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