When trying to figure out exactly who "The Others" are, we can try to narrow it down with a few observations:

* Based on their accents, they are Americans
* Based on the different ethnicities of the members, they are not a tribe or a family

So then, who are they?

We know they aren't really dirty savages, but more likely members of a program called the Dharma Initiative...a privately funded ...(we assume) research program.

This presents a few problems:

* The island is "huge". An island that large would most likely be owned by a goverment, not a private company. To purchase an island that large, AND develop highly advanced technology AND fund the program would cost billions of dollars.

* In order to build the hatches and other state-of-the-art underground facilities on an island in the middle of nowhere would require a great deal of shipping and construction, not to mention a huge staff of construction personel to build it.

* In order to continually replentish the staff living on the island with food and comforts and time-off, etc. would also require a great deal of shipping... either by boat, plane or helicopter.

So, if we are to believe that the island is a sort of privately owned Area51, it wouldn't be possible to run this type of operation without making a footprint. All the materials and supplies would have to be based and shipped from somewhere nearby. The real Area51 has its own incognito airline based in Las Vegas in a high security air terminal with un-marked planes that service the secret base daily. The entire thing is cloaked by government security, and the penalty for breaching this security is death.

A private organization wouldn't be able to do this. You simply can't buy an island and start running a multi-billion dollar high-tech initiative without raising the suspicions of nearby governments.

Therefore, it seems the Dharma Initiative may in fact be a front for a secret U.S. Government operation.... a sort of South Pacific Area51 where new technology and mind control experiments are developed and tested.

Yes?

I suppose that is plausible.

The Island was most likely owned by no one, until Magnus Hanso crashed on it, he most likely claimed the island as his. So when DHARMA needed an island Hanso gave them the one his Great Grandfather discovered. So buying it would not even come in to the equation. (If that is true)

Getting supplies to the island would not be that hard, tell the government you are shipping the food to starving people. Get within the vicinity of the island, pop up your hot air balloons, then drop the food (Widmore hot air balloons, like the one Henry came in).

That is all speculation, and possibility. Your idea is just as possible. And I like it too.

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Locke's Dad could have conned enough people to buy the island and build the stuff. lol.

The U.S.Gov has done many,many things(for real) that are horrible..
The Tuskigee(sp) Airmen come to mind,along with LSD experiments on uninformed persons..tooooo many to go into here..So,could this be (fitcional) gov project?? Darned right..

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Maybe they'll explain the black horse?

I was thinking along these lines as well but it could be more that one government conspiring together...

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Please don't give up, Des. Because all we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for
you. Always. I love you, Pen

DESMOND: --I'll come back to you--
PENNY: --I won't give up--
BOTH: I promise. I love you.

DESMOND: I know you have questions for me. I'm not gonna answer them. I've come here to ask you something. And once you've told me everything I need to know, you'll never see me again. Understand?

WIDMORE: All right.

I was thinking more along the lines of beyond governments to multi-billionaires' corporations like, oh... I don't know.... who to pick, who to pick... oh, that's right!
Mr. Paik (Sun's Dad)
Mr. Hanso
Mr. Widmore
(and maybe Mr. Mittelwerk, but since to Widmore Board Coup to kick off Hanso and then the purge - I'm not sure about him)
Which would make the countries South Korea, Denmark, and England.

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Possibly Mr. Mittlewerk, but since the hostile take over by him of Hanso's spot on the Widmore Board and the resulting purge Mittelwerk probably isn't involved. Or Mittelwerk's in and Hanso is out.

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And this is all under the assumption that you could actually find the island by flying over it in a plane or helicopter. It's too big to just be sitting out in the middle of the ocean. an island of that MAGNitude would have been crashed into many times, would have been found by countless governments and legitimate business to be kept such a secret. It may be cloaked, which would be a clue screaming of governmental involvement, or billionaire business collaboration, but then why is everyone so suprised that a sailboat got there. If it was cloaked, you wouldn't be suprised if anything happened to 'find' the place.
Imagine the universe is a cheap tint job done on the window of a Honda Civic. Over time, bubbles appear. That's all I've got, I lost my train of thought.

being merely cloaked, quite a few big ships should have accidently slammed into it spoiling those beautiful beaches with oil spills.

Also, if it was governmentally cloaked, then there was a time when it wasn't cloaked.
So, every little dot of an island in the Pacific (with the exception of Gilligan's Island) appears on Spain's or Britain's maps from the 16th to 19th centuries. And this one, evidently, did not.
Who was cloaking it back then?

Whatever it is, it's more than just a cloaking mechanism.

So we can also assume that the island is not a fool, neither being trapped by time nor space.