WHAT Is This? Is It For Real?greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
If This Is Real, Does It Dwarf Y2K ??
WHAT exactly *is* this article about?
It's an MSNBC Technology News Article, but I can't find the Stunning Top Military Documents referred to.If this is a hoax, please forgive me for posting it. I'm fairly new at searching out the Internet, and verifying what I read. If this is a hoax I will be disgusted with MSNBC for their disguising it as newsworthy.
However, if this is NOT a hoax or joke, and can be substantiated, especially by some of this forum's tech-savvy people, then it is a mind-blower for the narrow-thinking ostriches of the earth.
Originally I noticed this because a reviewer wrote: "Forget the year 2000 bug ... the world's in for something much bigger ... "
http://www.newspage.com/network/export/stories?template=msnbc&story=b1 130211.100&topic=2951&date=19981202
Stunning Top Secret Military Documents Published On Internet Revealing Recovery of Extraterrestrial Vehicles and Bodies During Truman Administration
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via NewsEdge Corporation --
Documents Have Been Released as Part of a Larger Book Titled "The Truth", Available at www.TheWordIsTruth.org, Placing the Events in Context and Providing Summary of Two-Year Authentication Effort Stunning top secret documents were released today dramatically expanding upon previously leaked materials concerning the recovery of extraterrestrial spacecraft and occupants in 1947. As a public service, the materials can be downloaded at no cost at www.TheWordIsTruth.org.
"The information contained in these documents is astounding," said Joseph P. Firmage, editor and co-author of the book, and the founder and chairman of the International Space Sciences Organization, its sponsor. Mr. Firmage is a prominent technology executive in Silicon Valley, California.
Clear copies of the documents are being forwarded to major U.S. news media organizations during the week of November 30, 1998. Following a two-year authentication effort that continues today, experts in the field have concluded that the bulk of the documentation is genuine. "It is now absolutely clear that one or more crashed vehicles were recovered by the military of the United States Government in 1947. It is certain that these vehicles were not manufactured by any contemporaneous government. Scientists and the media who reject this claim, particularly in the face of this most recent evidence, are ignoring the single most important event to confront humanity in perhaps 2,000 years," added Firmage. The document authentication effort has been led by Dr. Robert M. Wood, Ph.D., a respected physicist and former senior engineering manager for McDonnell Douglas.
Among the more remarkable facts disclosed in the documents are the following:
1. The spacecraft employ propellantless propulsion, clearly indicating some form of gravitational propulsion technology2. Several life forms were recovered among the debris, autopsies were conducted
3. Dr. Vannevar Bush became Chairman of an operation called MAJESTIC TWELVE, charged with managing the recovery and ongoing analysis of the materials
4. Raw technological material recovered was subsequently studied, some of which was "seeded" into private industry, yielding advances in now-common microcircuitry, fiber optics, materials sciences, and other applications
5. Research programs were launched in rocketry, electronics, biological warfare, and advanced propulsion
6. A security infrastructure more impenetrable than any in world history was put in place, in part through the establishment of the National Security Act of 1947. Through various intelligence vehicles, a program for "control of the press" was instituted ensuring that leaks were closed and any open scientific investigation discredited
The book containing the released documents, called The Truth, places the phenomenon of extraterrestrial visitation in its appropriate historical context. "The plausibility of many seminal religious events recounted in world history is dramatically reaffirmed by the reality of this phenomenon. Based upon private information available to the authors but not yet in print, I stand firmly behind the essential structure of the astonishing hypothesis contained in this work," stated Mr. Firmage.
"I again call upon the President and Congress of the United States of America to waive oaths of secrecy for all civilian and military personnel concerning the historical events presented within documentary finds published for the first time in this book. This is the only way to finally bring an end to a 50-year program of concealment. The truth must be told for the benefit of our children, before all remaining eyewitness testimony expires. In view of the implications of this hypothesis, I can well appreciate and understand the genuine motivations of those who contained the knowledge brought to light today. But for the first time in 50 years, society is now ready to hear the rest of the story, and the urgency of an organizing motive for the world has never been greater," continued Firmage.
The International Space Sciences Organization can be reached at 1556 Halford Avenue, Suite 110 Santa Clara, CA 95051, PH: 408/395-4378.
CONTACT: Martha Felt Group | Melinda Mattei, 650/558-0890 | mmattei@earthlink.net
We clicked around the pages, but were not able to find the govt docs. Would somebody please be so kind as to tell us what this is all about?Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, who are hoping MSNBC hasn't begun snookering readers with strange fluffy nothing to wate
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 02, 1998
Got the ending eaten by cyber-somethings again.
... who are hoping MSNBC hasn't begun snookering readers with strange fluffy nothing to water down the seriousness of Y2Kxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 02, 1998.
Okay, here's the solution to y2k:We start mass-producing those flying saucers. Once we get enough of them, we can fasten them to the world with some really, really strong rope. Point them in the opposite direction to the rotation of the world, and turn the whole planet round in the other direction, many many times. This will of course reverse time, because everything will be going backwards. We can go back to a nice comfortable period of time, such as the sixties, and fix the y2k problem from then. The difference being that, when there, we can also fix other problems.
This technology IS earth-shaking!! We could go back to 1914, and have an AMERICAN shoot Archduke Ferdinand, thus causing WW1 to happen between America and Germany, which would result in a quick German defeat and no trench war!
Or..or..there are about a million things we could do with this technology! Yes, Leska, this IS the most critical event in 2000 years!!
--Leo
-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 03, 1998.
Very funny, Leo :)
But actually I was asking seriously, What is this? and why has MSNBC presented it as serious technology news?I've never put any belief on the extraterrestrial things, simply because I have no experience of such, BUT *if* it were true I might think about it.
Many people I have talked to look at Y2K along the same lines: as a silly non-event dreamed up by kooky people.
If this MSNBC article is not for real, then we feel MSNBC has subtlely smeared Y2K in the same false grouping. That is dangerous, because it will push the DGIs sneering back into their smug ostrich hole.
Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, who are wondering if anybody will answer this seriously, to tell if it is real or not, or if they can find the govt docs or not.
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 03, 1998.
Leska: Not that I spend a lot of time around the UFO section of my local Borders, but a cursory glance is enough to tell me that this alleged news story is a rehash and mishmash of a batch of reports/rumors/wild-eyed fantasies that have been circulating in the Roswell stratum for several years at least. There was something of a scandal in "respectable" UFO circles a couple of years ago when a batch of alleged government documents surfaced outlining the technology seeding program, alien autopsies, and all the rest. Only trouble was, they didn't pass even a superficial reality check. But like the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, they keep popping up in new books. The MSNBC connection is a little weird. Are you sure someone wasn't borrowing the MSNBC headers just to add credibility to the story?
-- JDClark (yankeejdc@aol.com), December 03, 1998.
Thank you, JDClark, for answering.I guess one of our questions becomes: So we cannot trust the media at all? For factual, reliable news reporting?
http://www.newspage.com/network/export/stories?template=msnbc&story=b1 130211.100&topic=2951&date=19981202
Copy & paste this into URL space, and up it comes, MSNBC Technology News. Guess this will teach me never to believe anything I read again. Makes it harder to know exactly what to prepare for with Y2K, because there is zero integrity in internet reporting.
Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, who are thoroughly disgusted
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 03, 1998.
Leska,Not only has the Internet failed to repeal the validity of "Don't believe everything you read", but also the signal-to-noise ratio is worse than ever!
Right away in the MSNBC article (is it a hoax?) one encounters links to www.TheWordIsTruth.org.
Wow - what a name. _Surely_ it means one can trust what one reads there?!?
So I went to www.TheWordIsTruth.org to see what I could see (for free). I didn't take the precaution of using an anonymizer, but others may want to be more careful.
www.TheWordIsTruth.org has a _login page_. (I.e., they don't give away the Truth for nothin'.)
It goes like:
Login to The TruthWelcome to The Truth, a hypothesis of the unity of science, faith, and history.
In exchange for the opportunity to read this free Internet book, I ask for your e-mail address. It will not be used for any commercial purpose.
Just give them your e-mail addresses, folks. The Truth isn't free. You have to pay a little bit of your privacy.
Wait A Minute! They said, "this _free_ Internet book" (my emphasis). They lied already!
Aaaaarrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!!!!!
-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 03, 1998.
BTW, the MS in "MSNBC" stands for "Microsoft", doesn't it? Do you have good reason to trust them to report news in any objectively competent way?
-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 03, 1998.
No Spam, hhmmm, anonymizer, that sounds worth learning about.
This newbie is way too trusting, but only wanted to know because of the sheen of 'respectability' the NBC part lent. With all the breaking news of "We Have Caught The Govt In Lies" , decided to look it up when a week ago would never have clicked the URL. That's why I think some DWGIs are easily going to find their excuse to freshly mock us all with sarcastic ridicule.Thank you, No Spam, for responding with your reaction.
I know Ashton & I are dead meat when Y2K hits if it's anywhere near Infomagic's + Paul's scenarios, because we're just not aggressive or communal enough to cut the mustard, so all I'm hoping for is to survive 3 months in case the infrastructure is able to limp back up and it ends up not being so bad after all. Otherwise, 3 months of hibernation and then we just want a simple peaceful fading away. Who wants to live in the aftermath of Hell anyway?But for those 3 1/2 months, we'll be tigers and will fiercely prevail. We'll have more time now too, since we won't be reading the "news." :)
xxxxxxx xxxxx
-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 03, 1998.
Dear Leska of Ashton & Leska in Cascadia,Now that I've blown off some steam, here are some straightforward direct responses:
> If this is a hoax, please forgive me for posting it.
I think it's a fraud rather than a hoax or joke. Someone wants to collect e-mail addresses of folks interested in UFOs, aliens, and suchlike.
> If this is a hoax I will be disgusted with MSNBC for their disguising it as newsworthy.
As I hinted earlier, I don't trust the "MS" of MSNBC to be a competent objective news source, and recommend that others avoid it also. Please, be disgusted with them, with my compliments!
> However, if this is NOT a hoax or joke, and can be substantiated,
No, it cannot be substantiated -- it is a fraud.
> Originally I noticed this because a reviewer wrote: "Forget the year 2000 bug ... the world's in for something much bigger ... "
Part of the scam is to get your attention.
> Stunning Top Secret Military Documents Published On Internet Revealing Recovery of Extraterrestrial Vehicles and Bodies During Truman Administration
This stuff has been publicized for many years by the people making money off it.
> As a public service, the materials can be downloaded at no cost at www.TheWordIsTruth.org.
Lie! It costs a bit of your privacy (your e-mail address) right at the start.
> "The information contained in these documents is astounding," said Joseph P. Firmage, editor and co-author of the book, and the founder and chairman of the International Space Sciences Organization, its sponsor.
I remember seeing this name (Inter ... tion) somewhere else recently, but can't quite recall exactly where.
> Following a two-year authentication effort
[by whom?]
> that continues today, experts
[what experts? from where?]
>Scientists and the media who reject this claim, particularly inthe face of this most recent evidence, are ignoring the single most important event to confront humanity in perhaps 2,000 years," added Firmage.
Standard part of the fraud procedure: "We have the truth, but the establishment doesn't believe us!" and "This is a really, really, really important Truth that we have!"
>The document authentication effort has been led by Dr. Robert M. Wood, Ph.D., a respected physicist and former senior engineering manager for McDonnell Douglas.
[What are his credentials in verifying documents? Who independently checked his work?]
>The spacecraft employ propellantless propulsion, clearly indicating some form of gravitational propulsion technology
[Oh? How'd the humans figure that out?]
>4. Raw technological material recovered was subsequently studied, some of which was "seeded" into private industry, yielding advances in now-common microcircuitry, fiber optics, materials sciences, and other applications
[The advances in these fields are straightforwardly documented, requiring no mysteriously-introduced material to explain them.]
>We clicked around the pages, but were not able to find the govt docs. Would somebody please be so kind as to tell us what this is all about?
It's a fraud. I don't know what MSNBC's level of involvement is.
>I've never put any belief on the extraterrestrial things, simply because I have no experience of such, BUT *if* it were true I might think about it.
Careful analysis of this article shows me no evidence to support a belief in anything but yet another "ET"/"UFO"/"alien" fraud of some sort.
>Many people I have talked to look at Y2K along the same lines: as a silly non-event dreamed up by kooky people.
The difference is that Y2K effects CAN BE and HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED. Y2K effects have already occurred in some places. Read through the respectable Y2K sites and follow up their references. >If this MSNBC article is not for real, then we feel MSNBC has subtlely smeared Y2K in the same false grouping.
My advice: Cease trusting MSNBC for objectively competent news reporting.
>Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, who are wondering if anybody will answer this seriously,
I am quite sincere and serious in what I'm writing in this posting.
>I guess one of our questions becomes: So we cannot trust the media at all? For factual, reliable news reporting?
Wait! Don't smear all media with the same tarred brush! Just because MSNBC does this stuff doesn't mean _every_ news source does. Compare news stories you see and hear to what you know to be objectively-established fact and common sense. Note which news outlets are consistently reliable. (I won't suggest a list, because my preferences may not match yours.)
>Guess this will teach me never to believe anything I read again. Makes it harder to know exactly what to prepare for with Y2K, because there is zero integrity in internet reporting.
Please don't go to extreme. Some news reports _are_ reliable. Keep comparing what you get with what you know or can check independently -- let the scores tell you who's reliable and who's not.
>Ashton & Leska in Cascadia, who are thoroughly disgusted
Aye, 'tis a disgusting new world out there.
-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 03, 1998.
Leska,Probably referring to the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash in 1947. There is ample evidence of a major cover-up, however nothing tangible that is in the "public domain" that I know of, other than various videotapes, et. al. I only occasionally run into the UFO types who track all that.
Did have a friend who used to work on Project Blue Book. Interesting stories. Seen at least three very strange objects at different times in the sky myself.
Just over a week ago I went to a SETI Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence talk by a PR "comedian" YP for the group in Silicon Valley. Met an interesting guy who will present to the group in January. He told me through the Freedom of Information Act he has been able to get government documents about Roswell that explain how to transport alien bodies, etc. Since I haven't seen it, I have no idea. He also mentioned there is a big push to get the government to de-classify those documents from 50 years ago.
What do I think? All that stuff is just old news, and yes, I think UFO's do exist. Great video coverage of 18 simultaneous sightings over Mexico City a few years back. Made their national news, quashed here. Stranger stuff coming up next year. Back to Y2K in the meantime -- it's strange enough.
Diane
-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 03, 1998.
OK Earthlings,Here's the deal. We're an advanced race from the binary star system Zeta Reticula 1 & 2. Over the millennia, we built up this incredible technology and started exploring our sector of the galaxy, funded by deficit spending and a permanent income tax.
Eventually, our explorations brought us to your puny system. Unfortunately, we had the stupid thing on auto-pilot while everyone was in the lavatory. So we crashed into a barren area of what you call "America". I am the only survivor. I eventually escaped from the clutches of your government by disguising myself as Sam Donaldson. At least that's who I think I disguised myself as, for as I was leaving the facility where they were holding me, the guard said, "have a good evening, Mr. Sam Donaldson." I don't see the resemblance myself.
Anyway, after trying various Earth occupations, I finally settled on being a stock clerk at Home Depot, mostly because they have so much neat stuff. So if you find yourself in a Home Depot anytime in the near future and you see a stock clerk that sort of looks like Sam Donaldson, that's me. Just ignore him.
Oh yeah, one more thing. We had a Y2k computer bug too, about 14,000 of our star orbits ago. What a mess. At least you folks don't have to worry about the oxygen generators staying up!
Zork
-- Zork...just Zork (zork@zetareticula2.orb), December 03, 1998.
Izzat you, Furie?
-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), December 03, 1998.
This also sounds really suspiciously like a replay of the Col. Corso "data" and "reverse engineering" stuff that Art Bell unfortunately dredged up, and then discredited with subsequent guests.CR
-- Chuck a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 03, 1998.
Yes its true, Unk has been taken over by a pod (a la invasion of the body snatchers).
-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), December 03, 1998.
It's the standard Roswell UFOlogy garbage.The sad thing about it is the denial of human ingeneuity that it shows. The poor suckers that believe in this stuff are rejecting the true history, which starts with the genius of Mott (and others) in the 1930s, and of Brittain, Bardeen and Shockley at bell labs in formulating the basics of solid-state theory, and the first working transistor. It then switches to the efficiency of western industry, in developing the concept. There's no magic, no hidden stage in the development, no inexplicable quantum leap in the development process. I can lay my hands on everything from an early sixties Germanium junction transistor, though a silicon transistor, a NAND-gate RTL module, a ten-transistor integrated circuit, a 100-transistor one, a 1000 transistor one ... up to a Pentium-II with a few million. The fundamental principle of operation of what's in a PII is the same as that first theoretically predicted (but never realised as an electronic device) in the 1930s, namely the field effect.
A similar history could be written for the abstract side of computing, starting with that frustrated genius Charles Babbage who (well over a century ago) clearly saw the concepts involved in computation, but had no sufficiently reliable technology with which to put them into practice.
The poor suckers who have no understanding of science, and no faith in their fellow men, prefer to attribute all of this to aliens. Sad.
By the way, Brittain et al's bipolar transistor, though historically of vast importance, eventually turned out to be a technological dead- end insofar as computing is concerned. Had the whole thing been discovered as an alien technology, this technological detour and several years' wated effort would have been avoided.
-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), December 03, 1998.
Leska, major networks URL's all start with their own name in their address, i.e. www.msnbc.com, www.abc.com, www.cbs.com etc. That address you cut/pasted should have tiped you off ;)
-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 03, 1998.
After rereading the original post, I have more questions. First: Yes, the whole thing is a fraud. Let's get that out of the way now. Second: The item is not written as a news story. (I have some small experience in this area.) This is a press release written by someone who wants to promote the book, so why was it on an MSNBC news site? But when I look at the URL, it doesn't look like the MSNBC address. And I notice it includes the phrase"template=msnbc&story." Does this mean someone is using a copy of an MSNBC site to wrap around the press release to make it look more official? If so, I should think that's fraudulent. Can someone with more 'net experience than I take a look at this and confirm or deny that it's official MSNBC?
-- JDClark (yankeejdc@aol.com), December 03, 1998.
Chris, JD:Shoot, I missed that about the URL. Having approached the matter with a negative attitude toward MSNBC, I failed to check some stuff I should have checked, such as the URL and that "via NewsEdge Corporation". <:-[
If you follow the link to NewsEdge, you'll find a guy who thinks it's all right to blend promotion with news.
-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), December 03, 1998.
Definitely fraudulent, and a violation of copyright.This is the MSN feedback form--
http://home.microsoft.com/help/feedbackactual.asp
That I used to send my message:
Copyright violation of MSNBC.com at: http://www.newspage.com/network/export/stories?template=msnbc&story=b1 130211.100&topic=2951&date=19981202
My guess is, that page won't be there tomorrow.
-- Max Dixon (Ogden, Utah USA) (Max.Dixon@gte.net), December 03, 1998.
They must have got right on top of it - its already gone and it is just 8:44 am here in Memphis Tn.
-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), December 03, 1998.
Leska: Sometimes I think of the internet as being kinda like the old wild, wild west depicted in books and movies. Never stop questioning, even 'reliable sources', especially in our new wild wild net.
-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 03, 1998.
I was notified of this new "book" via an e-mail message. First thing I noticed was that the message date was a week later than the date I received it. Had a look at the URL given, saw the message requiring an e-mail address, and clicked off. Who knows what they're up to? I'm not curious enough to find out.Actually all this material (and more), in various forms, has been available on the internet for quite a while. Using Google (a new search engine here, a search on "UFO" turned up 29,995 hits in 0.74 seconds. Go fish.
-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 03, 1998.
Can you imagine what the religious right would do if the UFO information were released? People have witnessed many strange objects in the sky, but where is the physical evidence? Have any landed at the White House or in a major city? What would be the implications of a UFO landing and aliens hopping out of the craft? I bet everyone would sh*t their pants! No doubt they exist, but I'll REALLY believe it when I see it. In the mean time, back to packing pinto beans.
-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), December 03, 1998.
"They must have got right on top of it - its already gone and it is just 8:44 am here in Memphis Tn."Paul, it's still there. You must have copied the URL wrong. I sent an email to MSNBC and cc'd it to several of their divisions alerting them of the URL, I only got automatic canned replies so far. I guess they have a slew of emails to scan through.
-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), December 03, 1998.
Ahem.This goes a lot deeper than mischevious "hoaxing" or even hucksterism. Read Cyberneticist Jaques Vallee for a sense of the social engineering that is going on here. Notice the magnitude of the ideas being shifted: origins of man, religion, promethian gift of technology, etc.. Now consider the (growing) public belief in UFOs, govt. coverup. What is it lately, 60%? This isn't a mere "fad," anymore than is Mormonism or Scientology. It's a very big project. Vallee hints at the design of this effort (as much as he can - has a family, you know), which is not driven merely by greedy hoaxers and publishers. Indulgence in ridicule is precisely what they expect from your demographic, just as they expect indulgence in belief from the massen mench. Don't be self-indulgent. Dig.
Brother E.
-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), December 03, 1998.
Listen to brother E. Ahem, amen.
-- (mass@delusions.com), December 04, 1998.
Imagine my surprise when this came out, looks like yesterday! After all the above. On ABC News, under Technology.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/CNET/cnet_xfiles981218.ht mlThe Truth Is Out There
USWeb Founder On Quest for Extra-Terrestrial AnswersJohn Borland, CNET NEWS.COM
Joseph Firmage, the young founder of USWeb, is thinking a little farther outside the box than are most Silicon Valley executives.
Firmage is in the early stages of a campaign to convince the world not only that aliens exist, but that much of the world's religious tradition and recent technological advancements--from fiber optics to semiconductors--are attributable to extraterrestrial influence.
He is maintaining his position as "chief strategist" of USWeb, the successful Web consulting firm that yesterday took another step forward in its merger with the CKS Group. But his private passion has cast him in a public role as Silicon Valley's version of the X-Files' Fox Mulder--an eccentric who believes that a world-shaking truth is being hidden by a government cover-up.
"The subject of UFOs has been ridiculed with a proactive campaign of government disinformation for decades," the 28-year-old Firmage says.
Close encounters on snooze time
A year ago, after more than a decade of studying physics on his own, Firmage says he experienced an epiphany of sorts.Exhausted by work on the USWeb IPO, he was borrowing a few extra moments of sleep from his alarm's snooze button when a glowing, Jesus-like figure appeared over his bed, he says. After a few moments of conversation about space travel--one of Firmage's pet topics--the visitor disappeared, leaving the CEO inspired by the vision.
That experience catalyzed his current campaign. He's spent a year writing a book called "The Truth," detailing his theories about extraterrestrial influence and the future of humans in space, and is now mounting a major media campaign to publicize it.
He's already spent close to $3 million advertising the book in major national newspapers, and on National Public Radio. He's begun work with several television documentary producers to create shows about the ideas. The campaign has started to drive considerable traffic to his Web site, where he has recently pre-published his book. The book itself will be out in print form early next year.
He expects to catch considerable flack for his ideas, although he says he believes people in Silicon Valley, where he is well-known as a start-up wunderkind, will read the book and do him the credit of trying to understand his ideas.
"I have no economic motive in advancing this hypothesis or these materials. I have every conceivable career disincentive for pursuing this research," he writes on his Web site. "However, this line of discovery in my opinion is more important than any individual's career, and I am putting my money where my mouth is to do this."
The Truth is bigger than you think
Much of Firmage's theory is based on documents that purport to be evidence of a government investigation--and cover-up--of spaceship crashes in the US between 1947 and 1953, including the famous Roswell incident.According to these documents, a group of top level military, political, and scientific figures formed a group called the "Majestic 12" to study the pieces of the alien wreckage and develop a response. Much of the last few decades' technological advancement, from fiber optics to semiconductors, was boosted by pieces of technology taken from the crashed spacecraft and distributed to labs around the country, he says.
But his theories are much grander. He believes that alien intervention is responsible for starting most of the world's major religious traditions. His book traces the development of these faiths, casting them as extraterrestrials' efforts to lay an ethical groundwork for a future moment--possibly to arrive soon--where humans will learn to control gravity for the purpose of space flight.
Firmage supports the theories by pointing to the Majestic 12 documents, but he says he's also secured outside confirmation.
"The expression of [the theories] are my own," he says. "But much of it is information I have secured from meetings with some of the most senior military figures and senior physicists in the world.This is grounded in externally verified truth."
These corroborating figures are remaining anonymous, in part to protect their own reputations, he says. But he says some of them may step forward with their own information over the next year, as the media buzz around his ideas builds.
Wall Street can handle the Truth
Firmage left his position as CEO of US Web in early November, replaced at the company's helm by Robert Shaw, a former Oracle executive.Coincidentally, this was shortly after word of his extracurricular activities started to leak out to the financial world. But the Shaw move was reportedly in the works for some time, according to analysts. While competitors have taken the opportunity to cast Firmage as an eccentric, financial analysts say his private activities don't cloud the firm's prospects.
Shaw is a "top-notch" operative, and is more than qualified to guide the company, said First Albany analyst Ullas Naik. "He's very well regarded. A lot of any potential negatives were avoided that way," Naik added.
But Firmage's continued position at the company is valuable, Naik said. "He's a brilliant strategist," the analyst said.
For his part, Firmage says his campaign will only gather steam as more media outlets pick up his story. He says that once government and military figures see that the facts have been put in their historical context, other people will likely begin stepping forward to confirm his story.
"Take this seriously," Firmage says. "I'm not going away."
Copyright 1998 CNET NEWS.COM.
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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 19, 1998.