I ran out and obtained the latest issue of Popular Mechanics, (Feb, 2004, Vol. 181, No. 2). No, I wasn't looking for the latest wrench to do my oil change with.

On the cover is a dramatic photo of a large disc, perhaps 30 meters across, hovering at night a foot off the ground at what is apparently the Washington Mall, with the Capitol building looming in the background. The Headline reads: "When UFOs Arrive: What Will You Do?" Inside, on pages 52-57, PM Science Editor Jim Wilson lays out the story with the subtitle: "The U.S. and other world governments already have detailed secret plans for first contact." Science Editor Wilson starts off the story wih the statement that "Within the scientific community, the question is no longer whether extraterrestrial life exists, but if ET is smart enough to do long division."

[Are you listening, debunkers of SCICOP?] The article goes on to make the following declarations. "With little public fanfare, governmental officials have begun preparing for the single most important event in human history: first contact." "The broad-brush outline for Earth's response to the first alien encounter is set out in an international agreement caled the "Declaration of Principles Concerning Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence." Written by a committee of scientists organized by the SETI Institute, the Declaration spells out that after first contact, astronomers agree to keep secret news of imminent contact "until authorities have been notified."

"In 1972 NASA "sent out an invitation for extraterrestrials to visit Earth. A ... map showing the location of Earth was attached to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft", sent towards the star Aldebaran. "If ET turns up at NASA's doorstep bearing that invitation, it [sic] is in for a surprise. Instead of getting a handshake from the head of NASA, it will be handcuffed by an FBI agent dressed in a Biosafety Level 4 [moon-]suit. ...[T]he alien will be whisked away to the Department of Agriculture's Animal Disease Center on Plum Island off the coast of New York's Long Island. Here it will be poked and probed by doctors from the National Institutes of Health. A Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) will tow way its spacecraft..., moving it to a DOE facility, most likely in New Mexico, where it will be in close proximity to the Sandia and Los Alamos nuclear laboratories and the White Sands Missile Range." [!] [First hint of WSMR's involvement in Star Visitor technology.]

This sly article with its various insouciant leaks ends with a droll observation on interstellar relations. "Skeptics often ask why UFO sightings seem to take place in remote locations instead of on busy city streets. Perhaps ET knows what earthlings have in mind when it lands." Popular Mechanics also goes on to add that "The International Academy of Astronautics in Paris maintains a list of volunteers willing to help world governments if ET arrives." PM then goes on to name its Dream Team, which would include Se. John Glenn, Dr. Frank Drake of the SETI Project, Dr. Hal Puthoff, post-quantum and Zero-Point Energy physicist, comparative anthropologist Jane Goodall, and others. Not mentioned in this carefully-naive article
are the following facts:

- The Star Visitors have already made contact, engaged in lengthy dialogue, and some are even resident here.
- The SETI pictographic signal sent out to "ET" in space from the Arecibo, P.R. radiotelescope has already been answered, via a closely-matching pictograph "crop circle" etched in the British hillside next to a UK observatory.
- Despite the plans of the International Academy of Astronautics, the Star Visitors have long since picked and chosen whom they wish to talk to on Earth: millions of ordinary citizens from all walks of life. As an attempt by the Public Acclimation Program
to grab the attention of Joe Lunchpail on the issue of getting psychologically prepared for WHEN, NOT IF, UFOs arrive, Popular Mechanics gets a B+.

But the National Security Council has a long way to go in completing blue collar America's orientation to what its government already knows. NSC's grade is F+.

Richard Boylan, Ph.D., LLC
Behavioral scientist, exo-anthropologist, researcher, hypnotherapist, educator
E-mail: drboylan@sbcglobal.net