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178 thousands of letters from suspected "abductees" to him and then to best-selling novelist Whitley Strieber, whose Commu- nion (about his personal abductionlike experiences) was read by millions. The amazing consistency of now many hundreds of individual accounts, and the inability of mental health pro- fessionals to find an alternative explanation for the emotion- packed symptoms, strongly suggest these unfortunate people are the victims of some very strange phenomenon. It is the contention of Hopkins and other serious investiga- tors that the "aliens" are conducting genetic experiments on thousands of innocent people—often over several genera- tions—and even using them to produce hybrid offspring. The researchers freely admit this sounds outlandish but insist the evidence supports it. If this is the case, and there is some reason to believe the U.S. government is aware of it, then its reluctance to open its most secret UFO files becomes more understandable. The govern- ment is charged with the responsibility of protecting the pub- lic from foreign threats, and any admission that aliens are having their way with hundreds of Americans could well lead to political disruption. Just picture yourself seated at the great desk in the White House's Oval Office, where so many famous men presided over history-making events. The presidential press secretary enters, a harried look on his rapidly aging face. He spills out the highlights of the latest wave of UFO sightings, wishing he were anywhere else, doing anything but this. He launches into what is fast becoming a ritual about the Washington press corps (once his friends) hounding him for answers. The usual brush-off about UFOs being temperature inversions and weather balloons no longer works: They've heard too many reports of huge, windowless, metallic craft flying rings around our hottest fighter planes to fall for that any more. A few of the guys have come right out and called the press secretary a liar, and that hurts. What do you—the president of the United States—do? Do you admit that you and your predecessors back to Harry Tru- CRASH AT CORONA