Why Jesse Ventura is Talking About Super-Secret HAARP7

By Kimberly Trew, Jun 09, 2011 in Pop Culture

Why Jesse “The Body” Ventura is Talking About Super-Secret HAARP

Professional wrestler. Governor. Actor. Host. Commentator. Taking a look at Jesse Ventura’s extensive and eccentric resume can prove exhausting. What HASN’T this man done?!? Combining the swagger of his former competitor Hulk Hogan and the transformative properties of Cher, Ventura has taken on our world with gusto, which makes his latest incarnation as a conspiracy theorist all the more compelling and believable.

In December of 2010, Ventura dedicated an entire episode of his TruTV conspiracy theory show to a government program known as HAARP. Ventura’s first guest on the show was an anti-HAARP activist who immediately launched into a lengthy, long-winded and generally boring explanation of the project, making the wildly intriguing HAARP sound as interesting as a pre-flight safety announcement. Describing it in more colorful terms would give you something close to the plot of the indie TV series Haywire, which brilliantly captures the sturm and drang of what can happen when a government experiment goes, well, haywire – citizens who see a burst of light are forced to contend with short-circuiting brains. Many conspiracy theorists believe that scenarios such as these could easily become an unfortunate reality if programs such as HAARP are permitted to continue.

Haywire – The Gardener

Which brings us back to why Jesse Ventura was harping on HAARP. What is this thing and why is Mr. Ventura so hyped up about it? During the course of Ventura’s show, his team conducted a great deal of research and actually traveled to the HAARP facility in Alaska to get more facts. HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) was founded in 1990. The shockingly low-tech website for HAARP states that its purpose is “to further advance our knowledge of the physical and electrical properties of the Earth’s ionosphere which can affect our military and civilian communication and navigation systems.” Sounds pretty reasonable.

For those of us who weren’t paying attention in eighth grade science class, the ionosphere comprises part of the upper atmosphere and is electrically charged by short wave solar radiation. It “begins” at approximately 30 miles above the Earth’s surface and stretches above for several hundred miles. Some of its functions include filtering out cosmic radiation and other potentially harmful elements.

However, Mr. Ventura is convinced that HAARP is not revealing the true purpose of their ionospheric studies. While Ventura is perhaps the most recent notable conspiracy theorist to suggest that the program is not on the up-and-up, he certainly isn’t the first. Surprisingly enough, some of the people who have voiced opposition to the project seem, well, kind of normal. This becomes evident on Ventura’s show, as some HAARP neighbors (and regular-seeming, “salt of the earth” folk) in Gakona, Alaska claim that they’ve heard rumors of mind control and people being “fried,” as in killed.

Then we have Nick Begich Jr., who is a truly fascinating conspiracy theorist. He seems quite normal and is the brother of the U.S. Senator from Alaska, Mark Begich. Nick Jr. and Mark are sons of the late U.S. Senator Nick Begich Sr., who was presumed dead in 1972 after boarding a Cessna with House Majority Leader Hale Boggs. The plane was never heard from again, and the wreckage never found, prompting many (surprise, surprise) conspiracy theories. In 1995, Nick Begich Jr. co-authored a book entitled Angels Don’t Play This HAARP.

Begich basically has devoted his life to educating the public about weather modification and protesting the HAARP project. But let’s be honest here, he HAS to explain it, otherwise no one would understand. During Mr. Ventura’s show, there were definitely times when Jesse grappled with understanding the technological aspects outlined therein. But, hey, these fancy scientist people probably couldn’t do a “Body Breaker” or an “Inverted Body Vice” if their lives depended on it. Everyone has a different skill set and this is NOT an easy conspiracy theory to grasp. Electron Gyrotron heating? Earth Penetrating Tomography Applications? Astrophysical observatories?

It’s no wonder that the prevailing conspiracy theory nowadays involves the World Bank and Illuminati. Illuminati is fun and simple. The tenets are so easy to comprehend. “These people hoard money and power and have for centuries, etc.” The Illuminati theorists were certainly wise to devise something that is simple in nature yet involves great music, great art and rich, sexy people.

Being a HAARP conspiracy theorist, on the other hand, requires effort and an ability to understand some fairly advanced scientific concepts. Nick Begich originally became aware of the HAARP project while reading a small article in an Australian journal. Being a native Alaskan, he was surprised that there had not been local chatter about the project. Why was no one in Alaska discussing the program? During a thorough investigation conducted at his local library, Begich discovered the plans for HAARP, which included a field of antennas. Not the kind of stuff that would cause alarm for most, but upon a closer inspection, the project seemed a bit more worrisome.

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According to Begich, the antennas are approximately 72 feet tall, and when fired in a specific order, they concentrate radio frequency energy to a small area in the ionosphere. Begich claims that if the ionosphere were to become compromised by a technology such as HAARP’s, it would cause havoc and “alter the genetic blueprint of the planet.” Potential ramifications could include disturbed power grids, “the biggest bolt of lightening you’ve ever seen in your life striking the Earth 40 times a second,” burnt satellites, a manipulation of human behavior throughout large geographic regions, covert warfare, as well as altered pressure systems and subsequent issues with the jet stream.

As if that’s not enough, some people believe, Ventura among them, that HAARP is a weapon, not just capable of changing weather patterns, as government sees fit, but of shooting down exceedingly high-flying, fast-moving, aircraft of any type. Some even believe that HAARP was responsible for the recent earthquake in Japan. Given that the HAARP installation in Alaska is super-secret, much like Area 51 in southern Nevada, we are left to assume that HAARP is not for us taxpayers to know anything about. We’d bet anything that HAARP was conceived by the geniuses at DARPA – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency whose mission is to prevent strategic surprise from negatively impacting U.S. national security and create strategic surprise for U.S. adversaries by maintaining the technical superiority of the U.S. military.

The future of HAARP should be interesting to see… that’s if we are ever told the truth about its true purpose. Hopefully, the government is also researching non-militaristic uses of this technology. Begich believes that some positive applications could be used to assist in replenishing the ozone layer and prevent tornadoes. The potential uses of HAARP technology are so powerful that they could even give Jesse “The Body” Ventura a run for his money. Thanks, Jesse, for playing the HAARP tune, so that no one forgets about it.

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Kimberly Trew is a writer and actress living in Los Angeles. She stars as Shoshanna in the hit webseries “Self Storage,” has a degree in Theatre from Loyola Marymount University, and was in National Lampoon’s Lost Reality. She speaks French and her favorite person is her grandmother Agnes. Kim is hopeful that an eccentric billionaire will read this blog and make her an “unlikely astronaut” – as long as it only involves pushing buttons and no math. Actually, computational math would be fine, just no algebra or calculus.