Secretary of Defense (Cohen) Reveals Earthquake and Volcano Weapons

[Emillereid]

Anybody know anything about this -- I found it at the Memory Hole. Posting this just as information -- I am not suggesting that the recent earthquake was 'man-made.' Just that man's potential to do harm seems to have no limit.

I remember seeing a History Channel show on secret, black defense budget weapons. The documentary maker was a Brit who was trying to figure out what the billions in the black defense budget was buying. He interviewed one CEO of a major defense company who claimed that if we could think of the weapon, it was old school -- they were working on shit we couldn't even imagine yet -- SCARY! God only knows what the mad scientists and neo-cons will cook up for us next.

http://thememoryhole.org/mil/cohen-ecoweapons.htm

Secretary of Defense Reveals Earthquake
and Volcano Weapons


>>> This one might seem beyond belief, but we have it from none other than a sitting Secretary of Defense. In April 1997, then-Defense Secretary William Cohen was speaking at a terrorism conference at the University of Georgia. After some introductory remarks about the conference, Cohen takes questions from the media in attendance. A reporter asks a question based on the fake anthrax letters that had recently been sent to B'nai Brith. Cohen gives a strange answer, using the occasion to mention the exotic weapons being developed by terrorists (as well as--one would assume--governments).


Here's the exchange, taken verbatim from the transcript posted on the Defense Department's Website:


Q: Let me ask you specifically about last week's scare here in Washington, and what we might have learned from how prepared we are to deal with that (inaudible), at B'nai Brith.


A: Well, it points out the nature of the threat. It turned out to be a false threat under the circumstances. But as we've learned in the intelligence community, we had something called -- and we have James Woolsey here to perhaps even address this question about phantom moles. The mere fear that there is a mole within an agency can set off a chain reaction and a hunt for that particular mole which can paralyze the agency for weeks and months and years even, in a search. The same thing is true about just the false scare of a threat of using some kind of a chemical weapon or a biological one. There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco- type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.


So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that's why this is so important.

The entire transcript can be accessed at the Defense Department's Website http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/1997/t042897_t0428coh.html.

[NAO]

1. There's an ongoing discussion of Cohen's comments at this DU thread

Sec. of Defense William Cohen on man made earthquakes at thememoryhole.org
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2898280&mesg_id=2898280

[whistle]

2. Just go to this site and decide how likely such an event...

...can happen naturally, a magnitude 9.0 is unprecedented:

<link> http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav.html

Sorry, I missed this display in that site. This was one of five quakes that have been 9.0 or higher:

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/10maps_world.html

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. self-delete

i really should read before mouthing off :)

[democracyindanger]

4. Don't bother

There are those who are determined to believe in Santa Claus, and there's nothing you can say to convince them otherwise.

On edit: I think I replied to the wrong post.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. to reiterate...

...what has been said many, many times on DU over the past week, there is absolutely nothing unprecedented, unusual, strange, or unforseeable about a 9.0 earthquake happening on this type of fault. It is, in fact, the norm for this kind of fault.

[whistle]

6. I don't know about that, there have been only five 9.0 or higher...

...earthquakes on record. Exactly what kind of fault are you referring to? They must not be that common.

[shance]

7. I found this in the articles forum and found it interesting.

http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva12302004.html


Q: What are some other disturbances that can cause tsunamis?

A: Landslides or explosions such as underwater nuclear testing.

Q: Is underwater nuclear testing common?

A: Yes, The United States has conducted 1,054 tests of nuclear devices between July 16, 1945 and September 23, 1992. Before 1962, all the tests were atmospheric (on land or in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans) but overall the majority - 839 - were underground tests. From 1966 to 1990, 167 French nuclear test explosions have been performed on two atolls in French Polynesia, Morurua and Fangataua. Of the 167 tests, 44 were atmospheric. Atmospheric explosions were carried out until 1974, but only underground tests after that. The underground tests have been conducted at the bottom of shafts bored 500-1200 meters into the basalt core of the atoll. Initially these shafts were drilled in the outer rim of the atoll. In 1981, most likely due to the weakening of that rim, the tests with higher yields were shifted to shafts drilled under the lagoon itself.

Q: What are the effects of underwater nuclear testing?

A: To quote from a 1995 case brought against the French government, Case T-219/95 R, by Marie-Thérèse Danielsson, Pierre Largenteau and Edwin Haoa, all residing in Tahiti, French Polynesia: "Short-term effects include geological damage and the venting of gaseous and volatile fission products into the biosphere. Nuclear tests, the applicants say, can cause landslides and did indeed cause a major underwater landslide at Mururoa in 1979, when a nuclear device was exploded after jamming half-way down its shaft. Since the geology of Mururoa is already unstable due to large-scale fracturing caused by previous tests, further major landslides are likely. Such landslides in the past have given rise to tsunamis causing coastal damage in areas as far away as Pitcairn and Tahiti and endangering residences such as that of Ms. Danielsson. They can also release radioactive material into the sea, with catastrophic effects on the food chain in an area such as French Polynesia where fish is an important part of the diet.

snip

Q: Is it possible for a nuclear explosion to have triggered the Macquarie quake in some way and indirectly caused the changes that led to the Sumatra quake and the Asian tsunami?

A: It is possible that a very large explosion might have triggered the first quake directly in some way or that repeated prior testing could have induced changes that led to the quake indirectly, but research on the fall-out of nuclear testing is so highly classified that little is known of the possible impact. The U.S. has not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, leaving the door open to future U.S. testing despite an extended moratorium. There has already been a strong move toward resumption of testing since 2002. Now earth-penetrating nukes (bunker busters) and mini-nukes might provide the pretext.

[whistle]

8. Uhmmm, we reap what we sow!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

11. I'm not going to counter this stupid article again.

The person interviewed is a musician with no formal training in earth science. This article has already been refuted SEVERAL TIMES by people who are quite a bit more eloquent and well-versed in geology than I am. It isn't possible for a nuclear explosion to have triggered this quake. Period. I ask you, please, find the word of one single earth scientist who supports this view.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. There have been five KNOWN 9.0 quakes in the 20th century.

Records before that are extremely sketchy, and in part must be inferred from the geologic record (from which it's basically impossible to determine magnitude.)

However, we have ample evidence of ocean-wide tsunami in the geologic record. We have historical documents that very strongly suggest that massive plate-rupturing quakes occur on subduction margins with regular frequency. The frequency of these events is only low with respect to a given human lifetime. Yes, they are rare in that respect, but they do happen. They have always happened for as long as ocean crust has subducted. They will continue to happen for the indefinite future.

[corbett]

9. A View To A Kill

This type of story arc played a key role in the final James Bond film starring Roger Moore, "A View To A Kill." It's simply physics, even for someone like me who slept through physics.