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HANGAR 18 groups. 35 What happened at DAVA in 1985? Was there any genuine attempt to leak secret UFO data out of government archives? Or was someone simply playing games? Bob Emenegger and I still talk about it occasion- ally. In my opinion, neither hypothesis is valid. In order to be effective, any leak must include specific information about the nature or the location of data. When we looked into the mystery, there was nothing specific to acquire. The whole affair grew out of cross talk among UFO enthusiasts, some of whom were on the government payroll, hoping to validate their own beliefs. Yet Paul Shartle assured us he has seen a movie that was more than a training film; who made it, and why, remains a mystery. General Miller died of natural causes in 1988. And the following year Norton Air Force Base was closed down by the Bush administration in a cost-cutting measure. SCENARIOS Over the last ten years the UFO enigma has become an important theme in the development of new belief systems. In the following chapters I will show that it is a suitable framework for those who want to build new cults, or simply to observe the social dynamics of marginal What could be the goals of such manipulation? Is it simply the case of a single author's fantasy being adopted and eagerly amplified by the media? Or is there a more sinister explanation? Contingency planning, the control of belief systems, or the setting up of cover organizations created for purposes of routine espionage, are among the relevant hy- potheses. Such exercises in mind control could certainly explain the leaks, the false stories planted in tabloids, the creation of new sects with absurd dogmas. The manipulation of belief that is evident in the mythology built around the aliens, and that continues with the sophisticated simulation of close encounters and of abductions we will review in Part Two, goes tar deeper into our culture that the casual reader of supermarket tab-