Project Megiddo

2003-05-24

I became aware of Project Megiddo when I watched a film called "911 The Road to Tyranny" by Alex Jones who cited it as evidence that the US Federal Government has classified Christians, Gun Owners and Homeschoolers as terrorists.

In the Alex Jones film the camera scans over a copy of the report which was clearly obtained by Googling for "Project Megiddo" since it has the style of the html files generated and cached by Google when indexing pdfs. Specifically it is the html version of megiddo.pdf from the FDLP/EC Archive. According to the Wayback Machine this file was briefly available in 2000 on the FBI website as publicmegiddo.pdf but if you want to see a related document which is currently available on the FBI website take a look at this 1999-10-20 FBI press release. Note there are also various other html versions of the Project Megiddo report available on the web.

So what was Project Megiddo all about? I would strongly urge you to read the report yourself as it is a fascinating and apparently very well researched document but if you do not have the time or inclination to do so then here is my own summary.

Towards the end of the last millennium there was a general feeling of anticipation mixed with some concern about potential Y2K computer problems. Project Megiddo dealt with the possibility that certain extremist groups within the United States might initiate violent action with the aim of either overthrowing the Federal Government or precipitating a Holy Race War. The scope of the project was limited to the study of those individuals or groups who were motivated in some way by the advent of the new millennium and these motivations were broadly classified into two types. On the one hand there were those who might have seen the disruption caused by Y2K problems as a sign that the United Nations was taking over the United States by military force and who had stocked up on weapons and food in preparation for this eventuality. On the other there were religious groups who believed that the Apocalypse was just around the corner and who so relished the prospect that they were prepared to use violence to help things along the way.

In conclusion I would just say that the Alex Jones film seriously misrepresented the Project Megiddo report which is just not the way to go about being taken seriously.