So, CNN decided they need to refute this story about the Taliban training attack monkeys. Because this is the kind of thing that needs clarification.

I mean, seriously CNN? Is it really that slow of a news day? Or do you really think that little of your audience’s intelligence?

I guess it is in keeping with the high journalistic standards we’ve seen from Jeanne Moos when reporting on pieces like the recent North Carolina Bigfoot reports (below) and from Larry King’s various UFO stories. One thing is for sure, I always know when I see a story of Fortean significance on CNN, they are going to make light and ignore any thoughtful witnesses or experts. Call it the trailer park tornado syndrome. If 20 people see something, no matter what it is, CNN is going to pick the one witness with three teeth, one eye, no previous knowledge of events, and a speech impediment.

By contrast, the local news story (video below) contained a much better report, and places the most recent sightings in a historical context of previous sightings. Does the most recent witness still seem somewhat dubious? Sure. But at least we now have a historical context within which to either substantiate his claims, or to look for a source to his delusions.

When we then look at a related opinion pieces asking “Why do we need to look for Bigfoot?” we find the commentator taking a grain of something worthwhile, potential psychological explanations for strange phenomenon, and twisting it all out of context and reason.

Monkey soldiers? Bigfoot? Anomalous animal carcasses? All the same to CNN.

Even at the most basic level, they seem to have a problem getting their facts straight when it comes to Fortean phenomenon. Take the chupacabras for instance (cabras, with an “s”… these aren’t monogamous goat suckers). First they spell it wrong, then they place its roots in Mexico instead of Puerto Rico. Then, after failing to do that basic bit of research about where the term and initial sightings originated, the author proceeds to confuse the quasi-mythic chupacabras (a creature who has now lent his name, as Jon Downes notes, to various boogie men across Latin America) with the hairless canines reported across the southwest. This does a disservice to the rich chupacabras lore of Puerto Rico and the rest of Latin America, as well as diverting serious scientific inquiry from the mystery canines that have been photographed, filmed, and even shot and killed.

If mange ridden coyotes or domestic dogs, they seem to be otherwise healthy and active (see video below). But if they are healthy and hair-free for some other reason, what is that reason? And just what kind of canine are they? These are questions that could be answered relatively easily with a little attention. Even if it turns out they are just mangy coyote. We would know, we could push the data out there, and we could move on to other topics.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But as long as organizations like CNN and others cast a jaundiced eye at the realm of Cryptozoology and other odd Fortean phenomenon — painting us in the same broad swathes as monkey soldiers and ignoring solid data and serious researchers while trotting out drunken witnesses for silly-season filler — legitimate investigators, and science itself, will continue to suffer by association. News organizations don’t trot out alchemists in lieu of chemists, astrologers instead of astronomers. Yet anytime Tom Biscardi or the local trailer park prophet trot out a magic monkey hand, the cameras are rolling.

It’s enough to make a former newsman sigh.

On the eve of Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance visit, a mesmerizing white spiral vortex, accompanied by a beautiful blue plume, has been recorded and reported by numerous sources across Norway. Amazing pictures are pouring in as well as several videos that are going viral as we type this message.

The aerial occurrences are getting lots of discussion across the internet. Could this stargate-like display be connected to the Large Hadron Collider? Is it a dimensional doorway into other realms? Is it a publicity stunt presaging the arrival of President Obama?

So far the consensus seems to be it is the result of a failed Russian missle test - which Russia has now confirmed.

The pictures which show the most distinct spiral form, at first seem to be the most likely to have been photoshopped. Yet there are already scientifically modelled cgi videos that would seem to vindicate the spirals plausible rocket science origins.

In fact the photos and video footage seem very familiar and after doing a little scroogling yesterday afternoon I found the footage which was causing my pseudo-Déjà vu:

Click here to view the embedded video.

UFO – Spiral Slips out of Wormhole in Tomsk Russia

It seems that a very similar phenomenon was recorded and similarly swept the net by storm just a few years ago. The footage was allegedly from Tomsk in Russia circa either 2006 or 2007. Speculation then as now was that this was a Russian missile test. That appears to be the most sound explanation so far with the Norway Spiral.

Here is another video which seems somewhat suggestive of rocket test and is apparently from Toe’s Beach in Playa del Rey, California (the earliest upload date I’ve found is 2006):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Russian rocket / missile tests have a long history of connection to modern UFO reports. UFO researcher Jacques Vallee and UFO skeptic James Oberg have both written about this subject, showing that the Kremlin (like its American counterparts) has often utilized UFO reports as cover for covert weapons testing and deployment – sometimes even in violation of international treaties.

It all kind of reminds me of the Babylon 5 Jumpgate graphics…

 - SMiles Lewis

Western media coverage:

• Norway spiral: Space aliens welcoming Obama?
• Awesomely bizarre light show freaks out Norway
• Strange spiral phenomenon appearing on the sky in Northern Norway

Norwegian media coverage:

• Background on Bulava Missile Tests
• VG Nett
• Altaposten.no
• NRK.no
• Framtidinord.no
• Nordlis.no

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There is a lot of excitement right now about the new George Clooney film, The Men Who Stare at Goats. After all, who could resist a movie that starts by mixing humor with stories featuring psychic arts and peaceful warriors sporting all-seeing eye tattoos, loosely drawn from a real-life military ESP program, and which then winds up during the war in Iraq with the liberation of a stable full of doomed goats destined to be stared to death!

Join former Army psychic warrior Maj. Paul H. Smith (US Army, ret.) as he spins the stories behind the stories of The Men Who Stare at Goats, touching on secrets, straightening out twisted tales, and excavating down to bedrock truth about the soldiers who used ESP to keep track of America’s Cold War foes. For seven years, Paul H. Smith was assigned to the military psychic espionage program eventually known as Star Gate. He is author of Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Inside Star Gate—America’s Psychic Espionage Program (Tor/Forge, 2005), which was the Book Bonus and Editor’s Choice feature for the March 2006 Reader’s Digest.

Paul is President and Chief Instructor for Austin-based Remote Viewing Instructional Services, Inc. (www.rviewer.com) and President of the International Remote Viewing Association (www.irva.org).

The event is sponsored by the Austin Community Group of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (www.ionsaustin.org).

ADDITIONAL CONTACT INFORMATION:

I know, I’ve been lazy. I blame the Capitalist running dogs for sucking all the energy out of me.

But laying back a day enabled me to hear this little gem on NPR about Conde Nast publications advising GQ not to run a story by Scott Anderson in their Russian version of the magazine. The subject of Anderson’s article? Vladmir Putin’s Dark Rise to Power.  Putin’s rise from Prime Minister to President was based on his reactions to a series of “terrorist” bombings by Chechen separatists groups in 1999 that, some sources indicate, may have been orchestrated by some of Putin’s old KGB contacts. But good luck finding the story unless you happen to pick up GQ. The companies ban on printing the article abroad (at the advice of their lawyers) extends to web publication.

And while Communism in Russia may be “dead” even if the KGB style tactics aren’t, that doesn’t stop people from worrying about a new red menace right here at home. Folks like Glen Beck finding commies in every piece of art he sees. Chez Pazienza blogs about Beck’s most recent insanity with his post I see Red People at Deus Ex Malcontent.

UPDATE: Simon over at Bloggasm has alerted me of Gawker’s plans to translate the article into Russian and make it available via their site. You can read more about that decision here.

Russian translations of the first page, and scans of the article from the magazine, can be seen at Gawker here.

Last week I got quite a shock on my way out from my day-job’s parking garage. What should be staring straight at me but a big new bright blue U.S. Air Force recruitment bus. It was parked right alongside Waterloo Park on Trinity Street where many visiting tour buses park temporarily while their occupants generally tour the Capitol complex which is two blocks west of (behind) this camera shot. But I’m not used to seeing military recruitment buses among the tour-busloads of folks who are usually either an elderly lot or bunch of school kids (often dressed up in matching colored shirts to more easily spot them in a crowd). So I snap a picture of the bus and proceed on my way …

Only to be shocked and disturbed by what I next see now that I can peer around the other side of the bus. Waiting to get on the bus I see a group of African-American elementary school aged kids all dressed in Gitmo-Orange T-shirts getting onto the bus. I’m shocked! Several thoughts and questions flash through my head: “Surely this isn’t a field-trip from an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?! Surely no school working with kids as young as that would allow their kids to be ferried to the State’s Capitol, to see our seat of government up-close, in a military recruitment limo?!”

Not wanting to slam on my brakes in the middle of the street and start taking pictures of little kids I kept driving, thinking all the while, “I’ve got to get a picture of this. Should I circle the block? No, I haven’t got that much time.” I pull up to the next traffic light which is thankfully red and turn around in my driver’s seat and snap a quick pic through the back window of my car…

As I had been dazedly driving towards the stoplight I was now stationary at, I had passed a local radio-station’s mobile broadcast or PR van (KGSR, I think) which was pulling away from the Waterloo Park events setup area. I had noticed at least one event tent setup in the park as I drove by and which you can see in the left-most part of my first photograph. The picture I took through my back window is obviously a very distant shot but if you zoom in on the bus you can just make-out at least two small Gitmo-Orange shapes and one taller shape to the left that is obviously their teacher and chaperone. Look how small those kids are in the enlargement below. The adult in the green top is nearly twice their size.

So later on I get home and do a little online research Scroogling these search words: kids austin texas US “air force bus” and the very first result spells it out for you…

Our first search result is a direct-hit for the “Air Force Recruiting Service” section of the official U.S. Air Force website:

www.rs.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=2798

Immediately you may notice as I did that the bulls-eye thumbnail image, in the clickable link gallery to the left of that page, is the bus I saw with the kids. It is mixed in with all the other “cool” vehicles including a hot-rod and oversized 4×4 “Montster Truck.” If you click on that thumbnail bus image it takes you to this page where you can read about some of the buses recruitment projects:

www.rs.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=2798

So was this entourage of little kids part of the normal “Air Force Recruiting Service Distinguished Educator Tour“? That program is designed to get educators thinking about the military as a viable opportunity for their students:

“Air Force Recruiting Service’s Distinguished Educator Tours give educators such as principals, superintendents and guidance counselors from all over the nation the opportunity to experience the Air Force firsthand.

The main objective of the four-day tour is to show educators that the Air Force is a viable career opportunity for their best students. The Air Force recruits to retain, so the service seeks the brightest candidates possible, then provides them with tough, highly technical training that gives them the right skills to sustain the combat capability of America’s Air Force. High school and community college educators are effective mentors who can tell their students about the many opportunities the U.S. Air Force offers. Air Force Recruiting Service accomplishes this by showing off the Air Force’s best resource — its Airmen.”

The next day I saw the bus again, parked in the exact same location. I snapped a picture or two again and proceeded to investigate the situation, however minimally. I didn’t see the kids anywhere nor a driver for the bus. So I decided to take a look around Waterloo Park to find out what event was being setup for … as there was now event-fencing around the park, a large musical stage platform, porta-potties as well as amusement park rides sized for very little children including a cute little ferris-wheel. I asked someone setting up one of the tent areas what the event was, figuring he’d tell me what I already knew from searching online the night before. “The Austin Ice Cream Festival. It’s about five dollars to get it. There’s gonna be music and fun for the kids.” I asked him if he knew anything about the Air Force Bus and pointed in its direction. He said, ”no.”

So later on I look online for more information about the Austin Ice Cream Festival and find out that the main beneficiary is the awesome Big Brothers, Big Sisters program. In my early childhood my Mother signed me up and I briefly had a University of Texas student as my “Big Brother.” I think this is a very good program. However, all one has to do is Scroogle Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Military as search terms and you will find several examples of their convergence. I have absolutely no evidence that this child-ferrying Air Force military-recruitment bus and the Big Brothers, Big Sisters / Austin Ice Cream Festival have anything at all to do with one another. But each separate example illustrates how, at a very young age, there are programs in place that subtly and overtly indoctrinate our countries youth into our nation’s militaristic ways. Just look at some of the news links provided below.

I don’t mean to completely poo-poo the military. I believe in the need to have a military force to protect our country. I just don’t agree with the way these forces have been used historically by our corrupt Government.

“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

- Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940),

• Boy Scouts Train to Become Homeland Gestapo / nytimes.com/ Boy Scouts Train to Become Homeland Gestapo – Rigint Forums
• School Shooting PsyOp Drills Thread
  rigorousintuition.ca
• Militarizing the Homeland -  www.truthout.org/080609A
  uruknet.com
• Georgia Parents Fight Military High School
  www.indypendent.org

Anomaly TeleVision » Blog Archive » Lt. Col. Bob Bowman Speaks at Brave New Books 7/8/2009

Dr. Bob Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, retired. 101 combat missions in Vietnam as fighter pilot. PhD in Aeronautics & Nuclear Engineering, Caltech. Director of Advanced Space Programs Development under Presidents Ford and Carter. Former Head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering and Assistant Dean at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. 22-year Air Force career. Also taught Mathematics and English at the University of Southern California, the University of Maryland, and Phillips University.

During this presentation at Brave New Books in Austin, Texas, Dr. Bowman discusses the 9/11 Truth Movement, President Obama, the left vs. right distraction, restoring the U.S. Constitutional Republic and much more.

http://www.thepatriots.us/
http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/
http://www.bravenewbookstore.com/

Gary McKinnon Is Right

Guest Article By Harv Howard

Does anyone with any knowledge about space hardware and our government’s denial of UFOs believe that we don’t have any war vehicles or weapons in space? Are we to believe that we have nothing better aloft than the shuttle that was on the drawing boards for 10 years before it made its first flight in 1981?

Gary McKinnon, to recap the on-going saga, is fighting extradition from the UK to the US to stand trial on charges that he intentionally hacked his way into 90 US military computers and destroyed files, causing thousands of dollars in damage. He has admitted to deleting some email files but hardly to the extent of the charges. 

What has attracted many observers to his case is that when he was initially charged he responded by saying he was only looking for data on UFOs. He claimed that what he found was the real reason he was being persecuted. His most amazing claim is that he found files containing the names of “spaceships.” With a bit of investigation, he claims to have determined that they were actually spaceships and not ships at sea. According to McKinnon, the files were not in themselves exciting, but contained routine information such as details of crew rotations for the ships, etc. 

A discredit to his story, which may be excusable to some extent, is that in subsequent interviews he has mixed in information posted from the internet by individuals who claim that they were privy to inside information about NASA hiding data on UFOs, airbrushing them out of Apollo images and so forth. Two of his erroneous examples have been on the internet for years. (I do not say that they are untrue, but they are definitely not from government sources.)

He is not some teenaged hacker, although he may have acted like one. Now 42 years old, McKinnon did his snooping about six years ago while hidden away in an upstairs bedroom of his girlfriend’s mother’s house. Unemployed, he would spend hours trying to slip his way into US military computers. From the onset of the accusations against him, he has repeatedly stated that the lack of security on many military computers was appalling. Sometimes no passwords were required for admittance to a high-level computer.

The curious aspect of the story is that the US government’s only contention is that McKinnon destroyed vital records that cost thousands of dollars to replace. No claim is made that he stole and disclosed highly secret material. He admits some liability, but the government doesn’t seem interested in following up, despite the fact that this (disclosure of national secrets) would by far be the most serious of his offenses. He counterclaims that the whole case is about what he discovered, not about what he deleted.

Without a doubt, McKinnon could be entirely wrong in what he believes that he learned, or he could be making up his spaceship story in an attempt to protect himself from the charge of deleting records. True or not, if McKinnon, who plans to defend himself at this stage in the affair, intends to use this as the crux his defense it is unlikely to be allowed because it is not relevant to the charges against him.   

Those interested in the outcome wonder why the government is pursuing him in the first place if any part of his claims is authentic. Wouldn’t they want to keep a lid on the whole affair and have him slip quietly away since he had totally embarrassed them by hacking into 90 different computers? Surely, safeguards have now been installed so that nobody can gain access to that data as easily as he claims. So what is to be gained by hauling him to the US to stand trial? 

Is one of two possible government ploys at play? 

The more reasonable one is that they are trying to show that the man is little more than a thief and troublemaker—and they will get him for it—and that his words, his only defense, are a worthless, throwaway attempt to buy himself some credibility if not standing with the public. That strategy will work wonderfully with most common, everyday citizens given that he is a confessed hacker. The man on the street would say to him: “You think we’re gonna send people up in that shuttle and end up killing some of them sometimes if we had a space navy up there?  Hell, boy, come back down to Earth!” Plausible deniability has worked tremendously on the public’s perception when it comes to the UFO issue. So why not in this instance too?

The other, less likely, possibility for prosecuting him is because he has confessed to committing criminal acts. But like NASA’s long, slow, and agonizing process of acknowledging water (and eventually it will be life) on Mars, the government is slowly letting the cat out of the bag through his case. Allowing his vague story to circulate allows for more revelations in the future. Eventually, UFO-type technology must be revealed. Still, allowing his case wide publicity would be done for the general public’s benefit alone. In reality, China, India, Russia, and Japan already know that the triangles are ours and precisely what we are orbiting up there. So who is the secret being kept from? (Frankly, that immensely important program may be the only thing that keeps China from our throats today.)

We may judge McKinnon correct in his assertions despite his obvious problems with accidently hitting the delete key at the wrong times and confusing a couple of internet tales with Pentagon info. We have several good corresponding reasons to make that judgment. 

• Triangles (Earth-to-space vehicles maybe even to Moon and Mars)
• John Walson’s images of large objects in orbit (weapon systems)
• Missing trillions of Pentagon dollars over multiple years (hidden operating costs)
• No replacement of any great distinction for the shuttle (That’s OK, see triangles)
• Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) (It did get off the ground, ask Walson)
• The US Space Command (Not your father’s Apollo CapCom in Houston )

An iron-clad argument for each of these topics could be made, but such an article would be too long. The internet has sufficient info on each point to make the case. The one that needs elaboration, however, is the US Space Command. 

The shuttle program and data from multiple NASA probes garner virtually all of the attention we devote to space issues. If we hear about the Space Command at all, we are led to think in terms of a bunch of radar operators sitting around at Cheyenne Mountain boringly watching long-range radar screens scanning the skies for approaching missiles from our earthly enemies or visiting ETs. It is quite a bit more complex outfit than that. 

In 1989 a book entitled Military Space Forces: The Next 50 Years by John M. Collins, a defense specialist, was produced—if taken at face value, at the request of a few members of Congress—to generally explain to other members of Congress our military’s plans for the defense of space, not exploration. The topic was just defense. A handsome book in large format and 236 pages, it gives a good argument for why we needed to pour money into space defenses. The dedication page is interesting in itself. “To America’s Military Space Forces: Whose purpose is to protect this country’s interests against aggression from or in space.” (Emphasis added.) While the book acknowledges that the Outer Space Treaty signed by 96 nations in 1967 prohibits virtually any military installations on the Moon and other celestial bodies in addition to nuclear and weapons of mass destruction in orbit, it completely ignores those constraints in its pages. 

The book takes as gospel a paraphrasing of an older postulate by Halford J. Mackinder’s Heartland Theory that dealt with Europe.  The new version reads:

            Who rules circumterrestrial space commands Planet Earth,

            Who rules the Moon commands circumterrestrial space,

            Who rules L4 and L5 commands the Earth-Moon System.

The originally duties fell to the Air Force. The Air Force Space Command came into being on Sept. 1, 1982. About a year later, Oct. 1, 1983, the Navy started operations of its Naval Space Command to compliment the tasks of the air force. On September 23, 1985, the US Space Command became the official name of the umbrella organization. On April 7, 1988, the Army was added. The book gives a list options to be activated as development of the structure advances: “Options I, Offense/Defense, Option II, Strategic/Tactical, Option III, Combat/Support.” We can assume that well over twenty years later all aspects are operational. 

Interestingly, the year the Space Command became official, 1985, was the beginning of sightings of triangles in formations. (Anomaly editor’s note—Sightings of triangular objects, and of multiple objects travelling in a chevron or other formations, are as old as reports of anomalous aerial phenomenon and significantly pre-date the sightings of 1985, including a report of a triangular black “spear-like” object amongst others in a formation over Nuremberg, Germany in 1561.) This feature is indicative of operational vehicles in training and not prototypes undergoing testing.  Triangle sightings have increased ever since. By utilizing these three branches of the service, the total massive costs can be diluted to hide the actual amount going into the program. Without a doubt, the army, as part of its role, will use the massive triangles as rapid deployment troop carriers for more earthly ventures. And, of course, navy sea-going ships will be obsolete altogether except for mundane chores.      

The twenty-year-old book goes into great detail about all conceivable aspects of warfare in space including some general pros and cons of lasers, rail guns, and nuclear devices. But it never ventures deeply into exotic territories of future space craft or weapon designs. If we overlook the focus on conventional rocket power (disinformation?) and insert the UFO-like capabilities of triangles, then the whole system of the US Space Command becomes an incredible construct, not merely doable but operational. (The F-117A, the so-called stealth fighter, was operational for twenty years before its existence was announced, as was the SR-21 Blackbird.) What Gary McKinnon claims he found on the government computers may not be just a figment of his imagination, but proof of Mackinder’s words.