision is that geomagnetic activity
be minimal such as it was on the day of the blackout.” There was also a
short test conducted shortly before 4pm. The author says such a test
would serve the purpose of “showing the researchers exactly where the
beam would focus itself given the current conditions, and would be a
necessary step before executing such an experiment.” The author
describes how experiments of this sort would be an “ideal way to test
possible military applications of the instrument…of course, this would
need to be tested in a controlled environment where the effects could be
thoroughly analyzed (such as on our own soil)…this was an excellent
homeland security response test.” He concludes by saying “Although it
may sound like an episode of the X-files, the facts are clear; HAARP is
an ionospheric warfare tool, it is capable of focusing it’s
electromagnetic energy at long distances, it was turned on right at the
time the event began, and such a scenario would serve multiple national
security interests simultaneously with minimal economic impact.” (14)
Michel Chossudovsky, by conferring with other well-known scientists, was
able to conclude, “this man knows the facts. He can read and analyse
scientific data and is well informed on the impact of the HAARP
program.” Although the article does not amount to proof, Chossudovsky
feels that the author’s statements should be taken seriously and
investigated. (13, 14)
The HAARP program was scheduled for completion in
2002 and full-scale testing had started by early 2003. While there is
currently no conclusive proof that HAARP has ever been used for weather
manipulation, there have been numerous reports describing very unusual
weather and environmental conditions throughout the world in recent
years. In January 2003 Yuru Solomatin, secretary of the Ukrainian
Committee for Economic Policy, writing in Pravda reported “A lot of
specialists and scientists believe that unpredictable natural disasters
and several … catastrophes that struck Europe and Asia in the summer of
2002 might have certain global reasons that caused them all.” He posits
“a possibility of secret geophysical weapon tests. Those tests were
either secret or unauthorized… [Many] specialists and scientists believe
that a special American program HAARP is one of those developments.”(9)
Chossudovsky says, “Even though we do not have clear-cut information on
particular climatic occurrences, when there are very unusual weather
patters that are occurring, which cannot be explained by greenhouse gas
emissions, we cannot exclude the possibility of man-made climatic
manipulations, based on our understanding of climate.” (13)
A primary objection to weather modification for
military purposes is that its use is indiscriminant and civilians will
inevitably be affected. Furthermore, the research necessary to achieve
these goals is dangerous. According to Bertell, HAARP can make “long
incisions in the protective layer of the Earth’s atmosphere.”(7) As with
the Manhattan project, scientists working on this massive military
project simply are not able to determine for certain whether or not
their activities will cause irreparable damage. Nor do they seem to
care. In 1971 Science published an article titled Modifying the
Ionosphere with Intense Radio Waves in which the authors describe the
development of radio wave beaming technology for ionospheric
modification that has long been “a desire for researchers.” This new
technology now allows them to conduct research without the “associated
complications” of a laboratory. They now have a “plasma laboratory in
the sky.” (15)
There is a dire need for this technology to be
closely monitored by multiple independent scientific bodies (it
currently is not) and, if it must be used, needs to be used in such a
way as to be beneficial to life on earth. It could be used to increase
food supply, repair the ozone layer or reduce damage to civilian
populations frequently affected by adverse weather conditions. Sadly,
current military agendas appear not to give much weight to these
possible beneficial uses of the technology.
Notes
1 – Science, “Weather Warfare: Pentagon Cencedes 7-Year Vietnam Effort,” Deborah Shapley, June 7, 1974.
Also see chapter on Eastlund patents in Angels Don’t Play This HAARP by Nick Begich and Jeane Manning, 1995 Earthpulse press.
6 – The Washinton Post, “Pentagon Fights Secret Scenario Speculation Over Alaska Antennas” John Mintz, April 17, 1995, pA3.
8 – Popular Science magazine cover story, “Mystery in Alaska,” Mark Farmer, September 1995.
11 – Angels Don’t Play This HAARP, Nick Begich and Jeane Manning, 1995 Earthpulse press – www.earthpulse.com
13 – Telephone interview with Michel Chossudovsky, January 17, 2004.
15 – Science, “Modifying the Ionosphere with intense radio waves,” October 15, 1971, p245.
For this
article I had a telephone interview with Dr. Michel Chossudovsky about
his research on HAARP. I also spoke with Dr. Eastlund (by telephone)
about his patents.
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