6 Massive Secret Operations That Are Hidden All Around You

Good Evening once again, ATS. Similar to my Previous Thread , I bring you the work of another person. I am NOT taking credit for this at all, I am simply bringing it to your attention.

This post will be centered around an article from cracked.com called 6 Massive Secret Operations That Are Hidden All Around You . In this post, I will show images from the article, excerpts from the author of the article, and my own thoughts.

I hope this will be as humorous and as eye-opening to you as it was to me regarding how well private corporations and our own government can hide things in plain sight!

Here we go!

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#6. L.A.'s Urban Oil Rigs

…it's also home to the third largest oil field in the U.S..

In fact, oil rigs have been placed all over L.A. and are pumping away in secret even now. The city was so caught up in oil fever that in 1930, 95 percent of the town residents passed a law allowing them to drill in their own yards. Of course the modern LA resident would never allow one of the largest oil operations in the country to go down right in their own back yard. So where'd all those rigs go?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2c5a8f17e9d7.jpg[/atsimg]

See despite it's reputation for being not in Texas, L.A. has been an oil town from the time black gold was discovered there in 1892 right up until today. As the city's hippie clogged arteries began to expand out over the reserve, oil companies got creative. After refining a new urban design in the 1930s, the wells were all but soundproofed; an innovation that allowed oil companies to start playing "hide the pumping station."

Where are they hiding?

On street corners, on school grounds, tucked away behind shopping malls--hidden rigs are literally everywhere in Los Angeles. There's an unmarked building on Pico Boulevard in West Hollywood which houses one of the biggest hidden oil operations in the city. From the site, 58 wells have been directionally drilled up into the Beverley Hills area. Here's what 58 oil wells looks like everywhere else in the world.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/85568ab33d28.jpg[/atsimg]

And now here's the building in LA, busily drinking the milkshake right out from under thousands of unsuspecting Bel Aire residents as you read this.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3b14a57d96c6.jpg[/atsimg]

Personally, I had no idea about these sort of things! Why hasn’t this been touched on in the news at all? Also, I wonder if there has ever been an “oil spill” with one of these urban rigs?

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Hidden Government Bunkers

Government officials are elected to look out for you. They only want to make sure that you're healthy, safe and well protected... right after they make sure that they're healthier, safer and better protected. That's why FEMA has spent 1.3 billion dollars building secret bunkers all across the United States solely to house government officials in case the unthinkable happens.

Project Greek Island was one of these secret bunkers. The U.S. government made a deal in the late 1950s with The Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia to use their building as a government facility to house Congress in the event of a nuclear war. Construction on a secret bunker beneath the hotel began under the guise of an "above-ground renovation" on the West Virginia wing. They dug out the area beneath the new wing as it was being built and constructed their own little addition: a massive, multi-level installation with walls of reinforced concrete and 30-ton blast doors. Right beneath the tourist resort.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2a414ebd7457.jpg[/atsimg]

Project Greek Island was operated under a dummy company named Forsythe Associates. It was completed, but went entirely unused during the 30 years before the Washington Post brought public attention to it's existence. Once exposed, the project was shut down. Tax dollars at work, ladies and gentleman: They're building play-forts with it.

Where are they hiding?

Similar government bunkers could be anywhere. If they were able to slip one under this beast of a hotel--a place so public it's actually a tourist destination--there's no telling where else they were able to hide the others.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e6540f358d42.jpg[/atsimg]


Now I knew that the government had hidden bunkers EVERYWHERE, but I would have never guessed they would put it in such public of places! Makes you wonder where ELSE they could be…

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#4. Disguised Cell Phone Towers

they need to build cell towers. Big, ugly, eyesore cell towers. But if that's the case, where are they? Have you seen new ones being built recently? No? That's because they're all over the place; you just can't see them. They're disguising them.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cc65d66b3748.jpg[/atsimg]

Where are they hiding?

There's one outside your window if you know where to look. San Bernardino County in California alone has over 500 cloaked cell antennas.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/135adc17c410.jpg[/atsimg]


I know I’ll be trying to identify these in my city now! I once found a website that mapped local antennae towers, but I could never get what it said to match up with real life. Now I have a feeling that it was showing disguised towers as well.

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#3. Missile Silos

The missile surfacing from beneath the army base is a war movie trope. The surprising thing, though? There's often no base.

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. had an estimated 1,000 Minuteman Missiles hidden in silos across the country. But don't worry; fewer than 500 even remain active today.

Where are they hiding?

Well, if we knew that they'd have to kill us. But we know they were literally everywhere, and we've got proof: After the Cold War, silos that were emptied were just left to the elements, no longer serving any purpose. But recently, abandoned bases have been appearing on the real estate market. For a missile base that cost the U.S. government three million dollars to build in the 1960s, you can snatch one up for as low as $100,000 and live in it.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c1e433693e62.jpg[/atsimg]

I understand the need for the government to have these silo’s location secret … but good grief! I do find it very humorous that they are for sale now, I think I would even purchase one if I had the funds! The survivalist in me is screaming for one.

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#2. Disguised Government Buildings

The government likes their privacy and they go to great lengths to keep it. But not all of their secret facilities are located in labyrinthine cave systems, inside volcanoes or hovering in a cloud bank. They have thousands of perfectly normal buildings spread all over the country that they use to conduct their secret operations.

They're usually grouped in purposefully pedestrian-looking office buildings, discreetly unlabeled and carefully designed to be utterly forgettable. And we're not talking about the DMV here. These are serious agencies: The Fort Meade cluster in Florida is the largest of these facilities, and it's the headquarters of the NSA. The area, sitting right out there in the open, is so top secret that if you approach it, your GPS will send you into a series of U-turns thanks to the government jamming signal.

If you take a picture near one of these buildings, uniformed guards will emerge--oftentimes from concealed security stations--to ask you for your personal information and to delete the pictures from your camera. Keith McCammon experienced this first hand when he accidentally photographed an unmarked office building which turned out to be the location of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Where are they hiding?

We all know how you spot government hideouts: Be on the lookout for black SUVs, barbed wire and help wanted signs for local restaurants and coffee houses. Wait... what?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9c69dfd26c5c.jpg[/atsimg]

The "top secret" part of the U.S. government employs over 845,000 people, and when they want to recruit new workers, they can't really put an ad on Monster.com for super-spies. Instead they put out signs like the one above: "TS" means "top secret" and "SCI" stands for "Sensitive Compartmented Information." Only people with top secret security clearances can attend these normal-seeming "job fairs," which probably explains why nobody has ever, ever gotten a job out of one.

This to me makes a little sense. It’s impractical for the government to cordon off huge amounts of land every time they wish to build a facility.


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#1. Underground Homeless Cities

Life on the street is tough, but what options does a homeless person have when the busy, unforgiving city is becoming too much for them to handle? Why, they just go underground! Underground: Where no cops or street-punks will hassle you.

Where are they hiding?

Beneath the casinos and the flashing neon lights of the Las Vegas strip lies a labyrinth of tunnels that were initially built to protect the city from flash floods. But now they've become a place where the homeless live sheltered from the weather, rent free.

There are over 200 miles of tunnels under the city and any trip down into them reveals a vast network of homeless shelters. We aren't talking cardboard boxes here, either: They have some pretty sophisticated homes.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b052bf126deb.jpg[/atsimg]

They formed complex societies complete with mayors and elaborate social structures. They were so resourceful that many of them even siphoned water and electricity from the city and built ad-hoc underground, multi-story homes out of whatever was available.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1f71952457d5.jpg[/atsimg]


This is incredible! It seems that some of these “homeless” have a home after all! And judging from some of the pictures, their set-up looks better than my room. But in all seriousness, good for them for finding a place to call home!!!

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That does it for this article. I hope you enjoyed what you read here, and remember that the original article found here is written by an author who is much more humorous than me, and goes into greater detail. I encourage all of you to read the original if you enjoyed this.

Please discuss this and let me know your thoughts!

Originally posted by abrowning
I thought this was an interesting article too/.

edit on 9-10-2010 by abrowning because: (no reason given)

For ease of reading. I have the cracked page linked throughout, but I know that it is much easier to view and comment on a post if it is all presented in one spot.

Cool stuff, but much baloney ANd it's been posted befor.
For the billionth time, oil drilling in LA isn't secret at all. The writer obviously never lived here.
It's merely concealed ( in some places) so as not to be an eyesore..................................................................................................

reply to post by OldDragger


Wow you must be an Old Dragger, just dragging and lingering on... Seems your pretty sour in your age as you come across in your reply. I found it to be a great thread. Once and awhile having an old topic come up again is a good refresher. I just showed my GF the oil rigs and cell towers. It was news to her and she found in very interesting. So the poster succeeding in spreading information to a new mind. The core of ATS to share knowledge. In my opinion anyways.

Keep dragging on sir. Your end seems sooner than mine so enjoy what time's left. If you have the capacity to be positive.


P.S. what was much baloney?


To the OP, nice work. I'd love to own a missile silo, ultimate boys club. Also those Top security job fairs are intense I'd love to come across one and try and waltz all in there like it's no thing.

I'd hate to be in a tunnel under Las Vegas if a gully washer came through.

Seems to me to be an easy way to drown.

I know there's a tunnel system under downtown Houston, Texas USA. Does that count?

Also, there's an underground network in N. Korea's capital which sounds interesting.
Korean Secret Tunnels

The defector claimed that the Sunchon tunnel had clean spring water and green grass.

There aren't any good pictures though.

Interesting thread. I've never heard of concealed cell-phone towers or oil pumping operations.

Up here in Alaska there's so much open space that you don't really have to conceal anything.

As far as the nuke silos, Many of them were left to the elements, some were just filled with concrete.

The one that was in the secure area I worked at in Little Rock over 10 years ago was filled with concrete. But that was probably because there was an accident there involving nuclear warheads and multiple people were killed. Sometime in the late eighties, the missile was leaking fuel and a spark ignited it. Noone knows where the spark came from, but the explosion launched the warheads a good couple hundred feet in the air before they came crashing back down.

There are still silos in some places that you can just go walk around in. I know where a couple of them are because my old Air Force buddies would go play paintball in them.

Also, recently I saw this thread..

secret door in the side of a mountain, we peeked inside

Maybe this is another lost, forgotten nuke silo. But, then again, maybe it is something much more interesting! It's one of the more interesting threads on ATS, IMO..

-ChriS

Thanks for the interesting read.

And to think, this only 6 'Massive Secret Operations', Imagine the unknown and untold one's we have yet to find out about.

I really wouldn't call hidden oil wells or cell towers a 'secret operation". They are hidden for aesthetic reasons, since they are butt ugly. Most anyone living in LA for any length of time knows about them. Same thing with the cell towers disguised at palm trees. They aren't that hard to figure out, since they kinda look funny. Again anyone living in So.Calif for any length of time is aware of them. I'm sure they're disguised in other places as well.

Yes, there are job fairs that cater to people with security clearances. They're pretty much like any job fair. I was hired at one by CSC right after retiring from the military, only because i had a security clearance and had worked with a specific crypto device. The guy told me they could train me for everything else i needed to know for the job. so yes, people do get hired from them.

They made NSA so secretive in the article, like it's hidden away. It is to some extent, being on Fort George G Meade, it also has it's own exit on Maryland 32.
www.aaroads.com...

Excellent thread though. Alot of interesting and entertaining information.

reply to post by gatorboi117


S+F for this info... really enlightening... i actually am looking into buying a silo after i finish school.. i think it would be a great thing to have...

I don't see anything in OP's post that suggests any conspiracy. I thought everything that was cited was common knowledge.

Originally posted by Trexter Ziam
I know there's a tunnel system under downtown Houston, Texas USA. Does that count?

Also, there's an underground network in N. Korea's capital which sounds interesting.
Korean Secret Tunnels

The defector claimed that the Sunchon tunnel had clean spring water and green grass.

There aren't any good pictures though.

Wow, green grass and clean water?! Shame there isn't any pictures, I'd love to see that!

Originally posted by knowonder
reply to post by gatorboi117

 

S+F for this info... really enlightening... i actually am looking into buying a silo after i finish school.. i think it would be a great thing to have...

You wish to buy a silo after school? Good luck to you, my friend, I hope you can get the funds for that! Give me a PM if you get one, we'll go play paintball in it.

Originally posted by 302Found
I don't see anything in OP's post that suggests any conspiracy. I thought everything that was cited was common knowledge.

This may have all been known to you, but most of it was new to me. I hope you at least enjoyed the refresher course on all of this. How did you know about the urban oil rigs, though? THAT was the most surprising to me.

reply to post by 302Found


Just because its ATS doesnt mean every single thread has to be a conspiracy. ATS is a great way of sharing information, which the OP has done brilliantly. Well done OP, cool thread.

reply to post by gatorboi117


Sorry, but I GREW UP IN LOS ANGELES, and the "hiding" of the oil rigs is no secret....oil rigs, naked and ugly, are.....well, UGLY!!!

Your thread didn't mention the ones out in the Long Beach Harbor?? Again, rigs 'disguised' to be more aesthetically pleasing to the eye....NOT to "hide" them.....this has been the case since AT LEAST the 1970s.....

reply to post by gatorboi117


To follow on....Cell Phone Antenna Towers?? Also, ugly.

I mean, to disguise them in order to less obtrusive??? Sounds like a great idea, to me.....

....this is a thread idea, because WHY, exactly??? Seems to me, it's "complaining" about trying to make ordinarily "ugly" components of modern civilization more acceptable, from a design standpoint.....

Originally posted by b0sanac
reply to post by 302Found

 

Just because its ATS doesnt mean every single thread has to be a conspiracy. ATS is a great way of sharing information, which the OP has done brilliantly. Well done OP, cool thread.

Thank-you for the encouragement!

Originally posted by weedwhacker
reply to post by gatorboi117

 

Sorry, but I GREW UP IN LOS ANGELES, and the "hiding" of the oil rigs is no secret....oil rigs, naked and ugly, are.....well, UGLY!!!

Your thread didn't mention the ones out in the Long Beach Harbor?? Again, rigs 'disguised' to be more aesthetically pleasing to the eye....NOT to "hide" them.....this has been the case since AT LEAST the 1970s.....

I do believe they were mentioned in the original article I cited all of this from. Hmm, it's interesting that I didn't include them in this post ... I suppose doing this after a long night's work causes you to make a few mistakes!

It seems that Californian's know of most of these things already. How is this not more common knowledge to us on the East Coast?

reply to post by gatorboi117

How is this not more common knowledge to us on the East Coast?

Many people, in many areas, are keenly aware of their local surroundings.

Don't worry, because there ARE things hidden from casual view....(that is, after all, the original concept of "camoflauge", from way back)....but, unfortunately, the examples you cited are rather ordinary. (For the most part....the bulidings that double, on the surface, to belie what's inside....THAT is valid....)

Still, DON'T back down on this quest, if it's interesting to you. Just....keep a keen and discerning eye. Experience and location helps, so seek out others' experiences as well......