Hidden Truth/Hidden Truth.iso/data/misctexts/desertrat/desert.rat.13

Internet Message Format | 1994-08-02 | 23.5 KB

From: [e-mail]
X-Mailer: America Online Mailer
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 94 15:36:20 EDT
Subject: Groom Lake Desert Rat #13

THE GROOM LAKE DESERT RAT.   An On-Line Newsletter.
Issue #13.  August 1, 1994.
 -----> "The Naked Truth from Open Sources." <-----
AREA 51/NELLIS RANGE/TTR/NTS/S-4?/WEIRD STUFF/DESERT LORE
Written, published, copyrighted and totally disavowed by
[e-mail]. See bottom for subscription/copyright info.

In this issue...
     MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS 102
     FREEDOM RIDGE CLOSURE LOOMS
     PROPOSED OUTING
     LAZAR TIMELINE RELEASED
     MYSTERIOUS LARRY KING STOPOVER

[Note: This file ends with "#####".]

 ----- MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS 102 -----

COMMONSENSE RULES FOR THE DEFENSE MANAGER

We know that the Rat is read by leaders in the Pentagon, and we
like to think that they look to us for the sort of impartial
reporting and down-to-earth advice they can't get from their own
people.  We see our role as one of education.  We do not seek to
destroy the military or damage national defense; instead, we are
trying to make the military stronger by introducing defense
managers to important concepts in psychology, philosophy, politics
and American society.

One of these is public relations.  We know what you generals are
thinking:  that the news media are the slime of the earth and
would be an even better target for the Sons and Daughters of
Liberty than Las Vegas.  Nonetheless, the presence of a
bloodthirsty press will always be a fact of life in our democracy.
They represent, in fact, one of those unalienable rights that we
go to war in distant lands to defend.  Like the unpleasant,
humiliating process of wringing funds from Congress, dealing with
the press is just something the military has to live with.  The
tone of press coverage, especially in peacetime, plays a major
role in funding decisions and the degree of autonomy the military
is accorded.  The military can either take charge of the process
and use the press to its advantage, or it can ignore the wolves,
plead "no comment" and be eaten alive.

Starting at a very basic level, there are certain things you just
shouldn't do if you want to maintain the respect of the press and
your ultimate liberty and funding.  One of these points is summed
up in a song we once heard....

     You don't tug on Superman's cape.
     You don't spit into the wind.
     You don't pull on the mask of the old Lone Ranger....

AND YOU DON'T TAKE THE CAMERAS OR VIDEO TAPE OF A MAJOR MEDIA
ORGANIZATION!

Open your textbooks to page 15 for a further restatement of this
principle.  (We are referring, of course, to "Meeting the Press: A
Media Survival Guide for the Defense Manager.")

   "Because of competitive pressures of the trade, the fraternity
of reporters is not exactly a brotherhood of congeniality.  In
actual fact, rival reporters find it easy to build up an abiding
dislike for one another, although they normally take great pains
to hide their animosities from outsiders.  But in spite of their
differences, there is one time when all media representatives will
lay their dislikes aside and join forces, place their wagons in a
circle, and stand shoulder to shoulder fighting as one.  That
occasion is whenever they perceive a threat to the freedom of the
press and their right to publish or broadcast whatever they
choose."

The ongoing Groom Lake conflict has turned into a classic example
of how not to respond to the press.  We were especially surprised
and amused to see the authorities seize the video tapes of yet
another TV crew, KNBC of Los Angeles (DR#12).  The Secret Police
never learn!  Nothing guarantees that your story will get top play
in the evening newscast like trying in some way to suppress it.
Even returning the confiscated tape won't end the story.  Instead
of making the reporter quake in his boots, such an encounter
almost assures his eternal devotion to the story.  Every reporter
is quick to express his outrage at any such obstruction, but you
know, deep down, that this is just the sort of challenge he lives
for.

At last report, the video tape seized on July 19 has still not
been returned.  Of the five tapes taken by force and without a
warrant, the Air Force is prepared to release only one.  The rest,
evidently, are a threat to national security.  The crew says they
did not photograph the unacknowledged Groom Lake base, since they
did not want to provoke the authorities, and there was already
plenty of stock footage available.  They used only a wide angle
lens, pointed away from the base, to interview activist Campbell
on Freedom Ridge, in plain sight of the anonymous guards.
Unfortunately, a wide angle lens means that some area of empty
military land adjoining the border is bound to appear somewhere in
the frame.  Everyone in the class knows about those anal-retentive
OSI guys (Office of Special Investigations) who adhere without
question to their given rules no matter how objectively absurd.
If a photo was taken in downtown Las Vegas and happened to show
restricted mountains in the background, that film has to be
impounded and stamped "Top Secret," even if no detail is shown, no
installations are visible and 10,000 better pictures are already
in circulation.

Lawyers from the NBC network are said to be pursuing the matter,
but the absence of the video tapes has not prevented the show from
going on.  KNBC will supposedly run a story on Groom tonight (8/1,
5:00pm, L.A. ch. 4.  Maybe also sat.K2/tr.3).  They do have choice
shots of activist Campbell being hauled away in handcuffs after he
tried to interfere with the seizure, and the rest of the story can
be adequately reconstructed using footage taken by other stations.

Seeing the AF humiliate itself in front of yet another TV network,
we are reminded of the poor stooge in the vaudeville act who
always falls for the same gag again and again--the banana peel on
the floor, the pie in the face.  After the laughter dies down, we
feel only sadness.  The military's wisdom and flexibility in
dealing with domestic opponents are a reflection on how it will
respond to the rapidly changing enemy it is bound to face in the
future.  The threats of the tomorrow will not be ponderous Soviets
or ego-bound Saddams.  They are going to be swift-moving,
opportunistic terrorist groups resembling more sophisticated
versions of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty and not unlike
Psychospy himself.  Having superior weaponry does not count as
much as having some subtlety and brains and a leadership that is
responsive enough to recognize a problem at its early stages and
deal with it decisively before it becomes intractable.

 ----- PROTECTING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION -----

To future students of military public relations, the Groom Lake
debacle of the mid-1990s will serve as a textbook example of how
not to preserve classified information.  The old Cold War strategy
for protecting a sensitive program was to classify EVERYTHING
associated with it, including its funding, the fact of its
existence and anything nominally trivial which might imply such a
project.  Public relations, in those days, consisted only of
various forms of "no comment," enhanced by patriotic sermons about
those who died in previous wars.  If you acknowledged even the
most tactically useless information, the theory went, it would
start the ball rolling and soon the whole program would be
compromised.

What was not recognized is that in attempting to classify every
nut and bolt, every meal served in the commissary and every
trivial fact the rest of the world knew already, the entire
security apparatus became devalued and unenforceable.  The very
reason the public was attracted to Groom was its surreal
nonexistence.  Properly classified information was lumped together
with the top-secret bar, tennis courts, prime rib dinners and
decades of accumulated failures and abuses that were of no value
to any foreign enemy.  When the trash finally got thrown out,
unfortunately so did some valuable resources.

In the end, what broke the base was not Campbell and the TV crews,
but the disenchantment of its own workers.  The key to keeping
secrets, it was found, was not rules and enforcement but trust and
cooperation.  Once the workers lost their faith that the
government was on their side, and once they felt, rightly or
wrongly, that their secrecy oath was working more against the
interests of the country than for it, then no amount of threats,
sermons or OSI thugs could keep them from speaking out about what
they felt was wrong.  For a time, it was easy to bury
embarassments and human problems under the claim of national
security, but all those skeletons accumulated in the closet, and
when the door was opened just a crack, they fell out all at once.

 ----- FREEDOM RIDGE CLOSURE LOOMS ----

It now looks increasingly likely that Freedom Ridge and White
Sides will be closed to the public sometime in October.  There is
still opportunity for comments, protests and appeals, and it is
remotely possible that BLM could turn down or delay the AF
request.  Realistically, though, visitors should not plan on these
near-in viewpoints remaining open past October 15.

There will be a 30 day "protest" period between an affirmative BLM
decision and the actual closing of the land, and we will certainly
report this warning in the Rat.  Of course, we'll schedule a party
at the very end and make sure the world doesn't overlook the
passage.

Through Aug. 26, the BLM is offering the public the opportunity to
comment on the transfer of the land from the Caliente Management
Plan to the Nellis Range Management Plan--an obscure bureaucratic
step in the withdrawal.  Acting District Manager Gary Ryan says
that since most people do not understand how this comment period
differs from the previous one, he will continue to accept comments
on the withdrawal itself.   If you so choose, you can send your
harangues to him at:

  Gary Ryan, Acting District Manager
  Bureau of Land Management
  P.O. Box 26569
  Las Vegas, Nevada  89126

It seems to us, though, that almost everything worthwhile has
already been said.  Recently, we had a chance to examine the
application case file packed with clippings, transcripts, back
issues of the Rat, hundreds letters of protest and even a couple
letters of AF support.  The file is almost a foot high now--a
fascinating cultural and anthropological record that captures a
slice of our human history.  The vast majority of the comments are
wonderfully, magically irrelevant to the withdrawal process and
entirely beyond the scope of BLM's mandate.  There are eloquent
warnings about the dangers of government secrecy and impassioned
pleas on behalf of the captive aliens.  Angry demands written in
pseudo-legalese assert that the AF and BLM have no authority in
Nevada to begin with and that everything must be given back to the
state or the Indians.  Throughout the file, we are impressed by
the passion and patriotism of the authors.  Clearly, this
withdrawal has touched a public nerve, but unfortunately most of
the vented emotion does not have much bearing on the land transfer
process.

If the withdrawal is delayed or derailed, it will be on obscure
procedural grounds.  Should an Environmental Impact Statement have
been required instead of an Environmental Assessment?  Were the
application requirements outlined in federal regulations properly
followed?  The BLM district office does not have the facilities to
evaluate UFO claims, social priorities or defense policies.  It
can only process the application according to defined
environmental and land-use procedures, then pass it upstairs to
the State Director in Reno.  He, in turn, will probably refer it
to the secretarial level in Washington, and there the final
decision could be made by voodoo and sorcery, by studying the
entrails of sacrificed animals and maybe not looking at the case
file at all.

Sometime before the close of the comment period, Psychospy will
make our own final argument against the withdrawal, which we will
print in the Rat.  BLM expects to issue a decision about 2-3 weeks
later, or mid-September.  If the withdrawal is supported, there
will then be a 30-day protest period before the land is closed.
This is the "last call" to visit Freedom Ridge.  After the land is
closed, the decision can still be appealed.

If the withdrawal goes through, it is hard to call this a
"victory" for the AF.  The application itself created a powerful
opposition movement that won't go away when Freedom Ridge is
taken.  In a way, the loss of the land may be the best thing that
could happen to the movement, because it shifts the debate to a
higher political and philosophic level.

And remember the punch line:  The Groom Lake base can still be
seen from several mountains that are higher and further back.
[e-mail] and spouse have surveyed a trail to the top of
the Tikaboo Peak viewpoint, 13 miles east of F.R.  His concise
"Tikaboo Peak Guide" is included in the current edition (2.04) of
the "Area 51 Viewer's Guide."  (Owners of previous editions can
send us an SASE for a free Tikaboo Guide.)  When F.R. is closed,
we expect to publish edition 3.0 of the Viewer's Guide, with new
advice and viewpoints.

 ----- PROPOSED OUTING -----

We will organize a final camp-out and End-of-the-World get-
together on F.R. when we learn the date of its closure.  In the
meantime, many people have expressed an interest in holding
another gathering before the end of the summer.

We propose that this summer event be called the FREEDOM
RIDGE/TIKABOO PEAK FREE-SPEECH ENCAMPMENT, with the nominal
purpose of loudly protesting the NBC tape seizure but the real aim
of having a good time.  We suggest that this event could be held
either Labor Day weekend (Sept. 3-5) or the weekend before (Aug.
27-28).  Saturday night could be spent around the campfire at
Freedom Ridge, while on Sunday interested hikers could head to
Tikaboo Peak for the official grand opening of the Summit Trail.
(That hike is a strenuous 1-1/2 hours each way through forested
alpine terrain from Badger Spring, accessible by dirt roads from
US-93.)

The protest part of the outing (merely an idea at this point) is
to suggest that everyone who objects to warrantless film and video
seizures bring a camera of their own.  Cameras can either be real
or convincing fake ones, and it is not necessary that they be
loaded with film.  In addition, illegal photos of the base, as
published by the Russians and in major periodicals, would be both
sold and given away among participants.  Imagine 50 or 100 people
with "cameras" all pointed at the base.  The Sheriff would be
informed (He gets the Rat.) and would be invited to investigate
and haul away as many of the perpetrators as he could.
(Unfortunately, the Sheriff's Dept. no longer occupies the now-
abandoned Detention Center and has capacity for only a handful of
prisoners at the Court House.)  Fond memories would be evoked of
"Peace Camp" and the anti-nuclear protests at Mercury in the 80s.

Of course, this is all merely a suggestion at this point--an idle
dream that we set forward here for public comment.  Psychospy
would never recommend, at least on his own, that people bring
cameras to a Groom Lake viewpoint.  Any recommendation like this
would have to be made by consensus of the White Sides Defense
Committee.

Anyone with thoughts to offer can drop us a line.  Which weekend
is best?  Should we or should we not bring "cameras"?  If we go
ahead with the encampment, dates and details will be printed in
the next Rat.

 ----- LAZAR TIMELINE RELEASED -----

"UFO mechanic" Bob Lazar, who claims to have reverse engineered
alien spacecraft at Papoose Lake, also claims to have degrees from
both MIT and Cal-Tech.  He explains the absence of any academic
records by suggesting that the government has made them
"disappear."  Lazar is a man without a past, the story goes, and
not even his birth certificate can be found.

It turns out now that no records could be found because no one has
looked very hard.  By digging through the archives of county
clerks and city recorders offices, our colleague
[e-mail] and his internet buddies have assembled a
wealth of public records on Lazar.  His birth certificate still
has not been located (perhaps because this requires more
information and his permission), but other records available to
anyone show Lazar's marriages, real estate transactions, a
bankruptcy, a pandering charge and the death of a spouse.  tmahood
has condensed this information into a chronological timeline of
Lazar's life, a 10-page document now circulating on the net.

For the sake of decency, Lazar's social security number and other
current identifying data have been deleted from the timeline.
Publishing the dates of Lazar's other lifetime events may also
strike some people as an invasion of privacy, but Lazar's dramatic
UFO claims and the known inconsistencies of his personal life beg
a chronological analysis.  The timeline pretty much extinguishes
the notion that Lazar earned any degree from MIT or Cal-Tech:
There just wasn't enough time.  It seems certain he worked for Los
Alamos Laboratories, as he claims, but it is still not clear in
what capacity.  The rest of the timeline, while nailing down
Lazar's general whereabouts, seems to raise more questions than it
answers.  In one curious three-day period, Lazar appears to have
been married to two different women until one of them committed
suicide.  No autopsy was performed.  Lazar then married the other
woman AGAIN a few months later, she using a different name.  Lazar
was going through bankruptcy proceedings at the time, which may
explain some of the strange maneuvers.

Many readers may call Lazar a fraud, but that doesn't answer much.
His motivation remains unknown, and the man himself is still a
fascinating cipher.  Needless to say, he has not approved this
document and his cooperation was not sought.  Nonetheless, tmahood
says that he is willing to conduct further research if Lazar can
point out any specific errors in the document.  The timeline
should be available at the FTP site below.  If you are unable to
obtain it there, you may request it by email from
[e-mail].  The internet-impaired may obtain a hard copy
from Psychospy for $2 (to cover copying and postage).

 ----- MYSTERIOUS LARRY KING STOPOVER -----

Here's fodder for your conspiracy theories.  According to an
article in the July 27 Las Vegas Review-Journal...

   "An airliner carrying talk show host Larry King was running on
empty when it made an emergency landing at Nellis Air Force Base.

   "[American Airlines] Flight 1374 from Dallas landed at the base
runway about 1:50 pm Saturday because of 'critical fuel,' said Air
Force Maj. George Sillia, a base spokesman....

   "All of the passengers -- except King, who received a military
escort to the convention -- had to stay on the plane for about 90
minutes, Sillia said."

As reported in the Washington Post (See DR#11), King will be doing
a TV special on Area 51, broadcast live from Rachel on Oct. 1.
("Has Larry King been reduced to this?")  Is it a coincidence that
King's jet HAPPENS to be diverted to Nellis two months before the
show?  Nellis manages at least the land surrounding Area 51, and
Major Sillia is the man who journalists go to for an authoritative
"no comment" about the base.  Nellis AFB is only ten miles from
McCarran Airport, the plane's intended destination.  Strange it
should be diverted here, isn't it?

What we want to know is, WHAT HAPPENED DURING THAT MILITARY
ESCORT?  We are reminded of Eisenhower's mysterious "dental
appointment," when he disappeared for a few hours and could have
been engaged in some sort of extraterrestrial contact.  Was it
really "critical fuel" that forced King's plane to land, or was
this just an excuse to brief him on the alien presence?  Or maybe
the military created this charade to replace him with a LARRY KING
CLONE, identical to the talk show host in every way except that
when Oct. 1 comes along, he'll follow the script of the ruling
elite.

ANYTHING could have happened during that military escort, and only
one thing is certain:  The plane's diversion to Nellis "couldn't
possibly be coincidence."

 ----- INTEL BITTIES -----

CAMPBELL ARRAIGNMENT.  As reported in DR #12, Glenn Campbell's
arraignment on obstruction charges will be held this Weds., Aug.
3, at 1:30 pm in Alamo Justice Court.  An arraignment is a brief
and usually uninteresting hearing in which formal charges are
filed and a trial date set.  Campbell, like O.J. Simpson, is
expected to plead "absolutely, 100 percent not guilty."  He has
reserved comment on his defense until after the arraignment, but
knowing Mr. Campbell we think he'll have fun.  The worst penalty
is probably a fine, and being accused of a crime usually increases
ones legal powers of investigation and advocacy.

TRESPASSER CASE LINGERS ON.  In DR #11, we reported that the case
of the January trespassers had finally been resolved.  Not so.
The equipment confiscated by the Cammo Dudes from their impounded
cars has still not been returned:  binoculars, telescope and a
camera (with no film).  We consider the delay yet another example
of military P.R. bungling.  The equipment is of no value to AF and
not returning it simply assures that this irritating case, like
the little Energizer bunny, will keep on going and going and
going...

"STUPID FAGGOT" VANISHES.  The graffiti on a remote Restricted
Area sign reported in DR #11 ("Glenn Campbell is a stupid faggot
and so are his loyal followers!") has disappeared as mysteriously
as it came.  It looks like someone washed it off neatly with a
spray cleaner without touching our "Misplaced Sign" marking or the
big "X".  Did an officer read about it in the Rat, and pass down a
clean-up order?  Did we got someone in trouble?  (Sorry, guys.)

HAT, BOOK AVAILABLE IN PENTAGON.  The Groom Lake patch has been
selling like gangbusters at Fort America, the military memorabilia
shop in the Outer Concourse at the Pentagon.  Now, two more of our
products are available there: the Groom Lake hat and the Area 51
Viewer's Guide.  We hope our local readers will check out the
merchandise.  (Either that or suppress it, which would be far more
newsworthy.)

 ===== SUBSCRIPTION AND COPYRIGHT INFO =====

(c) Glenn Campbell, 1994.  ([e-mail])

This newsletter is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without
permission.  PERMISSION IS HEREBY GRANTED FOR THE FOLLOWING:  For
one year following the date of publication, you may photocopy this
text or send or post this document electronically to anyone who
you think might be interested, provided you do it without charge.
You may only copy or send this document in unaltered form and in
its entirety, not as partial excerpts (except brief quotes for
review purposes).  After one year, no further reproduction of this
document is allowed without permission.

Email subscriptions to this newsletter are available free of
charge.  To subscribe (or unsubscribe), send a message to
[e-mail].  Subscriptions are also available by regular
mail for $15 per 10 issues, postpaid to anywhere in the world.

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

Current direct circulation:  1237 copies

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 61, Box 38
     Rachel, NV 89001 USA

#####