108 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
108 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: ENGAGE A CLOAKING DEVICE FILE: UFO3217
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Facing danger, UFO bureaucrats engage a cloaking device
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Byline: Lionel Van Deerlin. Copley News Service
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10/18/93
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THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
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The possibility of extraterrestrials _ of intelligent life on
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nearby planets or in other galaxies _ remains one of mankind's most
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enduring tenets, though lacking supportable evidence.
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Hardly a month goes by without a UFO sighting somewhere. The
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true believers gather regularly in massive encampments to fortify
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their faith through shared experience. Their hopes often are
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nourished by shameless frauds spinning tales of "documented
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landings," of cryptogrammic messages, 27-inch men and things that
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go bump in the night.
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Given enough zealots, almost any such quest will find friends
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within government. Thus it was that our National Aeronautics and
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Space Administration, an agency charged with probing the unknown,
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launched a program some years ago that would sweep the skies for
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strange or unexplained signals from outer space. Congress happily
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provided money to underwrite the Search for Extraterrestrial
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Intelligence, as NASA labeled it.
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SETI began modestly enough, but quickly blossomed to a
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projected 10-year, $100 million program utilizing the Jet
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Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. And last year, on the
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500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' voyage, NASA really
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whooped things up. It unveiled a new 1,000-foot antenna dish in
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Puerto Rico and a "deep space tracking station" at Goldstone, in
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the Southern California desert.
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These facilities were said to be capable of detecting the
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faintest signals from distant civilizations, should any exist. But
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the press agentry accompanying all this was really pretty dumb _
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and its timing terrible, we now see _ for an agency employing so
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many smart scientists. It happens that a suddenly cost-conscious
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Congress had eliminated the Search for Extraterrestrial
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Intelligence from NASA's fiscal 1993 budget.
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So how come the press releases and all that new tracking gear?
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Richard H. Bryan, a first-term U.S. senator from Nevada who
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serves on the space subcommittee of Commerce, Science and
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Transportation, determined to find out. He discovered that in its
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craving to continue the search for life in astral outposts, NASA
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had indulged in some decidedly earthy tactics.
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Inasmuch as Sen. Bryan had been in on the 1992 fight to end
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SETI, his surprise may be imagined upon discovering a $12.3 million
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item buried in this year's budget _ for an outlay covering
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precisely the same research.
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Except that NASA had given it a new name.
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And what a whopper it was, even among government agencies given
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to Gordian-like nomenclature. The Search for Extraterrestrial
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Intelligence had become _ hang onto your hat _ the "Towards Other
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Planetary Systems/High Resolution Microwave Survey."
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Reared in Las Vegas, Bryan had doubtless witnessed some
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monumental bluffs at the gaming tables. But this high-chips ploy by
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NASA seemed to top them all.
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"The response of the bureaucracy has been not only instructive
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but intriguing," he said on the Senate floor, "intriguing in terms
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of the creativity and tenaciousness with which programs, once
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authorized, can last forever."
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What had happened illustrates all too well the way business
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often moves on Capitol Hill. The authorizing committees of House
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and Senate had decided last year that a search for life in outer
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space could no longer be justified in a strapped economy. Its
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termination was thereafter approved by both houses as a part of
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legislation signed by President Bush.
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But then came NASA's sleight-of-hand, aided by friends within
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the appropriations committees. Their pet project was renamed as
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noted, buried a little deeper in the budget and _ presto! _ the
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sweep for alien radio signals went forward as if E.T. himself were
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in charge.
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NASA's formidable lobbying team must have cringed during Senate
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debate on Sept. 22, as the Nevada senator quietly exposed their
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hitherto unidentified flying fakery. Recalling the record vote more
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than a year earlier by which many in Congress thought they had
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ended the hunt for other worlds, Bryan said:
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"One can quarrel with our judgment, but (it was) that this
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program should be eliminated. That was a pronouncement of the
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Congress of the United States, signed into law by the president.
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The process was circumvented, in effect, by recasting this as a
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`high resolution microwave survey.' The appropriations committee
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put money into the program, cast in a new name.
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"This contributes to the public skepticism and cynicism about
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the way we do our business."
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NASA had its defenders that day, but only 23 senators _ fewer
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than one in four _ voted against Bryan's amendment to delete the
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star sweep once and for all, no matter what anyone chooses to call
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it.
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A House-Senate conference committee agreed to the cut, and NASA
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has reluctantly sent pink slips to its Caribbean and California
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listening posts.
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"We have some people here who have worked 15 years on this," a
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glum project manager at the Jet Propulsion Lab told Associated
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Press.
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"Now all of a sudden it's gone, and I think that's tragic."
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Tragic? Well, strange to say the least _ that ears trained to
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intercept galactic messages couldn't decode the plainly stated word
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from Washington.
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===========================================================================
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