http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,43526,00.html Ooo-WEE-ooo Fans Come to D.C. By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 2:00 a.m. May 10, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- UFO enthusiasts gathered on Wednesday to share dozens of eyewitness accounts and a thick sheaf of documents that they claim finally prove the existence of alien visitors. At a National Press Club event, the Disclosure Project said it has identified "several hundred witnesses throughout the world" who are eager to testify before Congress about their encounters with extraterrestrial spacecraft or beings. "There is a secret government -- a covert government -- operation that has dealt with this for at least 50 years," said Steven Greer, the group's founder. Greer said he wanted UFO files declassified, a ban on space weapons, and peaceful exploration "with all cultures on Earth and in space." Call it a close encounter with an X-Files spinoff. The three-hour event featured testimonials from all-too-earnest UFO buffs, warnings that the "adolescent phase of humanity" was nearly over, and vague descriptions of anti-gravity devices, free energy machines and faster-than-light spaceships that could end human suffering -- if only the feds would fess up and tell all. But it isn't merely the Defense Department, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and even more secretive agencies that are participating in the cover-up, says Greer, a physician who lives in Crozet, Virginia. He fingered Northrop, Lockheed Martin and SAIC as examples of government contractors who are surreptitiously developing aircraft and weapons based on technology snatched from UFOs. Carol Rosin, a self-described space defense consultant, went even further: "We can end the energy crisis," she said. "We can build cars that drive around off the road, on beams." Until UFO fanatics produce tangible evidence -- an alien body, an unknown metal, or a beam-mobile -- their claims should be dismissed with prejudice, says Kevin Christopher, a spokesman for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu May 10 2001 - 06:34:50 PDT