March 25th, 2006 by Hoopleton

As reported in various news sources, including the BBC, Gary McKinnon, a British hacker, is fighting extradition to the United States on charges that he committed the largest breach of American computer security “of all time.”

What all sides have thus far confirmed (including the man awaiting extradition) is that over a two-year period, McKinnon, broke into computers of the Pentagon, NASA and the Johnson Space Centre as well as systems used by the U.S. army, Navy and Air Force. The U.S. Government has claimed that he “caused over $700,000 worth of damage and even crippled vital defense systems shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. (Reuters)” And all this with a 56k dial-up modem and no previous hacking experience. The charge is so serious that if convicted, McKinnon can be sentenced to 70 years in prison, could face a $1.75 million fine, and even be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

But here’s where the story gets interesting.

According to McKinnon the reason he hacked into vital US government systems to “find out about UFOs and suppressed technology. I wanted to use computer security tools to find out stuff the government wouldn’t tell you about.”

That’s right. UFOs. And what’s even more surprising is that he says he found evidence that proves that the US government is indeed hiding evidence of extra-terrestrial visitation and has reverse-engineered alien technology.

In McKinnon’s own words from a BBC interview:

There was a group called the Disclosure Project. They published a book, which had 400 expert witnesses ranging from civilian air traffic controllers, through military radar operators, right up to the chaps who were responsible for whether or not to launch nuclear missiles. They are some very credible, relied upon people, all saying yes, there is UFO technology, there’s anti-gravity, there’s free energy, and it’s extra-terrestrial in origin, and we’ve captured spacecraft and reverse-engineered it.

One of these people was a NASA photographic expert, and she said that in building eight of Johnson Space Centre they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. What she said was there was there: there were folders called “filtered” and “unfiltered”, “processed” and “raw”, something like that.

I got one picture out of the folder, and bearing in mind this is a 56k dial-up, so a very slow internet connection, in dial-up days, using the remote control program I turned the color down to 4bit color and the screen resolution really, really low, and even then the picture was still juddering as it came onto the screen. But what came on to the screen was amazing. It was a culmination of all my efforts. It was a picture of something that definitely wasn’t man-made.

It was above the Earth’s hemisphere. It kind of looked like a satellite. It was cigar-shaped and had geodesic domes above, below, to the left, the right and both ends of it, and although it was a low-resolution picture it was very close up. This thing was hanging in space, the earth’s hemisphere visible below it, and no rivets, no seams, none of the stuff associated with normal man-made manufacturing.

McKinnon now fears that he is being labeled a terrorist by the US government, used as a scapegoat for obvious security flaws and will be put away for his knowledge of the truth. What is even more interesting about this incident is that since the story broke the UK government has released a classified “Ministry of Defense report on Unidentified Flying Objects [that] has concluded that there is no proof of alien life forms (BBC – May, 7, 2006).” The 400-page report, completed in the year 2000 by an unknown author states, “No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces.”

The various media outlets as yet see no coincidence in the timing of this report’s declassification.

For me this entire situation brings up an enormous set of questions that might not be too easily answered. But before I get into that a little history recap…

Unexplained phenomena in the sky has been chronicled throughout the millennia, but, as you might know, the modern age of Ufology began in 1945, when unidentified flying objects first began to enter the public consciousness and sightings were first reported on a mass scale. That year was also monumental as it marked the beginning of the Atomic age (many speculate that this is more than mere coincidence).

The late 40s also saw a string of alleged government-alien cover-ups. The most infamous of these was the Roswell crash of ‘47 (fairly questionable today), but other lesser known (and perhaps more credible) incidents also occurred in the Soviet Union, Europe and the East coast of the United States.

In response to the growing reports of unknown objects the US government and Air Force carried on secret investigations including Project Blue Book, which concluded that UFOs were nothing more than natural phenomena and mass hysteria. In 1952, a committee set up by the CIA, known as the Robertson Panel, further dismissed ideas about alien visitation as misidentification of mundane aerial objects and recommended a public relations campaign, using psychiatrists, astronomers and celebrities to significantly reduce public interest in UFO’s. It was also recommended that the mass media be used for the debunking, including influential media giants like Walt Disney Corporation. Finally, it was also recommended that the government monitor and even infiltrate UFO groups and organizations (Wikipedia).

Interestingly enough, Josef Allen Hynek, a famed astronomer and the chief skeptic on Blue Book (also a member of the Robertson Panel), became an avid believer in UFOs citing a number of cases that offered real evidence of unexplained phenomena. When asked why he changed his mind, he said:

Two things, really. One was the completely negative and unyielding attitude of the Air Force. They wouldn’t give UFOs the chance of existing, even if they were flying up and down the street in broad daylight. Everything had to have an explanation. I began to resent that, even though I basically felt the same way, because I still thought they weren’t going about it in the right way. You can’t assume that everything is black no matter what. Secondly, the caliber of the witnesses began to trouble me. Quite a few instances were reported by military pilots, for example, and I knew them to be fairly well-trained, so this is when I first began to think that, well, maybe there something to all this.

Since the 40s and 50s UFO sightings have only increased. Objects that are not easily identified have been witnessed by scientists, pilots, Presidents and a whole range of normal and exceptional people across the globe. I myself have seen things in the sky I cannot readily explain. A year before his death, Peter Jennings, not exactly known for his gullibility, concluded a two-hour ABC investigation on UFOs by stating that all the evidence points to something as yet unexplained.

So, the question is not whether something is happening. Let us assume, just for a moment, that something is. The question is whether the United States government, as Gary McKinnon and many others claim, is covering up the evidence. Is it possible? How would such a large-scale conspiracy work? How would such an operation be morally acceptable to those involved (because let’s not forget, we are talking about normal people, not super villains)?

Is it possible? On the one hand the government is ineffectual, corrupt and overly bureaucratic. People with no perception of reality climb into office through patronage, bribery and dumb luck. They can barely deliver the mail after all. On the other hand, the government has admitted to, or has been caught, performing radiation experiments on terminal victims, bugging UN offices, carrying out high-level assassinations, etc. The Tuskegee Experiments come to mind. Time and time again the US government has proved that it is possible to perform very large operations that have been kept from the public. The bureaucratic, ineffectual face of the apparatus lends itself perfectly to such goings on. The fact that most elected officials are inept and corrupt almost guarantees that if a shadow network is operating it would not be easily discovered.

How would such a large-scale conspiracy work? It would have to be an independent operation that was not subject to the shifting whims of new administrations or Congressional oversight. It would be a unit partly working in the Department of Defense and military, along with NASA and a few other departments, but also with a strong foothold in private industry. The conspiracy wouldn’t have to be large. It would require a central base of operation; a few top generals and administrative heads in the Pentagon; a few industrial leaders from among the top defense contractors; and a small regime of compartmentalized and segregated scientists, engineers and other experts. This way only a few “architects” would be privileged enough to see the whole picture, with all others easily controlled and only biting at scraps. Funding would easily be masked in secret defense spending measures and emergency funding bills (let’s not forget that the whopping $400 billion plus defense budget is not subject to close Congressional oversight).

It is worth noting that upon his departure from the White House in 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about the growing military-industrial complex.

So, it is very possible. The chief requirement to such a conspiracy is that it draft the brightest minds into its ranks. Lord knows that in recent decades there has been a steady brain drain from our public and private sector institutions. Maybe that’s where they’re going. But this leads to perhaps the most important question.

How would such an operation be morally acceptable to those involved? These are intelligent people who are being asked not just to lie to their fellow citizens of the world, but hide entire realities that might shake the very foundations of human culture. At times these people might be faced with situations in which innocent people must die to preserve the secret. Even in situations where they might have the capability of preventing catastrophic events.

I would argue that such secrecy would not only be morally justifiable, but perhaps even imperative for those involved. First, there’s the old argument, how do you tell people that, essentially, God doesn’t exist? By disclosing information that could be so mind altering, you open the possibility of massive social unrest, complete distrust of the institutions of government (which is saying a lot given current attitudes), the birth of violent fringe groups and radical religions, and perhaps even the birth of unmanageable hostilities between nations. Second, by sharing the truth with the world, the government, or governments involved, would lose a substantial defense advantage. This advantage would not just be one against other nations (although outside of nuclear conflict I doubt a situation would occur in which alien technology would be used), but against larger threats, real or perceived, by possible extra-terrestrial forces.

Finally, such a conspiracy would be morally justifiable to those involved on the simple grounds that these people would most likely believe that the ultimate goal of such an operation would be beneficial to all of humanity.

So is such secrecy right? Is it wrong? A conspiracy of such magnitude would not allow for simple answers. That is something each of us must decide on our own.

On May 10th, Gary McKinnon faces his first round in the extradition process. I wish him the best of luck in his defense, but if he is telling the truth he must realize that those aligned against him are convinced of their own righteousness. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, if God is on our side, who the Hell is on theirs?

Stay tuned. I will update you on this story as more comes out.

March 19th, 2006 by Hoopleton

Was at the Green Mill last night, the bouncy speak-easy in Uptown Chi-town.

As usual I got there early, before anyone I knew and found myself talking to an Army drill sergeant named Able just out of Iraq and on his way to Georgia to train troops.

He told me a story about being stationed on the Korean border. About a 9-hole golf course that the generals use, right in the middle of the DMZ.

Then we talked about Iraq.

The story I heard from him is the same I hear from all the boys in uniform, it’s not as bad there as the media portrays. The poeple are good. They want us there. Politicians are shit. And draft dodgers shouldn’t be sending them to war.

Confusion reigns. In my humble opinion all wars start the same and have the same consequences. Big speeches lead to average people, who just want an honest turn around the block, having their lives destroyed. And why? Because some people just want power over others, whether they be Presidents or dictators.

I didn’t say this to Able. He wouldn’t have agreed.

When my friends showed up Able and I went our ways. We exchanged a round of drinks across the bar. My respect for him undiminished in anyway by his beliefs in the military, perhaps because I might share them if I was in his shoes. When he left he shook my hand and told me we’d see eachother around.

I doubt that.

The rest of the night I spent drinking and talking about movies, music and the frivolous cares we have. I’d like to think that Able was doing the same.