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From: [e-mail] (Glenn Campbell)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.area51,alt.alien.visitors,alt.paranet.ufo,alt.alien.research.alt.paranet.skeptic,rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies,
Subject: INVASION OF THE POD PEOPLE: ID4 Conspiracy Revealed (Long)
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 1996 18:43:03 -0700
Organization: Area 51 Research Center
Lines: 427
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INVASION OF THE POD PEOPLE!

AM I THE ONLY ONE LEFT WHO SEES THE "INDEPENDENCE DAY" CONSPIRACY?

                       By Glenn Campbell
                    Area 51 Research Center
                    http://www.ufomind.com
                  Copyright 1996 (Version 1.0)

Las Vegas, Nevada
July 4, 1996

I write this account not knowing if anyone will ever read it.
Strange things are happening that I cannot explain, and no one
seems to see them but me.  I am posting this message to the
internet in the hope that someone - anyone - might have made the
same observations and know what to do.

America is now in the grip of "ID4" fever.  "Independence Day,"
the big budget Fox movie about an alien invasion of earth, opens
this week at theaters around the country.  Some are showing it 24
hours a day as hordes of humans line up to see their planet nearly
destroyed.  Pre-release publicity has been massive.  ID4 appears
on the cover of the current Time and Newsweek, and ads seem to run
on all the TV networks every hour.  Every review I have read has
been laudatory - even in the New York Times - and everyone I know
wants to see it.

The thing I don't understand is why?  I have not seen the movie
myself.  Something tells me I MUST NOT see the movie.  I have read
the script, however, and the script sucks.  ID4 is a remake of
"War of the Worlds," with credit neither to H.G. Wells, the
author, or Orson Wells, who made history with his 1938 radio
broadcast.  Once you catch on that ID4 = WW, then the script
becomes lifeless and holds no surprises whatsoever.  Producers
Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin proudly acknowledge they wrote it
in four weeks - and it shows.  The characters are one dimensional
and the dialog predictable.  The only deviation from the "War of
the Worlds" plot is that, in the end, the aliens are not killed by
a natural virus after landing on earth.  Instead, they are done in
by a COMPUTER virus delivered to the alien mothership by our stock
Hollywood heroes.  That's creativity.

Here's a synopsis of the script.  (Please don't read it if you
think it will spoil your fun.)

     FADE IN. After being detected by radiotelescopes on July 2, a
huge alien ship approaches Earth and is at first thought to be
benign. It splits into multiple ships which hover above Earth's
major cities. Naive UFO buffs gather on rooftops with signs
welcoming the aliens, but a cable TV technician sees danger in the
signals emanating from the otherwise silent ships. He manages to
alert the President, for whom his ex-wife happens to be press
secretary.  Based on this new information, the President
immediately orders evacuation of all the cities. Just then, the
ships unleash the WALL OF DESTRUCTION - the main character in the
film. After many futile attempts to stop it, the WALL decimates
most of the world's metropolises. Billions killed. The President
and a few other survivors take refuge at Area 51. In a final all-
or-nothing battle, the cable guy joins forces with a fighter jock
to fly a captured alien scout craft back to its orbiting
mothership.  The President, piloting a fighter jet, provides air
support.  A computer virus, designed by the cable guy, is
delivered to the mothership. Mothership destroyed. Earth saved.
Heroines fall into arms of heroes, as pieces of the mothership
rain down in "Fourth of July" fireworks. FADE OUT. ROLL CREDITS.

In short, these are not friendly aliens.  Their only significant
line in the script is "Die, Exterminate... We kill you all!"
(which I understand has been shortened to "Die!" in the final
cut).  Fortunately, the aliens move at a slow enough pace to allow
the human plot to proceed.  The majority of humanity is
exterminated in this movie, but viewers can rest assured there is
still time for romance.  Of course the main selling point is not
the plot but the special effects and the spectacle of seeing all
those cities blown up.  In the TV ads, we see the White House and
Empire State building exploded from within.  The aliens must have
great respect for our culture to hit those landmarks first.

In half-hour promotional specials on Fox and the SciFi Channel,
more clips were shown.  Huge, ominous spacecraft loom over New
York and Washington in prelude to the invasion.  For each scene, I
say to myself, "Wow, those are really great special effects!"  I
experience no illusion that the scenes are real, even for a
moment.  The Fox TV special was presented as a mock newscast, in
the vein of Orson Wells' radio broadcast that caused widespread
panic.  This rendition, however, did not even begin to look real.
The "correspondents" reporting from the field looked like actors,
and the quality of the video was either too clear or had an
artificial shakiness that was also unconvincing.

ID4 appears to be merely a "product," cranked out by the Fox
entertainment factory according to time-worn formulas.  It is a
50-cent script surrounded by $70 million in special effects and
probably an even bigger marketing budget.  What is a mystery to me
is why the press, public and especially the community of UFO
believers has fallen for it so heavily.  To me, if the script is
mediocre, then it is hard for the finished movie to be any better,
no matter how many special effects you layer on top of it.
Audiences ought to be immune to special effects by now.  In the
era of computer graphics, a moviemaker can suspend a spaceship
over any city and blow up any landmark without leaving the office.
This script seems mainly an excuse for connecting together these
scenes of destruction.

With its spider-like aliens and their blandly evil intentions - in
no way resembling anything in the credible UFO literature - it is
surprising to also see ID4 on the covers of two of America's most
respected UFO monthlies: MUFON Journal and UFO Magazine.  Fox's
money buys influence, in this case a Las Vegas junket and paid
speaking engagements for UFO Magazine's editors and the MUFON
director.  They were brought here to visit "Area 51" - a major
setting for the movie and a place you can't get to from here.  In
April, Fox organized a press tour from Las Vegas, cleverly timed
to coincide with the National Association of Broadcasters
convention attended by thousands of journalists.  At least a
hundred signed on for this free Fox day trip to the military
border.  Most of them seemed to go where they were told, reported
what Fox wanted them to and asked no skeptical questions.

It is my conviction that the conspiracy runs much deeper than
anyone else suspects.  I cannot believe that the American press
can be bought off so easily.  Some other kind of influence must be
at work beyond the normal money and power of Hollywood.  I worry
that it could be something subliminal, and this is why I have
declined to see the film.

AREA 51 & THE E.T. HIGHWAY

ID4 and its popularity would not disturb me except for the unusual
deal between Fox and the State of Nevada.  Nevada is the home of
Area 51, a classified military facility about 90 miles north of
Las Vegas.  This large Air Force base was the testing ground for
the U-2, A-12 and early versions of the F-117A Stealth long before
these aircraft were known to the public.  Area 51 is also the
center of many UFO stories, most of which are nonsense but a few
that I see as plausible.  Several witnesses of varying credibility
claim to have directly seen or worked with alien spacecraft in
this vicinity, and because the government won't talk about the
area or let reporters visit, these stories have never been
resolved.

The filmmakers have attempted to exploit this existing lore by
setting the final third of ID4 at this secret base - but theirs is
Area 51 in name only.  The script contains not even the smallest
bit of technical accuracy about this facilty, and I am told there
is none in the finished product either.  In their four weeks of
script writing, Emmerich and Devlin conducted no research into
this part of Nevada, but that did not prevent the Fox marketing
armada from descending upon it when time came to promote the film.

Fox would have bought Area 51 if it could, but since it was not
for sale, they settled for a nearby highway, State Route 375, a
popular hangout for UFO watchers.  In a secret deal with Nevada's
Governor Bob Miller, Fox essentially purchased the highway as a
promotion for the film.  It would be called the "Extraterrestrial
Highway," a designation that had previously been proposed in the
state legislature but failed.  Early this year, Miller bypassed
the legislature and approved the measure through the state
Transportation Board, which he chairs.  He then flew to Los
Angeles to finalize the deal with Fox.

In spite of Nevada's public records law, the Governor's office has
declined to release the details of this contract.  Apparently,
Nevada provided the highway signs, the state dignitaries, an army
of highway workers and official sanction for the E.T. Highway
unveiling.  Fox organized, scheduled, publicized, funded and
otherwise controlled the event itself.  It was free to do whatever
it wanted there to promote the film, with no regard for the
interests of the state or its citizens.

It a mystery to me why the governor entered into such an
agreement, in which the State of Nevada all but officially
endorses the movie and gets little in return.  ID4 wasn't even
filmed in Nevada; the parts supposedly taking place at "Area 51"
were shot in Utah instead.  All the citizens of Nevada got from
this deal was some vague promise of "economic development" by
attracting tourists here, yet the services here are inadequate and
the tourists have nothing to do when they arrive.  The people who
got the shortest end of this deal were the residents who must now
live with this name and the many wackos it attracts.  Locals were
never asked about the drawbacks or whether they wanted an E.T.
Highway at all.  No local notice was given; no local hearing was
held; and written objections to state officials have never been
acknowledged.  This is strange considering that the E.T. Highway
was supposely intended to serve the local community.  Most
residents were not even invited to their own party and were barred
from the Fox unveiling ceremonies if they tried to enter.

The governor never considered the impact of attracting average
tourists - the sort who normally pull slot machine handles in Las
Vegas - to this tense and poorly marked military border where many
tourists have already been arrested.  On behalf of Fox, the State
of Nevada was now implicitly endorsing the generally flimsy UFO
"sightings" along the highway.  This is a disturbing precedent
especially to those like myself seeking credibility for the UFO
movement.  I regard the the "E.T. Highway" as false advertizing,
since I have never seen a UFO there in three years of looking.

Fox's concern was not the safety of tourists or the future of the
highway.  They were interested only in the herd of captive
journalists and purchased UFO experts who they were shipping up
from Las Vegas.  The ceremonies were held in Rachel, the only town
on the highway and the center of a fledgling UFO industry.  To
manage their flock, Fox set up a controlled compound and closed
tent, guarded by hired security, local sheriff's deputies, state
police and about a dozen state highway workers in orange vests.
Security was tight because word had reached the Fox executives
that I and a few of my colleagues planned to protest the
unveiling, and Fox wanted to keep the journalists away from us.  I
am told that paranoia was rampant, especially among the Fox
V.P.'s, who were no doubt alarmed by the fact that you can't get
cell phone coverage in Rachel.  No one knew where the "E.T.
Highway Counterinsurgency Forces" would strike.

We had something that no one from Fox could ever understand:
creativity.  We bypassed their security altogether and abducted
part of the convoy before it ever got to Rachel.  This involved
placing professional looking signs along the roadway on the 150-
mile route from Las Vegas to Rachel.  Our signs, which started
near Las Vegas, said "ID4/E.T. Highway Dedication" with a big
arrow indicating the direction to go.  We were providing a useful
service, because no one at Fox or State of Nevada had thought of
this, and many late stragglers in the convoy of buses and cars
would have gotten lost without them.

At a junction about 25 miles before Rachel, we executed "Operation
Coyote (Wile E.)."  The head of the convoy was allowed to pass,
because presumably the people leading it knew where they were
going.   Then several cars approached whose occupants we
recognized.  They had inserted themselves in the convoy at the
appropriate place for a cut-off.  The arrows on strategic signs
were quickly reversed, and our confederates turned off onto a long
dirt road.  The rest of the convoy obediently followed.  This was
not intended as a frivolous or malicious act.  It was designed to
illustrate an important point.  Unprepared tourists can easily
become lost here, and the military boundary, although heavily
guarded, is also poorly marked.  The road we sent the convoy down
lead directly into the secret base, and if the tourists had kept
on going, they would have soon been surrounded by men with guns.

Fortunately, the signs directed the cars to make a turn just
before the border, and the convoy proceeded in clouds of dust back
to the highway from which it came.  We captured one of the press
buses and about a third of the cars.  All emerged safely from the
ten-mile diversion, some motorist still thinking it was part of
the plan.  Their only souvenir of the trip was a heavy layer of
dust both on and inside their vehicles.

Later, at the unveiling site in Rachel, we tried to mount a more
traditional protest.  This was "Operation Tall Picket."
Certainly, we were within our constitutional rights to picket this
event, because there were a number of unresolved concerns about
visitor safety and improper contracts between the state and
private enterprise.  Instead of conventional picket signs, though,
we constructed very tall ones, on extendible poles that could
reach over 20 feet.  At the top of each pole we attached a blank
board about three feet wide.  To this we planned to clip temporary
signs printed on poster board, and we had stayed up all night to
draw about a hundred for use in a variety of situations.

The idea is that we would stand behind the podium or stage but far
enough away that we were out of range of security.  As the
governor or any other dignitary spoke, signs would appear above
their head bearing slogans appropriate to the context.  Since we
had three picket poles, we could work them in unison, like Burma
Shave signs, and we had written a script for each speaker.  "E.T.
Gov" would appear above the governor's head as soon as he
approached the podium, and a creative series of political
statements would follow.  We would also give the audience
instruction on when to "Applaud!" "Laugh!" and "Boo!"  The aim was
not to heckle or ridicule the speakers, although this might have
happened incidentally.  What was important to us was to get our
message to those captive journalists that all was not as it
seemed.

Unfortunately, high winds and the unexpectedly closed tent pretty
much wiped out Operation Tall Picket.  We got in a little bit of
light picketing near the tent's heavily guarded entrance, but it
wasn't very effective.  However, we did mill about the area in
fluorescent orange T-shirts that read in big, bold letters: "ID4
BUYS E.T. GOV."  Although nasty-looking Fox employees were
carefully checking everyone's credentials at the entrance, one of
the members of our protest team was somehow able to slip past and
into the tent wearing her orange T-shirt under her jacket.  She
positioned herself just behind and to the side of the governor's
podium.  She then discretely took off her jacket and held it in
front of her, obscuring the slogan.  As the governor began to
speak, she dropped the jacket and exposed her chest to the
audience and all the cameras.  "ID4 BUYS E.T. GOV."  Thugs from
Fox immediately moved in her direction.  They tried to stand in
front of her at first, but she continued to maneuver for a better
position in front of the audience.  She was then physically
removed from the tent by Fox personnel.

Curiously, although our operative and her T-shirt appeared in
perfect juxtaposition with the governor in front of dozens of
credentialed journalists, photographers and TV cameramen, no
picture or account of the incident has ever been published or
broadcast.  I conclude that journalists, as a rule, do not like
conflict; they would rather be told what to report by the
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.  Either that, or they were
somehow being controlled.  It may not mean anything, but those
same journalists had seen clips of "Independence Day" in Las Vegas
the night before.  Could there be a connection?

A third operation had been executed successfully earlier in the
day.  It was "Operation Alternative View."  When the convoy first
formed in Las Vegas, our confederates were there, making sure that
nearly everyone in the convoy got our "E.T. Highway Alternative
Press Kit," a thick document of fact sheets, news clippings about
tourist arrests and essays opposing the highway renaming and deal
between Nevada and Fox.  The people on the buses should have had
two hours to read the material on the long trip to Rachel, but
again a reaction was surprisingly absent.  Most articles and TV
news spots on the unveiling reported no conflict at all.  They
said that Rachelites unanimously supported the name change.  The
only reasonably skeptical article, which was also the only one to
report the abduction of the convoy, was written by a reporter from
the Las Vegas Sun.  It so happens that she was one of the few who
had not see the screening of the film clips the night before.
Coincidence?

I have not begun to put the whole sinister scenario together until
now, but I recognized other unsettling clues at the unveiling.  I
had printed more T-shirts than I needed for the dozen members of
our protest team, so I sold some of the extras at the unveiling to
anyone who wanted one.  I charged only what they cost me: five
dollars each.  A man came up to me and asked for one.  I
recognized him as Brent Spiner, the actor who plays "Data" on Star
Trek and an eccentric scientist in ID4.  I told Spiner that the
shirts were five dollars.  "Five dollars?" he said with sarcasm.
"It isn't worth THAT!"  Right then, I saw something disturbing in
his expression and heard it in his voice.  This wasn't "our" Data,
the lovable, logical android.  This was Data's evil twin brother,
Lor.

Also present at the unveiling was Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II, an
alien in human form who hails from several different planets at
once.  The Ambassador, who says he represents the "Saucerians of
Avalon," is Carson City's only active alien lobbiest.  For two
years he haunted the hallways of the state capital, knocking on
doors of the governor and legislators to push this E.T. Highway
through.  He says it will help prepare us for the coming arrival
of his space brothers, scheduled to take place on this very
highway before the end of the millenium.

Another alien on hand was Darth Vader, dark lord of the Star Wars
universe.  He was smaller than I had pictured him and had a pot
belly, but the black plastic head was definitely the same, and I
experienced an appropriate feeling of dread as he approached.  He
held out his hand to me and said, "Hi, Glenn.  Assemblyman Bob
Price."  Price is a senior legislator from Las Vegas and one of
the original sponsors of the E.T. Highway Bill - the one that had
failed because some "sour grapes" senators thought it was
frivolous.  Lord Vader tried to put his arm around my shoulder for
a photo opportunity, but I shrugged him away.  Here I was with the
virtual embodiment of evil - with or without the mask - and he
wanted to be my friend!  He never took off that mask during the
whole event.  Later I saw him again, milling about alone near the
buses, looking downward.  I saw him as a small, sad, lonely little
Darth who no one fully understood.

It was then that it began to dawn on me that something in my
universe had gone terribly, horribly awry.

CONCLUSION

I do not know how to deal with the immensity of what might be
occurring.  I'd like to confide my theory to someone, but I do not
know who I can trust.  All my friends want to see ID4, even those
who participated in the protest.  Some of them have already gone
to it and have come back somehow... changed.  I am trying
desperately to think things through and come up with another
explanation, but the alternative is even more disturbing.  If
there is no conspiracy here, then I would have to believe that all
the journalists, state officials, legislators and UFO experts who
have been involved in this promotion are both incompetent and
utterly ignorant of their professional responsibilities.
Occasional incompetence I might believe, but not this.  I think
this whole thing is big, really big, and I am just at the verge of
putting it all together.  I almost have incontrovertible proof;
all I need is someone who will listen.

It is now 3 AM in Las Vegas, July 4, Independence Day.  I have
been staring at this computer screen for hours.  I need a break.
I need to take a walk.  A visit to the Las Vegas Strip is always
amusing, even though I don't gamble.  A late-night buffet or steak
special might lift my spirits. I hope it will also clear my head.

The tourists who aren't lined up to see ID4 are inserting coins
and bills into slot machines.  I stop to watch as a woman wins
$1000 and is paid off by the attendant in new $100 bills.  The
lights on the machine are still blinking, and it plays a happy
rendition of "I'm in the Money."  The woman is not smiling,
however.  I see no emotion at all in her face as she takes the
first of the hundreds and inserts it back into the same machine
from which she won the jackpot.  This must be part of the
conspiracy, too.  It is my thesis that Las Vegas, if not all of
Nevada, is controlled by the Fox entertainment conglomerate.

Back on the sidewalk, I look up.  A giant alien spacecraft, miles
across, hovers silently above the casinos.  I don't think anyone
sees it but me.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright (c) 1996, Glenn Campbell, PO Box 448, Rachel, NV 89001.
May be freely distributed by internet email and newsgroups, but
only through Aug. 31, 1996.  May not be reproduced in print, on
CD, as part of any other newsletter or compilation or in any for-
profit medium without written permission of author.  Whenever this
document is copied or forwarded, this copyright statement must
remain attached.

------------------------------------------------------------------

For other contrarian info on "Independance Day," see....
http://www.ufomind.com/area51/events/highway_bill/id4

Note: Our server may become overloaded in coming days as the
ID4 "Wall of Destruction" hits.  If you get a "Transfer Limit"
error message, try again tomorrow.

--
Area 51 Research Center - Las Vegas & Rachel, Nevada
http://www.ufomind.com