John Hollenhorst Reporting

A LaVerkin City Councilman is leading a local fight against the United Nations, believing the U.N. is deliberately murdering millions of people by spraying poison from high altitudes. The belief is surprisingly widespread. And a woman in Escalante is also trying to sound the alarm.

Most people think the poisoning theory is nothing but silly paranoia. KSL thinks it's newsworthy because it helps explain the origins of the anti-UN movement in LaVerkin, which gained worldwide attention. The city councilman who wrote the anti-UN ordinance is part of a small but persistent group of true believers.

From her basement office, Toni Thayer believes she's fighting back against what I the most monstrous crime in history, if her beliefs are true that there's a United Nations plot to dominate the world.

Toni Thayer, Escalante: “They also intend to eliminate two-thirds of the human population.”

Like LaVerkin City Councilman Al Snow, she believes vapor-trails behind mysterious high-flying aircraft are actually a poison spray, that it's a campaign of mass murder on an unprecedented scale.

Toni Thayer, Escalante: “It is. And it’s time for Americans to wake up. It’s time for us to stand up in unison.”

She's created a poster presentation on the theory. In the Garfield County newspaper, she's published front-page articles. She has her own web-page. The Chemtrails theory has bounced around on the Internet and radio talk-shows for several years. Thayer claims up to 2,000 hits per day on her website, including many from government agencies.

Toni Thayer: “The US Navy was one of the top three visitors in May.”

Historian Robert Goldberg has studied and written about many similar, discredited, conspiracy theories by people opposed to the U.N.

Prof. Robert Goldberg, Univ. of Utah History Dept.: “These people actually frighten me.”

He worries that conspiracy thinking over the last 50 years has hurt the political system.

Prof. Robert Goldberg, Univ. of Utah History Dept: “And what we have seen is a gradual decline in public faith, in public officials. . . When federal officials lose the faith of their constituents that weakens American government.”

Thayer claims she was driven into hiding two years ago by government surveillance, a black helicopter and death threats.

Toni Thayer: “And that if I didn’t stop and back down that they would kill both myself and my son. . . They have a plan in place for a handpicked committee to run our country. . . Also throughouth this country, certainly from 2000 on, we’ve seen U.N. vehicles throughout the nation.”

She actually has several theories at once. ChemTrail spraying is mass murder by the U.N and it's a military plot to control the weather, and it's an environmental plot to create drought, drain Lake Powell, get cows off public land.

Toni Thayer: “And they’re trying to get us to move into the cities. And they’re scooping up all the water rights.” Prof. Robert Goldberg: "Conspiracy theory works and has become part of the mainstream because you have shows like the 'X-Files'. You have Hollywood constantly entertaining us with stories about conspiracy. . .The world just is too complex to run so simply. The world is too complex to be dominated and manipulated by a single group of insiders."

Goldberg believes that by dividing the world into "Us vs. Them", conspiracy theories undermine the possibility of compromise on vital public issues. But to true believers like Toni Thayer, the U.N. threat from the skies is not a theory; it's a fact.

Toni Thayer: “There are also concentration camps identified throughout the United States. In fact I found one in Arizona myself.”

After thousands of inquiries about so-called "Chemtrails", the federal government issued a fact sheet a couple of years ago. It explains that most trails behind jets are caused by water condensation, not chemical poison.