- Night vision actively makes visible things hidden in
darkness. It is a subliminal technology that projects an infrared beam
onto obscure objects, which appear through digital lenses as phosphorescent
ghost-like images. Conventional optical devices, in contrast, are passive,
receiving light from external sources such as stars and street lamps or
the sunlight reflected off surfaces. Telescopes, even powerful ones, become
grainy in low-light, low-contrast situations.
-
- This is why farmers and sawmills around the world burn
their fields and scrap wood on damp days. Optical air-pollution monitors
in nearby towns cannot detect the smoke plumes through the mist. Likewise,
anyone trying to dispose of waste gases - from chemical-weapons laboratories,
for instance - uses the same technique of releasing emissions under cloud
cover or at nighttime to evade detection by spy satellites.
-
- The only way to spot such "smoking-gun evidence,"
as in the case of Iraq's alleged chemical weapons program, is to mount
a beam-generating technology, basically a souped-up version of night vision,
on to a platform circling over the suspect territory.
-
- Thus, for 16 days in orbit, Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon
made earth observations with a cluster of instruments, which NASA called
"a multi-spectral telescope." Designed to survey the air quality
over the deserts of the Middle East, his "telescope" was built
by a research team at Tel Aviv University and a U.S. company, Orbital Sciences
Corp. His research project was called MEIDEX (Mediterranean-Israel dust
experiment).[1]
-
- According to Israel Line magazine, MEIDEX "called
for Ramon to observe and take pictures of atmospheric aerosols in the Mediterranean
area using ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared array-detector cameras."
The acronym seems disingenuous because the letters ME are usually employed
by Israeli research projects to stand for "Middle East."
-
- The computer-controlled cameras were pointed earthward
to detect desert dust and "pollution aerosols . . . to provide scientific
information about atmospheric aerosols and the influence of global changes
on the climate." The data was directly transmitted to Tel Aviv University
and, according to investigative journalist Gordon Thomas, on to the Israeli
Biological Institute, the hub of Israel's nerve-gas and bioweapons programs.[2]
-
- With computer enhancement, the collected images reveal
the chemical composition of the stew of gases and droplets swirling over
the desert. The ultraviolet and visible rays, originating from the sun,
showed the normal background of the atmosphere - mineral particles, methane,
car exhaust fumes and oil well burn-off - during daylight hours when Saddam
Hussein's laboratories don't dare release their toxic wastes (assuming
if indeed these are being produced or destroyed). The important data, however,
must be gathered during chemical releases at night or under clouds, and
this is where infrared cameras come into play.
-
- Infrared cameras pick up the heat waves generated by
artificial sources such as power plants and oil refineries. What if, however,
Saddam's chemists were to take the precaution of cooling toxic emissions
before dispersing them into the air? To detect cooler gases, an effective
night-shot camera needs to generate its own infrared beam. It would have
to be an extraordinarily powerful beam to penetrate the clouds far below.
-
- Night vision, as any special-forces soldier or video
enthusiast learns, is limited by the infrared beam's range. More power
means more range. A space shuttle, however, simply cannot generate the
staggering amount of extra power that the MEIDEX telescope requires on
the sun-blocked side of Earth. To eliminate the risk of a power shutdown
to the other experiments and the spaceship itself, a multi-spectral telescope
requires an independent source of power, and the obvious solution is nuclear
power.
-
- During the search for Columbia debris, one of the sheriffs
in Texas told reporters about the danger posed by radioactive equipment
from the shuttle. NASA repeatedly warned of hazardous substances without
disclosing any specifics. Most media commentators assumed that the space
agency issued the bogus warnings to discourage souvenir collectors. Maybe
the sheriff wasn't lying.[3]
-
- Americium-242
-
- The Russians have been known to install nuclear reactors
aboard their mammoth satellites. The shuttle, however, is a lighter craft
with a human crew - not the place for a lead-lined thermonuclear chamber.
It turns out, however, that Ben-Gurion University's nuclear physics department
has produced an exotic type of fissionable fuel called americium-242.[4]
According to a university news release, americium-242 "requires only
1 percent of the mass of uranium or plutonium to reach its critical state.
It was found that this fuel could sustain fission in the form of extremely
thin films of these elements, less than a thousandth of a millimeter thick.
In this form, the exceedingly high-energy, high-temperature fission products
can escape the fuel elements and be used for propulsion in space - either
by heating a gas for propulsion, or by fueling a special generator that
produces electricity."[5]
-
- Searching for these radioactive wafers across the state
of Texas goes one better than the proverbial needle in the haystack.
-
- NASA is reportedly considering nuclear-fueled spacecraft
for future missions, since an americium-242 engine is expected to 10 times
faster than current rocket technology.[6] A more immediate application
of this exotic nuclear fuel is to provide the kick for space-based weapons,
including laser cannons and electromagnetic pulse weapons. (Not by coincidence
perhaps, Ilan Ramon and Commander William McCool were both specialists
in electromagnetic warfare.)[7]
-
- Space weaponry mounted on orbiting platforms, however,
is illegal under several United Nations treaties; international law is
the major obstacle to their deployment. Therefore, the anti-missile missiles
developed by the U.S. and Israeli militaries serve as a convenient ploy
to sell the National Missile Defense program to a technology-illiterate
public. The Arrow and Patriot series are hopelessly clumsy ground-based
technologies.
-
- How then can the Bush and Sharon administrations win
public support for space-based weapons? A cynical solution is to make martyrs
of an Israeli-American space shuttle crew. Show them to be victims of outmoded
technology and, more important, obsolete thinking in NASA and in Congress
about keeping space free of nuclear power and potential war-making technologies.
Is it conceivable that an American president would deliberately sabotage
the Columbia? If his agenda is to affect a shift of NASA from a hybrid
civilian-military space agency to an arm of the Pentagon's ballistic missile
defense program, then no sacrifice could be too great - especially if Ilan
Ramon's telescope had failed to detect any smoking guns over Iraq. As for
the Israeli leader, it must be recalled that the Likud movement is built
on the cult of martyrdom - from ancient Masada and the Warsaw ghetto to
the Irgun fighters killed in fratricidal violence by Haganah militiamen
at the birth of Israel, from Yonathan Netanyahu's demise in Entebbe to
- now - the death of Colonel Ilan Ramon, nonchalant bomber of Iraq's nuclear
plant repackaged as a hero of science.
-
- An Experiment Gone Awry?
-
- Undoubtedly, the official investigation will determine
the Columbia disaster was not an accident by design. Blue-ribbon committees
will piously give their independent endorsements, even if martyrs were
made to order. Instead of jumping to conspiracy theories, even a harsh
critic of NMD must admit that the Columbia disaster could have been an
accident - though not one caused by loose tiles but by an experiment gone
awry.
-
- Ilan Ramon's telescope was "multi-spectral."
This is an interesting word because it could refer to either the electromagnetic
spectrum or ghostly apparitions. Taking a cue from Derrida's "Specters,"
the mission may have been haunted, though not in the way those of apocalyptic
mindset have linked the Columbia's destruction to the over-flight town
of Palestine, Texas.
-
- Naomi Elliman, in her article "Israel in Space"
posted on the Israeli Ministry of Finance website, disclosed "Ramon
also investigated sprites."[8] Sprites and Ramon! His was a fascination
resembling Nabokov's obsession with butterflies. Sprites, like butterflies,
fly but they are traditionally classified as UFOs or as avenging angels.
These spectral lights composed of ionized plasma (gas atoms stripped of
electrons) are, Elliman explains, "rare forms of lightning that occur
above thunderstorms at heights of up to 90 kilometers," or 55 miles
above sea level.
-
- As Columbia swung down to 36 miles altitude, an amateur
astronomer in California snapped five shots of the descending shuttle with
his Nikon. The photographs, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, showed
a mysterious orange aura tinged with purple hovering over the ship's left
wing.[9] Was this phantom-flame merely a trick of light or was it the luminous
sprite that pilot Ilan Ramon had been chasing for years?
-
- If Ramon had switched on his multi-spectral cameras -
probably with childlike delight - as Columbia traversed the Pacific, he
did not foresee the fatal consequences. The negative charge of the high-energy
electron pulse from the americium-242 would attract the positive charge
of the gas plasma generated by sprites (lighting is positive in the upper
elevations). The strange attraction - half natural, half artificial - would
have been as powerful as a Star Trek traction beam reeling in a Klingon
interceptor.
-
- A lightning burst would account for the sudden surge
in temperature, the immediate shutdown of heat sensors and communications
systems (why the ghostly "last words" were never transmitted
to NASA monitors), and for the tumbling that sent Columbia, a flaming chariot
of the heavens, to her doom.
-
- Notes
- 1. Does the ME in MEIDEX stand for Mediterranean? According
to the Israel Space Agency: "In 1999, ISA and NASA established in
Israel the 'Middle East Interactive Data Archive (ISA-MEIDA)' in order
to create and maintain an Earth observing data center."
- 2. Gordon Thomas, Ireland-based intelligence expert.
-
- 3. Comments by Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss
on the threat of radioactive cargo aboard the Columbia were reported on
CNBC-TV on Feb. 3 and later on PBS.
-
- 4. Americium-242m or 242Amm: Americium is used in chemical-weapons
detectors and superconducters. The Americium-242m isotope is described
in: SpaceDaily 2001.01.06. Journal: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in
Physics Research No.455 pp. 442-451 December 2000 Yigal Ronen & Eugene
Shwagerous
-
- 5. Ben-Gurion University (2001): "Space vehicles
are about to receive a very large (and quite literal) boost from Israeli
research, according to scientists at Ben-Gurion University. They have shown
that a new type of nuclear fuel could cut the travel time from Earth to
Mars from 10 months to only two weeks. 'It has long been known that the
less the nuclear reactor which powers a space vehicle weighs, the more
efficient space travel is,' says Prof. Yigal Ronen, of the university's
Department of Nuclear Engineering. To meet the challenge of a light nuclear
reactor, Ronen examined one element of reactor design - the fuel. The study
focused on the nuclear fission fuel americium-242m, which requires only
one percent of the mass of uranium or plutonium to reach its critical state.
It was found that this fuel could sustain fission in the form of extremely
thin films of these elements, less than a thousandth of a millimeter thick.
In this form, the exceedingly high-energy, high-temperature fission products
can escape the fuel elements and be used for propulsion in space - either
by heating a gas for propulsion, or by fueling a special generator that
produces electricity. There are still many hurdles to overcome before americium-242m
can be used in space - examining reactor design, refueling, heat removal
and safety provisions for manned vehicles - as well as the high cost of
its manufacture. Americium-242m is already available in small quantities,
and Ronen believes that the fuel will eventually be used for space travel."
-
- 6. NASA Nuclear-powered space vehicles: Los Angeles Times,
2002.01.17 article by Peter Pae "NASA 2004 budget to include funding
for Nuclear Space Initiative" Also known as "Project Prometheus".
-
- 7. Electromagnetic warfare: Ilan Ramon was part of the
8-jet squadron that attacked the Iraqi nuclear power plant in 1981. His
mission was to deceive the Iraqi radar by sending a false signal that made
the jets appear to be a single commercial airliner.
- Cmdr. William McCool (US Navy commander) trained on and
flew Prowler electromagnetic warfare tactical aircraft at Whitbey Naval
Station in Washington State.
-
- NOTE: Kalpana Chawla (the
Indian-American woman) was the only non-military crew member of the Columbia,
but she was a defense-technology researcher.
-
- NASA: EDUCATION: Graduated
from Tagore School, Karnal, India, in 1976. Bachelor of science degree
in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College, India, 1982.
Master of science degree in aerospace engineering from University of Texas,
1984. Doctorate of philosophy in aerospace engineering from University
of Colorado, 1988.
-
- EXPERIENCE: In 1988, Kalpana
Chawla started work at NASA Ames Research Center in the area of powered-lift
computational fluid dynamics. Her research concentrated on simulation of
complex airflows encountered around aircraft such as the Harrier (vertical
takeoff assault jet) in "ground-effect." Following completion
of this project she supported research in mapping of flow solvers to parallel
computers, and testing of these solvers by carrying out powered lift computations.
In 1993 Kalpana Chawla joined Overset Methods Inc., Los Altos, California,
as Vice President and Research Scientist to form a team with other researchers
specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems. She was responsible
for development and implementation of efficient techniques to perform aerodynamic
optimization.
-
- 8. Sprites: Ilan Ramon's interest in sprites indicates
that he may have been part of the Israeli Air Force team specializing in
chasing UFOs.
-
- 9. San Francisco Chronicle 2003.2.2 David Perlman "Photos
show odd images near shuttle"
-
- [Secret Search Note: Encryption can be done with
SOFTWARE. No need for a special piece of black hardware. They are looking
for something else.]
-
-
- Yahoo! News - Secret Shuttle Part Sought in
Texas
- Secret Shuttle Part Sought in Texas Search
- Thu Feb 6, 4:00 PM ET Top Stories - Reuters
- By Rick Wilking
- BRONSON, Texas (Reuters)
- Hundreds of National Guardsmen, federal agents, state troopers and volunteers
closely searched this tiny Texas town on Thursday, looking for what was
believed to be a top-secret device that fell from the shuttle Columbia
when the spacecraft broke apart last week.
-
- They formed long lines to walk through block-by-block
and used machetes to hack their way through the thick woods that envelope
the town, which is near the Texas-Louisiana border, 125 miles northeast
of Houston.
-
- The shuttle fell in thousands of pieces on Saturday,
killing the seven astronauts on board. NASA is trying to recover shuttle
parts from Louisiana to California in hopes of understanding why the disaster
occurred.
-
- Written instructions given to the searchers in Bronson
showed a picture of a faceplate from the device, which in white letters
on a black background spelled out "Secret Government Property."
-
- People involved in the search told Reuters they had not
been told what the device was, but said that they had found lots of shuttle
debris in Bronson, including a high number of circuit boards and other
electronic items.
-
- A report in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday said searchers
were looking for a communications device that handled encrypted messages
between the shuttle and the ground.
-
- It said the device was in a government "telecommunications
security" category that normally allowed handling only under the tightest
of restrictions.
-
- Texas state troopers stood guard over the operation and
told photographers to keep their distance. They said they would be asked
to leave the area if searchers found something they did not want photographed.
-
- Nacogdoches County Sheriff Thomas Kerss, asked about
the item at a Thursday news conference in nearby Nacogdoches, would only
say that he was aware of the search for it.
-
- Searchers were hampered on Thursday by a cold, heavy
rain that turned the east Texas forest into a muddy bog.
-
- They said there was an urgency about the hunt for parts
because the area was prone to flooding.
-
- Yoichi Clark Shimatsu is a Hong Kong-based journalist
and former general editor of
- The Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo. His email address is
yshimatsu@yahoo.com.
-
- from The Laissez Faire Electronic Times, Vol 2, No 7,
February 17, 2003
- Editor - Emile Zola Publisher
- Digital Monetary Trust
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