Pinon Canyon Conspiracy Theories

I've never been one to ignore a good conspiracy theory. Faced with a choice between covert agendas and official government explanations, the conspiracy theories tend, on average to be more credible. In the case of Pinon Canyon, Army documents have surfaced, through leaks, court orders and freedom of information act requests, revealing plans to acquire 6.9 million acres to turn Southeastern Colorado into the largest military training range in the world. The plan would turn the entire corner of the state, all the way to the Kansas and Oklahoma borders into a vast, depopulated, live-fire zone. For those of us with suspicious minds, the question of what the real, secret purpose of Pinon Canyon might be, have provided plenty of fodder since the early 80s.Back then it was broadly suspected that the creation of Pinon Canyon had something to do with a helium dome which is (coincidentally?) located smack dab in the middle of the maneuver site. Helium domes are rare geological formations. There's only one other helium dome in the U.S., the Bush Dome which is the National Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas.Helium domes have been discussed in scientific documents as promising sites for the storage of radioactive waste. It is logical that if the formations are capable of holding a lighter-than-air gas they could also be used to seal nuclear waste off from the outside world.Just before the Army started condemning land and evicting ranchers to create the original Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, two different companies came to Las Animas County with proposals to tap into the helium dome in order to create an underground chamber for the storage of nuclear waste. Public outrage resulted in the recall of a county commissioner who had met with representatives of the nuclear waste companies and put those proposals to rest.And after the Army acquired the land there were suspicious cattle mutilations and black helicopter sitings. The theory at the time was that tissue samples were being surgically removed from the cattle in the dark of night, in order to measure radiation levels. And when then-governor, Roy Romer was pressured by the federal government to remove nuclear waste from Rocky Flats, a decommissioned nuclear weapons production plant outside of Denver, he proposed moving it to Pinon Canyon.As recently as last year soil samples were covertly gathered and removed from the site. The samples were tested and found to contain unusually high concentrations of uranium. There have been other conspiracy theories over the years. I've heard about plans for secret underground facilities, missile defense installations, and experimentation with high frequency radio waves designed to control everything from the weather to human behavior.Officially, the Army says that it need more land to conduct tank training. Few seasoned conspiracy theorists are buying that simple explanation. After all, Pinon Canyon is already larger than many other bases where similar training takes place. But there's one remaining theory which is my current favorite; that the Pentagon wants a huge mock battlefield for testing and training with a new generation of high-tech, robotic weapons. Air Force officials speak openly and proudly of a future arsenal of weapons like the Predator and Reaper, unmanned aircraft that can be controlled from thousands of miles away by a new generation of "pilots" who vaporize the enemy by zapping icons on computer screen. According to a recent Colorado Springs Gazette article the Air Force Academy is already using Fort Carson's training lands to teach Academy cadets how to "pilot" these unmanned aircraft. http://www.gazette.com/articles/world-61900-half-controlled.htmlThere is also a whole new generation of unmanned ground vehicles; robots that will become the Army's future soldiers. In fact, The 2001 Senate defense authorization bill mandates that one third of the operational ground combat vehicles of the armed forces will be unmanned by 2015. The Army recently sponsored a "Robotics Rodeo," an event at which military contractors showcased their unmanned ground vehicles. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10339238-42.htmlThe official Army documents which have come to light argue that training ranges must be expanded to accommodate the ever-increasing range and lethality of modern weapons-systems. It really doesn't take a paranoid, conspiracy nut to see that the Army doesn't want to gobble up all of Southeastern Colorado for old-fashioned tank training. It's something more than that. Okay, so future weapons will be unmanned aircraft and robotic land vehicles, coordinated over great distances through networked satellite communications. But why does the Pentagon want to take almost 7 million acres in Southeastern Colorado? Why can't they test these new weapons on existing federal lands? After all, the feds already own 70% of the Western U.S. The Pentagon alone owns 25 million acres of it.They Army will tell you that it's to save money; that it costs too much to move troops to existing huge ranges at Fort Bliss in Texas, or to Dugway in Utah. The Chamber of Commerce in Colorado Springs will tell you that it's about the survival of Fort Carson and the economic viability of their city. I don't buy either argument. Troops are moved all over the place all the time for all sorts of reasons, including training. And Fort Carson is one of the Army's premiere bases. It's not going anywhere. It's not about the troops or forts or the even the Army. It's about defense contractors.That's why politicians like Representatives Lamborn and Coffman are fighting so hard for the expansion. They represent districts in which corporations like Raytheon and Boeing and Lockheed are involved with satellites and communications and robotics. These weapons-makers want a convenient place to develop and train troops with their products. That's the conspiracy. Military contractors are the ones who are really pulling the political and military strings behind the scheme to expand Pinon Canyon.

Follow the Pinon Canyon Money

"Follow the money", they say. That's not hard to do when it comes to the motives behind the backers of Pinon Canyon expansion. I have to give them credit for their recent honesty. Early on in the battle between landowners trying to defend their land and the Pentagon with it plan to turn their homes into mock Afghan villages, there was a lot of high-minded rhetoric about, "supporting the troops" and "military necessity." But recently expansion cheer leaders like Doug Lamborn, Scott McInnis and Mike Coffman have come down to earth; down to the bottom line. In the words of Scott McInnis, "Hell, this is about jobs!" The position of Doug Lamborn is a no-brainer. He represents Colorado Springs with Fort Carson as its primary economic engine and with 40% of the citiy's economy dependent upon the military and defense contractors, it's pretty obvious. But at first I didn't quite understand why Mike Coffman, from way up north in Aurora was weighing in so heavily on the issue. So I followed the money. I googled "defense contracts" and "Colorado." As I expected Colorado Springs is in the top position, but guess who's second. You guessed it. Aurora is not only the location of Buckley Air Force Base, but also of such military-contracting big names as Lockheed, Raytheon and Boeing. Once you've stripped away all of the phoney patriotism, the issue of expanding Pinon Canyon boils down to feeding hard-working, multi-generational ranching families to the money-hungry wolves of the military-industrial complex.

The Army's New "Good Will" Initiative on Pinon Canyon

I helped to man a booth for the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition last weekend at the Trinididdio Blues Festival. Many of the people who stopped by to grab a “No Expansion” bumper sticker or to sign our petition made the same comment, “I thought this was all over.”

To the casual observer it may appear that David has defeated Goliath; that an unlikely coalition of conservative ranchers and left-leaning peace activists have accomplished the impossible; beating back the Pentagon.

We have won some significant battles. The Colorado legislature has passed a measure, HB1317 which prohibits the sale of state lands to the Army for the purpose of expanding Pinon Canyon. And once again, Representative John Salazar has been successful in attaching a ban on spending for Pinon Canyon expansion to the 2010 military construction budget. So it’s understandable if looks like we’ve won.

But for those of us who’ve been fighting for the homes and livelihoods of ranchers in Southeastern Colorado for the past four years, dispelling the false sense that the battle is over has become our biggest challenge. As much as we’d like it to be true that we’ve succeeded in defending our land against an invasion by our own military, the unfortunate truth is that the Army recently reaffirmed that the expansion of Pinon Canyon remains a top priority.

The only reason that the Army is not actively pursuing expansion at the moment is that they can’t. They are under a spending ban imposed upon them by Congress. Instead of accepting the fact that they’ve been hamstrung for at least a year, they’re pretending that they’ve decided to hold off for a while in order to work on developing a new “good neighbor” policy.

At a recent meeting of Action-22, an organization representing the interests of Southeastern Colorado, Col. James Rice, (retired), Fort Carson’s operations officer, announced the Army’s new focus; wooing backers by investing in our local hospital and by coaching our local businesses in the art of securing contracts with the Department of the Army. He spoke of spending millions to upgrade medical services at the Trinidad hospital and of hosting seminars in Trinidad on securing government contracts. He said that the Army has decided not to move forward with expansion at this time; that all of this is being done in the interest of building up “good will” and has nothing to do with future expansion plans.

But in the meantime current Secretary of Army, Pete Geren says he’d like to, "hit the reset button." on Pinon Canyon. Geren made the point that, “the development of Pinon Canyon properly done could bring some economic development to a part of the state that is economically depressed. We see an opportunity to make a contribution in that regard.” (Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing, June 19, 2009) And at a Senate confirmation hearing, Representative John McHugh, who was recently nominated to replace Geren as Secretary was unwilling to promise Senator Mark Udall that the Army would permanently take eminent domain off the table as a means of expanding Pinon Canyon. Instead he promised that working with willing sellers would be his “first path” towards expansion. (Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing, July 30, 2009)

So, while we may have won a couple of significant skirmishes, the war between ranchers trying to defend their land and the U.S. Army and economic interests in Colorado Spring rages on.

The U.S. Military's appetite has grown completely out of control. In the name of “national security” it appears that the Department of Defense can order up its annual buffet without any need to explain or justify its feasting. With a budget of $400 billion, it far surpasses any other agency of government. Congress complains about the failure of the Defense Department to submit required accountability reports, but they are afraid to put the DOD on a diet; afraid of appearing to be “weak on defense.” The waste and abuse of the “welfare state” pales in comparison with that of the “warfare state.” According to the Inspector General the Defense Department cannot account for $1 trillion in transactions. And now, like a glutton on the prowl, the Army is drooling over the private property of American citizens.Who’d have ever thought that the excessive appetite of the U.S. Army would become a menacing threat to conservative, patriotic ranchers eking out a life on the short-grass prairies of southeastern Colorado? But that’s exactly what is happening. It’s all part of a transformation of the Army which officials at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs claim requires more training land; a lot more. Army documents indicate that they want as much 2.5 million acres, the entire southeast corner of Colorado. The plan is to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, already a huge 240,000 acre, live-fire training range, to unheard of dimensions, extending it all the way to the Kansas and Oklahoma borders. The region is attractive to the Army because it simulates some of the terrain in Afghanistan and Iraq. The problem is that this land is already occupied. Nearly 2000 ranches are located on knolls rising above the plains and hidden at the heads of the dramatic red-rock canyons that cut deep into the prairie landscape. These cattle operations are the bedrock of the economy for the little communities in this part of Colorado and they are the homes of ranching families who have lived on the land for generations, many since their ancestors homesteaded in the 1800s. For the most part these are the kind of people who instinctively obey the law, support the troops and try to do their bit to keep America strong by working hard on the land. They normally cause no more trouble than might get stirred up at a local rodeo or country-western dance. But now they are looking around the barn for a pitchfork or picket sign; anything that might be used to defend their land and livelihood against the behemoth that threatens to devour them. The Army says it needs a huge maneuver site because the warfare has changed. In the past, heavy armored, fighting machines rumbled across the prairies of Pinon Canyon, gouging broad ribbons of tracked prints across the ground. The Army sees the wars of the future will be small skirmishes across non-contiguous battlefields. It wants to train its new, high-tech soldiers to be able to reconfigure and move quickly across distances. They claim they need the ranchers' land for the sake of national security. They appeal to landowners to make a sacrifice; their land, their homes for the sake protecting America; equipping soldiers to find, fight and kill the enemies of America, wherever they might be in the world, before we have to fight them here in America, perhaps on the plains of southeastern Colorado. But the ranchers aren’t buying it. They are asking, “What about Fort Bliss and White Sands? What about Fort Irwin? What about all of that federally owned desert land in Nevada and Utah? What about the 25 million acres of land that the military already has? Why does the Army need more land; why does it need our land and our homes?” The Army says that it wants to work only with willing sellers in acquiring property to create what would be the largest training range in the world. But ranchers find little comfort in this promise. In the 1980s when the current Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site was established, about half of the land was seized through condemnation. Ranchers are fearful that the Army will again use the power of eminent domain once the willing-seller cream is skimmed off. As Sparky Turner, who was a legislative aid to Senator Hank Brown when earlier Army promises were made, said, “We were fooled once; we are not going to be fooled twice.” Back in 1983 the unwilling sellers found themselves pretty much on their own, battling to hang on to their homes. They wrote their letters and attended meetings for the procedurally required Environmental Impact Statement. But in the end they were just a handful of ranchers, forced to move off of their land by the power of the United States Army. This time things may be different. This time the Army is dealing not just with a handful of ranchers, but with a coalition of property-rights activists, conservationists, historians and peace advocates. On top of that local elected officials are not falling for the old promises that hushed them in the 80s: promises that the Army would do business with local contractors and that lost tax revenue would be made up for through payment in lieu of taxes, (PILT). Even before the Army has secured funding from Congress, a motley rebellion is amassing to resist the unquenchable appetite of the U.S. military.