A great example of misinformation

News wires are heating up with another example of the ultimate non-story released today, the story of the latest release of UFO files from the UK Ministry of Defence group the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) the group that advises military and political groups on threats to British defensive capabilities. We have known about the role of DIS in administrating British UFO reports and sightings for a number of years. A former member of this group Nick Pope has been openly speaking on the UFO circuit since his retirement from the group in the 1990's and indeed the group itself closed its UFO desk in the late 1990's as far as public reports were concerned at least. I'm sure many people will be reading these news reports and getting tremendously excited about the highlights like Prime Minister Tony Blair being briefed on UFO's in much the same way that thirty years ago when a document from Winston Churchill asking to be briefed some people took it as proof of UFOs and extraterrestrials, so why have I started this article by saying that it is a non-story? Well there are a few reasons. Firstly these documents, 6,700 in number were actually released in August 2011, but have only been made available online through the National Archive today, so serious UFO researchers have been studying them for almost a year already, and there has been little if any new information of any significance.

Then we need to consider that these documents had been declassified before that point which suggests strongly that they do not relate to any threat to national security, which any genuine sightings almost certainly would. It should also be noted that although there are a huge number of documents, these are not the complete set of documents for the period. They represent approximately 78% of the total with the remainder still be too highly classified to be covered by Freedom of Information (FoI) requests. It should also be noted that these documents have been released under FoI rules which exempt many classes of official document which are considered security or commercially sensitive. Lets also look at the Tony Blair connection. The documents suggest that all Prime Ministers are briefed on UFOs but this should be expected as they are likely to be asked at public events as was the case when UFO researcher Richard D Hall posed the question of the release of information to David Cameron at a public debate. It would be extremely remiss of government advisers to leave a politician of this stature with no answer to such an obvious question. It is not evidence of UFOs per se, just a matter of expediency.

Also to be considered is that these documents were released initially to UFO researchers and the documents reveal that part of the role of the DIS was to maintain links between UFO research groups and government. This strongly hints at the possibility of disinformation, particularly in light of recent cases of media and police disinformation policies and the use of selected economists to present positively spun government finance figures. Whatever these documents are, in terms of evidence of British government seriousness about UFOs they are in no sense any new evidence, nor do they move the debate over whether UFOs are real or not any further forward. To date there is no evidence of UFOs, whether you chose to believe that or not, it is a statement of fact. That is not to say that such information doesn't exist, nor that absence of evidence is evidence of absence. There is every possibility that any real evidence would be kept secret as suggested under American and UK policy for dealing with UFO evidence laid out in the 1960's.

What is of interest is the way in which the media is reporting these files, and the impact that this has on how the alternative media is portrayed when viewed with a cynical eye.

Misinformation conspiracy

One of the biggest problems faced by anyone trying to understand what is happening in the World is the sheer volume of often conflicting, and at times completely opposing sets of information described as facts. As an example, depending on which media outlet you favour you could today have been told that genetically modified food is perfectly safe, and at the same time is not safe at all. Both can not be right, what with them being mutually exclusive. So how do you establish what information is correct and what is not? The first step in this process is establishing an understanding that there are very view absolute facts, and even fewer truths. This is the case whether the source of information is official, say a government, or completely unofficial, like an internet chatroom. There are a number of reasons for this and it is probably worth spending a few moments thinking about some of them. Firstly, the World that we live in is tremendously complex, and in many fields we have yet to develop a complete understanding. If we take a subject such as climate change there are wide discrepancies between the conclusions reached by scientists using the same data. In part this is a consequence of an incomplete understanding of the way in which the global climate operates. It is a similar story with conclusions about the global economy for broadly similar reasons.

Secondly the information and data that is available to be analysed is often not complete. A goof example of this was the analysis that was used to justify UK and US involvement in the invasion of Iraq. Data that had been gathered suggested that the Iraqi leadership had access to weapons of mass destruction, but it transpired that this data was incomplete, and in fact had been manipulated. Then we have the problem of personal agenda. In the majority of cases data is analysed by human operators, and as the poet said, to err is human. Not only can and do mistakes happen, but personal opinions and beliefs can also have an effect both in the way data is analysed but also in the way it is presented. A recent example of this was the presentation of data relating to tax avoidance schemes by UK based corporate businesses. One of the HMRC tax officials involved in the case was married to a senior accountant within a corporate structure. Consequently this official presented the data in such a way as to suggest that it was a minor oversight rather than active fraud.

You can begin to see that getting to the heart of what is going on around the World can be quite difficult, but does this mean that everything that goes on that may not be completely above board is a part of a conspiracy? I would suggest not, but finding out whether there is something more to uncover or not can be done. The first step is to follow the money. Does an individual, or organisation stand to directly gain from a conspiratorial plot? Then you can look towards a motive for conspiracy. What reason could there be for a conspiracy? It could be secrecy, protecting individuals, groups or nations. It may be because it is easier than revealing the truth, or revealing a lack of knowledge. If there is a clear benefit, and a strong motive it is almost certainly worth investigating further and trying to find whether or not that cover up you found is really a conspiracy or just basic human stupidity. Either way, finding out is worth the effort.

Zombie apocalypse is Government test

The recent reports of “Zombie” style attacks from Miami and elsewhere are an interesting case of Government preparedness testing. The internet meme of preparing for the coming Zombie apocalypse has been doing the rounds for at least 10 years to my knowledge, and yes, I have my own, and it has reached a point that it has come to the attention of the intelligence communities. It is widely known that Governments are highly interested in new ways of controlling populations and increasing powers and controls that limit freedom, and this is just the latest experiment to assess the effect of modified information release as a means of control. The idea of re-animated corpses feasting on the brains and bodies of the living has been a staple of schlock horror movies for decades and it is one which inspires a level of fear that goes beyond any sense of proportion. The history of the zombie goes back a lot further than that, through the ideas of Voodou witchcraft and black magic. The image of the controlled zombie created by a mixture of herbs and magcal incantations resonates with these latest attacks being linked to the designer drug “Bath salts”.

A little background. The attack in Miami occurred on Saturday 26^th May 2012 and featured a naked man attacking another man and appearing to tear chunks of flesh off his face with his teeth, eating the flesh in a manner strongly reminiscent of a zombie attack from a Romero film. This attack was almost certainly caused by the attacker being under the influence of the narcotic cocktail known as “bath salts” leading to a psychotic break. The attack ended with the attacker being shot multiple times by police officers and dying at the scene. A gruesome and horrific act certainly, but also an opportunity for authorities to explore the effect of the release of a media scare story, and monitoring the way a meme spreads via the internet. Reports suggest that in the days following the report of the attack the frequency of search engine enquiries for the term zombie apocalypse increased by over 5000% and website for companies supplying survivalist equipment reported significant increases in traffic. The meme spread via Facebook and youtube far more quickly than similar stories of murder and mayhem have, and it is this phenomena that has let to the suggesting that it was being used as a test of public perceptions of threat and how these can be used.

The results are in as far as the intelligence community is concerned, and there is clear evidence that this event is already being used to increase control of the American public. There have already been several large scale raids of drug production facilities and freedom of movement has been curtailed in the area alongside increased stop and search powers. What is slightly troubling is that these erosions of freedom have been accepted far more readily than is usually the case. My prediction? We will see an increasing number of attacks of this type over the next six months culminating in the passing into law of new powers for the police and the establishment of a more closely integrated national guard rapid response force with powers to introduce martial law in localised areas. We will also see an increase in powers for disaster response units, including curfews, house arrests and detention without trial. What worries me is that we are going to accept these powers because the thought of a Zombie apocalypse, no matter how unlikely, is a meme that just will not go away.

Pandemic conspiracies

From our medical correspondent :

This is more of a tale of misinformation and misdirection rather than direct conspiracy per se, but nonetheless it is information that may prove useful in understanding the way in which those in control can manipulate the rest of us. This story relates to the recent “Swine flu pandemic” and the government response to it. The 2009 pandemic was interesting for three key reasons. Firstly the strain of H1N1 virus that was widely reported as a global killer was in reality slightly less deadly than a standard flu virus. Secondly, stockpiles of vaccinations and the speed with which vaccination production was ramped up was surprisingly efficient and finally the way in which the virus was reported and tracked was unusual in that the media appeared to be given free rein, with limited government censorship of news reports. Whilst these are interesting features of the outbreak, what makes the interesting is the reasoning behind them.

They all stem from the same route cause. Since 2001 and the World Trade Centre attacks there has been widespread concern amongst intelligence analysts about the potential for terrorist attacks utilising “dirty” technology. This can take the form of chemical attacks, as seen in the Sarin nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subway carried out by the Aum Shinrikyo group, Nuclear, utilising convention explosive devices laced with radioactive materials, and biological, for example the release of harmful bacterial or viral agents. The facility to use NBC attacks has been with us since the middle ages, and the technology has progressed alongside all technologies of destruction, through the mustard gas attacks of World War I to Saddam Husseins use of nerve agents against Kurdish townships throughout the 1980's and '90's. It is this later development that has been at the heart of fears about terrorist use of this technology.

It is well established that technology for NBC weapons is in the hands of potentially rogue states. Although it is clear that the claims of weapons of mass destruction as a reason for the invasion of Iraq were fundamentally flawed, we also know that Iraq was supplied with components and equipment to create both chemical and biological weapons. It is also clear that Russian stockpiles of nuclear material are subject to security breaches and that the spread of weaponised nuclear material through North Korea and Pakistan poses a high degree of risk of access outside national control. This fear has led to the development in most developed nations of counter-attack strategies and planning, including quarantine measures, preparations for military control of population movements, protection of key assets and so on.

The point is that having plans in place is a perfectly sound idea, but preparation for the after effects of an NBC based attack is difficult, if not impossible to test. A decision was taken in late 2005 jointly by Amercan, UK, French and German intelligence communities to carry out a large scale test of disaster preparedness. In order to achieve this a strain of H1N1 flu was engineered at jointly by Porton Down reaseach facility in the UK and the Centre for Disease Control in American. The strain was designed to be of lower severity than standard H1N1 strains, but still to be potentially lethal. In this it should be noted that this is further evidence that UK and US government agencies have few qualms about endangering their citizens in the interests of National security. It should also be noted that these activities were approved by all governments concerned.

Having developed a suitable strain of influenza virus it was released into the population at three strategic points in South America and South East Asia, and the spread was monitored. Media and news agencies were fed stories by Intelligence Services assets to create an impression of a far more serious disease outbreak than was the reality. Prior to release vaccinations has also been developed in collaboration with six of the largest pharmaceutical companies in preparation. This is the reason for the apparent rapid ability to upscale production. The feeding of stories to news agencies meant that Governments had no need to censor the media as the stories originated with the government in the first place. The panic caused allowed large scale testing of health resources, command and control facilities, resource management policies and public response to threat scenario testing, all of which provided valuable data for governments with regard to dealing with a genuine NBC attack.

It is debatable whether this comes under the remit of conspiracy theory, but it does demonstrate the disconnect between public reality and government reality, and highlights the willingness of governments to manipulate information and physically harm their citizenry.