Disaster Or 'Pure' Research? Reprinted from Earthpulse Flashpoints, Newtext Number
Three.
"The earth is delicately balanced, and seeks to restore
balance when disturbed. No one really knows how ionospheric
experiments will affect that balance, or what the earth will do in
response to try to restore balance."
These words are from Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., of Toronto,
Canada, founder of the International Institute of Concern for Public
Health. Dr. Bertell was commenting on a U. S. military experiment
named HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program). HAARP
may be the test run for a ground-based 'Star Wars' defense system.
Military documents say it is
intended to disrupt portions of the ionosphere (electrically active
layer above the upper atmosphere) by heating it with powerful pulsed
radio frequency beams. Radiation that bounces back to the surface of
the planet would be in the longwave ELF (extremely low frequency)
range.
Intended to be the most powerful ionospheric heater ever
built, HAARP's ground-based apparatus - an array of 48 antennae each
powered by its own transmitter - sits in the remote Alaskan wilderness
northeast of the city of Anchorage. HAARP is much more than the
auroral (Northern Lights) and radio-communications research project as
is claimed by researchers at the University of Alaska's Geophysical
Institute and their financial backers - the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air
Force. Any weapons system in its early stages can be easily disguised
as "pure" research. The fact is however, that HAARP is a military
experiment aimed at invasively manipulating the ionosphere by
beaming high energy upward from the ground. Such activity could
potentially disrupt natural systems on the earth and high above it.
Individual members of the European Parliament are among
the growing number of people worldwide who have been startled to hear
about HAARP. Voices expressing various levels of concern are being
heard in many countries. For example, in contrast with the
cautiously-worded comment of Dr. Bertell, a
Germany-based researcher in the field of quantum electrodynamics, Al
Zielinski, paints an apocalyptic word-picture. (He says HAARP
technology could trigger a disaster with a global impact -
electromagnetic waves causing destruction "when interacting with
protective layers of the earth and its gravitational field".)
The ionosphere seems very far away, but even when
undisturbed by humans it affects our everyday lives. For example,
radio broadcasts are bounced off this electrically charged layer which
lies between forty and six hundred miles above the surface of the
earth, just above the ozone layer. The ionosphere is alive with
electrical activity, so much so that its processes are "non-linear".
This means that the ionosphere is dynamic, and its
reactions to experiments are unpredictable.
The concept of non-linear is important in understanding
the concerns of independent scientists who are knowledgeable about
advanced physics and who warn against brash high-energy experiments on
the ionosphere. Non-linear processes can change suddenly and
unexpectedly, or they can increase in
power dramatically. Some theorists such as Zielinski say that a
non-linear process can under certain conditions tap into the
background energy of space, which is also called "zero-point
fluctuations of the vacuum".
Studying radio communications by using a tool as
powerful as HAARP is a worthy scientific task in the opinion of the
authors, but some independent researchers question whether the means
justifies the end. Is it wise to poke holes in Earth's electrical
umbrella? Is it wise to prod a dynamic natural system without knowing
how it might react?
HAARP-Type Technology Could Perform A Variety Of Tricks:
HAARP is intended to heat and lift a portion of the
ionosphere above a selected location or locations on the planet in
order to make a huge invisible "mirror" for bouncing electromagnetic
radiation back to the surface of Earth. Why? The answer is that the
U.S. military wants to:
* Communicate with its submerged submarines by
penetrating the oceans with ELF (Extremely Low Frequency)
radiations. What else could a HAARP-type project do in the near
future? If the technology is scaled up in size, it could:
* Shield a territory from intercontinental ballistic
missiles. Ionospheric heaters as a class of research instruments
are nothing new; they have operated in Puerto Rico, the former Soviet
Union and Tromso, Norway (operated by Max Planck Insitut fur
Aeronomie) as well as at another site in Alaska. But what is being
tested in the Alaskan wilderness since
1994 is new -- a tool that can focus and steer the radio frequency
energy upward. This makes it capable of hitting the ionosphere with a
far greater impact than possible from the previous design of heaters.
As HAARP's focused radio-frequency beams heat and boil
targeted locations of the ionosphere, Earth's electrical system will
be injected with a further excess of high-energy particles. What
happens when a saturated system is infused repeatedly with too much
energy? This question has been raised by independent physicists.
Each experiment with the HAARP is a test run for what
can later be a powerful multi-purpose tool for the United States
military. When completely built, the tool will beam an immense amount
of focused radio-frequency energy upward, heating and therefore
lifting a part of the ionosphere. To picture how HAARP works, imagine
a radio telescope in reverse; antennas
that send out signals instead of receiving them. Then imagine an array
of the most powerful of such instruments, working together to focus a
beam upward.
How can a lay person understand what such a tool could
do? Alaska state legislators are not necessarily trained in science,
so in the spring of 1996 their State Affairs committee called in
representatives of both sides of the HAARP controversy. (Following
publication of the book Angels Don't Play This HAARP, many Alaskans
became aware of the experiment in their backyard and asked their
lawmakers to look at it.)
Alaska Lawmakers Hear Scientists' Concerns:
One of the experts who testified at the State Affairs
Committee hearing was Richard Williams of Princeton, New Jersey. He
has a doctorate degree in physical chemistry from Harvard University
and worked for 30 years as an industrial scientist in solid state
electronics, electronics, structure of
clouds, water evaporation and other environmental problems. Dr.
Williams is an independent scientist; he's not dependent on funding
from the military. This lends him a degree of independent judgment
which compels us to quote him at length:
"I want to alert the legislature to an activity now
going on in Alaska that, in addition to any local effect, might become
a global threat to the atmosphere. That is HAARP. The initial
experiment, as Mr.(project manager John) Hecksher said, will be done
using modest power levels and are not a cause for concern. However,
the project's internal documents indicate that
plans include the eventual use of power levels up to ten billion
watts. This is an enormous power level, more than 200 times the total
electrical power level used by the city of Juneau. There could be a
serious impact in the atmosphere that might result from energies of
this magnitude. Effects might include drastic alteration of the
thermal, refractive, scattering and emission character of the
atmosphere over a wide range of the
electromagnetic spectrum."
"Experiments at this power level would produce large
changes in the concentration of charged particles in the ionosphere
that would persist for some time and might even lead to permanent
changes."
Dr. Williams told the committee that he is a supporter
of the armed forces, but as a scientist he wanted to explain how
"unintended consequences of innocent and beneficial human activities
can cause serious changes on a global scale".
We introduced two examples of activities earlier this
century which caused unintentional and serious changes in the
atmosphere, with effects worldwide. The first example he cited was the
growing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. "What we
don't know yet is how this will affect the delicate balance of life on
earth."
The second unintended change that he cited is damage to
the ozone layer, that shields us from harmful ultraviolet radiation.
"In neither of these examples would an Environmental Impact Statement
have identified the problem in time. Do we have any way to judge what
(HAARP's) energy can do
to the upper atmosphere?"
Excess Of Charged Particles, A Product Of HAARP:
Perhaps, Dr. Williams offered, we do have an indicator:
results of high-altitude nuclear explosions by the US and USSR during
the Cold War. Intended to produce artificial radiation zones and
possibly counteract a threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles,
the explosions resulted in
global interruptions of radio communications and profound disturbances
of the upper atmosphere, including greatly increased concentrations of
charged particles.
Following one of these tests, in July of 1962, James Van
Allen used specially-instrumented satellites to monitor the electron
population in the upper atmosphere. He reported a large initial
increase in electron population, followed by a slow decrease, with
significant disturbances still observable a year after the explosion.
"But this was just one injection of energy," Dr.
Williams said. "To develop a military system, such as the one proposed
by HAARP to communicate with submerged submarines, takes many tests,
even if the system is never used in combat. For example, for test
purposes over the years, the nuclear armed
countries have exploded more than 2,000 nuclear weapons, mostly near
the Earth's surface or under ground. A single massive injection of
energy into the atmosphere violently disturbs its properties, and as
Van Allen showed, the effect can last for a year or more."
"What would be the effect of repeatedly injecting high
energy thousands of times? I believe the answer is that no one knows."
Those were changes of the atmosphere on a global scale,
Dr. Williams noted. He pondered the possibility of additional,
special, effects for polar regions, where the upper atmosphere has
unique properties. Showers of charged particles coming from storms on
the sun veer toward the poles, where they enter the atmosphere and
produce the northern lights; some
changes in the ozone layer have been most extreme over Antarctica and
the far North. "Any future global changes in the atmosphere might well
be noticed first in polar regions. Alaska may get the first warning of
coming changes. And serve as the miner's canary for the rest of the
world. If this happened, Alaska's state motto, 'North to the Future',
would take on an unintended and ironic meaning."
"For any program that might damage the atmosphere on a
global scale, we need to have full warning of the plans in advance,
and informed public discussion, to justify the activity and identify
all possible hazards."
Controversial Views:
Dr. William Gordon (Ph.D. at Rice University, an
electrical engineer specializing in radio communications) has worked
on an ionospheric heater project and said there is "no convincing
evidence" that exposure to low frequency electric or magnetic fields
causes monitorable health hazards. He said the U.S. Navy has sponsored
a series of studies asking if their ELF
transmitters in the states of Wisconsin and Michigan have caused harm.
"The results are not all in, but from the material I
have looked at, operation of the ELF facility does not produce
ecological effects..." While testifying at the legislative hearing he
claimed that operation of very powerful transmitters have no adverse
health effects.
Dr. Patrick Flanagan of Arizona disagrees. Dr. Flanagan
also gave telephoned testimony. Since the proponents of HAARP focused
attention on whether those questioning the project have prestigious
academic backgrounds, Dr. Begich introduced Patrick Flanagan at
length:
He has a doctorate in both medicine and physics and has
experience in government weapons projects: he developed and sold a
guided missile detector to the U.S. military when still a youth. Later
he developed an electronic device for communication with the brain.
Dr. Flanagan worked with a Pentagon think tank that was run by the
former head of the Office of Scientific Research. He also developed
speech encoding systems. He has
worked for NASA, Tufts University, the Office of Naval Research, and
at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds for the Department of Unconventional
Weapons and Warfare.
The major portion of Dr. Flanagan's life work, however,
has been on electromagnetic fields and their effects on living
systems. In 1968 he turned his back on government-sponsored research,
and since then has done independent research in his own laboratory.
Max Planck Institute Points To Health Effects :
Possible effects of future HAARP fields on living
systems is a concern that should be discussed, Dr. Flanagan told the
committee. "One of the purposes of HAARP is to develop ELF (extremely
low frequency) capability, for transmitting high-energy ELF waves,
from .001 HZ all the way up to 40
Kilohertz, as described in (the military's) literature."
In the meantime, new research by other scientists shows
that ELF signals may have profound effects on living organisms. Dr.
Flanagan cited the example of known effects of ELF on the Circadian
rhythms, which is the biological clock, of all living organisms
including humans.
"The Max Planck Institute in Germany has done quite a
bit of work on this, showing that very low energy levels - in fact,
energy levels that are one tenth of the strength of the earth's
magnetic field, can have profound effects on these rhythms... Mr.
Hecksher and his colleagues may say that ELF fields from HAARP are not
harmful, but remember -- our government once sprayed DDT (pesticide)
on school children while they were eating lunch, and said this was not
harmful..."
Dr. Flanagan in his brief testimony cited a study by a
researcher at Catholic University which showed that coherent ELF
fields, which is what HAARP will generate, can have an effect on DNA.
For example they create abnormal development in chicken embryos and
"possibly in humans".
In reply to denial by a military representative, Dr.
Flanagan said there are thousands of papers written by reputable
scientists on the negative effects of ELF fields on living systems.
The Environmental Protection Agency released a report in 1991 linking
electromagnetic fields to leukemia
and brain cancer in children, for example. Flanagan continues, "we
have a paper here that was just published in 1996 entitled
Superimposing Spatially Coherent Electromagnetic Noise Inhibits
Field-induced Abnormalities in Developing Chick Embryos. The paper
shows that very low energy ELF fields develop abnormalities in
developing chick embryos." (The fields could be counteracted by
applying a white noise field.) "There is a tremendous
amount of background literature on this. So ELF fields are not just
harmless, as is being implied.... I don't think the question of
electromagnetic safety has been entered at all."
No National Flags Waving In The Ionosphere:
Mark Farmer, a journalist from Juneau, Alaska, also
testified. Farmer prefaced his testimony by reminding the military
representatives that he quotes statements from their own documents.
Farmer's articles have been published in the prestigious defense
magazine, Janes Defense Weekly, and in
Popular Science magazine.
Farmer agreed that HAARP needs independent monitoring
but he is not opposed to HAARP and appreciates the instrumentation.
Particularly because it is currently only one-tenth of its eventual
size "...the actual transmitter,
as Mr. Hecksher says, is going to be a complex of incoherent scatter
radars, some imaging devices. The super computer from UAF (University
of Alaska, Fairbanks) is going to be tied in I imagine, for
diagnostics. There's a spun liquid mercury mirror that's being put in.
This is cutting-edge stuff and we in Alaska are lucky to have it, in
some respects. I am generally in favor of the program, but the
oversight (monitoring of the project) stinks."
"There is no supranational treaty that deals with the
upper atmosphere or the ionosphere like there is for Antarctica or
outer space," Farmer continued.
"I doubt if the power levels of HAARP are going to do
anything really bad, but I don't know. Back in the 1950s and 1960s we
blew up hydrogen bombs in the upper atmosphere... that delivered a lot
more energy than HAARP can. But with (HAARP's) beam-steering, the
pulsing capabilities, and maybe some
instigation from secret organizations or counterproliferation groups
within the U. S. government, there could be some bad effects."
"So there needs to be oversight other than the
military." Farmer noted that Phillips laboratory, where HAARP's
project manager is based, does basic research, as does the Office of
Naval Research. But they also build secret weapons.
Most of Farmer's writing involves a covert testing base
in Nevada called Area 51; he has spent much time in that area and in
observing military secrecy tactics. He does not see HAARP itself as a
secret project, but added that he does believe there are some secret
initiatives. HAARP documents are unclassified "at least that I've been
able to find. But there are classified documents dealing with 'Star
Wars' (Strategic Defense
Initiative) related projects such as using ionospheric heaters, back
in the '1980s, which HAARP is actually a spinoff from."
HAARP technology could be used for beneficial purposes,
Farmer said. However, if people outside the military lose interest in
asking that HAARP's power levels and purposes be monitored by
independent science councils, then the hidden world of defense
corporations will probably step in. "The black programs will probably
seep in from the side. And there will
be secret initiatives."
Could Other Countries Build Powerful Zappers?:
One of the legislators, Representative Green, asked if
HAARP is opening a "Pandora's box" - other countries would soon have
whatever technology is developed in HAARP. Could what begins in its
simplistic form, safe and controllable, later be used as a weapon by
increasing the level of energy, and possibly detrimental effects, over
selected areas?
Edward Kennedy, from Naval Research Laboratory in
Washington, D.C., who is a technical interface between the contractor
for HAARP (Raytheon Corporation) and the government, said that is
difficult to answer. "We in the United States have no control over
what other countries might do." However, he said, most other countries
probably would not be able to finance building such a powerful
instrument.
HAARP project manager John Hecksher told the committee
that the ionospheric heater in Norway is comparable to HAARP: it has
an antenna array very much like what HAARP will have. However,
regarding HAARP's ability to create a narrow beam, Norway's instrument
is two or three times less powerful than
what HAARP will become.
Dr. Begich wanted the discussion to focus on the unique
features of HAARP technology, not merely on power levels transmitted
from the ground. The significant feature which distinguishes HAARP
from other ionospheric heater projects operating around the world is
the focusing capability of this
particular design. The ability to focus radio-frequency energy into a
narrow beam and to steer that beam gives it a powerful advantage in
"perturbing the ionosphere".
Dr. Siun Akasofu, head of the University of Alaska's
Geophysical Institute, argued that speaking about the focusing is
misleading and that even if the radio-frequency beam is focused,
"...the amount of energy going into the ionosphere is so little that
you cannot see any light coming from the
ionosphere. One of most sensitive instruments in the world cannot see
it. On the other hand, look at the aurora; you can see it with your
naked eye." (We experienced Dr. Akasofu's statement as being strange,
because the scientific literature on ionospheric heaters is full of
references to "enhanced airglow" from the experiments.)
Dr. Begich and Dr. Flanagan asked the committee to look
at the absence of independent biological scientists and people with
backgrounds in electrophysiology, in the think tanks where HAARP-type
experiments are hatched. People with those backgrounds are also
concerned, he said, that using a tool for disturbing the ionosphere is
not a decision that should be
made only by the United States; it's a global issue.
Alaska may acquire a defense shield in the form of an
advanced HAARP-type technology, Dr. Begich noted. "But it has to be
reviewed from a biological standpoint, not just a mechanical
standpoint."
Changing Statements About Power Levels:
At the legislative hearing, HAARP employees focused on
HAARP's current power levels, while the researchers on the other side
of the controversy focused attention on the direction in which the
power levels for the project are heading.
Has the military decided to downsize this current
program they call HAARP because of public attention to it? At the
legislative hearing, a representative of the military said the current
developmental prototype of HAARP is capable of 3.6 kilowatts of
radiated power. The full scale prototype will provide up to ten times
that, or about 3,600 kilowatts, he
said.
Dr. Patrick Flanagan noted that "the power levels
described by Dr. Hecksher aren't consistent with a statement he made
on a TV show (Sightings). When he was interviewed, (Dr. Hecksher) said
the HAARP system can punch holes through the ionosphere and these
holes would heal shortly after a HAARP
system was turned off."
To punch a hole through the ionosphere would take more
than the alleged 3,600 kilowatts, Dr. Flanagan indicated. He did
mention, however, that there was another disturbing possibility: the
"maser amplification of the HAARP energy. For example, if HAARP is
applying 3,600 kilowatts to the ionosphere, there's a possibility of
what is called maser amplification of
that energy by charged particles in the ionosphere...the energy is
powered by the energy from the sun. So that these charged particles in
the ionosphere can be caused to mase... So that puts out more energy
than HAARP is putting in."
What do the military planners have in mind? Technical
Memorandum 195, an unpublished 613-page compilation concerning the
HAARP Workshop on Ionospheric Heating Diagnostics, (held in 1991 at
Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts) includes this piece of
information: the desired level of power for HAARP is 100 billion
watts, vastly greater than what the military
is now claiming as a goal. Other documents from the military were
openly published and refer to power levels between one and ten
gigawatts (billion watts).
Whatever the eventual power level it does not take much
power bouncing back to the surface of the earth to affect living
organisms. Dr. Nick Begich also told the State Affairs Committee about
a substantial amount of science literature on the topic that has been
published as recently as the early 1990s. The findings suggest that
lower levels of energy (lower than previously believed) can affect
human physiology. These studies are the most significant aspect of
what has not been properly disclosed by those responsible for the
HAARP project's safety, he testified. The project began when the
debate over effects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation was still
in its infancy. Since then, many scientists have come to the
conclusion that lower energy densities, when pulsed in the right
frequency range, will have profound health effects.
By Dr. Nick Begich of Anchorage, Alaska
* Penetrate the land with ELF in order to search for hidden
tunnels or other sites of military interest (a process known as
earth-penetrating tomography).
* Fry satellites.
* Discriminate between incoming objects (missiles).
* Enhance communications.
* Disrupt communications over a large area of the
globe.
* Change the chemical structure of the upper atmosphere and
possibly alter the weather.
* Affect human mental functioning.
* Impact the health of humans and other biological systems.