All Episodes
Previous Next
May 23, 2001 - Art Bell
39:01
Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell - Linda Howe - Horse Deaths, Tent Caterpillars. R.C. Hoagland - Mars update
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
...in Lafayette, Louisiana, a big one.
We're going from AM there, 1420, 750 watts, to KPEL, 105.1 megahertz, at 25,000 watts.
Reminding everybody, we now have pre-feeds.
Every night before the live program, we feed three hours of the previous night's program.
Radio stations and listeners, so...
In case you nod off, because people do in the middle of the night, and you want them to hear the program, one kind of feeds into the other in a linear sort of fashion.
So, with that said, Linda Malthow, up in a moment, there's a big update in Kentucky.
They thought it was a grass.
Well, guess what?
It isn't.
Alright.
Our science reporter, an environmental reporter, all-around gal, Linda Moulton Howe, and we've got an update on the situation in Kentucky.
Linda, welcome to the program.
Thanks, Art.
Well, since last week, I'm sorry to report that as of noon today, the University of Kentucky Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center reports that since April 28th, the total aborted fetuses in full has climbed to 532 in central Kentucky, where they raise the beautiful thoroughbreds.
These unexplained deaths of first and third trimester unborn fetuses and foals is unprecedented in the history of horse grazing anywhere in the world.
Last week on Coast, I reported that several experts thought the answer was mycotoxins, poisonous residues left by fungi and molds on grasses, Scientists thought that the combination of very hot weather in the first two weeks of April, followed by two days of freezing temperatures, stressed the grasses so much that the parasitic molds and fungi took over and concentrated toxins that the horses ate.
But this week, laboratory results were negative for mycotoxins.
So now, the focus has shifted to the lowly eastern tent caterpillars and the wild black cherry trees that they live on each spring.
The caterpillars make silken tents to live in while they feed on their host trees.
There were so many caterpillars in Kentucky this year that whole cherry trees on farms were stripped of all leaves which contain cyanide.
Now, if the trees are stressed, like in strange weather, the leaves will produce even more cyanide.
The tent caterpillars can eat the leaves without getting poisoned, and they carry the cyanide in their own insect guts for a while.
Scientists now wonder if the pregnant mares might have eaten some of the many caterpillars moving in pastures, or eaten a cyanide residue on the grass as the insects move from tree to tree.
Today I talked with two men involved in the Kentucky investigation.
One is an entomologist who has studied the Eastern Tent Caterpillar.
The other is an expert on horse nutrition.
First, Dr. Lee Townsend, Extension Entomologist in the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
I asked Dr. Townsend if horses have ever been known to eat caterpillars.
That's a good question.
and the flippers are pretty hectic and they're relatively active
so you would think that horses would not be, they would be leery of something hairy and that moves like
that.
Well as an entomologist, is there any reference anywhere in any literature in the world
of these kinds of caterpillars emitting enough cyanide on grass
that they have killed other animals or have caused cycles of intense abortive fetuses?
There's not anything that I'm aware of that points to that.
There is some information in the literature on a completely different caterpillar in a completely different part of the
world whereby when it feeds on some particular grasses, the
response of the plant is to increase the protective chemicals in the leaf
and subsequently animals that graze on this grass can become ill.
But in terms of depositing anything on the leaves or doing anything of that nature,
There's not anything that I have seen in the literature about it.
And specifically with the Eastern Tent Caterpillar, the information that's available in terms of cyanide and the protective chemicals that are associated with the Caterpillar are limited to the gut content of the Caterpillar as it's feeding on the foliage.
If the caterpillar-cherry tree connection actually had something to do with all of these aborted fetuses and unborn foals, then it seems from what you're saying that you would have seen that last year and the year before when you had intense numbers then as well.
That is correct.
The complicated is the early spring weather pattern of 2001 with that early warming and
then the freeze potentially could affect plant chemistry with the wild cherry plus some of
the pastured grasses as well.
So while the caterpillar numbers are roughly the same or somewhat equivalent, the environmental
conditions between the two years are different.
So it looks as if whatever the cause of this particular syndrome seems to be associated
with a particular set of circumstances that all came into place at the right, and unfortunately
right time.
Well, if there's ever been a worry about cyanide in cherry trees, why in the world would contemporary bred farm raisers have so many trees on them to begin with?
That is a good question.
Many trees are I suspect outside the fence line of the farm.
Most trees on farms and pastures that I've seen have been fenced off so that the animals don't have direct access to the trees and foliage themselves.
Well then that even reduces further the likelihood of any kind of direct contact between the horses and the caterpillars.
It does except for the wandering activity of the caterpillars when they're forced to leave trees and Or when they naturally leave them.
So, the opportunity is there.
The question is, did that actually take place?
And that's a tougher link to establish.
Another question relates to the health of the mares.
If cyanide poisoning killed the unborn fetuses in foals, why weren't the mothers affected?
That question also puzzled one of Lexington's well-known horse nutrition experts, Stephen Jackson.
President of the Blue Grass Equine Nutrition Center in Versailles, Kentucky, and graduate of both Texas A&M and the University of Kentucky.
I ask him if it's true that so far there have been no reports of major health problems with the mare.
That's correct.
And although there were some instances of pericarditis, other problems in yearlings and other classes of horses, the general population of horses did not seem to be Affected, nor do cattle at this point seem to be affected.
So, you know, if you operate under the theory that the caterpillars could be involved,
then you have to come back and titrate a dose, if you will, of cyanide
that would be adequate to cause hypoxia in the developing fetus,
but inadequate to cause severe signs in the mare.
And wouldn't that imply that the horses would somehow have to be eating the caterpillars?
Exactly, and that's the big stretch right now.
I mean, being a nutritionist, that's what my maiden field is.
I've watched horses graze and eat for hours, and a horse can spit out a pebble.
If you put a pebble in their feed trough with five pounds of feed,
When you look after the tree, that pebble will be sitting on the bottom of the trough.
You know, they just are very selective about what they ingest.
So, it was inconceivable to me, and still somewhat is inconceivable, that a dang horse would eat a caterpillar.
You know, a bird won't.
And the caterpillars do have high levels of cyanide in their gut, and that's their natural protection mechanism.
You know, it's still somewhat of a reach to get the cyanide from the caterpillar into the horse and then to titrate the dose of cyanide that it would take to cause the fetal injury.
But there are lots and lots of dead ends here, and there is a high correlation between presence of these defoliated cherry trees and the incidence of problems on farms, and several farms, in fact, where they've had no problems and had no cherry trees.
No caterpillar.
So there's a lot of circumstantial evidence that would indict the caterpillar, but it's going to be a while before people can put all the pieces together, if they fit, to say conclusively that it is either cyanide or some sort of metabolite or precursor of cyanide that is causing the problems in these mares.
Did you find any levels of cyanide in any of the analyzed fetal abortions?
Well, I mean, that's again, at this point, there has been no cyanide per se found, but what we have to look at now is not cyanide itself, but either metabolites of cyanide or enzymes in the liver tissue of some of the that could indicate that the cyanide was there, and that's what the people in the veterinary science department are doing now.
But it still is a mystery.
It is very, very much a mystery.
Luckily, we appear to be out of the woods in terms of the early fetal losses and late term losses.
And more mares that were bred later Are ultrasoundings still pregnant than in the past?
The problem with the diagnostic laboratory numbers is that the late-term losses are fairly, probably fairly accurate in terms of establishing how many foals are dying, at least close in central Kentucky, because most of those late-term foals that die would be submitted for autopsy or necropsy, if you will.
But the early term pregnancies, I would expect that less than 5% of those early fetal losses would be submitted for necropsy, because a lot of times you can't even find them.
So what you're saying is that the number of 520 or so could be even much greater.
Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that that number of 500 doesn't probably represent 10%.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, that 500 number is extremely misleading because, you know, you have, I have clients that have lost 80 to 100 percent of the early embryos, the early breedings that they've had from February bred mares.
I have a farm that had 72 mares bred in February and 72 mares have slipped.
My gosh.
And they have submitted probably four of the early embryonic loss fetuses to the diagnostic laboratory.
Now, what kind of an impact are you going to see next year in terms of these losses and what happens in 2002 to 2003?
Well, I think that's still somewhat up to conjecture.
It's a huge economic loss.
Well, the Associated Press article On May 22nd said, quote, estimates indicate Kentucky's 1.2 billion dollar thoroughbred industry could see a 30 to 40 percent reduction in the number of horses born in 2002 and losses of hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years.
And that's not even considering probably the trickle-down effect.
I know farms that belong to friends of mine That have already laid off half of their staff.
Because mayors have left the states and they don't have any work for them to do.
Linda, can I say something?
I've owned horses.
Horses don't eat caterpillars.
They're flailing in the wind.
I don't think they know what's doing this, Linda.
That's my opinion.
I've watched horses eat.
I've had them all my young life, and they don't eat caterpillars, Linda.
They don't eat bugs and stuff.
Well, I haven't found anybody who said that the horses ate caterpillars either, which makes going after this a little bit, it seemed, a red herring, but They know that there is a lot of cyanide in those cherry tree leaves, especially after that strange weather.
And I think that the scientists now feel that they've got to explore every single possibility.
And tomorrow, between 5 p.m.
and approximately 8 p.m., there's going to be another one of the big, large meetings.
In fact, they're going to webcast it on one of the Lexington, Kentucky, through their computer net, internet.
And at MyEarthFiles.com, I will be making a notice about the website address that people can go to if they want to turn in for this live webcast tomorrow.
And they're going to try to take everybody's questions and they're going to try to go through the mycotoxin issue and they're going to try to deal with this whole caterpillar and the cherry tree question.
And as you've just heard now from an entomologist and from a horse nutritionist, These are little pieces of puzzles, but right now nothing is adding up to a whole picture.
And they hope in another week, they hope to have what are called enzyme tests out of the livers of some of these aborted foals.
and fetuses to see if they can find any evidence that the livers have tried to kick out cyanide.
And there would be specific enzymes.
If those enzymes are missing, you know, that's right back to square one.
That's right.
If the enzymes are there, it might indicate that they're looking in the right area.
That they're looking in the right area of cyanide, but just exactly what was the source and how in the world Did it get into all of these mayors that in a month, think about that, it's a month.
We're at May 23rd and this was, I interviewed Dr. Riddle last week on Coast who went out to his first cases on April 26th and the first ones went to the diagnostic lab on the 28th.
So it's not even a full month that they are now up, as of today at noon, to that 532 figure.
That's astounding.
That's only 10% of it all.
Linda, we're so short on time.
We've got to switch gears very quickly.
I can't let you out of here without saying, what in God's name is going on off the coast of Cuba with that story?
Everybody's hungering for information on that story, and you're the researcher.
What are you doing?
I have been talking to a lot of people in the deep dive industry and I can report, this is a fact, that Paulina Zielinski is in the ocean off of Mexico on a boat working and testing some new gear.
Where are we camped to talk to her?
No, no one can and she's been out there basically really since the Reuters story broke and she will not be back for maybe another couple of weeks.
I hope That I will be able, eventually, to talk to her directly and bring it to the Coast audience.
Alright.
That's incredible.
That we can't find out more about this amazing story.
That National Geographic was so between the lines, silent on the whole thing, even called you back to say, sorry, confidential.
But they confirmed it.
Oh yes, that's right.
I think that's the strongest thing that I could possibly report now outside of talking with Paulina Zielinski herself.
The fact the story is, it has legs as they say.
That's right.
National Geographic said yes, they're talking and it could happen that they do the videotaping in a submersible as early as June.
Where's the mainstream media on this one?
They seem to be ignoring it, don't they?
Don't they?
Well, Linda, as always, thank you very much.
You'll be back within days, I know, because there's so much going on.
Thank you.
Thank you for your work.
Thank you.
Good night, Linda.
So the horses, they don't know.
They have not a clue at the moment.
Roll, roll, roll, ride, ride by the wind.
Roll, roll, roll, down, down in a spin.
I gave you love, I bought you greed.
I made you feel the top, I gave you more.
I had to give, but did have to stop.
You're floating off skyline.
I tell you.
I know about everything.
This city, desert, nation, feels so cold.
It's got so many people, but it's got no soul.
And it's taking you so long.
I thought you were wrong when you started out everything.
You used to say that it was so easy.
You used to say that it was so easy.
But you're trying, oh you're trying now.
Another year and then you'll be happy.
Just one more year and then you'll be happy.
But you're crying, oh you're crying now.
Wanna die?
Take a ride?
Well, call ArcBel from west of the Rockies at 1-800-618-8255.
East of the Rockies at 1-800-825-5033.
First-time callers may reach out at 1-775-727-1222.
The wildcard line is open at 1-775-727-1295.
First time callers may reach out at 1-775-727-1222.
The wildcard line is open at 1-775-727-1295.
And to reach out on the toll-free international line, call your AT&T operator and have them dial 808-930-903.
This is Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell on the Premier Radio Network.
Boy, have we got a story for you!
Coming up in a moment, Richard C. Hoagland, you may recall, they formed an organization, Peter Gersten, Richard C. and others, and they wrote NASA a letter asking for the face to be photographed.
Well, NASA wrote back and said, we comply with your wishes.
We have done as you have requested and put the photos on the web.
Well, the photos never showed up on the web.
To this date, nobody has found the photos.
But there's news.
There's big news.
Stay right there.
We go now to the mountains of New Mexico. Richard C. Hoagland, one-time advisor to NASA.
Walter Cronkite, science advisor. The Angstrom Science Award winner.
He's got breaking news.
Richard, welcome to the show.
Good evening, Art.
Good evening.
Yes, there is certainly breaking news.
About 2,000 miles to the east of me, as we are speaking, in Washington, D.C., the lights are burning late at NASA headquarters.
Oh?
There is a meeting going on.
It's been going on all day.
A meeting?
A meeting.
And the meeting seems to revolve around us, around facets, around these new images.
Facets is the organization you formed to make this request.
To make the request, Peter Gersten wrote the letter basically threatening a lawsuit to compel Malin to take new images and get to the bottom of this.
And after 30 days, Ed Weiler, the Associate Administrator of Space Science, which is essentially the second-in-command at headquarters, wrote us a few days ago a really neat three-page letter.
Nice letter, actually.
Nice letter, all kinds of open doors, Basically, it said, we are granting your request.
We have taken the pictures.
We have actually done it.
It made it seem as though at the request of your letter.
Specifically, it says it was at the request of... It does, actually, yes.
And then it says, and they are on the web.
And they're 3D, they're stereo, there's multiple images.
Of the face on Mars radar.
Optical lighting, radar.
Everything we've always wanted.
Everything we wanted, okay?
Yes.
Except nobody can find them.
Except the pictures ain't there.
They're not there!
So, uh, then, Mr. Gersten has been, uh, furiously trying to get information from NASA.
Every day since we did the update on Monday, we've been calling.
Peter's gotten up at 7 o'clock in the morning, Arizona time.
Called.
And called back east, where it's 10 o'clock, uh, Washington time.
And people have been gone and in meetings.
And Weiler was gone, the deputy was gone, the action officer.
So it's been delay, delay.
Weiler is supposed to have gotten back today, so Peter called this morning.
And was told by Mr. Weiler's secretary, Dr. Weiler's secretary, that Dr. Weiler is in, but he's in a meeting all day.
Okay.
And I said to Peter, when he told me this, I said, is it about us?
Right.
Well, late this afternoon, Len Fleming, who is one of our, you know, members of FACETS, sent an email.
Now, Len is an actual NASA employee.
He works at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Right.
In fact, we met many years ago.
I went to Johnson, gave a briefing, Glenn is a very good independent researcher, very sharp guy, knows his images, knows his stuff, alright?
Right.
He sent an email to the webmaster of MGS at JPL, Mars Global Surveyor.
Right.
A guy named Kirk Goodall.
See?
And he sent it from his JSC account, that's the Johnson Space Center.
Right.
He said, since I thought that maybe there'd be a better chance of getting a response.
And he asked him about the alleged new face images.
Yes.
Here's what Kirk Goodall replied promptly.
Quote, I just found out about this.
There is a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, Kirk.
That's all he said.
So now as of 5.20, our time, 9, I'm sorry, 7.20 Eastern Time, we get this rumor that there is a press conference on the face on Mars, which would be, by the way, the first press conference NASA has held officially on the face on Mars In a quarter of a century.
Long time, yes.
Long time, back since Viking, alright?
Remember, when the 98 images came out, NASA made a great show of not making any comments?
That's right, they just released them.
They released them, and all their people went out and ran to the networks and said, it's just a pile of rocks, but they had no official comment.
That's right.
And so, anyway, fortunately, we have our sources that are separate from the ET community, so I turned to one of My sources, who is, how should I say this, um, I've known him a long time.
He is impeccable in terms of his authenticity and his track record.
He is extremely well-connected, very close to the Bush administration and Republicans in the House and the Senate.
Yes.
And I said, uh, friend, get me the lowdown.
Is there a press conference or isn't there?
In about half an hour, he called me back.
And what he said, Art, is remarkable.
He said, they are having this meeting.
It's at NASA headquarters.
It's still going on.
They're breaking for dinner and coming back, which means it's still going on, and the meeting is to decide if they're going to have a press conference.
I see.
Then, about two hours later, I got three or four more calls.
I mean, we've been talking back and forth all evening, as he's been calling his sources, knowing that we have this deadline to come up and do this stuff with you on the air tonight with the country.
And the final word is, the press conference tomorrow is not going to be a press conference.
It will be an announcement of a press conference to be held next week, probably Wednesday, to which he has been ordered back to Washington.
And he told me a few minutes ago that it looks as if the reason he was given was a cover.
In fact, this is the real reason.
All right?
And that is pursuant to something that he revealed to me, which I can now talk a bit about tonight.
And that is that this is all part of a Of a new strategy, when the Bush administration took over back in December, and was beginning to formulate the transition, they apparently looked very hard at this issue, because it's a real issue.
And they have been making decisions to begin to reveal important information, leading us, ultimately, someday, to a manned mission to Mars.
Now, if you're going to get pregnant, at some point, you've got to get pregnant.
Alright, I see two possibilities here, and you pick.
Maybe you'll add a possibility.
Possibility A. NASA is going to suddenly release a fantastic, incredible, high-resolution, beautiful picture of the face on Mars that's going to leave almost no doubt whatsoever, but that it's artificial.
Possibility A. Possibility B.
They sack you big time.
In other words, they come out and they say, yes, we have new pictures of the so-called face on Mars, and if you think you saw a cat box before, now, here's a cat box that's been used for a week by 10 cats!
In other words, they sack you.
So, what do you think?
That's B, you're at A.
You know, we've been going back and forth the last two days on whether it's going to be A or B, and if I was going to make a bet, you know, I'm going to stick my neck out tonight based on my source basically sticking his neck out, it's looking more and more like it's going to be a bit of A. Really?
NASA may officially downplay it.
Remember what Weiler said in the letter.
He said, we've got this great image, exactly what you want, and it's a mesa, right?
Right.
But it doesn't matter what NASA says.
If the images of appropriate quality and full-on right illumination, everybody can make their own mind up.
Now let me tell you what I think might happen.
In the beginning, the argument about the face on Mars was that it was artificial, maybe, because it was bi-symmetrical.
Right.
Because it had a left and a right half.
That's right.
When I gave my presentation at the UN many years ago, back in 1992, I presented images that we had created by flipping left and right halves over.
In fact, it's also done on the PAC Special, which is coming up again this Sunday evening, where we show that the left half is anthropoid, like a monkey.
It looks hominid.
Yes.
But the right half looks feline.
It looks like a cat, like a lion.
The symbolic message of the face on Mars, from our analysis going back to 92, is it's like the sphinx in Egypt.
It's a man-lion image, a hominid-feline image.
Now, if they put out an image which shows that, all the people who claim that it had to be bi-symmetrical to be artificial will say, ah, come on, it's a pile of rocks.
Whereas those of us that have been a bit ahead of the curve and say that, no, it's the fusion artistic image of two species designed to communicate something profound and important about our own history and hominid evolution in this system, this solar system, We will then have the actual data to move forward with that model.
So I can see that it could be a bit of A and a bit of B depending on the eye of the beholder.
Why would they be thrust into this seemingly almost emergency discussion of press conference In other words, we had the letters, and presumably somebody, when they wrote the letter, at least ensured these photos were on the website.
Okay.
You would think, right?
My source does confirm, remember Peter and I discussed Monday night, there were two possibilities, that they had these images from before.
The mail-in had taken them months ago, maybe a year ago.
Yes, yes.
And this was an excuse to get them out there.
Yes.
We simply used the fascist letter as an excuse.
The other possibility is they did exactly what Weiler has said.
They took the pictures pursuant to our request.
Right, right, right.
The data now coming from two sources, from a source within the mail-in camp and my, let's say, my Bush associate source, confirmed that about a month ago, in mid-April, a set of images was acquired.
And so that seems to confirm that they are moving in pursuance to the facets request.
Right, but what happened with respect?
I was told by again this political source that a snafu developed.
Snafu?
Yes, you know the old definition of snafu.
I don't think we can say it on the radio.
Well, how about foobar?
It could be a foobar too.
Anyway, many a slip twists the cup and the directive to put them on the web.
And Mr. Weiler, of course, not wanting egg on his face, and the agency not wanting their reputation to rest on a lie, obviously when he came back, went in a meeting.
And what they've decided to do apparently is something significant to be announced tomorrow,
to be held next week, probably next year.
Here's a line of thinking for you, Richard.
Why would they have a news conference to do what they've already done?
In other words, we have the cat box pictures, so for all the world, they don't need to revisit this question with even cattier pictures, right?
They don't need to do that unless there's A C-State change.
Yeah.
And my sourcing has told me, from December on, that there has been serious consideration by this administration, by this president, to move forward on the inevitable.
Remember, George's father, George Bush Sr., tried to announce a manned Mars mission back in 1989.
And what you may not be aware of is that the night that that was announced, when he stood on the steps of the Smithsonian Air and Space and announced the Moon-Mars Initiative, I was, for one of the few times, I was away from a telephone.
I was literally in the middle of Yosemite National Park in Yellowstone, in Northern California.
I was tracked down by CNN that night and asked if I would be on Crossfire.
To represent President Bush Senior's reasons for going to Mars.
Now think about this.
The White House had any number of people they could have called to be on CNN to talk about the President's new initiative, right?
Almost sure.
Why would somebody finger me to represent the President's position knowing full well that I would stand up there and talk about Sedonia?
Unless that was the hidden agenda.
They wanted me to lay out a reason with those pictures.
From Viking, of why we needed to go to Mars with men and women in the next 30 years.
Now we fast forward the film.
We have his son.
Pretty good, Richard.
We have his son, who takes office, and within days of taking office, I get a call from my associate that says they are thinking seriously about moving ahead with the manned mission to Mars because of what's on Mars, meaning artifacts.
And at some point, and now my source and I discussed this, And we looked at the possibilities of yes, possibilities no, and there would have to be something in between.
You can't just have an announcement in July.
By the way, you know the date when this announcement might be made?
July 20th.
You cannot have between December of 2000 and July 20th of 2001.
2001, everybody!
This stunning step function, this falling off the edge of the cliff into free fall, Without something happening in the interim, in between.
You have to get pregnant.
So, what's going on with NASA and with Weiler and with us and this set of images...
And this imminent press conference, somehow dealing with the face on Mars, fits into the larger picture, everyone.
Do you expect the announcement of the press conference tomorrow will cover the subject material?
In other words, that they're going to say... It will have to.
And the reason I was given is that they want to sensitize everyone to see how the wind blows, how Dan Rather treats it, how Peter Jennings treats it, how CNN treats it.
It gives them several days to process and to show up.
Well, again, my reasoning, again, is they don't need a second press conference to say, this is nothing.
They've already done that.
So, there's got to be something new here.
There's another interesting piece of data.
When my source tonight was calling around to get information for us tonight for the show, he talked to one of his NASA people.
And the NASA person said something most remarkable.
What?
He said, and I am quoting now precisely, Be careful what you ask for.
Now think about that.
Well, that could be A or B. Coming from a Brookings perspective.
That could be A or B. Coming from knowing what it means, Art.
Knowing the full implications.
Yes.
Knowing the segments of society that will polarize and all the things.
It is a be careful what you ask for.
And those of us that have thought about this long and hard know exactly what we're asking for.
But this seemed to be a kind of a, you know, you're going to get it, now be prepared.
Well, it could relate to A or B. Be careful what you ask for.
But my source said in return, in response, look, if you guys are going to pull a cat box, that will last about 30 seconds.
Even the skeptical inquirers, who are not fans of us, this month have a retracted piece written by Gary Posner, basically taking apart and ripping to shreds The 1998 cat-box image JPL put out there.
What?
The Skeptical Enquirer?
Surely you... Surely you jest with me.
I'm not.
I am being totally serious.
I know the Skeptical Enquirer.
They're not like that.
In December, they did a hit piece on me on the cover, and we did a response on Enterprise and all that.
This month, they have done a retraction of major elements of their hit piece, and they have also taken to task JPL and the heavily massage-filtered You know, heavily trodden cat box image that we all know and love so well.
So if NASA were to pull that again, even the skeptics would say, oh, not again.
All right.
So I believe the consensus tonight among you and me and the others that are looking at this is that we're looking at something interesting.
Yes.
We're looking at something backed by an official letter from the second in command at NASA.
We're looking at something that our sources are saying is from the highest levels of government, meaning the White House, the new Bush White House, pursuant to a plan that was begun in the old Bush White House, in which I was rather curiously involved.
All right, Richard.
Incredible news.
I guess tomorrow will tell.
I hope it'll tell.
Well, it will tell us something.
If they say... Peter has promised to get up at the crack of dawn, go to his public defender's office, and make his calls to Washington at 7 a.m.
so that we will have some confirmation by a person to a person.
Of what's going to happen before the you-know-what hits the you-know-what.
Yeah, you would think they would let facets, the instigator of all this, know a little ahead of time, wouldn't you?
That is what Peter was told this morning.
That he will have a firm conversation on this on the record tomorrow.
Ooh, this is so good.
I'm following so many... I mean, here I have this city under the water in Cuba.
Half a mile down.
And Paulino Zalizzi's out on a boat in Mexico somewhere.
And it could be Atlantis, for God's sake.
I've got 5,000 horses dying of something they obviously don't have a clue about back in Kentucky.
And now I've got NASA about to announce a press conference about the face on Mars.
For the first time in 25 years.
Yes, but obviously not... Remember what you asked me?
What?
Remember what you asked me during one of the New Year's shows a couple years ago?
My forecast, my prediction.
Oh, I do, yes.
And I said that 2000 was the year.
Yes.
I stick by it.
You mean 2001?
2001.
Well, I mean, you're really, you were really correct because 2000 itself was kind of anti-climatic.
A lot of what people thought would happen wouldn't, didn't happen.
However, Almost all of it now appears to be happening in 2001.
So, you were right on the money.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Thanks for the report, Richard.
We're out of time.
We gotta go.
Take care.
Good night, my friend.
Stay tuned.
Yeah, stay tuned is right.
Good night, my friend.
A press conference to be announced tomorrow, we believe, about the face on Mars.
▲
Export Selection