EXCLUSIVE REPORT * HOAGLAND'S DC PRESS CONFERENCE

Internet UFO Group Media Archive

From:Michael Carlin (migca@wco.wco.com)
Title:EXCLUSIVE REPORT * HOAGLAND'S DC PRESS CONFERENCE
Source:CNI News
Date:March 22, 1996


Reported by Rebecca Schatte in Washington

Written by Michael Lindemann

Richard Hoagland, researcher of possible anomalous structures on the moon and

Mars, held his long anticipated press conference in the Ballroom of the

National Press Club in Washington, DC, this morning. The event began almost

on schedule, a few minutes after 9 a.m eastern time, and ran for a little

over two hours. CNI News correspondent Rebecca Schatte was on the scene and

called in her report at the conclusion of the event.

A number of large news organizations attended the briefing, including C-Span,

USA Today, the AP and the New York Times. Reporters from a number of smaller

and independent news organizations were also there. Altogether, under 100

people were in the room.

The mood in the room was hostile from the beginning, Schatte said. Hoagland,

perhaps unnerved by the gravity of the moment, seemed less prepared than

expected. At one point in his presentation, he started showing slides of crop

circles, and an audible groan was heard throughout the room. He quickly

advanced through those slides. Schatte wasn't sure if they were in the slide

tray by accident, or if Hoagland decided to change his presentation when the

crowd's hostility became obvious.

It seemed, Schatte said, that many of those attending the event were already

familiar with material Hoagland has presented in the last few years regarding

possible geological and architectural anomalies on the moon. Schatte said

Hoagland did not present anything distinctly new, and this was not lost on

the crowd. At one point, she said, a reporter yelled aloud, "Are you going to

tell us anything new?" Hoagland replied, "I'm just getting to that" -- but

the briefing ended without any startling revelations.

Hoagland made good on his promise to bring in several other credible

spokesmen to discuss the evidence for moon anomalies. Chief among these was

former NASA and Boeing aerospace engineer Ken Johnston, who worked with NASA

executive Dr. Thornton Page during the years of the Apollo moon missions.

Johnston said that he had seen photo evidence, including some 16mm movie

footage, that convinced him there was something anomalous on the moon. He

said that he and Thornton Page were the first people to view 16mm film from

the Apollo 14 mission that showed 5 or 6 lights in a crater on the dark side

of the moon, as well as a strange plume of smoke. Johnston said he showed the

movie footage to other NASA personnel the next day, but when he got to the

point where he had seen the lights in the crater, those frames seemed to be

missing. Johnston asked Page about the missing footage, and Page said, "I

don't know what you're talking about." Johnston is convinced the footage was

taken out and either hidden or destroyed.

Johnston also said that Page had ordered copies of many moon images from the

Apollo missions to be destroyed, leaving only the originals in a vault in

Houston. However, Johnston said he had received permission to put a set of

copies in a university library archive in Oklamoma City, where they reside

today. Some of these photos, he said, show features which might be anomalous,

though they are neither clear nor close-up. Presumably these photos can be

accessed for study by interested researchers.

Another man who spoke briefly was retired NASA and McDonnell Douglas engineer

Marvin Czarnik, who said he had set out on a private project to discredit

early reports of anomalies on the moon, such as those published by Fred

Steckling in the book, "We Discovered Alien Bases on the Moon." However,

after much effort, Czarnik said, he became convinced that the anomalies were

real.

Ronald Nicks, a geologist, said he had tried to determine what kind of

geological process could account for such strange features on the moon as the

so-called "Shard," an apparent needle of rock that sticks straight up from a

surrounding flat plane. Nicks said there is no reasonable explanation for

such a structure, and he said other geologists agree with him. This leaves

open the possibility that, as Hoagland asserts, the structure is artificial.

Others who spoke briefly included architect Robert Fiertek and amateur

astronomer and photo analyst Alex Cook. Graham Hancock, author of the recent

book "Fingerprints of the Gods," was expected to speak by remote hookup from

England, but the connection was not made.

Rebecca Schatte expressed the opinion that this press conference would be a

disappointment and possibly a setback for Richard Hoagland.

Nonetheless, she said Hoagland announced that his research organization,

formerly known as the Mars Mission, now has a new name, the Enterprise

Mission. Its slogan, Hoagland says, is "To boldly go where someone has gone

before."

CNI News will continue to follow this story for further developments.