The Story Behind...

**The Story Behind...** are a series of books detailing the lore behind Deus Ex.

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### The Story Behind... Majestic 12

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The story of Deus Ex relies heavily on conspiracy theories and myths about mystic men controlling everything. Today (and in the following weeks) we'll try to give you an in-depth explanation about Majestic 12, Area51 and The Illuminati. Who are they and what function do they have? In short; we'll fill in the missing gaps in the otherwise brilliant story that is DX.
**The UFOs are here**
Majestic-12, or MJ-12 as it's known in shorthand, was (allegedly) created by President Truman in 1947 to investigate severel UFO-sightings. MJ12's purpose was to analyze, investigate and if possible, make contact with the UFOs that (allegedly) landed in the desert in Roswell, New Mexico. The task was to be dealt with with utter secrecy and therefore the whole operation was smoke screened and tagged top secret right from the beginning. They figured that keeping it secret while communicating with the aliens would prevent a widespread panic in the US and abroad. All this is true. That is if you believe in the validity of the information that almost miraculously turned up in a mailbox in 1984...
An L.A. journalist called Jaime Shandera (perhaps the name of the DX-character Jaime Reyes can be attributed to this guy?) received the documents on microfilm, had them developed and was baffled by the unusual content of the package. We all know journalists and thus the news of the finding spread quickly. Very quickly.
**It's majic**
*The documents that Shandera received contained a list of 12 members (hence the name Majestic-12) of an executive group that were to command the organization and report any findings to the U.S. President. The group was a mix of leading scientists and generals from the military. All people mentioned on the list (see the first picture for details) were - convieniently for the author? - dead by the time Jaime Shandera saw the documents, so they couldn't defend themselves of the allegations.*"

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The whole Majic/Majestic-12 story has been investigated by severel government agencies and has as a result of that been declared as a forgery (a good one, but a forgery nontheless). I know that the government debunking something won't calm the most die-hard nuts^H^H^H^H...ehhm...ufo-believers, but non-governmental organizations have also investigated the matter and concluded likewise; the MJ-12 documents are bogus. It has lots of factual flaws and the likes.
**Further reading**
*The two screenshots above are taken from a FBI document. FBI has the whole thing posted for those who want to see what a bogus and now declassified FBI-document looks like. About.com also has extensive coverage on all things alien. Come back next week for the Area51 story and remember not to tell anybody about this. They are listening, you know ;P.*"

### The Story Behind... Area 51

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The story of Deus Ex relies heavily on conspiracy theories and myths about mystic men controlling everything. Last week we did a story on Majestic 12. (You might want to read that to catch up on our The Story Behind... series). Today we'll try to give you an explanation about the government facility called Area 51. What exactly goes on out there in the desert? Do they have UFOs hidden somewhere? Here are some answers to shed light on another part of Deus Ex's great story.
**Unidentified Flying Objects?**
Area51 has long been a favorite subject to talk about amongst the group of people that believe in government conspiracies and flying saucers and several factors seem to back their (insane?) claims. The isolated position of the base has led some people to the conclusion that the U.S. Government is doing things that are not entirely legal out there. Several sightings of strange plane-like objects in the area and a (supposedly) crashed UFO are also parts of the lore surrounding the base. The official no-talk policy hasn't helped dampen the outbreak of theories either.
That something is going on in Area 51 is without a doubt. But the notion that the U.S. Government should be hiding aliens and their spacecrafts seems a little far fetched to me.
**The Base In The Desert**
*Area51 isn't the name of the base itself as most people believe, but is actually a large piece of government owned property in the Nevada desert near the Groom Dry Lake. The name supposedly originates from an old map of the region. The area is offlimits to people (as indicated on the signs below), but nevertheless draws thousands of tourists to the desert. The perimiter of the base is guarded by armed guards nicknamed the 'Cammo Dudes', which again add to the UFO myth. I reckon these fellows greet strangers with just about the same lack of warmth as the MiBs in Deus Ex, but that's just a guess.*"

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Apparently the base also doubles as some kind of dumping ground for toxic wastes. Several workers have stood forward with this claim (some anonymously, some not) and have told the media about this. Apparently the workers have literally been pouring toxins into the ground, thus not only polluting the earth, but also damaging their own health. They have tried taking it to the courts in order to get some kind of compensation, but to no avail.
At first glance they seem to have the advantage: They have the proof to back up the claims (some of the workers even died because of the toxics), they have a dedicated lawyer and they have got the attention of the media. What is missing here? The defendant, that's who. They haven't got somebody to sue, because -- and now it gets truely ironic -- the U.S. Government doesn't recognize the existence of Area 51, thus effectively eliminating any possible lawsuit whatsoever. Bummer, huh?
Come back next week for the third and final installment. It will answer questions about the Illuminati, a hidden organization whos existence dates back to 17th century Germany. Some believe that the Illuminati still are in power and that they seek to rule the world from the hidden. Find out next week right here on Deus Ex Incarnate.
***Further reading**
About.com has extensive coverage of Area 51. Another site worth trying out is ufomind.com/area51/... albeit a bit messy designwise it still is a great UFO resource.*"

### The Story Behind... Echelon

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Echelon is a big deal in the game, Deus Ex, but what exactly is it? Well, that depends on who you talk to. European nations and civil liberties groups say that Echelon is a secret network run by the United States and four of its allies that spies on everyone in the world. Two of the five nations that supposedly use Echelon say it's just a system to watch criminals and terrorists. The United States says that Echelon doesn't exist at all.
**Five Ears Are Better Than One**
According to the conspiracy theorists, the United States and the United Kingdom teamed up during the Cold War to spy on the Soviets. In 1947, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were brought into the deal in an agreement called UKUSA. The five nations basically agreed to work together to spy on their part of the world, which pretty much covers everything. Echelon is supposedly run by all five of its host nations, but the United States is the leader. In the 1970's, the network was boosted with satellites they called "Echelon." Since then, other systems have allegedly been added to make Echelon bigger.
**Wire Tap Dancing**
*According to critics, the Echelon system today uses everything from wiretaps on underwater telephone lines to huge radio antennae to spy on everything. They claim that Echelon intercepts three billion communications a day, including phone calls, e-mail messages, and satellite transmissions. The Echelon system takes all the information and funnels it into supercomputers that sift through it. The bottom line is that all someone has to do is type in a word or phrase into the computers and Echelon can find everything anyone has ever said about it.*"

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**Carnivorous**
Is Echelon real? Well, European nations like France and Germany sure think so. They've launched investigations on how to stop Echelon and punish the governments that use it. A few years ago Australia and Britain admitted that Echelon is real, but say they only use it to track down terrorists and criminals, and never use it to spy on ordinary people. The United States is still insisting that Echelon doesn't exist at all. But they did recently go public about an Echelon-like computer system called Carnivore designed to spy on all the e-mail on the Internet, which is bad enough.
Whether Echelon is real or not, you have to admit it's pretty freaky stuff, and that Deus Ex did a great job of bringing our worst nightmares of Echelon to life.
**Further reading**
*There are whole organizations devoted to exposing and shutting down Echelon, and one of the biggest is Echelon Watch, which has a good FAQ on the subject. If you get too paranoid, you can read a more balanced view of the Echelon controversy from a Washington Post article at Policy.Com.*"