New Hopkins Book Claims UFO Abducted Top Official Of The United Nations And Two Bodyguards In 1989, Along With Linda "Cortile"
Budd Hopkins, whose earlier reports on the Linda "Cortile" case claimed that United Nations
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar and two bodyguards had witnessed Linda being "beamed up" to a
hovering UFO from her Manhattan apartment on Nov. 30, 1989, now claims that the UFO then swooped
down and also abducted Perez de Cuellar and his two bodyguards. This new claim appears in Hopkins' new
book: "WITNESSED: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions." [Note the plural.] Hopkins
does not identify Perez de Cuellar by name but refers to him as "a political figure of international
significance." Another new revelation is that one of the bodyguards--Richard--allegedly has been abducted
many times since childhood to rendezvous with Linda aboard a UFO. Hopkins even speculates that Richard
might be the father of Linda's younger son--the result of their "bonding" on board a UFO in 1981. Hopkins
calls this case the most impressive UFO-abduction incident of the century.
Hopkins' first public report on the case was made on July 11, 1992, at the MUFON conference in Albuquerque,
N.M. [SUN #17/Sept. 1992]. He reported that Linda had written him in April 1989, saying she suspected that a small
bump on her nose might contain an "alien implant," which prompted Hopkins to invite her to attend meetings of his
"abductee support group." On Nov. 30, 1989, Linda called Hopkins to report being beamed up to a hovering UFO
from her 12th floor apartment in lower Manhattan. This prompted Hopkins to invite Linda over to his studio for
a hypnotic regression session on Dec. 2.
Unlike traditional ETs, who (allegedly) communicate with abductees via telepathy, Linda reported that
hers spoke in a strange language, which Linda recalled under hypnosis: "NOBBYEGG, HOBBYEGG. NO KAVE
KAVE KOBBYEGG NO KAVE." Linda said she responded: "KAVE-me or KAVE-y." Later, under hypnosis,
Linda said that one of the ETs "asks about my family....He wanted to know how everybody was and I said
they were fine." In Hopkins' book he acknowledges that this was his first case in which an abductee claimed to
have spoken in an "alien tongue," but he did not mention this curious aspect in his 1992 Albuquerque account. He
told the MUFON audience that he found Linda's story interesting but "thought nothing more about it (because)
it was just so similar to so many other cases."
Then in early February 1991, Linda became Hopkins' star abductee when he received a typewritten
letter from "Richard" and "Dan," who identified themselves as "police officers" and claimed they had
witnessed Linda being beamed up to the UFO from their "patrol car" parked near Linda's apartment building at around 3:15 a.m. on Nov. 30, 1989. After Linda entered the UFO, according to the letter, the UFO "then plunged
into the river behind us, not far from Pier 17, behind the Brooklyn Bridge." The letter concluded: "My partner and
I have been debating for 14 or 15 months if we should seek her out. We know the building and we know which
window she came out of. Perhaps she was just a figment of our imagination. If she isn't, is she alive and well? We
have to know." [Emphasis added.]
Hopkins informed Linda of the letter and
Skeptics UFO Newsletter -2- Nov. 1996
told her she might be visited by "Richard" and "Dan," and--according to Linda--the two men did visit her on
the night of Feb. 19, 1991. In Hopkins' new book (p. 31), he reports that subsequent events indicated that
the men had "been carrying out surveillance of her movements prior to their initial meeting." This
challenges the claim in the first Richard/Dan letter that they didn't know if Linda was "alive and well."
Inasmuch as Richard/Dan seemingly found Linda's apartment without any help from Hopkins, they could
have knocked on her door many months earlier to find out if she was "alive and well." But this did not
prompt any Hopkins suspicions that Linda might have authored the letter.
When Hopkins informed Linda of a possible visit by Richard and Dan [R/D], he told her to ask the men to
contact him directly in person or by phone, assuring them that he would protect their identities, or at the very least
to send him a tape recording of their recollections of Linda's abduction incident. During R/D's (alleged) visit, she
gave them Hopkins' telephone number and suggested they call him from her apartment, but they refused to do so.
Several weeks later, Hopkins received in the mail a tape in which Richard--clearly reading from a prepared
statement--told how he and his partner had seen Linda beamed up to a hovering UFO, after which the UFO had
plunged into the nearby East River. Richard added: "We waited and looked over the river for about 45
minutes. It never came up again. It stayed under there." The tape concluded with Richard's admonition:
"Please respect the importance of our credibility at work. We just can't be identified." In early April, Hopkins received a brief typewritten letter from Dan, which now identified R/D as "two detectives" rather than
"police officers."
Hopkins Unable To Find Any Detectives To Match Linda's Description,
So Dan/Richard Now Claim They Are Bodyguards For V.I.P.
When more than a month had passed without Richard or Dan calling or visiting Hopkins, he
launched an effort to locate them in the belief "that they would be very easy to locate because we not only
had excellent descriptions of both [i.e., from Linda] but also knew their real first names." But visits to several
New York Police Dept. precincts failed to turn up any detectives named Richard or Dan who
matched Linda's descriptions.
A ready explanation was provided in a letter, dated April 10, 1991, which stated that R/D were not
police officers or detectives, as earlier claimed, but were bodyguards accompanying a "third party" whom
they were driving to a downtown heliport. The letter claimed that R/D were "given permission to reveal
more facts from a third party also involved in the November 1989 incident. This third party is a very
important person...and often speaks to many corners of the globe." (Hopkins' book quotes the entire letter
except for portions deleted "to protect the anonymity of the third man.") The letter ended: "Richard, Danny
and Him." In Hopkins' book he comments: "It would take weeks of investigation, a major new incident on
April 29, and many more letters and other pieces of evidence before I came to fully believe in the existence of
the third man."
On April 29, 1991, Linda called Hopkins to report that she had been abducted off the streets of
Manhattan around 7:30 a.m. by Richard and Dan! (Linda subsequently provided Hopkins with a more
detailed account of the incident which occupied 44 double-spaced typewritten pages.) During the several
hours that Linda claimed she was held hostage in D/R's car as they drove north of Manhattan, she reported
that Richard asked her: "Linda, who are you working for? You know, which government agency....If you're
working for a government agency, tell me now and we'll let you go." When Linda denied any government
affiliation, Richard then asked if the UFO-abduction incident had been a hoax--had Linda staged some kind of
illusion-- which she denied. Still later, according to Linda, Dan asked: "You're one of them, aren't you?" When
Linda denied being an ET, she said that Dan responded: "Don't hand me that shit! You are one of them."
Linda said that Dan told Richard to take off her shoes and socks because he believed that ETs have no toes.
When Dan saw her toes he concluded she was not an ET.
Of the many questions posed during the more than three hours that Linda claims she was held
hostage, Hopkins believes the most important query came from Dan: "Linda, do you
Skeptics UFO Newsletter -3- Nov. 1996
think they [ETs] saw us?" Linda replied that she didn't know because when she was being beamed up to the
UFO she had not looked down.
Yet less than five months later, Hopkins would receive a letter from Dan, dated Sept. 17, 1991,
which revealed that not only had the ETs seen him, Richard and the "Third Man," but the ETs had abducted
all three men shortly after Linda was beamed up on Nov. 30, 1989.
The Search For Richard And Dan Continues
Hopkins' efforts to locate R/D now focused on the United Nations and one of his abductees had
extensive video tapes of UN events, which Linda viewed to try to spot Richard or Dan. In a tape of a TV
program showing USSR Premier Gorbachev's visit to the UN, Linda reported seeing Dan standing nearby as
if he were a bodyguard. When Linda said she was 150% sure the man was Dan, Hopkins had a series of still
photo enlargements made which could be used to locate Dan. But when Hopkins showed these photos to
Richard Ward, chief of the United Nations Security and Safety Service which provides bodyguards for UN
officials, Ward said "the man in the pictures did not work at the UN and that he had no idea who he was. He
claimed he had never seen him before." Because Hopkins says he "couldn't be sure if he [Ward] was telling
the truth," Hopkins and Linda visited the UN, showing "Dan's photos" to numerous security guards and
employees to see if anyone recognized him--but without success.
Hopkins' efforts to locate Dan at the State Department's diplomatic security section and the Soviet
mission in New York were similarly unsuccessful. "That left the Secret Service, the CIA, the FBI or the NSA
[National Security Agency]" as possible alternatives, according to Hopkins. Next Hopkins decided to hire a
professional detective agency to try to track down R/D, with funds provided by one of Hopkins' wealthy
supporters. Shortly, a detective agency investigator called with good news: he had positively identified Dan as
being a Secret Service agent who had recently retired. When arrangements were made for Hopkins to meet this
retired Secret Service agent, he "bore only the most superficial resemblance to Dan's photograph."
When Hopkins showed "Dan's photo" to the man and to another Secret Service official in the New
York office, neither of them recognized "Dan." This prompted Hopkins to write: "I was forced to abandon
the idea that Dan and Richard were Secret Service agents....It now seemed virtually certain that Dan and
Richard worked at one of our country's secret intelligence agencies and so would be nearly impossible to
locate."
Hopkins Receives "The Most Important Document Of All"
On Sept. 17, 1991, Dan wrote a letter to Hopkins which he characterizes as the "single most important of
all those I've received from many witnesses and security personnel involved in this case." Early in Dan's letter
he reported: "After the object [UFO] splashed into the river with Linda in it, the third party wanted to swim
out to find her. We stopped him and walked with him to the car. Instantaneously, we
found ourselves sitting on a seashore somewhere.... We didn't know how we arrived there....We looked straight ahead of us,
and there we saw the girl we had seen in the light of the UFO earlier on. She was bending down by the sea
alongside of those creatures. They were digging in the sand, using what looked like scooped shovels. They
put their findings in square or rectangular metallic boxes or pails....The three beings didn't appear to speak.
But we could hear a voice coming from the girl's direction.... She spoke in a peculiar foreign tongue....
"At one point...all of them walked up to us as we sat there. The girl (Linda) held up what appeared
to us to be a lifeless fish and said to us in a bold voice--`LOOK AND SEE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE'....I
asked her who she was. She didn't answer. One of the beings replied, `Lady of the Sands'....Soon after they
turned on their heels (no toes, except for Linda's) and they walked away toward the
sea... Next Richard and I were back by our car trying to pull the third party off the roof of it..." [Emphasis added.]
Skeptics UFO Newsletter -4- Nov. 1996
In Hopkins' book (p. 99), he writes: "If his [Dan's] account can be trusted (and so far there was no
evidence to suggest it couldn't), it points to a startling possibility. On the morning of November 30, 1989,
Linda Cortile was apparently a temporary and involuntary participant in an attempt to convey to a major
political leader a benign alien concern with earth's ecology.... Through their use of Linda as the
ecologically concerned `Lady of the Sands,' these witnesses were left with the impression that the UFO occupants' purpose
on earth is selfless and caring, focused, it would seem, on the health and well-being of our planet."
This posed a quandry for Hopkins because he has strongly challenged the views of other
abductologists, such as Harvard's Dr. John Mack, that ET abductions are intended to make abductees more
aware of earth's ecological problems. But in the closing pages of Hopkins' book he suggests that Linda's
reported actions on the beach might have been "merely a performance to mislead an important political leader."
Because of the significant revelations in Dan's letter, which Linda had never recalled in her earlier
regressive hypnosis sessions, Hopkins invited her for another session. He reports that "Linda was quite
willing to try hypnosis again" and the session took place on Sept. 21, 1991. Hopkins did inform Linda about
having received Dan's recent letter but he intentionally did not tell her anything about Dan's report of what (allegedly) occurred on the beach.
Surprise, Surprise! Linda Now Remembers The Beach Incident
Under hypnosis, Linda recalled being taken aboard the UFO and given the "traditional" examination
atop a table. Then she recalled being led out of a door and reports "it's cold and windy....I'm at a beach....Now
they're giving me a scoop... [and] a pail....So as soon as we get those soil samples, they're going to test them and they're going to tell everyone why our sea creatures are dying. Then we're going to have to stop what
we're doing." Hopkins tells Linda to look around to see if there are any other people. Linda reports seeing "three
people sitting on the sand.... They're all male....Then I pick up a bluefish and it's their fault, people like them
that kill our sea creatures....And I said `Look what you've done.'" When Hopkins asks Linda to describe the
three men, she responds: "They're all wearing suits. Nice suits....I see Richard, see Dan." [Emphasis added.]
Shortly, Hopkins decided to end the hypnosis session. One of the "many dazzling surprises,"
according to Hopkins, "was the extraordinary and highly detailed consonance between Dan's letter and Linda's
recollections of her seaside experience." [Emphasis added.]
Hopkins expresses his admiration for the (seemingly) remarkable ability of ETs "to erase [from
abductees' memories] any time period they choose and `spontaneously' to reinstate memories on command. In
this case, recollection of the beach scene was blocked for Linda and the three men for many months even
though she had undergone hypnosis on the events of that night. Then, somehow Dan, Richard, and the third
man are allowed to `spontaneously' recall the Lady of the Sands. A letter is sent to me about their
recollections, I bring Linda in for another hypnosis session, and she, too, recalls the scene. There is an
unsettling--and unearthly--precision in all this." [Emphasis added.] (Hopkins does not consider a more
earthly possibility: that the Dan and Richard letters were authored by Linda herself.) On Oct. 8, Linda returned to Hopkins' apartment to hear him read all of Dan's letter, while a video camera recorded her
reactions. According to Hopkins,Linda's reactions were "devastating because of their subtlety." [Emphasis added.]
Linda Reports Being Abducted By Dan And Taken To Long Island Beach
A week later, on Oct. 15, 1991, Linda called Hopkins to report that she had been abducted by Dan and
taken to a Long Island beach house. In the house, Linda reported seeing two framed pictures of herself--one of her
kissing younger son Johnny, and another of her taken in lower Manhattan. Linda said Dan gave her a white
nightgown, like the one she had been wearing on the night of the UFO abduction, which she finally agreed to put
on over her street clothes. To resist his amorous advances, Linda said she ran out onto the beach, with
Dan chasing after her. When he caught up with her, Linda said, Dan pushed her face into the water
Skeptics UFO Newsletter -5- Nov. 1996
and held it as if he wanted to drown her. Fortuitously, Richard suddenly appeared, rescued Linda and drove
her back to Manhattan. That night when Linda visited Hopkins, she brought along a bag containing a wet,
sandy nightgown and Hopkins said he saw traces of sand in her hair and eyebrows. He was impressed by
this physical evidence which validated Linda's tale.
Further proof would arrive a few days later when Hopkins received a four-page letter from Richard,
dated Oct. 21, which included five color photos which Dan (allegedly) took of Linda while he was chasing
her on the beach. According to Hopkins, "Linda was wearing the white nightgown and negligee over her jeans and blouse. The photos showed her running toward the water..." But in the two of these photos reproduced in
Hopkins' book, no jeans are visible and in one picture Linda appears to be walking casually, not running.
In Richard's Oct. 21 letter, he revealed there were two other cars with important political figures
and security guards which had been stalled alongside his and Dan's on the night of Linda's UFO abduction.
(The following spring, in Richard's letter of May 23, 1992, he said the three cars contained "two US
Government officials, two foreign statesmen and one World Leader.") These other officials had seen Linda's abduction, according to Richard, but he did not say whether they also saw the abduction of Richard, Dan
and the Third Man. When R/D and the Third Man returned to their car, the two other cars had departed--seemingly unconcerned about the mysterious disappearance of the Third Man. Richard warned Hopkins to halt his efforts to make direct contact lest it "cause an international incident."
Richard, rejecting Hopkins' suggestion that he rent a post office box for direct communications, told Hopkins that "If, by any chance, you
have a message for me, please give it to Linda." NEW WITNESS: AN ELDERLY WOMAN ON THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE
In late November 1991, Hopkins received a letter from a 60-year-old woman, whom Hopkins refers
to as "Janet Kimball"--a pseudonym--who claimed her car had stalled while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge
around 3:16 p.m. on Nov. 30, 1989, and that she had witnessed Linda and three ETs being beamed up to a
hovering UFO. She claimed other cars on the bridge also suddenly halted--seemingly due to a mysterious
force emanated by the UFO which had also stalled Richard and Dan's car. "Janet" enclosed sketches made
with crayons, similar to those provided by R/D. On Dec. 9, 1991, Hopkins drove to a town in upstate New
York to interview Janet and was surprised when Linda declined to accompany him. Linda's explanation
was: "Richard and Dan have caused me so much trouble and fear that I don't want to run the risk of
somebody else knowing who I am." [Yet a few months later she would speak at the MUFON conference in Albuquerque and has made numerous public appearances since then.]
Hopkins finds a remarkable similarity between Janet's account and those of Richard and Dan, but
ignores a significant discrepancy. Janet's account states that after Linda was taken aboard the UFO it
"quickly rose up above the building and flew away at a very fast speed....It passed over a highway or drive
below and then proceeded to climb higher, over the center of the bridge....when this UFO passed over the
bridge..." [Emphasis added.] But according to the first Richard/Dan letter of early February, 1991 (before
R/D "remembered" their own abduction), they claimed that after Linda was taken aboard the UFO "it then
plunged [down] into the river behind us, not far from Pier 17, behind the Brooklyn Bridge." IF Dan, Richard
and the Third Man were abducted immediately after taking Linda, Janet should have seen the UFO zoom
down toward their car--or seen them being "beamed up" into the UFO.
Richard "Discovers" Linda Is His Frequent UFO-abduction Companion
According to Linda, Richard was showing an emotional attachment which prompted him to frequently
follow and chat with her. In Richard's Nov. 22, 1991, letter, he recalled "dreams" of periodic rendezvous from
childhood with a beautiful little girl whom he called Baby Ann and who called him Mickey. Richard wrote that on
Nov. 30, 1989, as he viewed Linda being beamed up to the UFO, "there I saw MY BABY ANN hanging in the
light like a Christmas Tree Bell....I found her alright. Linda IS my Baby Ann. She's real and not a figment of
my imagination."
Skeptics UFO Newsletter -6- Nov. 1996
Naturally, Hopkins wanted to check this remarkable new development with Linda, via regressive
hypnosis. Hopkins reports that on Nov. 25, she arrive at his studio "in a happy frame of mind, completely
unaware that Richard had already reported his view of their complex, decades-long relationship." [Emphasis
added.] Under hypnosis Linda recalled that during her childhood she had an "imaginary friend,"
whom she called Mickey. Before Hopkins read Richard's recent letter to Linda, he set up a video camera to record her reactions.
When she heard Richard's references to "Baby Ann" and "Mickey," Linda appeared stunned and said: "Oh, Budd, that's weird! That's weird!....Is he saying that my imaginary friend wasn't imaginary?" Hopkins
responds: "Mickey was Richard. And you were Baby Ann." Linda lowered her eyes and whispered: "God."
[SUN Comment: Having seen and heard Linda speak at several MUFON conferences, we found her to be a
very dramatic speaker. One MUFON attendee commented to SUN: "She should go to Hollywood."]Later, Hopkins reports
that "Linda and Richard separately recalled the circumstances in which their `bonding' took place under alien
control and direction. They each described a unique `bonding arena' in which they were placed, and, in which
they believe they had sexual intercourse. Linda, as might be expected, remembers the experience with anger
and shame and a sense of helplessness, while Richard thinks of it as the moment in which Johnny [Linda's
younger son] was conceived."
If Hopkins has ever asked Linda's husband for his reactions to this (seeming) "UFOlogical infidelity"
he does not report her husband's response. But in the closing pages of the book, Hopkins does note that "on
a domestic level, all of these experiences have increased the strains on her marriage..."
A Letter From The "Third Man"?
In late 1991, Hopkins received a typewritten letter dated 23 December 1991, from "The Third and
Last Man," on paper with an image of the United Nations building, which Hopkins admits can be purchased
in the UN gift shop. But there was no written signature. The letter referred both to Linda's abduction and
the beach incidents and commented: "What I have seen, heard and felt on the seashore that
November morning in 1989, hastened a dream that has been in a talking stage for the past four decades or so. This
dream has been `World Peace.' I can only say, it was time to make it happen." If Perez de Cuellar not only
had seen but also experienced physical proof that ETs from other worlds were visiting earth, he could
achieve immortality by breaking the news to world leaders at a special session of the UN. He could ask
them to unite to halt the traumatic kidnapping of their citizens. However, the letter closed with the
statement: "My position stands firm. I cannot and shall not give a hint concerning my involvement."
Hopkins Meets Perez De Cueller In Chicago
On Nov. 12, 1993, Hopkins had the opportunity to meet with Perez de Cuellar at Chicago's O'Hare
Airport, during his short layover enroute from Europe to South America. The interview was arranged by a
Chicago reporter friend of Hopkins. When the reporter introduced Hopkins to de Cueller, his "passive,
phlegmatic expression registered no change," according to Hopkins. After discussing foreign affairs, the reporter
asked Perez de Cuellar if he had thought about the UFO phenomenon, and he responded by discussing current
foreign affairs issues. Finally, the reporter showed Perez de Cueller a magazine article about the Linda incident
and pointed to a paragraph which described his own involvement. Hopkins reports
that Perez de Cueller "muttered something to the effect that he didn't `remember anything like that.'" Later, when pressed by the
reporter, Perez de Cueller said that maybe one of his bodyguards "might have seen something...a light...years
ago..."
When Hopkins met Perez de Cuellar, he handed him a packet of material dealing
with the Linda case. Hopkins is impressed that Perez de Cuellar has never written to Hopkins to deny his involvement in the Linda
incident. Hopkins concludes that "until he decides to go public with what he remembers from the night of
November 30, 1989, he cannot have much inner peace."
Skeptics UFO Newsletter -7- Nov. 1996
The Perfectly Orchestrated Operation That Went Awry
In Hopkins' view, it was no accident that Linda was abducted before the eyes of the Secretary General of
the UN, and that he and two bodyguards were then abducted. It was all part of a grandiose ET plan to
demonstrate what Hopkins calls "the UFO's awesome technological power." Hopkins does not indicate whether
he believes the ETs selected Linda because they knew that one of Perez de Cuellar's
bodyguards was her long-time UFO-abduction companion, or whether she earlier had been selected and the ETs arranged for Richard to
accompany Perez de Cuellar. In either event, timing was crucial. Because none of the alleged witnesses
reporting seeing the UFO arrive at Linda's apartment house, Hopkins concludes that it did not turn on its bright lights until
it was time for Linda's abduction, by which time the ETs had entered Linda's bedroom and the Perez de Cuellar
motorcade was nearing her apartment building. Then the UFO emitted its mysterious radiation which killed the
engines of all three cars in the Perez de Cuellar motorcade--but not those of other cars on FDR Drive. And the
UFO stalled the car of "Janet Kimball" as well as other cars on the Brooklyn Bridge. But so far as is
known, the UFO's emission did not result in a stalling of dozens of other cars in the area.
IF Hopkins is correct, the omniscient ETs overlooked one vitally important element: They badly
misjudged Perez de Cuellar. They assumed that he would be eager to finish his tenure at the United Nations
with a historic, world-shaking revelation which would assure him of immortal fame. IF Hopkins is correct
that the objective of the Linda incident was to make known to the public and the world's leaders that
earth has alien visitors with awesome technical prowess, the ETs have shown great patience in waiting SEVEN
YEARS for Perez de Cuellar to speak out. Surely ETs will not wait forever and will soon repeat their
demonstration.
Presumably the ETs will have learned from the Linda incident. Instead of demonstrating their
"beam-me-up-Scotty" abduction technique at 3 a.m. when most people are asleep, they will conduct their
next demonstration in broad daylight before many thousands of people--such as at the next Superbowl
game. Or they might abduct the President from the lawn of the White House during some major
ceremony when many American and foreign TV network camera crews are present. Surely ETs are too wise to repeat
their earlier mistake.
If such a demonstration does not occur in the near future, it will increase suspicions that what
Hopkins has called the most impressive UFO case of all time is really a hoax. If Linda herself is not involved, then
the objective was to demonstrate the extreme credulity of the leader of the "UFO-abduction cult," as well as
Harvard's Dr. John Mack who earlier endorsed the Linda case. If so, possibly the hoax was
perpetrated by the U.S. Government, the U.N., the KGB, or SUN. Even the Red Cross and Boy Scouts are not entirely beyond suspicion.
New Santilli Controversial Autopsy Movie (SCAM) Offered For TV
Robert Kiviat, the Hollywood television producer who sold the Santilli Controversial Alien-autopsy
Movie (SCAM) broadcast rights to the Fox TV network last year, is now trying to sell a sequel which
purports to show an 11-minute interview with the 80+ year-old man who (allegedly) shot the autopsy
film 49 years ago [SUN #41/Sept. 1996]. In addition to Kiviat, Santilli has shown
the alleged autopsy cameraman (AAC) interview to a few friends and supporters, including Philip Mantle, Michael
Hesemann, and Bob Shell, who have shared their impressions of the new AAC interview video with friends.
The AAC's face and voice are not electronically disguised, but he is wearing a
baseball cap pulled down over his forehead. The AAC's voice and face seemed younger than his reported age of 80+ years, according to one
SUN source. The questions submitted in advance by Kiviat were "not particularly challenging,"
according to another source. AAC refused to answer a few questions and his response to some others deviated slightly from his
original account, released last year by Santilli. The interview allegedly was videotaped by AAC's son.
Skeptics UFO Newsletter -8- Nov. 1996
SUN Comment: It now has been more than a year since SCAM went public and numerous investigators--including Mantle and Shell--sought an opportunity to
interview AAC with a promise to protect his identity [SUN #38/March 1996]. Santilli's explanation for AAC's reluctance was that he feared punishment for
having violated his military security oath. This explanation was ridiculous. If SCAM were
authentic, the government could quickly have identified AAC and he could have become the seeming victim of a break-in
robber. Instead, AAC agreed to a videotaped interview in which his face and voice are not electronically
disguised--which provides Santilli and Kiviat the opportunity for additional financial
gain.
Short Shrift