Keith Morgan
ABC-News
1717 DeSales St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Floor B1
(202)887-7557
Congressman Robert Roe
Suite 2321, Rayburn Building
Washington D. C. 20515
July 24, 1989
Dear Congressman Roe,
I'm an electronics technician for ABC News. I have been keeping an eye on the Mars controversy ever since
I provided Nightline with information on Mars back in September of 1988. I watched the NASA official spout conjecture with no data to back up his appraisal of the Face and Pyramid which Ted asked him about.
For the longest time NASA has been able to spout conjecture while riding on their reputation with no facts what so ever to back it up. They first said if there was a second photo of the face at a different sun angle that the face would disappear. There was a second photo which contradicted this lie. NASA never mentioned to the public the fact that pyramids were in the same general area as the face. Then NASA produced what they claimed to be an image of Kermit the frog as a rebuttal to the Face. If there had been an image of Miss Piggy and Jim Henson, in the same area, then I would think their evaluation might be sound, but we can't compare the shear number of carefully placed pyramids to what seems to be a singular image of a sock puppet.
I have watched NASA's manipulation of the press by redirecting its attention away from a briefing in Greenbelt, Maryland, A briefing which I personally attended, and which ABC had assigned a camera crew. A camera crew which was redirected after NASA sent out a press release announcing a briefing about Mars downtown at the same exact time, yet they never sent out a press release about the briefing in Greenbelt that was suppose to be open to the public.
If you talk to the public information office at JPL the man in charge will tell you that NASA took several pictures of this face at different Sun angles, and the face changed. This is another lie which they continue to perpetrate for the benefit of the National Press. NASA still reuses to release the other 60,000 photos for evaluation even though they are over 12 years old. NASA is not being open, honest, and frank with the public as, Nobel Prize winner, Richard Frynman stated in his final report on the Challenger disaster.
I watched NASA officials put peer pressure on outside investigators by challenging their reputations based on the people they associate with. I've corresponded with a reporter who NASA challenged on the basis of an article he wrote about the politics behind the reason for NASA not taking the pictures again. If we allow this kind of intimidation to take place from our own Space Administration then we might as well be living in China!
It seems that NASA is more worried about their reputation than they are about finding the truth. If you're the type of politician that is more worried about the number of votes you will get depending on which side of an issue you take, rather than speaking your true feelings on a subject then you would be no better than NASA. If you worry about peer pressure rather what your descendants will think, then ponder this... When Galileo looked through his telescope and saw the moons of Jupiter, and he wrote about them, his peers placed him under house arrest for the rest of his life. But the moons were still there 500 years later, and we now honor this man's achievements and laugh and his peers. The anomalies on the surface of Mars will be there 500 years from now, but will our descendants laugh at us for thinking like our ancestors? Will they wonder why we didn't have the intelligence to see such obvious signs? Would you have looked through Galileo's telescope and saw for yourself what he had seen, but yet still agreed with your peers for fear of ridicule? Well, you have looked through the Hoagland, Carlotto, and Torun's telescope for a glimpse of something that stands outside the norm of human thinking, just as Galileo must have been.
It doesn't take a PH.D. or Einstein to see what is sitting in the photographs taken by the Viking Orbiters back in 1976. What law says that all discoveries must be made by people with reputations and PH.D.s? We owe it to Capernicus and Galileo to continue to discover no matter how far outside the masses views. We are suppose to be living in a High Tech Society but we don't have confidence in the masses to tell them the truth about their destinies. Pan AM Flight 103 is a prime example of the confidence which governmental officials have in the masses. The government would rather take the rights of the individuals' controls of their own destinies out of their hands and place it in the hands of a money grubbing corporation. A corporation that cares nothing about human life, or environment, only the dollar. Now NASA wants to take that right, to know the truth, away from the public.
After 100,000 years you would figure man would come to realize that there is one thing that is inevitable, and that is "Change." Things will always change in light of new discoveries. If things didn't change then we would be able to accept the words of the Head of the U.S. Patent Office of 1899 solely on his reputation that, "Everything that can be invented has been invented." We could use this same statement about discoveries. Are you willing to make this type of statement just to please your peers? I think a lot of these absurd explanations made by NASA may be fine for the people who want to be led around by the nose and told exactly what they want to hear, but for the newer generation of thinkers, and not reactionaries, these explanations can no longer be tolerated. In this age of computer literate children, we must show them we can accept facts for what they are rather than bend them to fit the belief the way the White House did with the environmental report by NASA scientist, Henson. We can't bend the facts to fit the belief then we throw them out, despite the fact that facts always win over belief. This world has been riding on the concept of having faith in belief, rather than having faith in facts. More disasters have taken place because people have replaced facts with belief.
I have come across a document, which is alleged to have been obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, which states that NASA has been investigating UFO sightings over USAF installations and test ranges covertly. Is their refusal to re-image Cydonia part of this alleged government cover-up? Are they afraid that any disclosure to the fact there is evidence of extraterrestrial life will cause a panic like the bomb threat of Pan Am Flight 103? The bomb threat panic was unfounded, for days after the event the airlines announced a bomb threat and out of 230 passengers only 17 decided not to fly. This would not have shut down the airlines, nor would the fact that there is evidence of extraterrestrial life. People don't panic unless they feel their immediate lives are in danger. When Orsen Wells scared the country, with the famous radio broadcast, people thought their immediate lives were in danger. Not only had they received this message over an unbelievable new medium, but it was one which also gave them the impression that anything was now possible. Well, if we haven't grown up by now then we may never grow up.
If there is no cover-up then there should be no objection from NASA to photograph this area. If the Russians have photographed this area, with the Phoboes probe, then they may already know what we seek. Radio Moscow announced they were looking at what they called a shadow on the surface of Mars which was seen in inferred light. They said this shadow was cooler than the surrounding surface area, but what made it strange was that it had sharp edges. NASA has been claiming the Russians would not be taking pictures with any better resolution than Viking did, yet our science correspondent Jim Slade said that he had read a release stating that what they believed they were looking at was another obiter on the surface. If indeed they are looking at one of the Viking landers then they are saying they have taken much higher resolution pictures than NASA is claiming. This would be another contradiction to their disinformation about this planet.
As a citizen of this country I demand that NASA be made to re-photograph the Cydonia area. If they refuse then upper management should be dismantled and reassembled with civilians who have the interest of the public in mind and not the military interest. NASA was established for the public and it is failing to live up to its job. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is fine, but if they choose to over looks such obvious discoveries then their existence is meaningless. I place no emphasis on reputation with no data to back up anyone's claims. Their achievements in the past are fine but if they are going to impose their views simply on the basis of their reputation then I refuse to accept their conjecture. Society has found itself being taken to the cleaners before because they have allowed reputationist to spout conjecture with no data backing them. If we allow this to happen again then we might as well let the church run the country, and tell us what is the truth in their eyes. Don't let peer pressure prevent us from finding this truth.
Sincerely
Keith B. Morgan