The UFO Reporter: The Files of George Knapp — Part 1 (NewsNation), Oct 16, 2023

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/hD7uPnXQDSo
• Extraction: youtube_transcript.py (timestamps), 2026-05-28
• Significance: Canonical documentary profile of Knapp (4.8M views). Primary for ../../sources/knapp-career-and-claims.

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[00:00:00.000] Ask their doctor
[00:00:06.126] Chairman, ranking members
[00:00:09.263] and congressmen, thank you.
[00:00:09.797] I'm happy to be here.
[00:00:10.331] This is an important issue
[00:00:13.334] and I'm grateful for your time.
[00:00:14.768] My name is David Charles Grusch.
[00:00:15.369] I was an intelligence officer
[00:00:17.571] for 14 years.
[00:00:18.105] In July 2023, a bombshell
[00:00:21.742] congressional hearing
[00:00:23.711] made waves around the world.
[00:00:24.111] I was informed
[00:00:24.678] in the course of my official
[00:00:28.482] UAP crash retrieval
[00:00:32.186] and reverse engineering program.
[00:00:32.753] But one investigative
[00:00:33.320] journalist has been sounding
[00:00:36.690] the alarm on UFO secrets
[00:00:37.157] for decades.
[00:00:37.491] I think it is
[00:00:39.326] a hugely significant moment,
[00:00:39.760] and I never thought
[00:00:42.897] I would see it in my lifetime.
[00:00:44.064] George Knapp joins us now with
[00:00:45.599] UFOs, the best evidence, George.
[00:00:46.133] There are many unanswered
[00:00:48.636] Speculation about some long
[00:00:51.038] standing government cover up.
[00:00:51.539] Is tough for many people
[00:00:52.540] to swallow.
[00:00:53.140] You got photos, you got movie
[00:00:56.243] footage, you got video.
[00:00:56.677] There is some
[00:00:57.244] kind of a phenomenon here
[00:00:59.280] that can just be written off.
[00:00:59.813] I've always approached it
[00:01:01.181] as a news story.
[00:01:01.649] It's not my religion.
[00:01:03.117] It's not a belief.
[00:01:03.417] I don't know
[00:01:06.554] what to believe even now.
[00:01:07.688] Now NewsNation is bringing you
[00:01:08.122] unprecedented access
[00:01:10.858] to the files of George Knapp.
[00:01:11.425] I have secret stashes of files
[00:01:14.395] and things all over the station.
[00:01:14.962] Mountains of evidence compiled
[00:01:18.365] from the government's own files.
[00:01:18.933] No one who knew Area 51 from
[00:01:22.970] the inside ever talked publicly.
[00:01:24.505] Well, there's several.
[00:01:26.173] Actually, nine flying saucers.
[00:01:26.607] They have between 30
[00:01:29.243] and 50 alien bodies.
[00:01:29.543] The government
[00:01:31.011] has been telling us for years
[00:01:31.478] that they're not real
[00:01:33.314] and how his life's work
[00:01:33.681] still influences
[00:01:37.418] the conversations on UFOs.
[00:01:38.552] It would be the biggest story
[00:01:40.754] in history.
[00:01:43.591] 36 years later, I'm
[00:01:48.195] still trying to figure it out.
[00:01:48.929] We're in Vegas.
[00:01:49.430] We're on the strip.
[00:01:50.664] We're on our way to meet George.
[00:01:50.864] I. He's
[00:01:52.132] finally agreed to meet with us.
[00:01:52.566] It took a long time
[00:01:54.001] because he's very busy.
[00:01:54.501] He says he gets multiple
[00:01:56.904] interview requests per day,
[00:01:57.338] but he's finally going
[00:01:58.606] to sit dowown with us
[00:01:59.006] at the TV station
[00:02:03.344] where he's worked for decades.
[00:02:13.354] So this has been my office.
[00:02:13.621] Amazingly,
[00:02:14.688] they've let me keep it all
[00:02:15.289] these years and I have secret
[00:02:18.525] and things all over the station
[00:02:21.562] because I'm a packrat.
[00:02:22.096] I keep everything.
[00:02:22.630] This is where a lot of the
[00:02:26.266] a lot of the stories that we did
[00:02:26.834] were created.
[00:02:27.201] All these things
[00:02:28.202] that have come out
[00:02:28.802] over the last couple of years
[00:02:31.138] started right here.
[00:02:37.177] What brought you to Vegas?
[00:02:39.580] I flipped a coin.
[00:02:39.880] I was living
[00:02:41.582] in Northern California.
[00:02:42.149] I had been the debate coach
[00:02:44.385] at UC Berkeley.
[00:02:45.552] I was tired of being broke.
[00:02:45.819] You know,
[00:02:47.254] I knew I had to do something.
[00:02:49.390] And I met these crazy bartenders
[00:02:49.690] from Las Vegas
[00:02:51.525] and they told me about the town.
[00:02:52.092] They said, hey, you can write,
[00:02:53.527] youre a speaker
[00:02:54.094] We know a guy on television.
[00:02:56.530] You can get a job there.
[00:02:58.699] So I moved here.
[00:03:01.035] We've done so many stories.
[00:03:01.301] You know,
[00:03:02.269] when I moved to Las Vegas,
[00:03:02.603] I didn't know
[00:03:03.570] there was an Area 51.
[00:03:03.904] I didn't know
[00:03:05.706] there was a Nevada test site,
[00:03:06.140] the most nuked place
[00:03:07.541] in the world.
[00:03:08.342] This is the center,
[00:03:08.842] the heart of the nuclear
[00:03:10.944] testing, where all these
[00:03:11.445] all these big holes
[00:03:12.012] that caused by nuclear bombs
[00:03:14.748] and those bombs became tourist
[00:03:15.516] attractions by themselves.
[00:03:15.983] But all those brainiacs
[00:03:18.452] and scientists and engineers
[00:03:18.952] who amassed in Las Vegas
[00:03:21.021] at the same time
[00:03:22.489] the mob was here and showgirls.
[00:03:23.057] It was a really interesting
[00:03:25.559] historical time.
[00:03:26.093] The wide variety and array
[00:03:29.329] of top name entertainment
[00:03:29.930] is really what sets Las Vegas
[00:03:33.400] apart from anywhere else.
[00:03:33.834] I met this bartender
[00:03:36.937] who was a mob guy, and he said,
[00:03:37.504] You want to drive a cab?
[00:03:39.973] in the history of the world.
[00:03:40.307] I didn't know
[00:03:41.308] where anything was.
[00:03:41.909] And during the same time,
[00:03:42.476] KLVX hired me as a part time
[00:03:46.113] production assistant. At night
[00:03:46.580] when I finished the cab
[00:03:47.748] driving shift.
[00:03:48.315] I go over to this nightclub,
[00:03:50.417] which was called The Oz,
[00:03:51.418] and all the Mob guys were there.
[00:03:52.019] All the mob guys from the movie
[00:03:54.188] Casino would be there
[00:03:54.588] on a regular basis
[00:03:57.424] and I got to know him.
[00:04:00.094] Back to KLVX,
[00:04:02.262] I would toil there and do
[00:04:03.497] whatever jobs they asked about.
[00:04:03.764] Two months
[00:04:05.766] later, their anchorman quit
[00:04:06.333] and they had open auditions to
[00:04:09.236] be the anchor of their newscast.
[00:04:10.838] I applied and I got it.
[00:04:11.238] And suddenly,
[00:04:11.805] less than a year in Las Vegas,
[00:04:14.641] I'm anchoring two newscasts.
[00:04:14.975] It was crazy.
[00:04:16.176] Can never happen again.
[00:04:16.777] And within a year of doing that,
[00:04:21.081] KLAS, Bob Stoldal and a guy
[00:04:21.682] named Ned Day took notice of me,
[00:04:25.119] invited me to come over.
[00:04:26.386] And Ive been here ever since.
[00:04:26.987] And in those days, we all did
[00:04:28.322] mob stories.
[00:04:28.922] Like it or not, organized crime
[00:04:31.992] is part of our city's heritage.
[00:04:32.426] Mob money and mafia
[00:04:35.562] muscle put Las Vegas on the map.
[00:04:36.230] There was so much going on.
[00:04:36.797] Every day was a bust, a gaming
[00:04:40.100] control board hearing, a trial.
[00:04:40.467] There was always
[00:04:41.168] something going on
[00:04:41.668] because it was the start
[00:04:44.204] of the push to get rid of them.
[00:04:44.671] Commission has issued
[00:04:47.241] an emergency order pursuant
[00:04:47.741] to Nevada law, effective
[00:04:51.745] immediately upon service
[00:04:52.179] suspending the license
[00:04:54.281] of the Aladdin Hotel.
[00:04:54.715] And of course, because
[00:04:57.384] I already knew these guys,
[00:04:59.486] to law enforcement,
[00:04:59.853] but I could talk
[00:05:00.621] to the mob guys.
[00:05:01.221] And it was really helpful to me
[00:05:03.557] in those formative days.
[00:05:03.957] Again, like before
[00:05:05.325] the Internet was big.
[00:05:05.726] I mean, was it all
[00:05:08.462] just files on paper? Sure.
[00:05:09.797] These are mostly crime stories.
[00:05:10.197] Cold case, murder.
[00:05:11.465] Would you do
[00:05:11.932] a file for every story?
[00:05:14.635] Or, what was your system?
[00:05:14.902] Yeah.
[00:05:15.769] People would mail you stuff
[00:05:16.370] or I mean, people would mail me
[00:05:18.672] stuff.
[00:05:19.039] Almost every day
[00:05:20.974] people send me a little stuff
[00:05:21.542] and make me homemade saucers
[00:05:24.778] out of tinfoil.
[00:05:25.212] That's the stickers
[00:05:26.647] we hadn't made up
[00:05:27.047] when Mystery Wire
[00:05:30.350] was first prind in my craggy
[00:05:30.751] old face there.
[00:05:31.285] This was sort of my little
[00:05:33.320] nerve center for a long time.
[00:05:33.854] So you were a popular news
[00:05:35.022] anchor,
[00:05:36.790] Popular investigative reporter.
[00:05:37.224] How did this UFO thing
[00:05:40.661] suddenly come into your life?
[00:05:41.762] It was really a quirk. Ned
[00:05:42.329] Day and Bob Stoldal had broken
[00:05:46.233] a really big national story.
[00:05:47.467] They had information
[00:05:48.502] about a secret plane
[00:05:49.036] out in the Nevada desert,
[00:05:51.905] and it was invisible to radar.
[00:05:52.072] That's
[00:05:53.841] what our sources had said.
[00:05:54.208] George Knapp
[00:05:56.076] source was this man, John Lear,
[00:05:56.476] famed aviator, son
[00:05:59.313] of the founder of the Learjet,
[00:05:59.847] and soon to be influential
[00:06:04.084] in the conversation on UFOs.
[00:06:11.758] Thanks for being here.
[00:06:12.092] Okay, George.
[00:06:14.695] To begin with,
[00:06:15.028] you're a pilot,
[00:06:18.832] 17 different world speed records
[00:06:21.235] at one time or another.
[00:06:21.835] You're a member of the famous
[00:06:24.938] Lear family that all Nevadans
[00:06:26.006] are pretty much familiar with.
[00:06:26.306] His father had
[00:06:28.575] and he had a passion
[00:06:30.944] for secret planes.
[00:06:31.511] So he and a group of people,
[00:06:32.579] they call them
[00:06:33.146] the interceptors, would go out
[00:06:35.782] into the Nevada desert
[00:06:36.383] and would sit outside of Area
[00:06:38.819] 51, the Nevada test
[00:06:39.219] site, to see what
[00:06:41.121] was flying around in the sky.
[00:06:41.555] You don't sound like
[00:06:42.522] the kind of guy
[00:06:42.990] who would get hooked up
[00:06:43.757] in something
[00:06:44.324] that a lot of people would say
[00:06:46.393] is a bunch of nonsense.
[00:06:46.960] No, it's just by coincidence
[00:06:50.864] that I got really interested
[00:06:52.332] this about two years ago.
[00:06:52.766] My father saw a UFO,
[00:06:54.668] and my brother did.
[00:06:55.235] And one day John Lear walks
[00:06:57.304] into the news station,
[00:06:57.738] and this is in 1987
[00:07:00.474] with a stack of documents,
[00:07:00.774] UFO documents,
[00:07:03.410] and he plops them on Ned's desk
[00:07:03.810] and he says, Ned,
[00:07:05.913] this is the biggest story
[00:07:06.346] you will ever cover
[00:07:07.080] in your life.
[00:07:07.481] It's about a cover
[00:07:09.549] up of massive proportions.
[00:07:10.117] You're going to become famous.
[00:07:11.118] You got to do this
[00:07:11.685] story, he pushes the documents
[00:07:14.388] over and Ned starts reading them
[00:07:14.955] and he pushes the pile back
[00:07:17.291] and he tells Lear,
[00:07:18.659] If this was true,
[00:07:19.126] this UFO cover up, then
[00:07:20.694] Id already know about it,
[00:07:21.261] he says. I'm eavesdropping,
[00:07:24.398] as I tend to do.
[00:07:25.365] And I said, Mr.
[00:07:25.866] Lear, let me take a look
[00:07:26.900] at that stuff.
[00:07:27.367] So I read through it,
[00:07:28.702] and at the time
[00:07:31.171] I produced a little talk show,
[00:07:34.141] a half hour public affairs
[00:07:37.744] show called On the Record.
[00:07:38.812] and welcome to On the Record.
[00:07:39.413] And it would air on Saturday or
[00:07:42.049] Sunday morning at six or 7:00.
[00:07:42.449] And I said, John,
[00:07:44.751] you want to do this show?
[00:07:45.118] And I put him on
[00:07:46.954] and I just let him go.
[00:07:47.521] I'll give you the bottom line.
[00:07:49.623] Im not trying to sell it.
[00:07:50.624] I want to hear your thesis.
[00:07:51.525] I'm not trying to sell a book
[00:07:51.825] and I'm not
[00:07:52.659] trying to promote a lecture.
[00:07:53.260] This is based on what I've come
[00:07:56.863] across after intense
[00:07:58.865] and I have found out that
[00:08:00.968] the government has retrieved
[00:08:01.568] between ten and 15 actual flying
[00:08:04.938] saucers, three of which
[00:08:05.472] been in perfect condition,
[00:08:08.542] one of which they tried to fly.
[00:08:08.976] They have between 30
[00:08:12.679] and 50 alien bodies
[00:08:14.514] in cryogenic storage.
[00:08:14.815] We even have
[00:08:17.250] the name of the person whose job
[00:08:21.321] to the heads of state
[00:08:21.621] and the people
[00:08:23.790] who are authorized to see them.
[00:08:24.257] They represent at least
[00:08:27.627] five different civilizations.
[00:10:03.545] to your antidepressant.
[00:10:03.917] Welcome back.
[00:10:04.952] UFOs. Are they real?
[00:10:05.519] We're talking with John Lear
[00:10:07.888] on the subject.
[00:10:09.289] The most commonly described
[00:10:11.725] alien is about three
[00:10:12.292] and a half feet tall
[00:10:12.859] and is wearing a silvery space
[00:10:14.928] suit or coveralls.
[00:10:15.195] I can see
[00:10:17.364] the expressions on my face.
[00:10:17.831] Is this for real?
[00:10:18.231] Is this guy making
[00:10:20.167] this stuff up? Hes nuts.
[00:10:20.834] I'm not making this up.
[00:10:21.234] This is Air Force,
[00:10:22.336] you can pick out an Air
[00:10:22.736] Force physics book
[00:10:24.671] and read this stuff.
[00:10:25.238] And at the end of the chapter,
[00:10:27.474] they go on to say,
[00:10:28.008] This leads us to believe
[00:10:31.511] in the unpleasant possibility
[00:10:33.046] of alien visitors to our planet,
[00:10:33.647] or at least of alien controlled
[00:10:36.116] UFOs.
[00:10:36.717] Now, the picture that we have
[00:10:38.885] of the
[00:10:39.219] of the big head
[00:10:42.823] that the Air Force describes.
[00:10:43.123] This picture
[00:10:46.426] was drawn by an Army surgeon.
[00:10:47.227] These are one of the bodies
[00:10:47.828] that was recovered in the famous
[00:10:51.298] Roswell incident of 1947.
[00:10:51.832] Tell us about that.
[00:10:52.399] It was the first flying saucer
[00:10:54.935] that crashed
[00:10:57.070] and was recovered by the Army.
[00:10:57.638] Originally, the Roswell Army
[00:10:59.339] Air Base announced
[00:10:59.940] it had recovered a flying saucer
[00:11:03.510] from a ranch outside Roswell.
[00:11:04.011] The story made headlines
[00:11:05.879] around the world,
[00:11:06.246] but hours later,
[00:11:08.348] higher ups said no.
[00:11:09.416] It was a weather balloon.
[00:11:09.883] Pieces of the balloon
[00:11:11.852] were shown to reporters.
[00:11:12.152] Years later,
[00:11:14.287] the officer who first visited
[00:11:14.755] the crash site, Major
[00:11:16.356] Jesse Marcel,
[00:11:16.890] confided that the weather
[00:11:19.626] balloon story was a cover up.
[00:11:20.293] One thing that was certain
[00:11:20.694] of being familiar
[00:11:23.463] with all our activities
[00:11:23.997] that it was not a weather
[00:11:25.666] balloon,
[00:11:27.567] nor an aircraft, nor a missile.
[00:11:28.135] It was something else which
[00:11:30.904] we didn't know what it was.
[00:11:31.471] What was shown to reporters
[00:11:33.707] wasn't what he found.
[00:11:34.274] The newsmen saw very little
[00:11:36.043] of the material,
[00:11:37.678] very small portion of it,
[00:11:38.211] and none of the important
[00:11:40.447] thingsgs like these uh,
[00:11:41.048] that have these hieroglyphics
[00:11:42.716] or markings on it.
[00:11:43.316] And when the General ce in,
[00:11:46.586] he told me not to say anything
[00:11:47.788] that he would handle it.
[00:11:48.855] Since Marcel's admission,
[00:11:49.389] scores of other witnesses
[00:11:51.792] have also surfaced.
[00:11:53.493] And one of the surgeons
[00:11:53.994] that was responsible for
[00:11:57.497] the autopsy drew that picture.
[00:11:58.331] This is an autopsy report.
[00:11:58.899] And you said the government
[00:12:00.300] goes to great lengths,
[00:12:00.867] the Air Force in particular,
[00:12:03.303] to discredit this kind of stuff.
[00:12:03.837] Where did this come from?
[00:12:05.706] How did you get that?
[00:12:06.039] That came
[00:12:06.640] from the private collection
[00:12:07.841] of Leonard Stringfield,
[00:12:08.408] who was one of the premiere
[00:12:09.643] researchers.
[00:12:10.110] He worked for the Air
[00:12:14.214] Force in the early fifties
[00:12:14.514] in a secret
[00:12:16.349] project reporting UFOs.
[00:12:16.817] Then, as a civilian, he
[00:12:20.053] continued his private research.
[00:12:20.387] And this is out
[00:12:21.888] of his collection.
[00:12:22.355] You think maybe, it's
[00:12:24.925] a top secret
[00:12:25.358] area, if the Air Force
[00:12:28.295] actually does have them,
[00:12:30.597] maybe they got them here.
[00:12:31.865] I'm certain they do.
[00:12:33.033] Up at the test site.
[00:12:34.167] There's
[00:12:36.803] a report that of the three
[00:12:38.805] in perfectly good condition,
[00:12:39.206] at least one is up
[00:12:42.476] at the test site and has flown
[00:12:42.943] and one was being flown
[00:12:46.213] as of 1981.
[00:12:46.413] By us?
[00:12:48.849] By us.
[00:12:49.149] We mentioned
[00:12:50.183] at the top of the show
[00:12:50.751] that perhaps a breakthrough
[00:12:52.486] might be coming
[00:12:53.019] that some of these people
[00:12:54.788] from MJ 12
[00:12:56.289] or from the Project Blue Book,
[00:12:56.590] who were in
[00:12:58.125] on the government's research.
[00:12:58.658] and saw some of the stuff
[00:13:00.961] might be ready to talk.
[00:13:01.528] We got about a minute left.
[00:13:03.363] Why don't you tell me about
[00:13:03.964] that. It's our information that
[00:13:08.702] MJ 12 wants to release it.
[00:13:10.070] Part of it doesn't.
[00:13:10.270] We're
[00:13:11.938] hoping that we can do this.
[00:13:13.373] But of course, as researchers,
[00:13:13.707] we're not aware
[00:13:15.709] of all the ramifications.
[00:13:16.009] We just know
[00:13:18.545] of what we're looking at.
[00:13:19.412] So we would like to see them
[00:13:19.613] release
[00:13:22.783] it, but we really don't know
[00:13:23.483] if they are.
[00:13:23.950] Okay. John Lear, it's
[00:13:25.952] been very interesting.
[00:13:26.520] You keep us posted. Sure will.
[00:13:27.921] Thank you,
[00:13:28.388] we'll see you next week
[00:13:31.792] with more of On the Record.
[00:13:33.827] And as soon as that
[00:13:34.394] aired, I started getting calls
[00:13:36.930] and it didn't stop.
[00:13:37.531] What was the deal with that guy?
[00:13:39.366] Is that for real?
[00:13:39.800] Do you have any more
[00:13:40.700] information?
[00:13:42.135] Are you going to do that again?
[00:13:43.804] I realize this
[00:13:44.137] topic touches
[00:13:45.939] the pulse of the public
[00:13:46.173] in a way
[00:13:47.607] that I did not understand
[00:13:48.041] and did not appreciate
[00:13:48.842] at the time.
[00:13:49.309] I had him back on again
[00:13:51.211] the following year
[00:13:52.746] and in between I started
[00:13:53.480] reading about UFOs
[00:13:53.947] just trying to separate
[00:13:55.749] wheat from chaff.
[00:13:56.316] It's a gigantic learning curve
[00:13:58.351] and figuring out
[00:13:58.718] what makes sense
[00:14:00.720] and what's real is really hard.
[00:14:01.288] So I tried to educate myself
[00:14:03.557] and get ready for that next Lear
[00:14:04.124] appearance, and the response
[00:14:06.927] from the public was even bigger.
[00:14:07.427] Now, on April 25th, 1964
[00:14:10.730] was the first official
[00:14:11.264] communication between our
[00:14:15.101] government and the aliens.
[00:14:15.535] Three saucers landed
[00:14:17.904] It was filmed by five high speed
[00:14:22.676] cameras, 68,000 feet of film.
[00:14:23.076] The reason we know
[00:14:25.512] this is because in 1972,
[00:14:26.179] when they were going to release
[00:14:26.646] the first information
[00:14:29.716] about UFOs to the public,
[00:14:30.283] a very knowledgeable writer
[00:14:32.752] whose name was Robert
[00:14:33.186] Emenegger was asked
[00:14:34.688] by the agency
[00:14:35.155] to write a documentary,
[00:14:37.724] and they were going
[00:14:38.892] to release this thing.
[00:14:39.459] And we had the whole history
[00:14:41.127] of the UFOs.
[00:14:41.428] In the last
[00:14:42.863] part of the documentary
[00:14:43.296] was the the footage
[00:14:46.366] of the saucer landing
[00:14:46.566] in 1973
[00:14:48.068] when they were ready to go.
[00:14:48.635] We had Watergate and they were
[00:14:51.271] faced with two problems.
[00:14:51.872] Number one is they didn't think
[00:14:53.273] the public could handle
[00:14:53.807] two traumatic experiences
[00:14:55.709] at the same time.
[00:14:56.042] And number two,
[00:14:58.245] they thought that the public
[00:14:58.745] would perceive
[00:14:59.312] these this picture of aliens
[00:15:01.915] and spacecraft as a ploy
[00:15:02.515] by Nixon to divert the attention
[00:15:05.118] from Watergate.
[00:15:05.418] The inevitable
[00:15:06.786] result of these charges
[00:15:12.158] questions about the integrity
[00:15:13.760] of the White House itself.
[00:15:14.961] So they shelved it.
[00:15:15.295] The documentary
[00:15:18.064] It was narrated by Rod Serling.
[00:15:18.665] But instead of the real footage,
[00:15:23.436] they had drawings of these
[00:15:24.471] flying saucers landing.
[00:15:25.872] And they said, Rod Serling says,
[00:15:26.406] let's look at an incident
[00:15:29.309] that might happen in the future,
[00:15:29.576] or perhaps
[00:15:32.846] could have happened already.
[00:15:35.348] According to John Lear,
[00:15:37.717] of real UFO footage
[00:15:41.488] that aired in the documentary.
[00:15:46.026] You believe
[00:15:48.495] in part that the movies E.T.,
[00:15:49.095] Close Encounters of the Third
[00:15:52.365] Kind, were not entirely just
[00:15:52.832] the creative products
[00:15:54.968] of some Hollywood director
[00:15:55.568] that maybe there's more to that.
[00:15:57.037] Why don't you explain?
[00:15:57.570] They were carefully guided
[00:16:02.342] by representatives from MJ-12.
[00:16:03.176] Who is this organization
[00:16:03.743] that is in charge of the cover
[00:16:07.047] up in order to get us ready for
[00:16:07.614] the release of the information
[00:16:11.151] that there are indeed aliens.
[00:16:11.551] So to prepare us,
[00:16:13.286] that the idea of benevolent
[00:16:13.687] aliens from outer
[00:16:15.555] space are going to help us.
[00:16:18.391] Unfortunately, they're not.
[00:16:18.992] They're not so benevolent.
[00:16:19.526] So they made probably one
[00:16:23.363] of the most disastrous mistakes
[00:16:23.863] when E.T.
[00:16:24.297] was put out at that
[00:16:28.168] time was before we discovered
[00:16:28.735] what I call the double cross
[00:16:32.138] or the grand deception.
[00:16:32.572] And they were trying
[00:16:35.775] to get us used to the benevolent
[00:16:36.609] little creatures.
[00:16:38.812] But that isn't the case.
[00:16:39.079] I had him
[00:16:41.047] on a third time in 1988,
[00:16:41.581] and he hinted at the time
[00:16:44.317] that he met this guy
[00:16:44.884] who was trying to get hired
[00:16:46.886] at this place
[00:16:47.587] out in the Nevada desert
[00:16:48.188] and that he thought it was going
[00:16:50.390] to be a really big deal.
[00:16:50.824] John Lear's new friend
[00:16:52.959] not only knew what was going on
[00:16:53.426] out there, he knew when
[00:16:58.531] Good evening. This is John Lear.
[00:16:58.832] In March 1989,
[00:17:01.234] he accompanied a small group
[00:17:01.801] to the outskirts of Area 51
[00:17:05.138] three Wednesday nights in a row,
[00:17:05.739] they watched a glowing disc rise
[00:18:14.339] In the spring of 1989,
[00:18:17.276] I'm anchoring the 5:00 news
[00:18:17.843] We would have a five minute
[00:18:20.679] nightly interview segment,
[00:18:21.046] a live interview
[00:18:22.347] with somebody on the set.
[00:18:22.948] Our guest on this particular day
[00:18:26.218] I'm thinking,
[00:18:28.420] who could we get to fill this?
[00:18:28.921] I called up John Lear.
[00:18:29.488] I said, you said you had a guy
[00:18:31.557] who was going to work out there
[00:18:32.057] and maybe work on flying
[00:18:34.192] saucers in the desert.
[00:18:34.893] Can we talk to him?
[00:18:36.395] We put a silhouette, we created
[00:18:39.298] a silhouette interview.
[00:18:39.731] He used a pseudonym,
[00:18:42.701] and out this story comes.
[00:18:43.135] Well, there's several,
[00:18:46.338] uh, actually nine,
[00:18:49.174] uh, flying saucers, flying disks
[00:18:49.575] that are out there
[00:18:52.144] of extraterrestrial origin.
[00:18:52.711] And they're basically being
[00:18:57.816] Uh, some are
[00:18:59.618] well, in various stages of
[00:18:59.918] completion,
[00:19:01.286] built from other parts,
[00:19:01.720] and they're being test
[00:19:04.623] flown and, uh,
[00:19:06.992] uh, basically just analyzed.
[00:19:08.827] You say there's nine saucers.
[00:19:11.930] How are those tests going?
[00:19:13.332] Uh, as far as what?
[00:19:13.665] Uh, as far
[00:19:14.299] as whether they're successful
[00:19:16.301] and that sort of thing?
[00:19:16.902] Oh, well, some of them are 100%
[00:19:21.506] intact and operate perfectly.
[00:19:21.907] Uh, the other ones
[00:19:24.242] are being taken apart.
[00:19:24.743] I was involved mainly in
[00:19:28.213] propulsion and the power source.
[00:19:28.480] Basically,
[00:19:30.849] as far as I can remember,
[00:19:32.718] about half of them do operate
[00:19:33.118] and the other half
[00:19:36.722] are just been torn down, uh,
[00:19:37.155] basically to analyze
[00:19:39.291] the components going
[00:19:40.726] Where did we get these saucers?
[00:19:41.159] How did they come into
[00:19:43.161] the hands of the government?
[00:19:45.063] I haven't the slightest idea.
[00:19:46.732] the information
[00:19:49.067] is very compartmentalized,
[00:19:49.368] and, uh,
[00:19:49.935] I was only allowed information
[00:19:53.071] that pertained particularly
[00:19:54.339] to what I was involved in.
[00:19:55.173] But, I mean, couldn't
[00:23:47.317] Well, there's several, um,
[00:23:47.851] actually nine, uh, flying
[00:23:51.855] saucers, flying discs
[00:23:52.255] that are out there
[00:23:55.392] of extraterrestrial origin.
[00:23:56.326] And he tells this story.
[00:23:56.760] And out in the desert,
[00:23:59.796] into the side of a mountain,
[00:24:00.397] disguised it to look like desert
[00:24:02.699] so it couldn be seen from
[00:24:03.300] the sky. And in that facility
[00:24:05.202] he said, were these nine
[00:24:05.769] hangars built side by side.
[00:24:08.739] And each one of those hangars
[00:24:11.808] that came from somewhere else.
[00:24:12.209] So how do you know
[00:24:13.143] they're not ours?
[00:24:13.577] He said, well, this is
[00:24:17.180] technology that we do not have.
[00:24:18.715] Area 51, a now
[00:24:21.318] well-known military base
[00:24:21.918] that is synonymous with UFOs,
[00:24:24.921] But it's still shrouded
[00:24:25.722] in mystery to this day,
[00:24:26.256] with the exception of what
[00:24:29.659] The military now admits
[00:24:32.295] what the world already knew.
[00:24:32.829] It has a, quote, operating
[00:24:35.966] location near Groom Lake.
[00:24:36.433] Buthe Pentagon says
[00:24:40.203] By denying the base has a name,
[00:24:40.637] the Defense Department
[00:24:43.106] hoped to forestall a lawsuit
[00:24:43.573] filed on behalf of base
[00:24:45.242] workers, workers
[00:24:45.842] who claim they werere exposed
[00:24:48.078] to toxic chemicals
[00:24:49.746] while working at Groom Lake.
[00:24:50.614] Despite official denials,
[00:24:51.181] the common name for the base
[00:24:53.650] has always been Area 51.
[00:24:54.217] We recently found this 1967
[00:24:58.121] government map, which lists
[00:24:58.455] that name.
[00:24:58.722] Subsequent
[00:25:00.357] maps left the name blank.
[00:25:00.924] To those who suggest that Area
[00:25:03.727] 51 has been ut down
[00:25:04.294] or moved somewhere else.
[00:25:04.895] There are a few points that are
[00:25:07.130] kind of tough to explain.
[00:25:09.766] For example,
[00:25:10.066] the bus filled
[00:25:11.668] with employees that comes in
[00:25:12.102] and out of the base
[00:25:14.337] several times each day.
[00:25:15.272] It's still there.
[00:25:15.605] All right.
[00:25:16.439] Still closely guarded,
[00:25:16.940] but not much of a secret
[00:25:20.877] 51 up there. Oh, is it?
[00:25:22.345] Yeah, that's Groom Lake.
[00:25:23.947] That's Papoose Lake.
[00:25:25.882] So where is, like, where is it?
[00:25:26.817] Can you see it on a map at all?
[00:25:27.250] Any of the buildings
[00:25:28.785] or is this all pre No.
[00:25:32.022] some of that right there. Yeah.
[00:25:32.789] And that's the runway.
[00:25:33.190] And then those are
[00:25:34.357] some of the buildings
[00:25:35.525] from when that photo was taken.
[00:25:35.959] There is an entrance
[00:25:38.461] to Area 51 from here,
[00:25:41.898] to do stories on other matters.
[00:25:42.465] And the Department of Energy
[00:25:44.801] Staff is always funny.
[00:25:45.235] They would just say,
[00:25:47.003] just don't look that way,
[00:25:47.504] Just look this way.
[00:25:47.804] And Im like,
[00:25:51.474] of course I looked that way.
[00:25:57.280] Area 51 is about
[00:26:01.318] 150 miles outside of Las Vegas.
[00:26:01.818] We're on our way there
[00:26:02.419] now on a highway actually called
[00:26:05.789] the Extraterrestrial Highway.
[00:26:06.223] And this is a route
[00:26:07.524] that George has taken
[00:26:08.058] dozens and dozens of times
[00:26:10.493] over his career.
[00:26:11.061] It's not exactly an easy place
[00:26:12.462] to find.
[00:26:13.063] You can't just Google Area 51
[00:26:16.233] and figure out where
[00:26:16.833] the entrances are.
[00:26:17.334] You sort of have to know
[00:26:20.370] what to look for.
[00:26:37.087] Okay, so we made it out
[00:26:39.723] It is so eerie
[00:26:42.192] and quiet out here.
[00:26:42.759] We had to go down this long,
[00:26:44.728] windy dirt
[00:26:45.195] road off the main drag,
[00:26:48.164] the extraterrestrial highway
[00:26:49.699] to get out here to the entrance.
[00:26:50.100] You really cannot
[00:26:51.768] get very close.
[00:26:52.102] Behind me,
[00:26:52.636] about a quarter of a mile
[00:26:55.705] is one of the guarded entrances.
[00:26:56.139] There's barbed wire,
[00:26:58.241] there's armed guards there.
[00:26:58.675] We're pretty sure that
[00:27:01.845] they definitely know we're here.
[00:27:02.178] Trip after trip
[00:27:04.547] through the Nevada desert,
[00:27:05.115] George broadcasted
[00:27:05.515] the closest photos
[00:27:08.551] we've ever seen of Area 51.
[00:27:11.288] shown in public,
[00:27:11.688] are about as close
[00:27:13.456] as anyone will ever come
[00:27:13.723] to seeing
[00:27:15.525] what the place looks like again.
[00:27:16.059] The dry bed of Groom Lake,
[00:27:20.497] a three mile long runway,
[00:27:21.097] and some highly sophisticated
[00:27:24.301] radar and detection equipment.
[00:27:24.901] It's been known by many names
[00:27:26.670] over the years
[00:27:27.137] Dreamland, the ranch,
[00:27:29.873] If ever there was a place
[00:27:31.074] to test
[00:27:31.574] a secret new technology,
[00:27:33.143] this is it.
[00:27:33.677] And that's exactly what's
[00:27:36.012] been done here for decades.
[00:27:36.513] Area 51 is where Francis
[00:27:40.050] Gary Powers and the other U-2
[00:27:40.216] pilots
[00:27:42.018] were trained in the fifties
[00:27:42.519] and where the U-2 itself
[00:27:44.254] was developed.
[00:27:44.688] The SR-71 spy planes
[00:27:47.490] that spotted Soviet missiles
[00:27:48.058] in Cuba in the early sixties
[00:27:51.194] were also developed at 51.
[00:27:51.761] 51 is where stealth technology
[00:27:55.031] was nurtured, where Star Wars
[00:27:55.565] devices are still tested,
[00:27:58.635] and where all manner of C.I.A.
[00:28:01.438] and refined.
[00:28:01.938] The CIA built it for use
[00:28:04.174] in the U-2 program.
[00:28:04.774] This is rare footage taken from
[00:28:07.811] Groom Lake of some early tests.
[00:28:08.378] Current warning signs indicate
[00:28:11.247] it's an Air Force facility,
[00:28:11.848] but all branches of the military
[00:28:13.783] have used it,
[00:28:14.250] along with most major
[00:28:16.720] defense contractors.
[00:28:17.187] The common thread
[00:28:17.654] has always been EG&G,
[00:28:20.423] which has had the contract
[00:28:20.890] to operate the facility
[00:28:23.093] since the beginning.
[00:28:24.394] What goes on there today?
[00:28:25.295] Plenty. Highly placed
[00:28:25.862] sources say the base employs
[00:28:28.331] about 1800 people,
[00:28:28.865] one of their main missions
[00:28:31.334] is to evaluate Russian defense
[00:28:31.735] systems, equipment
[00:28:33.203] that's in the hands
[00:28:33.670] of unfriendly nations
[00:28:35.772] like Iran and Iraq.
[00:28:36.239] Another program at 51
[00:28:41.244] isn't far along.
[00:28:41.678] As for flying saucers,
[00:28:43.780] the military admits
[00:28:44.080] it has built
[00:28:45.815] these unmanned craft
[00:28:46.383] and may not be a coincidence
[00:28:47.884] that the Air Force's
[00:28:48.451] only unmanned aerial vehicle
[00:28:51.855] squadron is based at Nellis.
[00:28:52.088] Whatever
[00:28:53.289] is flying around out there
[00:28:53.757] still attracts visitors
[00:28:56.159] from all over the world.
[00:28:58.728] It's still newsworthy in Europe?
[00:29:03.733] Area 51 is well known
[00:29:04.300] and this is all closed off,
[00:29:06.569] this whole area.
[00:29:08.471] Yeah, it's a secure facility.
[00:29:08.838] I mean, they
[00:29:11.241] have tours out there,
[00:29:11.608] but it kind of
[00:29:14.144] hard to get in there now.
[00:29:15.879] Do people live out there at all?
[00:29:16.846] Or do they all commute?
[00:29:18.048] They have a little town
[00:29:18.481] where people will stay
[00:29:21.084] for a short period of time.
[00:29:21.584] Our report set off a UFO
[00:29:23.553] stampede
[00:29:24.120] that is yeyet to dimish.
[00:29:24.687] Tens of thousands of people
[00:29:27.123] have trekked into the desert
[00:29:27.690] hoping to see a UFO, inspiring
[00:34:29.163] no one who knew Area 51 from
[00:34:29.597] the inside ever talked
[00:34:32.900] publicly about the saucer story.
[00:34:33.334] Well, there's several,
[00:34:37.771] uh, actually, nine, uh.
[00:34:38.205] Flying saucers.
[00:34:38.806] Flying discs, that are out there
[00:34:42.943] of extraterrestrial origin.
[00:34:43.777] He tells me this story.
[00:34:44.211] I mean, we couldn't
[00:34:45.179] get away with it now.
[00:34:45.746] We'd done no vetting at all.
[00:34:49.550] I get pulled off the set
[00:34:50.050] and pulled into the news
[00:34:51.051] director's office.
[00:34:51.652] The general manager comes back.
[00:34:53.554] What the hell was that?
[00:34:53.954] Is this for real?
[00:34:55.256] What did you just do?
[00:34:55.589] I said, look,
[00:34:57.091] I don't know if it's real.
[00:34:57.658] I have no idea. We just wanted
[00:34:59.994] to do an interview.
[00:35:01.562] But I'm going to find out.
[00:35:03.731] The live interview with the
[00:35:04.031] shadowy Dennis
[00:35:07.268] drew international attention.
[00:35:10.771] Theres actually nine,
[00:35:11.205] uh, flying saucers.
[00:35:13.474] Flying discs.
[00:35:14.008] Despite numerous inquiries
[00:35:16.477] and feelers, Dennis
[00:35:16.910] has remained anonymous
[00:35:18.145] until now.
[00:35:22.082] I, arranged to meet this guy.
[00:35:23.250] We went up to Lear's house.
[00:35:23.851] It was sort of an uncomfortable
[00:35:25.919] situation in the beginning
[00:35:26.353] because Lear wanted
[00:35:28.188] to control the whole thing.
[00:35:28.489] He wouldn't
[00:35:30.257] tell us the guy's name,
[00:35:30.624] but the guy
[00:35:31.091] had signed a guest book
[00:35:34.628] at the entrance to Lear's home.
[00:35:35.162] So I already saw his name,
[00:35:36.797] I knew what it was.
[00:35:39.333] His real name is Robert Lazar.
[00:35:41.268] A young scientist with
[00:35:42.169] eclectic interests.
[00:35:42.603] The choice of Dennis
[00:35:44.038] was an inside joke.
[00:35:44.505] He says that's the name
[00:35:47.408] of his superior at Groom Lake.
[00:35:48.909] It wasn't a joke to Dennis.
[00:35:49.543] He called right after he said,
[00:35:50.144] "Do you have any idea what
[00:35:51.578] we're going to do to you now? "
[00:35:52.046] And I said, well, no.
[00:35:54.048] And he hung up the phone.
[00:35:54.448] Lazars story is,
[00:35:57.017] by any standards, fantastic.
[00:35:57.484] He says he's telling it
[00:36:00.521] in order to protect himself.
[00:36:01.288] We go
[00:36:02.356] in there and we start talking
[00:36:02.623] to the guy
[00:36:04.591] who turned out to be Bob Lazar.
[00:36:05.259] He told us his life story,
[00:36:05.793] where he'd gone to school,
[00:36:07.594] where he'd worked before,
[00:36:08.062] and some of what he had
[00:36:09.363] seen out there.
[00:36:09.930] He says he was hired to work
[00:36:12.166] at an area called S-4,
[00:36:12.599] which is a few miles
[00:36:15.102] south of Groom Lake. At S-4
[00:36:15.536] he says, are flying
[00:36:18.305] saucers, antimatter reactors
[00:36:20.607] examples, technology
[00:36:21.141] that are seemingly beyond
[00:36:23.243] human capabilities.
[00:36:23.544] Right. This
[00:36:24.878] this came from somewhere else.
[00:36:25.279] I mean, as bizarre
[00:36:26.547] as that is to believe.
[00:36:27.014] But I mean, it's there
[00:36:28.182] and I saw it.
[00:36:32.986] the art is and in physics and
[00:36:34.355] it can be done.
[00:36:34.822] After 3 or 4 hours of
[00:36:36.323] grilling him,
[00:36:36.924] we look at each other and go,
[00:36:40.961] holy crap, what if this is real?
[00:36:41.595] What if this is true?
[00:36:42.196] This would be the biggest story
[00:36:44.465] in history.
[00:36:46.400] But it's also
[00:36:47.034] perilous for us.
[00:36:47.434] If we go after it
[00:36:49.303] and it blows up in our face,
[00:36:49.670] it could destroy
[00:36:52.873] not only my reputation and his,
[00:36:53.807] but that of KLAS too.
[00:36:54.408] Checking out Lazar credentials
[00:36:57.010] proved to be a difficult task.
[00:36:57.544] He says he earned degrees
[00:36:59.613] in physics and electronics,
[00:37:00.214] but the schools we contacted say
[00:37:03.450] they've never heard of him.
[00:37:03.817] He also said
[00:37:04.318] he worked as a physicist
[00:37:06.487] at Los Alamos National Lab,
[00:37:06.954] where he experimented
[00:37:08.322] with one of the world's
[00:37:11.458] accelerators, a half-mile long
[00:37:12.025] behemoth capable of generating
[00:37:15.462] 700 million volts.
[00:37:16.630] Los Alamos officials told us
[00:37:17.231] they had no records of a Robert
[00:37:20.033] Lazar ever working there.
[00:37:20.567] They were either mistaken
[00:37:21.935] or were lying.
[00:37:22.503] A 1982 phone book from the lab
[00:37:26.073] lists Lazar right there,
[00:37:26.607] among the other scientists
[00:37:28.242] and technicians.
[00:37:32.780] Alamos newspaper profiled Lazar
[00:37:33.247] and his interest in jet
[00:37:34.281] cars. It,
[00:37:34.882] too, mentioned his employment
[00:37:37.818] at the lab as a physicist.
[00:37:39.386] We called Los Alamos again.
[00:37:40.821] An exasperated official told us
[00:37:41.355] he still had no records on
[00:37:44.792] Lazar. EG&G, which is where
[00:37:45.392] Lazar says he was interviewed
[00:37:48.395] for the job at S-4,
[00:37:49.663] also has no records.
[00:37:50.264] It's as if someone has made him
[00:37:51.799] disappear.
[00:37:52.232] Well, they're trying
[00:37:54.935] to make me a non-person.
[00:37:55.335] Explain.
[00:37:56.537] You called, where?
[00:37:56.937] Well, the schools
[00:37:59.306] that I went to, the hospital
[00:37:59.706] that was born at,
[00:38:02.142] past job.
[00:38:02.476] And essentially
[00:38:05.012] nothing comes up with my name.
[00:38:05.612] He smiles, but out of futility,
[00:38:08.449] knowing the whole thing
[00:38:11.051] must sound ridiculous.
[00:38:13.053] I don't think there's
[00:38:13.320] any secret
[00:38:15.889] flying saucers at Area 51.
[00:38:16.190] I suspect that
[00:38:17.591] there was something like that
[00:38:18.025] out there at one point
[00:38:19.560] because of people
[00:38:21.595] that I know have seen it.
[00:38:25.799] So where would they be now?
[00:38:26.366] Well, either they moved them
[00:38:29.236] further out into the Nevada
[00:38:29.570] test site.
[00:38:31.305] If you're out there at night,
[00:38:31.839] you will see these pockets
[00:38:33.407] of light
[00:38:33.974] that pop up in the darkness
[00:38:38.345] at places that do not exist.
[00:38:39.079] Something's out there.
[00:38:39.580] After the sun goes down,
[00:38:42.649] it is a different vibe out here.
[00:38:44.651] It's almost totally pitch black.
[00:38:45.185] If we switch to the night
[00:38:46.620] vision, you can.
[00:38:47.688] You can see better out here.
[00:38:48.288] I've never really experienced
[00:38:50.624] anything quite like it.
[00:38:52.259] There's no city lights.
[00:38:52.659] The military base
[00:38:55.662] Area 51 is behind me.
[00:38:57.798] It's just wide open.
[00:39:01.969] The noises are interesting
[00:39:02.402] because it's obviously
[00:39:03.937] nature noises.
[00:39:05.672] You can hear the crickets.
[00:39:06.807] But then we've also heard
[00:39:09.076] military aircraft
[00:39:09.376] for the last
[00:39:12.112] probably hour or so.
[00:39:13.547] Obviously doing
[00:39:15.148] some kind of training missions.
[00:39:15.616] You can hear the planes
[00:39:17.317] flying overhead.
[00:39:18.018] You can't always see them.
[00:39:18.552] Sometimes there's flashing
[00:39:22.256] lights, sometimes there's not.
[00:39:22.756] Theres it moving, right
[00:39:23.724] there, to the left,
[00:39:24.124] See it on the left
[00:39:27.194] side of the frame?
[00:39:35.402] And there's also been
[00:39:36.837] some other lights that have sort
[00:39:37.437] of popped up over the mountains
[00:39:41.842] and also in the brush,
[00:39:59.159] That light just turned off
[00:40:02.729] again.
[00:40:05.632] Oh, there's a plane.
[00:40:06.033] It's true.
[00:40:07.434] What I have seen is true.
[00:40:07.901] I don't know about the
[00:40:11.438] big story, where they came from,
[00:40:11.939] what they're like.
[00:40:12.472] And, and uh, but certainly
[00:40:15.709] these crafts came from another
[00:40:16.276] and not just another planet,
[00:40:19.146] another solar system entirely,
[00:40:19.413] extremely
[00:40:23.350] far away. And they're here.
[00:40:25.319] What we've learned this week
[00:40:25.919] is that the government has lied
[00:40:29.222] information,
[00:40:32.225] has spied on UFO organizations,
[00:40:32.659] and has discredited
[00:40:34.261] UFO witnesses.
[00:40:34.761] Now, none of this proves
[00:40:36.763] that UFOs are real,
[00:40:37.197] but it does indicate
[00:40:39.833] a disturbing level of interest,
[00:40:40.100] government
[00:40:41.368] interest in the subject.
[00:40:41.768] If the government
[00:40:43.770] won't tell us what it knows.
[00:40:44.438] What about science?
[00:40:44.638] Well,
[00:40:46.173] science is supposed to stand
[00:40:46.640] for the investigation
[00:40:48.308] of the unexplained,
[00:40:50.811] of the uninvestigated.
[00:40:51.244] And so far, science
[00:40:53.447] has avoided the subject
[00:40:54.114] like a plague.
[00:40:54.414] It's like what
[00:40:55.182] Roy Neary,
[00:40:55.749] the main character in the film
[00:40:58.485] Close Encounters, had to say.
[00:41:01.488] is, what's going on?