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Just as the Iraq War inspires fundamentalist Christians to look for signs of the end times, rumors of a crashed UFO in Iraq and exotic mind-control technology on the U.S. side provide fuel for conspiracy buffs. With the war apparently settling down into a classic asymmetric war, however, evidence to back up both rumors is conspicuously absent.
On March 26, Joseph TrainorÕs ÒUFO RoundupÓ website issued an update on ÒSaddamÕs Area 51.Ó The initial Dec. 17, 2002 report story was repeated almost verbatim by the Russian newspaper Pravda in January.
The report said that eight hours before the first cruise missiles hit Iraq on March 19, Òstrange lights were reported in the As-Zab as-Shagir (Arabic for Little Zab Ñ J.T.) river valley, located about 72 kilometers (45 miles) west of Kirkuk and 88 kilometers (55 miles) south of Irbil. Kurdish militia known as Peshmirga É who were on patrol in the mountains east of the Little Zab valley, spotted unusual flashing lights over the region. Some Kurds said the lights might be UFOs.Ó
Trainor wrote that the Little Zab River valley Òhas been the subject of much speculationÓ since a caller identifying himself as a retired U.S. military man spoke on the Art Bell Show on December 2002 and claimed that a saucer had crash-landed in Iraq Òeither during the first Gulf War in 1991 or Operation Desert Fox in 1998.Ó
Trainor said Òpersistent rumors in Irbil provinceÓ said Saddam Hussein was holding the aliens at an underground base at Zarzi in the upper valley or at the ancient citadel at Qalaat-e-Julundi on the Little Zab river.
In the current conflict, however, SaddamÕs forces have not shown any evidence of any but Vietnam War-era technology. SaddamÕs aliens, if they really exist, havenÕt done him a bit of good.
On the American side, expectations of a quick collapse by SaddamÕs regime were dashed when stiffer than expected resistance surfaced in the rear lines and the Iraqi top command continued to function well after the vaunted Òshock and aweÓ air campaign that was supposed to intimidate the Iraqi leaders into surrender. Stories that had surfaced during the previous Gulf War asserted that the United States had developed Òmind controlÓ technology that could render an enemy helpless through direct influence on the brain.
The conspiracy columnist ÒNessieÓ of the ÒNessie FilesÓ describes so-called Òelectronic mind controlÓ in the Gulf War citing an article by Judy Wall in Nexus magazine October/November 1998.
ÒFor years rumors have persisted that the United States Department of Defense has been engaged in research and development of ultra sophisticated mind-altering technology. Confirmation of this came to me recently in the form of two ITV News Bureau Ltd (London) wire service bulletins. The March 23, 1991 newsbrief, "High-tech Psychological Warfare Arrives in the Middle East," describes a US Psychological Operations (PsyOps) tactic directed against Iraqi troops in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. The manoeuvre consisted of a system in which subliminal mind-altering technology was carried on standard radio-frequency broadcasts. The March 26, 1991 newsbrief states that among the standard military planning groups in the centre of U.S. war planning operations at Riyadh was "an unbelievable and highly classified PsyOps program utilizing 'silent sound' techniques."
The column said that when Hussein's military command-and-control system was destroyed, Iraqi troops were forced to use commercial FM radio stations to carry encoded commands. ÒThe US PsyOps team set up its own portable FM transmitter, utilizing the same frequency, in the deserted city of Al Khafji. ÒThis U.S. transmitter overpowered the local Iraqi station,Ó sending out disinformation to confuse the Iraqi troops.
ÒSubliminally, a much more powerful technology was at work: a sophisticated electronic system to speak directly to the mind of the listener, to alter and entrain his brainwaves, to manipulate his brain's electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns and artificially implant negative emotional states ø feelings of fear, anxiety, despair and hopelessness. This subliminal system doesn't just tell a person to feel an emotion, it makes them feel it, it implants that emotion in their minds,Ó the report said.
Nessie said, ÒNot only is it possible (Really, look it up.) to beam voices directly into your head by way of microwaves and ultrasonics, but technology exists that makes it possible to directly affect your emotions themselves. It's the electronic equivalent of demonic possession.Ó
The columnist said this technology has been around since the Korean War, when North Koreans used a Soviet device called the LIDA to brainwash U.S. prisoners of war. ÒThe LIDA uses a combination of pulsed light, sound waves and electromagnetic radiation to entrain brain waves and produce various emotional states.Ó Nessie cites researcher Dr. Ross Adey and Dr. Eldon Byrd, an American psychotronic researcher who funded Dr. Adey's work with the LIDA machine.
Byrd is quoting as saying, ÒThe LIDA machine was made in the 1950's by the Soviets. The CIA purchased one through a Canadian front for Dr. Ross Adey, but didn't give him any funds to evaluate it. I provided those funds from my project in 1981, and he determined that the LIDA would put rabbits into a stupor at a distance and make cats go into REM. ÒThe Soviets included a picture with the device that showed an entire auditorium full of people asleep with the LIDA on the podium,Ó he said.
Nessie concludes, ÒIf that's what they were capable of producing 50 years ago, just imagine what they can do today.Ó
Not much, apparently. Iraqi resistance did not immediately evaporate as many, including U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, apparently expected it would. Although such technology would have brought the war to a swift end, defenders of human rights might be encouraged by its apparent failure ø or nonexistence ø in case such technology could be turned against Americans.
Hal McKenzie, (mcke8344@cox.net),
is a veteran journalist and a contributing editor of World Tribune.com and www.cosmictribune.com.