"Jan Panteltje" <pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:eg7sk2$irv$1@news.datemas.de...

The idea is to, in case nothing materialises in SETI, to create
an artificial threat.
This will then lead to the arming of every citizen in the world,
construction of a space fleet, many completely new kind of weapons,
and a large budget allocated by Congress to finance all this.

Not the same but similar to The Outer Limits series, "The Architects of 
Fear". I think the idea was to bring the peoples of the earth closer 
together to focus against a common enemy.

Just like in the movie though, the plot would probably fail. It's very 
difficult to fool all the people all of the time.