<P><B><DC=0,164,224>The Story Behind... Majestic 12
<P>by Beeblebrx
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<P>The story of Deus Ex relies heavily on conspiracy theories and myths about mystic men controlling everything. Today (and in the following weeks) we'll try to give you an in-depth explanation about Majestic 12, Area51 and The Illuminati. Who are they and what function do they have? In short; we'll fill in the missing gaps in the otherwise brilliant story that is DX.
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<P><B>The UFOs are here
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<P>Majestic-12, or MJ-12 as it's known in shorthand, was (allegedly) created by President Truman in 1947 to investigate severel UFO-sightings. MJ12's purpose was to analyze, investigate and if possible, make contact with the UFOs that (allegedly) landed in the desert in Roswell, New Mexico. The task was to be dealt with with utter secrecy and therefore the whole operation was smoke screened and tagged top secret right from the beginning. They figured that keeping it secret while communicating with the aliens would prevent a widespread panic in the US and abroad. All this is true. That is if you believe in the validity of the information that almost miraculously turned up in a mailbox in 1984...
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<P>An L.A. journalist called Jaime Shandera (perhaps the name of the DX-character Jaime Reyes can be attributed to this guy?) recieved the documents on microfilm, had them developed and was baffled by the unusual content of the package. We all know journalists and thus the news of the finding spread quickly. Very quickly.
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<P><B>It's majic
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<P>The documents that Shandera recieved contained a list of 12 members (hence the name Majestic-12) of an executive group that were to command the organization and report any findings to the U.S. President. The group was a mix of leading scientists and generals from the military. All people mentioned on the list (see the first picture for details) were - convieniently for the author? - dead by the time Jaime Shandera saw the documents, so they couldn't defend themselves of the allegations.