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Ghost Town ... and The Darkness ...
"There are unimaginable wonders
[out there], for those who
can remove some of Truth's protective layers"
-- Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, on the occasion of the
25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." [Henry VI, Part 2]
-- William Shakespeare

Enhanced section of Mars Odyssey 2001 infrared/visible light composite.
Composite by Keith Laney. Enhancement by Richard C. Hoagland
For the last several weeks, since the release of the Mars
Odyssey 2001
THEMIS infrared images of Cydonia, we have been working feverishly
to produce a detailed, scientific Report on our initial findings. As you
may have surmised from our numerous "Captain's Updates" and
the image above, the discoveries we have made in the course of extracting
the first data from these images have been overwhelming, even to our jaded
eyes. After more than two decades of trying to tame this dragon, we stand
tonight on the Edge of Forever -- finally holding the proverbial "smoking
gun" that should end once and for all the literal decades of repetitive
debate over Cydonia as an archeological reality.
It won’t of course -- probably not for quite a while. But
that’s not our problem. Ours is simply to report the extraordinary new
evidence that we have found.
There can be little question now that what we are seeing
at Cydonia is "architecture." Although we have already made
what we consider an incredibly strong case over the years that certain
objects at Cydonia -- including the famous Face
on Mars -- are artificial, the latest THEMIS data is on a totally
different level. As you will soon see (when Richard finally posts his
preliminary technical Report), it will ultimately end this debate once
and for all.
If only we could get the data to stand still.
In order for you to understand this central "problem" -- and
our reasons for the great degree of confidence we are now displaying in
even our preliminary findings -- we must first take you on a "mini-tour"
of that document Richard is still, after four grueling weeks, painstakingly
working to complete. We’ll begin by going back to the beginning, in late
July, 2002 … as we naively started to address the data just released on
the official THEMIS web site ….
As a deliberate choice, Enterprise Mission investigators,
including Richard Hoagland, decided early on to stay completely out of
the "processing phase" of this Investigation. We instead elected
to utilize the skills of two outside volunteers in image processing --
who freely offered invaluable technical assistance at this crucial time:
Holger Isenberg and Keith Laney.
Neither were full-time members of our long-standing team
of other imaging and geological experts, whom we have previously turned
to over the years, but rather highly qualified and completely independent
recent "interested persons" in our work (Holger is
a graduate engineer for Applied Computer Science at Dortmund University,
as well as a Unix System and Network Administrator at a German software
company. Keith Laney is a digital imaging and software applications specialist
and MOC image processor for the
NASA-Ames' MOC MER2003 Landing Sites Project). We felt this
would give the maximum degree of credibility to our eventual results.
Since the other key factor in gaining credibility
in scientific circles is reproducibility, we also decided that Keith and
Holger should aim at accomplishing the same tasks, but work as separately
from each other as was practical.
Keith, at first, was not very enthusiastic about any aspect
of the "project."
Hoping
to see a full color, multi-spectral image (per Dr. Saunders’ -- Odyssey
Project Scientist -- "preview Web announcement," made just prior
to the July 24th release), Laney was so displeased with what
was eventually published on the THEMIS web site (a set of grayscale, side-by-side,
multiple-band image strips), that he didn't even bother to download
the composite THEMIS image the first day (July the 24th, 2002) --
flatly declaring that "it sucked," when asked about it in the
Enterprise Conference and on other message boards across the Net.
Because of this highly visible position, Keith (and a few
others who had also publicly criticized the quality of the new image)
than began to get a series of interesting "responses" in the
Enterprise Conference and in private chats. These "responses"
came from two new visitors to our site: "BAMF," and one "Dan
Smythe" The former had begun posting about a month before the image
release; the latter appeared simultaneous with its release. Both of these
new found "friends" seemed to know quite a bit about "infrared
image processing," and pretty much goaded Keith into finally
going back and processing the full-size TIFF file -- which (according
to his own computer log) he had downloaded on the 25th of July, at 10:27
PM EDT.
We were, from the get-go, more than a tad "suspicious"
of both BAMF and Smythe, and that suspicion only deepened when we discovered
that "BAMF" was in fact none other than "Noel Gorelick"
-- who claimed (in his on-line Enterprise Conference profile)
to be the Manager of Arizona State University’s Mars Computation Center.
Gorelick went on to further claim that he was in fact the person
who had hand-assembled (over a period of four days) the
infrared Cydonia image posted on the THEMIS web site!
While from the beginning publicly acerbic and disparaging
of the very reason for the existence of Enterprise -- as a platform
for scientific investigation and discussion of possible artificial
ruins on another world, imaged by a variety of NASA missions -- privately,
"Bamf" and Smythe provided Keith and Holger -- and anyone else
with the smarts to work with the new image -- a virtual on-line "how-to"
tutorial in "infrared image processing." In fact,
Gorelick was so helpful, so omnipresent (spending literally hundreds
of hours in both the Conference and in "chats"), that we began
to suspect that there might be "more than one of him" … suddenly
"living electronically at Enterprise" from ASU.
Using the image he had downloaded on the 25th, and working
with a state-of-the-art software suite that included ENVI 3.5 (a superb
remote sensing software enhancement product created by
Research Systems Inc. a division of the Kodak Corporation -- which
provided a crucial "decorrelation stretch" tool) once he "got
the hang of it," Keith began to achieve astonishing results. His
initial color ratio composites – from the nine strips of drab B&W
imaging he had downloaded from the official THEMIS website -- were nothing
less than stunning (below).

In addition to a whole new IR perspective on the "long-familiar
features" of Cydonia – the Face, the D&M, etc. -- Laney found
a troublesome, quasi-regular pattern of easily discernable pervasive rectilinear
markings … running almost the entire length of each band of the IR
Cydonia strips. When he queried Gorelick about the annoying "blockies"
(as he called them), "BAMF" grudgingly admitted "so, you've
found our dirty little secret." The ASU Manager acknowledged that
the THEMIS team had also seen this peculiar "noise," and had
decided NOT to create the normal, multi-spectral color images produced
of other areas on Mars from the same THEMIS camera … because of this disfiguring
pattern. Remarkably, he also admitted that, despite their best efforts,
they could not seem to remove the "noise" … or find it on other
published IR THEMIS images.
It seemed singularly unique to the Cydonia THEMIS IR images
….
Keith then began feverishly working on his own methods to
remove this offending pattern – even sharing a couple of "destriping
tricks" with Gorelick (who was quietly soliciting outside assistance
on the problem) in the process. But, ultimately, he had no more luck than
the official THEMIS team.
Around the same time, Enterprise principal investigator
Richard C. Hoagland (who was following this unique exchange between "Bamf"
and Laney via e-mail) decided to suggest a radically different process
for eliminating this peculiar noise, a well-known technique for "noise
averaging" used for decades in astronomical photography -- called
"luminance
layering." Hoagland outlined adding the earlier Odyssey visible
light image (released April 12, 2002) to the stunning three-color IR composites
Keith was creating from the latest THEMIS release. Laney, remarkably,
had at about the same time independently decided to do the same
thing! Once Keith did this -- essentially "adding" the visible
light image to the color stretched IR data (below) -- things rapidly got
very interesting.
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What both men found to their surprise was that the pattern not
only wouldn’t go away … it actually got more pronounced.
It suddenly struck Hoagland that what he and Laney (not to mention the
THEMIS team itself!) thought was "noise" in the Cydonia images
might really be the signal. Working on this radical assumption,
Hoagland switched gears and quietly urged Laney to start trying to amplify
the pattern in his on-going ENVI processing of the "raw" data,
rather than continue efforts to remove it.
At the same time, taking the composited VIS/IR "decorrelated"
versions Laney already had completed, Hoagland began a few experiments
of his own ….
That's when the "cityscape" -- the mile upon mile
of individual, clearly artificial structures hiding beneath the
dusty plains of Cydonia -- became completely obvious.
By simply increasing the image saturation of the composite VIS/IR image
(below), what had been "an annoying and mystifying block pattern,"
suddenly was revealed by Hoagland to be a stunning, highly detailed city
… silently sleeping for untold ages "beneath the timeless sands
of Mars’ …..

Our
usual critics will at this point begin arguing that this is simply "enhanced
noise," or, that we have somehow "made all this up."
In reality, it is fairly easy to put such notions to the
test. For one thing, the pattern does NOT follow the scan lines of the
imager, but rather true Cydonia north and south -- exactly as terrestrial
cities (especially "modern" American ones) most often do. In
addition, there are a wide variety of individual "structures"
which do NOT conform to this north/south grid at all. We are completely
confident that these structures are not "noise," since they
show, in both layout and design, clear evidence of architectural intent
and organization. And even the smallest structures are at least an
order of magnitude (ten times) above the (very low) noise threshold of
these superb VIS/IR composites – both in terms of resolution as well as
intensity.
Without any further enhancement, massive individual structures
simply "fell out" of the data by simply turning up the color
saturation. Previously identified features, like the "tunnel"
running out of the Fort, could now be seen to continue out across the
Cydonia plain … literally under the soil ....
First noted by us because of its similarity to the "Glass
Tunnels" Hoagland found several hundred miles west of
Cydonia two years ago, and that got Arthur C. Clarke so excited just last
year, we said at the time (to howls of protest) that this "linear
Fort feature" was consistent with our model that the "Glass
Tunnels" were some kind of subterranean "transport system."
The exposed portion of the "Fort tunnel" is clearly visible
even in the Viking data from over 20 years ago, and runs out from underneath
the Fort at a roughly 60° angle to the Face-side wall. However, in the
visible images, the tunnel runs for only a few hundred feet before it
disappears beneath the Cydonian sands.
In
the more recent B&W visible light MOC images we have received from
MGS (Mars Global Surveyor), the close-up view of the tunnel (below) revealed
that it has a distinct rib cross-structure -- strikingly similar
to the other Martian "Tunnels" we had found (which our NASA
critics, with boring predictability, dismissed as simple "dune trains").

MOC Enhancement by Keith Laney
On the Cydonia VIS/IR composites, we found more of them (below).
One
new "transport tunnel" emerges from the base of a "building"
we are now calling the "train station" in "downtown Cydonia"
-- and runs straight into the "mesa" just south of the Face
(and just north of the massive
tetrahedral ruin we first noted on the "Catbox" image).
In fact, it runs into the "mesa" (which, from the new IR data,
we are strongly suspecting is NOT even a "mesa") at the exact
lateral center of that massive above-ground structure. Close examination
of the other end of the tube (below, right) shows that the "tunnel"
terminates at the base of the "train station" directly in front
of a series of striking open archways in that building!
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What is absolutely clear from the new THEMIS enhancements is that
the "tunnels" are indeed just that. The THEMIS image allows
us to see that the "Fort tunnel" is not just a simple depression
in the landscape, but a coherent, tubular feature that runs for many miles
beneath the Martian desert and across the Cydonia plain into the heart
of the buried "Cydonia city." There are also clear structural
cross-members -- massive in scale -- that run 90° to the tunnel at various
points along its traverse, as well as its companion tunnel leading to
the "mesa" south of the Face. Architects and engineers will
again quickly recognize these features as obvious evidence of intent
and design. The simple fact that the tunnels can be seen to continue
below the ground, is clear evidence that they are not natural formations
of any kind.
Some (NASA) geologists will probably try to claim that the
features are "lava tubes," or some other nonsensical ad-hoc
explanation. But just how they reconcile that vain hope with the multi-story
buildings we see all around these linear features will be interesting
to watch.
This should also, for all intents and purposes, end the
debate with geologists like David Pieri as to the reality of the other
"glass tunnel-like features" we (and other "anomalists")
have now found literally all over Mars ….
And there are the other, even more unimaginable wonders
on this THEMIS image.
The
most prominent being a stunning, overwhelmingly architectural structure
we are now calling "The Temple" (below).
You can clearly see, without even straining your eyes, the individual
cells and what appear to be decorative buttresses all around this
multi-story structure. This object, just east (to the "Face side")
of the Fort, is an architectural marvel -- clearly a structure of significance
and, with the exception of its apparently missing roof, in nearly
pristine condition.
Sharp
eyes will detect numerous other completely obvious buildings of various
types scattered all across the image. We can and will identify many of
these individual structures in our image gallery and in our follow-up
Preliminary Technical Report (which we will post in the next few days).
For the moment, let's just feast our eyes on a couple of other wonders,
and contemplate the reality of "the Lost City of Cydonia" ....
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Not only is this model completely consistent with our previously
published Mars
Tidal Model, it is also the only explanation for these
buried features we are seeing on the IR composites. It is also
the only reasonable explanation for why we’re seeing them at all. Long
wave infrared imagers have a limited ability to penetrate underground,
by detecting surface "hot spots" conducting heat upward from
below. But they cannot possibly show the kind of detail we are seeing
… unless … we are sensing our "city" through a layer of "fluffy,
micron-sized dust" essentially transparent to the THEMIS wavebands
... covering another, thicker layer of protective (and also IR transparent)
ice.
But given the now confused state of the paper trail of this
data, how do we know that our images are "real," how
can we so confidently claim -- besides the obvious visual clues already
laid out -- that these objects are really there, really mummified in an
icy coffin just beneath the surface of Cydonia?
That is really beyond the scope of this article, and will
be fully addressed in Richard's technical Report. However, we will highlight
a few additional points here.
Just as we were ready to "go to press" two weeks
ago, we suddenly became aware that the original THEMIS daytime IR image
of Cydonia posted on the website may have been altered. The first
hints came when Holger Isenberg (remember, the other imaging assocociate
working from Germany), was unable to duplicate our key results.
Holger was not working with precisely the same software suite as the rest
of us (ENVI 3.5 was unavailable to him, gratis, unlike Keith’s copy, in
Europe), which was both a good and bad development. For, it inadvertently
gave us a chance to compare the results when two different, but functionally
similar sets of imaging tools were applied to the same IR data.
The first assumption was that there might be something that
either he or we were doing "wrong" that gave us differing results.
We eventually discovered that Holger was using the .PNG version of the
THEMIS image, as opposed to the full size .TIFF that the rest of us were
working with. But, that did not account for the entire discrepancy that
we were seeing. PNG's are a fundamentally solid file format, completely
lacking the "lossy" compression problems of JPG's of GIF's.
Beyond that, the objects that we were finding were so big,
so far beyond the noise level of the image and so easy to bring out (once
the compositing of the IR bands had been done properly), that even with
a compressed web image file format, Holger should have seen these objects
literally jump out at him. Instead, there seemed to be a distinct lack
of information in the images he was processing.
And all of this came on the heels of the dramatic and curious
developments of the preceding week or so. Our new found "friend,"
BAMF, aka Noel Gorelick of ASU, made some emphatic statements that
seemed to fly in the Face (!) of his previous attempts to help our efforts.
On or around August 20th, 2002, Gorelick made what seemed at the time
to be a bizarre and arrogant claim. He insisted he had the power -- and
indeed the right -- to flagrantly alter the data posted on the
official THEMIS website… at his whim. To quote him verbatim:
"The daily images
web site is a service I provide and support entirely because I'm
a nice guy. There is no NASA mandate or contractual requirement
for me to provide these images to anyone before they're delivered
to the PDS. I do so because the public is interested in what's going
on with the mission, and it's good for public relations. Accordingly,
if I feel like degrading the data before I post it, I'm certainly
free to do so. If I want to scribble on the images with a crayon
before posting them to my web site, I'm probably free to do that
too. The 'government data' that the public paid for is
being well cared for while it's being prepared for delivery to the
PDS."
-- BAMF, aka Noel Gorelick
Tagged onto an earlier, equally strange statement in the
same vein made by Gorelick -- claiming that "no one can tell if an
image has been fundamentally altered …" -- we began to become more
than a tad concerned. This, in turn, led to us withdrawing from our original
plan to post the infrared Cydonia THEMIS data and our Preliminary Analysis
on August 22, 2002 -- while we rechecked our data’s fundamental integrity
and lineage.

And
that prompted an immediate response from ASU's Dr. Philip Christensen,
the Principal Investigator for the Mars Odyssey 2001 THEMIS instrument.
He sent us an email late in the evening on August the 22nd, as if he had
been waiting either at home or in the office for our appearance on "Coast
to Coast AM." The complete text of his email to Enterprise
associate investigator Mike Bara read:
Dear Michael,
I am confused by your statements
regarding the THEMIS IR data and your decision not to release your
findings. The data were calibrated [sic] our standard processes
and in the same way that is done for the THEMIS science team.
I am not sure why you are suggesting that Noel, or anyone else on
the THEMIS team, has done anything to alter the data - he was simply
questioning how you have treated the data and how you have validated
your methods and processes.
I look forward to your release and
to a detailed description of exactly what you have done to the data
once you have downloaded [sic] from our web site. Hopefully
you will provide an accurate description of these techniques and the
methods that you have employed to validate everything you have done
to the data.
Sincerely,
Phil Christensen
THEMIS Principal Investigator
At this point, we made a conscious decision to pretend in
public that we were more than satisfied with this response. The truth
was, it only deepened our concern. Not only does Christensen's e-mail
make a blatant misstatement -- Gorelick certainly did imply he
might have altered the data (and more than once), and was NOT simply "questioning
how you have treated the data." And, if threatening to "scribble
on the images with a crayon" doesn't strike Christensen as
a reason for us to imply that Noel might have done something untoward
to the data, well, Phil, what would qualify?
But the most disquieting part of the email was Christensen's
inordinate interest in our "methods and processes." Why was
he so interested in what we had done to the data, when he himself
and his own team had provided nothing to the public (which, Gorelick's
assertions to the contrary, owns the data) about what they might
have done to it? The THEMIS team hadn't provided any description
as to how the data had been handled, treated or possibly "enhanced."
They hadn't provided the slightest hint of what filters may have been
applied, a paper trail of who had handled it, or even the most rudimentary
ancillary data (spacecraft geometry, lighting, etc.) for any of
the released Odyssey images. If they weren't even willing to provide the
date, time, and orbit number of the THEMIS Cydonia image, why would they
be soooo interested in us providing an "accurate description"
of what we had done?
We didn't quite know yet, but we knew we needed to find
out.
So we went back through the data stream and tried to find
any discrepancies in either our processes or tools. The one thing that
kept coming out was that Holger Isenberg just did not seem to be getting
the same results as Keith Laney. In fact, he wasn't even coming close.
Granted, he didn't have full use of ENVI (because he could not get a temporary
European license for it), but that alone didn't seem to fully address
the striking differences ….
Keith
was non-plussed by this problem. After initially thinking that Holger
just wasn't "getting it," he finally decided to retrace his
own steps, go back to the THEMIS web site and download the image "one
more time" and literally start from scratch, working with Holger
step by step (at this point our "separate but equal processing strategy"
seeming to effectively have run its course).
When he did so -- to put it bluntly -- he (and we!) got
a major shock.
When he brought up the two images side by side … the one he’d downloaded
on the evening of July 25th, and the one he just downloaded
again from the exact same official THEMIS website on the evening of August
25th … they didn’t match.

As you can clearly see from the comparison graphic (above),
Keith's original July 25th version is noticeably different
– even to naked eye inspection -- from the one currently posted (as of
this writing) on the official THEMIS web site. In Keith's version, you
can plainly see the block pattern, or part of it, even in the so-called
"raw" data -- without any computer processing. In the
official THEMIS posting, these "blocks" are completely absent.
The
differences become even more striking when standard IR enhancement processes
are applied. In Keith's version, he can easily replicate his previous
results (with ENVI) and get down into the data. The result is a beautifully
clean, IR composite image -- with very little noise (below, right). When
he uses precisely the same processes on the "official"
website version, the result is absolute, unadulterated, "noise-filled
crap" (left image, below).

Some readers in the Enterprise Conference have been
confused because in the "raw," the official version seems noticeably
sharper. In fact, this is apparently because it has had a sharpening filter
applied to a visual image overlaying the IR. The "real"
one (in our published version) had a mild (0.42) Gaussian blur applied
to it. Keith mistakenly applied this to the original image in an attempt
to enhance what appeared initially to him to be a "fuzzy," noisy
image (attesting to the absolute limits of simple visual inspection of
IR data for meaningful content!). Fortunately, he saved an unblurred
copy of the original -- which we intend to publish as corroboration that,
in fact, our "real" THEMIS IR Cydonia image was originally untouched.
In any event, this should not be a major cause for concern.
As
the ENVI software manual points out, in a true multi-spectral IR image,
you cannot "destroy" or add to the data with a simple filter,
like a "Gaussian blur". You can only enhance it -- because each
individual IR pixel retains the same base intensity data that it had originally
(D&M image, below right). On the other hand, if you reduce the resolution
with resampling, overlay a visible light image, and then apply a sharpen
filter (while adding an unknown amount of pure "white noise")
-- as apparently has been done with the "official" website version
(below, left) -- then you will get pretty much what we see on the (obviously!)
degraded version ....

The D&M Pyramid, processed using the "official"
version of THEMIS IR Cydonia image (left)
and the "real" version (right). Note the similarity in color
distribution on both images, and the unmistakable
structural details of the D&M itself in the "real" version.
Both images composited, color ratioed, and decorrelation stretched
using ENVI 3.5 image enhancement software.
The aforementioned "noise filled crap."
So what is happening here?
Our conclusion, based on a number of facts we will lay out
below, is that the image Keith has is a genuine, or at least "close
to a genuine," Mars Odyssey 2001 THEMIS IR image. What is currently
posted on the THEMIS web site, and what was apparently posted on the 24th
of July 2002 when the vast majority of interested parties downloaded it,
is a highly modified, highly degraded image of unknown origin.
In
other words; a highly diluted fake. A deception, deliberately perpetrated
on the American people by "someone."
A BIG LIE.
Indeed, if you read the abstract of Dr. Christensen's own
recent paper on the THEMIS results, "New
Observations of Mars from the Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System,"
he makes it quite clear that the instrument is more than capable of achieving
excellent "ground penetration." To quote from the abstract:
"Regional 100-m mapping has revealed the presence
of channel systems in ancient crater terrains not detected by
Viking and not mapped by the high-resolution camera on Mars Global
Surveyor."
In other words, "We're seeing stuff with the THEMIS
instrument below the ground that can't be seen on the visible light Viking
or MGS images." Now again, revist the graphic above and ask yourself
which of those two images is consistent with Christensen's previously
reported results, and which one seems to be practically opaque.
Kind of makes you wonder what might be under the ground
at Cydonia that they don't want you to see, doesn't it?
Faced with this discrepancy, we elected to hold off last
Thursday night, August the 29th, 2002, and instead simply put the source
data out side by side so that it could be evaluated. We waited to see
if there was a response from Christensen, but when none was forthcoming,
we elected to take the initiative and simply send an email. We also attached
a copy of the "real vs. official comparison" we had posted in our story.
Here is the full text of our initial query:
To: Dr. Phillip Christensen
THEMIS Principal Investigator
Arizona State University
From: Richard C. Hoagland
Principal Investigator
The Enterprise Mission
P.O. Box 3550
Edgewood, New Mexico,
87015
SUBJECT: DISCREPANICIES IN THEMIS INFRARED DATA POSTED ON THE THEMIS
WEB SITE
Dear Dr. Christensen,
I am writing you today because of a vexing problem my team
has encountered in trying to make use of the THEMIS Cydonia infrared data
your team posted to the THEMIS website on July 24th, 2002. In the course
of working with this data and attempting to extract the information through
normal enhancement processes, we have discovered at least two and possibly
as many as four distinct versions of this image have been posted on the
THEMIS public web site at http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020724A.html
at various times. These differing versions of the source data are difficult
for us to explain away as some sort of bureaucratic error on your teamąs
part.
All of the images in question have slightly differing text
in the header tags attached to the images, although several appear to
be made from a PNM source image, so it is possible they may have come
from the same root source image. There are also numerous visual differences
which are readily apparent upon even a rudimentary inspection and comparison.
The image which appears to have been posted initially on the THEMIS website,
and apparently upon which the image caption (and several poorly researched
news stories) seem to have been based is in marked contrast to later version
downloaded by other members of our team. In fact, it is so distorted by
noise and so lacking in data at the grayscale level that we do not consider
it useful for even casual research. It also displays numerous characteristics
that lead us to conclude on a preliminary basis that it is actually
a visible light image and not an infrared image at all, although it may
be simply a visual image strip overlaid on the original IR data. In any
case, it is not useful to us and we doubt it would be of any use to other
workers.
Conversely, a very different version of the composite IR
image strips was obtained from the THEMIS website by another member of
our team that is very rich in detail and free of the noise that renders
the official version useless for our purposes. We have determined that
this is not due to any error on our part, or lack of capability of the
THEMIS instrument, or improper calibration of the data. This difference
is therefore one we are hard pressed to explain and I am hoping that you
will be able to illuminate the issue for me. Is there some compelling
reason why the images available for download on the THEMIS page I linked
above would be changed without warning or acknowledgment on the website
itself? And if there is, would you be willing in the future to publicly
acknowledge such changes in the image caption when a new version is released?
Given the concern you expressed in your email to my colleague
Mike Bara on 8/22/2002 about our handling of this data, Iąm sure you can
appreciate the difficulty of publishing even preliminary conclusions about
a dataset that keeps changing without notice. It would also be helpful
if you would at least publish the date, time and orbit of the spacecraft
for this image, along with all of the other ancillary data normally expected
in a data release of this type. Dr Stephen Saunders has sent an email
that says, łMy official position is that there is no proprietary period
for the exclusive use of mission data by the investigators.˛ I take this
to mean that any hold-up in the release of the ancillary data for THEMIS
IR image 20020724A is purely an administrative issue for your team. However,
due to the intense degree of public interest in this matter, I respectfully
request that you expedite the process for this image and provide the data
immediately.
I'm sure you agree that the public who paid for this mission
and your instrument should have access to the same information as NASA
researchers do through the PDS database, and in a timely manner.
I might also suggest that the image you currently have posted
on the official website, which appears to have so much noise in it, should
be pulled in favor of the much cleaner version we have found. Independent
researchers will have a much easier time replicating our work if they
have access to the same database as we do.
Our job would also be made considerably easier if you would
have a member of your team simply send us the nine individual IR band
image strips (6.62µm[x2], 7.88µm, 8.56µm, 9.30 µm, 10.11µm, 11.03µm, 11.78µm,
12.58µm) as single files, uncompressed, without rotation, without reducing
them in size or resolution, and in TIF file format. Please consider this
a formal request.
For your consideration, I have attached a comparison of
the łbetter˛ version of the THEMIS Cydonia infrared data we have obtained
from the website linked above, and the official one currently on your
site. Iąm sure you will conclude that it is far superior to that posted
on the website on July 24th 2002 and at various times since that initial
posting. Please feel free to contact me or Mike Bara with a any questions
you may have pertaining to any of the issues I have raised in this communication.
Cordially,
Richard C. Hoagland 09/02/2002
On September 3rd, Christensen responded:
Dear Mr. Hoagland,
We created the THEMIS image that is on our website on July
22. That image has been posted continuously since it was first made available.
I have no idea where you got the images that you have been posting and
discussing, but the data on our site has not changed. I looked at the
image you posted last week that you humorously claim to be "real". You
have clearly processed and tinkered with these data - I note that even
the lettering at the bottom of the "real" image has been filtered...
Phil Christensen
Of course, Christensen had noted the Gaussian blur filter
that we mentioned before had been applied to the image. But we found it
rather odd that he hadn't looked at the data closely enough to notice
that his official version was completely inferior to the "real" version
Keith had obtained from his own website. Choosing to assume the best --
that he simply hadn't looked close enough -- we responded again, and this
time included a side-by-side comparison of two of the color ratioed and
decorrelation stretched images we have posted above. He would clearly
be able to see the difference.
Our response:
Dear Dr. Christensen,
I can understand your confusion on this issue, however I
can assure you of two things:
1. We have not "tinkered" with the real image in any way.
The lettering looks different because a mild (0.42) Gaussian blur was
applied to the image as an attempt to enhance it. Subsequently, the person
who obtained this image has discovered that he did keep a completely unaltered
version of the source data, and we will be publishing that along with
a full explanation of this minor discrepancy on Thursday. I am sure you
know as well as we do that this filter is used as an enhancement tool,
and cannot account for the differences between the two sets of images.
2. We did not mean to imply that you personally had anything
to do with the striking differences in these two data sets.
I take your statement that the data on your site has not
changed to mean that you have verified this with the person who is in
charge of creating and maintaining the web pages, which I presume is Noel
Gorelick. In case you are not aware of it, Mr. Gorelick has made several
curious statements during his visits to our Conference area. To quote
him:
"The daily images web site is a service I provide and support
entirely because I'm a nice guy. There is no NASA mandate or contractual
requirement for me to provide these images to anyone before they're delivered
to the PDS. I do so because the public is interested in what's going on
with the mission, and it's good for public relations. Accordingly, if
I feel like degrading the data before I post it, I'm certainly free to
do so. If I want to scribble on the images with a crayon before posting
them to my web site, I'm probably free to do that too. The "government
data" that the public paid for is being well cared for while it's being
prepared for delivery to the PDS."
Obviously, Mr. Gorelick is implying that he has the right
to alter data published on the THEMIS web site. Whether he did this or
not we are not certain. However, we have no doubts about the integrity
of the person who supplied our source data for the real image, nor do
we assert that the "real" image has been "degraded" in any way. In fact,
if you examine it closely using proper imaging procedures, you will see
that it is far superior to the "official" version that is currently on
the THEMIS web site (see attached).
Finally, we can tell you that the person who downloaded
the "real" image did so from a website that appeared to be either the
genuine THEMIS web site, or an exact copy of that site. How this may have
occurred is somewhat mysterious to us, but you may discover a hint if
you do some research into Mr. Gorelick's nickname that he used on our
message board, "Bamf."
Cordially,
Richard C. Hoagland
PS I have included a side-by-side comparison of the data
from the version on the THEMIS web site and the version we believe is
real. Both images have been processed precisely the same way utilizing
six properly ratioed bands, and a decorrelation stretch. Since our real
image shows virtually no noise and your website image is almost submerged
in noise, this has led to our questioning of these very diverse datasets.
It should be obvious that one cannot take the noisy website image, and
produce the noise free version.
He couldn't avoid seeing the difference this time, could
he?
Well, evidently he could. Since we have sent him this communication
and the comparison enhancement, we have heard nothing now … in almost
48 hours.
We think his silence speaks volumes. But regarding what
exactly, well ...
Now, before we discuss the scientific and political implications
of this latest NASA sponsored fraud, let's go over some of the other points
which make it overwhelmingly clear to us that the image Keith is working
with is the "real deal." Our analysis has resulted in four separate
proofs that lead us to this conclusion. In addition, there are
several other, finer points that reinforce our stance.
First: we know that Keith's image and the official image
probably don't come from the same source. The header tag in Keith's version
shows that it was converted from a PNM format, a standard conversion format
used inside NASA to process remote probe images. In Holger Isenberg's
opinion (remember, he's a UNIX administrator for a German software company),
Keith's image was also processed on an older UNIX-based computer -- typical
of the type of equipment used by universities and the government. The
"official" version, on the other hand, appears to have been
processed on a Windows based machine and shows no sign of having been
converted from a PNM. So, there is nothing inconsistent in the header
tags with Keith's image being the genuine article.
Since we are all used to working with data in the visual
light spectrum, we have been taught to assume that "sharper is better."
Which it is -- if you are working in the visible light bands.
However, visual resolution does not equate to infrared sensitivity
or information "richness." The "real" image, while
it may look a bit blurry, in fact contains far more data than the "official"
version, no matter what the "official" version looks like on
first (naked eye) inspection. That's why the processing and enhancement
tools used for multi-spectral imaging, to accomplish exactly that, are
crucial to extracting that signal from this set of IR images.
When you do a visual inspection of the two sets of raw data
side by side (or, in our case, one over the other), there are additional
visual clues that will tell you that the "real" version is true
THEMIS IR data, and that the "official" version is (at best!)
a "poorly rendered copy."

The first proof of this can be found with a simple
visual inspection of some specific features in the "raw" versions
of both the "real" and "official" versions of the
THEMIS Cydonia IR data (above).
In Keith's real version, there are subtle but distinct differences
in specific features from frame to frame (bottom row). This is what true
IR data should show -- because each signal return in each individual IR
waveband is going to find (in the "dusty surface model") a slightly
different "bottom" on the planet below. The longer wavelength
signals will penetrate more deeply than the shorter wavelength signals.
As an inevitable result, there will be subtle changes in the appearance
of certain features ... but only if they are "real" features
on (or just below) the planet's visible dusty surface!
Conversely, in the official version of the Cydonia "IR"
dataset (top row), you see NO difference from frame to frame as you go
up the infrared bands. All you can see is steady, overall "brightening."
This proves that the top layer of the "official" version is
not only not real IR data, but that someone must have simply brightened
the entire image, or methodically darkened the individual image strips,
in a blatant attempt at misdirection -- a blatant fraud made up
to look like "real IR data" to the uneducated eye.
The second major proof validating the "real"
version is obtained by a comparison of specific features in earlier visible
light images of Cydonia. There are numerous areas on the Odyssey, MGS,
and Viking visible light images which can be inspected and compared to
the "real" IR data. When we do so, we would expect to see some
of the "block" features that appear in the infrared to also
appear in the visible light images, assuming that some of these buried
structures are actually near the top of the dusty, icy layer.
Again,
this in fact is exactly what we see (below) ….

This
is a side-by-side comparison of two typical "blocks" from Keith's
processed IR image, located on the platform just north of the D&M
Pyramid. As you can see, the very obvious block features directly correspond
with features from the decorrelation stretched IR image. There are numerous
other examples of similar features, which will be included in Richard's
full Report -- but the point is that if these were processing artifacts
(or "scanner marks," as one person actually suggested), then
there would not be any correlation between visible features and
the IR "blocks." The existence of even one correlation
constitutes a "proof" that the blocks represent real features
-- on or just beneath the Cydonia dusty plain.

The next proof is in the analysis of the "noise floor."
As you can see from the ENVI-generated side-by-side comparison
(above), Keith's version is much clearer, shows far more detail, and simply
contains far less noise than the "fake." What the graphs are
showing you is that the "real" image (on the left) has a much
wider range of spectral data in it, owing to the enhancement capabilities
of the ENVI 3.5 decorrelation stretch technique and the much cleaner
source data. The image on the right (the official version) may have
actually been generated from the same original, but as you can see, the
spectral range of the image -- in essence "the signal" -- has
been deliberately compressed, resulting in the extremely noisy
and scientifically worthless (by comparison) visual image on the right.
In short, if you were working with the data on the right, you couldn't
see the proverbial forest for the trees, or in this case, the artifacts
for the Artifacts ....
This second major point -- which numerically validates for
us the entire reality of Keith's version -- is that it is entirely
consistent with the kind of quantitative results one would expect
from the exquisite THEMIS instrument. While the "official" version
is entirely inconsistent with what that amazing instrument is capable
of producing.
According to
this JPL document (also still
available on the web in HTML despite the .pdf being removed
after we downloaded it), the THEMIS instrument is accurate to plus or
minus 0.001K (one thousandth of
a degree Kelvin) temperature measurement. That means that it is
capable of differentiating temperature differences – instrument thermal
"noise" -- in increments THIS incredibly precise.
What
that translates to visually is brought out when you decorrelation stretch
the images -- as Keith has done with ENVI 3.5 -- essentially separating
the thermal data from the compositional data, to allow you
see more detail in the "composition bands." And that is why,
when we add the visible light overlay to the "good" THEMIS data,
as we have, the screen literally explodes with rich detail and stunning
clarity. In short, our version of the THEMIS data behaves exactly
as REAL THEMIS data should -- and the "official version"
posted on the web site does not.
The final and most conclusive proof -- that Keith's
version of the Cydonia IR image is the real one -- comes, from
of all places, the very instrument on another spacecraft (MGS)
that was fraudulently
used by NASA in a failed attempt to debunk the Face back in 2001 ...

In an ironic twist, we can use published MOLA (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter)
data from Mars Global Surveyor to ultimately clinch our "buried
City" model.
The laser altimetry data from
a
single pass over the Face (above) provides an excellent test
of our "dust covered ice" model. The MOLA instrument operates
at the10.6 micron wavelength, essentially smack-dab in the middle of the
THEMIS sensing band. The altimeter is not capable of penetrating solid
ground at that wavelength, but it should not have a problem piercing a
"fluffy" layer of micron-sized dust and an underlying long-wave
IR translucent material … like ice. When, in fact, we look at the altitude
scan (above), we can see that the majority of the ground truth at Cydonia
(incredibly!) seems to lie below the mean datum of the visible
plain (in some areas many thousands of feet below). In addition,
there are no corresponding visible troughs or "geologic" features
to account for this anomalous "penetration" -- but there is
our stunning "cityscape" ....
So what the MOLA data is exquisitely confirming is that
Cydonia is not a "flat, relatively featureless plain"
-- with some "mildly eroded" mesas scattered about. It is, in
fact, a deep, dust covered plain which lies atop a thick layer
of ice that has preserved and concealed -- literally for countless millennia
-- a once highly advanced, plainly technological, and mysteriously now
absent civilization.
All it takes to peel back this "Truth's protective
layer," is to go there … brush away the dust … and literally
start drilling ....
And
there is one final point to be made here. Another reason we are so certain
that this new Cydonia data is the "real deal," and the official
version is a cruel hoax on the American people … if not the World … is
because the data from Keith's version of the IR data is consistent
with what we already know about what secrets Mars holds under the
surface.

In case any of you have forgotten, this THEMIS Cydonia "city
pattern" is a virtual twin for the discovery made by a similar "thermal
IR scanner" aboard Russia's Phobos 2 spacecraft in 1989. A side by
side comparison (above) clearly demonstrates that "Cydonia City"
is NOT an isolated settlement, but rather part of what appears to be a
planet wide, far-reaching civilization ...
There can be no middle ground here. Architects and engineers
will instantly recognize the form, fit and function of their craft in
the objects scattered all throughout the THEMIS image. And even more,
some of the features can be seen, just barely covered over, in the Odyssey
visible light image … and even on the original Viking data. How "noise"
could occupy the same area and location on images taken 25 years apart,
by completely different instruments, and on completely different spacecraft
… is going to be a tough hurdle for the usual suspects to clear. In addition,
the MOLA data confirms that a great deal of Cydonia exists below
the visible surface (why didn’t the MOLA scientists back at Goddard catch
this years ago …?) -- precisely in the "basin" occupied
by our frozen City.
The laser can't lie.
So Keith's version of the IR image -- the only one which
is consistent with all the other observations -- must be
the closest thing to the "real" data returned by the THEMIS
instrument we have now in the public view (again, all this will be covered
in even more detail in Richard's document).
But there is one final point.
We
are pretty sure at this point that the "official" version has
a visible light image layered over the top of the degraded multi-spectral
THEMIS image. We don't have proof positive yet, but we are working on
that. However, there are a couple of issues that fall out of that critical
assumption.
We had hoped, based on Enterprise Principal Investigator
Richard C. Hoagland's discussion with NASA's Dr. James Garvin -- the head
scientist of NASA's on-going Mars programs -- to avoid the usual "cloak
and dagger" nonsense over this new data that has so permeated and
tainted our various interactions with NASA over the years. However, we
must now reluctantly conclude -- based on this most recent "bait
and switch" maneuver, apparently cooked up by someone inside
ASU's official THEMIS team -- that nothing’s really changed in
this regard. As we considered what might have happened, had we gone ahead
and published our results on August the 22nd, 2002, as originally planned,
it became very obvious that someone in NASA/ASU was trying very
hard—
To set us up!
Had we gone forward with our original announcement, and
revealed the images you have seen here for the first time, we would have
naturally called upon NASA professionals and experienced IR imaging experts
in the private sector and academia to replicate our work. They would have
then gone to the official THEMIS web site, downloaded the "official"
version of the THEMIS IR data … and been totally unable to accomplish
that -- even given the proper multi-spectral software and experience.
We
would have been thoroughly and publicly discredited -- certainly
in the eyes of the "curious middle" of this debate. And any
nascent interest in the possibility of a former, now extinct Martian civilization
-- beginning to stir among some of the "honest" professionals
inside NASA (and other agency's), who have finally begun to be suspicious
that there is more to this question than has been officially admitted
by NASA over the years -- would have quietly died ….
As "someone" carefully intended.
It was a desperate gamble really, a sign of panic and disorder
behind the scenes. And it has just blown up in their Faces ....
A few of you may recall that, sometime back, we discussed
our contention that not only were the vast majority of NASA employees
"honest and open," but that among the "insiders,"
the ones who knew the reality of Cydonia and the bigger questions inside
the Agency, there was a literal "war" (of sorts) going on.
We divided these two groups into the "Owls" and
the "Roosters," two terms used inside the intelligence community
to refer to groups that advocate suppression of a given issue vs. revelation
of a given issue. Based on the events of recent months, the replacement
of Dan Goldin with Sean O'Keefe, the MOC image of the Face, and the increasing
signs of cooperation from NASA (the "Garvin phone call") for
the first time in decades, we had concluded that the "Roosters,"
the whistle blowers, were "winning" this peculiar "war."
We also concluded that it was only a matter of time before the walls around
the Cydonia question came crashing down. We felt confident in this for
one essential reason --
We know their timetable.
However, this does not mean that the losers, the "Owls,"
will go quietly away. And just which side is running this current "operation"
– "will the Real THEMIS image please stand up" -- is what we
are still trying to figure out ourselves.
In order to separate the good guys from the bad guys, our
first order of business was to determine just "how" and "why"
Keith Laney was apparently specifically targeted to receive this
data, and just "who" pulled the necessary strings to implement
this part of the "Grand Plan." And, most importantly -- who
gave the orders!
In
order to reconstruct that trail, we must go back a ways, and necessarily,
delve into the pervasive ritual pattern behind NASA's behavior
that still makes some in the anomalist community so uncomfortable.
We can start by going back to the two main players in this
little psycho-drama, "BAMF" and "Dan Smythe."
They both showed up in the Enterprise conference
area within about a month of the release of the Cydonia IR data (actually,
Smythe only surfaced after the image was released). This was shortly
after Hoagland's seeming "breakthrough conversation" with Jim
Garvin, and before any of us had a hint that this Cydonia IR data release
from Odyssey was coming.
In retrospect, it is now obvious that this was a reconnaissance
mission, an attempt to sort out just who among our "crowd" might
have the knowledge and expertise to work with the "real" data
once it was released. Keith Laney would be an ideal candidate for this
kind of operation. He was reasonably independent of Enterprise, worked
for NASA/AMES (or "Rooster central" as we like to call it) Marsoweb
Project, and had quite a bit of experience in visual image processing.
What he lacked was any experience working with multi-spectral data. Into
this void stepped Gorelick and Smythe -- as we’ve documented repeatedly
above.
Once we had a "heads-up" from Stephen Saunders,
the Chief Project Scientist for the Mars Odyssey Mission, that this data
was going to be released the week of July the 26th, we looked back to
our "ritual calendar" and tried to make a prediction as to what
day it would actually be released. Since the original nighttime IR data
had been released of Hydaspis Chaos exactly
13 years to the day after the taking of the Phobos 2 image
of the same region, we felt very strongly that this data release would
follow a similar pattern.
Very quickly, a date jumped out at us as perfect for the
completion of this "NASA ritual."
July
25th, 1976, was a very important date, not only in the history of this
investigation, but in the annals of NASA’s record keeping. It was on that
day, at 3:26 PM GMT, that a NASA probe named Viking 1 passed over a northern
plain on Mars and snapped a photograph that would forever change the course
of the space program, if not of History itself.
It did so, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn by now, precisely
in accordance with the now familiar "Osiris
ritual" that we have documented
so many times in NASA’s 44-year history.
Immediately, we realized that in order to complete this
arcane "ritual," to stay consistent with the bizarre pattern
of behavior that we had documented over and over again, they would have
to release the new THEMIS Cydonia IR data on Thursday, July 25th, 2002,
the 31st anniversary of the taking of 35A72 -- the famous first "Face
on Mars" image. No other date fit the pattern.
Imagine our surprise then, when for the first time in memory,
they broke the pattern and released the image in the early afternoon
of July 24th, 2002, not on the 25th. As we contemplated this break
with tradition, we wondered if perhaps this was a hopeful sign, and indication
that the ritualists inside NASA had – finally! -- lost control of the
agenda.
We now know better.
What was released on the 24th, and what the vast majority
of the press and public downloaded, was not the "real deal"
at all, NOT the real data -- but the not-so-cleverly constructed fake.
Keith Laney, almost certainly their #1 candidate to receive the "real"
IR data, took a quick look at the public release, pronounced "it
sucks" and didn't even bother to download it. Richard Hoagland quoted
Keith that night on "Coast to Coast AM," and following that,
Keith got into get a series of pointed exchanges with both BAMF and Smythe.
Eventually, after much prodding, Keith went back to the THEMIS
website, and downloaded the image we now know is the "real"
data … on July the 25th, 2002 at 10:27 PM EDT.
So
in essence, "someone" did complete the ritual: by getting
the "real data" to Keith - and thus to Enterprise, and to the
American people -- on the correct ritual date, July 25th!
One other point.
We know many of you are uncomfortable with our investigation
or discussion of these types of ritualistic behaviors on the part of NASA.
We are sensitive to that, but we cannot allow it to sway us from the truth.
So we must report one other strange but consistent "ritual observation"
that Keith Laney discovered almost straight away. When you crop and rotate
the individual image strips from his "real" source data to the
vertical, and examine the pixel count -- it turns out that the image strips
are 1947 pixels by 333 pixels … down and across.
Or, 19.5 X 33, if you are tracking this sort of ritual.
We thought that was pretty cute ...
Following that, BAMF proceeded to provide enough assistance
to Keith (and Holger, among others) to enable Laney eventually to figure
out how to properly process the data he’d been given, and exactly
what software he would need to carry out the job. Bamf interlaced this
crucial private e-mail tutoring in "multi-spectral imaging"
with his previously mentioned bizarre public comments on our Enterprise
investigation, along with other categorically false assertions on the
THEMIS Cydonia data themselves.
Among these were unambiguous statements that "the IR
data on the website were useless" because they had "not been
calibrated," and that "the Face is not any different than any
other object at Cydonia … is not made of anything unusual, like
metal or plastic …." Not only are both these statements wrong
-- they are flat out contradictory.
A
JPL paper on decorrelation stretch techniques (Algorithm Theoretical
Basis Document for Decorrelation Stretch, version 2.2, August 15th,
1996, Ronald E. Alley Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive,
Pasedena CA. 91109.) states flatly that calibration is not necessary
to make use of decorrelation stretched IR data, because of the nature
of the algorithm and the quality of the process itself. All calibration
ultimately does is identify which colors relate to which
materials -- assuming you know what materials you are dealing with
in a totally alien context the first place. There is, obviously, some
question on that matter raised by this particular Cydonia data.
And as for Gorelick declaring that "he knew what the
Face is composed of," after he already claimed that the data "wasn't
calibrated," this simply made no sense. Forgetting that it conflicts
with not only the image caption that he (presumably) posted, it also conflicts
with Christensen's email in which he (Christensen) restates that the data
is "calibrated." So for Gorelick to presume he knows
what the Face is made of, when by his own claim he is working with uncalibrated
data, was and is "pure poppycock."
And even if the data is calibrated, as the THEMIS
web site and his boss now claim, he still can't possibly know what the
Face or anything else is made of down there … because right now,
nobody knows what "Cydonia City" is composed of ... there
being literally NO "spectral library" on alien construction
methods and materials ….
All of these conflicting signals left us with a few certainties,
and many more unanswered questions. We knew Keith's dataset was valid,
and we knew that Gorelick had tried to help us "to some degree."
We also knew that "somebody" was hoping to sucker punch us --
by changing the data on the official site, in order to create profound
confusion when we tried to have our own analysis verified by reference
to that "official" data set.
So this left us with two questions: just who were the "good
guys" and "bad guys" inside the ASU THEMIS team; and, how
did they get the right data to Keith Laney -- and only Keith --
for their "ritually perfect" July 25th ritualistic
window?
What then became clear was that the answer to one question
should provide the answer to the other.
Exactly how had Keith been targeted? And, how come, nobody
else (apparently) got the same image … on the same anniversary
date?
Suddenly, the answer to that crucial question became very,
very clear … very, very quickly.
Keith Laney has a cable modem connection to the Internet.
What that means is that he has a "static" IP address. Every
time he goes online (or even has his computer turned on and physically
connected to the Web), he broadcasts the same identifier to the
whole world. It would certainly be a piece of cake for any reasonably
savvy computer network expert to "ping" Keith's system, determine
his static IP address, and lay a "trap" for him .…
Once "they" had convinced Keith to go back (on
the 25th) and finally download the THEMIS Cydonia image, it would be a
fairly easy process to simply wait for his IP address to "log-in"
to the official THEMIS website, and then redirect him -- and only him
-- to a duplicate website … that looked exactly like the
official THEMIS page, but which instead contained the "real"
data Keith now has on his computer.
But, how do we know that this was done? How can we
be so sure he was "set up" in this precise pre-calculated manner?
For
one thing, although it now appears that a couple of other people may have
obtained a version of the "real" IR data similar to
Keith's (which reinforces the bizarre aspect of official data constantly
changing on a supposedly unchanging website) -- none of them obtained
it on July 25th. So far as we can determine, only Keith Laney got the
"real stuff" on that key date.
But the second, and most important reason we know this was
done, is because this exact process -- the act of redirecting someone
to a different server or webpage, with or without their knowledge -- has
a specific name amongst the world’s computer geeks. In the jargon of the
techno-savvy, of which Noel Gorelick is undeniably a world-class member,
it's called simply ...
Bamfing
...!
So what Gorelick was doing all along -- in his months-long
"away mission to the alien land of Enterprise" -- was
apparently seeking out the just right person to leak this crucial IR data
to … finding the perfect character to "Bamf" the real, stunning
Cydonia images.

So just who are Gorelick and Christensen, anyway? Heros … or villains?
Friend or foe? Both … or neither?
We honestly still don't really know.
It could be that they worked together to help set us up,
or it could be that Gorelick leaked the real data to Laney because he
was tired of all the cover-ups and nonsense behind the scenes. Or, it
could be that both men were pressured, put upon by a powerful outside
"Owl" element, to participate in this continuing fraud perpetrated
on the American people and the World.
Unfortunately, we tend to think that this latter scenario
is the more probable at this point.
Do not forget that "Deep Space," our inside Administration
source (who, in turn, is fronting for a host of other sources …), told
us weeks ago that "the lawyers are running everything at this point"
inside NASA, in response to our own continuing political and legal initiatives.
This sort of smarmy trick, this kind of underhanded double dealing on
this key new Cydonia data, is exactly the way some such individuals
tend to think and operate.
Especially, when they’re desperate.
Certainly,
anyone who has worked with the real "new data" over the
last month can see this war is about over.
The reality of Cydonia's artificiality is a train that has
already left the station, an inevitability that must increasingly be Faced.
As we have repeatedly pointed out, the real battle is no longer about
the reality of the Monuments
of Mars -- that battle was won a long time ago -- but over
who gets to define the meaning of those extraordinary monuments.
It is that battle which is now crucial and obviously in full force
-- as is our ability to do that which strikes fear into the heart of the
"Owl's" who have worked so hard to conceal the Truth about Cydonia
and Mars … for so damn long.
If they could get the data out, become "a little bit
pregnant" and at the same time manage to marginalize the Enterprise
Mission, they win all the way around. But they have failed in this desperate
gambit. We have once more swept aside another clumsy assault on our scientific
and political credibility.
Our enemies will now go even further, and probably claim
that we somehow "fabricated" the data we have now presented
to the world. But what else can they say? The important point to remember
is that "we," as in the Enterprise Mission, have not
presented this data at all. If you are going to accuse someone of not
telling the truth, of fabricating the "real" data here, then
you must accuse Keith Laney of the NASA/AMES Marsoweb Program, NOT "Richard
Hoagland," "Mike Bara," or anyone else associated with
Enterprise itself!
We
literally had NO HAND in obtaining this source data. We simply recognize
what we are seeing in its stunning evidence ….
And again, we must ask you to consider just which side has
more credibility here. The side that perpetrated the
"Catbox" fraud upon the world, and followed that
with the
MOLA fraud … or the side which has now exposed yet
another attempted duplicitous deception on the part of NASA, with the
Mars Odyssey 2001 THEMIS IR data?
We also understand that in an 11th hour move, NASA/ASU is
now putting out multiple versions of the "real" data -- in an
obvious effort to hide it amongst the "noise" that will be subsequently
generated. Obviously, they are trying to flood the market with so many
differing versions (Deep Space had told us there are now 20), that they
hope to create so much doubt about the integrity of the "real"
source data that the majority will ultimately have to declare that "no
dataset can be counted on as real."
Too
bad they didn't think to check the MOLA data first.
So, we must focus solely on the real THEMIS data
itself, on its extraordinary internal consistency and scientific testimony
… and on the proof that we now have. To this end, we will not even consider
working with anything other than the data that Keith first obtained on
the 25th of July, 2002. All other datasets must now be considered suspect,
because they have all popped up subsequent to our public exposure (on
"Coast to Coast." August 29th) of the fraud perpetrated by NASA/ASU
one month earlier.
What
is now abundantly clear is that the system inside NASA/JPL/ASU is so poisoned
with corruption that nothing short of complete oversight and entirely
new standards of accountability can be contemplated as a solution to this
problem. Until that happens, no one inside the THEMIS team had better
so much as lose their parking place as a consequence of all of this.
It is now more imperative than ever that nighttime IR images
of, not just Cydonia -- but every Odyssey image taken so far of the
entire planet -- be released without delay. Any new data acquisitions
must be monitored by outside sources, and full accountability must
be demanded of the paper trail for each and every image.
We can only do this with your help.
As Richard C. Hoagland will call for tonight, we must now
take this issue without delay to the Congress, to our President, and to
our last real hope for Freedom ... the media itself. We finally have the
proof of what is down there at Cydonia. What we must now do is
to collectively -- together -- twist the arms of "the bad
guys" … until they publicly admit that Truth.
When the lights come on, the cockroaches inevitably scatter.
Ironically, "Cydonia" derives from a Greek root,
meaning "enlightenment." Or, in this context "to illuminate
the True History of All Mankind."
It is our intent – with the help of the American people,
and our loyal "crew" here -- to shine Cydonia’s light of Truth
intensely on the THEMIS team, regarding the wonders that await us all
beneath the dusty Cydonia plains … as it has never shone before. And on
those still hiding in the dark … still attempting -- with their last minute,
desperate efforts -- to manipulate us all.
OK
guys, Cydonia – the Light – is coming. Time to start scattering .…
Click
Here For More Cydonia THEMIS Images
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