Posted on 11/21/2002 11:50:10 AM PST by Ready2go
CIA Releases New 'Noah's Ark' Documents Posted Nov. 13, 2002 By Timothy W. Maier
Is it the Ark, or just a piece of rock?
Two years after Insight filed an appeal charging that the CIA withheld documents and imagery concerning the Mount Ararat anomaly in Turkey, the CIA has released two new documents to Insight that indicate the search for "Noah's Ark" reached the level of the White House under former president George H.W. Bush.
The appeal, filed one month after Insight's exclusive story (see "Anomaly or Noah's Ark?"; Nov. 20, 2000), comes on the heels of the CIA's releasing thousands of satellite images, which soon will be available at National Imagery and Mapping Agency Website. It is unclear whether images of Mount Ararat will be included. Insight's exclusive story marked the first time the public was able to see high-resolution photographs of the anomaly, located at 39 degrees 42 minutes north latitude and 44 degrees 16 minutes east longitude. Insight contracted with Space Imaging to maneuver its IKONOS satellite to zoom in on the anomaly. Afterwards, Insight hired a team of scientists and engineers to examine the pictures and to deterimine whether the object in question was man-made or rock. Four of the experts claim it's man-made, two believe it's rock and one says the evidence is inconclusive.
Unfortunately, the release of the additional records does not offer any more proof of what the object might be, but only raises more questions as to why the CIA continues to hold such records as classified.
One of the records released is a 1995 memo from an agent who had a coversation with John Hanford, then a member of Sen. Richard Lugar's (R-Ind.) staff. Hanford apparently recalled a White House meeting under the George H.W. Bush administration in which Robert Gates, then National Security director, showed one of the old images of the Mount Ararat area to various people at the meeting. "Mr. Hanford said that imagery showed something sticking out from the ice and snow but that it could have been almost anything."
The memo was triggered by a newspaper article that suggested Mount Ararat imagery might be made public under former president Bill Clinton's decision to release historical documents. The CIA agent says in the memo that such imagery "might or might not be included in the declassified materials."
The other record concerned a review the George H.W. Bush administration conducted between 1990 and 1992 concerning Mount Ararat. The record was in response to former CIA director James Woolsey's requesting what it might cost to undertake a more exhaustive review of all the material. At the time, the price was considered too high to do such a search. Woolsey was told it would take an analyst six months to complete such a study. It appears that study never was completed.
Insight still may receive additional records. The CIA has asked other agencies to review specific records for possible release in the near future. In the meantime, Insight is reviewing its options on whether to pursue in federal court images taken by the CIA with its KH-9 remote-sensing satellite in 1973 and its KH-11 satellite in 1976, 1990 and 1992.
Timothy Maier is a writer for Insight. email the author
MORE:
http://www.noahsarksearch.com/
Seriously, looking at shapes in the snow on a mountain is like looking for faces in cloud patterns. You can see anything you want to see if you look around enough and look hard enough (IMHO).
Also, Turkey is polulated by moslems who know that they are descendants of Noah. They dont need scientific truth of that. Why do us Westerners seem to feel they need to be able to point to the ark in order to believe?
Also, Turkey is polulated by moslems who know that they are descendants of Noah. They dont need scientific truth of that. Why do us Westerners seem to feel they need to be able to point to the ark in order to believe?
Also, Turkey is polulated by moslems who know that they are descendants of Noah. They dont need scientific truth of that. Why do us Westerners seem to feel they need to be able to point to the ark in order to believe?
As for the Kerds, I don't think they would mess with a US expedition right now. We would have to include some Turks for the permissions. Might as well send in the I-Max team as well just for fun.
If anything were there it would have been discovered long ago. Think of the tourist dollars Turkey could rake in.
Lets just push Geraldo out of a helicopter and let him look.
Hete is a photo from space taken by the satellite Ikonos on August 11, 2000.
See the excerpt below for one view on this. The link will take you to the source. Christian evidences is a fascinitng study, but I also try to follow the cliche "God said it, I believe it, that settles it!"
The Ark measured 300x50x30 cubits (Genesis 6:15) which is about 140x23x13.5 metres or 459x75x44 feet, so its volume was 43,500 m3 (cubic metres) or 1.54 million cubic feet. To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent volume of 522 standard American railroad stock cars, each of which can hold 240 sheep. If the animals were kept in cages with an average size of 50x50x30 centimetres (20x20x12 inches), that is 75,000 cm3 (cubic centimetres) or 4800 cubic inches, the 16,000 animals would only occupy 1200 m3 (42,000 cubic feet) or 14.4 stock cars. Even if a million insect species had to be on board, it would not be a problem, because they require little space. If each pair was kept in cages of 10 cm (four inches) per side, or 1000 cm3, all the insect species would occupy a total volume of only 1000 m3, or another 12 cars. This would leave room for five trains of 99 cars each for food, Noahs family and range for the animals. However, insects are not included in the meaning of behemah or remes in Genesis 6:19-20, so Noah probably would not have taken them on board as passengers anyway. Tabulating the total volume is fair enough, since this shows that there would be plenty of room on the Ark for the animals with plenty left over for food, range etc. It would be possible to stack cages, with food on top or nearby (to minimize the amount of food carrying the humans had to do), to fill up more of the Ark space, while still allowing plenty of room for gaps for air circulation. We are discussing an emergency situation, not necessarily luxury accommodation. Although there is plenty of room for exercise, skeptics have overstated animals needs for exercise anyway. Even if we dont allow stacking one cage on top of another to save floor space, there would be no problem. Woodmorappe shows from standard recommended floor space requirements for animals that all of them together would have needed less than half the available floor space of the Arks three decks. This arrangement allows for the maximum amount of food and water storage on top of the cages close to the animals.
Most animals are known to hibernate or estivate during periods of extreme weather, so many of the creatures may have been very inactive in this time period.
Also Noah likely took smaller immature animals on the ark, that have been easier to care for. There would have been plenty of room for all modern animals and even extinct animals like dinosaurs.
Finally, many animals that are considered different species may have developed from a single pair on the ark. For example, Asian elephants and African elephants are different species, but they may have descended from a single pair of elephants on the ark. This is true for almost all species of vertibrates.
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