WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON?

By Richard C. Hoagland

We are living in extraordinary times . . .

Concepts like "freedom," "democracy,"and "self-determination" are

sweeping from the East like rising wind -- from the heartland of the Union of

Soviet Socialist Republics, across the steppes of Hungary and Poland, through

the streets of Prague, then Westward . . . to the very structure that has come

to stand for a divided Europe -- if not a divided Humankind -- for almost

thirty years: the Berlin Wall.

A hundred nasty little wars -- yesterday, euphemistically termed "regional

conflicts" by one side, and "wars of liberation"by the other -- are,

strangely, winding down. Many of the bloodiest, from the ten-year Iran-Iraq War

to the fifteen-year War of Angolan Liberation, have now actually ended --

almost overnight. Superpower defense budgets, monies that for over forty years

have stockpiled megatons of obscene weapons systems -- weapons that could, in

thirty minutes, end the future of Humanity itself -- are suddenly, almost

inexplicably, beginning sharply to decline; one expert recom- mendation to the

American Department of Defense suggests cutting half a trillion dollars in the

next ten years.

Critics, who for decades have railed against the waste of critical

resources represented by these massive weapons budgets, are almost dizzy with

the prospect of suddenly freed billions -- billions they can now realistically

envision being spent on other problems underfunded for too long, if not on

those not even currently addressed -- such as rescuing the planet.

And behind it all, a rising call -- from millions in the East and West, be

it for "A common European Home," or for recognition that "We are all One Human

Family . . . on one Earth" -- echoing around the world on global television.

What's happening? What the hell is really going on . . . ?

* * *

President Ronald Reagan, shortly after his first Soviet Summit, described

to a Baltimore high school class his first private meeting with then-Secretary

Gorbachev in a small cottage by historic Lake Geneva. According to the

President,

"I couldn't help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine

might be in these meetings that we held, if suddenly there was a threat to this

world from some other species . . . from another planet . . . outside in the

universe."

The President concluded,

"Such an event would force us to forget all the little local differences

that we have between our countries, and allow us to find out that we really are

all human beings here on this Earth together."

That was in November, 1985.

* * *

Thirteen years ago, four unmanned spacecraft -- Viking Orbiters 1 and 2,

and their respective Landers -- made an odyssey . . . to Mars.

In the summer of 1976 -- the Bicentennial of the American Experiment --

while the Orbiters took up their preprogrammed orbits, and snapped an estimated

60,000 television pictures, the two Landers descended to the cold, red Martian

deserts to scoop up soil samples, sniff the air . . . and look for signs of

Life.

Contrary to what you might have heard from NASA, the U.S. space agency

which launched the Viking mission -- that Viking found no evidence of Life on

Mars, either past or present -- new, state-of- the-art analysis of some of

those 60,000 images, conducted by several teams of independent scientists

operating outside of NASA both in the Soviet Union and in the United States,

now strongly indicates that Viking may have, in fact, photographed an awesome

set of ancient ruins on the planet. The Viking images, when analyzed by new

computer and systems analysis techniques (unavailable when NASA first secured

the images), reveal what many are now coming to regard as a bonafide, vast,

"architectural complex" -- located in a Northern desert of the planet. A

"complex," the evidence suggests, that may have been built and inhabited by

prior intelligent visitors to Mars -- perhaps hundreds of thousands of years

before the appearance of intelligence on this planet.

Extraordinary? Yes. Inconceivable, within the framework of even present

science? No.

* * *

The "artifacts," discovered by myself and others in a region called

"Cydonia," consist of one gargantuan central feature -- a mile-long, 1500

foot-high, eerily accurate, bilateral resemblance to a humanoid "face" --

around which are grouped a series of similar- scaled "pyramids"and other

remarkably "architectural-looking" structures. The features are linked by an

exquisite, redundant system of fundamental mathematics and geometrical

relationships, which seem to be encoded even in the geodetic latitude of the

"Cydonia complex" on the planet.

The thirteen-year history of this unique investigation, and the names of a

legion of dedicated scientists and institutions -- from the U.S. to the

U.S.S.R. -- who have pursued the truth regarding these intriguing photographs,

are related in my book, The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever

(North Atlantic, Berkeley, CA, 1987). More recent developments -- including our

first, tentative decoding of a potential "message,"found in the "Cydonia

mathematics" -- are available on a new audio-tape "docudrama"inspired by the

book, also called The Monuments of Mars: Evidence of a Lost City? (Enhanced

Audio Systems, Emeryville, CA, 1989). The tape concludes with a

Russian-language re-creation of one of my firm hopes: a U.S - Soviet landing at

Cydonia -- for cooperative exploration and resolution of this exquisite mystery

on behalf of all Mankind.

* * *

Because of continuing publicity surrounding the on-going investigation in

the United States, a wave of public and political sentiment has recently

developed to hasten verification of this unprecedented scientific prospect.

Efforts have been mounted in recent months to force NASA to reverse its 13-year

position on "the artifacts" -- consistently demeaned by the space agency as

"tricks of light and shadow"; specifically, the initiative has focused on

getting NASA, during the upcoming 1993 Mars Observer mission (the next unmanned

NASA spacecraft going back), to take new, high- resolution images of the

"enigmatic landforms" in Cydonia -- with 50 times Viking's resolution. These

would convincingly support or refute our "intelligence hypothesis,"put forth

as a result of our in-depth, six-year analyses of these key Viking frames.

But, according to NASA correspondence dated as late as March, 1989, ". . .

there are no plans to make specific studies of the so-called 'Mars Face' during

the Mars Observer Mission. The 'Mars Face' is generally believed [by NASA

scientists] to be a natural erosion formation, and is therefore not regarded as

a high scientific priority in comparison with other Mars Observer mission goals

. . ."

In direct contradiction of this statement, then, and in direct support oferally believed [by NASA

scientists] to be a natural erosion formation, and is therefore not regarded as

a high scientific priority in comparison with other Mars Observer mission goals

. . ."

In direct contradiction of this statement, then, and in direct support of

the extraordinary possibility that there may indeed be NASA evidence of

"ancient artifacts on Mars" -- which NASA inexplicably ignored for thirteen

years -- is the following statement by Chairman Robert A. Roe (D-New Jersey),

head of the pivotal House Committee (of the U.S. Congress) on Science, Space

and Technology.

Said Chairman Roe, in direct response to a constituent's inquiry, dated

September 26:

"It is my understanding that NASA does intend to try to capture, with the

narrow-angle camera, the Cydonia region, including the unique features you have

referred to as the "Monuments of Mars." NASA will attempt to locate and focus

on this region both because it has interesting geological features and

[because] it has attracted wide popular interest."

In a radio interview conducted earlier, the Chairman of this key

Congressional Committee -- which oversees all federal funding for science in

America -- went even further:

"I have seen the pictures . . . and they [the "Monuments"] don't appear

natural. It would be stupid not to look!"

If this observation, made by one of the most powerful and knowledgeable

representatives in the field of science in the U.S. government, is upheld by

Mars Observer, these discoveries will undoubtedly, radically, change the future

course of history on Earth . . .

If they haven't accomplished that already . . . and what we are now seeing

nightly on our television screens, is merely a foreshadowing of what's to come

. . .

* * *

Mr. Reagan repeated his scenario -- that, if we were suddenly confronted

by some "unmistakable evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence,"we would

rapidly come together as one "human family" -- on at least four separate

occasions during the course of his final term as President: the first, during

his first Summit in Geneva, in late 1985; the second, when he returned and

publicly related these private "ET musings," between himself and Mr. Gorbachev,

to that Maryland high-school class; the third, during a live,

globally-televised address to the United Nations, in August, 1987; and the

fourth, before a prestigious world-affairs conference in Chicago, in early

1988, where he specifically used the term "one human family."

Remarkably, no political observer seems to have put these repeated,

enigmatic statements -- by none other than a President of the United States --

together with the staggering, world-wide "unification"of the "human family"

now heralded by the shattering political events that have engulfed us . . . or

to have connected them to what is, now almost certainly, waiting for the "human

family" on the surface of the planet Mars . . .

* * *

When our initial "Independent Mars Investigation Team"completed the first

phase of its analyses of the "enigmatic landforms" on the Viking photographs,

and had published in 1984 a preliminary paper at a Boulder scientific

conference at the University of Colorado, we also began a serious effort to

alert our government to the data and their enormous implications: a potential

set of extraterrestrial artifacts -- and right "next door,"on Mars.

We presented copies of our computer-enhanced Viking photographs and

preliminary papers to colleagues of President Reagan's Science Advisor, Dr.

George Keyworth; to staff members of the President's Office of Science and

Technology Policy; and to a close friend, and member of the President's

newly-appointed Space Commission, Dr. David Webb.

Simultaneously, in view of the enormous geopolitical implications, and the

need for the earliest verification of our hypothesis, we relayed copies of our

research, through "second track" diplomatic channels, to the Institute for

Space Research, in Moscow; the Institute had just announced an ambitious

unmanned return mission to the Red Planet in 1988, termed "Phobos,"designed to

carry out new imagery of Mars in addition to close-up composition studies of

the inner Martian moon, the namesake of the mission. If the Cydonia objects

were truly artificial, and their "creators" truly visitors to Mars, there was a

significant probability in our opinion of discovering additional "artifacts"

waiting on the Martian moons . . .

Later, at the National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, D.C., I met

personally with Dr. Roald Sagdeev, then head of the Institute for Space

Research, and handed him a copy of our papers, even as I invited him to

participate in helping us discover what we'd found.

That was in January, 1985.

It was a few months later, after we had briefed high-level members of both

governments on the staggering possibility that Viking may indeed have

photographed the first hard evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence --

"artifacts" lying on a near-by planet . . . that President Reagan, at the first

U.S.-- U.S.S.R. Summit of his presidency, posed for the first time his

extraordinary "extraterrestrial scenario" to Mr. Gorbachev. And, according to

the President, Mr. Gorbachev agreed.

Coincidence?

* * *

In January, 1987, one of our team associates, a former

scientist-astronaut, Dr. Brian O'Leary, met in Moscow with members of the

Institute for Space Research, including its director, Dr. Sagdeev. During the

discussions, O'Leary specifically reissued our request that the Phobos planners

consider new Cydonia photography as part of their own mission. And he left

copies of our latest Cydonia computer-enhanced photographs of the "enigmatic

landforms."

In January, 1989, the one surviving Phobos spacecraft (of the two that had

initially been launched) successfully arrived in Martian orbit. For two

exciting months, Phobos 2 took hundreds of new close-up photographs of Mars,

observed magnetic fields and radiation, and tracked the orbit of its eventual

destination: Phobos. Then, without any advance warning or impending difficulty,

according to official Soviet news sources, the spacecraft suddenly "expired" --

just prior to initiation of the third, most crucial phase of its intended

mission: a close-up rendezvous with Phobos, and "tree-top"examination of its

surface.

Western space observers listening to Radio Moscow that night were both

puzzled and amazed to hear the news reports, describing the inexplicable

"failure of the mission," interspersed with stories of "orthodox Russian

priests invited to the Moscow Phobos 2 Control Center . . . to be shown

photographs of Mars . . . and to discuss the Creation . . ."

Curious, to say the least.

In April, less than a month after the unfortunate demise of the Soviet

Mars mission, and the dashing of our hopes that we might get additional

information on Cydonia or Phobos from the Russian spacecraft, a group of us met

in Washington with the head of the key U.S. Congressional Committee which could

direct that NASA take new images of the "anomalies"with Mars Observer,

Chairman Robert Roe. There in his Capitol Hill office, three of us -- imaging

team expert, Dr. Mark Carlotto, a member of the Defense Mapping Agency (working

unofficially with our research), Mr. Erol Torun, and myself -- showed the

Congressman the best computer-enhanced Cydonia images we had, presented his Capitol Hill office, three of us -- imaging

team expert, Dr. Mark Carlotto, a member of the Defense Mapping Agency (working

unofficially with our research), Mr. Erol Torun, and myself -- showed the

Congressman the best computer-enhanced Cydonia images we had, presented

geometric maps demonstrating the inexplicable mathematical relationships

between the "Cydonia anomalies" -- and discussed the extraordinary global

implications of our data.

Months passed . . .

Then, in mid-September, came Chairman Roe's announcement: that, in direct

contravention of their previous "position," NASA does indeed intend to take

new, high-resolution images of the "Monuments of Mars,"with Mars Observer . .

. now guaranteed -- by no less than the Chairman of the House Committee on

Science, Space and Technology himself. Thus, in less than four years -- 48

months -- the world will finally Know . . .

* * *

That there are extraordinary, unprecedented changes sweeping the whole

world is undeniable at this point. But for what reasons? And why now? And why

with such acceleration?

Standard political analysts cite abysmal economic conditions in the Soviet

Union and in Eastern Europe, the general need for radical political and

economic institutional reform, and the basic human drive for freedom,

democracy, and the right of self-determination, long-repressed and overdue.

Release this pent-up energy, these analysts insist, and the world will rapidly

resemble what we're seeing on our television screens.

These "explanations," in the face of ten thousand years of extinct

civilizations -- gone, because their leaders couldn't change to meet the

people's changing needs -- seem strangely lacking in perspective; naive, in

fact, and almost myopically surreal. So, what alternative for what we have been

witnessing could possibly be stronger?

What if Mr. Reagan, through the constant repetition of his

"extraterrestrial scenario," was obliquely telling us the truth?!

What if, unknown to all but a handful "at the top,"the world is on the

brink of finally Finding Out That We Are Not Alone -- that the Martian

"artifacts," if not their builders, are very, very Real . . . ?

* * *

Shortly after he returned to Washington from the successful Moscow Summit

(his third face-to-face meeting with Mr. Gorbachev -- of what would eventually

become an unprecedented four times, in less than three years), Mr. Reagan was

asked by a reporter for The Washington Post how he was going to respond to Mr.

Gorbachev's curious public invitation, just before the Summit, "to go to Mars

together." The President responded,

"I've seen the photographs [of Mars]. And I'll be darned if I can see why

anyone would want to live there!"

* * *

What if Mr. Bush has inherited the awesome potentials . . . and the grave

responsibilities . . . the imminent reality of confirming the "Monuments of

Mars" will force upon the "human family" in the next few years; and, along with

Mr. Gorbachev, knows with absolutely certainty tonight that this Reality is

coming . . . because Phobos 2 did find something on the moons! -- behind a

carefully fabricated cover story?

Suppose that these few people -- who hold in their hands the literal

destiny of the entire world -- know that there exist tonight awesome, ancient

ruins on the surface of a nearby world that we will visit shortly . . . ruins

filled with unknown wonders, spectacular technologies, and perhaps, secrets of

our own beginnings . . . which someone built and occupied . . . and

mysteriously abandoned . . . when the human race was new. Ruins whose

centerpiece is a mile-long "monument to us" . . . and, perhaps, to what we

would become, in several hundred thousand years . . . ?

How would they -- could they! -- tell a world that story, a world held

hostage for ten thousand tragic years by a thousand animosities and hatreds, a

world not yet ready for a vastly different future, unless . . . ?

Would not the dynamic, almost inconceivable political changes which have

suddenly been thrust upon us -- glimmerings of sudden, real new hope, not just

in Eastern Europe, but for age-old conflicts all around the globe, from South

Africa to Central America to the Middle East itself -- resemble, in appearance

if not in conformance with the repeated "warnings" of a former President of the

United States, what is now happening with increasing and dizzying acceleration:

the long sought End of Childhood, the first hesitating steps toward realization

of our vast, too-long delayed potential -- as "one human family . . . on one

Earth?" And behind it all . . . waiting . . . an almost timeless Monument --

lying on a near-by planet, foreshadowing this ancient Truth?

* * *

Which brings us to the stormy Malta Summit . . .

First of all, why "Malta?"

Was it only sheer "convenience" -- close to Rome, where the leader of the

Communist world had just completed an unprecedented audience with Pope

John-Paul -- or was a deeper symbolism also subtly intended . . . including, a

meeting in the only bay on Earth called "Marsaxlokk"-- "the Bay of Mars!"

And why the almost dogged insistence on meeting on those ships -- to the

point where the most severe Mediterranean storm in over twenty years was

allowed (in peacetime!) to threaten the life of the President of the United

States -- and then, the meetings merely shifted to another ship, but still

within the Bay -- instead of (as common sense would strongly seem to indicate),

a stable location on the island? More symbolism -- to reinforce the

"importance" of the Bay -- or that . . . coupled with someone's overriding

interest in "security?" But security from whom -- the press?; what could

possibly have been that "secret?"

Which brings us to one of the few results, coming from this quite

extraordinary meeting, that we've been told about so far: the announcement of

an accelerated timetable on the complex, but globally-important Strategic Arms

Reduction Talks. Which raises an additional important question: why a sudden

decision to come to an agreement by next June? Just so a treaty (on weapons

whose likelihood of use is rapidly diminishing) can formally be ratified at the

next Summit? Or . . . is Something Else urging now an even greater acceleration

of events . . . beyond the dizzying rate at which they've been occurring (such

as the GDR Party coming apart for the second time, and just as the Malta Summit

was concluding . . .)?

These are only some of the nagging questions left hanging in the air by a

suddenly-called Summit, in a bay called "Mars" at Malta . . . as Something lies

waiting for us on the planet Mars itself . . . something Big Enough to be

shaping all of this . . . if we could only see the evidence before us.

Mr. Gorbachev . . . Mr. Bush . . . under any definition of "glasnost" or

"self-determination" -- as we now enter your self- proclaimed "New Era" -- we

have a right to know. expert, Dr. Mark Carlotto, a member of the Defense Mapping Agency (working

unofficially with our research), Mr. Erol Torun, and myself -- showed the

Congressman the best computer-enhanced Cydonia images we had, presented his Capitol Hill office, three of us -- imaging