there was actual sort of a policy to use ridicule to kind of damp the whole thing down — that goes back to the �*50s, and it became just part of a culture and since then, we were just kind of left with this attitude of ridicule and the culture, and we weren't hearing anything about it from our government. not only was that damaging to witnesses but also — say some who spent years working inside the pentagon — to security. this is a mammoth intelligence failure. we haven't suffered the consequences we did in pearl harbor and 9/11, but the problems are precisely the same. you had a radar operator seeing japanese bombers and fighters approaching, he didn't report it to anybody, the information didn't get up the chain. 9/11, we had cia and fbi not talking and not sharing information. in this case it's worse — we've got more like ten agencies not talking and sharing information. we travelled to area 51, a military base deep in the nevada desert, which — like what the us government knows about ufos —