Plum Island: Bio Weapons, UFOs, Secrets and Cover-Ups

By Bill Knell

Plum Island is located one hundred and thirty six miles from New York City, just a mile and half off of the northeast coast of Long Island nearest to Orient point and only ten miles from the U.S. Submarine Base at Groton, Connecticut. Access to the island is restricted. This is understandable since the Plum Island Animal Disease Center is located there.

The research center is said to be a level-4 bioresearch facility, but no one really knows what goes on there. The government has been anything but forthcoming about past, present and future activities on the island. What we do know is that it began as part of a national defense facility known as Fort Terry. The fort was built after the U.S. Government purchased Plum Island during the Spanish-American War.

Fort Terry stayed active until just after World War II. At that time it was deactivated, but remained government property that was not open to the public. I have heard a few stories from ex-military members over the years regarding some secret signal corps work that took place there during and for a few years after the war. It was during that time that UFOs were first reported over the island.

Most of the ex-military members that contacted me about Plum Island had UFO stories to tell. All had been briefly stationed on the island during World War II and up until the early 1950s. A few claimed they had been part of an elite group of soldiers trained on the island for secret communication and code work. I received these stories as a result of a cable TV show I had which ran on Long Island’s Cablevision during the 1980s.

They described seeing disc and cigar shaped craft which, occasionally, caused a great deal of alarm among the military and civilian workers located there. Some of these encounters were relatively close with reports of red and orange glowing discs briefly hovering at tree and roof top levels. It’s entirely possible that whatever secret communication and code work took place on Plum Island during and shortly after World War Two attracted Extraterrestrials. Then the strange got stranger.

In the early 1950s Plum Island welcomed a new government tenant. The U.S. Army Chemical Corps set up shop there in 1952. Little is known about the work they did on the island, but we believe it must have had something to do with the development and possible testing of chemical weapons (including weaponized bio-hazardous diseases). Although the island was located in a relatively remote area during that time, Long Island had a fast growing population and Plum wouldn’t stay isolated for very long.

In 1954 the Army began sharing the island with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At that time the government circulated stories which indicated that the Army handed over control of the island to the Department of Agriculture so that they could establish a center for the study of foot and mouth disease in cattle after outbreaks had occurred in Mexico and Canada. It’s more likely that the Army continued doing whatever they were doing and simply made room for the Department of Agriculture.

With a growing tourist and residential population encroaching on the area of Long Island that allowed restricted ferry access to Plum Island employees, it was probably hoped the presence of the Department of Agriculture research center would take the edge off the fact that a military chemical weapons lab existed in an area uncomfortably close to the local inhabitants of and visitors to Orient Point, as well as the millions of people that live and work within a hundred mile radius.

Despite government efforts to keep a lid on whatever was happening on Plum Island, the place gained the nickname of Anthrax Island by the mid-1960s. By 1969, the political winds blowing at that time blew against the development, storage and use of chemical weapons. As a result, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the immediate discontinuation of all chemical weapons programs that the government was involved in.

It’s unknown how much or little that presidential decree effected what went on at Plum Island. After all, most secret programs are highly compartmentalized and hidden by a series of misleading project names with intentionally misstated descriptions, agendas and goals. Most people did not notice any decrease in the number of employees that headed out to the island on the special ferry or closure of any of the active buildings among the seventy structures that exist on the island.

It’s fascinating to note that Rudder Magazine, a popular pleasure boating publication, published a story in one of their 1969 issues concerning UFOs appearing to boaters off the coast of Long Island. According to the article, some of the busiest areas for sightings and close encounters existed in the Long Island Sound and the Block Island Sound (located between Orient and Montauk Points).

Pleasure boaters were describing glowing saucer and cigar shaped objects above, on and even under the water. These were the same shapes described by the former military members that had been stationed briefly on Plum Island during and just after World War II. Many of the sightings described in the article had taken place during the past three years (1966-1969). At the same time there was a definite upsurge in UFO reports from the mainland as well.

UFOs are often seen in the vicinity of military bases and secret research facilities. While it’s almost impossible to find out what is really happening at such places, it’s hard to ignore what seems to Extraterrestrial interest in cattle. For over one hundred years there have been reliable worldwide reports of cattle that have gone missing or been mutilated with surgical precision in conjunction with the sightings of UFOs and what appear to be Alien Beings.

If Aliens have an interest in cattle, they would probably be interested in what goes on at Plum Island Animal Disease Center. Because all the animals used for research there are kept indoors and away from the eyes of casual observers, I cannot speculate on any possible missing or mutilated cattle events that may have occurred on the island. No one has reported any to me and I wouldn’t expect them to considering the liability that potential whistleblowers might face if they did. I can say that there have been a number of cases of cattle, domestic pet and wild game mutilation cases associated with UFOs in nearby communities for many years.

While no one has found bags of contaminated animal parts floating in the water near the island, there have been problems there and lots of allegations of outbreaks caused by carelessness or secret bio-warfare research. The 1990s were particularly rough for Plum Island. In 1991 Hurricane Bob caused a power outage which disabled air pressure systems that kept viruses contained. A 1992 press event held at Building 101 designed to alleviate public fears about the place backfired.

One report that came out of that press conference said that the entire island had just two armed guards for security. Other reports questioned the methods used to secure the research animals and viruses kept on the island. Then there were reports that some of the research on the island involved Zoontoic Diseases which had the capability of jumping from animals to humans.

In 1995 the federal government issued an $111,000 fine to the Department of Agriculture for storing hazardous chemicals at the research center. Some members of congress also began to question the Animal Disease Research Center’s ability to safely carry out the roughly 30,000 diagnostic and other tests that took place there every year. Then, from June through September of 1999, a series of disease outbreaks occurred on Long Island which locals believed were directly linked to Plum Island.

In June of 1999 there was a sudden and unexplained outbreak of encephalitis spread by ticks in New England. At the same time a sickness with flu-like symptoms afflicted people on Block Island. In August of 1999 a Suffolk County Boy Scout Camp was closed after Malaria suddenly appeared there. At least one of the volunteers from that camp was said to have been employed at Plum Island. All the while West Nile Virus was spreading through Suffolk County and people wondered if Plum Island had anything to do with it.

Just when things seemed to be settling down, members of the International Union of Operating Engineers went on strike during August of 2002. These were workers hired by a subcontractor that worked as boat operators, safety technicians and employees working at various decontamination and waste water plants on the island. During the strike, water pressure was lost in at least one occasion. That meant that water needed for cleaning and decontamination procedures was unavailable.

Problems on the island date back to the days when the Army was conducting anti-animal biological warfare research designed to infect the cattle and livestock of our enemies. Most of that work was done at a facility known as Building 257. That structure was originally part of Fort Terry and used for the storage of torpedoes, mines and other weapons. Various people who claim insider information about this building say it was never built to accommodate the kind of bio-warfare or research work that went on there and that those kinds of projects should not have been located there.

Building 257 became a USDA facility in 1954 after some renovation work. However, it’s been reported that the U.S. Army Chemical Corps was already using this structure as a bio-weapons laboratory before any of the renovation work was completed. According to several sources, Lyme disease may have been developed in that building. This has never been substantiated. With cattle and other research animals allegedly kept in open pens during those days it’s entirely possible that any bio-weapons developed there could have escaped the island.

Construction of Building 101 was completed in 1956 and it was never used as part of the Army Chemical Corps program as far as I know. The 164,000 square-foot USDA facility has been renovated and expanded several times since then. Today, it’s a very modern-looking facility. Spokespersons claim that state of the art equipment has been installed for use in research work and security.

Despite trying to put a happy face on a place with such a bizarre history, many critics believe that if all they are doing out there is researching foot and mouth disease, the threat is no longer there and the facility should be closed. In 2002 the government announced that the Animal Disease Center was transferred from the USDA to U.S. Department of Homeland Security which announced that the facility would eventually be closed and replaced by a more modern one being built in Manhattan, Kansas.

The USDA later clarified the actual status of Plum Island by saying that Homeland Security was not actually taking over the facility, but had merely “joined us” on the island in 2003 to provide for “the safety and security of the facility.” In fact, the USDA was still running the research work at the Animal Disease Center with no plans to close it in the foreseeable future.

It’s possible that Homeland Security has set up a show of their own on the island along with whatever the USDA is doing. After all, their website states that “Land, buildings and other facilities of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security in June 2003.” That sounds like they are there to do more than just provide security.

It’s interesting to note that the ‘official’ budget for the Plum Island facility jumped from sixteen million dollars in 2002 to forty-six million dollars in 2008. This is fascinating since the place is supposed to be scaling down its work in favor of the Manhattan, Kansas, facility set to open sometime after 2015. It those kinds of curious statistics that make people wonder about what is really happening on Plum Island.

The recent discovery of two ‘monsters’ on the shores of eastern Long Island near a popular surfing spot have added to the questions about what’s going at Plum Island. The first was found in July of 2008 and became known as the Montauk Monster because it was found so close to Montauk Point. It looked like an animal that was part dog and cow and seemed to have a beak. Several veterinarians and scientists have said it was probably a dog, raccoon or sheep carcass, but known of these explanations seem to fit. The carcass of the animal was stolen from the front yard of a man who had it and the mystery surrounding this creature continues.

The second Montauk Monster looked similar to the first and was found in May of 2009. It had similar cow-type coloring and again sported what looked like a beak. Because of its cow-type markings, many people began to speculate that it was yet another creation brought to you by the mad scientists of Plum Island. Considering all the secrecy that surrounds the Animal Disease Research Center, they may be right.

Years ago I began showing the photo of what appeared to be a cat and rabbit that had been genetically altered and combined in my seminars (The Worldwide UFO Cover-UP available on DVD). Most people were skeptical at that time, but today I still receive emails from people that recall the photo or have watched the DVD of my seminar and now accept the photo as proof that cloning technology is far more advanced that we all have been lead to believe.

I have come to believe that some U.S. Government agencies or entities are using technology that is at least one hundred years ahead of what most people use in their home or office. While the actual source of that kind of advanced technology is unknown, I have to assume that necessity is still the mother of invention. If there is a need for technology, the government will throw money and resources at it until they have what they need or want. With a place like Plum Island available for animal research, the temptation to genetically play god might prove too tempting to resist.

Today, public access to Plum Island is still restricted. Few who have serious questions about the past, present or future of the research facilities there are satisfied with the occasional press opportunities and official responses currently available from those who say they are in charge. As with so many other things the government is involved with, secrecy and past lies has lead to public distrust. However, in the case of Plum Island, that distrust is also an honest concern for human and animal health that needs to be seriously address by those in power.

Return to Articles