The Groom Lake Desert Rat: Issue 22

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The Groom Lake Desert Rat

 · 11 months ago

Issue #22. February 23, 1995

In this issue...

• Tales Of The Test Site, Part 1
• Knapp Speaks In Las Vegas
• Nellis "UFO" On Hard Copy
• Another Source Comes Forward
• Accused Trespassers Found Guilty
• Campbell Trial March 3rd
• Series Of Hikes Planned
• Intel Bitties

Tales Of The Test Site, Part 1

Having resided near the border of Area 51 for over two years now, we have collected our share of UFO stories. The bulk are reports of lights in the sky which we can't do much with. We have seen many interesting lights ourselves, but we know what they are-- usually military flares associated with the frequent combat exercises here. Even when we hear a light-in-the-sky story that seems unworldly, we are still at a loss for how to proceed. How can we investigate something anomalous when there is nothing in our known world to correlate it with?

The universe will always be filled with unexplained phenomena. The perpetual nature of life is that we are playing at the shore of an ocean of the unknown. We'll die long before we figure out most of life's mysteries, so the challenge is to focus on the ones that are reasonably accessible. With a million different questions to answer, we can only devote our time to the few that we have a handle on, that we can connect in some way with the knowledge base we already have.

Lights in the sky don't do it for us. Even aliens landing on earth are hard to investigate if they don't bother to sign the guest register. UFO researchers have been collecting such isolated sighting reports for nearly fifty years now, and where has it gotten them? About all we can conclude (if we were inclined to conclusion) is, "Yes, they're here." The exact nature of the phenomenon and what it means to humanity remains lost in noise and confusion.

That is why we came here. Area 51 is the intersection of UFOs and humanity. It doesn't really matter to us if UFOs are real: We'll accept things either way as long as it is the truth. The important thing is, the human response is real. This is the place to understand how people deal with UFOs, real or imagined, teaching us what we can trust about human witnesses. Just to watch people respond to the flares is an education. The walls of the Little A'Le'Inn--where all the UFOs are real--are covered with photos of flares, lens reflections and aircraft lights, and hundreds of "UFO-tourists" have seen these phenomena and come away satisfied. We have seen aircraft lights shown as UFOs on national television, edited together so slickly that we'd be inclined to believe it ourselves if we hadn't been there at the filming. We have seen people attribute complex motivations and communication to ambiguous lights with an uncritical reverence that can only be described as religious. All of this has made us profoundly more skeptical about human perception and the reliability of publicized and televised UFO reports.

At the same time, Area 51 has turned us into a true believer in another aspect of the UFO phenomenon: The notion that the U.S. government could keep UFO information secret for close to fifty years. We used to say that this was the least credible aspect of ufology: If UFOs are real, then the military with all its advanced aerial surveillance equipment is bound to know more than the general public, and such an explosive secret could not remain secret for very long.

Now, we don't think it so far-fetched. Security here remains formidable. The most effective measure: Former workers in sensitive positions can be required to take lie detector tests for years after their employment. It would also be easier to keep such a fantastic secret than something more earthly, like the illicit affairs of the President. Something unbelievable can almost be hidden in plain sight without anyone noticing, since people have nothing to relate it to. It is our conviction that if the government is trucking with aliens, then the truth has already been printed in "The Weekly World News" but no one noticed. For a fantastic secret, security does not have to be perfect, because even if bits of it leak out they will not be taken seriously, and they will quickly be buried in our cultural noise.

Why Here?

This we believe without reservation: If the government has ever possessed alien spacecraft, whole or in pieces, it would have at some point brought the hardware here to the Nevada Test Site, Area 51 or the surrounding Nellis Air Force Range. This vast restricted area, known collectively as the "Test Site" to locals, has certain unique advantages unmatched anywhere else in the country...

• A vast government-controlled reservation, larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, with many isolated valleys and canyons in which to hide and operate anything you want. The expanse of empty land would also provide a safety buffer when you are playing with something unknown and are not sure if it is going to blow up.
• Intense pre-existing secrecy and physical security for nuclear testing, aircraft development and military exercises.
• Access to an exceptional labor pool. In the years of post-war atomic testing, the country's greatest minds were focused on the Nevada Test Site. Most of them held top-secret clearances and could easily be diverted to programs other than atomic development.

If you believe in Roswell or any other saucer crash scenario, then you have to believe that the Test Site played a role afterwards.

Perhaps it is time the Desert Rat got graphical at last....

*Tonopah 
+---------------------+        "Home of the 
!                     !         Area 51 Research 
!   *TTR              +-+          /   Center" 
!                       +----+    / 
!                            !   *Rachel 
!        Nellis Range        +------+ 
!                                   ! *W.S. 
!           @    ___                !*F.R.  *Tikaboo 
!               / @ \       +----+  +------+     * 
 \_            +     +--@---+@51 !         ! Alamo 
   \_          !            +----+         +-----+ 
     \_        !            ! @Papoose     !     ! 
       \_      !    Nevada  !  Lake (S-4?) !     ! 
         \_    ! @   Test   !              !     ! 
           \_  !     Site   !    Nellis    !Natl ! 
             ! !            !    Range     !Wild-! 
   Beatty*   ! !            !              !life ! 
             +-!      @     !              !Refg.! 
               !   Mercury  !   Indian     !     ! 
               +------   *+-+   Springs  +-+     ! 
                      \---! +---*--      !       ! 
                                   \__   !       ! 
                                      \--!       ! 
 @=decent places to house aliens          \      ! 
   (closed access and no bombing)          \_____! 

Scale: !----------! = 25 miles         Las Vegas *

Note that Area 51, where the Groom Lake base is located, is only one small section of the Restricted Zone--about one percent of the land area. Area 51 has attracted attention because there is a very large and obvious nonexistant facility there. The Groom base probably isn't the best place to house your aliens or saucers, however, because it is too "busy," with lots of workers coming and going on other projects.

Approaching The Claims

The relatively low credibility of sighting reports around Rachel has little bearing on the core claim that aliens or alien craft have been stored and studied at the Test Site. If the government wants to keep something secret, it is going to take the obvious precaution of not performing as billed. We think some of the more subtle aliens-at-the-Test-Site stories deserve serious study. We are not announcing that they are true, mind you, but some of them have enough depth and plausibility to be an interesting challenge. More importantly, we find the Test Site stories worthwhile because we can connect them with our current knowledge base. Any operation at the Test Site requires government cooperation. Any government involvement creates records and witnesses. While we may not be able to understand the agenda of the aliens, we can divine the motivation of the humans dealing with them and thereby make predictions about the operations of the program.

Here at our Research Center, we approach the aliens-at-the-Test- Site stories as "folklore." We are not saying they are fiction. We only mean that our approach is different from, say, an investigative journalist who wants to know right away whether a specific claim is true or false. When a fantastic claim reaches us, we do not expend as much effort verifying it as we do in simply understanding the story itself. Rather than assuming a story is false until proven true, we proceed as though it were true, collecting information about it until we reach a insurmountable roadblock or inconsistency.

Our theory is this: The truth holds together over time, while lies and misperceptions fall apart on their own. The truth, even if a government secret, is supported by a million connections to the outside world, and over time many of these connections are bound to emerge just by our being open to them. A lie or fantasy is supported only by the inventiveness and brain capacity of the person telling it. No person's mind, no matter how brilliant or twisted, can reproduce all the rich interconnections of reality. A liar may be able to generate a story that sounds good on the surface, but closer inspection will eventually reveal glaring internal flaws and probably a irate and defensive storyteller.

As long as a story remains interesting in itself, like a well- constructed novel, we are willing to set aside the issue of truth and go along for the ride. Truth, we figure, will resolve itself, and a well-crafted story can usually teach us something even if it turns out to be fiction. Still, there are a lot of fantastic claims floating around, more than we can possibly pursue, so how do we choose which one to look into? We have several criteria....

1. The story must promise significant physical connections to the known human and physical world. We can't do much with lights in the sky, alien abductions or any other disconnected experiences. They could be real, but we don't have any avenue to approach them. We DO know how to approach government programs and other activities that involve more than one human: That's gumshoe work, which is often very frustrating but at least we know who we are dealing with.
2. We must respect the storyteller. This criterion is a composition of many factors: Is the witness rational and reliable in areas unrelated to his story? Is he trying to push his religion or philosophy on us or trying to impress us with his importance? Does he know how to listen? Is he open to alternative explanations for his experiences? Can we identify with him personally? All of these questions boil down to the affinity we feel for that person. If we dislike someone, then we feel unmotivated to pursue his story no matter how compelling it may seem in itself.
3. The story must be connected to our areas of expertise. We cannot investigate Roswell or Gulf Breeze; we are not there and do not have the necessary background information to know the good stories from the bad. Only here, close to home, do we know the local language well enough to process the story and make conclusions from it.
4. The storyteller must be accessible to us directly, if not in person then through unedited transcripts and correspondence. We do not trust what we see on television, videos or most magazine articles. We can't work with sound bites; we need access to the whole testimony, from as close to the firsthand source as possible.

A number of stories have come to us which fulfill these criteria. Of course, Bob Lazar is the catalyst who created this frenzy, but there are other witnesses who seem to confirm at least parts of Lazar's claims. These stories remain unverified and don't prove anything, but they do seem to fit together into a coherent whole. At least they flesh out the plot of the prominent "folklore" at the Test Site: the housing of alien craft.

For readers who are new to this field, Bob Lazar is the Las Vegan who appeared on a local TV station in 1989 to claim that he had worked with alien spacecraft at Papoose Lake, just south of Area 51. His story was coherent and well-crafted, with an internal consistency that is rare in fiction. Unfortunately, problems in verifying his background have shot down Lazar's credibility in the eyes of most. (His claim of having attended MIT and Cal-Tech seems dubious.) Still, the story is superior in itself, and we have not let go of it. Lazar has picked the perfect location for his saucer base, real or imagined. We know two former workers at Groom who confirm that Papoose Lake was off-limits and that there was indeed some sort of highly secret project going on there.

[See Campbell's Feb. 1994 MUFON UFO Journal article: "Lazar as a Fictional Character."]

Summary Of The Plot

We shall discuss some of our non-Lazar sources in future Rats. Taken as a whole, here is the scenario they support. We don't have proof for any of this, but it would at least make a good script for "X-Files."

1. Alien spacecraft indeed crashed in the southwestern U.S. in the late 1940s and 1950s. There were multiple crashes.
2. Along with craft and bodies, there was at least one live alien recovered. That recovery took place in 1953.
3. The captured craft were taken to the most secure and isolated location the government had at the time: the Nevada Test Site. At some point, the live alien or aliens ended up here, too.
4. The intellectual center of alien research was the nation's premiere brain trust: Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico.
5. In the 1950s, a government program was set up to deal with all the UFO and alien information the government was collecting. It was modeled after the Manhattan Project. This program was given wide autonomy and was separated from every other government agency. All the UFO information held by other agencies, including the military, was turned over to it. Most officials in public government today are unaware of the alien program. For forty years, the project was successfully hidden behind the cloak of Cold War security, as a secret world within a secret world.
6. Eventually, communication was established with the aliens. Over the years, aliens and the government agency have engaged in varying levels of cooperation and trade. Relations have frequently been strained, however, mainly as a result of the humans not living up to whatever agreement they made.
7. As part of the trade, the aliens have given the government agency some of their less sophisticated spacecraft. It is not clear what the aliens get in return, but they do have a need for certain minerals.
8. The government agency has long been engaged in a program to reproduce the alien craft. Sources conflict as to whether the program has actually been successful.
9. Flying saucers have been regularly flown from the "Test Site," but it is unclear whether the craft are "ours" or "theirs." It is also not clear whether any saucers are housed there now.
10. The aliens known to the government agency are classic Grays, but there may be more than one sub-species of Gray, each with different agendas.
11. There is no reason to suppose that the aliens known to the government agency are in any way threatening to us. They are described as distant and businesslike. There is no indication that they are manipulating our society, media or government, but they do exert their influence on the secret agency, cooperating with it only as it suits them.
12. The secret agency is currently suffering from a critical shortage of skilled labor, as people retire who were with the program from the early days. Younger candidates seem unwilling to tolerate the rigorous security regulations, which require that workers surrender much of their personal privacy and civil rights.

...So that's all it is. Just your run-of-the-mill secret saucer program, nothing to get excited about. Again, we emphasize that we are not out to verify anything. The important thing about this story, at least as a mind game, is that it doesn't present any major inconsistencies with what we know is true. As long as one can tolerate the premise that aliens might visit earth and have something to trade, the rest seems plausible. The idea that the government could keep such a secret for fifty years becomes easier to swallow if you suppose that the research program that held all UFO information was segregated from the rest of the government from the beginning.

So what do we intend to do with this folklore? Nothing really. We'll proceed "as if" the story is true and look for new information that will tell us more about it. If the story is true, isn't it the biggest news event in the history of mankind? Don't the people have a right to know? Yeah, yeah, we've been through all that in DR#20. We believe that if the story is true, it will come out only when it "wants" to come out, when society has reached a level of maturity where it can take such an event in stride. It doesn't help to get outraged and try to force the disclosure. It will happen when it happens, and given the labor crunch and fall of the Soviets, it might be soon.

More in the next Rat.

Knapp Speaks In Las Vegas

On Feb. 1, George Knapp gave a UFO lecture Feb. 1 at the Charleston Community School in Las Vegas. (Knapp is the former TV newsman who first reported the Bob Lazar story on a Las Vegas TV station in 1989.) There were about 50 people at this free 2-hour talk. It was not recorded, but following are some minutes, as recalled by Campbell....

In the first hour, George discussed his findings from his trip to Russia about a year and a half ago. He and Brian Gresh arrived there just as Yeltsin was beginning his showdown with parliament. Knapp describes this as a one-time "window" in which Russian UFO files could be obtained. Knapp thinks that the window has since closed due to the country's new ultranationalist leanings. [Note: An article on Knapp's visit appears in MUFON Journal, Oct. 93] Overall, this information seems to pretty much parallel the UFO story in the U.S.--and is no less murky and inconclusive.

Some remembered highlights...

• Knapp purchased all of the UFO files of the country's most prominent UFO researcher, who had collected these reports officially for the government for many years. Knapp says this official probably had access to more UFO reports than anyone else in the U.S.S.R., but Knapp also noted that reports this researcher received were first cleared by KGB agents, so it is possible that some cases were filtered out and handled differently (perhaps like Bluebook supposedly handled only the tamer UFO reports in the U.S.--Ed.). These files purchased by Knapp were all unclassified.
• Knapp also obtained some classified reports, including....
  • Reports on the alleged Roswell crash from Soviet agents in New Mexico at the time. The reliability of the sources is unclear.
  • Reports on UFOs seen by cosmonauts, and extensive reports of encounters with UFOs by military jets. Several jets crashed as a result. During one UFO incident in 1983, the launch codes were entered into the computers at an ICBM missile site, much like the incidents reports at bases along the US-Canadian border in 1978.
  • Reports on official scientific analyses of crash sites and crop circles. At landing sites, all single-celled micro-organisms in the soil were found to be "missing"--not just dead, but missing altogether. Plants were found to suffer measurable physical changes. At one site, tiny (almost microscopic) glass-like beads were found. Knapp brought some back to the U.S. and has been trying to have them analyzed. Results have been inconclusive so far.

• One scientist in the Ministry of Defense demonstrated for Knapp (and his TV camera) a device he called "the weapon of the aliens," the "plasma beam." On the tape that Knapp showed at his talk, the scientist sets a razor blade on a device the size of a shoebox and that supposedly has no power supply. There is a "pop" and suddenly there is a hole in the razor blade. (What the box contains and what caused the hole is unexplained. It is probably within human technology to do this if the box contained a charged battery or capacitor.)
• Remote viewing (ESP) research has been officially sponsored by the government, and the subject came up numerous times on Knapp's visit. Knapp helped connect a Russian official in this field with a U.S. one, and he said they are now cooperating on some kind of joint venture. The Russians seem to be ahead of the U.S. in this area. Knapp's says he saw part of a training film on remote viewing, but didn't understand it due to the language problem.
• Knapp said he heard nothing about cattle mutilations while in Russia, but did hear of abductions and crop circles. Knapp says he had heard about alleged alien hardware in Russian possession-- pieces of saucer wreckage, etc.--but never saw any.
• UFO studies continue in Russia today.

The remainder of Knapp's talk was a question and answer period, including....

• A questioner recalled Bob Lazar's claim that (according to briefing papers) the Russians had been engaged in a joint saucer research program with the Americans, but the Russians got kicked out. The questioner asked if Knapp had any new info on this from his Russian trip. Knapp said he didn't.
• Knapp said he continues to believe Lazar, but acknowledges that most people do not.
• A questioner recalled that in Knapp's TV broadcasts on Lazar, Knapp said he had other witnesses that essentially confirmed Lazar's story but that wouldn't go on camera. Could Knapp give any more info on these sources?Knapp said that his primary witness in this regard was "a member of a prominent Nevada family" (NOT the Lear family) who had retired from a management position for a major contractor at the Nevada Test Site. (Note: Our first guesses would be EG&G; or REECo.--Ed.) Over many months, Knapp dragged only a few bits of information out of this source. The source confirmed that the U.S. had housed downed alien flying saucers at the Nevada Test Site since 1953--a couple of years before the founding of Area 51. The source also said the U.S. had held a single live alien at the Test Site. When asked for a description, the source would say only that the alien bore a physical resemblance to a prominent human political figure.

  Knapp was forced to guess. Richard Nixon? Spiro Agnew?

  No, Ross Perot!

  From Knapp's description, the source seemed to be indicating that the "Ross Perot" alien had been held against its will. Knapp was told that the source had videotaped a deposition concerning the cover-up to be released upon his death, and a family member had confirmed this.

• George says he has communicated with a senior congressional aid with clearance to handle nearly all black projects that pass though Congress. This aide believes the government UFO program is real, but doesn't have proof. The aide wants heads to roll when the truth is known. (Which is not the best inducement to bring the information forward. --Ed.)
• Knapp agreed that the more he gets involved in UFO research, the more confused he is about what is really going on.
• Knapp says that he is no longer working for Alta Mira Communications, which produced his latest video series, but he does do commentary pieces for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas on a part-time basis.
• Knapp says that sales of his new UFO video tape series have been disappointing and will not come close to recouping the enormous costs of the project. [For info on purchasing the tapes, write to UFOs: The Best Evidence, P.O. Box 2249, Livonia, MI 45151, 800-575-5525. --ed.] Knapp says he is working on a book compiling some of the Russian material.

[Editor's note: Although the captured alien did not look like Richard Nixon, Nixon's name has come up in another regard. Perhaps in a future Rat...]

Nellis "UFO" On Hard Copy

On 2/17, Hard Copy broadcast some video clips of a hovering "UFO" over the Nellis Range taken by tracking cameras attached to ground-based targeting radars used in Red Flag exercises. The object seen in the clip was as ambiguous as most UFO photos and videos: a black, blimp-like object moving smoothly across the sky. Clips from more than one camera were shown. The object seemed to have some structure to it, but the definition was poor and it was difficult to conclude anything from the clips. Interviewed on the segment was a source in shadow, referred to as "Steve," who had supposedly worked with F-117A's on the Nellis Range. Steve said that the tapes confirmed what he had already known about UFOs. It was not clear whether he was the source who had provided the tapes.

What distinguished these videos from the endless parade of blurry home videos shown on tabloid TV was the display, superimposed on the picture, giving direction, time, distance and radar return of the object, as well as voices, apparently of the crew operating the radar. We were particularly intrigued with a scene that included two radar domes on a mountaintop. These should be easily identifiable. A correspondent of ours who is familiar with the west side of the range thinks they may be on Tolicha Peak, Quartz Mountain or Black Mountain.

Following the broadcast, we contacted the analyst interviewed on the segment, Chuck de Caro, a defense journalist who had produced a CNN program on the Bentwaters UFO incident. He said Hard Copy had hired him as a consultant to check the validity of the tape and source who delivered it.

He said the source seemed legitimate--a former AF employee motivated more by cash than idealism. The source had not actually seen the UFO himself. The tapes delivered to Hard Copy (on VHS) were re-recorded and were probably a couple of generations down. They came from tapes that are taken routinely during air combat exercises. The video cameras are attached to the threat radars ("enemy" radar sites that our pilots seek to destroy or evade) to provide feedback on pilot and radar effectiveness. The camera always points where the radar is pointing. De Caro thinks the incident took place several years ago, perhaps around 1990 or 1991.

De Caro suggested that the tapes got into circulation because the radar crews failed to report the incident. The tapes were treated as "outtakes", as most are, and were recopied and passed around quietly among the workers. The tapes sold to Hard Copy included several segments taken at different sites. Each segment was about a minute long--clearly not the whole thing--so de Caro did not have the benefit of seeing the objects appear or disappear.

De Caro suggested that the cameras were infrared. (Confirmed by the time shown on the screen, which was night, although the picture appeared like day.) He noted that since an infrared photo records different phenomena than visible-light photography, the apparent flaring of the object when seen from below could be the outflow of heat sources on the craft.

De Caro said there could be many different earthly explanation for the object, but he still regards them as interesting: At least they might reveal some new kind of aircraft. We remain skeptical of the object ourselves but are interested in what it tells us about range operations.

Another Source Comes Forward

We just received this message by email from an anonymous source. For accuracy, we reprint it without editing:

the big wow!!! happened the signal was received & area 51 & groom & s4, the pentagon's covering it up!! & semi-recentely at a crop circle formation they found a pure gold object with an ancient version of writing on it. when translated it says the gods are coming back. experts said it couldn't have been made by our species cause it's too perfect. you'll be interested to know there is a gentleman at ucsd in san diego that's been able to translate those crop circle formations into music. the whole j.f.k thing's a cover-up i'll tell you who really killed kennedy it was area 51 & groom lake & s4 and a whole number of other parties due to the fact he was gonna tell the world of what's really going on in erea 51 & groom & s4 & kennedy also told marillyn monroe & that's why she wound up dead. the reason the 18 minutes of the watergate tapes dissapeared is cause they were discussing area 51 & groom & s4 & all their other black programs. re: the pyramids in egypt & everywhere except vegas's luxor were built with the help of the aliens think about it we didn't have the technology back then to build them. it wasn't til present day that we evolved enough to build luxor. more later

[There it is in a nutshell--and Nixon, too! --Ed.]

Accused Trespassers Found Guilty

[Press release issued by the Area 51 Research Center, 2/15/95]

Two Utah residents, accused of crossing the military border near the popular Freedom Ridge viewpoint in Lincoln County, were found guilty of trespassing Feb. 15 in Pahranagat Valley Justice Court. Ryan Chivers and Jason Winget of Salt Lake City had been arrested on Dec. 1 by a Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy on Groom Lake Road several yards inside the Nellis Range military border, about 12 miles east of the secret Groom Lake military base. [DR#20]

The defendants, representing themselves, argued in court that the place where the deputy arrested them was not where anonymous Nellis Range security officers first detained them. The defendants said they believe they did not cross the border until Nellis security officers marched them there.

The prosecution, represented by Asst. District Attorney Scott Waite, presented no evidence or witnesses to pinpoint the location where the two were detained or to show that it was on military land. None of the anonymous security guards who originally captured the two appeared in court. Only the arresting officer, Sgt. Douglas Lamoreaux, appeared as a witness for the prosecution. Sgt. Lamoreaux arrived at the scene of the arrest only after the two were detained by security forces and brought to the road.

The anonymous security guards wear camouflage fatigues without insignia. Although they have no apparent authority on public land, they have been known to detain citizens there. Most recently, on Jan. 2, a Yucaipa, CA, resident, Bruce Hedquist, says he was detained on public land for 20 minutes by security personnel. The security patrols threatened to arrest Hedquist for turning his car around just inside the Keep Out signs, but he says he was on public land when detained.

In trial testimony, Chivers and Winget admitted approaching a tripod on a hill near the border, but testimony at the trial established that there were several in the area and that they are frequently moved. The defendants acknowledged that they did not know exactly where they were at the time they were detained by the security guards, but since they remained well behind the keep out signs, they felt it was on public land.

Chivers and Winget said that they had intended to hike to Freedom Ridge, a popular viewpoint on public land beside the border, and had no intention of crossing the border. This was not refuted by the prosecution. Winget also acknowledged, upon cross-examination by Waite, that they were both fully aware that crossing the border could be punishable by "use of deadly force," and that they therefore had no intention of doing so.

Both the arresting officer and the defendants acknowledged that the night was dark and that it was virtually impossible to see the narrow orange posts that mark the border. Testimony at the trial acknowledged that the actual border ran diagonal to the road and not directly perpendicular to the signs, but no evidence was presented to indicate its exact location. Deputy Lamoreaux said that he thought the border ran, "to the southwest," which is incorrect, since the border is shown running north-to-south on USGS maps.

Prosecutor Waite argued that since the defendants could not prove that they were outside the military border, the court should convict them. Justice Nola Holton agreed, and said that the fact that they were hiking at night near the border was sufficient indication that they had indeed crossed the line.

The verdict appears to be contrary to Nevada statute, which states that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. In this case, the Assistant D.A. presented no direct evidence that the two had crossed the border on their own and argued that they were guilty because they couldn't prove that they hadn't.

The two were fined $600 each. They say they have not yet decided whether they will appeal.

Analysis

Psychospy was a fly on the wall during the trial. We thought the defense team, headed by Mr. Chivers, did an excellent job of defining the primary issue: that they were moved by the security Dudes from an ambiguous location, and the prosecution had presented no witnesses or evidence to show beyond a reasonable doubt that they had crossed the line on their own.

Our jaw dropped when we heard Asst. D.A. Waite tell the judge that the two were guilty because they could not prove that they were on public land. The newly hired assistant doesn't grasp the single most fundamental concept of law: That the burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt and not on the defendant to prove innocence. We are disappointed. Unlike Judge Holton, this guy is supposed to have gone to law school and passed the bar. It is like someone having been ordained as a Christian minister without ever learning the Ten Commandments. Of course, Judge Holton missed the boat, too--inferring guilt without evidence--but that was expected.

Following the trial, nine members of the Sheriff's Dept., D.A.'s office and Justice Court gathered at Del Pueblo Cafe in Alamo for a celebratory luncheon. Our work in the November election has helped us build an elaborate intelligence network within the county, and multiple spies were there at Del Pueblo taking notes. The diners were, as usual, loud and indiscreet, and our sources were amazed at the bile heaped upon Glenn Campbell, who happened to be present at the trial and who was perceived as being behind it all. Someone said the deputies should take Judge Holton out for another tour of the border area. This supports our conviction that the Court here is only an extension of the Sheriff's Dept., expected to take direction from them and rubber stamp their arrests. The consensus of the diners was that the verdict in the trespasser case would probably be appealed but that the guilt of the two would be upheld.

We can see now that we have a long road to travel.

Campbell Trial March 3^rd

Glenn Campbell's oft-delayed trial on obstruction charges is now scheduled for Friday, March. 3rd, at 10:00 am in the Annex Building, Alamo, Nevada (90 miles north of Las Vegas). Everyone is invited.

Previous trials have been postponed three times: (1) When the D.A. failed to deliver discovery materials in a reasonable time, (2) when the D.A. excused himself without explanation and hired a special prosecutor, and (3) when the judge excused herself without explanation and brought in another judge. [DR#21] It is unknown at present what the cost has been to the county so far in the Campbell case. We guess $5000 at least, not including the bad press. It ain't like the millions spent on O.J., but it is a lot for Lincoln County given that the D.A. once suggested a $50 fine to Campbell if he pleaded "no contest."

Campbell says he is ready for the March 3rd trial and that no delay will come from him.

Series Of Hikes Planned

The Friday date makes it convenient for visitors to include the trial in a weekend visit to the area. The local weather is now becoming very pleasant, in the 60s during the day, although still below freezing at night. (Fine for camping, but you'll need two sleeping bags.)

To complement the trial, we will be organizing a public hiking expedition on Saturday, March 4^th. The destination has not been decided upon, and perhaps we will choose it only after we poll the people who actually show up. Possibilities include White Sides Mountain, Tikaboo Peak or Leviathan Cave (an extensive cavern near the top of Meeker Peak north of Rachel). The hike will proceed regardless of whether the trial does.

Now that the weather is improving, the Research Center is planning to sponsor a free hike every month or two, each to a different mountain surrounding the Test Site. These full-day hikes will range from moderate to strenuous, and participants will need to be in good shape and properly attired. Each hike will give us a different view of the Nellis Range or Nevada Test Site from on high. Good candidates might be Tikaboo Peak (alternate view of Groom, DR#1), Mt. Sterling (distant view of Papoose Lake, DR#20), Hayford Peak, Kawich Peak, Stonewall Mountain and others surrounding the Restricted Zone. All hikes will be on public or Forest Service land, and everyone in the world will be invited. However, because most expeditions will be challenging, we expect only a fairly small group of hard-core hikers and Test Site zealots to attend.

March 4^th will be the first of these hikes. It will probably begin early, around 10 am, or just enough time for people to drive to the trailhead from Las Vegas in the morning. There will be no further announcements for the March 4th hike, except as posted on alt.conspiracy.area51, so if you are interested you must get in touch with us for the destination, starting time, meeting place and other particulars. Call 702-729-2648. It would also be wise to call on Friday evening, March 3rd, to confirm (or see us at the trial).

Future hikes will be announced in future Rats.

Intel Bitties

MS FLIGHT SIMULATOR SCENERY FILE. For many months, freema22@student.msu.edu has been developing and fine-tuning a scenery file for Microsoft Flight simulator (4.0) featuring Groom Lake and vicinity. It may offer civilians their first opportunity to "fly" in and out of Area 51. He says the file is now available by FTP from ftp.iup.edu. It is also available on America On-Line, under keyword "PCGAMES," in the "Flight Sim Resource Center" in the "MSFS 4.0" directory.

CORRECTION. We have wrongfully maligned the Cammo Dudes once again. In DR#20, we reported that, according to a report by a visitor, the Dudes had taken down the yellow ribbons marking the hiking trail to Freedom Ridge. The visitor was mistaken. The ribbons were still there, but he was looking in the wrong place.