Men fear machine ‘trapping human souls,’ arrested after planning attack on HAARP facility

Two Georgia men planned to attack the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, facility in Gakona, Alaska.

Michael Mancil, 30, and James Kenneth Dryden, 21, both of Douglas, Georgia, were arrested Thursday night, the Douglas Enterprise reported.

They were loading weapons, including assault rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, bullet proof vests, radio communications equipment and $5,000 cash into a vehicle.

The men could face federal charges.

Mancil told police the plan was to travel to Alaska, hijack guards at HAARP and blow up a machine there that was “trapping human souls.”

Mancil already was being investigated in connection with dealing drugs, Coffee County Sherriff Doyle Wooten told the Douglas Enterprise.

Mancil appeared to radicalize in recent weeks after watching online videos about HAARP, Wooten said.

The HAARP facility consists of a powerful radio transmitter and a field of large antennas.

Built by the military for ionospheric research, it has long been the subject of conspiracy theories ranging from weather manipulation to mind control.

The $300 million facility was transferred from the Air Force to the University of Alaska Fairbanks last year, and Geophysical Institute public information officer Sue Mitchell said the school was notified about the threat on Monday.

”And we’ve talked to them and we are investigating the whole situation,” Mitchell said. “We have security in place at HAARP and have had so we don’t think that these guys would’ve been able to make it through the Canadian border with the weapons that they had, but of course we’re paying a lot of attention and we’re concerned.”

The university is trying to dispel conspiracy theories that have proliferated since the 1990s, when the Navy and then Air Force first constructed the facility, Mitchell said.

”Try to explain to people what is is actually capable of which is some very interesting science,” she said. “Studying the aurora and studying ways that the ionosphere affects communication satellites and other things. So we plan to we plan to use the facility for real, good basic science.”

The university held an open house at HAARP in August that was attended by 350 people.

Mitchell said the university is negotiating with three potential contractors for grant-funded research at the facility that could begin as soon as February.

KUAC - Fairbanks

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