I came up with the outline for a book, but can no longer come up with a good reason for why the bad guys are doing what they are doing.
Let us say sometime in the past, a large government finds a way to fake a large alien ship, or ships on their way to Earth. Complete with transmissions from the ships, and demonstrations of superior fire power.
Now a countries motives are clear, either a way to make enemies surrender thinking they are out gunned, or as a last ditch to make your enemies divide their efforts.
But what would an individual or small group hope to gain by doing this. I at first though large sums of money or precious metals, but that makes them easy to catch.
What else is there they would want?

Power!!!  To be ruler(absolute dictator) of the world...

OR

Religious Fanaticism...[}:D]

Well they wouldn't have the resources to rule would be the problem.
The terrorizim(sp) angle might be good, but if you can't claim reponsiblity how does that forward your cause?

Resources to rule would come from control by fear...

Religious fanatics could "control" the alien threat by using their religion as something that the "aliens" couldn't penetrate or something that supposedly controlled the Aliens...   Like Aluminum foil turbans...hehehe

By "controlling" the Aliens they would gain support from the masses and could feasably eliminate all other religions from earth...

Interesting, but still not very plausable. How do you explain a group with no tech signalling and comunicating with aliens before seti or nasa notice them? I can't think of a good reason. And when I say that, I mean that say people here would believe when it was announced on CNN (BTW just asking not trying being rude about it, as the typing seems to sound to me when I read it back.)

Maybe they are the aliens...   "Plants"...   Put here thousands of years ago, like "sleepers"...  

Hey! They could have the ability to think as one and the individual would be as a cell, dying and renewing on a regular basis...   Their cumulative consciousness (main beings) could have a lifespan of 100,000 of our years, so the thousands of years would be as weeks would to humans

[url]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587150492/qid=1026068201/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-8697398-7242213[/url]
The Man Who Used The Universe by Alan Dean Foster

The "hero" of the book uses his vast array of resources($$$$) and technology to create a fake an alien invasion force in order to bond the Human race and another alien race together.

Think more present day James Bond type story. No real aliens, no benevolant reasons. Just human greed as motivation, just greed for what is my problem.

OK!  Bill Gates wants to rule (openly)...

What are the three major motivations?  Sex, money and power.

Even if it was a smaller group of individuals, they could all have different individual motivations but will accomplish them by the same means.  Think of that movie with Bruce Willis and the asteroid?  Every member of his crew had their own reasons for risking their lives.... but they saw this one mission as the way to accomplish it.

What is beneficial about the "mulitiple motivation" angle is that it lends well to subplots.  Every group has a leader.. that leader has his reason for wanting to accomplish this goal.  Other subservient roles may have motives that run counterproductive to the leader's goal.... etc, etc.  You get the point.

I would think that an alien invasion would be best suited as a diversion.  Have the "aliens" attack ANOTHER country and have the US spread themselves too thin trying to provide foreign aid.  Then have a larger political/foreign military force come invade the US and launch a guerilla war.  Think about it.  If you could use a few more planes as bombs they would shut down air traffic again... thus sealing off reentry for US troops sent overseas.  

Then you could have a grassroots faction... the regular patriot gun owners come together to save the day!  [:D]

BTW, if you don't write this, then I'm going to have to... LOL

More ideas.... moral dilemma to the plot.  The smaller faction that has the ability to pull off the alien scare is basically in it for money... money that they are being paid by the foreign terrorists for the opportunity to invade the US.

The smaller faction is comprised of US citizens... who, when faced with the gruesome reality (perhaps some of their loved ones get brutalized, etc) of what they have helped to happen, they have the moral epiphany and realize that they have to "make it right"... then they use their technology to defeat the foreign faction or they simply fight hand to hand beside other US citizens.  

Fake transmissions report that they are declaring war on earth.  Government agencies combine all resources to fight an enemy that doesnt exist.  Meanwhile, all media is foretelling gloom and doom, end of the wold scenarios.  People in mass hysteria.  Anarchy rules the streets.  Looting, revenge, drugs.  The world goes crazy and, while the world powers aren't looking, destroy all all government as we presently know it.  No law.  No debt for wrong doing.  It's like friggin Mardi Gra.  The faction is looking for an Anarchist society.

Thanks for the ideas, but I guess I need to clairify some of my plot already hashed out.
BTW, I don't really see the bad guys as redemable, but I guess it could be open for debate. And yes I will give credit to you guys if you want, (There are a few things with my name on it I regret.) :)
My hashed out idea is (and some of you have given me a different spin) that obviously the former USSR sends a moon probe that gets "lost" to the rest of the world. In reality they still have control of it and it is set into sleeper mode for activation later. Originally it was to be used as a diversion either for nuke war, or to try to prevent the US from landing on the moon. Either way it gets left untouched.(Obviously I just finished watching Goldeneye). Now for the original plan to work, there are a few things laid out that only a government could pull off. For instance they control the media so there is no panic in their country. I don't know if Russia has any observitories, but even if they did, again they control the news so no one else would see the pictures of the gigantic space craft headed this way.
And finally for the show of power, all they need is to plant destructive devices all over triggered by the fake space crafts "weapons".
This is enough to convince people of the aliens power. They don't even have to say they know what is going on, or claim they have control of them.
Now in our time someone finds the plans, or has someone in the family that knows about it. (I hate to use the same plot mover as Goldeneye and have a general do it. No point.) Or even better some hacker finds the plans and control center. (Lot of foriegn(sp) hackers out there now.) Or even the freedom of information act type thing.
But other than creating chaos (Though now that you mention it, why not write it in the past for 2001,) what is the point of doing it now. What can you gain by faking out the world? Obiously some agent still alive that worked on dispersing the destrutive devices is still alive and warns someone about it. Also I would have the same sort of tech in Capricorn one notice some extra radio waves and the time problems to pick up on the fake.
Anyway other ideas if you got em.

That's "Forever Free", by Joe Haldeman.

it's the illuminati/russian mafia/international baptist conspiracy, a small elite of power-brokers. they want to impose the new world order and enslave humanity.

they want the power so they can have their pick of the ocean-front property and babes, and so they can breathe clean air while the rest of us slave in the mine shafts, and live in the urban combat zone/land fill.

for some it's simple lust for power, some think it's for the good of humanity (we do need to be told what to do, after all), others are in it for the perks. there are always plenty who will sell out their fellow man for a meal ticket.

Someone who was very active in the original program has gone commercial.  Their company hasa  series of technologies or products they wish to sell, but cannot because there is currently no demand for them, but, were a high technology threat detected requiring a definitive, powerful response, the money would be kicked loose to pay for the products making the company principals VERY wealthy men.

The productline wouldn't even need to be the primary element in the weapon system/commo system/early detection/tracking system, it could just be a "best of breed" or next generation component that is so good that it costs too much to justify in a threat-less environment where more cost effective solutions will do.

By presenting the world with a SHTF scenario they need to respond to, the company creates a market for their products in which only the absolute BEST will do. In the process they also sell ancillary technologies and barter themselves into greater and greater positions of power.

Then, the Machiavellian mind at the heart of the plot reveals his true intentions, the destabilization of the entire world economy and governmental system with a plan to restore the Soviet Empire, or to create a new Russian Empire under his martial command. The rest of the company board are trapped in the plot by their own malfeasance in the original plot as well as by the fact that the Machiavellian would-be-emperor's small private cadre are now keeping surveillance on the principal's families.

One individual in the know, remembers his more youthful sense of duty and integrity, and begins the resistance by leaking some information to an individual he trusts.  That person either contacts the heroes (another trusted contact who is assuredly outside of the network of power) who begins to investigate...

You can kill off any of the individual's in question at will so long as you do it after the tidbit of information gets outside of the loop to someone who will do something with it.  In fact, the deaths of a string of individuals who were part of a trusted chain of contacts might actually be what tips off the real hero of the story.

icemanat95- that is a pretty good reason. I like. I even get a couple of better sub plots out of it then my original story.
It covers almost all the angles. Greed, power, and how to get away with it.
Thanks for the help.