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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:
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.
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
)
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:
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”:.
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.
.

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

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