From: | dbennett@mnsinc.com (Don Bennett) |
Title: | GREEN CHEESE AND BALONEY - HOAGLAND |
Source: | Washington Post |
Date: | March 22, 1996 |
'Scientists' Say There's More on the Moon Than Meets the Eye.
Newspaper: The Washington Post, Page B-1
22 March 1996
by Richard Leiby
Washington Post Staff Writer
As news conferences go, this one was irresistible: Scientists to reveal
"ancient artificial structures on moon." "Suppressed evidence" includes
photos of Apolly astronauts walking amid "apparent lunar ruins." Be there at
9 a.m., National Press Club, for the story of the century.
Reporters from about 50 worldwide media organizations came to see proof of
aliens. They scrutinized grainy blowups of old NASA photos and slides of
impossibly fuzzy objects -- including a blob that the assembled research team
called "the castle." To be more precise: "an extraordinary, highly geometric,
glittering glass object hanging more than nine miles above the surface of the
mood," in the words of Richard Hoagland, the New Jersey author and noted
pseudo-scientist who called the conference.
Hoagland, 50, is, basically, a kook. He's famous for popularizing the
sighting of an alleged "human face" in the terrain of Mars, and he more
recently claimed that the Bosnian peace talks were held in Dayton, Ohio, so
world leaders could view alien bodies housed in an Air Force hangar there.
But yesterday, the collective media didn't snort with laughter and walk
out. Instead, journalists politely asked how these astounding lunar
discoveries could have been covered up, and how long ago the ancient
structures were built, and why the aliens chose the moon to build on. Later,
reports from CNN and the Associated Press, among others, called Apolly 12
astronaut Alan Bean to ask whether he'd ever stood on the moon near a
"massive tier of glass-like ruins," as alleged in one Hoagland handout.
Meanwhile, people who'd read about the news conference on the Internet
phoned newsrooms around the country, including The Washington Post,
wondering how much about the alien civilization had been revealed in the
"suppressed" NASA photos. Derek Jett, an ad agency director in Memphis,
called to make sure The Post was covering the story, saying, "You wonder
whether the guy's a hoax, but in the back of your mind you know the
government covers up some things."
Perhaps this attitude isn't surprising, given the popularity of shows such
as "The X-Files" and "Alien Autopsy," which flood the culture with fantastic
notions of evil government bureaucrats harboring incredible secrets. People
can't help hoping that aliens built castles on the moon, because the truth
is too boring. We went to the moon. Found a bunch of rocks. End of story.
"I wish we had seen something like what he's describing," Bean said
yesterday from Houston. "It would have been the most wonderful discovery in
the history of humankind -- and I can't imagine anyone, in my wildest dreams,
not wanting to share that."
Hoagland, a science writer who served as a CBS News consultant during the
Apolly missions, labeled his latest effort the Enterprise Mission, borrowing
some credibility from "Star Trek." ("To boldly go where maybe someone has
gone before," he said.) His researchers include, for the most part, fans of
his book "The Monuments of Mars" -- whose findings NASA researchers and
others, including Carl Sagan, have shown to be specious. ("There is a
capacity for self-delusion," Sagan began explaining yesterday in his
trademark cadence.)
One of Hoagland's investigators is Ken Johnston, an engineer who did
contract work for NASA and examined photographs at the Lunar Receiving Lab
in Houston. Johnston told Reporters he believes that aliens once used the
moon as an observation post to watch civilization evolve on Earth. He claims
he was ordered to destroy negatives at the Johnson Space Center -- but
managed to save a set for posterity. (Evidently, the Conspiracy didn't quite
do its job.)
"We're ready to tell the nation and the world," Johnston announced, "and
let the evidence speak for itself."
NASA scientists pointed out that the photos -- some made by lunar orbiters,
others shot by astronauts -- have been in the public domain for decades, and,
interestingly, no one else has discovered any alien-built crystalline palaces.
Hoagland said a "source" at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt
leaked him a pristine negative from the Apolly 10 mission showed 1-1/2 mile
high "shard" protruding from the surface. "I cannot explain a feature like
that on the face of the moon," Said Ronald Nicks, a geologist on Hoagland's
team.
"I see absolutely nothing like the so-called shard," said Paul Lowman, a
Goddard geologist and expert in orbital photography, after examining the
frame cited at the news conference. "He's seeing some sort of a [photo]
processing defect."
Lowman added: "Hoagland and people like him don't seem to realize that
NASA has been looking for extraterrestrial life for 35 years. ... We are
the last agency on Earth that would hide such a thing -- we'd all like to be
the one on our way to Stockholm to get the Nobel Prize."
Tomorrow's news conference: Experts discuss archival footage revealing
Jackie Gleason's face in the full moon.