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The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction: “Owning the Weather” for Military Use

Michel Chossudovsky


27 September, 2012


Author’s Introductory Note
Environmental modification techniques (ENMOD) for military use constitute, in the present context of global warfare, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

Rarely acknowledged in the debate on global climate change, the world’s weather can now be modified as part of a new generation of sophisticated electromagnetic weapons. Both the US and Russia have developed capabilities to manipulate the climate for military use.

Environmental modification techniques have been applied by the US military for more than half a century. US mathematician John von Neumann, in liaison with the US Department of Defense, started his research on weather modification in the late 1940s at the height of the Cold War and foresaw ‘forms of climatic warfare as yet unimagined’. During the Vietnam war, cloud-seeding techniques were used, starting in 1967 under Project Popeye, the objective of which was to prolong the monsoon season and block enemy supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The US military has developed advanced capabilities that enable it selectively to alter weather patterns. The technology, which is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), is an appendage of the Strategic Defense Initiative – ‘Star Wars’. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction, operating from the outer atmosphere and capable of destabilising agricultural and ecological systems around the world.

Weather-modification, according to the US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report,offers the war fighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary’, capabilities, it says, extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes: ‘Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog and storms on earth or to modify space weather… and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of [military] technologies.”

In 1977, an international Convention was ratified by the UN General Assembly which banned ‘military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects.’ It defined ‘environmental modification techniques’ as ‘any technique for changing –through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes – the dynamics, composition or structure of the earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space.’

According to the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques:

The term “environmental modification techniques” refers to any technique for changing – through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes – the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space. (Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, United Nations, Geneva: 18 May 1977)

While the substance of the 1977 Convention was reasserted in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, debate on weather modification for military use has become a scientific taboo.

Military analysts and scientists are mute on the subject. Meteorologists are not investigating the matter and environmentalists are focused on greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Neither is the possibility of climatic or environmental manipulations as part of a military and intelligence agenda, while tacitly acknowledged, part of the broader debate on climate change under UN auspices.

While discussion of  the post Cold War military applications of  weather warfare is a taboo, the US Air Force has nonetheless acknowledged the strategic importance of ENMOD techniques in the modern battlefield of non-conventional warfare and intel ops, including the conduct, without the enemy’s knowledge, of “covert” weather modification operations.

At this juncture in our history, US-NATO forces are deployed worldwide.

The US and its allies are not only targeting Syria, Iran and North Korea, they are also threatening Russia and China.

The Pentagon has formulated the contours of a global military agenda, a “long war”, a war without borders.

Weather warfare” is the ultimate WMD  with the potential of destabilizing an enemy’s ecosystem, destroying its agriculture, disabling communications networks. In other words, ENMOD techniques can undermine an entire national economy, impoverish  millions of people and “kill a nation” without the deployment of troops and military hardware.

The following text, with the exception of some small edits was first published in September 2004. The 2004  article is follow-up on an earlier study by the author entitled Washington’s New World Order Weapons Have the Ability to Trigger Climate Change, Third World Resurgence, January 2001, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html

While The  Ecologist published in 2007 a shorter version of the above study, the issue of climatic manipulation for military use has largely been ignored by Environmentalists.

The URL of the original article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO409F.html.
This essay is dedicated to the memory of  Dr. Rosalie Bertell, who, from the very outset revealed the diabolical nature of the HAARP project, as part of an integrated non-conventional weapons program:

It is related to fifty years of intensive and increasingly destructive programs to understand and control the upper atmosphere. … HAARP is an integral part of a long history of space research and development of a deliberate military nature. The military implications of combining these projects is alarming. … The ability of the HAARP / Spacelab/ rocket combination to deliver very large amounts 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.

It is my sincere hope that this article will renew the debate on the dangers of weather warfare and will contribute to the broader objective of World peace which requires the relentless “disarming” of the US- NATO military apparatus.
Michel Chossudovsky, September 28, 2012
________________________________________________________________________________
Weather Warfare
The significant expansion in America’s weather warfare arsenal, which is a priority of the Department of Defense is not a matter for debate or discussion. While, environmentalists blame the Bush administration for not having signed the Kyoto protocol, the issue of “weather warfare”, namely the manipulation of weather patterns for military use is never mentioned.
The US Air Force has the capability of manipulating climate either for testing purposes or for outright military-intelligence use.  These capabilities extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes. In recent years, large amounts of money have been allocated by the US Department of Defense to further developing and perfecting these capabilities.
Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence  purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog, and storms on earth or to modify space weather, … and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of technologies which can provide substantial increase in US, or degraded capability in an adversary, to achieve global awareness, reach, and power. (US Air Force, emphasis added. Air University of the US Air Force, AF 2025 Final Report, http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/ emphasis added)
While there is no firm evidence that the US Air Force weather warfare facilities have been deliberately applied to modify weather patterns, one would expect that if these capabilities are being developed for military use, they would at least be the object of routine testing, much in the same way as the testing of new conventional and strategic weapons systems.


Needless to say, the subject matter is a scientific taboo. The possibility of climatic or environmental manipulations as part of a military and intelligence agenda, while tacitly acknowledged, is never considered as relevant. Military analysts are mute on the subject. Meteorologists are not investigating the matter, and environmentalists are strung on global warming and the Kyoto protocol.
Ironically, the Pentagon, while recognizing its ability to modify the World’s climate for military use, has joined the global warming consensus. In a major study (pdf) , the Pentagon has analyzed in detail the implications of various global warming scenarios.


The Pentagon document constitutes a convenient cover-up. Not a word is mentioned about its main weather warfare program: The High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) based in Gokona, Alaska –jointly managed by the US Air Force and the US Navy.


There are several mainstream explanations on weather and climate change, none of which fully explains, within their respective terms of reference, the highly unusual and erratic weather occurrences, not to mention the human toll and devastation, which have led to the destabilization of entire agricultural and eco-systems. Needless to say these explanations never address the issue of climate manipulation for military use.

Climatic Manipulation by the US Military: The HAARP Program


The High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) based in Gokona, Alaska, has been in existence since 1992. It is part of a new generation of sophisticated weaponry under the US Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Operated by the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate, HAARP constitutes a system of powerful antennas capable of creating “controlled local modifications of the ionosphere” [upper layer of the atmosphere]:
[HAARP will be used] to induce a small, localized change in ionospheric temperature so that resulting physical reactions can be studied by other instruments located either at or close to the HAARP site”. (HAARP website)
Nicholas Begich –actively involved in the public campaign against HAARP– describes HAARP as: “A super-powerful radiowave-beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere  by focusing a beam and heating those areas. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto earth and penetrate everything — living and dead.” (for further details see Michel Chossudovsky, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html )


World renowned scientist Dr. Rosalie Bertell depicts HAARP as “a gigantic heater that can cause major disruptions in the ionosphere, creating not just holes, but long incisions in the protective layer that keeps deadly radiation from bombarding the planet.” (quoted in Chossudovsky, op cit.)

According to Richard Williams, a physicist and consultant to the David Sarnoff laboratory in Princeton 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.” (Quoted in Scott Gilbert, Environmental Warfare and US Foreign Policy: The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction,  http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/GIL401A.html )


HAARP has been presented to public opinion as a program of scientific and academic research. US military documents seem to suggest, however, that HAARP’s main objective is to “exploit the ionosphere for Department of Defense purposes.” (quoted in Chossudovsky, op cit).


Without explicitly referring to the HAARP program, a US Air Force study points to the use of “induced ionospheric modifications” as a means of altering weather patterns as well as disrupting enemy communications and radar. (Ibid)
HAARP also has the ability of triggering blackouts and disrupting the electricity power system of entire regions.


An analysis of statements emanating from the US Air Force points to the unthinkable: the covert manipulation of weather patterns, communications systems and electric power as a weapon of global warfare, enabling the US to disrupt and dominate entire regions of the World.


Weather Warfare: A Corporate Bonanza


HAARP has been operational since the early 1990s. Its system of antennas at Gakona, Alaska, was initially based on a technology patented by Advanced Power Technologies Inc. (APTI), a subsidiary of Atlantic Ritchfield Corporation (ARCO).


The first phase of the HAARP Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI) was completed by APTI.  The IRI system of antennas was first installed in 1992 by a subsidiary of British Aerospace Systems (BAES) using the APTI patent. The antennas beam into the outer-atmosphere using a set of wireless high frequency transmitters.


In 1994, ARCO sold its APTI subsidiary, including the patents and the second phase construction contract to E-Systems, a secretive high tech military outfit with links to the CIA (http://www.crystalinks.com/haarp.html ).


E-Systems specializes in the production of electronic warfare equipment, navigation and reconnaissance machinery, including “highly sophisticated spying devices”:
[E-Systems] is one of the biggest intelligence contractors in the world, doing work for the CIA, defense intelligence organizations, and others. US$1.8 billion of their annual sales are to these organizations, with $800 million for black projects-projects so secret that even the United States Congress isn’t told how the money is being spent.( http://www.earthpulse.com/haarp/vandalism.html )

The company has outfitted such military projects as the Doomsday Plan (the system that allows the President to manage a nuclear war) and Operation Desert Storm.” (Princeton Review, http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/profiles/internshipGenInfo.asp?internshipID=998 )

With the purchase of APTI, E-Systems acquired the strategic weather warfare technology and patent rights, including Bernard J. Eastlund’s US Patent No: 4,686,605 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region in the Earth’s Atmosphere, Ionosphere and/or Magnetosphere”.


It is worth mentioning that the Eastlund /APTI patents were based on the research of Yugoslav scientist Nicola Tesla (many of whose ideas were stolen by US corporations). (See Scott Gilbert, Environmental Warfare and US Foreign Policy: The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction,  http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/GIL401A.html )


Eastlund described this deadly technology 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…” ( http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/12/HAARP.htm ),

Not surprisingly, the patent had previously been sealed under a government secrecy order.Barely a year following the E-Systems purchase of APTI’s weather warfare technology, E-Systems was bought out by Raytheon, the fourth largest US military contractor. Through this money-spinning acquisition, Raytheon became the largest “defense electronics” firm in the World.Meanwhile, ARCO which had sold APTI to E-Systems, had itself been acquired by the BP-AMOCO oil consortium, thereby integrating the largest oil company in the World (BP).
Raytheon through its E-Systems subsidiary now owns the patents used to develop the HAARP weather warfare facility at Gakona Alaska. Raytheon is also involved in other areas of weather research for military use, including the activities of its subsidiary in Antarctica, Raytheon Polar Services.


Owning the Weather”: Towards the Expanded Final Stage


The HAARP antenna array and transmitters were slated to be built in several distinct phases http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/phases.html

During the Clinton administration, the “Filled Developmental Prototype” (FDP), namely a system composed of an array of 48 active antenna elements with connected wireless transmitters, was installed and completed at the HAARP facility in 1994. (See Figure 1 below) Under the initial Developmental Prototype (DP), only 18 of the 48 transmitters were connected.


Bernard Eastlund in a 1997 interview described this antenna array in its Filled DP stage as the “the largest ionospheric heater ever built”. 

 
This system of 48 antennas, however, while fully operational, was not according to Eastlund, powerful enough (in 1997) “to bring the ideas in his patents to fruition”:.


But they’re getting up there”, he said. “This is a very powerful device. Especially if they go to the expanded stage.” (quoted in Scott Gilbert, op cit, see also http://www.emagazine.com/january-february_1997/0197currhaarp.html )
This ‘final expanded stage’ envisioned by Eastlund, which will provide maximum capability to manipulate the World’s weather patterns, has now been reached.Under the Bush administration, the main partner of Raytheon (which owns the patents) in the construction and development stage of the HAARP antenna array, is British Aerospace Systems (BAES), which had been involved in the initial installation of the antenna array in the early 1990s.The multimillion dollar contract was granted by The Office of Naval Research to BAES in 2003, through its US subsidiary BAE Systems Advanced Technologies Inc. The contract was signed barely two months before the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.
Using Raytheon’s technology, BAES was to develop the HAARP Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI) to its maximum capabilities of “Full size or final IRI (FIRI)”.


In April 2003, BAE Systems Advanced Technologies outsourced the production and installation of the antennas to Phazar Corp (http://www.phazar.com/ ), a company specializing in advanced wireless antennas for military use. (Phazar owns Antenna Products Corporation of Mineral Wells, Texas http://www.antennaproducts.com/ ). Phazar was entrusted with producing and installing 132 crossed dipole antennas items for the HAARP facility. (http://www.antennaproducts.com/News%20Release%2004-18-03.pdf )
A year later, in April 2004, the final phase in the expansion of the HAARP facility was launched. (Dept of Defense, 19 April 2004). This phase consisted in equipping all the 180 antennas with high frequency transmitters.  BAE Systems was awarded another lucrative contract, this time for $35 million.
In July 2004, Phazar had delivered and installed the 132 crossed dipole antennas including the antenna support structures and ground screen items at the HAARP facility, bringing the number of antennas from 48 under the FDP stage to 180. (see Table 2).


Meanwhile, BAE Systems had contracted with Jersey based defense electronics firm DRS Technologies, Inc in an $11.5 million outsourcing arrangement, the production and installation of the high-frequency (HF) radio transmitters for the HAARP antenna array. (See http://www.drs.com/press/archivelist.cfm?PRESS_RELEASE_ID=1529&preview=1 and Business Wire, 15 June 2004). DRS specializes in a variety of leading edge products for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.( http://www.drs.com/corporateinfo/index.cfm ).
Under its contract with BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems in Washington, D.C., DRS is to manufacture and install “more than 60 Model D616G 10-Kilowatt Dual Transmitters” to be used with the HAARP system of antennas. (It is unclear from the company statements whether all the 180 antennas will be equipped with a transmitter, bringing the system up to full IRI capabilities).


Deliveries and installation are to be completed by July 2006. While HAARP is described as a “research project”, the production of the transmitters was entrusted to DRS’ C41 “Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) Group”


The diagram and images below describe the HAARP Alaska Facility in 1997.
. FDP layout
Figure 1: The Array of 48 Antenna Elements with the Transmitter Shelters  (FDP stage)
The 48 antenna array is supported by transmitter shelters, each of which contains 6 transmitter cabinets. (See image of shelter below)
Each cabinet contains two transmitters. (image of cabinet below)
The newly installed 132 dipole antennas supplied by Phazar vastly increase the size of the HAARP Alaska facility;  the new transmitters are supplied and installed by DRS
Image 1: Aerial Photo of the HAARP Alaska Site
Source:  http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/ohd.html
HAARP
Image 2: HAARP Antenna Array
Source: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/HaarpSite.html
Image 3 Transmitter Shelter
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/images/trans/transtr.jpg
Transmitter Shelter containing Six Transmitter Cabinets. Each Cabinet contains two transmitters
Image 4: Inside the Transmitter Shelter
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/images/trans/shelter.jpg
Image 5. Two Transmitters making up a  Transmitter Cabinet
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/images
Testing of HAARP Equipment (2003- 2004)
It is worth noting that the expansion of the antenna array (e.g. during 2003-2004) required, as part of the contracts reached with BAE Systems and its various subcontractors, the routine testing of the installed weather warfare equipment. An intermediate stage Limited IRI (LIRI), could be in operation by 2004, following the completion of the 180 antenna array under the Phazar contract and pending the final delivery of the remaining HF radio transmitters.
In this regard, a report published by the Russian parliament (Duma) in 2002, suggests that the US Military had plans to test its weather modification techniques at its Alaska facility, as well as at two other sites:
The committees reported that the USA is planning to test three facilities of this kind. One of them is located on the military testing ground in Alaska and its full-scale tests are to begin in early 2003. The second one is in Greenland and the third one in Norway.
When these facilities are launched into space from Norway, Alaska and Greenland, a closed contour will be created with a truly fantastic integral potential for influencing the near-Earth medium,” the State Duma said.
The USA plans to carry out large-scale scientific experiments under the HAARP program, and not controlled by the global community, 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, the deputies said. (Interfax News Agency, original Russian, BBC Monitoring, 8 August 2002, emphasis added)
Whether this report by the Russian Duma on testing “starting in early 2003″ is correct or not, the US administration must be confronted nationally and internationally, at the political and diplomatic levels, at the UN and the US Congress, by the international scientific community, by environmentalists and the antiwar movement. The future of humanity is threatened by the use of weather modification techniques.
Moreover, to wage an effective campaign, it is essential that corroborating scientific investigation of the unusual weather occurrences observed in recent years (and particularly since early 2003) be undertaken. This investigation should be far-reaching, collecting relevant data, correlating specific weather occurrences to recorded antenna activity at the Alaska site as well as at the two other sites, etc.
The Full Size Ionospheric Research Instrument FIRI stage, described as  “a maximum size of 180 antenna elements, arranged in 15 columns by 12 rows” is scheduled to be completed by mid-2006 (assuming the installation of the remaining dual transmitters), at which time the HAARP program will have reached its maximum FIRI capacity, meaning the ability to selectively modify, for military use, weather patterns anywhere in the World.
The IRI is currently [June 2004] composed of 48 antenna elements and has a power capacity of 960,000 watts. When installed, the additional 132 transmitters will give HAARP a 3.6 mega-watt capacity [see Table 2 below]. The HAARP build-out is jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). (Business Wire, 10 June 2004)
Table 2: Comparison of IRI Phases


DP
FDP
LIRI
FIRI
Number of Active Antenna Elements
18
48
108
180
Total Transmitter Power (kW)
360
960
2160
3600
Maximum Antenna Gain (dB)
19
24
29
31
Max Effective Radiated Pwr (dBW)
74
84
92
96
Min Antenna Pattern Width (degrees)


9
8
5
Frequency Range
2.8 to 10 MHz
Modulation Types
CW/AM/FM/PM
Source http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/phases.html
This advanced stage of full capacity (FIRI) corresponds to what the US Air Force has called “Owning the Weather”:
US aerospace forces [will] ‘own the weather’ by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to war-fighting applications… From enhancing friendly operations or disrupting those of the enemy via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns to complete dominance of global communications and counterspace control, weather-modification offers the war fighter a wide-range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary… In the United States, weather-modification will likely become a part of national security policy with both domestic and international applications. Our government will pursue such a policy, depending on its interests, at various levels.(US Air Force, emphasis added. Air University of the US Air Force, AF 2025 Final Report, http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/)

Weather Warfare against “Rogue States
The unusual climatic occurrences in the US and Western Europe have been extensively documented.
However, what the news media has failed to underscore is that a number of unusual and dramatic climatic changes have occurred in recent years in countries which are identified as possible targets under the US Administration’s pre-emptive war doctrine.
Weather patterns in North Korea, for instance, have been marked since the mid-1990s by a succession of droughts, followed by floods. The result has been the destruction of an entire agricultural system. In Cuba, the pattern is very similar to that observed in North Korea. (see Table 3)
In Iraq, Iran and  Syria, a devastating drought occurred in 1999. In Afghanistan, four years of drought in the years preceding the US led invasion in 2001, have led to the destruction of the peasant economy, leading to widespread famine.
While there is no proof that these weather occurrences are the result of climatic warfare, Phillips Geophysics Lab, which is a partner in the HAARP project provides a course for military personnel at the Hanscom Air Force Base in Maryland, on “Weather Modification Techniques”. The course outline explicitly contemplates the triggering of storms, hurricanes, etc. for military use. (See his slide show at http://www.dtc.army.mil/tts/1997/proceed/abarnes/ open PowerPoint presentation at http://www.dtc.army.mil/tts/tts97/abarnes.zip )
Weather manipulation is the pre-emptive weapon par excellence. It can be directed against enemy countries or even “friendly nations”, without their knowledge. Weather warfare constitutes a covert form of pre-emptive war. The manipulation of climate can be used to destabilize an enemy’s economy, ecosystem and agriculture (e.g. North Korea or Cuba). Needless to say it can trigger havoc in financial and commodity markets and can potentially be used as an instrument of “insider trade” for financial gain. It has the ability of destabilizing a country’s institutions. Concurrently, the disruption in agriculture creates a greater dependency on food aid and imported grain staples from the US and other Western countries.
The Bush administration has stated that it reserves the right to attack these countries preemptively, with a view to ensuring the security of the American homeland.
Washington –as part of its nuclear posture review– has threatened several countries including China and Russia with pre-emptive nuclear strikes. One would assume that the same targeting of rogue states exists with regard to the use of weather modification techniques”.
While there is no evidence of the use of weather warfare against rogue states, the policy guidelines on “weather intervention techniques” have already been established and the technology is fully operational.

Table 3: Unusual Weather Occurrences: North Korea, Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq
North Korea
Recurrent flooding and drought often in the same year has hit North Korea since 1995, 220,000 people died in the ensuing famine, according to Pyongyang’s own figures. U.S. figures place the number of deaths resulting from famine at 2 million.
The first major flooding occurred in 1995.
There were floods and drought in 1999. The serious water shortage resulting from the 1999 drought was conducive to the destruction of crops.
The temperature of water in rice fields goes beyond 40 degrees and the tall rice plants fresh from the rice seedling beds are withering. In particular, nearly all after-crop maize seedlings and seeds are perishing,” it added.
In 2001, in June there was an extensive drought with rainfall just 10% of normal levels, which served to undermine agricultural crops. And then a few months later, in October, there were extensive floodings leading to the further destruction of rice harvests and a crisis situation in food distribution.
Officials in Kangwon province – an area which already suffers food shortages – say the impact of the torrential rain and flooding has been devastating. The normal recorded rainfall for October should be around 20mm. But in the worst-affected areas 400mm (18 inches) of rain fell in just 12 hours. “It was the worst flooding we’ve had since records began in 1910,” said Kim Song Hwan, head of the government’s Flood Damage Rehabilitation Committee for the region. (BBC, 23 Oct 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1614981.stm )
Cuba
For several years Cuba has been affected by recurrent droughts. In 1998, rainfall in Eastern Cuba was at its lowest level since 1941.
A United Nations team estimated 539,000 people, 280,000 of them farmers, were directly affected by reduced availability of food or reduced income through production losses. Some reported effects are: hunger in areas; a loss of up to 14% of the sugar cane crop planted last year and a reduction in this spring’s planted crops, since rains were not sufficient for some seeds to germinate (which will reduce next year’s crop); as much as 42% losses in food staples such as root vegetables, beans, bananas, and rice in the five eastern provinces; and livestock, poultry, and egg production losses
(UN Relief,  http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/2975570e60ff2a7685256680005a8e2d?OpenDocument )
In 2003, a devastating drought hit the Western part of Cuba
In 2004  May-June, the country is hit by the worst drought in its history:
 ”A severe drought enveloping eastern Cuba has eroded 40 percent of the farmland, starved thousands of heads of cattle and has close to 4 million people counting every drop of water they consume.” The drought is described as the worst in 40 years.
The drought has robbed underground water levels of some 10 feet over the past 10 years, leaving over 5,000 wells across the province dry,” said Leandro Bermudez, a geologist and the second man at Cuba’s National Institute of Hydraulic Resources. (MSNBC, 21 June 2004 http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5262324
The cities are running out of water. According to the Independent,  “Drought is bringing Cuba to its knees
Unnoticed by the world, the longest dry period for decades has brought much of Cuba to its knees. Could this be the crisis that finally destroys Fidel’s revolution?
All across central and eastern Cuba, farmers, ranchers, city dwellers and government officials are scrambling to deal with a punishing drought that began a decade ago and intensified in the last two years.
Although traditionally arid, the provinces of Holguin, Camaguey and Las Tunas hold some of Cuba’s finest pasture and farmland and have long been crucial to this communist nation’s dairy, beef and agricultural industries.
More than 12,500 cattle have died in Holguin alone in 2004 and milk production has fallen 20 percent. The price of beans, plantains, sweet potatoes and other staples has soared in private markets.
The drought has caused millions of dollars in losses and officials are spending millions more digging wells, building a water pipeline and taking other measures to try to ease the crisis – huge sums in an impoverished nation struggling through tough economic times and a battle with the United States.
Officials also have moved thousands of cattle to more fertile areas and are working furiously to finish a 32-mile pipeline that will draw water to Holguin city from Cuba’s largest river, the Cauto. The $5 million pipeline could be completed next month. (Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2004, http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/9271316.htm )
The above report date to September 2004, it was published before, the hurricanes hit the Cuban coastline followed by torrential rains.
Afghanistan and The former Soviet Republics of Central Asia
The worst drought in Afghanistan history occurred in the three consecutive years prior to the onslaught of the US led invasion, from 1999 to 2001. The agricultural recovery of the 1990s, in the wake of the Soviet-Afghan war was brought to a standstill.
In the wake of the US led 2001 invasion,  the United States supplied Afghanistan with genetically modified wheat and appropriate types of fertilizer to be used with the GM wheat, which was said to be high yield drought resistant. The donation of GM wheat, however, also led to destabilizing the small peasant economy because the GM wheat varieties could not reproduced locally. In 2002, famines which were barely reported by the media, swept the country.
Similar although less severe conditions prevailed in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Like Afghanistan, Tajikistan has had its infrastructure ruined by prolonged civil war with Muslim fundamentalists. Since then, the worst regional drought in 74 years has destroyed food crops over a large part of the nation, rendering almost half of the 6.2 million people in the country vulnerable to the threat of famine and disease, up from 3 million last year. About the only portion of the economy that has been unaffected is the drug trade. Tajikistan is the transit route for 65 to 85 percent of heroin smuggled out of Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer. (http://www.americanfreepress.net/Mideast/Drought__Desperation_Breed_Vio/drought__desperation_breed_vio.html ]
Triggered by the lowest rainfall (2001) in living memory, vast tracts of Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan are being reduced to desert as the water table sinks, long-established wells dry up and herds of livestock perish.
The crisis appears to fulfill alarming climate change predictions suggesting that states along the old Silk Road will experience steeper rises in temperature than any other region on earth. By the end of the century it will be 5C hotter in an area which regularly sees the thermometer soar above 40C.
The study, published last year by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, predicted that Asian countries from Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia will warm up more than twice as much as others. “Several states,” the report added, “including Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran, [are facing] famine.”
In Tajikistan, the United Nations appealed for aid to avert disaster. “Substantial foreign aid is needed or else there will be a large-scale famine,” said Matthew Kahane, the UN’s humanitarian aid coordinator, speaking from the capital, Dushanbe.
The country has had its lowest rainfall for 75 years. Families who survived last year by selling their cows and chickens now have no other means of coping. Some households have sold the glass out of their windows and the wooden beams from their roofs to raise money for food.”
(The Guardian, 0ct 30, 2001,  http://www.guardian.co.uk/famine/story/0,12128,736902,00.html )
Iraq
In 1999, Iraq suffered its worst drought of the century, with the effect of triggering an even greater dependence on imported grain under the oil for food program. There was a drop of up to 70  percent in domestic yields of wheat, barley and other cereals, which served to further weaken the country’s economy, crippled by economic sanctions  and the routine bombing by allied aircraft in the no-fly zones.
A similar (although less serious) situation prevailed in Syria and Iran, marked by significant declines in agricultural output.

Related Global Research Articles on Weather Warfare
Michel Chossudovsky, Washington’s New World Order Weapons Have the Ability to Trigger Climate Change, Jan 2001, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html
Vladimir V. Sytin, Secret Use of Weather Modification Techniques by US Air Force? August 2003, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/SYT308A.html
Interfax,.US Could Dominate The Planet if It Deploys This Weapon In Space, CRG, August 2002, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/INT208A.html
Scott Gilbert, Environmental Warfare and US Foreign Policy: The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction, January 2004, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/GIL401A.html
Bob Fitrakis, Rods from Gods: The insanity of Star Wars, 24 June 2004, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/FIT407A.html
Did a Secret Military Experiment Cause the 2003 Blackout? 7 September 2003, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ANA309A.html

Geo-engineering


Geoengineering: Dangerous Proposal Or Lethal Reality?

by Dane Wigington


29 September, 2012

In recent years there have been numerous scientists and scientific agencies discussing the challenges with global warming and suggesting ways to remediate further global warming from occurring. These solutions, labeled as “geoengineering”, range from the realistic and possible, to the clearly impossible and absurd. The question is: Is geoengineering currently being advertised as a ‘proposed solution’ when in reality geoengineering is already taking place? If geoengineering is occurring, is it a reasonable strategy to combat global warming, or is it a potentially catastrophic measure that has lethal consequences? Lastly, is the intent of geoengineering being advertised to the general public as a way to stop the problems associated with global warming, when in actuality there are other agendas taking place?


The massive elephant in the room is that geoengineering programs are real; they are currently being deployed across the globe and have been for at least several decades. Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering (SAG) and Solar Radiation Management (SRM) are programs designed to saturate the stratosphere with reflective aerosols through the use of modified jet aircraft. Unfortunately, most scientists are either turning a blind eye to SAG and SRM, or are simply misleading the public intentionally as to their existence. These programs are stated in numerous patents and documents (about 150), are openly discussed in U.S. Congressional hearings on weather modification, and are outlined by numerous scientific agencies including the Royal Society, the United Nations, and the UK Meteorological Society.


Those unconvinced of the current deployment of such aerosol campaigns need only look more closely at the available data now accumulating across the globe. An objective analysis on just the surface can convince even those who are most skeptical that indeed geoengineering is occurring and there are devastating effects taking place.


  1. Consistent horizon-to-horizon aircraft trails that slowly expand and merge until the entire sky is often covered with a blanket of artificial cloud. Bright trails that seem to dissipate (but leave the sky a silvery white, often with “cob web” like wispy clouds) appear to be yet another method of dispersing geoengineering particulates.

  1. Elements such as Barium, Aluminum, Strontium, and Manganese showing up in lab tests of precipitation in lethal quantities across the globe. For example, a lab test for a single rain event taken in Shasta County, California in 2006 measured 7 parts per billion (ppb) for aluminum, already high, and less than five years later at the same location a single rain event measured 3450 ppb for aluminum. This is an increase of nearly 50,000%.

  1. According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which has studied aerosols migrating from China and other locations around the globe, elevation in aluminum ratings are NOT due to any aerosols that may be migrating from China due to their industry.

  1. Tests have determined that the soil PH has been so radically changed in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, that tests from Shasta and Siskiyou Counties for example, have changed as much as 15 times toward alkaline.

  1. Aquatic insect populations have been severely affected by metal contamination in the formerly pristine watershed in regions of northern California. Aquatic insect population has declined as much as 95%, according to 35-year US forest Service veteran biologist Francis Mangels.

  1. Global dimming” — the reduction in the amount of global direct sunlight that reaches the earth’s surface -– has increased 20% due to reflective metal particulates in the atmosphere reflecting sunlight.

  1. Global drought is now the norm with few exceptions.
  1. Verified massive ozone holes are now present over the northern and southern hemispheres.

  1. Atmospheric conductivity has increased radically, thus leaving the earth more prone to increased lightning strikes.

  1. The Arctic Methane Emergency Group (AMEG) has recently called for “emergency war-time-scale geoengineering” to avert a planetary emergency unfolding in the Arctic — an attempt to stop the imploding Ice cap and methane mass expulsion.

  1. The US military has repeatedly stated its intense interest in such programs for strategic military purposes, i.e. “Owning The Weather By 2025″ (pdf here).

Some may be shocked to know that the above examples exactly match the expressed goal of numerous geoengineering patents. In addition, the metals that are showing up all over the globe also precisely match the elements named in numerous geoengineering patents. It does not appear that this bombardment of toxic materials (notably aluminum, barium, strontium) is decreasing either; on the contrary, it appears to be increasing rapidly. Unfortunately, many government officials, including Obama Science advisor John Holdren, have openly stated their support for global aerosol geoengineering.


In the midst of all this metal showing up in our soil and water, our forests are suffering huge losses. Forest fires are out of control around the northern hemisphere. At of the end of August, over 74,000,000 acres burned in Siberia alone. Many other countries have had prolonged states of emergency from record wild fires as well. Drought, the main consequence associated with geoengineering aerosols, also is reaching an epidemic level this year.


It is important to understand how forest fires and drought apply to geoengineering. In addition to robbing the environment of moisture, an atmosphere saturated with geoengineering particulates also increases atmospheric conductivity. With the forests at record low moistures levels due to the drought this year, the effects of the SAG and SRM have proved a devastating combination as dry-lighting strikes have become widespread, thus fueling spontaneous wildfires.


Clearly, with geoengineering, the weather on the earth can be modified by the timing and quantity of particulates being sprayed into the environment. This begs the question of the true intent of geoengineering. Is it a potential way to gain power via control of the weather rather than a proposed solution to prevent global warming? It appears as though the primary motivation for pursuing geoengineering by the U.S. military may be the strategic advantage of weather modification during times of war. Controlling the weather creates a powerful force multiplier for a nation’s military during a conflict. For example, if one nation were able to ground an entire country’s air force because of severe weather, or create a drought so bad that a nation is weakened internally and rebellion against its leaders takes place, a nation could win a war before firing the first shot.


The U.S. military historically has been vocal about the desire to be able to modify the weather going back to the 1940’s, when they partnered with General Electric, which was researching weather modification at that time. For the third time, the president of Iran has stated that he believes his country is the victim of ongoing NATO weather-modification assaults that have left his country in a dire state of drought. Officials in Pakistan also have made similar accusations. Recently, when the government of Thailand drug its feet in regard to granting a new base in their country for the U.S. to “monitor” weather changes (conduct weather modification?) they were decimated by record flooding. Coincidence?


Closer to home, don’t overlook the still-worsening drought decimating the continental U.S. Is it yet another coincidence that Monsanto (the world’s largest genetically modified seed company) has introduced its newest drought- and aluminum-resistant corn in the midst of this unfolding disaster? This point is well documented in the recently released film “Why In The World Are They Spraying” produced by film maker Michael Murphy. Murphy also documents in the film the weather derivatives market, which amounts to casino bets place on weather catastrophes — where they will occur and who they will effect. Could this be the corporate/industrial/military complex manufacturing weather catastrophes and then making massive profits of the damage done? All indications point towards a new type of profit-investment market, disaster capitalism.


Who are the players that appear to be involved? Things that can be said for certain are, The Raytheon Corporation, which is up to its neck in weather-modification patents and appears to do all the weather modeling for The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and the National Weather Service. Another player in this gamble on the future of our planet is The Lockheed Martin Corporation, which is also heavily invested in the weather modification business and appears to do all the weather modeling for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Could the foxes be watching the hen house? Are they predicting weather at this point, or giving us the “weather schedule”? If they were, would they want to disclose this?


Many ask if the materials that are being deposited in our atmosphere are part of jet fuel, or are they part of a “payload” delivery system that is actually sprayed, however all data points to the latter. First, there is already a patent for a “powder contrail generator” which would be used for this exact geoengineering purpose. Next, the massive amount of metal aerosol tonnage proposed by geoengineers to be dispersed on an annual basis (20,000,000 tonnes according to internationally recognized geoengineer David Keith), is simply far too much for any type of fuel additive. There are also countless compelling photos and extensive film footage that clearly indicate spraying from separate nozzles on the plane. Shockingly, some of this footage actually shows spray coming from the front wing of a rear-engine jet, with visible spraying from nozzles starting and stopping at various times.


So, why in the world are they spraying if it is doing so much damage to the planet and life on earth? It would seem because they can, and there is no one to stop them. The craving for absolute control appears to have no bounds or limits even if that quest puts the seekers themselves at risk. Why did the same power structure feel the need to detonate more than 1,800 nuclear weapons even though that has contaminated all life? Why has the same power structure constructed a nuclear arsenal large enough to destroy life on earth some 12,000 times over?


Coming up with an answer to such questions is difficult. What it is possible to say is that a mountain of data confirms the harsh and lethal reality of global geoengineering. The ongoing spraying appears to be completely disrupting all natural weather patterns, creating catastrophic global droughts, shredding the ozone layer, contaminating our soils and waters, and even more critical, poisoning every breath we take with microscopic metal and chemical nano particles that are extremely damaging to the human body.


As if all this was not enough, the damage done to the planet now appears to have reached a critical point. Catastrophic methane release has been triggered on the East Siberian shelf of the Arctic. Though methane is often considered to be about twenty times more potent a greenhouse gas than C02, this is over a hundred-year time horizon. Over a twelve-year time horizon, methane is considered to be perhaps 100 times more potent than CO2. To put this in context, the methane release that has been triggered is a global game-changer in and of itself, with potential consequences that are unimaginable. Global geoengineering is literally putting life on earth in a dangerous balance. All available data has led this author to the conclusion that short of nuclear annihilation, the ongoing global geoengineering atmospheric spray programs are the greatest and most immediate threat to life on earth.


So what can we do? Raise awareness at a grass roots level. This is the only way to battle this issue. All governmental agencies and representatives are part of the corporate/industrial complex and no ground can be gained through the “system”. I say this after ten years of effort working in conjunction with the California EPA, the Cal Energy Commission, the Cal water quality, the USDA, USFS and other institutions. Only when the population at large is made aware of the fact that they are being sprayed like lab rats can the geoengineering be brought to a halt. If the population is aware, military personnel and families will then be aware, and we would hope they would at some point refuse to participate in their own demise. There are many good people in the military that would care if only they were informed. Certainly, they will never be told by the system they are in.


How do we raise awareness? From our own home computers we can all work to locate and identify people, groups, and organizations that would care if they only had a clue. These groups can include journalists, environmental organizations, ADD groups, Alzheimer’s, autisms and agriculture organizations. The list is endless. The film mentioned above, “Why In The World Are They Spraying” can and should be handed out. The film producer has generously allowed reproduction as its goal is to get the word out, not for profit. (Though it should be mentioned that the only way the film producer’s efforts can continue is by film sales, so if you really want to help, buy at least one commercial copy then make duplicates from that). The website “geoengineeringwatch.org” is also a tool for educating.


It’s up to us. Geoengineering is not just another environmental issue, it is the issue. The ongoing implementation of these programs is virtually decimating the biosphere from top to bottom. If it is not brought to light and to a halt, all other issues will soon enough become moot. Geoengineering is a lethal reality.
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Dane Wigington has an extensive background in solar energy. He is a former employee of Bechtel Power Corp. and was a licensed contractor in California and Arizona. Personal residence was feature in a cover article on the world’s largest renewable energy magazine, Home Power. He owns a 1,600-acre “wildlife preserve” next to Lake Shasta in northern California. He focused his efforts and energy on the geoengineering issue when he began to lose very significant amounts of solar uptake due to what ever-increasing “solar obscuration” caused from the aircraft spraying as he also noted significant decline in forest health and began testing and research into the geoengineering issue about a decade ago.