A giant conundrum that crosses the continents

The previous part of this investigation into the tall tales buried by the Smithsonian concluded with accounts of pilgrims travelling from the orient to pay homage to the “Child Of The Sun” in a cave in the Grand Canyon where G E Kinkaid had allegedly discovered an underground citadel in 1909, where giant mummies and ancient relics were found during a dig paid for by the institution and shipped back to Washington for study.

This interest from across the ocean broadens the perspective of the giant conundrum and when exploring the history of cultures from all around the world it is a theme that almost universally repeats itself. It even calls into question the motives behind the war waged on Iraq from 2003-11 when United States President George Bush and United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair sent troops in on the pretext of searching for sites where “weapons of mass destruction” were being produced.

During the hostilities in the Middle East stories emerged about priceless artefacts being looted from the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, of a gunfight between US Special Forces and the “Kandahar Giant” that took place during the Invasion Of Afghanistan in 2002 and the entire campaign in Iraq being a cover for a covert quest to locate a “stargate” discovered following excavations at Ur from 1922-34 by a team from the British Museum and Penn Museum in Philadelphia, which had been set up in 1887 following a successful expedition in Iraq at Nippur, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

The 12-year project, led by British archaeologist Leonard Woolley, discovered around 2,000 graves located in the ancient city, with 16 designated as “royal” due to the spectacular treasures inside them, including gold beads, bronze relics, seals, musical instruments, ceramics and many other artefacts.

But one enduring omission from the list of artefacts found at Ur is the alleged discovery of evidence of “stargate” technology that has left Iraq in a constant state of flux ever since. Some believe it to have been a catalyst in the outbreak of the Anglo-Iraqi War in 1941, the Mosul Uprising (1959), the Iraqi-Kurdish War (1961-70), the 17 July Revolution (1968), the second Iraqi-Kurdish War (1974-75), the Gulf War (1990-91), the Iraq War (2003-11) and the War In Iraq (2013-17).

Although never being openly cited as a factor in these conflicts, if the stories were true the possession of such technology would certainly have trumped any other factors responsible for the outbreak of these hostilities.

In the period before the outbreak of the Gulf War Saddam Hussein had ordered a huge restoration project be carried out at the Great Ziggurat of Ur, one of humanity’s oldest and most sacred structures, with many observers believing the project, started in 1985, to be driven by the Iraqi leader’s discovery of the stargate and his desire to harness its incredible power.

Since the superpowers were believed to be aware of the discovery and desperate to prevent Saddam’s plans and secure the technology for themselves, the Iraqi leader needed a secure fortress in which to locate the stargate or convince hostile interests it could be found there.

So, anxious to secure the stargate, the US needed a reason to enter Iraq to capture the incredible technology and the opportunity arrived on 11 September 2001, following terrorist attacks on strategic US targets allegedly carried out by the Osama Bin Laden-led al-Qaeda movement.

These “false-flag” attacks led to the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, when a US-led international coalition was sent in to depose the Taliban government and capture Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members believed to be harboured there.

So in 2002 US forces found themselves in the mountains around Kandahar searching for Bin Laden’s hideout when a group allegedly encountered a massive red-haired figure exiting the mouth of a cave.

The encounter with the giant followed concerns that a reconnaissance patrol could have gone missing after failing to report in for days, so a second team of US Special Forces soldiers was despatched to track them down. High up in the mountains they made their way through the rocky valleys until they came across broken rifles, torn uniforms and gear belonging to the missing patrol that led to the entrance of a cave.

Approaching the opening a soldier, reportedly named “Dan”, was about to enter the cave when he let out a terrified cry as a spear pierced his body, lifting him off the ground and killing him immediately. Then, without warning, a huge giant with flaming red hair and a beard rushed forward and attacked the remaining soldiers resulting in a firefight of sustained gunfire that lasted for less than 30 seconds before the figure – who stood 12 to 15 feet tall and allegedly had six fingers, six toes and double rows of teeth – was brought down.

The team immediately called in a report about the incident and a heavy-cargo Chinook military helicopter was sent out to transport the body from the remote mountainous area. After being taken back to their base of operations members of the elite unit were individually interrogated and then ordered to complete non-disclosure agreements.

The giant’s body was lifted onto a pallet, measuring at least seven feet by nine feet, and secured to the helicopter with cargo netting and airlifted to Bagram Airfield from where the corpse was prepared for further transport. It lay in a foetal position, but its hands, feet and head still hung over the pallet’s edges.

The cargo, weighed at about 1,100 pounds, was then loaded onto a C-130 transport aircraft and flown to Qatar from where it was later said to have been moved to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

But despite the non-disclosure orders tales of the Kandahar Giant have persisted, the internet bursting with accounts about the incident... with the Chinook pilot allegedly corroborating his part in the story in 2008 on George Noory’s “Coast To Coast AM” radio show in a December 3 report entitled “Flashpoints And Giants”. And, in the years that have followed, other reports have leaked out including an anonymous interview with a whistleblower claiming to have been a member of the team who killed the giant.

However, the legend of the Kandahar Giant wasn’t an isolated story... there were also reports of other sightings in various provinces captured using technological equipment. In 2008 an infantry soldier is said to have witnessed an unusual sight in Kunar province while using a prototype thermal scope. He saw what he thought was a group of suspected Taliban fighters sitting around a fire but when the entire heat signature rose up and began walking away he realised it was just one figure that he estimated to be at least 12 to 15 feet tall, with its head visible above surrounding trees.

A drone operator was also reported to have seen three giants tending a fire in a remote village in the northern part of the country, where their livestock appeared to be no bigger than cats or dogs next to them. Both sightings were dismissed as being the result of technological discrepancies..

Another sighting involves an Australian officer on guard duty in Uruzgan province who supposedly noticed a heat signature walking behind a compound estimated to be about 1,800 metres away by the thermal imaging. The signature towered over the roof of the structures and the officer claimed to have followed it for five minutes until the signature disappeared out of view.

No conclusive proof there that giants exist but if a stargate and giant corpse were flown back to the US from the Middle East you can bet that at some stage Smithsonian scientists would have been called in to analyse them, which you’d think would have generated a paper trail unless it was all classified.

It’s now more than 23 years since the US occupation of Iraq began, when stories immediately surfaced about massive looting taking place at the National Museum in Baghdad... see PART FIVE of this investigation for a look at what went missing and where in the world it ended up!

>>> Tall tales buried by the Smithsonian: PART THREE