Las Vegas New Mexico, Armand Hammer, And The Church Of Scientology

[blove8.]

Yesterday I drove into Las Vegas, New Mexico for nothing more than to soak in the Montezuma Hot Springs. In this little venture I came upon some interesting information which I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

First, on my way to the springs I saw a castle off in the distance, on the side of a mountain. As I made my way closer to the springs I came to the foot of this castle. It's called the Montezuma Castle shown here:



This castle is now owned by the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West. I remember seeing something about Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) somewhere and knew that he was some sort of power elite type character. Some looking around found that he was an American industrialist and art collector. Hammer was the CEO of the Occidental Petroleum Company, an oil and natural gas exploration and development company.



Later in the evening I stopped into a taco joint which was virtually vacant. The owner and I began talking and she pointed out some more interesting facts about Las Vegas, New Mexico.... I asked her a bit more about the school and she said that they only accept 80 new students per year and that they come from all around the world. Not only that, but the students are not allowed to leave campus unless they are escorted by a school official. I thought this was strange. I wonder what they are teaching these kids? Not only that, according to this person, Prince Charles and other Royals visit this school regularly. Hmmm. (still looking for proof of this)

My local friend also informed me that Las Vegas is the home to the Church of Scientology's vault which hold the titanium engraved plates which founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote. This vault was quite secret until Anderson Cooper did a story on it back in Dec. 2005 (transcript). Come to find out, the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) oversees this vault and is a Scientology corporation formed also by L. Ron Hubbard.

I'm wondering if there is some sort of connection between all of this. I feel as if I stepped into the twilight zone here in Las Vegas, N.M.

Has anyone else heard of any of this? It seems like it might be another piece to the puzzle, though, I'm not sure which direction to take it and thought I would start this post to get some of your views. What do you think?

URIs used in this post:
http://www.google.com/maps?q=Las+Vegas,+NM...&iwloc=addr
http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/montezum.htm
http://www.uwc-usa.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Hammer
http://www.oxy.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Sci...y_International
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbar...ersial_episodes
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0...cd.01.html

[Skinski7]

Here is a link to a transcript of a C-Span interview with Edward Epstein who wrote 'Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer.


http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1343'



As I mentioned to you in chat I had read "Armand Hammer: The Untold Story" which was an unauthorised biography of the man and was quite well sourced. It really gave a good picture of the man, of his shrewdness and energy. I remember finding his communist connections of interest which lead to him being investigated by the FBI.

[blove8.]

Thanks for the reply and the info Skinski. Unfortunately that link is giving a database error. Maybe it'll come back sometime soon.

Edit: Ah, it took the ' off the end and it worked...
http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1343

[Henry]

Hammer reminds me of a smaller, American version of a Cecil Rhodes-type character.

The school(s) seem to be definitely for the elite, this being the part of your post where the waters start getting deep...

"The Armand Hammer United World College is one of nine colleges under the International Board of the United World Colleges, whose central office is in London. All colleges follow a curriculum and set of programs similar to the one first developed at Atlantic College in Wales in 1962. The term college is used in the British sense, meaning the last two years of schooling before entry into a university. Through national committees, each institution recruits students ages 16 to 19 from around the world. The chairpersons of these committees form the International Council."


http://www.uwc.org/about_us

Check it out - after reading I wouldn't doubt it at all that Charles does in fact visit. When words like "sustainable future" and "unite people, nations and cultures for peace," are combined with "funds are raised from ...foundations, ...non-governmental organisations and governments" the picture become pretty clear the type of crowd we're talking about. I'd love to see a list of the last names of their student body. Wish I had more time right now to pursue this, but wife will be home soon and needs/deserves attention.

Here's a link to their intranet - would love to hear from the concen hacker/illuminati-hunter who gets in first.
http://www.uwc.org/intranet

Good night, and travel safe.



update: check this out, for an inside peek into the school's community http://ia300204.us.archive.org/0/items/ahu...AHUWC_Print.pdf

[Easy Skanking]

It's interesting seeing where some of these kids wound up working and in such vacation spots like Iraq.
Interesting find.

[blove8.]

Yeah, some work for the government accountibility office, General Elelctric, and other corporations. Then again, I read one who got tired of the corporate world and started her own adventure company. Very interesting Henry. Nice find!

[Thirtyseven]

Fascinating nuggets! Super cool post, thank you.