by Ryan G. Banister
UPDATE: The page pertaining to the "Projected Scalable Water Jet" reappeared on ARA's website (http://www.ara.com/Projects/p_waterjet.htm), and the web archive's earliest recording of its appearance is December 11, 2009. This means that this page
was not available for over a year between July 5, 2008 and December 11,
2009. ARA also has modified certain information on the page, changing
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to "the customer," and any other
mention of LANL was removed. Could they be attempting to protect their
customer in this case?
Albuquerque, NM (VN) – Meet Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA), a leading international defense contractor that works with governmental and corporate bodies across the world, including the United States government's Department of Defense (DoD). This company serves many purposes for government, including weapons testing, development and manufacturing, as well as psychological operations. ARA has been developing advanced weapons systems since its inception in 1979.
This cryptic organization uses equivocated terms across their website to describe their function as a defense contractor, such as “ technology services” and “ mission-critical solutions”:
On March 1, 2007, ARA posted the information below concerning a certain weapon, which has since been removed from its website-- the “Prototype Disruptor,” which was also referred to as the Projected Scalable Water Jet:ARA is one of the fastest growing technology services companies in the country. We bring together employees with diverse backgrounds and experience to enhance the creativity and innovation of the mission-critical solutions we provide. Source: http://www.ara.com/Careers/working_at_ara.htm
ARA claims that they have designed a scalable disruptor, with assistance from representatives of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). They allege that this device has the capacity to “disrupt and defeat” explosives and their associated components. Dr. Judy Wood, a structural engineer with a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering Science, quoted the above page from ARA on her website on October 9, 2007, while investigating modern weapons technologies and the events of September 11, 2001. Less than a year after this information appeared on DrJudyWood.com, the above page about the “Prototype Disruptor” was taken down from ARA.com. As seen on the WayBackMachine, web.archive.org, no record of this page can be viewed on ARA's website past July 5, 2008, meaning that the page existed for approximately 16 months. They appear to be concealing this information. The question is, why? ARA also happens to be the company that was awarded a contract to investigate the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001 under funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST):
In addition, ARA was a primary Respondent in Dr. Wood's Qui Tam case, following her Request For Corrections to NIST, as well as other notable entities such as Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and Underwriter's Laboratory, Inc. (UL):Data from ARA's research was provided to established the initial conditions for the fire dynamics modeling and the thermal-structural response and collapse initiation analysis in subsequent NIST sponsored projects. Source: http://www.ara.com/Projects/SVO/NIST_WTC.htm
On the web archive, we find a page entitled, “Technology and systems to support and protect our warfighters: Related Capabilities,” which is dated February 2, 2007, and has since been removed:
Source: http://www.ara.com/capabilities/defense.htm
ARA has since modified pages relating to “Weapon systems” and “Weapon effects,” removing the following images, which show weapons and ballistics testing:
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20080209112334/http://www.ara.com/capabilities/c_weapon_systems.htm
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20071210212925/http://www.ara.com/capabilities/c_weapon_effectiveness.htm
They have also completely removed the page about “Advanced energy systems,” on which made references to “lightweight deployable fuel cell electric power generators.” Could this be a coincidence? Maybe. However, there seems to be a pattern of concealment happening here. It would be wise, if we wish to keep those we call government and its subsidiaries accountable, for us to take notice of defense contractors, and we should to pay especially close attention to the information that they release, as well as that which they conceal.
