Strange Bedfellows: AE911Truth, the Drone Industry, and Dwain Deets (archive)

by Scott Creighton (archived repost from Sept. 11th, 2009)

Who is Dwain Deets? And why is one of the founders of the drone aircraft industry writing papers with Gregg Roberts of AE911Truth and working on their staff?

In State of Play an employee of a mercenary contracting firm (read as Blackwater) turns into a whistle-blower and gives the investigative reporter played by Russel Crowe an idea of what kind of stakes are involved… “You have no idea what you are dealing with. That contract of theirs is worth billions. That’s Wrath of God money.”

1. “Wrath of God Money”, indeed…

The Drone aircraft industry has taken off (no pun intended) since 9/11. Massive amounts of Pentagon cash has been injected into a relatively few select companies who are producing these weapons of mass destruction.

The White House’s defense-budget request for fiscal 2010 includes approximately $3.5 billion for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Companies such as General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., the maker of Predator drones, hope to hold their edge over established, deep-pocketed contractors in what has become one of the military’s most critical technologies.

Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s biggest contractor by sales, recently tapped General Atomics to supply the defense giant with Reaper aircraft for a Navy contract. Northrop Grumman Corp. won the bidding, however.

Northrop is an exception among major defense contractors developing UAVs, with its Global Hawk, a high-altitude aircraft with a wingspan as wide as that of a jetliner. WSJ

As the civilian death tolls rise in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan from the cowardly use of drones like the one pictured, the production lines crank out more and more of them as a river of cash is poured into R&D programs all across the world. Build a better monster and the Neoliberal American Empire Exceptionalists will beat down your door to get it.

The Air Force will train more pilots to fly unmanned aerial systems from ground operations centers this year than pilots to fly fighter or bomber aircraft… Common Dreams

The money being spent by the Pentagon on these WMDs is certainly intense, but it doesn’t really tell half of the story. The Pentagon is just one client. Unmanned aerial drones are finding their way into all kinds of applications in this country and others. Our allies in the “Global War on Terror” are buying them up like hotcakes. Homeland Security is using them to watch our border with Mexico. Israel will be running buying them up to terrorize the starving Palestinians in Gaza, just like Mexico and Columbia will use them to carry out the ever expanding War on Drugs south of our border.

Fact is, even though the Pentagon’s three and a half billion dollar contract already qualifies as “Wrath of God money”, it only scratches the surface. It’s chump change when compared to the potential growth of the industry.

The “Global War on Terror” or as the Obama administration rebranded it, the “Overseas Contingency Operation”, has been very, very good to the drone business. Very good indeed.

And if we know that the Global War on Terror (“The Long War”, the “Endless War”, the “100 Year War”, the “Ridiculous Scam Fighting Against an Invisible Enemy Represented by a Proven CIA (read as banker thugs) Asset bin Laden) started with 9/11, then it isn’t that far of a stretch to make the claim that…

… 9/11 was very,very good for the drone industry. very Good

But where did the drone industry get it’s start? Where did these remote controlled monsters in the sky come from? Who created them? Who paid for their research and development?

2. The History of the Predator and one of it’s Proud Fathers, Dwain Deets

The Predator drone attack vehicle was not the first incarnation of this type of unmanned assault machine. In fact, it is just one of the best known. It is manufactured by a company called General Atomics in their Aeronautical Systems Inc. division. But General Atomics is certainly not limited to just making cowardly bombing devices, they have their hands in many different pies.

Gulf Oil owned General Atomics for a while, then Chevron came around and bought it. But in 1986, the Blue Brothers bought G.A. for about $50 million dollars.

The Blue Brothers are an interesting family. They both attended Yale I believe (Skull and Bones?) and they set up shop in Nicaragua where it appears they made bunches of money flying “bananas and chocolate” into the states (yeah, right). But they became pretty well connected as the picture shows.

“General Atomics was the single biggest corporate underwriter of Congressional trips between January 2000 and June 2005, according to a nine-month study of congressional travel disclosure forms. The company spent more than $660,000 on 86 trips taken by members of Congress, their aides and families. Most of that was spent on overseas travel related to the unmanned Predator spy plane made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.” Wiki

They started pimping their drones in 2000?

But the drone projects didn’t start in 2ooo. Let’s go back a little further. Does this look familiar?

The Predator and the other variants of the drone vehicles came from this design created and tested Dryden Flight Research Center from about 1996 on. There are some earlier versions of it. Below is the Altus 1 from 1997…

The Altus programs being run at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center ended up becoming the Predator and Global Hawk unmanned vehicle bonanza for the Blue Brothers and a few others. But even they weren’t the first incarnations of the unmanned flight programs.

From mid-1979 to January 1983, two remotely piloted, experimental Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology (HiMAT) vehicles were used at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., to develop high-performance fighter technologies that would be applied to later aircraft. Each aircraft was approximately half the size of an F-16 and had nearly twice the fighter’s turning capability. NASA

The HiMAT program was all about remote piloting of airplanes. Not just fighters or drones, as it were, but all kinds of airplanes. Do you all remember the images of the jumbo jet liner crash tests run by NASA? They crashed a jumbo jet to see how the fuel additive would burn. Well, they weren’t just testing jet fuel additives, they were actually testing the HiMAT flight control system as well. They ran 60+ full flights with the remote piloting system pictured below with the other shots.

“During the flights the aircraft made approximately 69 approaches, to about 150 feet above the prepared crash site, under remote control. These flights were used to introduce AMK one step at a time into some of the fuel tanks and engines while monitoring the performance of the engines. During those same flights, NASA Dryden also developed the remote piloting techniques necessary for the 720 to fly as a drone aircraft.

On the morning of December 1, 1984, a remotely controlled Boeing 720 transport took off from Edwards Air Force Base, California, made a left-hand departure and climbed to an altitude of 2300 feet. The aircraft was remotely flown by NASA research pilot Fitzhugh Fulton from the NASA Dryden Remotely Controlled Vehicle Facility.” Wiki

Oddly, one name that keeps popping up in my NASA Dryden HiMAT Program research, is Dwain Deets.

In 1996 (same year as the start of the Altus project?) Dwain Deets was appointed Director, Aerospace Projects Office at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Deets had an extensive background with unmanned drone flight development dating back as far as 1974. He was involved with the HiMAT project according to the NASA webpage.

Among the programs Deets has been associated with at Dryden during his NASA career are the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire aircraft, the X-29 Forward Swept Wing technology demonstrator aircraft, the F-16 Advanced Fighter Technology Integration (AFTI) aircraft and the Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology (HiMAT) aircraft. NASA

In 1986, the same year the politically well connected Blue Brothers bought GA, Deets worked on a special assignment in Washington where he helped ferment a new direction for flight research at NASA.

In 1986 Deets completed a special assignment at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., where he led an effort to define the needs for flight research and flight testing within NASA. He then headed development of a flight research strategy for what was then NASA’s Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, now called the Office of Aeronautics. This effort led to a major increase in emphasis on flight research by NASA. NASA

In a paper written about the HiMAT program by Dwain Deets and another for NASA, we find this image on page 19…

What we see here is some of the earliest work on the remote piloting systems for airplanes.

Detailed as you can see, is a jumbo jet.

This image is found in a paper written by Dwain Deets in 1985, just prior to the Controlled Crash Test of the remote piloted jumbo jet at Dryden Research facility.

I think it would be fair to say that Dwain Deets is probably considered an expert on the remotely piloted flight control systems as well as a pioneer in the drone aircraft technology. There are probably more connects that I just have not found… yet, but he has been intimately involved in the development of this technology since 1974.

So what is Dwain Deets doing these days?

Well, apparently he is working with Gregg Roberts at Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Of course, he doesn’t mention his extensive background in remote piloting of jumbo jets and the development of drones like the Predator and the Global Hawk on Dwain Deets’ AE911Truth bio page.

Retired Aerospace Research Engineer. While at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, held positions of Chief, Research Engineering Division, Director for Aeronautical Projects, and Flight Research Program Manager.

Deets and Roberts recently wrote an article together critiquing the National Geographic hit piece. The organization they both work with has shied away from both the remote piloting of planes on 9/11 theory as well as the investigation into the possibility that anything other than Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

That’s not surprizing considering the fact that Gregg Roberts got his start in the 9/11 Truth movement working with Jim Hoffman. Hoffman leads the efforts in the Truth movement to support the Official Conspiracy Theory version of the Flight 77 and the Pentagon narrative. He and his followers are rabid when it comes to attacking anyone who dares discuss the possibility that something else hit that building. Hoffman bases his entire argument on the FBI and prosecution “evidence” supplied during the trial of the “20th hijacker”.

It should be noted for complete transparency, the Gregg Roberts and I don’t really see eye-to-eye on the proper course for the current unofficial investigation into the events of 9/11. I suggested to Gregg Roberts over a year ago that we should run tests on the Ground Zero dust they have in their possession for the trace residual elements of conventional high explosives commonly used in the demolition industry, and Roberts refused to do so, even though in the last paper written by Roberts, Jones, Harrit and others clearly stated that they thought SOMEONE should run the very same tests that Roberts had refuse to run 9 months before.

In fact, those tests could be run now. And no word still from Roberts on that.

Let’s recap…

Gregg Roberts (a guy who refused to test for trace residuals of high explosives) got his start with Jim Hoffman (a man who uses the Federal Government’s “evidence” to keep 9/11 Truth investigators from even considering the possibility that something OTHER than Flight 77 hit the Pentagon) and is working with and co-authoring papers with the man who helped create and ran remote piloted plane and drone aircraft research programs for NASA.

Does that about sum it up?

Not finished yet.

3. Global Hawks

The Predator isn’t the flagship of the drone industry. That title belongs to the Global Hawk. With a wingspan as large as a jumbo jet, the Global Hawk was setting flight records in early 2001, winning Pentagon contracts in mid 2001, and ready for operation in late 2001. Of course, one of the 5 supposedly ready for action in Afghanistan in Dec of 2001, was “unavailable”.

But did the Global Hawk have anything to do with NASA? You betcha..

First flight of the Global Hawk was on 28 February 1998. Five prototypes were built, and put through a thorough flight test program. Beginning in the spring of 1999, the Global Hawk performed a series of operational evaluation flights, some of which were remarkable demonstrations of the aircraft’s capability.

The Global Hawk was scheduled to reach operational service in late 2001, and this timeframe coincided with the US intervention in Afghanistan. Four Global Hawks were available at the time, though only three were regarded as suitable for operations. These three UAVs were operated in the war, though specific details of their missions are unclear. One crashed on 30 December 2001 due to a malfunction. Wiki

In the background you will see Dryden Flight Research center…

And later we see, in 2007, the Global Hawk actually being pulled out of the hanger at Dryden…

Eyewitness descriptions at the Pentagon attack on Sept 11th vary greatly. Some reported seeing a jumbo jet, but many others also reported seeing a “small commuter jet” or even a small white “business class” jet hitting the Pentagon.

The discrepancies between the physical evidence and what one would expect from a 757 crash can be argued all day long. But we do know this much; from the early photographs from the crime scene, we can’t make out what hit that building. We can’t rely on the “evidence” supplied by the FBI and the Justice department in the “20th Hijacker” case either; those bastards lied about everything else, why should a faction of the Truth movement parade their “evidence” around as if it were immaculate? Doesn’t make sense.

Were it not for this image, would Truth activists even consider the FBI’s evidence in this matter? But ask yourself this; does the curvature of this piece look like it fits the massive body of a jumbo jet, or does it look more like one of these painted to resemble a passenger plane?

It’s hard to say.

But one thing I do know… it’s worth investigating with so much money on the line for the drone industry back in 2001.

But not for Jim Hoffman and his contingent. They spend most of their time trying to convince 9/11 Truth advocates that the Bush Administration is telling us the absolute truth about what happened at the Pentagon.

Bush lied about everything else… lied about the War in Iraq… lied about what happened at the Trade Centers… but if you question the odd story of the Pentagon, you are what Hoffman calls a “disinfo agent”.

Hoffman himself has come under fire from several other Truth activists. Mainly because he used to work for a NGO, MSRI, that has ties to the NSA. And some say he still works for them.

You won’t find any mention at all of MSRI on Hoffman’s several bios on his “Truth” websites. He seems to like to keep that bit of his background on the downlow, so to speak.

Hoffman came under fire from me for his ridiculous theory about how the nanothermite could have been used to bring down the Twin Towers. 1.8 million ceiling tile bombs… and a lot of “illegal immigrants”… yeah…

And we have to add Gregg Roberts to that group as well, since Roberts himself works with Hoffman on his website.

• Jim Hoffman, Webmaster and Senior Editor

• Gregg Roberts, Associate Editor

• Victoria Ashley, Research Consultant

• Jan Hoyer, Outreach Coordinator

Odd isn’t it? The awkward connections that seem to pop up in the inbred Truth community.

How much time and money do you think has been spend trying to steer the unofficial investigation of 9/11? The world may never know.

But this much I do know;

1. Jim Hoffman and his cronies work diligently to keep people from investigating the events at the Pentagon ESPECIALLY the idea that something other than a commercial jetliner hit the building.

2. Working right alongside Hoffman’s former assistant Gregg Roberts at AE911Truth, is one of the founders of the remote piloted flight program and the drone aircraft industry, Dwain Deets.

3. Since 9/11 the drone industry has skyrocketed making the Global Hawk and the Predator type aircraft the hottest defense contracting ticket there is.

strange bed fellows indeed.

4. The Human Costs

On Sept. 10th 2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced $2.3 trillion dollars was “missing” from the Pentagon budget. On Sept. 11th 2001, the Pentagon suffered a direct hit… as it just so happened, that hit took place right in the offices of the accounting departments that were pouring through the records trying to find out where that money went. This is the result.

What you see there are a series of numbers that represent victims of the attack on the Pentagon.