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| Treasure Island CA Barge |
Earlier versions of the
barge story were leaked by “authoritative” anonymous sources (supposedly from
Google). They described the barges as floating
sales area for Google Glass, with a VIP suite atop. But the story is breaking down. It is breaking down because the lease for
Hanger 3 on Treasure Island states it is to be used exclusively for “fabrication of a special event structure and
art exhibit only and for no other purpose” according to the
Tech Crunch article. Google’s initial
story didn’t fit that requirement. Sticking to the it could have jeopardized
the lease and stopped the project cold.
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| Portland Maine Barge |
At the heart of the controversy is the ineptness of the
cover story, and the handling of the entire supposedly hush-hush project. If you want to maintain a low profile, you
don’t build a monstrous oddball structure next to a bridge within view of
several hundred thousand people a day.
It all broke down when some folks wondered if a permit had been
issued to moor in San Francisco
Bay
The first question is, is this a Google project or a
government project using Google for cover? Given the proclivity of this administration
for ineptness, my vote goes to the government.
Cover stories for top secret marine projects are not new, and some have
been tremendously successful as well as well hidden. The most
famous took place almost 40 years ago.
Then a ship ostensibly built by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes was
to be used to search for and mine manganese nodules from the sea bottom over 3
miles deep. The ship, the Glomar Explorer
set sail in 1974 amid a storm of controversy of who owned the sea bottom and
who could mine it. The UN got involved
claiming the sea bottom outside nations’ 200 mile economic zone belonged to
it. It claimed it should have sole
authority for licensing and royalties.
The noisier the controversy, the more it masked the true purpose – to raise and salvage a
Soviet missile submarine from where it sank beneath 16,000 feet of water in the
North Pacific in a project codenamed Azorian.
Let’s first look at the cast
of characters for Google Barges: There
are 4 barges under construction. They
are registered to a Delaware California
barge appears to be made with a larger number of “containers” than its Maine California
barge has 12 “masts” installed where the Maine New London ,
Connecticut
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| April 2013 imagery showing the two Google barges and the Hughes Mining Barge HMB-1 |
Google Earth imagery gives
a good look at the two California
Barge C is one of the most
unusual marine vessels ever conceived.
It is the HMB-1 (Hughes Mining Barge), a submersible floating drydock
with a retractable roof. It is no
stranger to black ops. It was designed
to work with the Glomar Explorer in Project Azorian. It covertly transferred the monstrous “claw”
to the underbelly of the Glomar Explorer from a submerged position. And it may have been intended as the covert
receptacle for the Soviet sub once retrieved.
The claw is what clamped around the Soviet sub to raise it. The sub however never made it to the US
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| Stealth ship Sea Shadow docking in HMB-1 |
So why was the HMB-1 at Treasure Island at the same time the Google Barges? Good question! It may be coincidental, but it makes you
wonder. Here’s the story: It was purchased by Bay Ship and Yacht
Corporation of Alameda Alameda
It is difficult to
conceive the barges as a Google project. The
story keeps changing. And the
multi-billion high-tech firm simply wouldn’t use a rusting barge to do high
tech research or operate a training center.
It doesn’t fit its image. More
likely it is some government project to be kept under wraps until later.
What is the project? Island Turtle doesn’t know? Several come to mind. But none fit conclusively. I’ll review three of them, but it is more
likely some other project we simply don’t know about. Here are some thoughts with pros and cons.
1. A mobile
command center for Homeland Security in the event of a WMD (terrorist or
missile) attack on a coastal city.
Pros: Homeland Security is awash in money and
taking its job seriously. It conducts
communications and civil unrest exercises with local police in major urban
areas.
Cons: While potential prime east coast targets are
fairly closely spaced, Boston to Washington San Francisco to San Diego
2. A floating mobile ballistic missile defense system.
Pros: The Air Force Mid-Course Ground Based Interceptor
system is in trouble. The updated
version scheduled for production has had multiple failures. The US Navy’s Aegis/Standard Missile has had
an excellent track record and newer versions will have a capability to
intercept ICBMs such as those North Korea
and Iran Europe by
Europeans for the same reasons. Barges
are much cheaper.
Cons: The square footage of the barge superstructures
is far in excess of the needs for a launch crew. And despite their mobility, barges are easy
to spot with satellites. Security for a
floating barge is more difficult than for a land based version.
3. A floating replacement for the prison at Guantanamo Bay
Pros: The Bangor newspaper said the Portland Maine San Francisco Bay where “escape proof” Alcatraz is located. Maine New London
“Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound took part in a conference call on July 1 with a naval architect, a marine transportation company and Michael Tierney, of Google Glass, to review the plans. The purpose of the vessel is not described in the [FOIA] documents, but they reveal a plan to operate the vessel in various ports, the first being New York Harbor
Editor’s note: The last sentence of the quote above has been edited out of The Day story. It was found here, quoting the original version.
Cons: Would Google lend its name in any way to a prison ship? I think not.
Would floating prison ships allow the administration to bypass federal law forbidding the use of federal funds transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo to the US by shortstopping them to barges just offshore, but in international waters?
At some point we will know
the answer, but number 3 makes the most sense now.
