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We began with the point that the history of the crop circles resembles that of UFO research and it may be observed pessimistically that little or nothing has been learned from the latter. We have seen in the preceding chapter that circle-making has its roots in UFO hoaxes and the sensitivity of some researchers to this led them to adopt a more guarded approach to the circles. Others have been less cautious. Like ufology, circles research has become prone to paranoia and conspiracy theory and the themes of this chapter constitute some of the strangest episodes in cerealogy. Government Involvement? Following the hoax at Bratton Castle, during the highly publicized Operation Blackbird, a story began doing the rounds, to the effect that the hoaxers were a special army unit and the motive behind their deployment was government discomfort at the escalating public interest in a phenomenon which appeared to have no obvious rational explanation. George Wingfield, in The Cerealogist, expounded this idea, suggesting that the key to the affair was in the objects found in the circles, when they were inspected by Andrews and Delgado. These were reported variously as 'ouija boards', zodiac or horoscope games, wooden crosses and a length of line, corresponding to the diameter of several of the circles in the formation. The crucial question was why, having made a formation under the noses of the surveillance operation, the makers had then left obvious pointers to the fact that this was a man-made event? Wingfield described receiving information from a friend who had a contact in a 'senior position’ in the army, who had ‘supplied sensitive information in the past’. The information was nothing short of sensational; the formation had been made by a detachment of troops, on the orders of 'the Government’. Connecting all this with similarly anonymous reports that the circles had been discussed ‘at Cabinet level’, Wingfield concluded that the items found in the circles were there precisely in order to identify the circles as hoaxes, in order that, very publicly, the circles phenomenon would be seen as nothing There were elements of the hoax which were suggestive of inside knowledge of the surveillance operation. It occurred on the second night of the operation, at a time when neither Andrews nor Delgado were there, at a crucial distance from the observation post, just out of range of the image intensifier equipment. Seemingly, the hoaxers had known of the protocols which required that nobody would enter a formation until Andrews and Delgado were on site and had predicted correctly that an surveillance operation. The observation post was owned by the army and two soldiers were in attendance throughout the operation, equipped with night sights. They were said to have been absent on the night that the hoax occurred. John Macnish says in his book Crop Circle Apocalypse that he equipped the soldiers with supplementary gear to conduct their own independent surveillance, following the hoax, and that they 8. Paranoia and conspiracy more than a hoax. announcement to the media would be made immediately. There were also facts which demonstrated a certain amount of military involvement, at least in the