From: Dean Phillip Kawipe (dpk@ACPUB.DUKE.EDU)

Document type: Newspaper article

Publication: Cincinnati Enquirer

Date: Nov. 4, 1995 =

Author: Cameron McWhirter

UFO buffs: Otherworldly leaders also at talks

By Cameron McWhirter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Richard Hoagland is watching the Dayton peace talks with keen interest = this week - but it's not the Bosnian war he's worried about. Hoagland, a former NASA consultant, and other UFO buffs are wondering = what the extraterrestrials are doing at the talks.

That's right, it's conspiracy time: spaceships, aliens, advanced tech- nology and, of course, a government cover-up. "These three leaders are being brought to Wright-Patterson Air Force = Base) for a reason," said Hoagland, founder of the New Jersey-based Mars = Mission, an international group convinced that evidence shows human = civilization once existed on Mars and the moon. "How can you get these = guys to see the bigger picture? With a bigger stick. You show them you = have a greater power than they could ever imagine."

Operation Blue Book

For years Wright-Patterson has been the focus of UFO conspiracy theor- ists. The base is the headquarters for Air Force research concerning new = and foreign technologies. It was home to Operation Blue Book -- the Air = Force's investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects from 1947 to 1959. Most important, UFO watchers believe the base is home to what they call = "Hangar 13", a facility where alien bodies were stored after an alleged = 1947 crash of an alien spaceship in Roswell, N.M. The alien ship and = bodies, they believe, were taken to Wright-Patterson for secret research = and storage. The military maintains the crash was in fact a spy balloon. But for many UFO enthusiasts, the peace meeting at the remote air base = is not a coincidence, it's a sign.

"Think of all the centers of world government," Hoagland said. "The = Hague, Geneva, Camp David... Dayton is not on the list... I just think = it stinks to high heaven."

= Hoagland, whose group has 20,000 members, according to Omni magazine, = thinks the leaders of Earth are trying to settle all world conflicts = before preparing for war against other humanoid civilizations in outer = space. The Bosnian leaders are being shown aliens and advanced alien = technology now in the hands of the United States Air Force.

'The Roswell myth'

He predicted the talks would soon result in a peace agreement =D1 after = the Serbian, Bosnian and Croat leaders had seen "them." "We're being prepared for an interplanetary war," Hoagland said. "Events = are coming to a head."

Reached at the base, air force officials had no comment. Hoagland is not without his detractors. Joe Nickell, senior researcher for the Buffalo based Skeptical Inquirer = magazine, said of Hoagland, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Nickell, who has spent years working to debunk what he calls "the = Roswell myth," said the idea that aliens are stored at Wright-Patterson = is absolutely ridiculous.

"Oh sure they're on ice in Hangar 18 or is it Hangar 9," he said. = "Little pickled humanoids. Peace talks. I don't know how you could ever = link the two."

A greater connection

Nickell said the UFO idea in our culture expresses a psychological need for humans to feel a greater connection, to feel that something greater is watching over them.

"But the point is there is no credible evidence that extraterrestrials ever visited this planet or ever crashed at Roswell, N.M., or, least of = all, are stored on ice in Dayton, Ohio," he said. Kevin Randle, author of two books on the Roswell incident, said he does = not go as far as Hoagland to draw a connection between the talks and = aliens, but he is convinced extraterrestrial research is being conducted = at Wright-Patterson.

"We've got a chain connecting Roswell to Dayton, Ohio," said Randle from = his Dubuque, Iowa, home. "It's clear the base is important in the = history of UFO phenomenon."