It’s the little things in life. Among the plethora of disinformation in the general media, we sometimes find hints of what is really happening. I have long contented that the current madness in Iraq and Afghanistan is only a cover for a much larger global operation. Yet what could possibly motivate the governments of the United States of America, Britain and Australia to spend hundred of billions of dollars on a military exercise of this nature? Not to mention the wasted lives of thousands of allied soldiers and more than one hundred thousand innocent Iraqi civilians. Three years down the track the original justification for the war in Iraq does not hold water. And yet, it continues.

It is interesting to see the way the media plays this game. In a beautifully co-ordinated operation of shifting the goal posts, the public are continually fed new aims. And histories. Does anyone remember that this began on 11 September 2001? Without those aircraft flying into those buildings, none of this would have happened. The name Osama bin Laden was quoted. And Al Quaida. Then, suddenly, the focus was Sadaam Hussein. I do not recall any connection between him and the events of 9/11. In fact, up until then, the only connection given between Sadaam and bin Laden was that they were sworn enemies. So now Sadaam is in prison, and bin Laden is still on the run. But the war in Iraq continues.

Let’s look at what we really have here. Firstly, there are allied military forces scattered throughout the globe. ‘The War On Terror’ has become justification for increases in military activity on every continent. Whether it be actual combat, or peace-keeping operations, or training excercises or whatever. They are there, in ever increasing numbers. And no-one seems to question this.

National budgets are being stretched to the limit to pay for this. Education, health care, service infrastructure are all suffering. Yet when the leaders ask for more defence spending, it is given. Can you imagine this situation perpetuating six years ago? Back then the main thing we were concerned about was whether or not the then President had cheated on his wife. Don’t those days seem so carefree?

Why is it that we are allowing this to continue? Because every week there is a new story, another distraction, to stop us from thinking. And little by little, the original story is rewritten until it no longer has any resemblance to the way it started out. But who has the time, or attention span to continually review the situation? Not many of us.

Yet the media sometimes slip up. We get clues about a larger and far more sinister operation. And the Devil is in the detail.

Spitzbergen Island lies north of Norway deep within the Arctic Circle. Under a treaty between the then Soviet Union and Norway, the island reverted to Norwegian sovereignty, yet Russia is also permitted to maintain its own settlements, autonomous of Norwegian control. This, in itself, is highly irregular given the known animosity between the two countries. Originally valuable for the mining of coal, those operations have long been unprofitable. Yet both countries continued to keep the mining operations going just for the sake of keeping their presence on the island. Why bother?

Now the Global Crop Diversity Trust has announced that a massive vault is being created on the island. According to executive director of the trust, Dr Cary Fowler, the vault is intended as a safe storage facility for the world’s grain seeds. “It would provide robust protection against real cataclysmic events.” (The Advertiser, Saturday, February 4, 2006). Dr Fowler was visiting Australia in connection with this vault. Strangely, Australia is listed as the single largest donor to the trust, which was founded in 2004 in Italy.

The vault will be carved into the mountain and protected by metre-thick reinforced concrete walls. There will be two air-locks and high security blast–proof doors.

Something is not right here. Australia is the largest donor to an Italy-based trust? Australia is funding a Norwegian structure which could easily be built in Australia? Me thinks the media is giving us only part of the story. Let’s add some trivia.

In 1918, seven miners died on Spitzbergen as a result of the Spanish influenza pandemic. The bodies of those miners lay buried in the mines for decades. Perfectly preserved by the freezing conditions. Dr Jeffery Taubenberger of the Armed Forces Intsitute of Pathology is working on the exhumation of those bodies. His aim is to attempt to obtain a culture of live influenza virus.

In a completely unrelated and unsubstantiated story from the 1950s, the late Lord Louis Mountbatten reportedly told society reporter Dorothy Kilgallen, that the British and United States military were investigating a 1946 UFO crash landing on Spitzbergen Island. Ms Kilgallen died suddenly before being able to file her story.

More unrelated trivia. In the 1990’s, the late media mogul Kerry Packer spent tens of millions of dollars on his family’s latest boat. Nothing strange about that, you might say. Until you consider the nature of the boat. Instead of their previous ocean-liner style ship, Packer insisted on refitting an ice-breaker to take his family and friends. The boat, the Arctic P, is designed to protect the family from any form of catastrophe. In fact, it is where the entire Packer entourage spent the night of 31 December 1999. They chose to see in the new millennium on their ice-breaker, along with good friends Bill and Melinda Gates. What do these people know that we don’t?

Put simply, the facts are these. A Doomsday Vault is being built on an Arctic island. The same island is also the site of possible re-activation of the 1918 flu virus, and a possibly dodgy UFO story. And at least one billionaire has chosen to swap the luxury of a cruise liner for the safety of an ice-breaker.

Combine this with unprecedented troop movements, secretive operations on Antarctica and a war that has no meaning. Are we getting close to a global killer event?