156 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
156 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENTS BATTLE WITH UFO WITNESSES FILE: UFO1943
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LINCOLN CO. NEWS, Carrizozo, NM - Aug. 30,1990
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GOVERNMENT'S BATTLE WITH NEW MEXICO UFO WITNESSES
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by Kate MacGregor
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To hear Robert Lazar tell it, the government sent him to
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a top-secret base located in the corner of the Nevada Test
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Site where he was assigned to examine the power sources of
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spaceships.
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But to hear the government tell it, Robert Lazar does
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not exist.
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A scientist who claims a background and credentials in
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physics and electronics, including a degree from MIT, Lazar
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has come forward with a story both bizarre and controversial:
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As a civilian employee for the US Navy in 1984, he was
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transferred from Los Angeles to a site called Area 51 in the
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southern Nevada desert, where, he contends, several alien
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spacecraft are housed.
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His job was to disassemble the flying saucers in hopes
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of identifying and understanding the advanced propulsion
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techniques used to fly them.
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Unwilling to keep hidden what he considered the greatest
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story in the history of the world-that some physical contact
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has been established with another intelligence in the
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universe-Lazar eventually went public despite a shroud of
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government secrecy. Last fall KLAS-TV the CBS affiliate in
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Las Vegas, NV, interviewed the scientist, at length, before
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producing a carefully researched nine-part "special report"
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about his claims.
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Asked about Lazar this week, personnel officers at Los
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Alamos told Sunmount Syndicate they could find no record that
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he was ever employed at that laboratory. Nonetheless, a
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reporter's check revealed Lazar's name listed in an official
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1982 laboratory phone directory, and a 1982 news article,
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apparently about the same time Robert Lazar appeared in the
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Los Alamos 'Monitor.'
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While tales of UFOs are fascinating and newsworthy,
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however, neither the sightings nor even the credibility of
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witnesses like Robert Lazar tell the whole story.
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Equally intriguing is the concerted, sometimes extreme
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measures apparently taken by various arms of the US
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government to discredit, ridicule, harass, suppress, and even
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intimidate individuals who claim any knowledge about, or
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experience with, UFOs.
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Such tactics are not new to New Mexico residents, who
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constitute one of the largest groups of UFO witnesses. In the
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late 1940's and 1950's, there were more reported UFO
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sightings in the state of New Mexico than anywhere in the
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world. Since New Mexico was then the nexus of the most
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sophisticated military activity of the era, many of the
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individuals who reported the sightings were military
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personal associated with the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell, the
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White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, or with Los Alamos
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where the atomic and hydrogen were spawned.
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According to many of those witnesses, they were
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frequently ordered by their government superiors not discuss
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their experiences. Their reports were often classified, which
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prevented public dissemination. Some were even threatened
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with loss of retirement or subjected to outright
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discrimination if they made what the government considered
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"indiscreet" comments about what they had seen.
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Much of the documented suppression tactics centered
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around the 1947 crash in Roswell, New Mexico of what the Army
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originally called a flying saucer. Photographs taken by the
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Roswell DAILY NEWS, a venerable and respected New Mexico
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paper, were splashed across newspaper pages throughout the
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US, and, according to Jack Swickard, the former editor of the
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RECORD, the words "flying saucer" were published for the
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first time by that paper.
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More than 100 witnesses to that explosion are still
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alive, and some have waited 40 years before admitting that
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they were ordered to falsify their reports. Some of those
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interviewed by Sunmount Syndicate:
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WALTER HAUT, a retired Army lieutenant who acted as the
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official press liaison at the time of the incident, wrote the
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original press release announcing that the US Army Air Force,
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as it was then called, had recovered the crashed remains of a
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"flying saucer." Immediately inundated by press inquires from
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around the world, Haut was ordered by a general to retract
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his earlier release and identify it as a government weather
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balloon instead.
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Haut now says he was told by his commanding officer
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never to mention the term "flying saucer" again. Haut
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resigned his commission less than a year later.
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Among the officers associated with the government's
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infamous investigation of UFOs called "Project Blue Book" was
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an Air Force Major named Milton R. Knight. Yet the Air Force
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reportedly eradicated Knight's records when he was suspected
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of discussing his activities with the media. Even though
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Walter Haut himself and others had served with Major Knight
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for many years, and knew Knight's serial number the Air Force
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insisted that no such individual existed.
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LT.BOB SHIRKEY was a flight operations officer for the
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US Army Air Force at the time of the Roswell crash. He told
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KLAS-TV that he had been dispatched to a local funeral home
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to obtain caskets for the bodies of alien creatures that had
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died in the crash. Contacted at his Roswell home recently
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Shirkey refused to discuss, over the telephone at least,
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various government efforts to silence him.
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MAJOR JESSE MARCEL, a former Army intelligence officer
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who has since died, was in charge of loading the New Mexico
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wreckage onto a transport plane and flying it to Ft. Worth
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Army Base in Texas. According to Swickard, who is now editor
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of the Farmington DAILY TIMES, Marcel is said to have made a
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deathbed admission that the remains he saw in the New Mexico
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countryside in 1947 were "not of this earth."
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Not surprisingly, interest in the Roswell crash has not waned in the 43
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years since its occurrence, nor has the federal government revised its policy
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to downplay the incident. Cory Beck, publisher of the Roswell DAILY RECORD,
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says documents about the crash remains classified by the Army and Air Force.
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Beck continues to receive inquiries from interested parties around the world,
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and a major film company is currently considering producing a movie about the
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bizarre crash.
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The crash was depicted in a 1980 non-fiction book entitled, THE ROSWELL
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INCIDENT which, according to Beck, was widely read in the community. The
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television series "Unsolved Mysteries" featured the crash in a late 1989
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episode, and camera crews and journalist from both the US and abroad routinely
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request information from the DAILY RECORD.
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William Moore, the Los Angeles-based author of the Roswell Incident says
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the government has not attempted to discredit his journalistic credentials or
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to censor the book. He has, however, been approached by various government
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agencies, including the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which has
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given him what he calls "disinformation."
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"UFOs are a magnet for every crackpot in the country," cautions Moore.
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"So be very careful in analyzing documentation. Certain agencies stir the UFO
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pot, for some reason, and there is a tremendous amount of disinformation and
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phony documents circulating in the UFO community. Some are extremely
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sophisticated, and some are merely diversions from the truth."
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More recently, an Army sergeant, based in Roswell and assigned to the New
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Mexico Military Institute reported another UFO sighting. His veracity
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immediately came under attack from colleagues, moving him to file a
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discrimination lawsuit against the US Army. By believing in flying saucers, he
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contended, he was, in effect, labeled a "UFO nut" which jeopardized his
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military career.
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If the US government has officially undertaken the mission of "debunking"
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of UFO mythology, as many published reports suggest, then the process seems to
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have backfired. In 1947, 90 percent of the US public had heard about UFOs,
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according to a Gallup Poll. By 1966, not only had 96 percent of the public
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heard about them, but more than five million Americans had seen one or more
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UFOs.
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Both witnesses and skeptics agree that beliefs in flying saucers is a
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personal matter and should not expose anyone to personal or professional
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ridicule. But then in places like Roswell, crediting the existence of UFOs has
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always been more than a matter of casual opinion.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |