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Black helicopters are part of a conspiracy theory, prevalent among the American militia, that claims that special silent running "black" helicopters are used by secret agents of the New World Order, United Nations troops preparing to invade the United States of America, and/or the Men in Black. Thinking they were under surveillance by "black helicopters," the Militia of Montana once tried to shoot down a National Guard helicopter on a training mission which flew over a ranch owned by fugitive militia leader Calvin Greenup.
Parapsychologist John Keel has argued that this theory has origins similar to those of UFOs, ghosts and fairies, i.e. that they are part of modern mythology; in this case, representing a fear of the government and its technology.
The greatest media attention to "black helicopters" was paid in February, 1995, when first-term Republican northern Idaho congressman Helen Chenoweth charged that armed federal agents were landing "black helicopters" (pronounced "heliocopters") on Idaho ranchers' property to enforce the Endangered Species Act. "I have never seen them," Chenoweth said in an interview in the New York Times. "But enough people in my district have become concerned that I can't just ignore it. We do have some proof." Chenoweth made the charges at a press conference without ever consulting with the Department of Interior.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Agency, which enforces the act, says that they do not own any helicopters and have never used any in Idaho. The only green and black helicopters in Idaho are used by the National Guard. Black helicopters without FAA-required running lights are regularly used by the drug interdiction office of the DEA. In addition, most US Army helicopters (such as the Black Hawk) are finished in a very dark chocolate or olive matte paint. With the progressive development of night-vision goggles, the need for helicopters to be lit when moving as a planned formation has been reduced.
But "black helicopters" resonates well with the militia movement's conspiracy theories of black helicopters from the United Nations invading the West. They fear that federal environmental regulations are just the beginning of the one-world government long feared by most right-wingers, (however, few believe that is occurring right now, except for xenophobic ultra-rightwing parties, such as the John Birch Society). This fear is epitomized by the United Nations' designation of Yellowstone National Park as a World Heritage Site (even though the designation was authored by Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, and the park has not lost its status as a national treasure.
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