I am Investigative Journalist George Knapp.

Hi George, Welcome to Reddit! You are in the right place, at the right time. ;)

1.) Would you like to share any insider news about Art Bell returning to the airwaves? (There was a lot of talk recently about his non-compete being up, and dissatisfaction with what C2CAM has become.)

2.) Would you like to comment on the recent Citizen Hearing on Disclosure? Please speak to the differing approaches to UFO/UAP disclosure that Stephen Bassett and Richard Dolan have taken over the years.

3.) Steven Greer. He is a highly controversial figure in UFOlogy. Many of us over at /r/UFOs believe he is like a modern day "contactee," either looking for a money grab or wanting to become the New Age UFO Guru/cult of personality. What is your take on this guy? He seems to genuinely believe his own story, but his “research methods” and UFO profiteering seem suspect.

I have not spoken to Art in awhile but we have a standing agreement to get together soon. I have heard the same comments you have about his dissatisfaction with the radio show but I really don't know if he has the fire in the belly to jump back into that arena. Life is good for him right now. I support the general idea of disclosure and think they had a top notch lineup--with a few clunkers thrown into the mix. However, as I mentioned in response to another question, I do not believe disclosure is going to happen, now or anytime. I do believe, as J. Vallee has said, that there is a treasure trove of UFO evidence somewhere because the government is the one with the sensors and radar to collect such info, but IF it still exists, it most likely has been transferred out of the government and into private or corporate hands so that someone like me could never find it via FOIA, or--more likely--so no one in Congress could find it. I have been told by person who are highly placed and whom I trust very much that a policy similar to disclosure is underway now. it is something akin to confirmation of the basic core story. It is a gradual, long term strategy and will not involve a sudden announcement by the President. We have all heard rumors about this sort of thing in years past. For the first time, I now believe something really is going on. I applaud S. Bassett for his commitment to the cause. as a 1st amendment guy, I beleive in the public's right to know, but--as mentioned--disclosure is not going to happen, not unless it is done by another major government or by some kind of irrefutable gesture by "the visitors", whoever they might be. They seem to have shown no interest in giving us proof positive, beyond tantalizing glimpses, so ti seems like they favor a gradual release as well. I have not met Greer but am not a fan. Every time I get an email from him, he is asking people for money, and it always seems like the issue of the day is about HIM, more than the phenomena. Maybe if I had a chance to meet him face to face, I would form a different impression.

George have you seen the recent interview with the anonymous CIA agent on his deathbed corroborating that aliens exist, have visited Earth, UFO technology, etc.

Your buddy Dolan is the one doing the interview. Tell us your thoughts please. Here is the video in case you have not seen it.

I was given a sneak preview and initially thought the old guy seemed pretty credible. But with these things, it is always wise to take it with a grain of salt. So many fruitcakes and con men have surfaced over the years with similar tales and have turned out to be liars. The longer interview--not yet made public--goes into much more detail. I ran some of it by some friends of mien who worked at Groom lake and they think it is preposterous. They say the clearances claimed by the old guy are completely wrong for the employer he says he had, and a few other glaring problems. I still think it is a good idea to withhold judgement. Whenever someone new appears on the UFO horizon, a lot of people are ready to jump on them with sharp knives and discredit them before they even get heard. There will be plenty of time for vetting this guy. I am told Rich Dolan found him to be believable, but Dolan likewise is not positive the info is true. He and film maker Jeremy Corbell will be doing some followup investigation to see what if anything they can corroborate.

What do you find to be the most disturbing fact about Skinwalker Ranch?

Every indication form the former residents, the neighbors, the Ute tribe, and the NIDS scientists is that this other "intelligence" can anticipate what we humans will do next. The phenomena always stayed one step ahead of the people who were there, including the scientists. It was as if "it" could read minds. The other spooky stuff--the events that raise the hair on my arms--are the poltergeist type events. Mom goes shopping, buys a weeks worth of groceries, pulls all the stuff out of bags and puts it into the cabinets, walks out of the room for 10 second, and when she comes back, all the groceries are back in the bags. There were several truly eerie events like that reported by the family.

Do you think Bob Lazar might have faked the appearance of being stalked by government agents/some other entity, when you witnessed those events with him? In your interview with Steinberg a few weeks ago, you mentioned how Lazar seemed freaked out by these phone-taps and such. Could that have been an act to gain your confidence in his story? Because aside from the polygraphs (which aren't reliable as indicators of probable truth), we have little else to go on, I find. Apologies if this seems condescending. I'm not trying to be.

No apology necessary. Fair question. There are many unanswered questions about Bob and some of the "proof" that helped convince me he is being truthful is hard to explain. That was a strange time, and you almsot had to be there to udnerstand some of it. We were followed. I know this because two of the guys who drew that assignment later admitted it to me after they left their employment. And the phones were tapped. I know this because 6 people who called with offers to give me information were visited, one right after the other, by people claiming to be from the government, reminding them that they were still subject to security regulations. One lady who worked in the court system here had her life threatened. In addition, there were a lot of thing that Lazar claimed--and was first to allege--that later turned out to be true. One example--the Wednesday night flights of s glowing saucer shaped craft above Papoose Lake. he said they would happen, and they did, as witnessed three weeks in a row and recorded on video. I fully understand why people would have doubts--because I had the same doubts, and still harbor a few. My gut feeling is that Bob Lazar told the truth as he knows it, but whether that story is the objective truth might be another matter. It was one heck of a strange ride. (There are many other things he knew which have been confirmed and I will go into them later if you want.)

What is the craziest story you've heard from someone that you totally believe? Also, what is the craziest story you've ever heard from someone who totally believed it, but you just can't believe?

The craziest story that I happen to believe is one we heard form two Ute police officers who were patrolling the area near the ranch one dark night. They drover around a bend and saw two figures wearing trench coats standing at the entrance to the dirt road leading to the ranch. The two "guys" appeared to be smoking cigarettes. As soon as the headlights hit them, they turned their heads to look at the cops and it became apparent that they were not humans. They had dog faces. No kidding. The started cops looked at each other, then looked back at the dog face guys, but they were gone. When they got out of the car to go to the spot where the dogmen had been standing, they found two cigarette butts still burning. I felt this was so crazy that we briefly considered leaving it out of the book. Since then, I've heard many other stories about sightings dogmen--as weird as that might sound. Craziest story I;ve heard that I do not believe? Man, there are so many. back in 89 when I started working on UFO stuuff. a lady came to the station saying she had to see me. She arrived wearing a skimpy halter top and carrying a baby, which she told me was an alien hybrid. Within a few minutes, she told me intimate details about her sex life, claimed she had been beamed onto an alien ship and that the ET's had advised her to get breast implants...which she did. And I can tell you there was ample physical evidence staring me in the face. I felt bad for her because she had a bad case of the UFO bug.

|I felt this was so crazy that we briefly considered leaving it out of the book

Whoa you have a book? Can you tell us what book you are referring to?

Hunt for the Skinwalker. It was published in 2006 by Simon/Schuster and Paraview Press. Co-author is Dr. Colm kelleher who was the chief investigator of the activity on the ranch. The book is pretty damned spooky, and writing it pretty much messed up my head. To this day I have no true idea what was unfolding on the ranch back then.

What was your initial reaction to your findings on Area 51 or any other interesting locations?

I was flabbergasted. I had never really delved into the UFO subject prior to hearing the wild stories told by John Lear, and then the even more incredible scenario described by Bob Lazar. I knew that IF it could be proven, it would be one of the biggest stories of all time. I don't think I will ever have proof positive that the story as told by Lazar is (or was) true, but I have enough testimony from other people who worked out there, and enough circumstantial evidence, to give it credence. If I didn't think there was something to it, I would not still be working on it 24 years later.

How can UFO/ET disclosure come about when one is considered a loon for even looking into the topic. Universities wont investigate, no one wants to have their name in the same sentence as UFO for fear of credibility loss.

How can we move the agenda forward and help make it not a taboo to want to know more about the topic?

You are doing a good job of it but there are only so many George Knapp's in the world.

Tough question. I've thought about it a lot over the years and have talked about it with several high ranking folks who share my interest but who can't admit it publicly. The UFO true believers are their own worst enemies. The hopelessly gullible saucer nuts who allege that everything seen in the sky is an ET craft, or the hucksters out to make a buck, or the assorted conspiracy nuts who have taken the topic and folded it into their own favorite paranoid view of the world have done so much harm to the respectability of the subject. I don't see any of that changing, and I do not believe for one second that disclosure is going to happen. Leslie Kean, Richard Dolan, and Stan Friedman and a few others have done a good job of focusing on the best cases, the ones with the most documentation or the ones involving national security. That is the best strategy, I think, because it would give brave scientists with an interest in the subject something to look at. There IS physical evidence to study if someone has the balls to look at it. I see at least a little bit of change among some younger scientists.

What do you think about the future of your career? Is there anything you would like to do?

I am not sure how much longer I will be doing this. I have the best job in the best news organization in Nevada, and Las Vegas is one of the most interesting news towns in the world but the public tends to want younger faces on television so I am not certain if I will still be welcome as I enter my dotage. (My employer is very supportive, and so is the audience--at least, to date.) I have the freedom to work on almost anything that interests me but it needs to be related to the Las Vegas market. One thing I would like to tackle is china. I know their govt. is interested in UFOs, as is their public and some scientists. Might be a tough nut to crack but I think I'd like to give it a try.

Is anything ever going to be released with that skinwalker ranch?

The book I co-wrote with Dr. Colm Kelleher tells pretty much everything that happened at the ranch from 1995-2001. We didn't hold anything back. However, if you mean is NIDS or Bob Bigerlow ever going to release videos or photos they collected, I tend to doubt it. The publication of the book caused so much trouble at the ranch--people getting drunk on the property, trespassing, causing a lot of vandalism, tripping around in the middle of the night scaring the hell out of the caretakers--that I really don't think Bigelow wants to do anything that would increase the public visibility. The one video that I was allowed to show publicly is one of the most chilling---shots of the calf that was mutilated in broad daylight.

I have used it in public presentations several times, including the MUFON symposium. You might look online for any of those presentations that might be for sale. I showed it at a MUFON LA presentation, and another in Phoenix and am goign to do so one more time at a UFO conference in McMinnville OR later this month.

What's your take on the contents of Area 51? Have you ever personally seen a UFO?

I have mixed feelings. Over the years, I have contacted more than 2 dozen people who have worked out there over the years who have confirmed at least bits and pieces of the story, including former security personnel, electrical engineers, secretaries, aircraft mechanics, and others who say they saw craft which looked like flying saucers out there. These are folks who worked ta the base in the 50's-80's. Whatever those craft were, they have never been publicly acknowledged. My suspicion is that whatever those things were, they are long gone now, stashed down some other government rat hole because of all the attention that has been focused on Groom Lake. No, I have never seen a UFO, though I have been out looking for them hundreds of times. I did have an experience as a kid with other members of my family, but I don't have active memories of it myself.

Hi George! I'm glad you're still around. I always held you as one of the most credible researchers in the field. You're totally right its a piranha pool of researchers.

I was a researcher for over 10 years and left the field in 2003. If you send me message I'll tell you who I was in the community. I just felt no matter what the researchers did it was either up to the Gov or whatever is behind the UFOs make the next move.

Question 1: Have you ever seen any mind blowing videos or evidence that you can talk about but weren't allowed to show the public?

The best evidence I've seen that I couldn't release was a skywatcher had a night vision camera on a tripod running in a active spot in Oahu. An orb the size of a baseball comes out of the bushes and hovers only 12 feet away from him and its floats about 3 feet off the ground. He is seen in the shot pointing at it. He didn't want the video with his face and name going public and turning his life upside down. He seen what happened to me and others who got their 15 minutes of fame and refused to deal with the negative assault on your character for going public.

Question 2: Who was the biggest snake you had to deal with in the community?

Mine was Bob Kivat, I dealt with a lot of snakes but nobody as slimy as him.

You also have the best beard until Billy Mays got famous:)

I have been told some things by people who are in a position to know that pretty much rocked my world. They were told to me in confidence so I can't say anything about them. I don't think there is a chance in hell that the physical evidence will ever be released. For one thing, it might mean some folks would go to prison.

Bob Kiviat did some sneaky stuff with me as well, but the snakiest snake oil salesman I have encountered is Dan Crain aka Dan Burisch and his merry band of wackadoos.

Of all of the books on the subject, which do you feel are genuine and which are bumkiss?.

Dolan's books are solid. Anything by Jacques Vallee should be mandatory reading for serious students of the UFO subject. let me ponder the bogus book question.

how would you approach the singularity, with caution or with some justified and arguable enthusiastic mind?

I'm not nearly as enthusiastic as Kurzweil is. I like being a human. I like having a physical body. I don't want to morph into a robot...that is...unless it is the only alternative to dying. I think the changes he is predicting are already set into motion and there is no turning back. Google glasses? We will all have them in 5 years. And if someone could hook their brain up to a computer right now, they would do it, and then--for competitive reasons--so would the rest of us. We are already well into the process of morphing into machines. Inevitable but scary.

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Never done that. It really would be considered crossing the ethical line as far as I'm concerned,. I don't do any of those ambush interviews either unless the subject has absolutely dodged me in every other way. people here in Las Vegas know me pretty well as it is so it would be tough for me to pretend to be someone else, even if I wanted to try that.

With your experience on this subject, would you say that there's a trend in the scientific community were if a scientist comes out in some kind of support of the subject of UFOs, people will tend to overly criticize, mock, and ultimately take said scientist less seriously?

Edit: Spelling

I think it is changing ever so slightly. You've had a few respectable folks who have stepped up to the plate..Michio Kaku comes to mind...and the astronomy guy at the University of Arizona, Dr. Edgar Mitchell--6th man to walk on the moon, and a few others. The Society for Scientific Exploration has tried to make it easier for scientists to share info on this and other esoteric topics. so there is a little bit of movement. The overwhelming majority of scientists have closed minds on the UFO subject, and the worst part about that is, they are certain in their conclusion without ever having done any serious research or having read what is already available.

Hey George, one of my favorite "paranormal" stories is about Dyatlov's Pass. I was wondering what your thoughts were on it? Any idea on who or what killed those 9 Russian hikers?

I love that story. Very weird. No explanation comes to mind. I have tried to get any of the principal investigators to join me on Coast to Coast but have struck out repeatedly, in part because of the language barrier. I also have wondered if those deaths might be related to the weird disappearances investigated by former cop David Paulides. His books Missing 411 contain some of the strangest, most unsettling mysteries I have ever read, and I had the chance to investigate a few of the missing person cases here in Nevada. Flat out weird.

I think you might have missed a question at the top of the fold. ;)

If you mean the one just below this one, i am heading there now. This is all new to me so please be patient with a complete technological nitwit.