Leonard Harman était loin d'être ravi de la lettre qui lui fut envoyée le 12 Août 1977, par notre avocat Edwin Greer.
Lettre datée du 15 Août 1977, de Harman à l'avocat Greer :
Je suis surpris du contenu de votre lettre et je dois insist on receiving undertaking from Messrs. Ambrose and Watkins to the effect that I will not be mentioned in their projected book. I note that your clients are aware that Sceptre Television has admitted that the Alternative 3 program was an unfortunate hoax and I am puzzled by the apparent evasiveness of your second paragraph.
You state that your clients are 'mindful of the background to that statement.
What, if anything,
does that mean?
I repeat that it would be extremely wrong to perpetuate in book form what has already become a public misconception. There is absolutely no truth in the suggestion of any East-West covert action such as that described in the program and your clients apparently intend to compound what has already been admitted as a serious error of judgement.
If your clients persist in their attitude, particularly in respect to my privacy, I will have to seek legal advice and/or redress.
Letter dated August 13 from Edwin Greer to Leonard Harman:
There was no evasiveness in my letter of the 12th inst.
I merely pointed out that my clients have conducted their own investigations in Britain and America into the subject of their projected book. Indeed, that investigation is still continuing. Any decisions taken by Mr. Ambrose and Mr. Watkins, in consultation with their publishers, will depend on their eventual findings and I am instructed to inform you that it is not possible for them to give you any undertaking.
Six days later Greer received a letter from a well known Member of Parliament who had been lobbied for
support by Harman. We included the name of the MP - and of one others who tried to suppress this book - in our
original manuscript but, because of Britain's restrictive libel laws, we have been advised to delete those names from
the published version.
This particular MP was taking the same line as Harman. His letter said:
In common with a number of my colleagues in the House of Commons, I have already deplored the misguided motives which resulted in the television program about the so-called Alternative 3.
Letters from many of my constituents demonstrate the alarm which was engendered and which, despite the subsequent statement by the television company, still lingers.
The fact that your clients should apparently be determined to capitalize on that alarm is, to my mind, quite scandalous. I intend to seek an injunction to prevent the publication of this book...
He did try for that injunction. The fact that you are reading this book at this moment is the proof that it was refused to him - and to one of his colleagues in the House of Commons. As we will explain later, however, these MPs did force us into a reluctant compromise.
However, they did not succeed in preventing us from using more of the memoranda which circulated inside Sceptre Television.
Memo dated April 92, 1977, from Chris Clements to Fergus Godwin, Controller of Programs - c.c. to Leonard Harman, Colin Benson, Terry Dickson:
Through contacts in America we have now traced former astronaut Bob Grodin to a new address. He is living with a girl and is not aware he has been located. I have instructed the American freelance to make no direct approach for, in view of the way Grodin went into hiding after the break-down of that Boston interview, he would almost certainly try to dodge us again.
I want to send Benson to America to quiz Grodin in greater depth for, particularly considering his reference to Ballantine, I am certain he holds the key to an immensely important story.
It would be essential, of course, for Benson to arrive without prior warning. May I have your authorization to make the necessary arrangements?
Memo dated April 12, 1977, from Leonard Harman to Mr.Fergus Godwin, Controller of Programs:
CONFIDENTIAL. The note from Clements, bearing today's date and relating to his interest in America, is clear confirmation of what I have already indicated to you and the Managing Director.
Clements has become unprofessionally obsessed with this ridiculous investigation with which he is persisting and I recommend that he be replaced immediately as producer of Science Report. I have studied his contract and we would be within our rights to transfer him to some area of our output where he would not be such an expensive liability - possibly the gardening series or the God Spot.
I have on several occasions had to warn him about squandering company time, money and resources -- remember those abortive film unit journeys to Norwich and Scotland? - but he has defiantly persisted in doing so.
I was told nothing of the inquiries which have apparently been commissioned on our behalf in America although, as I mentioned again at the Senior Executives' Meeting on Friday, it is company policy for matters of that nature to be channeled through me. It would be utterly wrong to sanction Benson's going to America. Nothing can possibly be gained by talking to this man Grodin - even allowing for what Clements admits is the unlikely chance of him agreeing to talk. I have formed the impression from newspaper accounts that Grodin is unstable and probably unbalanced and it is no part of our function as a reputable television company to hound such a man - particularly for such a ridiculous reason.
We should, I suggest, instruct Clements to abandon this fool-hardy exercise and we should also give priority consideration to replacing him.
Memo dated April 13, 1977, from Fergus Godwin to Leonard Harman:
CONFIDENTIAL. Let us not forget that Science Report is a Network success purely because of Clements. However, I note your objections and I must confess that I have also been concerned about the amount of money which has gone into this particular project. I have arranged for Clements to see me today and, naturally, I will keep you informed.
The meeting between Clements and Godwin - on Tuesday, April 13 - did not go well. Godwin had seen the unedited version of the interview filmed at Cambridge with Gerstein and he had not been impressed. The way the old man had veered away from any discussion of Alternative 3 had made him suspect that there was no Alternative 3 - that the dangers and the solutions were probably all theoretical. Science Report was already well over budget and Godwin knew how that would incense certain men on the Board. One of the Board members was an accountant, with the creative imagination of a retarded Polar Bear, and he was an apoplectic little man. Godwin didn't fancy another row with him - not on an issue where his own ground was so uncertain.
"Let me think it over," he said to Clements. "I'll let you know."
Memo dated April 14, 1977, from Fergus Godwin to Chris Clements - c.c. to Leonard Harman:
Further to our talk yesterday, I feel we would not be justified in sending Benson to America. If the situation should change as a result of any further information you may g-t, I will be prepared to discuss the matter with you again. For the moment, however, it's not on.
Clements read the note, pushed it across his desk to Dickson. "That bloody Harman!" he said. "This is his doing."
Et maintenant ?
demanda Dickson.
"We are going to do it. Terry. We are definitely going to do it. What we need now is some further information."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, love...you're the researcher...the sort of information that'll swing it with Fergus." He frowned, got up, started pacing the room. "What was it Gerstein said about co-operation between the super-powers?"
"He seemed to have the idea that they were working together on the Alternative 3 thing..."
"That could be it!" said Clements excitedly. Do we know anyone who might develop that thought for
us? It's have to be somebody with real prestige...
Broadbent.
Qui est Broadbent ?
Un grand expert en diplomacie Est-Ouest... il dirige l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques Internationales à
St. James...
Hm...well there's no harm in trying. Is Colin around?
Dickson shook his head. "His day off."
"It's always his day off when I need him," said Clements unfairly. "Ask Kate to pop in and see me, will you? She can start sounding out Broadbent..."
At 5:15 p.m. that day reporter Katherine White started her interview with Professor G. Gordon Broadbent - parts of which, as you may recall, were eventually used in the transmitted program.
It took her some time to get Broadbent really talking. He was cautious, suspicious of her motives, anxious not to become involved in any sensationalism.
That was understandable for, after all, he is a man who is internationally respected. After a while, however, he was more forthcoming and we now print the significant part of that interview - verbatim from the transcript - as it was presented in the televised documentary :
BROADBENT: On the broader issue of Soviet-US relations I must admit there is an element of mystery which troubles many people in my field. To put it at its simplest, none of us can understand how it is thatthe peace has been kept over these past twenty-five years.
WHITE: You mean the experts are baffled?
BROADBENT: (with a smile): But also, for once, in agreement. The popular myth that it's been proof of the balance of nuclear power frankly doesn't entirely stand up. And the more you look at it,the less sense it makes. There are too many imbalances - especially when you put it in the
perspective of history.
WHITE: So what is your explanation?
BROADBENT: Essentially what we're suggesting is that, at the very highest levels of East-West diplomacy,there has been operating a factor of which we know nothing. Now it could just be - and I stress the word "could" - that this unknown factor is some kind of massive but covert operation in space. But as for the reasons behind it...we are not in the business of speculation.
Clements went barging into the Controller's office without waiting for any response to his token tap. "You read the Broadbent transcript?" he asked.
Godwin, busy at his desk, sat back and smiled resignedly. "Yes - and your covering note."
"Well?"
"Well, what?"
Clements groaned, exasperated. "Surely that clinches it."
Godwin slowly shook his head. "No, Chris, not as far as I'm concerned. It's just more theory...that's all it is."
"But Fergus, it all fits! Gerstein and Broadbent -- each a top man in his own field - both suggesting some sort of secret co-operation in space between the super-powers."
"That man Harry, the American who claimed to know why scientists keep disappearing, and the links he seemed to have with Ballantine and with NASA. Then there was Grodin who, without any shadow of doubt, saw something really incredible up there on the moon...we can't just leave the whole damned thing now and forget it!"
"Stop bouncing around, Chris, and sit down." Godwin gestured to a chair. "Go on...sit down." He waited until Clements had done so. "Now, for the last time, let's get this clear. I realize that something odd may be going on but I don't consider it's any of our concern..."
Clements started to jerk angrily out of the chair,bursting to interrupt, but Godwin stopped him: "You've done a tremendous job with Science Report, Chris. Everybody thinks so and the rating have proved it. So I want you to get back just to doing what you do so well..."
"That means you're still saying "no" to America?"
"That's exactly what it does mean."
"If it's on grounds of cost, can I point out how much profit this company made last year..."
Godwin has since told us ruefully that he dislikes only one aspect of his job - that of being the chief buffer between his editors and the money men above him. One lot inevitably think he's mean and the others suspect him of being a spendthrift. Being wedged in the middle...it's not much fun. That's why his reply to Clements was uncharacteristically sharp:
"It's hardly your place to point that out but, as you've done so, let me tell you something. The company does make profits and it makes good ones but it does not do so by sending teams gallivanting around the world on fool's errands...so, please, let it rest..."
"Clements got up, prepared to leave. "How about if I fixed a facility trip?"
"Airlines aren't throwing many free flights around these days - not across the Atlantic."
"Benson could do a piece for the holiday series while he's over there. I've spoken to Simon Shaw who's taken over the holiday programs and he's quite keen...and I know an airline who'll play ball."
"God...you don't give up, do you!" Godwin grinned. "All right...tell Benson to go to America."
"Why did you disappear that night?" asked Benson. "That night of the interview...why did you run out like that?"
Have another beer,
said Grodin. He pushed a fresh can across the low table and poured another for
himself.
The bastard was trying to screw me. Did I see more than I've been allowed to admit publicly! Jesus...what
sort of fool question was that?"
Benson forced a grin, tried to relieve the tension. He felt like an angler playing a difficult fish.
Gently...gently...that was the only way. He took a long drink, sighing with satisfaction, as he put down the empty glass. "I needed that beer," he said. "Had myself a real thirst."
'You planning on doing the same?" Grodin was glowering suspiciously. "You aiming to screw me as well?"
He was frightened. That was quite obvious. And he was trying to hide his fears under aggressiveness. Benson felt a twinge of pity. The man seemed so pathetically vulnerable and Benson was reminded of what Harman had said in that memo:
"Grodin is unstable and probably unbalanced and it is no part of our function as a reputable television company to hound such a man."
Maybe, after all, there's been something in what Harman had said. Grodin clearly wasn't normal. It was all very well to be ruthlessly professional but would anything really be gained by pushing Grodin any further? Wouldn't it be fairer to drop the whole thing, to get back into the car and forget about Grodin? Benson hesitated. It would be so easy to tell Clements that Grodin had simply refused to talk, that there was no way for him to be persuaded. Clements wouldn't like it - in fact, he'd be bloody furious - but he'd have to accept it, particularly after the fiasco of that chopped-off interview.
Then he remembered the man called Harry. He remembered him at Lambeth - naked and terrified in that crumbling house. And he wondered how many more there were like him. And how many there would be in the future if the truth were not revealed.
"Camera, tape machines, witnesses - that's the kind of protection I need." That's what Harry had said. And they had failed him. They had arrived too late.
Protection from what? That was still a mystery. But it tied in somehow with the disappearance of Ann Clark. And with those of at least twenty other people including Brian Pendlebury and Robert Patterson.
Grodin had the key to at least part of the answer and Benson knew there was no choice. He had to get answers. Somehow he had to squeeze every bit of information out of this man. " Well?" persisted Grodin. "You aiming to screw me as well?"
Benson shook his head, opened his next can of beer. "I'm just hoping for a few answers," he said.
They were in canvas chairs, just the two of them, on the green-slabbed patio behind the ranch-style bungalow which Grodin was renting in a lonely corner of New England. It was peaceful there. No neighbors. No town or community of any sort for fifteen miles. Far in the distance, beyond the vast spread of scrub, they could see the tow-like sprawl of the smoke-blue mountains. And the top of those mountains seemed to dissolve into the sky. Tranquillity. Only them and the drowsy-soft sound of insects.
There were no noises from the bungalow behind them but Benson knew that the girl called Annie was probably busy in the kitchen. Grodin had said they'd soon be having a nice meal so that's where Annie had to be. Benson had been introduced to her, very briefly, when he'd arrived and then she'd scuttled shyly out of sight. Annie, he felt, wasn't at all happy about this intrusion. She looked young, far too young for Grodin, with straight hair, no make-up and gold-rimmed granny-glasses. The soft of earnest girl who should be reading psychology somewhere. It wasn't hard to guess her main function. Benson hoped she was also a good cook.
On the far side of the bungalow, at the top of the winding drive, Benson's technician-partner, Jack Dale, was still in the car checking and preparing his equipment. He had a small sound-camera but he knew better than to produce it until he got the nod. It had to be kept out of sight until Benson got Grodin into the right mood...
Grodin drained his glass. "Owned a place lie this myself once," he said. "Not just rented it like this one but really owned it. Thought I was putting down roots, y'know? Used to go up there in the summer with the family. Ah, it was all different then. We had a few horses and..." He stopped, pulled a face, smiled ironically. "Guess you can say I'm not much into planning for the future any more."
He studied his glass as if trying to puzzle why it was suddenly empty. He held the can upside-down over it and one small glob of beer fell out. "I swear they only half-fill the cans these days," he said bitterly. "That's how they make their money - y'know that? - by half-filling the cans." He threw the can away disgustedly and it clattered to the edge of the patio.
"That's how it is these days. Everybody screwing everybody else for all they can get. No ethics left, not nowhere." His speech was slightly slurred and Benson wondered how much drinking he'd done before their arrival.
"Cheap-jack booze-peddlers!" shouted Grodin. "Short changing bastards!" He turned in his chair, called over his shoulder. "Annie! We've right out of beer! Bring a couple more, will you..."
He glanced at Benson. "Or you want a real drink?"
"Beer's fine," said Benson.
Grodin grunted and shrugged. "Annie!" he shouted again.
"There are two men out here dying of thirst..."
She came out with two more cans of beer and shook her head smilingly, her expression implying that she say him as an adorably mischievous small boy. As someone who needed mothering. Grodin squeezed her hand. "Thanks baby." He seemed to feel some explanation was necessary. "They don't fill them like they used to..."
She smiled again. "They never did," she returned to the bungalow. "And she ain't my daughter! Right? I want that on record!"
"How about getting something else on record?" suggested Benson quietly.
Like what ?
Like what you know about Ballantine...
The guarded expression was back on Grodin's face. I never knew the guy.
That time he went to NASA HQ...didn't you meet him then?
Drop it, kid, will you! I told you, for Christsake. I never knew him... I never met him...
But you know what happened to him - and why.
Grodin stood up. "Time to eat," he said. "Let's
give your pal a shout."
Towards the end of the meal Grodin switched to drinking bourbon on the rocks. He tried to persuade the
others to join him but Benson and Jack Dale stuck with beer. So did Annie. And later, while she was sorting out the
dirty dishes, Grodin agreed to be interviewed. By that time he was a little bleary but he was still thinking
coherently. That interview, filmed by Dale, was presented in the famous Science Report program on June 20, 1977. We
now quote direct
from the transcript :
GRODIN: All I know about Ballantine is that he showed up at NASA with some tape he'd made, and got pretty damn excited when he played it back on their juke box.
BENSON: Juke box?
GRODIN: De-coder. You can pick up a signal if you have the right equipment, but you can't unscramble it...
BENSON: without NASA's equipment?
GRODIN: Right. Some young guy helped him do it. Say,now he should've known better.
BENSON: This man?Benson then showed Grodin a postcard-sized photograph of Harry Carmell - blown-up from a frame of the film taken in the street. Grodin frowned,trying to remember.
GRODIN: Could be. Yeah, that looks like him. Sure you don't want a bourbon?
BENSON: Beer's fine.
GRODIN: Bourbon's better for you.
BENSON: No, thanks...are you saying Ballantine was killed because of what he discovered on the tape?
GRODIN: I'm saying nothing. I just saw the way those guys were looking at him. But I knew those looks...I've seen them looking at me that way.
BENSON: "Them?"
GRODIN: Oh, c'mon...! Have a proper drink, for God's sake.
At that stage there was a break in the interview. Viewers say Grodin empty his glass and shamble across the room to refill it at the bar in the corner. They did not see Annie come back from the kitchen. Nor did they hear the argument between her and Grodin. She was, as Benson has told us, frightened that Grodin was saying too much, that he was being dangerously indiscreet. But by then Grodin had enough drink in him to make him reckless - and to make him resent getting orders from a girl. He yelled at her, cruelly and crudely, telling her that she didn't have "no nagging rights" because she wasn't his goddamned wife and so would she start minding her own goddamned business. She went on arguing, trying to persuade him, and he got still madder. He threw a tumbler of bourbon at the wall and the glass exploded all over the place. Then she left in tears and he apologized for her behavior. "Women!" he said. "Think they goddamn own you!"
For the next hour he drank. He drank heavily. And Benson was starting to worry that he would soon be unable to speak but, surprisingly, Grodin was still making sense. At one time he seemed to hover on the edge of being hopelessly drunk, of collapsing across the bar, but then he had another drink and, in some strange way, that seemed to pull him through. It was, in Benson's words, as if he was "starting to drink himself sober".
Grodin was having problems forming certain words - "as if his tongue was slipping out of gear" - but his mind seemed clear enough. And eventually he agreed to continue with the interview
BENSON: Bob...what did happen out there...the moon landing?
GRODIN: Well...I don't know how best to put this...but we had kind of a big disappointment...the truth is we didn't get there first.
BENSON: What d'you mean?
GRODIN: The later Apollos were a smoke-screen...to cover up what's really going on out there...and the bastards didn't even tell us...not a damned thing!
Here, as viewers will recall, there was another break. It lasted only a split second on the screen but, in fact, filming stopped for more than half-an-hour. When they resumed Grodin was sweating heavily. He was sweating because of the alcohol and because of his excitement over what he was saying.
They'd said he wasn't to talk about it. That's what the bastards had said. Well, he'd show them Bob Grodin wasn't of guy to be scared into silence. They didn't own him. He was
out of the service now and, anyway, maybe it was time for someone to talk. He was holding yet another drink as he waited for Benson's first question...
BENSON: Bob, you've got to tell me...what did you see?
GRODIN: We came down in the wrong place...it was crawling...made what we were on look like a milk run...
BENSON: Are you talking about men...from Earth?
GRODIN: You think they need all that crap down in Florida just to put two guys up there on a...on a bicycle? The hell they do!...You know why they need us? So they've got a P.R. story for all that hardware they've been firing into space...We're nothing, man! Nothing! We're just there to keep you bums happy...to keep you from asking dumb questions about what's really going on!...O.K.,that's it, end of story. Finish. Lots o'luck,kid.
And that was it. End of interview. Grodin finished his drink in one great gulp and then he fell. Tight there on the carpet. Annie heard the thump, came running into the room, told the pair of them to get out. They suggested helping her get Grodin into bed but she refused the offer. She just wanted them out. So there it was. They left.
In November, 1977, we visited that bungalow in the hope of getting Grodin to elaborate. We were certain there was far more he could tell. And we felt he might talk more freely without the presence of a film-camera.
The bungalow was empty. It had been empty, as far as we could tell, for weeks or possibly months. We have been unable to find the girl Annie. She appears to have completely disappeared. But we did trace Grodin. We traced him to a mental hospital on the outskirts of Philadelphia. He was allowed no visitors. At least, that's what we were told. We tried to insist on seeing him but they were emphatic. Quite out of the question, they said. His condition was too severe. And, anyway, a visit would be quite pointless. Grodin couldn't string together two consecutive words. His mind was completely gone...
Grodin's death was reported in the newspapers in January, 1978. Suicide. That's what the world was told. Grodin had knotted pajama trousers around his neck and hanged himself from a hot-water pipe fixed high on the wall of his room. We have suspicions that he may have been the victim of an Expediency but, without evidence, they can be no more than suspicions.
Another intriguing piece of the jigsaw was supplied by the American freelance hired by Dickson. It was a copy of a tape containing dialogue between NASA Mission Control at Houston and the Lunar Command Module Pilot during a 1972 moon mission. And Clements puzzled over it when he first played it at the Sceptre studios:
MISSION CONTROL: More detail, please. Can you give more detail of what you are seeing?
LUNAR MODULE PILOT: It's...something flashing. That's, That's all so far. Just a light going on and off by the edge of the crater.
MISSION CONTROL: Can you give the co-ordinates?
LUNAR MODULE PILOT: There's something down there...Maybe a little further down.
MISSION CONTROL: It couldn't be a Vostok, could it?
LUNAR MODULE PILOT: I can't be sure...it's possible.
All this fitted logically with the content of the taped conversation between Mission Control and Grodin - during Grodin's first moon walk:
MISSION CONTROL: Can you see anything? Can you tell us what you see?
GRODIN: Oh boy, its really...really something super-fantastic here. You couldn't ever imagine this...
MISSION CONTROL: O.K....could you take a look out over that flat area there? Do you see anything beyond?
GRODIN: There's a kind of a ridge with a pretty spectacular...oh my God! What is that there?
That's all I want to know! What the hell is that?
It also fitted with the exchange - reported by former NASA man Otto Binder - between Mission Control and Apollo 11 during the Aldrin-Armstrong moon walk:
MISSION CONTROL: What's there?.malfunction.garble)...Mission Control calling Apollo 11...
APOLLO 11: These babies were huge, sir...enormous...Oh, God you wouldn't believe it!...I'm telling you there are other space craft out there...lined up on the far side of the crater edge...they're on the moon watching us...
There was, however, one reference in the latest tape which made it startlingly different - the reference to a Vostok. Russia's Vostok flights took place in the early Sixties. According to the information made public, they were not designed to reach the moon but were merely Earth-orbiting spaceships.
So what could be made of the casual suggestion by Houston Mission Control - and an equally casual acceptance by the Lunar Module Pilot - that an obsolete Russian craft might be sitting on a crater on the moon flashing its lights in 1972?
We now know that, for many years, the super-powers have taken immense trouble to hide the extent of advances made in space technology. Remember, for example, how people were encouraged to believe that the first living creature to be sent into space was a dog in 1958?
Yet that dog mission was seven years after the four Albert monkeys were hurtled into the stratosphere in a V2 rocket. And there are sound reasons for doubting, that those monkeys were the first.
So was the official objective of the Vostok flights also a blind? Were they, to paraphrase the words of Bob Grodin, also a P.R. job for all the hardware that had been fired into space?
One dominant question develops automatically from all the others: Was the first publicly-announced moon walk in 1969 no more than a cynical charade - played by agreement between the super-powers - because by then men had really been on the moon for the best part of a decade?
If that was the truth, and all the evidence points to it being so, what was the purpose of that charade?And why has it been perpetuated?The answer to both those questions is Alternative 3.
The all-embracing threat to this planet, described by Dr. Carl Getstein, is horrifying enough to make America and Russia kill their comparatively petty rivalries - and their archaic concepts of pride in national achievement - in a desperate bid to snatch some sort of future for mankind.
Simon Butler put the known situation into clear perspective in that Science Report program. He told viewers: "The drive to make the first man on the moon an American was launched by President Kennedy - in competitive terms. By the late Sixties it appeared that the race had been conclusively won. The Russians, it seemed, had simply dropped out and stopped trying. America had won.
"Yet today Cape Canaveral is a desert of reinforced concrete and steel. The most ambitious project in the history of mankind is apparently over."
"More and more, however, we hear talk of Skylab and a space shuttle. But shuttling what? And to where?"
All of us have seen n television the phenomenal amount of power required simply to pull a space-rocket clear of the earth's gravitational field. But suppose that power did not have to be consumed principally in merely getting into space. Suppose the rocket could start from space. What kind of travel would that bring within our grasp?
Technical journalist Charles Welbourne, author of three highly-acclaimed books on aerospace, was questioned on the tack by Butler. Here is a transcript of the key section of that interview:
WELBOURNE: Obviously we could go further with less power, or send a much larger craft. In fact, the only way we're going to see space travel on any scale is by this kind of extra-terrestrial launching - for instance from a space platform orbiting the Earth.
BUTLER: Or from the moon?
WELBOURNE: Sure...if we could get the material there to build the craft, it's make real good sense.
BUTLER: Could we transport the materials there
WELBOURNE: It'd take one hell of a shuttle...but,sure, we have the machines now...in theory we could do it...especially with some kind of international co-operation.
"International co-operation." Welbourne's tone suggested that he considered such a likelihood rather remote. Certainly on the scale being discussed. But at the time of that interview, it must be remembered, Welbourne knew nothing about the Policy Committee and its submarine meetings. Nor did Butler.
Through the summer of 1976, while the Sceptre team continued its investigation, there was dramatic evidence to show how this planet was experiencing traumatic changes - sort of changes which later were to be explained to Butler by Dr. Gerstein.
The great drought of that year was unequaled in recorded history. And Butler eventually told viewers: "There was no panic...only a growing unease that what we were experiencing was unnatural and that the Earth's climate was moving towards a radical change.
"The earthquake barrage in China and the Far East has done more damage and killed more people than several nuclear attacks. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, it seemed as if the whole Caribbean was about to blow up.
"Also in Italy and Central Europe the Earth's crust was undergoing dramatic changes.
"For the first time scientists are beginning to see glimmerings of the workings of spaceship Earth, a huge but delicate machine buffeted by the forces of the interplanetary ocean."
At the height of the drought British government scientists contemplated trying to meddle with the weather. They decided not to do so - pointing out that Common Market countries might accuse Britain of stealing their rain. So Britain, like the rest of the world, went on suffering.
Roads buckled in the intense heat. Firemen could hardly contain the infernos which raged through forests and across moors. And there was an astonishing range of unexpected casualties. Bees starved because there was not enough nectar or pollen in the parched flowers...thousands of racing pigeons, unable to sweat like humans, collapsed with heat exhaustion.
On September 27, 1976, one of the authors of this book - Leslie Watkins - wrote a major article in the Daily Mail which starte:
Houses which have stood solidly for a hundred years or more - together with modern ones and impressive blocks of flats - are today unexpectedly splitting and threatening to collapse. Out long summer of drought has brought acute anxiety to the insurance companies - and the prospect of financial disaster to many families. Damage estimated at early +60 million has been caused by subsidence. Homes in many parts of the country, but particularly in London and the South East, have been slowly sinking at crazy angles into the parched and contracting ground.
Britain has, in effect, been ravaged by a slow-motion earthquake.
However, few people then suspected that the drought was merely the start of a cataclysmic change in the world's weather. But soon it became apparent that the pattern was beginning to go berserk - lurching from one disastrous extreme to the other - like the frantic flailings of some gigantic, doomed creature.
On June 15, 1977, the main feature article in the Daily Mail - also written by Watkins - said:
No man in the world gambles more heavily on dry weather than 54-year-old Peter Chase.
That was why, early yesterday, every flash of lightning showed the misery etched on his face.
His wife Phobe was urging him to get back into bed, to ignore the torrential rain and forget about business.
But he stayed at the window, trying to calculate the cost.
Mr. Chase has good cause to be horrified by the violent electric storm which brought such devastation to many party of Britain. He is the pluvius under-writer for Eagle Star - the leaders in rain insurance.
This has been a bad year for Mr. Chase. Jubilee celebrations, with street parties and other festivities almost drowned by deluges, were particularly disastrous...
We have, in fact, been experiencing the second heaviest spell of sustained wet weather since records were first kept in 1727. And the outlook for the rest of the week is "showery"...
Most people have assumed that this sequence of drought followed by heavy rain was, in some mysterious and providential way, Nature trying to compensate and restore the balance - that the downpours have nullified the facts which have now been outlined by Gerstein.
That assumption, unfortunately, is incorrect. Meteorologist Adrian Lerman explains that the excessive rains were produced by the excessive heat, that they are not a pointer to long-term cooler weather.
He says: "There is far more evaporation during periods of intense heat, with water vapor being drawn in great quantities from oceans, lakes, reservoirs and rivers, because warm air absorbs that vapor more efficiently than cold air."
"This inevitably results in an eventual increase in precipitation.
"Gerstein is undeniably right in anticipating that the greenhouse syndrome will continue to produce a great increase in global temperatures but I consider he has not laid sufficient stress on the most immediate threat to humanity - the threat of world - wide flooding."
"I am certain that Gerstein is wrong when he predicts that countries like England and America will become scorched wildernesses. They'll be destroyed all right...and they won't support life...but they'll be drowned rather than burned."
"Extreme heat, such as that which is now inevitable, will melt land glaciers. That will result in a marked rise in sea level and then there'll be the start of the extensive flooding - with London and New York among the first cities to be affected."
So Lerman, having studied the situation with scientific precision, expects a replay of the global disaster described in the Bible.
"Genesis" 6-17: "And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die."
So there is a conflict of opinion between those experts who agree with Gerstein and those who agree with Lerman. They are, however, in total and terrible agreement on the key issue - that this world, because of man's stupidity, is now irrevocably doomed. Flame or flood...one of them, in the comparatively near future, will bring the agonizing end.
And what of the men behind Alternative 3 ?
They, presumably, have also studied the Bible version of the horrendous mass-death. "Genesis" 7-21, 22, 23: "And all flesh that moved upon the earth died, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."
There can now be no doubt that those men, the ones who have supervised the mechanics of Alternative 3, have cast themselves jointly in the role of God - taking their cue from other verses in that chapter of Genesis.
The Lord instructed Noah to collect the people and the creatures destined to board the ark, the ones to be lifted clear of the global devastation.
Technology has made space-craft the modern equivalent of that ark. Who, then, decides which people shall be evacuated in the arks of the twentieth century?
These anonymous men have assumed the right to decide who shall live and who shall die. Their decisions are based, in the main, on information supplied by an elaborate international network of computers - an aspect of the operation which we hill later examine in more detail.
They have also assumed a prerogative which many will consider far more obscene: that of deciding which people should be plucked away from their homes - to be mutilated and molded into slaves. These people, these tragic victims, are those who - together with disappearing cattle and horses and other creatures - become part of Batch Consignments.
Mardi 10 Janvier 1978. Another envelope from Trojan. This one, arriving exactly a week after that Photostat copy of The Smoother Plan, contained the most serious indictment yet of the men behind Alternative 3. Trojan had again been scouring the archives and, as a result, had secured two documents - one dated Wednesday, August 27, 1958, and the other dated Friday, October 1, 1971. Both had been issued by "The Chairman, Policy Committee". Both here addressed to "National Chief Executive Officers" and both were headed "Batch Consignments".
The covering note from Trojan was tersely triumphant. It said:
Peut-être que maintenant vous allez me croire ! This is what made me decide I wanted out - et c'est la seule
raison pour laquelle je collabore avec vous.
Le document de 1958 indique :
Each designated mover will, it is estimated, require back-up labor support of five bodies. These bodies, which will be transported in cargo batch consignments, will be programed to obey legitimate orders without question and their principal initial duties will be in construction.
Priority will naturally be given to the building of accommodation for the designated movers However, it is stressed that, in the interests of good husbandry, accommodation will also provided for the human components of batch consignments - as well as for relocated animals - as a matter of urgency. The completion of this accommodation, which will be of a more basic and utilitarian nature than that allocated to designated movers, will in normal circumstances take precedence over the creation of laboratories, offices, other places of work, and recreational centers. All exceptions to this rule will require written authorization from the Chairman of the Committee in Residence.
It is estimated that the average working life-span of human batch-consignment components will be fifteen years and, in view of high transportation costs, every effort will be made to prolong that period of usefulness.
At the end of that life-span they are to be considered disposable for, although this is recognized as regrettable, there will be no place for low-grade passengers in the new territory. They would merely consume resources required to sustain the continuing influx of designated movers and would so undermine the success potential of the operation.
Preliminary work is now progressing to adapt batch-consignment components, mentally and physically, for their projected roles and the scope of this experimental work is to be widened. Further details will be provided, when appropriate, by Department Seven.
Pre-transportation collection of batch-consignment components will be organized by National Chief Executive Officers who will be supplied with details of categories and quantities required. No collection is to be arranged without specific instructions from Department Seven.
Le document de 1971 indique :
Experimental processing of batch-consignment components is now producing a 96 per cent success rate. This is considered not unsatisfactory.
The Policy Committee briefing circulated on September 7, 1965, explained the necessity for all components to be de-sexed: 1) To eliminate the possibility of them forming traditional mating relationships which could detract from the efficiency of their sole-function performance. 2) To ensure components do not procreate and so haphazardly perpetuate a substandard species. This second consideration is of particular importance for the products of such procreation, during their initial years of growth and development, would have no operational value and would merely be a liability on the resources of the new territory.
The permanent elimination of self-will and self-interest has presented great difficulties. Long-term laboratory tests have revealed that an unaccountably high percentage of components eventually regress towards their pre-processing attitudes, so rendering themselves unreliable and unsuitable for the envisaged role.
Advanced work, conducted principally in America, Britain, Japan and Russia, has now resulted in a substantial reduction of the "Component-personality" failure ratio. However, this branch of research is now to be intensified.
The Policy Committee has given careful consideration to suitable means of jettisoning rejected potential components. It has been agreed that they are not to be considered responsible for their unsuitability and that there is nothing to be gained by killing them. Such a solution, although simple enough to implement, would be unnecessarily harsh. They are therefore to have their memories destroyed - a process for so doing has now been perfected at Dnepropetrovsk and details are eing circulated to all A-3 laboratories - and then they will be permitted to resume their lives.
In future no de-sexing will be done until after the personality-adjustment of the projected component, male or female, has been assessed and approved. This will ensure that those which eventually return to their homes as rejects will betray no evidence of laboratory work.
On August 22, 1977, this story appeared in the London Evening News:
A mystery girl who baffled Scotland Yard for two weeks has discharged herself from the hospital.
And the Yard said today it still does not know who she was or where she has gone.
The girl, aged between sixteen and twenty, was admitted to Whittington Hospital, Holloway, after wandering into a hospital building late one night.
She appeared to have lost her memory and, d-spite intensive efforts by doctors and detectives, her back-ground remains a mystery.
One week before that story appeared, Hertfordshire police were appealing for help in identifying another amnesia victim - a man in his mid-thirties - found wandering on a gold-course near Harpenden. So were police in Manchester. Their memory-blank case was a man aged about twenty.
That particular section of August, 1977, produced a great rash of people with the same problem. They turned up in Germany and in France, in Italy an in Canada. They were all physically fit and apparently normal - apart from having no idea who they were or where they had been.
What produced that extraordinary epidemic of amnesia? Far too many cases were reported for the global outbreak to be dismissed as coincidence. Had something gone dramatically wrong with a complete batch of "projected components"...something so severe that it had been necessary to return them to their old surroundings?
For instance, that man found wandering on the golf-course near Harpenden...was he there simply because the Alternative 3 planners had rejected him as a slave?
We do not claim to know. And although we have interviewed him - in addition to twenty-three other amnesia victims who appeared at about the same time - we see little hope of conclusively establishing that these people had been part of a "Pre-transportation collection".