Hidden Truth/Hidden Truth.iso/data/space/weirdimages+ufo/alt3-3.txt

Text File | 1996-07-14 | 113.8 KB | 2,700 lines

     No more speech could be heard.  Grodin, at that point,
had switched to another frequency.  On the tape there was
only static...
     Simon Butler, you may recall, underlined that point when
the television documentary was transmitted.  He said:  "Bravo
Jezebel?  A form of code?  Almost certainly.  But what did it
mean?  Absolutely nothing to the estimated six hundred
million people listening in on earth..."
     Remember the allegations, which we outlined in section
one of this book, made by former NASA man Otto Binder?
     "Certain sources with their own VHF receiving facilities
that by-passed NASA broadcast outlets claim there was a
portion of Earth-Moon dialogue that was quickly cut off by
the NASA monitoring staff."
     That censored portion, according to Binder, included
these words from Apollo 11:  "These babies were huge,
sir...enormous...Oh, God you wouldn't believe it!...I'm
telling you there are other space-craft out there...lined
up on the far side of the crater edge..."
     Could that have a direct link with the exchange heard on
the Grodin tape?  Had Grodin, like the men of the Apollo 11
mission, seen something too startling to be revealed to
ordinary people?
     Or were these moon-explorers all mistaken?  Was there
something in outer space which induced hallucinations?
     The idea of unknown and unidentified space-craft being
"lined up" on the moon - to the astonishment of human
astronauts - has surely too ridiculous.  And YET...
     Grodin agreed to be interviewed by Sceptre Television,
via Satellite, from a studio in Boston, Massachusetts.  The
plan was to tape the entire interview and edit it later.  In
fact, as viewers will probably remember, the interview ended
abruptly and in the oddest possible way.  And it place an
even bigger question mark on the whole subject of
Alternative 3.
     There was, right from the start, something slightly
manic in Grodin's expression and he showed a tendency to
laugh nervously for no apparent reason.  But he talked
fluently and he displayed no reluctance about discussing the
breakdown he had suffered after his final return from space.
Nothing remarkable happened, or seemed likely to happen,
until Simon Butler asked a question which we present verbatim
from the program which was transmitted:

          Now it has been suggested, among others, by some
     very responsible people that you - that all of you on
     the Apollo program - saw far more out there than you
     have been allowed to admit publicly.  What comment do
     you have to make on that suggestion?




                              77
     The immediate effect on Grodin was electrifying.  His
face suffused with anger and he shouted:  "What are you
trying to do, man?  Just tell me that!  What are you trying
to do."
     Butler apologized.  "I was only..."
     "You trying to screw me? demanded Grodin.  He leaned
forward in his chair, glowering into the Boston camera.
"That what you want?  You want to screw me real good?"
     "Of course not," said Butler quickly.  "And I'm sorry
if..."
     "Like that dumb bastard Ballantine?  Is that what you
want to..."
     He got no further.  His voice was chopped in
midsentence, his picture on the monitor screen vanished in a
haze of white static.
     "What is going on? asked Butler.  "Hell's teeth...what's
the matter with this..."
     He was interrupted by Clement's voice.  "We don't know
where he's gone."
     Like that dumb bastard Ballantine!  That's the line
which grabbed their attention.  It had to fit in, somehow,
with the mystery of the meaningless tape received by Hendry -
and with the strange circumstances leading up to Ballantine's
death.  It just had to be connected with what the man Harry
had said:  "There was no way for that to be an accident...it
was what they called and Expediency and I know why it
happened."
     "We've got to find him and talk to him face-to-face.
Terry, love...see what your lad in America can come up with."
He turned to Colin Benson.  "I'll probably be sending you
over there," he said.
     Benson beamed.  "Great!" he said.  "But isn't Harman
going to raise stink?"
     "Probably," said Clements.  "But leave that to me."
     Harman did "raise stink".  He raised it more vehemently
than Clements anticipated.  We have the memoranda which
reveal the strength of Harman's feelings.  In our view they
show a strength bordering on fanaticism...

     Wednesday, July 13, 1977.  Another submarine meeting of
Policy Committee.  Chairman:  A EIGHT.  Transcript section
supplied by Trojan starts:

     R TWO:  This Princeton man... Dr. Gerard O'Neill...
          appears to have a disturbing lack of discretion...

     (Author's note:  This meeting, being held a littler
later in the month than was customary, was exactly two days
after the Los Angeles Times published the controversial
interview -- detailed in Section One of this book - in which
Dr. O'Neill outlined the solution he called "Island 3".  He


                              78
said in that interview - "There's really no debate about the
technology involved in doing it.  That's been confirmed by
NASA's top people.")
     The Trojan transcript continued:

     A FOUR:  Sure...he shouldn't have shot his mouth off in
          that way...but I don't see there's any real harm
          done...people will assume he's just talking
          theory...
     A EIGHT:  It is just theory, for Chrissakes, as far as
          he is concerned.  He knows the technology but
          beyond that he knows nothing...
     R FIVE:  He is a respected man...a man whose words
          mould public opinion...and he should be dis-
          couraged from making such stupid statements...
     A EIGHT:  That's already been done...for him and for
          others like him...
     R TWO:  What is this you are saying?  An unauthorized
          Expediency?
     A EIGHT:  Hell, no!  That's not necessary.  Like I said
          ...Gerard O'Neill doesn't know enough, not about
          the politics...he doesn't even have any idea that
          we meet this way...
     R SIX:  Then what has been done?
     A EIGHT:  Let's keep this in perspective, shall we...
          Washington doesn't want publicly to pinpoint the
          O'Neill thing because that would make it seem too
          important...best to ignore it..that's the official
          attitude and I'm damned sure that attitude is
          right...
     R SEVEN:  But when O'Neill talked about Island 3...
     A EIGHT:  Hold on...let me finish.  Something is being
          done but it's being done as a blanket operation...
          Right now there's a secrecy Bill being scrambled on
          to the Stature Book and I promise you that'll close
          every worrying mouth...


Fourteen days after this meeting of the Policy Committee, as
we mentioned earlier, columnist Jeremy Campbell broke the
news of the "suppression" Bill in the London Evening
Standard.  Campbell is a highly experienced journalist with a
deserved reputation for knowing the background to the
published news.  Here, we are confident, is one of the rare
instances where he did not know the real background.
     The rest of the transcript supplied by Trojan was brief:

     R SEVEN:  That may well be but I have to tell you that
          our people in Moscow are becoming increasingly
          worried about the level of security in
          America...there was that bad business of Carmell...


                              79
     A EIGHT:  Oh no!...not Carmell again!  Carmell's settled
          ...that's all over, okay?
     R SEVEN:  And Carl Gerstein?

     There was no reply to that question.  The meeting had
obviously continued but that was the end of the transcript.

     The end of August and the beginning of September, 1977 -
 only days before the "Suppression" Bill reached the Statute
Book - brought more curious evidence of the treatment which
had been given to Batch Consignment victims.  It gave a
deeper insight into the work which had been continuing in
America and Russia.  And in Britain.
     This evidence is now public knowledge for, as library
files show, it has appeared in reputable newspapers.  But,
because of its special significance, we consider it worth
repeating here.
     On August 27, William Lowther, the distinguished
Washington correspondent of the Daily Mail, wrote and article
which was headlined THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE BATHROOM.
     It said:

          Morgan Hall was a spy.  He always kept a jug of
     martinis in the refrigerator.  He had a two-way mirror
     in the bathroom.
          But Morgan's life was full of woe.  His masters
     were slow in sending money.  His assignment was awful
     sleazy.  The code name for his project was "Operation
     Midnight Climax".  It was meant to be a perpetual secret
     And no wonder.
          For two full years Morgan spent his working hours
     sitting on a portable toilet watching through his
     mirror drinking his martinis while a prostitute
     entertained men in the adjoining bedroom.
          Her job was to persuade clients to drink cocktails.
     What they didn't know was that the drinks had been mixed
     by the mysterious Morgan.  They were more chemical than
     alcohol.
          Morgan had to record the results.  We still don't
     know just what they were or how they worked.  But some
     of the drinks gave instant headaches, others made you
     silly or drunk or forgetful or just plain frantic.  The
     effects were only temporary and nobody was harmed, much.
          Morgan was employed by the Central Intelligence
     Agency and it was America's top spy bosses who sent him
     out from headquarters near Washington to set up the
     "laboratory" in a luxury apartment overlooking San
     Francisco Bay.
          Now, 1,647 pages of financial records dealing with
     the operation have been made public as part of a
     Congressional investigation.


                              80
(Author's note:  That was the Congressional investigation
provoked by the information supplied to us by Trojan.)
Lowther's article continued:

          It was all part of the agency's MK-ultra mind
     control experimental program...it was reasoned that a
     prostitute's clients wouldn't complain.
          The financial records released yesterday show that
     Morgan was always writing to headquarters.  Says a
     typical letter - "Money urgently needed to pay
     September rent."
          His bills for the flat include Toulouse -Lautrec
     posters, a picture of a French can - can dancer and one
     marked:  "Portable toilet for observation post."
          Says the CIA:  "Morgan Hall died two years ago.
     We have no idea where he is buried."


     Here we must ignore suspicions and accept the official
word of the CIA.  Our own inquiries in America have yielded
nothing further about Morgan Hall and we must state, quite
categorically, that we have found no evidence to support any
suggestion of his having been an expediency victim.
     Lowther's story was quickly followed by two more reports
which confirmed something we had already been told by Trojan
- a series of secret experiments in behavior control had also
been conducted in Russia and in Britain.
     On September 2 The Times gave front-page prominence to a
report supplied from Honolulu by Reuter and UPI.  It was
headlined "PSYCHIATRISTS CONDEMN SOVIET UNION" and it said:

          The general assembly of the World Psychiatric
     Association, meeting behind closed doors, has adopted a
     resolution condemning the Soviet Union for abusing
     psychiatry for "political purposes" in the Soviet
     Union..."
          The international code of ethics, called the
     "Declaration of Hawaii", adopted by the congress follows
     years of criticism against the WPA for not taking action
     on ethical standards.

     Other newspapers claimed that "scores of mentally
healthy Soviet citizens are forcibly interned in mental
hospitals'.  This is unquestionably true but the facts need
to be seen in their proper perspective.  The vast majority
are detained because of their stand on human rights.  They
are sane people who are considered enemies of the State.
Only a small percentage are there purely because they are
needed as guinea-pigs.  These are the ones who have been
detained because of Alternative 3.



                              81
in Britain - appeared on August 28 in the Sunday Telegraph:

          Hospitals for the mentally ill and mentally
     handicapped have been instructed by the Health
     Department to collect statistics on operations being
     carried out to change personality.
          For the first time, ministers have acknowledged
     that there is growing concern.  The operations, known
     as psychosurgery, are carried out to remove or destroy
     portions of brain tissue to change the behavior of
     severely depressed or exceptionally aggressive patients
     who do not respond to drugs or electric shock treatment.


     The Sunday Telegraph said that "the change was
irreversible" and quoted a prominent consultant psychiatrist
as saying:  "My hospital is littered with the wrecks of
humanity who have undergone psychosurgery.
     However, the newspaper did not point out that these
operations can also be performed to control the behavior
pattern of men and women who are completely sane.  Or that,
in fact, they have been performed on such people.
     Dr. Randolph Crepson-White spoke to us about these
operations when we net him in the Somerset village to which
he retired in 1975.  He talked frankly on the strict
understanding that we would not divulge his name.  However,
as he died of natural causes on October 19, 1977, we do not
consider ourselves to be now bound by our undertaking.
     Dr. Crepson-White told us:  "I performed five of these
operations on people - four young men and one young woman -
who appeared to be completely sane.  There were two objects.
The patients had to be completely de-sexed, to have their
natural biological urges taken away, and they also had to
have their individuality removed.  They would, after being
discharged, obey any order without question.  In fact, they
would virtually be thinking robots.
     "I recognized that what I was doing was most unethical,
and I did protest that very strongly, but I was told that the
operations were vital to the security of the country.
     "Nobody actually told me that those patients had been
involved in espionage but that was the impression I was
given.  I was ordered to sign the Official Secrets form and
that is why you must not mention my name - apart from the
fact that I'm frightened, there'd be repercussions of a
violent nature if certain people realized I'd been talking to
you."
     We should point out that, in order to protect Dr.
Crepson-White's anonymity, we had agreed hot to be so
specific about the number of operations he had performed.
That agreement, of course, is now unnecessary.



                              82
He continued:  "I still had distinct reservations about this
aspect of my work.  Soon it became apparent that I would be
required to do more operations involving sane
people...possibly many more...and that was when I decided to
get right out."
     "I had not intended to retire for another three years
but, under the circumstances, I considered it impossible to
go on."
     Dr. Crepson-White, we are certain, knew nothing about
people being collected into Batch Consignments.  He knew
nothing about Alternative 3.  But a complete insight into the
use being made of his work was eventually supplied to us by
Trojan.  It was supplied in an astounding document which we
will be presenting later.







































                              83
                        SECTION  EIGHT


     Leonard Harman was far from happy with the letter sent
to him on August 12, 1977, by our lawyer Edwin Greer.

     Letter dated August 15, 1977, from Harman to lawyer
Greer:

     I am surprised by the contents of your letter and I
must insist on receiving undertaking from Messrs.
Ambrose and Watkins to the effect that I will not be
mentioned in their projected book.  I note that your
clients are aware that Sceptre Television has admitted
that the Alternative 3 program was an unfortunate hoax
and I am puzzled by the apparent evasiveness of your
second paragraph.
     You state that your clients are  'mindful of the
background to that statement."  What, if anything, does
that mean?
     I repeat that it would be extremely wrong to
perpetuate in book form what has already become a public
misconception.  There is absolutely no truth in the
suggestion of any East-West covert action such as that
described in the program and your clients apparently
intend to compound what has already been admitted as a
serious error of judgement.
     If your clients persist in their attitude,
particularly in respect to my privacy, I will have to
seek legal advice and/or redress.


     Letter dated August 13 from Edwin Greer to Leonard
Harman:

     There was no evasiveness in my letter of the 12th
inst.
     I merely pointed out that my clients have conducted
their own investigations in Britain and America into the
subject of their projected book.  Indeed, that
investigation is still continuing.  Any decisions taken
by Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Watkins, in consultation with
their publishers, will depend on their eventual findings
and I am instructed to inform you that it is not
possible for them to give you any undertaking.


     Six days later Greer received a letter from a well known
Member of Parliament who had been lobbied for support by
Harman.  We included the name of the MP - and of one other



                              84
who tried to suppress this book - in our original manuscript
but, because of Britain's restrictive libel laws, we have
been advised to delete those names from the published
version.
     This particular MP was taking the same line as Harman.
His letter said:

     In common with a number of my colleagues in the
House of Commons, I have already deplored the misguided
motives which resulted in the television program about
the so-called Alternative 3.
     Letters from many of my constituents demonstrate
the alarm which was engendered and which, despite the
subsequent statement by the television company, still
lingers.
     The fact that your clients should apparently be
determined to capitalize on that alarm is, to my mind,
quite scandalous.  I intend to seek an injunction to
prevent the publication of this book...


     He did try for that injunction.  The fact that you are
reading this book at this moment is the proof that it was
refused to him - and to one of his colleagues in the House of
Commons.  As we will explain later, however, these MPs did
force us into a reluctant compromise.
     However, they did not succeed in preventing us from
using more of the memoranda which circulated inside Sceptre
Television.


     Memo dated April 92, 1977, from Chris Clements to Fergus
Godwin, Controller of Programs - c.c. to Leonard Harman,
Colin Benson, Terry Dickson:

     Through contacts in America we have now traced
former astronaut Bob Grodin to a new address.  He is
living with a girl and is not aware he has been located.
I have instructed the American freelance to make no
direct approach for, in view of the way Grodin went into
hiding after the break-down of that Boston interview, he
would almost certainly try to dodge us again.
     I want to send Benson to America to quiz Grodin in
greater depth for, particularly considering his
reference to Ballantine, I am certain he holds the key
to an immensely important story.
     It would be essential, of course, for Benson to
arrive without prior warning.  May I have your
authorization to make the necessary arrangements?




                           85
     Memo dated April 12, 1977, from Leonard Harman to Mr.
Fergus Godwin, Controller of Programs:

     CONFIDENTIAL.  The note from Clements, bearing
today's date and relating to his interest in America, is
clear confirmation of what I have already indicated to
you and the Managing Director.
     Clements has become unprofessionally obsessed with
this ridiculous investigation with which he is
persisting and I recommend that he be replaced
immediately as producer of Science Report.  I have
studied his contract and we would be within our rights
to transfer him to some area of our output where he
would not be such an expensive liability - possibly the
gardening series or the God Spot.
     I have on several occasions had to warn him about
squandering company time, money and resources --
remember those abortive film unit journeys to Norwich
and Scotland? - but he has defiantly persisted in doing
so.
     I was told nothing of the inquiries which have
apparently been commissioned on our behalf in America
although, as I mentioned again at the Senior Executives'
Meeting on Friday, it is company policy for matters of
that nature to be channelled through me.  It would be
utterly wrong to sanction Benson's going to America.
Nothing can possibly be gained by talking to this man
Grodin - even allowing for what Clements admits is the
unlikely chance of him agreeing to talk.  I have formed
the impression from newspaper accounts that Grodin is
unstable and probably unbalanced and it is no part of
our function as a reputable television company to hound
such a man - particularly for such a ridiculous reason.
     We should, I suggest, instruct Clements to abandon
this fool-hardy exercise and we should also give
priority consideration to replacing him.


     Memo dated April 13, 1977, from Fergus Godwin to Leonard
Harman:

     CONFIDENTIAL.  Let us not forget that Science
Report is a Network success purely because of Clements.
However, I note your objections and I must confess that
I have also been concerned about the amount of money
which has gone into this particular project.  I have
arranged for Clements to see me today and, naturally, I
will keep you informed.




                              86

     The meeting between Clements and Godwin - on Tuesday,
April 13 - did not go well.  Godwin had seen the unedited
version of the interview filmed at Cambridge with Gerstein
and he had not been impressed.  The way the old man had
veered away from any discussion of Alternative 3 had made him
suspect that there was no Alternative 3 - that the dangers
and the solutions were probably all theoretical.  Science
Report was already well over budget and Godwin knew how that
would incense certain men on the Board.  One of the Board
members was an accountant, with the creative imagination of a
retarded Polar Bear, and he was an apoplectic little man.
Godwin didn't fancy another row with him - not on an issue
where his own ground was so uncertain.
     "Let me think it over," he said to Clements.  "I'll let
you know."


     Memo dated April 14, 1977, from Fergus Godwin to Chris
Clements - c.c. to Leonard Harman:

     Further to our talk yesterday, I feel we would not
be justified in sending Benson to America.  If the
situation should change as a result of any further
information you may g-t, I will be prepared to discuss
the matter with you again.  For the moment, however,
it's not on.


     Clements read the note, pushed it across his desk to
Dickson.  "That bloody Harman!" he said.  "This is his
doing."
     "Now what?" asked Dickson.
     "We are going to do it.  Terry. We are definitely going
to do it.  What we need now is some further information."
     "Like what?"
     "I don't know, love...you're the researcher...the sort
of information that'll swing it with Fergus."  He frowned,
got up, started pacing the room.  "What was it Gerstein said
about co-operation between the super-powers?"
     "He seemed to have the idea that they were working
together on the Alternative 3 thing..."
     "That could be it!" said Clements excitedly.  "Do we
know anyone who might develop that thought for us?  It's have
to be somebody with real prestige..."
     "Broadbent?"
     "Who's Broadbent?"
     "Great expert on East-West diplomacy...runs the
Institute of International Political Studies in St.
James's..."
     "Hm...well there's no harm in trying.  Is Colin around?"



                              87
     Dickson shook his head.  "His day off."
     "It's always his day off when I need him," said Clements
unfairly.  "Ask Kate to pop in and see me, will you?  She can
start sounding out Broadbent..."
     At 5:15 p.m. that day reporter Katherine White started
her interview with Professor G. Gordon Broadbent - parts of
which, as you may recall, were eventually used in the
transmitted program.
     It took her some time to get Broadbent really talking.
He was cautious, suspicious of her motives, anxious not to
become involved in any sensationalism.
     That was understandable for, after all, he is a man who
is internationally respected.  After a while, however, he was
more forthcoming and we now print the significant part of
that interview - verbatim from the transcript - as it was
presented in the televised documentary:


BROADBENT: On the broader issue of Soviet-US relations I
     must admit there is an element of mystery which
     troubles many people in my field.  To put it at its
     simplest, none of us can understand how it is that
     the peace has been kept over these past twenty-five
     years.
WHITE:  You mean the experts are baffled?
BROADBENT: (with a smile):  But also, for once, in
     agreement.  The popular myth that it's been proof
     of the balance of nuclear power frankly doesn't
     entirely stand up.  And the more you look at it,
     the less sense it makes.  There are too many
     imbalances - especially when you put it in the
     perspective of history.
WHITE:  So what is your explanation?
BROADBENT: Essentially what we're suggesting is that, at
     the very highest levels of East-West diplomacy,
     there has been operating a factor of which we know
     nothing.  Now it could just be - and I stress the
     word "could" - that this unknown factor is some
     kind of massive but covert operation in space.  But
     as for the reasons behind it...we are not in the
     business of speculation.


     Clements went barging into the Controller's office
without waiting for any response to his token tap.  "You read
the Broadbent transcript?" he asked.
     Godwin, busy at his desk, sat back and smiled
resignedly.  "Yes - and your covering note."
     "Well?"




                              88
     "Well, what?"
     Clements groaned, exasperated.  "Surely that clinches
it."
     Godwin slowly shook his head.  "No, Chris, not as far as
I'm concerned.  It's just more theory...that's all it is."
     "But Fergus, it all fits!  Gerstein and Broadbent --
each a top man in his own field - both suggesting some sort
of secret co-operation in space between the super-powers."
     "That man Harry, the American who claimed to know why
scientists keep disappearing, and the links he seemed to have
with Ballantine and with NASA.  Then there was Grodin who,
without any shadow of doubt, saw something really incredible
up there on the moon...we can't just leave the whole damned
thing now and forget it!"
     "Stop bouncing around, Chris, and sit down."  Godwin
gestured to a chair.  "Go on...sit down."  He waited until
Clements had done so.  "Now, for the last time, let's get
this clear.  I realize that something odd may be going on but
I don't consider it's any of our concern..."
     Clements started to jerk angrily out of the chair,
bursting to interrupt, but Godwin stopped him:  "You've done
a tremendous job with Science Report, Chris.  Everybody
thinks so and the rating have proved it.  So I want you to
get back just to doing what you do so well..."
     "That means you're still saying "no" to America?"
     "That's exactly what it does mean."
     "If it's on grounds of cost, can I point out how much
profit this company made last year..."
     Godwin has since told us ruefully that he dislikes only
one aspect of his job - that of being the chief buffer
between his editors and the money men above him.  One lot
inevitably think he's mean and the others suspect him of
being a spendthrift.  Being wedged in the middle...it's not
much fun.  That's why his reply to Clements was
uncharacteristically sharp:
     "It's hardly your place to point that out but, as you've
done so, let me tell you something.  The company does make
profits and it makes good ones but it does not do so by
sending teams gallivanting around the world on fool's
errands...so, please, let it rest..."
     "Clements got up, prepared to leave.  "How about if I
fixed a facility trip?"
     "Airlines aren't throwing many free flights around these
days - not across the Atlantic."
     "Benson could do a piece for the holiday series while
he's over there.  I've spoken to Simon Shaw who's taken over
the holiday programs and he's quite keen...and I know an
airline who'll play ball."
     "God...you don't give up, do you!"  Godwin grinned.
"All right...tell Benson to go to America."



                              89
     "Why did you disappear that night?" asked Benson.  "That
night of the interview...why did you run out like that?"
     "Have another beer," said Grodin.  He pushed a fresh can
across the low table and poured another for himself.  "The
bastard was trying to screw me.  Did I see more than I've
been allowed to admit publicly!  Jesus...what sort of fool
question was that?"
     Benson forced a grin, tried to relieve the tension.  He
felt like an angler playing a difficult fish.
Gently...gently...that was the only way.  He took a long
drink, sighing with satisfaction, as he put down the empty
glass.  "I needed that beer," he said.  "Had myself a real
thirst."
          'You planning on doing the same?"  Grodin was
glowering suspiciously.  "You aiming to screw me as well?"
     He was frightened.  That was quite obvious.  And he was
trying to hide his fears under aggressiveness.  Benson felt a
twinge of pity.  The man seemed so pathetically vulnerable
and Benson was reminded of what Harman had said in that memo:
  "Grodin is unstable and probably unbalanced and it is no
part of our function as a reputable television company to
hound such a man."
     Maybe, after all, there'd been something in what Harman
had said.  Grodin clearly wasn't normal.  It was all very
well to be ruthlessly professional but would anything really
be gained by pushing Grodin any further?  Wouldn't it be
fairer to drop the whole thing, to get back into the car and
forget about Grodin?  Benson hesitated.  It would be so easy
to tell Clements that Grodin had simply refused to talk, that
there was no way for him to be persuaded.  Clements wouldn't
like it - in fact, he'd be bloody furious - but he'd have to
accept it, particularly after the fiasco of that chopped-off
interview.
     Then he remembered the man called Harry.  He remembered
him at Lambeth - naked and terrified in that crumbling house.
And he wondered how many more there were like him.  And how
many there would be in the future if the truth were not
revealed.
     "Camera, tape machines, witnesses - that's the kind of
protection I need."  That's what Harry had said.  And they
had failed him.  They had arrived too late.
     Protection from what?  That was still a mystery.  But it
tied in somehow with the disappearance of Ann Clark.  And
with those of at least twenty other people including Brian
Pendlebury and Robert Patterson.
     Grodin had the key to at least part of the answer and
Benson knew there was no choice.  He had to get answers.
Somehow he had to squeeze every bit of information out of
this man...




                              90
     "Well?" persisted Grodin.  "You aiming to screw me as
well?"
     Benson shook his head, opened his next can of beer.
"I,m just hoping for a few answers," he said.
     They were in canvas chairs, just the two of them, on the
green-slabbed patio behind the ranch-style bungalow which
Grodin was renting in a lonely corner of New England. It was
peaceful there.  No neighbors.  No town or community of any
sort for fifteen miles.  Far in the distance, beyond the vast
spread of scrub, they could see the tow-like sprawl of the
smoke-blue mountains.  And the top of those mountains seemed
to dissolve into the sky.  Tranquillity.  Only them and the
drowsy-soft sound of insects.
     There were no noises from the bungalow behind them but
Benson knew that the girl called Annie was probably busy in
the kitchen.  Grodin had said they'd soon be having a nice
meal so that's where Annie had to be.  Benson had been
introduced to her, very briefly, when he'd arrived and then
she'd scuttled shyly out of sight.  Annie, he felt, wasn't at
all happy about this intrusion.  She looked young, far too
young for Grodin, with straight hair, no make-up and gold-
rimmed granny-glasses.  The soft of earnest girl who should
be reading psychology somewhere.  It wasn't hard to guess her
main function.  Benson hoped she was also a good cook.
     On the far side of the bungalow, at the top of the
winding drive, Benson's technician-partner, Jack Dale, was
still in the car checking and preparing his equipment.  He
had a small sound-camera but he knew better than to produce
it until he got the nod.  It had to be kept out of sight
until Benson got Grodin into the right mood...
     Grodin drained his glass.  "Owned a place lie this
myself once," he said.  "Not just rented it like this one but
really owned it.  Thought I was putting down roots, y'know?
Used to go up there in the summer with the family.  Ah, it
was all different then.  We had a few horses and..." He
stopped, pulled a face, smiled ironically.  "Guess you can
say I'm not much into planning for the future any more."
     He studied his glass as if trying to puzzle why it was
suddenly empty.  He held the can upside-down over it and one
small glob of beer fell out.  "I swear they only half-fill
the cans these days," he said bitterly.  "That's how they
make their money - y'know that? - by half-filling the cans."
He threw the can away disgustedly and it clattered to the
edge of the patio.
     "That's how it is these days.  Everybody screwing
everybody else for all they can get.  No ethics left, not
nowhere."  His speech was slightly slurred and Benson
wondered how much drinking he'd done before their arrival.
     "Cheap-jack booze-peddlers!" shouted Grodin.  "Short
changing bastards!"  He turned in his chair, called over his
shoulder.  "Annie!  We've right out of beer!  Bring a couple
more, will you..."

                              91
     He glanced at Benson.  "Or you want a real drink?"
     "Beer's fine," said Benson.
     Grodin grunted and shrugged.  "Annie!" he shouted again.
     "There are two men out here dying of thirst..."
     She came out with two more cans of beer and shook her
head smilingly, her expression implying that she say him as
an adorably mischievous small boy.  As someone who needed
mothering.  Grodin squeezed her hand.  "Thanks baby." He
seemed to feel some explanation was necessary.  "They don't
fill them like they used to..."
     She smiled again.  "They never did," she returned to the
bungalow.  "And she ain't my daughter!  Right?  I want that
on record!"
     "How about getting something else on record?" suggested
Benson quietly.
     "Like what?"
     "Like what you know about Ballantine..."
     The guarded expression was back on Grodin's face.  "I
     never knew the guy."
     "That time he went to NASA HQ...didn't you meet him
then?"
     "Drop it, kid, will you!  I told you, for Chrissake.  I
never knew him...I never met him..."
     'But you know what happened to him - and why."
     Grodin stood up.  "Time to eat," he said.  "Let's give
     your pal a shout."
     Towards the end of the meal Grodin switched to drinking
bourbon on the rocks.  He tried to persuade the others to
join him but Benson and Jack Dale stuck with beer.  So did
Annie.  And later, while she was sorting out the dirty
dishes, Grodin agreed to be interviewed.  By that time he was
a little bleary but he was still thinking coherently.  That
interview, filmed by Dale, was presented in the famous
Science Report program on June 20, 1977.  We now quote direct
from the transcript:


GRODIN:  All I know about Ballantine is that he showed
     up at NASA with some tape he'd made, and got pretty
     damn excited when he played it back on their juke
     box.
BENSON:  Juke box?
GRODIN:  De-coder.  You can pick up a signal if you
     have the right equipment, but you can't unscramble
     it...
BENSON:  without NASA's equipment?
GRODIN:  Right.  Some young guy helped him do it.  Say,
     now he should've known better.





                           92
BENSON:  This man?
     Benson then showed Grodin a postcard-sized
     photograph of Harry Carmell - blown-up from a frame
     of the film taken in the street.  Grodin frowned,
     trying to remember.

GRODIN:  Could be.  Yeah, that looks like him.  Sure you
     don't want a bourbon?
BENSON:  Beer's fine.
GRODIN:  Bourbon's better for you.
BENSON:  No, thanks...are you saying Ballantine was
     killed because of what he discovered on the tape?
GRODIN:  I'm saying nothing.  I just saw the way those
     guys were looking at him.  But I knew those looks
     ...I've seen them looking at me that way.
BENSON:  "Them?"
GRODIN:  Oh, c'mon...! Have a proper drink, for God's
     sake.


     At that stage there was a break in the interview.
Viewers say Grodin empty his glass and shamble across the
room to refill it at the bar in the corner.  They did not see
Annie come back from the kitchen.  Nor did they hear the
argument between her and Grodin.  She was, as Benson has told
us, frightened that Grodin was saying too much, that he was
being dangerously indiscreet.  But by then Grodin had enough
drink in him to make him reckless - and to make him resent
getting orders from a girl.  He yelled at her, cruelly and
crudely, telling her that she didn't have "no nagging rights"
because she wasn't his goddamned wife and so would she start
minding her own goddamned business.  She went on arguing,
trying to persuade him, and he got still madder.  He threw a
tumbler of bourbon at the wall and the glass exploded all
over the place.  Then she left in tears and he apologized for
her behavior.  "Women!" he said.  "Think they goddamn own
you!"
     For the next hour he drank.  He drank heavily.  And
Benson was starting to worry that he would soon be unable to
speak but, surprisingly, Grodin was still making sense.  At
one time he seemed to hover on the edge of being hopelessly
drunk, of collapsing across the bar, but then he had another
drink and, in some strange way, that seemed to pull him
through.  It was, in Benson's words, as if he was "starting
to drink himself sober".
     Grodin was having problems forming certain words - "as
if his tongue was slipping out of gear" - but his mind seemed
clear enough.  And eventually he agreed to continue with the
interview:




                              93
BENSON:  Bob...what did happen out there...the moon
     landing?
GRODIN:  Well...I don't know how best to put this...
     but we had kind of a big disappointment...the truth
     is we didn't get there first.
BENSON:  What d'you mean?
GRODIN:  The later Apollos were a smoke-screen...to
     cover up what's really going on out there...and the
     bastards didn't even tell us...not a damned thing!



     Here, as viewers will recall, there was another
break.  It lasted only a split second on the screen but, in
fact, filming stopped for more than half-an-hour.  When they
resumed Grodin was sweating heavily.  He was sweating because
of the alcohol and because of his excitement over what he was
saying.
     They'd said he wasn't to talk about it.  That's what the
bastards had said.  Well, he'd show them Bob Grodin wasn't of
guy to be scared into silence.  They didn't own him.  He was
out of the service now and, anyway, maybe it was time for
someone to talk.  He was holding yet another drink as he
waited for Benson's first question...


BENSON:  Bob, you've got to tell me...what did you see?
GRODIN:  We came down in the wrong place...it was
     crawling...made what we were on look like a milk
     run...
BENSON:  Are you talking about men...from Earth?
GRODIN:  You think they need all that crap down in
     Florida just to put two guys up there on a...on a
     bicycle?  The hell they do!...You know why they
     need us?  So they've got a P.R. story for all that
     hardware they've been firing into space...We're
     nothing, man!  Nothing!  We're just there to keep
     you bums happy...to keep you from asking dumb
     questions about what's really going on!...O.K.,
     that's it, end of story.  Finish.  Lots o'luck,
     kid.


     And that was it.  End of interview.  Grodin finished his
drink in one great gulp and then he fell.  Tight there on the
carpet.  Annie heard the thump, came running into the room,
told the pair of them to get out.  They suggested helping her
get Grodin into bed but she refused the offer.  She just
wanted them out.  So there it was.  They left.




                              94

     In November, 1977, we visited that bungalow in the hope
of getting Grodin to elaborate.  We were certain there was
far more he could tell.  And we felt he might talk more
freely without the presence of a film-camera.
     The bungalow was empty.  It had been empty, as far as we
could tell, for weeks or possibly months.  We have been
unable to find the girl Annie.  She appears to have
completely disappeared.  But we did trace Grodin.  We traced
him to a mental hospital on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
He was allowed no visitors.  At least, that's what we were
told.  We tried to insist on seeing him but they were
emphatic.  Quite out of the question, they said.  His
condition was too severe.  And, anyway, a visit would be
quite pointless.  Grodin couldn't string together two
consecutive words.  His mind was completely gone...
     Grodin's death was reported in the newspapers in
January, 1978.  Suicide.  That's what the world was told.
Grodin had knotted pajama trousers around his neck and hanged
himself from a hot-water pipe fixed high on the wall of his
room.  We have suspicions that he may have been the victim of
an Expediency but, without evidence, they can be no more than
suspicions.

     Another intriguing piece of the jigsaw was supplied by
the American freelance hired by Dickson.  It was a copy of a
tape containing dialogue between NASA Mission Control at
Houston and the Lunar Command Module Pilot during a 1972 moon
mission.  And Clements puzzled over it when he first played
it at the Sceptre studios:


MISSION CONTROL:  More detail, please.  Can you give
     more detail of what you are seeing?
LUNAR MODULE PILOT:  It's...something flashing.  That's
     That's all so far.  Just a light going on and off
     by the edge of the crater.
MISSION CONTROL:  Can you give the co-ordinates?
LUNAR MODULE PILOT:  There's something down
     there...Maybe a little further down.
MISSION CONTROL:  It couldn't be a Vostok, could it?
LUNAR MODULE PILOT:  I can't be sure...it's possible.


     All this fitted logically with the content of the taped
conversation between Mission Control and Grodin - during
Grodin's first moon walk:


MISSION CONTROL:  Can you see anything?  Can you tell us
     what you see?


                           95
GRODIN:  Oh boy, its really...really something super-
     fantastic here.  You couldn't ever imagine this...
MISSION CONTROL:  O.K....could you take a look out over
     that flat area there?  Do you see anything beyond?
GRODIN:  There's a kind of a ridge with a pretty
     spectacular...oh my God!  What is that there?
     That's all I want to know!  What the hell is
     that?


It also fitted with the exchange - reported by former
NASA man Otto Binder - between Mission Control and Apollo 11
during the Aldrin-Armstrong moon walk:


     MISSION CONTROL:  What's there?...malfunction...
          (garble)...Mission Control calling Apollo 11...
     APOLLO 11:  These babies were huge, sir...enormous...
          Oh, God you wouldn't believe it!...I'm telling
          you there are other space craft out there...lined
          up on the far side of the crater edge...they're on
          the moon watching us...


     There was, however, one reference in the latest tape
which made it startlingly different - the reference to a
Vostok.  Russia's Vostok flights took place in the early
Sixties.  According to the information made public, they were
not designed to reach the moon but were merely Earth-orbiting
spaceships.
     So what could be made of the casual suggestion by
Houston Mission Control - and an equally casual acceptance by
the Lunar Module Pilot - that an obsolete Russian craft might
be sitting on a crater on the moon flashing its lights in
1972?
     We now know that, for many years, the super-powers have
taken immense trouble to hide the extent of advances made in
space technology.  Remember, for example, how people were
encouraged to believe that the first living creature to be
sent into space was a dog in 1958?
     Yet that dog mission was seven years after the four
Albert monkeys were hurtled into the stratosphere in a V2
rocket.  And there are sound reasons for doubting, that those
monkeys were the first.
     So was the official objective of the Vostok flights also
a blind?  Were they, to paraphrase the words of Bob Grodin,
also a P.R. job for all the hardware that had been fired
into space?




                              96

One dominant question develops automatically from all the
others:  Was the first publicly-announced moon walk in 1969
no more than a cynical charade - played by agreement between
the super-powers - because by then men had really been on the
moon for the best part of a decade?
     If that was the truth, and all the evidence points to it
being so, what was the purpose of that charade?  And why has
it been perpetuated?  The answer to both those questions is
Alternative 3.

     The all-embracing threat to this planet, described by
Dr. Carl Getstein, is horrifying enough to make America and
Russia kill their comparatively petty rivalries - and their
archaic concepts of pride in national achievement - in a
desperate bid to snatch some sort of future for mankind.
     Simon Butler put the known situation into clear
perspective in that Science Report program.  He told viewers:
 "The drive to make the first man on the moon an American was
launched by President Kennedy - in competitive terms.  By the
late Sixties it appeared that the race had been conclusively
won.  The Russians, it seemed, had simply dropped out and
stopped trying.  America had won.
     "Yet today Cape Canaveral is a desert of reinforced
concrete and steel.  The most ambitious project in the
history of mankind is apparently over."
     "More and more, however, we hear talk of Skylab and a
space shuttle.  But shuttling what?  And to where?"
     All of us have seen n television the phenomenal amount
of power required simply to pull a space-rocket clear of the
earth's gravitational field.  But suppose that power did not
have to be consumed principally in merely getting into space.
Suppose the rocket could start from space.  What kind of
travel would that bring within our grasp?

     Technical journalist Charles Welbourne, author of three
highly-acclaimed books on aerospace, was questioned on the
tack by Butler.  Here is a transcript of the key section of
that interview:

WELBOURNE:  Obviously we could go further with less
     power, or send a much larger craft.  In fact, the
     only way we're going to see space travel on any
     scale is by
     this kind of extra-terrestrial launching - for
     instance from a space platform orbiting the Earth.
BUTLER:  Or from the moon?
WELBOURNE:  Sure...if we could get the material there
     to build the craft, it's make real good sense.
BUTLER:  Could we transport the materials there?



                              97

WELBOURNE:  It'd take one hell of a shuttle...but,
     sure, we have the machines now...in theory we
     could do it...especially with some kind of
     international co-operation.



     "International co-operation."  Welbourne's tone
suggested that he considered such a likelihood rather remote.
Certainly on the scale being discussed.  But at the time of
that interview, it must be remembered, Welbourne knew nothing
about the Policy Committee and its submarine meetings.  Nor
did Butler.

     Through the summer of 1976, while the Sceptre team
continued its investigation, there was dramatic evidence to
show how this planet was experiencing traumatic changes -
sort of changes which later were to be explained to Butler by
Dr. Gerstein.
     The great drought of that year was unequalled in
recorded history.  And Butler eventually told viewers:
"There was no panic...only a growing unease that what we were
experiencing was unnatural and that the Earth's climate was
moving towards a radical change.
     "The earthquake barrage in China and the Far East has
done more damage and killed more people than several nuclear
attacks.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, it
seemed as if the whole Caribbean was about to blow up.
     "Also in Italy and Central Europe the Earth's crust was
undergoing dramatic changes.
     "For the first time scientists are beginning to see
glimmerings of the workings of spaceship Earth, a huge but
delicate machine buffeted by the forces of the interplanetary
ocean."
     At the height of the drought British government
scientists contemplated trying to meddle with the weather.
They decided not to do so - pointing out that Common Market
countries might accuse Britain of stealing their rain.  So
Britain, like the rest of the world, went on suffering.
Roads buckled in the intense heat.  Firemen could hardly
contain the infernos which raged through forests and across
moors.  And there was an astonishing range of unexpected
casualties.  Bees starved because there was not enough nectar
or pollen in the parched flowers...thousands of racing
pigeons, unable to sweat like humans, collapsed with heat
exhaustion.
     On September 27, 1976, one of the authors of this book -
 Leslie Watkins - wrote a major article in the Daily Mail
which started:



                              98

     Houses which have stood solidly for a hundred years
or more - together with modern ones and impressive
blocks of flats - are today unexpectedly splitting and
threatening to collapse.  Out long summer of drought has
brought acute anxiety to the insurance companies - and
the prospect of financial disaster to many families.
Damage estimated at early £60 million has been caused by
subsidence.  Homes in many parts of the country, but
particularly in London and the South East, have been
slowly sinking at crazy angles into the parched and
contracting ground.
     Britain has, in effect, been ravaged by a slow-
motion earthquake.

However, few people then suspected that the drought was
merely the start of a cataclysmic change in the world's
weather.  But soon it became apparent that the pattern
was beginning to go berserk - lurching from one
disastrous extreme to the other - like the frantic
flailings of some gigantic, doomed creature.
     On June 15, 1977, the main feature article in the
Daily Mail - also written by Watkins - said:

     No man in the world gambles more heavily on dry
weather than 54-year-old Peter Chase.
     That was why, early yesterday, every flash of
lightning showed the misery etched on his face.
     His wife Phobe was urging him to get back into bed,
to ignore the torrential rain and forget about business.
But he stayed at the window, trying to calculate the
cost.
     Mr. Chase has good cause to be horrified by the
violent electric storm which brought such devastation to
many party of Britain.  He is the pluvius under-writer
for Eagle Star - the leaders in rain insurance.
     This has been a bad year for Mr. Chase.  Jubilee
celebrations, with street parties and other festivities
almost drowned by deluges, were particularly
disastrous...
     We have, in fact, been experiencing the second
heaviest spell of sustained wet weather since records
were first kept in 1727.  And the outlook for the rest
of the week is "showery"...


     Most people have assumed that this sequence of drought
followed by heavy rain was, in some mysterious and
providential way, Nature trying to compensate and restore the
balance - that the downpours have nullified the facts which
have now been outlined by Gerstein.


                              99

That assumption, unfortunately, is incorrect.  Meteorologist
Adrian Lerman explains that the excessive rains were produced
by the excessive heat, that they are not a pointer to long-
term cooler weather.
     He says:  "There is far more evaporation during periods
of intense heat, with water vapor being drawn in great
quantities from oceans, lakes, reservoirs and rivers, because
warm air absorbs that vapor more efficiently than cold air."
     "This inevitably results in an eventual increase in
precipitation.
     "Gerstein is undeniably right in anticipating that the
greenhouse syndrome will continue to produce a great increase
in global temperatures but I consider he has not laid
sufficient stress on the most immediate threat to humanity -
the threat of world - wide flooding."
     "I am certain that Gerstein is wrong when he predicts
that countries like England and America will become scorched
wildernesses.  They'll be destroyed all right...and they
won't support life...but they'll be drowned rather than
burned."
     "Extreme heat, such as that which is now inevitable,
will melt land glaciers.  That will result in a marked rise
in sea level and then there'll be the start of the extensive
flooding - with London and New York among the first cities to
be affected."
     So Lerman, having studied the situation with scientific
precision, expects a replay of the global disaster described
in the Bible.
     "Genesis" 6-17:  "And, behold, I, even I, do bring a
flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein
is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that
is in the earth shall die."
     So there is a conflict of opinion between those experts
who agree with Gerstein and those who agree with Lerman.
They are, however, in total and terrible agreement on the key
issue - that this world, because of man's stupidity, is now
irrevocably doomed.  Flame or flood...one of them, in the
comparatively near future, will bring the agonizing end.
     And what of the men behind Alternative 3?
     They, presumably, have also studied the Bible version
of the horrendous mass-death.  "Genesis" 7-21, 22, 23:
"And all flesh that moved upon the earth died, both of
fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:  All in
whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the
dry land, died.  And every living substance was destroyed
which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle,
and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they
were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive,
and they that were with him in the ark."



                             100
     There can now be no doubt that those men, the ones who
have supervised the mechanics of Alternative 3, have cast
themselves jointly in the role of God - taking their cue from
other verses in that chapter of Genesis.
     The Lord instructed Noah to collect the people and the
creatures destined to board the ark, the ones to be lifted
clear of the global devastation.
     Technology has made space-craft the modern equivalent of
that ark.  Who, then, decides which people shall be evacuated
in the arks of the twentieth century?
     These anonymous men have assumed the right to decide who
shall live and who shall die.  Their decisions are based, in
the main, on information supplied by an elaborate
international network of computers - an aspect of the
operation which we hill later examine in more detail.
     They have also assumed a prerogative which many will
consider far more obscene: that of deciding which people
should be plucked away from their homes - to be mutilated and
moulded into slaves.  These people, these tragic victims, are
those who - together with disappearing cattle and horses and
other creatures - become part of Batch Consignments.


     Tuesday, January 10, 1978.  Another envelope from
Trojan.  This one, arriving exactly a week after that
Photostat copy of The Smoother Plan, contained the most
serious indictment yet of the men behind Alternative 3.
Trojan had again been scouring the archives and, as a result,
had secured two documents - one dated Wednesday, August 27,
1958, and the other dated Friday, October 1, 1971.  Both had
been issued by "The Chairman, Policy Committee".  Both here
addressed to "National Chief Executive Officers" and both
were headed "Batch Consignments".
     The covering note from Trojan was tersely triumphant.
It said:

          "Maybe now you'll really believe me!  This is what
     made me decide I wanted out - and it's the only reason
     I'm working with you."

     The 1958 document said:

     Each designated mover will, it is estimated,
require back-up labor support of five bodies.  These
bodies, which will be transported in cargo batch
consignments, will be programed to obey legitimate
orders without question and their principal initial
duties will be in construction.
     Priority will naturally be given to the building of
accommodation for the designated movers.



                             101
     However, it is stressed that, in the interests of
good husbandry, accommodation will also e provided for
the human components of batch consignments - as well as
for relocated animals - as a matter of urgency.  The
completion of this accommodation, which will be of a
more basic and utilitarian nature than that allocated to
designated movers, will in normal circumstances take
precedence over the creation of laboratories, offices,
other places of work, and recreational centers.  All
exceptions to this rule will require written
authorization from the Chairman of the Committee in
Residence.
     It is estimated that the average working life-span
of human batch-consignment components will be fifteen
years and, in view of high transportation costs, every
effort will be made to prolong that period of
usefulness.
     At the end of that life-span they are to be
considered disposable for, although this is recognized
as regrettable, there will be no place for low-grade
passengers in the new territory.  They would merely
consume resources required to sustain the continuing
influx of designated movers and would so undermine the
success potential of the operation.
     Preliminary work is now progressing to adapt batch-
consignment components, mentally and physically, for
their projected roles and the scope of this experimental
work is to be widened.  Further details will be
provided, when appropriate, by Department Seven.
     Pre-transportation collection of batch-consignment
components will be organized by National Chief Executive
Officers who will be supplied with details of categories
and quantities required.  No collection is to be
arranged without specific instructions from Department
Seven.

The 1971 document said:

     Experimental processing of batch-consignment
components is now producing a 96 per cent success rate.
This is considered not unsatisfactory.
     The Policy Committee briefing circulated on
September 7, 1965, explained the necessity for all
components to be de-sexed: 1) To eliminate the
possibility of them forming traditional mating
relationships which could detract from the efficiency of
their sole-function performance. 2) To ensure components
do not procreate and so haphazardly perpetuate a
substandard species.  This second consideration is of




                             102
particular importance for the products of such
procreation, during their initial years of growth and
development, would have no operational value and would
merely be a liability on the resources of the new
territory.
     The permanent elimination of self-will and self-
interest has presented great difficulties.  Long-term
laboratory tests have revealed that an unaccountably
high percentage of components eventually regress towards
their pre-processing attitudes, so rendering themselves
unreliable and unsuitable for the envisaged role.
     Advanced work, conducted principally in America,
Britain, Japan and Russia, has now resulted in a
substantial reduction of the "Component-personality"
failure ratio.  However, this branch of research is now
to be intensified.
     The Policy Committee has given careful
consideration to suitable means of jettisoning rejected
potential components.  It has been agreed that they are
not to be considered responsible for their unsuitability
and that there is nothing to be gained by killing them.
Such a solution, although simple enough to implement,
would be unnecessarily harsh.  They are therefore to
have their memories destroyed - a process for so doing
has now been perfected at Dnepropetrovsk and details are
being circulated to all A-3 laboratories - and then they
will be permitted to resume their lives.
     In future no de-sexing will be done until after the
personality-adjustment of the projected component, male
or female, has been assessed and approved.  This will
ensure that those which eventually return to their homes
as rejects will betray no evidence of laboratory work.


     On August 22, 1977, this story appeared in the London
Evening News:

     A mystery girl who baffled Scotland Yard for two
weeks has discharged herself from the hospital.
     And the Yard said today it still does not know who
she was or where she has gone.
     The girl, aged between sixteen and twenty, was
admitted to Whittington Hospital, Holloway, after
wandering into a hospital building late one night.
     She appeared to have lost her memory and, d-spite
intensive efforts by doctors and detectives, her back-
ground remains a mystery.






                             103
     One week before that story appeared, Hertfordshire
police were appealing for help in identifying another amnesia
victim - a man in his mid-thirties - found wandering on a
gold-course near Harpenden.  So were police in Manchester.
Their memory-blank case was a man aged about twenty.
     That particular section of August, 1977, produced a
great rash of people with the same problem.  They turned up
in Germany and in France, in Italy an in Canada.  They were
all physically fit and apparently normal - apart from having
no idea who they were or where they had been.
     What produced that extraordinary epidemic of amnesia?
Far too many cases were reported for the global outbreak to
be dismissed as coincidence.  Had something gone
dramatically wrong with a complete batch of "projected
components"...something so severe that it had been necessary
to return them to their old surroundings?
     For instance, that man found wandering on the golf-
course near Harpenden...was he there simply because the
Alternative 3 planners had rejected him as a slave?
     We do not claim to know.  And although we have
interviewed him - in addition to twenty-three other amnesia
victims who appeared at about the same time - we see little
hope of conclusively establishing that these people had been
part of a "Pre-transportation collection".  However, in view
of the 1971 document supplied by Trojan, we do consider that
to be a distinct possibility.



























                             104
                        SECTION   NINE

     Monday, May 2, 1977.  Clements was now spending as
little time as possible in his own office.  The smells from
the canteen below, he swore, were getting stronger every
month.  Nothing could be worse than a floating reminder of
yesterday's unwanted cabbage...
     He operated, most days, from a desk in the big open-plan
office which had been allocated to Science Report.  At times,
however, it tended to be too noisy - with too many telephones
and too many people - and occasionally he was forced to
retreat to his own tiny room behind Studio B.  This Monday
morning was one of those occasions.  Clements and Benson were
closeted there together - studying a transcript of the final
interview with Grodin.
     Clements marked a section with a red pencil.  "There,
love," he said.  "That's the bit that really intrigues me.
What exactly did he mean?"
     Benson read the lines again:  "We're just there to keep
you bums happy...to keep you from asking dumb questions about
what's really going on!"
     "I just don't know," he said.  "That's where he dried
up.  I couldn't get another damned thing out of him."
     "Well that still leaves us with a load of questions,
doesn't it?" said Clements.  "And what I need now, Colin, is
answers."
     "Yes, but..."
     ""No "buts", love, please.  I'm getting all of those I
need from Harman.  He's raising hell, y'know, about this
American trip of yours..."
     "Chris, I promise you, no-one could have got more out of
Grodin..."
     "He's put in a complaint about you to Fergus
Godwin...says it was unethical of you to persist in
questioning a man when he was drunk - particularly, as he
puts it, when that man has a history of instability...He's
even suggested that we should junk the film because Grodin
was talking nonsense..."
     "It wasn't nonsense, Chris.  All right, so he was a bit
smashed, particularly towards the end...I'm prepared to admit
that...but I'm certain that he knew what he was saying and
that he was telling the truth..."
     "I know - and then he fell flat on his face." Clements
chuckled.  "You stick with your version, love, because the
Controller wants to see both of us this afternoon."
     "You're serious, then?  Harman really is trying to kill
it?"
     "Believe me, I was never more serious.  Let's face it.
Colin...we've put two fingers up at him all along the line on
this investigation and he's out to make all the trouble he
can.  You might like to know, by the way, that
he's complaining you didn't bother to do the other job in
America..."
                             105
     "What other job?"
     Clements grinned.  "The piece you were meant to do for
the holiday series, the one we promised Simon Shaw he'd get
for his next run.  The airline are going to be narked when
they find they've thrown away a facility - and yound Master
Shaw's not too happy either..."
     "Oh, come on..."
     Clements stopped him.  "He can fill in with the Isle of
Man - that's the least of our troubles," he said.  "We still
need answers."
     "Then maybe we should be searching harder for Harry."
     "That crazy American!  The one who attacked you!"
     "He's got answers," said Benson.  "Remember what he said
on the telephone...about knowing why scientist keep
disappearing and about knowing who's behind it..."
     Clements sniffed, frowned with disgust, got up to close
the window.  "So where do you start searching?"
     "Could try the police again."
     "Be back by mid-afternoon," said Clements.  "We've got
that session with the Controller."


     The desk sergeant was polite but unhelpful.  "You any
idea how many people get reported missing in Britain every
year?" he asked.  "About five thousand.  And they're the ones
officially reported.  God only knows how many more never get
reported..."
     Benson handed him the photograph he had shown Grodin.
"That's him," he said.  "Last seen on February 11 at that
address in Lambeth."
     The sergeant glanced casually at the picture.  "And you
don't even know his surname."  He snorted.  "Gives us plenty
to go on, doesn't it?  Anyway...what makes you think he is
missing?  Maybe he just doesn't want to see you any more..."
     "He was frightened, very frightened, and he got me
confused with somebody else," said Benson.  "He seemed to
think that somebody was planning to kill him."
     "You think that he's been killed?  That he's been
murdered?  Is that what you're trying to say?"
     "I don't know," said Benson miserably.  "I don't think
so but I don't know."
     "Why should he confuse you with somebody else?"
     "Because he wasn't normal that morning.  He
was...well...bombed out of his mind."
     "Drugs?"
     "That's right."
     They were short-handed at the police station and it was
     a busy morning.  The sergeant decided he'd already
     wasted too much time.  He press the picture back into




                             106
Benson's hand, made a big play of putting his pen down firmly
on the counter, sighed patiently.  "So what have we got, sir?
An alien of uncertain age and of unknown name who uses drugs
and who was last seen by you, briefly, nearly three months
ago in a condemned house where he was apparently squatting.
    "He imagined you were somebody who, for a reason we can't
establish, wanted to murder him.  Now, although he may have
gone back to America for all you know, you want us to find
him for you.
     "Would you say that was a fair summing-up of the
situation?"
     Benson shuffled his feed and looked sheepish.  "Sounds a
bit daft, doesn't it?"
     "I've got your name and address," said the sergeant
politely.  "If Mr. Anonymous does turn up, I'll mention you
were asking after him."
     The afternoon meeting with Fergus Godwin was also a
rough one.  The Controller had already been worked on
vigorously by Harman and he was in a foul mood.  He saw
trouble looming with the Board over this particular Science
Report project, especially with that apoplectic accountant,
and he bitterly regretted having authorized Benson's trip to
America.
     Harman's words kept niggling at the back of his mind.
Maybe Harman was right.  Maybe Clements was becoming
"unprofessionally obsessed".  Godwin certainly had doubts
about allowing the transmission of such a curious interview
with a man who was patently drunk.  There could be all sorts
of repercussions...
     "But Fergus...it could prove to be an invaluable part of
the program," argued Clements.  "It's just that, at the
moment, there are still some missing links."
     "Come back to me when and if you find those links."
Godwin glowered balefully at the pair of them.  "Until then
that film gets locked away - and I can't see much chance of
us ever using it."
     They returned to the small office.  Clements sat at the
desk and sniffed.  "Thank God there's no fish on Mondays," he
said.  "Fish days are always the worst."
     "Now what?" asked Benson.
     "Gerstein - he's all we've got left.  If only we could
get him to open up on this Alternative 3..."
     "You want me to try him?"
     Clements shook his head, picked up the grey internal
     telephone, dialed a number in the main Science Report
     office.  "Is Simon Butler there?"


     In May, 1971, the authoritative publication Computers
and Automation carried an article by Edward Yourdon which
said:


                             107
tremendous improvement in various phases of
Government...if one has faith:  faith, that the
computers will work properly...men had lost faith in
their human leaders, and now...things will be better if
they have faith in a cold-blooded mechanical computing
machine."

     Only a few months earlier, at the end of 1970, the staff
magazine of Barclays Bank, Spread Eagle, had contained an
article which read:

     Computers have given birth to the Technological
Era, have ushered in the Space Age, have begun to play
such a dominating role in fields as diverse as military
science, weather forecasting, medicine, industrial
design and production, communications, commerce,
business and banking that the question is seriously
being asked whether they are beginning to dominate man
himself.
     Some even hold the view that in the foreseeable
future we shall be stripped of our individual privacy
and reduced to a string of meaningless dots stored in
the magnetic bowels of some giant Government computer -
a sort of Big Brother whose prying gaze will have us
constantly under his attentive scrutiny.


     Neither of those writers realized he was anticipating a
situation which was by then firmly established.  "Individual
privacy" had been scrapped years earlier because of covert
decisions made within governments and between governments.






















                             108
Some of this background, just occasionally, spills into the
open.
     On September 9, 1977, The Times published a front-page
story, by Home Affairs Reporter Stewart Tendler, which had a
headline reading:  NATIONAL SECURITY CITED BY POLICE AS
REASON FOR MAINTAINING SILENCE ON USE OF RECORDS.
     Tendler's story said:

     The names and personal details of tens of thousands
of people scrutinized by the Special Branch for reasons
of national security are to be fed into a new criminal
intelligence computer bought by Scotland Yard and
shrouded in mystery.

Note those last three words.  "Shrouded in mystery."
The Times is not a newspaper which would lightly use a phrase
of that nature.  The story continued:

     When plans for the computer were drawn up two years
ago it is understood that the Special Branch was
allocated space on it for up to 600,000 names out of the
system's total capacity of 1,300,000 names by 1985...


     Census projections have indicated that Britain's
population will not increase in the next decade.  So that
figure of 600,000 means that the Special Branch was preparing
to feed details of one person out of every ninety-five in the
entire population into that computer.  But that is merely the
start...
     Discount from the total population all geriatrics, young
children, and those who have been judged incurably
insane...and the ratio under surveillance comes down to about
one person in fifty.
     Take that one step further and the implications are
startling...
     If the average household comprises two adults - and that
is pitching it at its most conservative - the ratio is
reduced to one household in twenty-five.
     That means there can hardly be a street of road in
Britain where at least one household - and probably far more
- is not considered to merit computer-monitoring by the
Special Branch.
     Can you now be confident that you or your immediate
neighbors are not being studied by the Special Branch?  You
can be absolutely certain that people you know, probably
people very close to you, are getting this particular
treatment.
     And the figures we have given, astonishing as they may
seem, do not allow for those people programed into other
Special Branch computers - computers which so far have
remained hidden on the classified list.

                             109
     Does all this savour of normal Special Branch work?  Or
does it indicate an operation on a far bigger scale?  One,
possibly, as enormous as Alternative 3?
     The Home Office was clearly embarrassed by Tendler's
discovery and sought to "play it down".  His story went on:

     Yesterday a police source said that the Special
Branch had yet to decide how many names would be placed
on the computer and denied that anything like 600,000
would eventually be filed.
     Scotland Yard said last night:  "The question of
the involvement of the Special Branch in the project to
computerize sections of the records of C Department (the
department covering CID and specialist detective squads)
is not one we a re prepared to discuss, since most of
the work of the Special Branch is in the field of
national security.
     "The publication of any figures purporting to
indicate the total number of records in any part of the
project would amount to speculation"...
     It (the Special Branch) is still surrounded by a
certain amount of mystique and the same is true of the
new computer.  The Metropolitan Police and the Home
Office have made few public statements about the nature
of its use.

     Tendler also said in that story that the activities
of the Special Branch were "a closely guarded secret"
and he added:  "It is not known whose names and details
have been gathered by the officers."
     We cannot prove that this particular computer has
been used to sift "Designated movers" for Alternative 3.
However, because of information from Trojan, we are able
to state categorically that similar computers are used
for this purpose.  We know of six - apart from the
master one at the operation-control centre in Geneva.
They are located in America, Britain, Germany, Japan,
Poland and Russia.
     There may be others.  In fact, there almost
certainly are.  However, we have no information about
them and, as we have already said, we have no intention
of making statements which cannot be substantiated.
     Britain's principal Alternative 3 computer is
officially used exclusively by a local authority in the
north-east and, as a cover, a small percentage of
routine local-authority work is processed by it.  The
main one in America, installed and maintained at the
expense of the Federal Government, is officially owned
by a manufacturing company in Detroit.  The Polish one
is in the Academy of Sciences in Warsaw's Plac Defilad.



                           110
     Comparatively little trouble is taken over the
selection of "components" for Batch Consignments.  They
need to be strong, to have years of physical labor left
in them.  That is the prime criterion.  Their
personalities, back-grounds, mental agilities...these
are of secondary importance, for they will be
scientifically moulded into the approved pattern.  And,
after all, they are expendable.
     But what of the "designated movers?"  How is their
value measured?  And this mysterious "new territory" in
which they are apparent y destined to live -- what sort
of society is being created there?
     Trojan has supplied partial answers.  He found them
in a 1972 document - addressed to National Chief
Executive Officers - from the Chairman of the Policy
Committee:

     Standing Instructions relating to the
recruitment of designated movers have already been
circulated by this Committee.  However, recent
reports from the Chairman of the Committee in
Residence indicate that there have been certain
failures in the execution of those instructions.
     These failures have produced unwarranted
problems in the new territory and have resulted in
an unacceptably high wastage of post-transportation
designated movers.
     This situation cannot be tolerated and the
Policy Committee therefore requires me, once again,
to specify the aims and the requirements of the
Committee in Residence.
     Every effort is to be made to eliminate the
problems which men have become conditioned into
accepting as inevitable in the old territory.
     Alternative 3 participants have evolved, or
must be taught to evolve, away from the concepts of
national or tribal interests which have
traditionally resulted in warfare.  This will
become of increasing importance when the new
territory becomes more intensively populated.
National Chief Executive Officers will therefore
give priority attention to this aspect of the
operation and ensure it is fully understood by
their regional subordinates.
     No person is to be nominated as a potential
designated mover if there is any doubt about him or
her having the potential to evolve in this manner.
     This requirement over-rides all other
considerations of skills and training.




                             111
As this particular personality trait still cannot
be assessed from a computer print-out, it is
imperative that judgements be based on individual
interviews.  This puts the onus on regional
officials for, in view of the size of the
operation, it is not possible for this aspect to be
handled centrally or even nationally.


     There was more in this vein.  Much more.  This was by
far the most comprehensive document obtained by Trojan.  It
stressed the need for an even mix of nationalities and colors
among the designated movers for, although they were to be
"integrated into a new conception of a family community," it
was considered that all ethnic groups should be represented
in the new territory.  That was emphasized in one particular
sentence:  "The object of Alternative 3 is to ensure the
survival of all strains of the human race and not merely
those from the more advanced and privileged back-grounds."
     That sounds fine and noble -- until one considers the
nightmare treatment of those regarded contemptuously as
"components."  They have been pitilessly shanghaied from
their families and reduced to sub-humans.  They now labor as
mindless beasts of burden.  And their only excape from
degradation lies in death.  That is the true and unforgivable
obscenity of Alternative 3.
     The document continued:

     Representatives of all aspects of human culture
will eventually be transported to the new territory.
Therefore, in time, designated movers will also be
recruited from the arts.  They will include writers,
painters, sculptors and musicians.
     In the early stages, however, only those with
skills essential to the foundation of the new society
are required.  Approved category lists have already been
circulated.
     Explorations in the new territory have revealed
certain factors which had not been entirely anticipated
and, principally or this reason, amendments have been
necessitated to category quotas.
     The Committee in Residence particularly requests
more intensive recruitment of doctors, chemists,
neurologists and bacteriologists.
     The new territory, for the moment, has a
satisfactory complement of computer specialists, mining
technicians, and agricultural overseers.  Recruitment of
these categories is to cease until further
instructions.




                             112
Expansions and wastages will inevitably result in
changes and monthly lists of personnel requirements will
in future be circulated to National Chief Executive
Officers by Department Seven.


     The document then detailed the Alternative 3 attitude to
children.  They were to be introduced into the new territory
for it was considered that their presence would have "the
beneficial effect of adding an additional dimension of
social-structure familiarity".  That, when the jargon is
stripped away, means that the emigrants would appreciate
having them there, that children would help them feel more
"at home".
     However, children were not considered productive - not
in the way required in the new territory - and so the quota
was to be severely restricted.  Only those with "key parents"
were to be transported - and then only if the parents could
not be persuaded to make other custodial arrangements for
them in the old territory:


     There may be instances in which vital personnel can
be persuaded that their children can be left with
relatives in the knowledge that they will be reunited
with them at a reasonably early date and, where
applicable, every reasonable effort should be made to
secure the success of such persuasion.


     No figures or percentages were given in that document
but it would appear that mathematician Robert Patterson's
children - sixteen-year-old Julian and fourteen-year-old Kate
- are part of a very small minority.  Unless, of course,
there was a change of attitude towards "the child quota"
between 1972 and the time of their disappearance from
Scotland in February, 1976.
     Ann Clark, on the evidence of that document, is also
part of a minority.  All women are, in Alternative 3.  The
ratio among designated movers is apparently three males to
each female.  Unless, again, there has been a policy change
since the document was circulated in 1972.


     No facilities can yet be spared for maternity care,
although naturally there are plans for the future, and
so pregnancies are outlawed in the new territory.  The
Committee in residence will provide notification of when
this ruling is rescinded.




                             113
Accidental pregnancies will be automatically aborted and
parties to the offence will be arraigned before the
Committee in Residence.


     The rest of the document dealt mainly with the provision
of recreational and entertainment facilities.  There is,
apparently, a cinema.  There are also a number of communal
television-viewing rooms into which flow programs transmitted
from many parts of the world.
     It is intriguing to realize that designated movers,
including men like Brian Pendlebury from Manchester, were
very likely watching that sensational edition of Science
Report.

     We have already mentioned how, in the course of that
program in June, 1977, Simon Butler told viewers that twenty-
four people were then known to have vanished in mysterious
circumstances - circumstances which pointed to their having
been recruited into Alternative 3.
     Three of those people, of course, were Ann Clark, Robert
Patterson and Brian Pendlebury.  Here we intended to give
details of the other twenty-one - based on information
collated for Sceptre Television by Terry Dickson.  In
eighteen of those cases, however, we have received family
requests for anonymity and, in deference to those requests,
we are restricting ourselves to three examples:


Richard Tuffley, 27, endocrinologist.  Born in Sidmouth,
Devon, but living and working in Swansea, South Wales.
Orphaned when young and brought up by mother's
sister, now deceased.  Unmarried and no known relatives.
Lived alone in small rented flat near university.
Disappeared Monday, January 5, 1976.  Last seen driving
light-blue mini-van in direction of Cardiff.  Van has
still not been located.
     Statement from his departmental chief:  "He was a
first-class and highly-conscientious colleague -
certainly not the sort one would expect to let the team
down as it now seems he did.
     "He was rather introverted and made few friends
but, I had no indication that he was in any way unhappy
here."
     Gordon Balcombe, 36, senior administrator with
multi - national manufacturing conglomerate.  Living in
Bromley, Kent, and working in central London.  Divorced
in 1969.  Father of three children, living with ex-wife,
whom he did not see after divorce.  Lived alone in
former family home - detached house backing on to park -
but said to have many women visitors.  Some, according


                             114
to neighbors, often stayed overnight.  Disappeared
Thursday, February 5, 1976.  Last seen leaving his
office in a taxi.  Taxi-driver never traced.
     Statement from his managing director:  "We were
completely bewildered by his disappearance for he was a
man with a tremendous future in this organization.
Plans were being mooted for him to move to a more senior
position in our base at Chicago and he seemed genuinely
excited by the prospect.
     "We regard his disappearance as a great loss."
     Statement from Mrs. Marjorie Balcombe:
"Gordon, for all I know, could be anywhere.  I suspect
that he is probably somewhere in America."
     "He is the sort of man that executive head-hunters
do try to entice to new posts and it is quite possible
that he would not bother to tell his old firm if he
decided to accept a better offer.  He would just go if
it suited his purpose.  That's the sort of person Gordon
is.  Self-centered.  "And I shouldn't be in the
slightest surprised to learn that he has some woman in
tow.  Women are his great weakness."
     "The only thing that really puzzles me is the way
he left so many of his clothes and other personal
possessions in the house.  That does strike me as being
out-of-character."
     Sidney Dilworth, 32, meteorologist.  Living and
working in Reading, Berkshire.  Widower.  Wife died in
car crash in October, 1975.  No Children, lived alone in
terraced house being bought on mortgage.  Disappeared
Friday, April 16, 1976.
     Last seen driving hired car in direction of London.
Vehicle later found in car-park at Number Three
Terminal, Heathrow Airport.
     Statement from his father, Wilfred Dilworth:  "I
keep telling the police that something really bad has
happened to our Sidney but, although they're very
sympathetic, they don't seem to be doing much about it.
I've got a nasty feeling he's been murdered or
something.  He was always a very considerate lad and
he'd never want me and his mother to have this sort of
worry hanging over us."
     "He was very upset after his wife was killed and he
talked about trying to start a new life in Canada.  In
fact, in the January before he disappeared he said he
thought he had a job lined up there but, as far as I
could gather, that just fizzled out.  At the research
station they say he never mentioned anything about
leaving but I suppose he wouldn't want to tell them
until it was all settled."
     "Now we've reached the stage where I dread opening
the newspaper in the morning for I'm sure that one day
I'll be reading that they've found his body."

                             115
     Now we know that this pattern has been repeated in
country after country.  Right across the world.
          Andrew Nisbett, 39, aerospace technician, born
Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Disappeared on Tuesday, October 5,
1976, from Houston, Texas - together with his wife,
Rita, and their only son.
     Pavel Garmanas, 42, physicist, born in Usachevka,
USSR.  Disappeared on Thursday, July 14, 1977, from his
new home in Jerusalem, Israel.
     Marcel Rouffanche, 35, nutrition specialist, born
in the suburb of Saint-Rugg near Avignon.  Disappeared
on Wednesday, November 16, 1977, from his apartment in
Paris.
     Eric Hillier, 27, constructional engineer, born
Melbourne, Australia.  Disappeared on Thursday, December
29, 1977.
     Intensive investigation has shown that the figures given
by Butler in that television program represented only a
fraction of the true total.  And that total is still
mounting.

     The explosion of fear provoked by the Science Report
program resulted, as we said earlier, in the company's being
required to deny formally the truth of the material which had
been presented.
     The wording of that statement had been prepared by
Leonard Harman and, despite violent opposition from Clements,
it was released by the Press Office.  Most newspapers
accepted the denial - apparently making no attempt to verify
the curious background stories of people like Robert
Patterson.
     The Daily Express, to Harman's relief, devoted most of
its front page the following day to a splash story headlined:
 STORM OVER TV'S SPOOF.
     The Express story started:

     Thousands of viewers all over the country protested
in shock and anger over a science fiction "documentary"
put out by ITV last night.
     From the moment that "Alternative 3" ended at 10
p.m., irate watchers jammed the switchboards of the
Daily Express and ITV companies to complain.


     This story made no mention of the evidence which had
been given on screen by Dr. Carl Gerstein or by other
respected authorities such as Professor G. Gordon Broadbent.
Grodin's important contribution was also ignored.  However,
the story did indicate that the "hour-long spoof" --
transmitted at peak viewing time - "purported" to show a
version of the scientific brain - drain.  It continued:


                             116
     The program was introduced by former newscaster
Simon Butler as a serious investigation into a
disturbing trend of scientific discovery.
     American and Russian spacemen were seen
collaborating to set up the "new colony"...while viewers
were left to suppose that the reason for the exploration
was the end of life on Earth.
     TV advertised the show by saying:  "What this
program shows may be considered unethical..."
     Viewers taken unawares protested their shock
immediately.  Others, realizing the program was a spoof,
complained of ITV's "irresponsibility".
     Early today, a spokesman for the Independent
Broadcasting Authority said it had thought long and hard
before allowing the documentary to be shown.
     But Mrs. Denise Ball of Camberley, Surrey, said:
"I was scared out of my wits.  It was all so real."


     Mrs. Mary Whitehouse, the renowned clean-Up-TV
campaigner, was another who completely believed the "Harman
denial".  She was quoted in another newspaper as saying:  "I
had hundreds of calls.  The film was brilliantly done to
deceive."

     So that was the immediate reaction.  And that was
entirely understandable.  The facts assembled by Clements and
his team were so stupefyingly frightening that people were
eager to believe they were not true.
     People were delighted to accept Harman's denial because
it drew a comforting veil over the unacceptable.
     All this put men like Terry Dickson in a most invidious
position.  Over Robert Patterson, for example.  Had Patterson
ever really existed?  That question, together with others
like it, was implicit in the attitude of most newspapers.
And, for some unfathomable reason, officials at the
University of St. Andrews refused to make any comment.  The
vice-chancellor there who had explained about Patterson going
prematurely to America, who had apologized so courteously for
the resulting waste of time...he was on protracted leave
somewhere in Europe and could not be contacted.
     So was Patterson merely a figment of Dickson's
imagination?  Was that why Benson had been unable to
interview him?
     The questions were piling up.  And they were getting
crazier and crazier.
     During the following few days, however, Fleet Street had
time to make inquiries and certain journalists began to
consider the television investigation in a rather different
perspective.



                             117
     Terry Dickson has told us that the biggest moment of
relief for him came on June 26 when he opened his copy of the
Sunday Telegraph.  Columnist Philip Purser, respected as one
of the most perceptive commentators in Britain, pointed out
that "a number of mysteries within the mystery posed by
Alternative 3 remain unsolved."
     The first of those "Mysteries" detailed by Purser
related to "Dr. Robert Paterson (sic), one of the savants
whose disappearance prompted this disturbing investigation".
     Purser had a special reason for being interested in
Patterson for, as he told his readers, he had indirect
knowledge of the man:

     The son of a friend of mine who lectures in the
same department at St. Andrews tells me that Patterson,
though an able mathematician and specialist in Boolian
geometry, was also a true Scot, notoriously careful with
his bawbees.

     Those final five words are clearly a reference to the
Patterson characteristic we described in Section Two - that
of resenting having so much of his money taken in taxation.
He tended to be such a bombastic bore on the subject that, as
we said, many of his university colleagues were relieved when
he announced he was leaving.  Purser's contact at St. Andrews
was probably one of those colleagues.
     Philip Purser made it abundantly clear that he was too
shrewd to be fooled by the Harman denial.  He concluded his
Sunday Telegraph article with these thoughts:

It would be a mistake to file "Alternative 3" away too
cozily with Panorama's spaghetti harvest and other
hoaxes.  Suppose it were fiendish double bluff inspired
by the very agencies identified in the program and that
the super-powers really are setting up an extra-
terrestrial colony of outstanding human beings to
safeguard the species?

     Letters flowing into the studios showed there was
also a significant proportion of thinking viewers who
recognized the truth.  One of the first received by
Simon Butler was from the President of the European
Space Association who wrote:  "I must congratulate you
and Colin Benson on your assiduous research."

     Here are extracts from other typical letters:

          I am a recently-retired aerospace technician
and your investigation explained certain factors which I




                             118
discovered in the course of my duties and which have
been puzzling me for some years.  Thank God someone has
at last had the initiative and the tenacity to present
the unpalatable truth - E.M., Filton, Bristol.





     Congratulations on not allowing the politicians to
muzzle you!  Your Science Report was absolutely
terrifying but, of course, the truth so often is and
surely we have a right to know what is really happening.
The subsequent back-pedalling by official spokesmen for
your company, which appears to have been blandly
accepted by most newspapers, does not surprise me.  Most
of my professional life has been spent in the Civil
Service and I am only too aware of how pressures can be
applied, particularly when it comes to so-called
Official Secrets.  Please maintain your vigilance -
J.N., London NW1.


     Yet newspapers still showed an extraordinary reluctance
to pursue the subject of Alternative 3.
     Why?  Why did they not question people like Wilfred
Dilworth and Marjorie Balcombe?  Why did they not contact
Dennis Pendlebury in Manchester...or Richard Tuffley's former
colleagues in Swansea?  These people were available for
interview.   They still are available.
     Many attempts have been made, as we explained earlier,
to prevent the publication of this book - and, because of
action by those two MPs, we have been forced into a reluctant
compromise.  So is it possible that newspapers, have been
subjected to similar pressures?  And that they, in "the
interests of national security", have yielded to those
pressures?  That, in a free society, may seem incredible.
But the world has never before known anything as incredible
as Alternative 3.
     A key to the truth was provided by Kenneth Hughes in the
Daily Mirror on June 20, 1977 - the day the program was
actually transmitted.  He had secured advance access to some
of the material gathered by Clements and his team and his
article was headlined:  WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?  He wrote:


     A science program is likely to keep millions of
Britons glued to their armchairs.
     Alternative 3 (ITV 9.0) is an investigation into
the disappearance of several scientists.
     They seem simply to have vanished from the face of
the Earth.

                             119
     Chilling news is read by former ITV newscaster
Simon Butler who gives a gloomy report on the future.

Then came the truly telling paragraph:

     "The program will be screened in several other
countries - but not America.  Network bosses there want
to assess its effect on British viewers.

     That is what columnist Hughes had been told.  That is
what he believed.  The truth was, however, that television
network bosses in America were permitted no discretion in the
matter.  Any screening of that Science Report program was
forbidden in that country by higher authority.


     It was no mere coincidence that two of the countries
where the documentary was banned were America and Russia -the
two principal partners in this amazing conspiracy.  Security
forces in each of those countries were particularly alert to
the nuances of public reaction...
     The backlash of embarrassment which followed the
transmission produced an immediate clamp-down of information
in Britain.  Even Professor G. Gordon Broadbent, a man noted
for his independent attitudes, was reluctant to become more
deeply involved.  We wanted him to enlarge on the theories he
had outlined in the program, to elaborate on the theme of
covert co-operation between the super-powers, and so Watkins
visited him at the Institute of International Political
Studies in London.  Here is a transcript from the tape of
that interview which took place on July 7, 1977:


WATKINS:  You are naturally aware of the statement which
     claimed that the Alternative 3 program was a hoax.
     What is  your reaction to that statement?
BROADBENT:  It would be wrong, in the present political
     climate, for me to make any comment.
WATKINS:  You suggested that co-operation between East
     and West could involve some "massive but covert
     operation in space".  Would you give your reasons
     for that suggestion?
BROADBENT:  You may recall that I stressed that this
     could be the situation but I did not state
     categorically that it was.  In fact, as I remember,
     I explained that I was not in the business of
     speculation and I see nothing to be gained by
     enlarging on what I have already said.
WATKINS:  You took part in that program as an expert
     commentator.  What are your feelings about this
     entire exercise now being dismissed as a hoax?


                             120
BROADBENT:  Shall we say that the program was of a
     more sensational nature than I had anticipated when
     I agreed to participate?  I was surprised by some
     of its findings.
WATKINS:  But do you feel those findings accurately
     reflected what is really happening?
BROADBENT:  I'm sorry...I'd prefer to say no more.


     The interview was extremely unsatisfactory.  How-ever,
only a few weeks later, we received more information which
provided a deeper insight into the workings of Alternative
3...
     Thursday, August 4, 1977.  Another submarine meeting of
Policy Committee.  Chairman:  R EIGHT.  Transcript section
supplied by Trojan starts:


A TWO:  But losing a whole Batch Consignment just like
     that!
A EIGHT:  We had bum luck...that's all there is to it...
A TWO:  Three hundred bodies smashed to bits...a
     complete write-off and that's all you can say!  We
     had bum luck!  Look, I'm not a technical man and I
     tend to get lost with some of this technical
     talk...so will someone please explain just how a
     thing like this can happen...because, I tell you,
     I've got a gut feeling there's been carelessness.
R FIVE:  It is not possible to legislate against
     accidents of this nature...they are part of the
     hazards of transportation to the new territory...
A TWO:  Yes, but...
R FIVE:  Please...I will explain.  Meteors are very
     common, far more common than people realize, and
     about a million of them enter the earth's
     atmosphere every day.  Nearly all are very tiny,
     not more than about a gram in weight, but some are
     considerably bigger...
A EIGHT:  That's right...some are too big to evaporate
     completely on their journey through the earth's
     atmosphere so they land as solid lumps.  We reckon
     that
     about 500 kilograms arrive this way from outer
     space every year...
R FIVE:  Sometimes these lumps are gigantic.  There was
     one in 1919, for example, which landed in Siberia.
     It devastated about 100 square miles of
     countryside...
A EIGHT:  Then there's that classic meteor crater in
     Arizona...



                             121
R FIVE:  It is the same in and around the new
     territory...millions of meteors are bombarding its
     atmosphere and our craft have to travel through
     that bombardment...
A TWO:  But our pilots...don't they take avoiding
     action?
A EIGHT:  Imagine yourself on a bicycle...trying to
     dodge an avalanche that's rolling right on top of
     you...that's how it was with this lot...
A TWO:  And you're saying this one which hit the Batch
     Consignment craft was maybe as big as that Siberian
     one?
R FIVE:  Possibly...but we have no means of telling...
     anyway, it wouldn't be necessary for it to be
     that big...one a hundredth that size would have
     completely destroyed the craft...
R EIGHT:  This discussion, I feel, is leading us
     nowhere.  Our scientific people at Archimedes Base
     have assured us that this disaster-our first, I
     must emphasize - could not possibly have been
     avoided.  And that has been confirmed by the
     Committee in Residence.  It is hardly our function
     to hold another post-mortem.
A ONE:  That's right.  We ought to be thankful there
     were no designated movers on board.  So we lost
     300 components...is that so desperately serious?
     All we've got to do is fix for another collection.


     (Authors' note:  The following month, you may recall,
brought reports of mass disappearances in Australia.  By the
end of September many of those who had disappeared were found
by chance in what was apparently a slave-labor camp-possibly
in readiness for clinical processing and transportation.
Many others have never been seen since.  The discovery of
those "slave-labor" men, coming so soon after that meeting of
the Policy Committee, might, of course, have been merely a
coincidence.  However, we consider that to be highly
unlikely).


R EIGHT:  The legacy of that unfortunate television
     program is of far more immediate importance...
A FIVE:  Listen...that program has been completely
     discredited.  People have accepted it wasn't
     meant to be taken seriously, that it was no more
     than an elaborate joke...we don't need to sweat
     blood over it...





                             122
R EIGHT:  Most people have accepted the official
     statements but there are those who cannot be so
     easily convinced.  We must not under-estimate the
     damage that has been done by the program.  It has
     made certain people think and wonder and that can
     be dangerous.  We must make certain that its
     credibility is completely eradicated.
A TWO:  I told you we should have killed that guy
     Gerstein...way back in February...I said then
     he was dangerous...
R FOUR:  My friend is right...he did say that.  And I
     pointed out then that Gerstein's talk could start
     a panic among the masses...
A FIVE:  So what are you saying?  An Expediency?
R ONE:  What value would that be now?  He has said all
     he can add...and now people are laughing at him.
     They say he is a crank.  so what would be gained by
     an Expediency?
A TWO:  He should never have co-operated with those
     television guys...he deserves to die and...
A EIGHT:  I told you all before...we don't use
     Expediencies for punishment purposes...we use
     them only in the furtherance of the operation.
     So maybe we were wrong before...maybe we should
     have had Gerstein killed...but, now, I see no
     point...
R EIGHT:  We will vote.  Those in favor of an
     Expediency?...thank you...And against?...Good...
     I entirely agree.  Gerstein did behave in a most
     foolhardy manner but we have nothing to gain by his
     death...
A TWO:  But what about the regional officer concerned?
A EIGHT:  You're right there.  He should have stopped
     that television crap.  He's proved himself to be
     utterly unreliable.  He failed and failed badly
     and, what's worse, he could let us down again.  The
     man, without any question, is a liability and I
     propose an Expediency.
R TWO:  Seconded.
R EIGHT:  Those in favor?...Then that is unanimous.  The
     method?
A THREE:  How about a telepathic sleep-job...maybe with
     a gun...
R EIGHT:  That seems sensible...it's too soon after
     Ballantine for another hot-job.


     That was where the transcript section ended.  What had
Gerstein said to cause such consternation?  Those who saw the




                                123
television program will already know.  In the nest section,
for the benefit of others, we will be giving full details of
his interview with Simon Butler.
     But what of the final part of that transcript:
"telepathic sleep-job with a gun".  That was gibberish to us
-- at that stage.  It was not until later that we got a
possible explanation from Dr. Hugo Danningham.  We were
accustomed by that stage to surprises.  But Dr. Danningham's
explanation came as one of the most startling surprises yet.












































                             124
                        SECTION   TEN



     Dr. Hugo Danningham lectures regularly on parapsychology
at three British universities and is a committee member of
the European Institute for Brain Research.  He was
interviewed on our behalf by Colin Benson in Brussels on
September 23, 1977.  That interview, which Benson taped,
provided an insight into the possible meaning of the phrase
"telepathic sleep-job".
     In the early 19602, he explained, significant advances
were made in the study of parapsychology at the University of
Kharkov and at the University of Leningrad - advances which
many experts feared were to be adapted for use in any future
conflict between East and West.
     They involved telepathy and, more specifically, the
long-distance invasion and manipulation of minds.  The
potential military advantages were patently obvious.  Enemies
could be attacked and suborned literally from within.  If the
telepathic power were strong enough, they could be compelled
to ignore the orders of their commanders in preference to
those being beamed directly into their minds.  They would, i
fact, respond like remote-controlled puppets.
     Military authorities in the West, fearful of the
advantages this could yield to the Russians, initiated
intensive research into this new style of weapon.  And, as a
result, it had been perfected by both super-powers.
     "Experiments have proved that children, like birds and
beasts and people in primitive tribes, are usually more
receptive to telepathic messages and instructions than most
adults in a civilized society," said Dr. Danningham.  "This
is because once intelligence has been fully developed, and
once a tremendous amount of education has been absorbed,
information received on a major scale directly from other
minds could easily result in mental confusion.
     "As a result, the mind of civilized man has developed a
protective barrier against telepathy.  This barrier can be
penetrated most easily when the defenses are down - such as
when a person is extremely fatigued or is going through a
period of great emotional stress.  And the defenses of the
mind, of course, are never more relaxed than during sleep.
That is when a person is most vulnerable to telepathic
invasion - particularly if such an invasion was being
controlled by experienced professionals.
     "That, I suspect, is the explanation behind that "sleep-
job" expression."
     Benson frowned, shook his head in perplexity.  I'm
sorry...I don't quite follow..."
     "A sleeping man can be given instructions and, if the
circumstances are propitious, he will obey those instructions
- even if they are that he should kill himself..."

                             125
     "Good God!" said Benson.  "You're suggesting, then, a
sort of somnambulistic suicide!  But this is quite fantastic!
These circumstances you mention...what exactly would they
be?"
     For any action as dramatic as self-destruction there
could almost certainly have to be a synchronization of many
factors,: said Dr. Danningham.  "For example, it would be
easier if the intended victim were at precisely the right
period of his biorhythmic psi sensitivity cycle and..."
     "But surely the instinct for self-preservation would
countermand any instructions calculated to result in
suicide...unless the sleeper wanted to kill himself
anyway..."
     "Not if the telepathic instructions were cleverly
presented,: said Danningham.  "Let me give you an
illustration:
     "Imagine you want to kill a man who, let's say, lives
high up in a skyscraper block.  Now you're not going to tell
that man to kill himself by jumping out of his bedroom window
because - as you so rightly say - his instinct for survival
would very likely intervene and reject the order.
     "So what you do is feed him false information.  You tell
him telepathically that there is some wild beast rampaging
around his room or that the building has caught fire.  You
tell him there is a safety net spread under the window and
that, to save himself, he must jump.  So, in a desperate bid
to stay alive, he jumps - and breaks his neck.
     "It is possible, of course, to play all sorts of
permutations on this tack.  You might persuade your sleeping
victim, for instance, into believing there is some venomous
spider attached to his chest, that he must stab it and kill
it before it kills him.  And so, in his sleep, he stabs
himself."
     "The variations, my dear Mr. Benson, are almost
limitless.  If the telepathic messages convinced your
sleeper that he had accidentally drunk some corrosive poison
and that the only antidote was in a bottle marked
cyanide...well, I'm sure you see what I mean.:
     "And you're saying that this sort of thing actually
happens?"
     Danningham shook his head.  "No, I'm not saying that at
all.  I'm merely telling you what is possible.  Men in my
field have the knowledge required to make those things happen
but I cannot visualize anyone actually using that
knowledge..."
     Maybe Dr. Danningham was right.  Maybe, at that time,
the men behind Alternative 3 had not used somnambulistic
suicide as a method of murder.  How-ever, we spent weeks
researching newspaper archives in America and Britain and we
discovered three cases which, to say the least, appear to
merit a question mark.


                             126