Project HAARP

Project HAARP

Project Name :	Black Budget
Related Links :	Black Projects Main Page

High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project - Project HAARP

TITLE: DOOMSDAY DEATH RAY

SUBTITLE: Is the U.S. Government Testing a Secret Mega-Weapon?

AUTHOR: Agent X

PUBLICATION: The Nose Magazine

DATE: Issue #26 (March 1995)

RADIO WAVES AREN'T JUST for beaming Kenny G to the masses or nuking frozen burritos anymore. If the Pentagon's Strangelovian big-brains have their way, the earth's ionosphere--maybe our entire planet--will never be the same.

Tucked away in the backwoods of Alaska, 11 miles outside the comatose hamlet of Gakona (200 miles east of Anchorage), the U.S. Air Force/Navy High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project (HAARP) plans to "heat" the ionosphere, the uppermost layer of the atmosphere that ranges 35 to 500 miles above the surface of the earth. The ionosphere consists mainly of charged particles--ions and free electrons. HAARP will excite these particles by injecting more than a gigawatt (one billion watts) of electromagnetic radiation into earth's atmosphere, in the form of high-frequency radio waves. The goal of this rarely mentioned project is to produce a system capable of weather control, surveillance and wholesale destruction. Our government steadfastly denies it.

In marked contrast to other advanced weapons-related programs, HAARP is not part of the officially denied "Blackworld" budget. Rather, the military insists that HAARP is a strictly scientific program to study the aurora borealis (or Northern Lights), when in fact it is a device intended to seriously tweak the ionosphere for purposes that are less than benign.

In high-latitude Alaska, the site of the installation, the Earth's magnetic force field is easier to access and manipulate. There are very few citizens to get in the way or ask bothersome questions. When asked about the project and whether the military had briefed them, a spokesman for Alaska governor Tony Knowles responded, "We have no idea in hell what you're talking about."

Rising ominously above the black spruce forest, looking like a set from a Star Wars movie, HAARP is located at a defunct over the-horizon radar installation, itself a relic of the Cold War. The facility consists of an enormous power generator and transmitter building and multiple 72-foot emitters spread over several acres, surrounded by barbed wire and nasty security signs. The signal is aimed--you guessed it--straight up.

Built by ARCO Power Technologies, HAARP is due to begin initial testing as this story goes to press. During 1996, a planned $75 million increase to the already multi megabuck project will increase the output of the system to over 1.7 gigawatts, making HAARP the most powerful emitter in the world. Several smaller sites exist around the world, most notably in Russia. Though these installations cannot match the ionosphere heating capabilities of HAARP, some experts in the field who wish not to be quoted suggest that some aberrant weather conditions may have been caused by their operation.

The weapon-development whiz kids have been interested in this sort of gizmo for quite some time. Just what in hell does the military want with the world's largest weenie roaster? Here are some possible applications I've discovered:

EARTH-PENETRATING TOMOGRAPHY

Sort of a CAT scan for the planet. By heating the ionosphere to create a resonant mirror, electronic-beam steering directs an energy stream to specific coordinates on the planet. This energy penetrates the ground to a depth of a kilometer or more, and the signal return is received by satellite or aircraft. After computer processing, a relatively clear picture of what is underground emerges. Damn handy when trying to figure out where those wily North Koreans hide their nukes--or where you keep your stash.

HARD-KILL WEAPON SYSTEM

The output of HAARP would have to be a boosted a thousand-fold, but if that is accomplished, a shell of high-speed electrons can be constructed that encompasses the earth. Any ballistic missile or warhead passing through the shell would explode.

SOFT-KILL WEAPON SYSTEM

By directing enormous amounts of radio-frequency energy at a specific area, HAARP could overload electrical power distribution grids, fry sensitive microelectronics, detonate weapons that use electronic fuses, scramble missile guidance systems and probably upset brain chemistry.

WEATHER MODIFICATION

Heating the upper atmosphere over specific areas could change weather patterns, creating torrential floods, destroying an enemy's infrastructure or denying an enemy's harvest by drought. Weather as a weapon.

IDENTIFICATION OF SATELLITES

By illuminating orbiting spacecraft with HAARP, the constituent materials and the mission of a satellite can be assessed.

COMMUNICATIONS

Possible uses include satellite jamming, satellite communications with submarines and detection of stealth aircraft.

Physicist Bernard Eastlund, president of Production Technologies Company and former ARCO bigwig, was granted three patents over the past seven years for a system that looks suspiciously like HAARPã though much larger. His plan, using a transmitter encompassing 160 square miles and powered by massive amounts of electricity generated using vast Alaskan natural gas reserves (to which ARCO has access), was to shoot down missiles and alter the weather. ARCO initially owned Eastlund's patents, but was soon paid a visit by Edward Teller, and development grew secretive. Eastlund declined further involvement, and the patents were quietly sold in June 1994 to E-Systems, a high-tech corporation famous for ultra-secret defense projects such as the president's customized Boeing 747 doomsday plane.

• "HAARP is the perfect first step towards a plan like mine," Eastlund says. "Advances in phased-array transmitter technology and power generation can produce the field strength required. The government will say it isn't so, but if it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, there's a good chance it is duck."

• "Eastlund is nuts," says an Air Force official speaking on condition of anonymity. "HAARP is much smaller and less powerful than his instrument. We are not doing anything except good science and pure research."

• "The real beauty of HAARP," he then adds cryptically, "is that nothing you can see on the outside is sensitive. The secret is the beam steering agility and pulsing of the transmissions... When covert operations occur, the science team, the operating funds and the mission will be black."

Whatever is going on, Alaskans are mad as hell. The federal government enjoys a long tradition of screwing over the inhabitants of the Last Frontier. Generally speaking, the feds are as welcome as a case of herpes. And studies done by the EPA, the Swedish government and others indicate that HAARP could interfere with communications, navigation systems, wildlife migration and possibly human health.

"There has never been a transmitter of this power in this frequency," Eastlund says. "It would be wise to assess its impact."

Though there are many questions, the military insists that all is well and there is nothing to worry about.

"We are not doing anything to the ionosphere--we are just looking at it," insists Air Force Phillips Laboratory spokesman Roy Heitman.

Although an ad-hoc grassroots organization called NO HAARP is trying to stop the project, founder Clare Zickuhr admits, "It's all a whitewash, HAARP is going to happen." An ARCO retiree, Zickuhr is convinced HAARP is a secret weapons project. "It has all the appearances of a secret program. This is not good science--they have no idea what this thing could do to the ionosphere. To put this in the hands of the military scares the hell out of me."