Real life X-Files: Fort Reno tower cold war remnant or secret experiment?

The Fort Reno tower in a park outside of Washington, DC has long been a standing monument to Cold War technology. However, could it be something else entirely?

“People want a villain. They want a reason; they want a cabal; they want a conspiracy.” – David Duchovny

Sucked into an X-Files Episode

While surfing the internet for writing inspiration, I stumbled upon a veritable rabbit hole. The type of Moebius Loop where once you start down a path it spirals into something else entirely. One of our writers, D.D. Crowley posted an article on the Sunspot Solar Observatory being shut down mysteriously by the FBI yesterday.

There was an interesting response to her work that resulted in me doing research into an old historical site on the outskirts of Washington, DC. What I stumbled upon was similar to The X-Files episode, Wetwired.

This is a cyberpunk term for “new neural connections being created within the brain usually through bionic implants.” Now, that we have that definition out of the way, let’s discuss the show. The plot of this particular Mulder and Scully adventure focused on subliminal mind control experiments being done on civilians by the government.

Of course, because Fox is the curious one in the duo, he gets suspicious when they are investigating a murder because he keeps on seeing the same cable repair truck over and over again in the neighborhood. Next thing you know, he finds a strange device in the cable box that the company seems to be intent on fixing.

He then takes it to the conspiracy theory kings, the Lone Gunmen who tell him that it is mind-control apparatus that is emitting some kind of signal. This transmission is interfering with the residents normal thought processes and turns their personal fears into paranoia.

And yes, the Cigarette Smoking Man is behind this covert experimentation because well, naturally. Which leads me into the information that I found out on a seemingly harmless “water tower.”

Fort Reno Park

In our nation’s capital is a beautiful respite from the hectic deluge of crowded city life called Fort Reno Park. It is located in the Tenleytown section of DC. Part of the National Park system, it also has the distinction of being the highest elevation in the District.

This was especially advantageous during the Civil War where the fort was used to keep the city safe from rebel threats. During the Cold War in the 1950’s, it was used as a “continuity” site. Basically, a contingency plan in the event the country came under attack. Then the President and government officials could maintain standard operations without everything coming to a screeching halt.

Located on the Fort Reno site is a tower which emitted microwave transmissions to cover the short distance between the undisclosed government locations. It was positioned as such so that communication between key officials could continue in the case of an emergency situation. This is how the system worked:

“The sites in the Arc key to ensuring open lines of communications were built in a network that relied upon line-of-sight microwave technology, i.e., each transmitter and receiver had to have an unobstructed line-of-sight between its nearest neighbor for the network to be viable. These microwave hops were usually no more than fifty miles apart.”

Of course, everything seems on the up and up. I used to live near Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland so this doesn’t come as a surprise to me that we would have this sort of communications system in plain sight. It makes sense that we have back up plans in place.

The Mysterious Closure

That being said, in my research I came upon some interesting information pertaining to the tower in Fort Reno park. In 2008, the area was shut down abruptly much like the Sunspot Solar Observatory. The official reason was extremely high levels of lead in the soil. But was that really the cause for the closure?

Popular Science even published the results of a study showing that Wi-Fi radiation and other forms of radio frequency emissions are killing our plant life and affecting the soil as well.

Fort Reno eventually reopened but the afflicted section remained off limits to park visitors. If the tower was just used for communication during a time of crisis why would there be soil damage to the extent of having to close the park?

Apparently, there are other usages for microwave transmissions. In an article in Shift Frequency, a former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) employee, Dr. Paul Batcho, who used to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (where the Sunspot Solar Observatory is located just 251 miles away) states the following:

“I seem to have stumbled across an advanced technology that I would classify as synthetic telepathy. Cellular towers are used to transmit illegal signals. It sounds unbelievable but it is actual technology being used on civilians of the US. My basic research does indicate that such technology can exist and dates back to the V2K (P300) mind wave technology of the 1970s. This does appear to be a much more advanced version that allows open communication of human mind to mind bridges.”

Okay. I need to stop right here because this is beginning to sound crazy and while I want to believe like Mulder, I am very much of the mindset of Scully.

I Am Skeptic, Hear Me Roar

However, Batcho is speaking of microwave technology which can be extremely harmful with increased exposure. Before we throw our cell phones away, most of the radio frequency radiation emitted from these devices is not the kind to cause irrevocable damage to bodies or cellular structure.

But the idea of “synthetic telepathy” is definitely intriguing and considering rumors of mind control experiments at Montauk during the 70’s and 80’s could this really be happening?

According to an article on NBC News.com, the Army is in fact developing, “synthetic telepathy.” Wow.

“A new Army grant aims to create email or voice mail and send it by thought alone. No need to type an e-mail, dial a phone or even speak a word. Known as synthetic telepathy, the technology is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. Similar technology is being marketed as a way to control video games by thought.”

Code of Ethics

Now, here is a whole different set of problems to anticipate. Literally, someone or something can implant thoughts into our minds? No, thanks.

While Mike D’Zmura who is the lead scientist on this project assures everyone that:

“Mind-message composition would take specific conscious thoughts and training to develop them. The device would also have an on/off switch.” This control method still doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy.

While they are touting benign uses for this technology which will take years to develop what if it gets into the wrong hands? Shouldn’t our thoughts remain private? What will happen to the concept of free will?

If this ever comes to fruition, I sincerely hope there will be a code of ethics in place. Even armed with this alarming information, I am still not buying into conspiracy theorists saying that every cell tower is being used to control our thoughts.

However, I reserve the right to be a little concerned about this “brave new world.”

What are your thoughts on synthetic telepathy? Do you believe that mind control is real? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below. We want to hear from you.