Jim Fetzer (READER WEEKLY 20 February 2003, pp. 16-17)
A recent Reader (16 January 2003, p. 4) included a letter to me from
John Ongaro, who described an unusual experience he had en route
to the funeral that Paul Wellstone had planned to attend when his
plane crashed, taking not only his life but the life of his wife, six of
his aides, and two pilots. The plane was highly reliable, the weather
was not a problem, and the pilots appear to have been well-qualified.
John's description of the weather (neither sunny and warm, but with
no freezing rain or snow, but generally cloudy, just above freezing,
and hazy with little or no wind), coincides extremely closely with the
depictions and photographs given by Steve Filipovitch and printed
in the Reader (2 January 2003, front cover and pp. 16-18). There is
no basis for early reports that freezing rain was a contributing factor,
as an earlier column has explained (28 November 2002, pp. 18-19).
These circumstances force us to take seriously possibilities we might
prefer not to confront on moral, political, or personal grounds. If the
more obvious hypotheses, such as mechanical problems, pilot errors,
and bad weather, cannot account for the evidence, then other, more
sinister, hypotheses require consideration, such as that the crash may
have been caused by a small bomb, a gas canister, or EMP weaponry.
Electro-magnetic pulse weaponry may initially sound exotic, but there
are reasons to take it seriously. Ongaro wrote to explain exactly what
what had happened to him. "Just a few minutes prior to reaching the
Hwy #53 and #37 intersection [which is within a mile or two of the
airport], I distinctly remember receiving a call on my cell phone.
Although I have received calls on my cell phone before that have
had bad reception and [have been] barely audible, this call was in a
league of its own.
"When I answered it, what I heard sounded like a cross between a
roar and a loud humming noise. The noise seemed to be oscillating
and I could not make out any words being spoken. Instead, just this
loud, grotesque, sometimes screeching and humming noise. . . .
[John has confirmed that he received an incoming call at 10:18 AM on the
morning of 25 October 2002, shortly before the crash.] Could an EMP
type event cause this to happen to a cell phone within in a few miles
of the immediate area?" Indeed, the answer appears to be, "Yes".
As Major Scott Merkle explained in an issue of Military Intelligence
(http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/tradoc/usaic/mipb/1997-
1/merkle.htm) published in 1997, the existence of these "Goldeneye
-like pulse weapons first became a reality in the early 1960s. While
testing hydrogen bombs in outer space, hundreds of miles above the
planet, American and Soviet scientists discovered that each atomic
blast created a pulse of electromagnetic energy similar to conventional
radio-made microwaves, but with energy so great that they erased
magnetic memories and melted the microscopic junctions in transistors
on the Earth below." This lead to a surge in military development of
their use as sophisticated electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry.
Indeed, another instance that may exemplify the use of EMP on a
civilian target occurred about 30 miles northeast of Nashville on
6 July 2001 at 10:45 AM CST, where a mysterious power surge
killed dozens of birds and damaged transmitters, phone lines,
and computer equipment at country music radio station, WJFK
(1090 AM). The residents of Williamson County were shaken
by this occurrence, which had effects that were experienced over
a large part of the county. Their disturbing accounts have been
chronicled at http://www.greatdreams.com/1090wjkm.htm.
More recently, Paul McGeough of The Sydney Morning Herald (4
January 2003) of Sydney, Australia, has confirmed reports that
the United States has new high-tech weapons to unleash against
the Iraqis in order to save American lives. "If the fighting starts
in Iraq, Saddam Hussein and his forces will be instant guinea pigs
for a new generation of US weapons which may be used for the
first time in all-out war. . . .
"In the years since the last Gulf War it has emerged that America’s
so-called smart bombs were not as precise or as plenty as the world
had been led to believe. This time the US and its weaponry have to
be smarter--if Washington wants world acceptance of its role in
Iraq during and after a war, it cannot afford to trash the country
and its civilian infrastructure as it did last time.
"Which is where a new suite of US weapons will come into their own.
These are high-powered microwave devices, 'directed energy'
weapons that the US hopes can be used to render a fleet of army
vehicles useless by destroying their ignition or fuel systems. They
will also cause disorientating pain--but apparently no lasting
damage--by playing with nerve-ends in the enemy’s skin (http://
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/03/1041566227384.html).
EMP weapons for military use appear to have been operational at
least since 1997: "On 15 December 1997 Raytheon TI Systems
(formerly Texas Instruments Defense Systems & Electronics)
announced that its AGM-154A JSOW [which is a nonnuclear EMP
weapon] has been recommended by the Navy for fleet release. In a
report released on October 9th, the Navy's Operational Test and
Evaluation Force found JSOW to be operationally effective,
operationally suitable and recommended it for fleet release"(http://
www.deepspace4.com/pages/science/emp/empwarheads.htm).
A Lt. General's Congressional testimony on 17 June 1997 also affirms
the adaptability of such devices to take out aircraft: "These weapons
can interfere with the takeoff and landing of planes. They can bring
an airplane down. . . . They can effect the national power grid,
anything that has got an electronic chip in it, a circuit board, any
piece of electronic gear that is touched by one of these weapons.
And, they come either as narrow beam over long distances, or
ultra-high beam, ultra-wide beam, ultra-wide beam weapons
that can project greater rates of power(http://sun.soci.niu.edu/
~crypt/other/schweit.htm).
Even TIME magazine's web site has reported on their availability:
America's Ultra-Secret Weapon
By MARK THOMPSON
Posted Sunday, 19 January 2003; 10:31 AM EST
"If there's a second Gulf War, get ready to meet the high-power
microwave. HPMs are man-made lightning bolts crammed into
cruise missiles. . . . HPMs fry the sophisticated computers and
electronic gear necessary to produce, protect, store and deliver
such agents. The powerful electromagnetic pulses can travel into
deeply buried bunkers.
"The HPM is a top-secret program, and the Pentagon wants to keep
it that way. Senior military officials have dropped hints about a
new, classified weapon for Iraq but won't provide details. Still,
information about HPMs, first successfully tested in 1999, has
trickled out. 'High-power microwave technology is ready for the
transition to active weapons in the US military,' Air Force Colonel
Eileen Walling wrote in a rare, unclassified report on the program
three years ago. 'There are signs that microwave weapons will
represent a revolutionary concept for warfare, principally because
microwaves are designed to incapacitate equipment rather than
humans.'
(http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030127/nmicro.html).
It may not remain "top secret" for long. Even The New York Times
(2 February 2003) has reported that the war with Iraq is going to
be fought using these sophisticated weapons, almost in passing as
an aside: "Although some experimental weapons are expected to
be used--including high powered-microwave weapons that could
flash millions of watts of electricity to cripple Iraqi computer and
equipment--the air campaign would shut down but not destroy
important city services, like water and electricity, so they could
more easily be restarted to minimized public health problems."
Phil Ratte´ has drawn thoughtful comparisons with the Carnahan
crash, raising many questions about the similarities between the
events, including that they were both on final landing approach
when they veered off and dove into the ground; that both had loss
of communication coincident upon the loss of control; that both
could be explained by the use of EMP weaponry; that their Senate
seats were crucial to Republican control; and that Carol Carmody,
a former employee of the CIA, led both NTSB investigations. (The
use of EMP in the Carnahan case may even have been captured by
radar weather maps. See "Carnahan Crash EMP?" and related links
at http://www.assassinationscience.com.)
Ratte´ believes--and I agree--that both tragedies deserve further
scrutiny and objective investigation by authorities not controlled
by the US government. "Political insiders know that a number of
US Congressmen and US Senators suspect that both Wellstone and
Carnahan were assassinated but are afraid to speak out", Ratte´
remarks. "They are afraid for their lives because of the anthrax
attacks on two Democratic US Senators [Tom Daschel and Patrick
Leahy] and the assassination of two more Democratic US Senators.
As FDR remarked, 'There are no coincidences in politics.'"
It should also be observed that Senator Wellstone had experienced
two close calls during visits to South America in recent years. On a
fact-finding trip to Columbia, Wellstone was doused with herbicide
while he was observing a Columbian National Police demonstration.
According toWeekly News Update on the Americas, which reported
it, "Wellstone and other members of his delegation were hit with a
fine spray of the herbicide glyphosate from a helicopter flying less
than 200 feet above them.
"Just before the incident, Lt. Col. Marcos Pederos, the police official
in charge of the spraying mission, had assured Wellstone the spray
posed no risk to humans, animals or the environment." That seems
to be false. Glyphosate has causal links to acrylamide, which turns
out to be a potent nerve toxin in humans that can bring about the
translocation of mercury toxins stored in the fat cells of the body
to cross the blood-brain barrier and poison brain cells, according to
a recent medical report(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/acrylamide.php).
And it is ridiculous on its face to suppose that a herbicide strong
enough to destroy coca fields should have no ill-effects. Ironically,
the US Embassy in Colombia had just circulated materials to reporters,
noting the 'precise geographical coordinates' used to spray coca fields.
According to embassy officials, a computer program sets precise flight
lines with a 170-foot width, leaving little room for error"(http://www.
americas.org/news/nir/20001210_herbicide_douses_u_s_senator.asp).
As though one close call were not remarkable enough, bombs were
found at crucial locations as Senator Wellstone continued his visit to
the small town of Barrancabermeja. Although American authorities
denied that the Senator or the US Ambassador to Colombia, Anne
Patterson, who accompanied him, were targeted for assassination,
suggesting it was merely a "coincidence", Police Colonel José
Miguel
Villar said Wellstone and Patterson were the most likely targets.
According to ABCNews.com, which reported the story, "Villar said
two shrapnel-wrapped land mines were found on Thursday hours
before the US officials flew into Barrancabermeja alongside the road
leading from the airport to the town. The land mines each carried a
6.6-pound explosive charge, were attached to cables and a detonator
and were ready to be set off, 'If the bomb had gone off, it could have
caused immense damage,' Villar said. 'It would have spread shrapnel
over a wide area and could have taken out 10 or 15 people'" (http://
abcnews.go.com/sections.world/Daily News/columbia001201.html).
Wellstone, displaying his knack for standing up to political pressure,
was one of a handful of senators opposing a $1.3 billion US aid plan
ostensibly directed against drug trading in Columbia and said he
would insist that Colombia get no more US aid until it improved
its human rights record. Ratte´ has observed that the herbicide,
through its links with acrylamide, might have induced Wellstone's
MS. Mercury poisoning appears to have MS, Parkinson's, and ALS
among its effects. Maybe they had killed him, just not fast enough.
__________________________
Jim Fetzer, a professor of philosophy at UMD, has become convinced
by his investigations that Paul Wellstone was taken out for political
reasons and that his death thus properly qualifies as an assassination.