Silhouette (Deus Ex) - UNATCO

UNATCO

Although it seems that UNATCO (United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition) was formed as an ad hoc response by UN member nations to the growing problem of international terrorism, JC Denton discovers that they are actually the police force of the secret organization called Majestic 12. Although it is implied that UNATCO was formed in the early 21st century, the exact date of the genesis of UNATCO is unclear. Several of the game's characters have worked for the organization for many years, including Joseph Manderley, Sam Carter, Paul Denton, and Gunther Hermann. The game's protagonist, 23 years old in the game, also mentions adolescent dreams of working for the organization.

A few years prior to the events in Deus Ex, UNATCO, through collaboration with groups like INTERPOL and with funding by the United States, became known as a standing international counterterrorist police force; the term "world police" is used to describe the organization. By the game year, 2052, UNATCO has formed its headquarters on Liberty Island in New York City after a terrorist strike on the Statue of Liberty. Ironically, JC Denton discovers that UNATCO was the true perpetrator of the Statue of Liberty bombing, which was staged to reduce support for the NSF and its allies.

The player uncovers financial links that bind UNATCO to Walton Simons, head of the FEMA and a key leader of Majestic-12. UNATCO does much of MJ-12's dirty work, including the dispersal of biological warfare agents against the general population, and military suppression of any peaceful or military resistance to UNATCO member governments.

With the onslaught of the global collapse perpetrated by JC Denton at the end of Deus Ex, UNATCO, along with most other global entities, is portrayed in the game's sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, as having effectively ceased to exist. The old Liberty Island UNATCO base makes a cameo appearance at the end of Invisible War as it is used by JC Denton to store the dormant Aquinas protocol, though by the year 2072 when the game is said to take place, the complex is effectively a ruin, and many homeless people live there.

When Deus Ex was released in 2000, Ion Storm created a website (www.unatco.org) for the fictional organization to promote the game. Ion Storm pulled the website shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The motto of UNATCO is from the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus: "Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere", which means, "Necessity knows nothing else but victory."