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There is an interesting new content area in America Online called "Parascope." (keyword: parascope). Great graphics and interesting articles. There's also a webpage, http://www.parascope.com. Check it out. Here's a sample article. The sections are Matrix (politics, conspiracies, etc), Nebula (UFOs etc), Enigma (paranormal), and Dossier (documentation and FOIA). *********************************************************** Routine training, or New World Order strike force? By Patricia Neill Special Assignments Team (PSCP Wanda@aol.com) "Helicopters. Soldiers. Gunfire. Explosions." No, it's not the latest news from war-torn Bosnia. According to a June 5th article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Pittsburgh residents recently got a good taste of urban warfare during military exercises in their city. Nine helicopters, six OH6 scouts and three MH-60 Black Hawks flew in low, dropping two hundred soldiers into the streets who fired blanks and set off explosions that were powerful enough to blast in doors. This startling military exercise was carried out by forces from the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Campbell, Kentucky. This "routine training," a "simulated rescue operation," was conducted in the areas of McKeesport, the Strip District, and Brighton Heights, according to the Gazette. Shocked Pittsburgh citizens complained bitterly to the mayor, the city council, 911 operators, and the media. Lt. Col. Ken McGraw, with the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, told the Gazette that "he'd never encountered a more negative public reaction than yesterday's in Pittsburgh." One city council member criticized the exercises, asking who would be liable if one of the helicopters had crashed, "killing or injuring people or damaging property"? Another very real scenario: what if a citizen who has not been notified of the exercise, as most are not, thinks the city is actually under attack by a hostile force and starts shooting at the soldiers descending from the helicopters? These "urban environment" exercises have been conducted around the nation in recent years, in cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas, to name a few. "In the Chicago suburbs of Des Plaines, Lemont, and Homer, where the Army held similar exercises a year ago, the low-flying helicopters and explosions sent residents running into the streets," the Gazette reported. "One man told a reporter that 'it was the most frightened I've ever been in my life.' Another said he thought a nearby quarry was being blasted. A third wondered whether a local refinery had gone up in flames." The rationale given by Special Operations Forces is the need for training. "Our soldiers train in virtually every environment -- mountains, desert, arctic, jungle -- and because of the increasing urbanization of the world, there are times we need to train in urban areas," McGraw said. "This was standard, prearranged training. This was not training for some type of contingency or for anything [specific]," McGraw told the Gazette. While some military installations can accommodate such training, "They can't replicate exactly what it's like to fly over an urban area at night, using night-vision devices and trying to find very specific locations on the ground in an area you're totally unfamiliar with," McGraw said. The Twentynine Palms Questionnaire Training? Perhaps. But for what? A survey given to U.S. Marines at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base in California may offer some disturbing clues. Issued on May 19, 1994, the survey asked, among other things: "The U.S. government declares a ban on the possession, sale, transportation, and transfer of all non-sporting firearms. A thirty (30) day amnesty period is permitted for these firearms to be turned over to the local authorities. At the end of this period, a number of citizen groups refuse to turn over their firearms. Consider the following statement: I would fire upon U.S.