Richard C. Hoagland arrives to discuss the imminent re-imaging of the Cydonia region on Mars, scheduled for April 5th, 14th, and 23rd. NASA has finally yielded to public pressure, acknowledging that the Cydonia features are hundreds to thousands of times larger than other targets and should be capturable by the Mars Global Surveyor camera. Hoagland credits the audience's massive fax campaign to NASA administrator Dan Goldin for forcing this concession.
Despite the breakthrough, Hoagland expresses deep skepticism about receiving an honest test. He cites the McDaniel Report's documentation of NASA deception and the absence of independent oversight as recommended by Dr. Stan McDaniel. Art proposes the Planet of the Apes scenario, where authorities suppress knowledge of prior civilizations to protect current society. Hoagland counters with the career-preservation motive: once the lie was established decades ago, those who built careers upon it became obligated to maintain it.
Key Moments
MSNBC: Sarah McLendon UFO release triggers White House meeting: Art relays a breaking MSNBC/CNBC bulletin: veteran White House correspondent Sarah McLendon's UFO press release drew so many inquiries she had to hold a press conference with a lawyer; she has been threatened by phone and is meeting at the White House the next morning with Vice President Gore and Pentagon officials who are upset about disclosures.
McLendon press release: Clinton ordered Hubble to investigate UFOs: Art reads the McLendon News Service release verbatim: Clinton, after being briefed by Laurence Rockefeller and Steven Greer, instructed Webster Hubbell upon his appointment as Associate Attorney General to investigate two things - JFK's death and the existence of UFOs. Hubbell was 'boxed in' at Justice and never got an answer; the disclosure appears in his memoir Friends in High Places.
Cydonia re-imaging schedule: April 5, 14, and 23: Art reads the official Mars Global Surveyor schedule for Cydonia from NASA: first attempt April 5 at 12:33 a.m., posted April 6; second pass April 14 at 12:18 p.m.; third pass April 23 at 12:18 p.m. - settling, after twenty years of debate, when the Face on Mars will be re-imaged.
Wolpe FOIA memo: NASA told to destroy drafts and use Post-It notes: Hoagland reads from Stan McDaniel's report quoting a 1992 internal NASA memo released by Rep. Howard Wolpe, instructing employees how to evade FOIA: destroy drafts, print rather than handwrite, omit cross-references, and put annotations on removable yellow Post-Its that could be detached and rearranged before any document was disclosed.
Hoagland: Mars Observer didn't fail - radio was deliberately turned off: Hoagland argues, citing four independent JPL engineers who phoned him after the spacecraft's 1993 disappearance, that Mars Observer was the first NASA mission ever commanded to switch off its transmitter before executing key instructions - making the 'failure' narrative speculation. He suggests the spacecraft was taken stealth and its Cydonia images may now be slipped into the Mars Global Surveyor data stream.