From: Doug Roberts (doug@nolimits.demon.co.uk)

Item from a local Montreal, Canada newspaper, The Gazette. The article appeared in the July 26 edition.

Film of 'extraterrrestrials' stirs storm The science story of the century - or a hoax?

ROBIN McKIE
LONDON OBSERVER


LONDON - It is either "the science story of the century" or " the greatest hoax since Piltdown Man." Either way, television footage of the dissection of two aliens - to be screened worldwide next month - is expected to stir controversy.

The film is alleged to have been made in the wake of the "Roswell incident," an event famed among ufologist - UFO followers - who believe extraterrestrials were found after a flying saucer crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.

It now "transpires" that a film was made of their autopsies and a copy kept by the cameraman, without the U.S. air force's knowledge. That footage forms the core of the programs to be shown on Aug. 28 by Channel 4 in Britain, Fox in the United States and TF1 in France.

Advance screenings of the dissection have been given to leading British scientists. None believed they watched real aliens being cut up but, equally, none could spot how the film was faked. For example, the film's stock number suggests it was made in 1927, 1947 or 1967, providing some corroboration for the claims made.

"It was very hard to know what to make of it," said palaeontologist Chris Stringer, of London's Natural History Museum. "The figures certainly looked humanlike, but equally were not human."

In his report on the film, C.M. Milroy, senior lecturer in forensic pathology at Sheffield University, states that "over-all the appearances were those of a white adolescent female with a humanoid body. However there was no breast development and no pubic hair was visible. The head was disproportionately large. No head hair was present. The abdomen was distended. There were six digits on each hand and foot. The eyes appeared larger than normal and the globes were covered with a black material which was shown being removed.

"While the examination had features of a medically conducted examination, aspects suggested it was not conducted by an experienced autopsy pathologist, but by a surgeon," Milroy adds.

This point was picked up by another expert viewer, anatomist Paul O'Higgins, of University College, London. "To judge from the film, the autopsy was carried out in a couple of hours. Yet these were alien creatures. They represented an unparalleled opportunity to science. We are expected to believe we casually cut the up in an afternoon. I would have taken weeks to do such an autopsy."

Similarly, all shots of internal organs are out of focus and there were no signs of injuries to account for the aliens' deaths. Most suspicoius of all, say O'Higgins, is the startlingly humanlike qualities of the aliens. "They look like ET. I would think the chances that an alien which evolved on another world would look so like us would be astronomically remote.

"Yes it has six fingers and a very large head, but both conditions afflict humans with chromosomal abnormalities. But just how the makers could have got two such similar corpes I do not know."

The film's owner is convinced of its authenticity. "I bought the footage from an old cameraman who had worked for the army, air force and special forces," said Ray Santilli, who runs his own company, Merlin Productions, based in London. "My impression is that the cameraman is genuine. He is an ordinary person who never made much money in his life, has been married to the same woman for over 50 years and seems as stable as youy could wish.

John Purdey, the producer of the Channel 4 film, who has been given access to the footage, is more cautious. "Either we have the most sensational of scientific stories or have been handed the greatest fake since Piltdown Man (an advanced hominid postulated from fossil bones found in England in 1912, but later revealed as a hoax). The film stock, the lack of umbilical cord marks and the strange half-human nature of the creatures, all suggest we are dealing with real aliens - or that someonehas gone to extraordinary efforts to create a forgery."