Date: 1995–Present
Location: Denver, Colorado
The Conspirators: The New World Order
The Victims: Unsuspecting innocents worldwide
Conspiracy theorists claim that the New World Order—a mysterious and poorly defined shadow cabal of illuminati—built the Denver International Airport to act as both a headquarters from which the world’s elite would launch global genocide and a vast prison camp made to contain those who resist.
When the airport opened in 1995 to replace Stapleton International Airport, questions began to emerge almost immediately from the fringe. Why was it even needed, since Stapleton appeared to be perfectly good? Why is so much of it hidden underground? Why does it appear to be built like a giant prison camp, with tall razor wire fences canted inward as if to keep people in, not out? And above all, what’s with all the weird symbolism in its bizarre artwork? According to the conspiracy theorists, just about everything about the airport is another piece of proof that the takeover by the New World Order is about to begin.
Denver International Airport is an international airport in Denver. There are no reliable reports of anything contradicting that.
In 1990, construction started on the Denver International Airport and the project ended up as a topic of conversation right away. For starters, why was the airport even being built at all? Many people felt that the old Stapleton International Airport was just fine. And why was it being built so far outside of the city?
Then something odd happened. Large concrete bunker-like buildings were constructed in excavated pits and then buried. While an unsuspicious observer might think nothing of underground spaces being built, some online communities took this very seriously. To this day they insist that the builders explained this away by saying the buildings had been “built wrong” and were therefore buried—an odd explanation for an odd event.
Soon bizarre nonsense phrases like “DZIT DIT GAII” were found inlaid in the airport’s floors. Some have interpreted these as alien languages, perhaps foretelling who shall assist the New World Order when it comes time to exterminate humankind. How will this be accomplished? Another inlay, “Au Ag,” has been interpreted to refer to Australia antigen, a powerful toxin, possibly the weapon of choice.
The Denver International Airport’s art collection is said by conspiracy theorists to be proof of the New World Order headquarters. Two such pieces are the two diptychs (two-part murals) created by artist Leo Tanguma. One part of the first diptych depicts a frightening Nazi-style soldier wreaking havoc; in the second part the soldier lies dead, vanquished by the children of the world who have now reforged his weapons into plows. In the other diptych, a future Earth is shown laid to waste, with the only remaining animals being exhibits behind museum glass; the second part shows children tending a rejuvenated Earth. Both murals have been interpreted as depicting the New World Order’s plans to destroy the planet and all those on it, only to then rebuild it with a Utopian society of their own design.
Particularly chilling was the 2007 breakage of a large number of aircraft windshields, said to have been caused by an electromagnetic pulse weapon, possibly a test of some defensive weapon to protect the New World Order headquarters. But perhaps most suspicious of all is a massive object labeled as a time capsule: a granite capstone with a mysterious control keypad inscribed with unintelligible symbols, and a brass plaque proclaiming the “New World Airport Commission.” This keypad holds what conspiracy theorists believe to be the buttons that the New World Order will press to initiate global genocide.
While it’s easy to take a look at the theories and think something may be going on, there are rational explanations for every issue theorists bring up about the Denver International Airport. The razor wire fences said to make it look like a prison are the most commonly cited piece of evidence. However, a drive to the airport reveals that this is not the case at all. The runways are protected by fencing, like runways at all airports, but stockades consisting of inward-canted razor wire simply don’t exist there.
They say a new airport wasn’t needed and this was just an excuse to build a New World headquarters. Well, it turns out that a new airport was desperately needed, and no conspiracy was necessary to explain its construction. Stapleton was a major noise nuisance inside Denver, its runways were too short to accommodate modern jets, and there were too few runways to accommodate all the international flights. A new airport was absolutely needed, one located comfortably far away where neither noise nor space were a problem.
And those underground buildings? Simply a new state-of-the-art automated baggage handling system. Unfortunately, it never worked well and was eventually abandoned, but its underground spaces are still used for conventional baggage handling. No discernible mystery exists down there.
The flooring? Well, “Au Ag” are simply the chemical symbols for silver and gold, a nod to Colorado’s mining history, as the mining carts and other objects inlaid in the floor indicate (strange that the conspiracy theorists missed those). It doesn’t represent Australia antigen, because that’s abbreviated as HBsAg. Regardless, it isn’t a toxin; it’s the surface protein of hepatitis B, which is treatable and rarely fatal. Therefore it’s unlikely that those who use the words “DZIT DIT GAII” are going to kill us all with it. And who are these people who use those words? The Navajo. Those words in that “alien language” are actually the Navajo names for sacred mountains in Colorado.
The same goes for the two murals. Denver International Airport hosts an extensive permanent art collection and numerous temporary exhibitions, all of which explore many different themes. Why the conspiracy theorists have selected these two in particular, and attributed nefarious symbolism to them while ignoring the many others, is singularly bizarre.
In addition, those 2007 windshield breakages were neither unusual nor unexplained. Colorado often has high winds, and an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that these were all caused by wind-thrown debris. It happens at windy airports everywhere. And sufficient proof that no electromagnetic pulse weapon was involved lies in the fact that glass is not affected by electromagnetic pulses.
So what about the “New World Airport Commission”? Well, far from being the illuminati, this was simply an association of local civic and business leaders who sponsored the celebratory events at the airport’s opening, which is easy enough to find by anyone willing to look up newspaper articles from 1995. And that alleged control pad with strange buttons? It’s just the braille translation of the words inscribed on the time capsule’s brass plaque. The time capsule’s capstone, by the way, bears the symbol of the Freemasons, an organization that has played no small part in sparking the imagination of the conspiracy theorists. It’s there simply because the time capsule was placed by the local Freemason lodge, as is the case with a large percentage of such capsules around the country.
Generally, successful conspiracies are those that are never discovered. When theorists discover what they believe to be evidence of conspiracy broadly and publicly trumpeted all over a giant public space, chances are they’ve probably misinterpreted it. And let’s be honest: evil plans are not typically publicized with artwork. Did Nixon order that a mural showing GOP spies breaking into a hotel room be installed in the lobby of the Watergate Hotel? No, and neither should you expect some mythical New World Order to announce their genocidal plans in this way.