SUBJECT: FROM A REPORTER WHO WORKS OUT NEAR AREA 51 FILE: UFO2853
PART 3
THE GROOM LAKE DESERT RAT. An On-Line Newsletter.
Issue #16. September 16, 1994.
-----> "The Naked Truth from Open Sources." <-----
AREA 51/NELLIS RANGE/TTR/NTS/S-4?/WEIRD STUFF/DESERT LORE
Direct from the "UFO Capital," Rachel, Nevada.
Written, published, copyrighted and totally disavowed by
[email protected]. See bottom for subscription/copyright info.
In this issue...
SUBTLETIES OF THE TELEVISION TALK SHOW, PART II
NEW BEN RICH BOOK
LAND GRAB UPDATE
OUR READERS RESPOND
INTEL BITTIES
[Note: This file ends with "###".]
----- MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS 103B -----
SUBTLETIES OF THE TELEVISION TALK SHOW, PART II
(Continued from DR#15)
[Montel William Show expected broadcast date: Monday, Sept. 19.]
We feel guilty and owe our local readers an apology for suggesting
in DR#11 that if a major U.S. city had to be nuked by a terrorist
group, Las Vegas wouldn't make a bad target. That's not the way
we really feel. We only pretend to hate Las Vegas because it is
fashionable to do so; in truth it's quite a livable city once you
get to know it. Beyond the Strip, Vegas is a modern, efficient
metropolis in the Orange County, Calif., mold where it is easy to
get things done. The neon jungle can be easily avoided, but when
we choose to go there, it offers some of our favorite free
entertainment. Although we do not gamble, drink or go to shows,
we have always enjoyed the casinos for the insights they offer
into human nature. We find it endlessly amusing to wander through
the acres of slot machines observing small-brained visitors blow
away their hard earned savings on odds that are never in their
favor. Nowhere else in the world are the flaws of human
perception so obvious and easily studied.
Our warm sentiments for Las Vegas, and subsequent guilt for
maligning it, were reawakened by our recent visit to New York
City, where we took part in an episode of the Montel Williams talk
show. We REALLY hate New York and really wouldn't mind if the
Sons and Daughters of Liberty took out Manhattan first. New York
illustrates what those small-brained Vegas visitors do with their
lives when they go back home. Packed by the millions into an area
about the size of the Tikaboo Valley, all personal space and human
dignity are taken away and then sold back to people at exorbitant
prices. Almost anywhere in the country would be a healthier, more
productive place to live; all it takes is a little initiative to
get up and go. Like the dumb clucks in front of the slot
machines, New Yorkers just sit there and keep dropping in
quarters.
Haunting memories of humility and futility came flooding back to
us as our plane circled La Guardia airport in the rain waiting for
clearance to land. In a previous life we had made this trip many
times before, wearing a business suit (We break out in hives just
thinking about it.) and carrying a briefcase and umbrella (which,
dammit, we had forgotten this time). We were returning now like
Crocodile Dundee from the outback, carrying no coat and tie, only
our jolly swag. We didn't want to be here, but we had a job to
do. A mission. In Times Square, we were scheduled to face the
forces of evil--Sean David Morton--in what we expected to be a
talk show about Area 51. Sean was the con artist who conducted
tours of public land for $99, who passed off 737s as UFOs and who
had recently reemerged on the talk show circuit as a Groom Lake
expert. We felt that we had to engage the Doctor Reverend Morton
now, before he grew bigger and further muddied the waters that we
had worked so hard to clear.
The producers of the talk show understood Sean as well as we did,
but chose to invite him back anyway. Sean could speak with
certainty about UFOs at Area 51, while we were still groping for
data and could only ask questions. Sean was there to make
extravagant claims, and we were there to shoot him down. The
conflict between us would create Entertainment, which is the
ultimate aim of the talk show format.
..... ARRIVAL .....
Our misgivings and painful memories aside, we felt like a Somewhat
Important Person when we arrived at the airport. Although we were
not paid for our appearance, airfare was provided by the show,
with a free stopover in Boston. As arranged a few days before, we
would be met by a driver who would take us to the posh Embassy
Suites Hotel in Times Square. The next morning, an escort would
meet us at our hotel and take us to the nearby studio. Upon
completion of the taping, we would receive our $50 per diem for
food and miscelanous expenses, then a private car would whisk us
back to the airport. We would be in and out of lovable old New
York in less than 24 hours.
We felt like Donald Trump as we exited the airplane and were met
by our driver, holding up a sign with our name on it. He seemed
unclear about our destination, however, so we directed him to the
Embassy Suites. This was located in one of America's most
expensive blocks of real estate, directly fronting Times Square.
As we rode the elevator up to the spacious second floor lobby, we
tried to estimate the cost of a room here. In Vegas, a bed in a
classy joint like this could be had for $45 a night; here, we
suspected it was more like $250. We tried not to sound arrogant
and Grey Poupon-ish as we introduced ourselves to the desk clerk
as a guest of the Montel Williams Show.
Alas, the clerk could find no reservation in our name, and some
embarrassed phone calls to the show determined that we were
staying not here, but at the Salisbury Hotel, an old "keyhole"
establishment wedged between clothing stores about 15 blocks
uptown and a corresponding number of notches downscale. Now don't
get us wrong: The Salisbury is very "nice." There's no lobby,
but comfortable rooms are offered at the reasonable rate of only
$110 per night. As Tom Bodett of Motel 6 says on the radio ads,
every motel's the same when you're sleep'n. The amenities
mattered even less to us on this trip since, in the Crocodile
Dundee spirit, we intended only to lay out our swag on the floor
and not muss up the pretty bed. Still, the Salisbury was not the
Embassy Suites, and the unannounced downgrading of our
accommodations could not help but start the wheels of paranoia
turning.
From our room, we called Russ Estes in California, who had
challenged Sean Morton's credentials in the previous Montel
Williams show and was not invited back. He said that the same
thing had happened to him: He arrived at the Embassy Suites only
to find he had been downgraded to the Edison. "Looks like you're
being set up like I was," said Estes. He said that for his show,
they put Morton and the pro-UFO crowd in the Embassy Suites, and
without notice moved the skeptics and him into the downscale
Edison. "You know darn well where Sean is staying tonight," said
Estes.
The walls of our room started closing in on us as we practiced our
lines. We knew we would have limited time on the air and would
have to get out our message early and with no mincing of words.
"I've lived near Area 51 for a year and a half and have known Sean
Morton and his work even longer, and I can tell you, without
reservation, Sean is a charlatan, a fraud and a phony. He'll tell
any sort of lie to make himself sound important." But wait, maybe
"charlatan" was too big a word for this audience. We had
previously considered and rejected "sociopath" as being too
upscale, while "victim of Munchausen syndrome" wasn't the proper
clinical term. (In diagnostic manuals, this disorder, named after
the tall-tale-telling baron, refers to the faking of medical
symptoms, not the broader compulsive lying we sought to convey.)
How about "a fraud, a phony, a liar and a con man"? That was
simple and direct enough for television, but was it too many
words?
In a night of fitful sleep, we saw a stream of fevered images. In
one scene we are shirtless and bulked up to 250 pounds from years
of illegal steroid use. We point our beefy finger directly at the
camera and explode in anger: "Sean David Morton, I've taken
enough of your lies! You're a fake, a fraud and a phony. This is
the grudge match of the century, Sean David Morton, and when you
meet Psychospy in the ring, Saturday night, Madison Square Garden,
only one of us is going to come out of it alive!"
In other scenes our bravado collapses. The Montel Williams Show
has prepared an ambush for us consisting of all our present and
former UFO enemies. In addition to Sean, they have flown in
conspiracy nutcase and "Old Faithful" promoter Gary Schultz, who,
after we challenged his takeover of a Rachel UFO conference,
accused us vaguely of child molestation--nonspecific as to time or
place. He would no doubt repeat those charges again on the air.
Next to him is competing nutcase and "Old Faithful" promoter Erik
Beckjord, who shows the audience dramatically enlarged photos of
"Old Faithful"--aircraft landing lights to us mortals--and points
out hidden alien messages in the big white blob. Fortunately,
Beckjord's hatred for Psychospy is tempered only by his violent
feuds with Mr. Schultz. Lastly, Montel is sure to welcome Lazar's
moronic gatekeeper, "Mr. Nasty" Gene Huff, who will sling his
usual creative epithets in our direction: "Prick! Dickhead!
Sicko-Spy! Goober! Leach!" (the latter being misspelled as
given). Not that we couldn't take on all these dim-wits at once
in any arena, but in the resulting fray, Sean Morton would pretend
to be the reasonable one and get away scot-free.
..... THE STUDIO ....
When we awoke in the morning, we found ourselves, alas, still in
New York, seventeen stories above street level in a non-suicide-
protected room with Zero Hour rapidly approaching. No longer
trusting the staff of the show and unable to confirm that any
escort was coming for us, we took the subway to Times Square. The
studio was on the fourth floor above an older block of storefronts
in the corner of the square where religious zealots harangue
passers-by.
We arrived, as requested, about three hours before the 11 am
taping. An associate producer briefly showed us the studio and
the audience warm-up room, then escorted us to "Green Room Number
One," which would be our home until we went on stage. The
floorplan reminded us of a miniature Roman Coliseum before a big
gladiatorial battle. In the middle was the studio, which is much
smaller than it appears on television. Arranged in a sloping,
arena-style format are chairs for a small audience--made to look
big by camera angle--facing a platform where the guests sit in
padded armchairs. Arrayed around the outside of the studio and
separated from it by soundproof walls, are a series of "Green
Rooms" where the guests are warehoused until they appear. Each
Green Room resembles a small living room with green carpeting on
the floor and walls and with a sofa and comfortable chairs facing
a television set. Our Green Room also contained an impressive
assortment of Pepperidge Farm cookies. We were not relaxed enough
to eat anything at the time, but we remembered to stuff our
traveling bag full of them for later consumption.
Once you enter a Green Room, you are a prisoner there and cannot
leave without an escort. If you must go to the bathroom, you have
to inform a production assistant carrying a walkie-talkie. After
he gets clearance over the radio, he steps into the hallway and
furtively looks both ways before beckoning you to follow. He
waits for you outside the bathroom, then escorts you back, keeping
a constant eye on you to make sure you keep up and do not stray.
In a program that actively seeks on-air conflict, careful
management of the Green Rooms is clearly a high priority. Guests
who are about to go to war with each other on the show shouldn't
be allowed to run into one another in the hallways. In many
shows, there will be surprise guests who the others won't be aware
of until they are revealed on the air, so the cat mustn't be let
out of the bag. In fact, Sean Morton didn't know that we were
going to be on the show until we suggested, foolishly, that
someone tell him. (Those impulsive ethics are always getting in
our way.)
All of this plotting behind the scenes might have heightened our
own paranoia had we not been joined in our Green Room by two
representatives of sanity, the requisite UFO skeptic and his coach
from the New York Area Skeptics. The on-air skeptic was a first-
timer like us, but his coach was a veteran of several talk shows
and was refreshingly cynical about what we could hope to
accomplish. According to him, the skeptics--who Psychospy was
clearly classed among--are usually brought on last and are allowed
the least amount of airtime. If their arguments are too good and
they manage to demolish the principal guests, then the episode can
simply be thrown out and never aired. Even when a show airs, it
may still be edited, and when time is limited, the skeptic's words
are the first to go.
As show time approached, we were visited in our Green Room by a
series of specialists. First came the make-up man, who kindly
took the sheen off our balding heads. Then came a woman with a
clipboard and a man with a video camera. On the clipboard was a
form we were asked to sign which said that we wouldn't sue the
producers no matter what happened on the show. After signing, we
were asked to state our names into the camera and say that we
agreed to the terms on the form. Montel himself also stopped in
briefly to greet us, and the head producer visited several times
to tell us what was happening.
Soon, even in our sound-proofed Green Room, we began to hear the
roar of the crowd. Next door, the audience was being "warmed up"
for the show, with instructions on when and how to applaud and
when to keep quiet. Practicing their loudest and most
enthusiastic response, their thunder shook the coliseum walls.
The show was about the begin.
..... FREAK SHOW .....
Sitting on a comfortable sofa, drinking Pepsi and watching TV in
our Green Room, what we saw on the screen could have been any
midday talk show. We would have changed the channel if we could,
but we had to pay attention to this one because it was actually
taking place next door and we would be on it in a few minutes.
Montel Williams stood in the audience, and after the initial
enthusiastic applause, he announced that he had been to Area 51
just as he promised. Then, after a commercial break, a clip was
shown from the previous broadcast: Montel promising Sean that he
would visit. When the clip was over, Montel said he would show
the tape from his recent trip later in the show, but first he had
guests to introduce.
On the stage were two women: A young, attractive one, and an
older one with dark circles around her eyes that even makeup
couldn't hide. They were the abductees, the standard starting
point whenever a talk show does UFOs. As far as we were
concerned, these two could have come from Central Casting. We had
never seen them before, but we had seen people like them on other
shows, and we knew most of what they would say before they opened
their mouths. The attractive woman recounted how the aliens had
paralyzed her in her bed while her boyfriend slept undisturbed
beside here. Without her permission, the aliens touched and
prodded her naked body, first in gentle, caring ways and then in
ways that were not at all pleasant. She felt betrayed by the
ruder touches and would never trust the aliens again.
The second woman, with the sunken eyes, said that she had been
abducted all of her life by many different kinds of aliens. She
had, in fact, killed a number of them. The aliens had implanted
tiny fetuses in her body and removed them three weeks later,
remarkably developed to the stage of three to four months. The
woman knew the fetuses weren't hers, because she previously had a
hysterectomy. (This raised snickers among our fellow skeptics,
who asked themselves, Where did the woman carry these infants--in
her bladder?)
A tape was then shown of Montel's tour of the woman's house in Las
Vegas, where he and his crew had visited just before they came to
Rachel. The house was filled with geodesic shapes and magical
crystals designed to ward off the aliens. The woman slept under a
six-foot pyramid with a crystal hanging from the center. To us,
it looked like the same contraption Sean Morton is seen meditating
under in one of his publicity photographs. We wondered if he had
sold it to her.
By the time of the second commercial break, the theme had been
set. Watching TV in our Green Room, we knew that this woman would
be the star of the show, and Area 51 could be no more than brief
diversion.
..... THE ALIENS .....
Upon return from the break, two more chairs had been added. The
new guests were a clean-cut looking couple who publish Unicus,
"the magazine for earthbound extraterrestrials." These people
haven't been abducted by aliens; they ARE aliens.
Again, although we had never met this couple, we knew their basic
story before they spoke. We have run into many aliens here in
Rachel, like the Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II from Draconis [DR #2]
and the very attractive Venus From Venus, whose business card says
she does "weddings, exorcisms and alignment healings." Although
these beings appear in human form, you know they are aliens
because they immediately introduce themselves as such. One young,
spacy-eyed woman we once met opened the conversation by asking us
where we were from. We said, "Boston," and she said, "No, where
are you from Out There?" We had to confess that we didn't know.
She said that her name was Willow--just Willow--and that she was
from the Pleiades. Pleiadians, she explained, are very
peace/love/60s sort of aliens, in contrast to the evil, gray,
rectum-coring Reticulans, which Ambassador Merlin claims to
represent.
Like the aliens we have known, the couple on the Montel show grew
up thinking they were human and did not know the truth until
experiencing a revelation. As the woman explained it, a similar
mystical event lead her to found the magazine. She said that she
saw a holographic vision of Unicus before her. On the show,
someone asked, What is Unicus? Unicus, she said, was the
magazine. She saw a 3-D vision of the magazine in front of her,
so all she had to do was look through the pages to know how to
write and design it.
Still sitting in our Green Room, our mind preoccupied with other
things, we may have lost touch with the woman's narrative
sequence, so we apologize if we don't get her story exactly right.
Sometime after the vision, the woman felt an unexplained calling
to go to Peru. The next day, it so happened, a brochure arrived
in the mail for a tour to Peru, and seeing how this could not be
coincidence, she signed up. Through her hotel room window at Lake
Titicaca, she saw several alien spacecraft emerge from a cave in a
cliff. They split into many craft and then vanished. Somehow,
this confirmed her vision and convictions about Unicus.
The man had nothing memorable to add, except that he was also an
alien. The two had met at a UFO conference and were immediately
drawn to each other by their alienness, but we forget the details.
Then there was another commercial break. The show was now half
over. Nothing introduced so far had any stated connection with
Area 51. This was a show about aliens and abductees. We remain
neutral and do not feel qualified to pass judgment on their
claims, no matter how Loony Tunes. Perhaps some abductions are
real, but we have often experienced another kind of UFO abuse that
is rarely reported to the public: abducted by abductees, which
this show clearly was. We realized, now, that our role would be
only that of a token skeptic to be brought on at the very end to
give the production a thin veneer of respectability.
..... SEAN MORTON .....
When Sean finally appeared in the fifth chair, he was almost
irrelevant. Because he knew we were here and would be on next, he
made no extravagant claims about Groom Lake. What he said was a
totally forgettable rehash of generic UFO cliches. We heard him
say something about "Roswell," but can't remember anything else.
He provided nothing substantial enough to challenge.
During Sean's segment, Montel showed the tape of his superficial
visit to Rachel and Freedom Ridge, without Sean. Pat and Joe
Travis of the Little A-Le-Inn were interviewed outside their
establishment, offering their usual unconditional support for
everything anyone ever claimed to have seen or experienced.
Psychospy, looking hokey in our camouflage fatigues, met Montel in
our driveway and showed him the big map on the ceiling of our
Research Center. There were some driving scenes, then Montel
appeared on Freedom Ridge saying that he had come as promised.
Finally, through the window of the Humvee we saw some daring
footage of the secret base in the distance.
There was a break for another commercial. The program was winding
down now and at last it was our turn. We were escorted from our
Green Room and joined the stage with TV newsman George Knapp,
meaning that we would each have only microseconds of air time.
When the lights came up again, the camera was still on Sean.
Commenting on the tape, he said that he had personally discovered
the location Montel had just visited. A lie! He had never even
been to Freedom Ridge, let alone discovered it. We wanted to
shout, "Liar!" but unfortunately we had not yet been introduced
and did not exist as far as the camera was concerned.
Time was running out, and there were still three guests left.
George Knapp was introduced first. He had come expecting to talk
about Area 51 and the Bob Lazar story, which he had introduced to
the world with his KLAS-TV report in 1989. Unfortunately, he had
time only for a few short lines. George said something about the
charlatans taking over the field, but unfortunately he did not
name Sean directly.
Then, at last, Psychospy was introduced. We were asked what
brought us to Area 51. We said that we had seen a UFO video tape
in which Sean Morton claimed that you could see a dozen UFOs from
the Black Mailbox on even a bad night. We said that we came here
first to check out this claim but saw only military exercises.
Sean replied immediately, "Unfortunately, Glenn arrived too late,"
and then he seamlessly took control of the camera. We still feel
dazed and aren't sure how it happened, but somehow we dropped the
ball and didn't have a chance to respond. With the show drawing
to a close, any disagreements between Sean and us seemed futile.
Although Sean got more air time than we did, even he wasn't really
a player here.
Members of the audience had questions, but only for the sunken-
eyed abductee. Someone asked, "You say you killed some aliens.
If so, then what happened to the bodies?"
The abductee replied that they had disintegrated instantly.
Someone else asked (off-camera): "How did you kill the aliens?"
The abductee replied, "With a crystal pistol."
We wondered, silently, whether Sean had sold her the crystal
pistol.
After a final commercial break, the skeptic came on, making it
eight chairs. He was allowed a few token words of objection.
There was another question or two from the audience for the
abductees and aliens, then Montel proceeded to close the show.
The last thing he did before ending the show was poll each of the
guests to ask if they had seen UFOs. We recognized this as our
set-up. When the question came to Sean, he said that he had seen
UFOs at two locations, including Area 51. When it came to us, we
said that we had never seen any UFOs, even when we were on the
next ridge over from where Sean was seeing UFOs galore.
We got an applause for that. Our only minor triumph.
..... EPILOGUE .....
Upon return to our Green Room, we found it occupied by two guests
for the next show, taping in the afternoon: "Interracial Couples
Who Haven't Told Their Parents". In our Green Room was the
interracial couple, looking tense. In another Green Room, we
heard, was the white man's conservative mother. Since the mother
hadn't seen her son in three years, she thought she was doing the
show, "Parents Reunited With Their Children."
Isn't America a wonderful country!
In retrospect, maybe we didn't do so badly. At least we survived
with a few shreds of dignity intact. Even if we did not achieve
the definitive victory we had hoped for, at least Mr. Morton was
kept in check and, aside from his Freedom Ridge discovery, didn't
have a chance to spread any new nonsense. In a crunch, we were
forced to meet Sean Morton on his own turf. Now, with that
encounter ended in a draw, we can bide our time and move the
battle to a venue where we feel more comfortable. Slowly,
methodically, we'll data him to death.
"You may have gotten away this time, Sean David Morton, but we'll
meet again!"
----- BEN RICH SKUNK WORKS BOOK -----
Former Lockheed Skunk Works president Ben Rich, who directed the
development of the F-117 stealth fighter, will be publishing his
memoirs next month. "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years
at Lockheed" is a tell-almost-all book with many nameless
references to Groom Lake. Rich shows an obvious disdain for the
"blue suiters" of the Air Force and expresses his frustrations
with excessive secrecy and the caprices of the military
procurement process. Popular Science is excerpting some of Rich's
book in their October 1994 issue, which should be hitting
newsstands and mailboxes within the next few days.
Our mail order arm, Secrecy Oversight Council, will be selling the
Ben Rich book as soon as it is available. The price is $24.95
plus $3.50 priority mail postage. Scheduled publication date is
Oct. 4, but we are accepting orders now. (Little, Brown, 350
pages, hardcover.)
----- LAND GRAB UPDATE -----
Like a soap opera, the land withdrawal process for Freedom Ridge
goes on and on. In DR#13, we said that Oct. 15 would be the
soonest the land could be closed. Now, Jan. 1 looks like a more
reasonable minimum, but we wouldn't place any bets on that date
either. The process could conceivably drag on much longer--up to
a deadline of Oct. 95--and we still don't know for certain that
the withdrawal will be approved.
We have never claimed to fully understand the withdrawal process,
owing to its many bureaucratic subprocesses, but after talking
with the BLM case officer, here is our understanding of the future
steps. Dates are our earliest guess, and further delays are
possible anywhere in the process.
Step 1: Release of Environmental Assessment and proposed land use
plan amendment (prerequisites for the withdrawal). Notice of
proposed amendment published in Federal Register. (Maybe 10/15.)
Step 2: Public is offered a 30-day protest period on land use
plan amendment. (Maybe 10/15 through 11/15.)
Step 3: Las Vegas BLM addresses amendment protests.
Step 4: Las Vegas BLM issues record of decision on land use plan
amendment, clearing the way for the withdrawal application to
proceed. (Maybe December.) Presumably, that decision can be
appealed.
Step 5: Las Vegas passes the withdrawal application to the BLM
state headquarters in Reno. Reno takes an unknown length of time
reviewing application and making a recommendation.
Step 6: Reno passes application to the national BLM director in
Washington. National director takes an unknown length of time
reviewing application and making a recommendation.
Step 7: National BLM director passes application to Secretary of
the Interior, along with a recommendation. Secretary makes
decision to approve, reject, delay or consult entrails of
sacrificed animals. In the event of an approval, we assume (but
are not certain) that the public will be given due warning that
the land will be closed, presumably with a notice in the Federal
Register.
Judging from the many hurdles still to be crossed, we are not yet
making any plans for our Freedom Ridge End-of-the-World Party.
----- OUR READERS RESPOND -----
The following items of correspondence were recently received at
our Rachel headquarters.
CLONING NOT IMPOSSIBLE (Email)
"HI! Just wanted to introduce myself. I am the guy who pulled
the toy gun on TV Consumer Advocate David Horowitz in 1987 on live
TV at KNBC in Los Angeles. I wanted to get my message out about
my family having been cloned by the government and the subsequent
events in my shattered life as a result of this action. I assure
you I am of the most sincere nature, and can verify all of what I
believe in. I am currently writing a book titled "The Invasion of
the Human Race", which I hope to complete in the next few
weeks.... I was interested in your comments about Larry King
being cloned. I can tell you that this is quite possible."
-- G.S.
GOODBYE CALIFORNIA (Letter)
"I am interested in getting a copy of the map of the US after
the coast of California supposedly falls into the ocean. If you
do not have them, do you know where I can get one?"
-- S.G., Mt. Carmel, PA
----- INTEL BITTIES -----
ST. PAUL UFO CONFERENCE. On Nov. 5 & 6, the Science Museum of
Minnesota will be offering a two-day symposium entitled, "The
Science and Politics of UFO Research," which promises to be a
significant cut above the usual UFO loonfest. Only credentialed
scientists will be speaking--no aliens, New Age channelers or
SDMs. Speakers will include Stanton Friedman, Kevin Randle, John
Mack, Thomas Bullard (folklorist), James McCampbell (physicist),
Dr. Richard Haines (psychologist), Dr. Ron Westrum (sociologist),
Jack Kasher (physicist and astronomer), Michael Zimmerman
(philosopher) and others. The topic is less about UFOs themselves
than how human science and society can deal with such
investigations. Psychospy will be discreetly in attendance. The
price for the symposium is $130. For more details, email
[email protected] or contact the Museum at 30 East 10th St., St.
Paul, MN 55101. (612) 221-4511.
LAZAR SAUCER. A shipment of the new Lazar Spacecraft plastic
model from the Testor Corporation is supposed to arrive at our
Research Center by next Thursday. Although we still do not have
it in our hands, we can assure our readers, IT EXISTS. The model,
that is. You can debate endlessly the veracity of the Lazar
story, but at least it is rich enough in technical details to make
this model possible. Designer John Andrews, best known for
producing the first F-117 model before it was made public, spent
many hours with "The Bob" getting the details right. The plastic
saucer is 13" in diameter, and the price from us is $25.00 plus
$5.50 priority mail postage.
SKEPTIC HISTORY BOOK. Now in stock: "Watch the Skies: A Chronicle
of the Flying Saucer Myth," by Curtis Peebles. This is a
skeptic's history of the UFO movement, offering a plausible,
although often superficial, explanation for most of the major
publicized UFO events since the 1947 Kenneth Arnold sighting.
Anyone who has pursued any of these stories, like Roswell or the
Travis Walton case, is bound to find grounds for argument, but it
is still interesting to see the flying saucer phenomenon placed
into an historical perspective. For example, the Roswell flying
saucer announcement came only a few weeks after the widely
publicized Arnold "saucer" sighting near Mt. Rainier,
strengthening the suggestion that the Roswell officers may have
been influenced by that publicity. Anyone seriously interested in
UFOs needs to read this sobering book. Available from us for
$24.95 plus $3.50 priority mail postage. (Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1994, 342 pages, hardcover.)
UPCOMING TV SEGMENTS. An UNSOLVED MYSTERIES show on UFOs with a
segment on Area 51 will air Sunday, Sept. 18 at 8pm. The MONTEL
WILLIAMS talk show taped on Aug. 23 will probably be shown Monday,
Sept. 19 (time varies by city). (In a demonstration of talk show
incest, Montel recently appeared as a guest on the Conan O'Brian
talk show, where he promoted his Area 51 show.) The live LARRY
KING special on UFOs, direct from Rachel, Nevada, will air
Saturday, Oct. 1 at 8pm ET (5pm PT) on the TNT cable network.
===== SUBSCRIPTION AND COPYRIGHT INFO =====
(c) Glenn Campbell, 1994. (
[email protected])
This newsletter is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without
permission. PERMISSION IS HEREBY GRANTED FOR THE FOLLOWING: For
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You may only copy or send this document in unaltered form and in
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A catalog that includes the "Area 51 Viewer's Guide", the Groom
Lake patch and hat and many related publications is available upon
request by email or regular mail.
Back issues are available on various bulletin boards and by
internet FTP to ftp.shell.portal.com, directory
/pub/trader/secrecy/psychospy. Also available by WWW to
http://alfred1.u.washington.edu:8080/~roland/rat/desert_rat_index.
html
The mail address for Psychospy, Glenn Campbell, Secrecy Oversight
Council, Area 51 Research Center, Groom Lake Desert Rat and
countless other ephemeral entities is:
HCR Box 38
Rachel, NV 89001 USA
###
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