textfiles-politics/regexConsp/alt3.xml

<xml><p> -Here's the lowdown on "ALTERNATIVE 3" from a TV-movie compendium.   
"ALTERNATIVE 3" (GB 1977; 52m, colour)
Amusing spoof do commentary about the disappearance of various high-IQ
citizens, allegedly to form nucleus of a standby civilization on Mars against
the coming End of the World. Sly parodies of fashionable breathless TV
journalism sweetened the joke, ex- newscaster Tim Brinton held it all
together with po-faced gravity and needless to say some supernature fanatics
refuse to this day to accept that it was anything but gospel truth, although
it was orignally scheduled for April 1st (1977). Written by David Ambrose;
directed by Chris Miles; for Anglia. Apparently the TV-movie was spawned by a
book (or assuming the date is accurate, vice versa) of the same name. Written
by Leslie Watkins, it was published by Sphere Books Ltd. in 1978.</p>

<p>======================================================================</p>

<p>ALTERNATIVE 003
by
Leslie Watkins</p>

<p>with
David Ambrose &amp; Christopher Miles</p>

<p>Section 1</p>

<p>NO NEWSPAPER has yet secured the truth behind the operation known
as ALTERNATIVE 3.  Investigations by journalists have been blocked by
governments on both sides of the Iron Curtain.  American and Russia are
ruthlessly obsessed with guarding their shared secret and this obsession, as
we can now prove, has made them partners in murder.</p>

<p>However, despite this intensive security, fragments of information have
been made public.  Often they are released inadvertently by experts who do
not appreciate their sinister significance and these fragments, in isolation,
mean little.  But when jigsawed together they form a definite pattern, a
pattern which appears to emphasize the enormity of this conspiracy of
silence.</p>

<p>On May 3, 1977, the Daily  Mirror  published this story:</p>

<p>President Jimmy Carter has joined the ranks of UFO spotters.  He sent
in two written reports stating he had seen a flying saucer when he was the
Governor of Georgia.</p>

<p>The President has shrugged off the incident since then, perhaps fearing
that electors might be wary of a flying saucer freak.</p>

<p>But he was reported as saying after the "sighting"; "I don't laugh at
people any more when they say they've seen UFOs because I've seen one
myself."</p>

<p>Carter described his UFO like this:  "Luminous, not solid, at first bluish,
then reddish. It seemed to move towards us from a distance, stopped, then
moved partially away."</p>

<p>Carter filed two reports on the sighting in 1973, one to the
International UFO Bureau and the other to the National Investigations
Committee on Aerial Phenomena.</p>

<p>Heydon Hewes, who directs the International UFO Bureau from his
home in Oklahoma City, is making speeches praising the President's
"open-mindedness."</p>

<p>But during his presidential campaign last year Carter was cautious.  He
admitted he had seen a light in the sky but declined to call it a UFO.</p>

<p>He joked:  "I think it was a light beckoning me to run in the California
primary election."</p>

<p>Why this change in Carter's attitude? Because, by then, he had been
briefed on Alternative 3?</p>

<p>A 1966 Gallup Poll showed that five million Americans including several
highly experienced airline pilots claimed to have seen Flying Saucers. 
Fighter pilot Thomas Mantell has already died while chasing one over
Kentucky his F.51 aircraft having disintegrated in the violent wash of his
quarry's engines.</p>

<p>The U.S. Air Force, reluctantly bowing to mounting pressure, asked Dr.
Edward Uhler Condon, a professor of astrophysics, to head an investigation
team at Colorado University.</p>

<p>Condon's budget was $500,000.  Shortly before his report appeared in
1968, this story appeared in the London  Evening  Standard:</p>

<p>The Condon study is making headlines, but for all the wrong reasons.  It
is losing some of its outstanding members, under circumstances which are
mysterious to say the least.  Sinister rumors are circulating. At least four key
people have vanished from the Condon team without offering a satisfactory
reason for their departure.</p>

<p>The complete story behind the strange events in Colorado is hard to
decipher.  But a clue, at last may be found in the recent statements of Dr.
James McDonald, the senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric
Physics at the University of Arizona and widely respected in his field.  In a
wary, but ominous, telephone conversation this week, Dr. McDonald told me
that he is "most distressed."  Condon's 1,485-page report denied the
existence of Flying Saucers and a panel of the American National Academy of
Sciences endorsed the conclusion that "further extensive study probably
cannot be justified."</p>

<p>But, curiously, Condon's joint principal investigator, Dr. David Saunders,
had not contributed a word to that report.  And on January 11, 1969, the
Daily  Telegraph  quoted Dr. Saunders as saying of the report:</p>

<p>"It is inconceivable that it can be anything but a cold stew.  No matter
how long it is, what it includes, how it is said, or what it recommends, it will
lack the essential element of credibility."</p>

<p>Already there were wide-spread suspicions that the Condon
investigation had been part of an official coverup, that the government knew
the truth but was determined to keep it from the public.  We now know that
those suspicions were accurate.  And that the secrecy was all because of
Alternative 3.</p>

<p>Only a few months after Dr. Saunders made his "cold stew" statement a
journalist with the Columbus  (Ohio) Dispatch  embarrassed the National
Aeronautics and Space Agency by photographing a strange craft looking
exactly like a Flying Saucer at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico.</p>

<p>At first no one at NASA would talk about this mysterious circular craft,
15 feet in diameter, which had been left in the "missile graveyard" a section
of the range where most experimental vehicles were eventually dumped.</p>

<p>But the Martin Marietta company of Denver, where it was built,
acknowledged designing several models, some with ten and twelve engines. 
And a NASA official, faced with this information, said, "Actually the engineers
used to call it 'The Flying Saucer."</p>

<p>That confirmed a statement made by Dr. Garry Henderson, a leading
space research scientist:  "All our astronauts have seen these objects but have
been ordered not to discuss their findings with anyone."</p>

<p>Otto Binder was a member of the NASA space team.  He has stated that
NASA "killed" significant segments of conversation between Mission Control
and Apollo 11, the spacecraft which took Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong to
the Moon and that those segments were deleted from the official record:</p>

<p>"Certain sources with their own VHF receiving facilities that by passed
NASA broadcast outlets claim there was a portion of Earth-Moon dialogue
that was quickly cut off by the NASA monitoring staff."</p>

<p>Binder added:</p>

<p>"It was presumably when the two moon walkers, Aldrin and Armstrong,
were making the round some distance from the LEM that Armstrong
clutched Aldrin's arm excitedly and exclaimed 'What was it? What the hell
was it? That's all I want to know.' "</p>

<p>Then, according to Binder, there was this exchange:</p>

<p>MISSION CONTROL:  What's there?  malfunction(garble).Mission
Control calling Apollo 11.</p>

<p>APOLLO 11:  These babies were huge, sir. enormous,  Oh, God you
wouldn't believe it!
I'm telling you there are other space-craft out there
lined up on the far side of the crater edge.
They're on the Moon watching us.</p>

<p>NASA, understandably, has never confirmed Binder's story but Buzz
Aldrin was soon complaining bitterly about the Agency having used him as a
"traveling salesman."</p>

<p>And two years after his Moon mission, following reported bouts of heavy
drinking, he was admitted to hospital with "emotional depression."</p>

<p>"Traveling salesman", that's an odd choice of words, isn't it? What, in
Aldrin's view, were the NASA authorities trying to sell?  And to whom? 
Could it be that they were using him, and others like him, to sell their
official version of the truth to ordinary people right across the world?</p>

<p>Was Aldrin's Moon walk one of those great spectaculars, presented with
maximum publicity, to justify the billions being poured into space research?</p>

<p>Was it part of the American-Russian cover for Alternative 3?</p>

<p>All men who have travelled to the Moon have given indications of
knowing about Alternative 3 and of the reasons which precipitated it.</p>

<p>In May, 1972, James Irwin, officially the sixth man to walk on the
Moon, resigned to become a Baptist missionary.  And he said then, "The
flight made me a deeper religious person and more keenly aware of the
fragile nature of our planet."</p>

<p>Edgar Mitchell, who landed on the Moon with the Apollo 14 mission in
February, 1971, also resigned in May, 1972 to devote himself to
parapsychology.  Later, at the headquarters of his Institute for noetic
Sciences near San Francisco, he described looking at this world from the
Moon:  "I went into a very deep pathos, a kind of anguish. That incredibly
beautiful planet that was Earth, a place no bigger than my thumb was my
home.. a blue and white jewel against a velvet black sky...was being killed 
off."</p>

<p>And on March 23, 1974, he was quoted in the Daily  Express  as saying
that society had only three ways in which to go and that the third was "the
most viable but most difficult alternative."</p>

<p>Another of the Apollo Moon walkers, Bob Grodin, was equally specific
when interviewed by a Sceptre Television reporter on June 20, 1977;</p>

<p>"You think they need all that crap down in Florida just to put two guys
up there on a bicycle? The hell they do! You know why they need us?
So they've got a P.R. story for all that hardware they've been firing into 
space. 
We're nothing, man!  Nothing!"</p>

<p>On July 11, 1977, the Los  Angeles  Times came near to the heart of
the matter, nearer than any other newspaper, when it published a
remarkable interview with Dr. Gerard O'Neill.</p>

<p>Dr. O'Neill is a Princeton professor who served, during a 1976
sabbatical, as Professor of Aerospace at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and who gets nearly $500,000 each year in research grants from
NASA.  Here is a section from that article:</p>

<p>The United Nations, he says, has conservatively estimated that the
world's population, now more than 4 billion people, will grow to about 6.5
billion by the year 2000.  Today, he adds, about 30% of the world's
population is in developed nations.  But, because most of the projected
population growth will occur in underdeveloped countries, that will drop to
22% by the end of the century.  The world of 2000 will be poorer and
hungrier than the world today, he says.</p>

<p>Dr. O'Neill also explained the problems caused by the earth's 4,000 mile
atmospheric layer, but presumably because the article was comparatively
short one, he was not quoted on the additional threat posed by the notorious
"greenhouse" syndrome.</p>

<p>His solution? He called it Island 3.  And he added:  "There's no debate
about the technology involved in doing it.  That's been confirmed by NASA's
top people."</p>

<p>But Dr. O'Neill, a family man with three children who like to fly
sailplanes in his spare time, did not realize that he was slightly off target.  
He was right, of course, about the technology.</p>

<p>But he knew nothing of the political ramifications and he would have
been astounded to learn that NASA was feeding his research to the Russians.</p>

<p>Even eminent political specialists, as respected in their sphere as Dr.
O'Neill is in his own, have been puzzled by an undercurrent they have
detected in East-West relationships.</p>

<p>Professor G. Gordon Broadbent, director of the independently financed
Institute of Political Studies in London and author of a major study of
U.S.-Soviet diplomacy since the 1950s, emphasized that fact on June 20,
1977, when he was interviewed on Sceptre Television:</p>

<p>"On the broader issue of Soviet-U.S. relations, I must admit there is an
element of mystery which troubles many people in my field."</p>

<p>He added:  "What we're suggesting is that, at the very highest levels of
East-West diplomacy, there has been operating a factor of which we know
nothing.  Now it could just be and I stress the word 'could' that this
unknown factor is some kind of massive but covert operation in space.  But
as for the reasons behind it we are not in the business of speculation."</p>

<p>Washington's acute discomfort over O'Neill's revelations through the Los 
Angeles  Times can be assessed by the urgency with which a "suppression"
Bill was rushed to the Statute Book.</p>

<p>On July 27, 1977, only sixteen days after publication of the O'Neill
interview columnist Jeremy Campbell reported in the London  Evening 
Standard that the Bill would become law that September.  He wrote:</p>

<p>It prohibits the publishing of an official report without permission,
arguing that this obstructs the Government's control of its own information. 
That was precisely the charge brought against Daniel Ellsberg for giving the
Pentagon papers to the New  York  Times.</p>

<p>Most ominous of all, the Bill would make it a crime for any present or
former civil servant to tell the Press of Government wrong doing or pass on
any news based on information "submitted to the Government in private."</p>

<p>Campbell pointed out that this final clause "has given serious pain to
guardians of American Press freedom because it creates a brand new crime."
Particularly as there was provision in the Bill for offending journalists to be
sent to prison for up to six years.</p>

<p>We subsequently discovered that a man called Harman Leonard Harman
read that item in the newspaper and that later, in a certain television
executives' dining room, he expressed regret that a similar Law had not been
passed years earlier by the British government.</p>

<p>He was eating treacle tart with custard at the time and he reflected
wistfully that he could then have insisted on such a Law being obeyed. That,
when it came to Alternative 3, would have saved him from a great deal of
trouble.</p>

<p>He had chosen treacle tart, not because he particularly liked it, but
because it was 2p(ence) cheaper than the chocolate sponge.  That was
typical of Harman.</p>

<p>He was one of the people, as you may have learned already through the
Press, who tried to interfere with the publication of this book.  We will later
be presenting some of the letters received by us from him and his lawyers
together with the replies from our legal advisers.</p>

<p>We decided to print these letters in order to give you a thorough insight
into our investigation for it is important to stress that we, like Professor
Broadbent, are not in the "business of speculation." We are interested only in
the facts.</p>

<p>And it is intriguing to note the pattern of facts relating to astronauts
who have been on Moon missions and who have therefore been exposed to
some of the surprises presented by Alternative 3.</p>

<p>A number, undermined by the strain of being party to such a
horrendous secret, suffered nervous or mental collapses.  A high percentage
sought sanctuary in excessive drinking or in extramarital affairs which
destroyed what had been secure and successful marriages.</p>

<p>Yet these were men originally picked from many thousands precisely
because of their stability.  Their training and experience, intelligence and
physical fitness all these, of course, were prime considerations in their
selection.  But the supremely important quality was their balanced
temperament.</p>

<p>It would need something stupendous, something almost unimaginable
to most people, to flip such men into dramatic personality changes.  That
something, we have now established, was Alternative 3 and, perhaps more
particularly, the night marish obscenities involved in the development and
perfection of Alternative 3.</p>

<p>We are not suggesting that the President of the United States has had
personal knowledge of the terror and clinical cruelties which have been an
integral part of the Operation, for that would make him directly responsible
for murders and barbarous mutilations.</p>

<p>We are convinced, in fact, that this is not the case.  The President and
the Russian leader, together with their immediate subordinates, have been
concerned only with broad sweep of policy.</p>

<p>They have acted in unison to ensure what they consider to be the best
possible future for mankind.  And the day to day details have been delegated
to high level professionals.</p>

<p>These professionals, we have now established, have been classifying
people selected for the Alternative 3 operation into two categories: those
who are picked as individuals and those who merely form part of a "batch
consignment."</p>

<p>There have been several "batch consignments" and it is the treatment
meted out to most of these men and women which provides the greatest
cause for outrage.</p>

<p>No matter how desperate the circumstances may be$and we reluctantly
recognize that they are extremely desperate$no humane society could
tolerate what has been done to the innocent and the gullible.</p>

<p>That view, fortunately, was taken by one man who was recruited into
the Alternative 3 team three years ago.  He was, at first, highly enthusiastic
and completely dedicated to the Operation.  However, he became revolted by
some of the atrocities involved.  He did not consider that, even in the
prevailing circumstances, they could be justified.</p>

<p>Three days after the transmission of that sensational television
documentary, his conscience finally goaded him into action.  He knew the
appalling risk he was taking, for he was aware of what had happened to
others who had betrayed the secrets of Alternative 3, but he made telephone
contact with television reporter Colin Benson and offered to provide Benson
with evidence of the most astounding nature.</p>

<p>He was calling, he said, from abroad but he was prepared to travel to
London.  They met two days later.  And he then explained to Benson that
copies of most orders and memoranda, together with transcripts prepared
from tapes of Policy Committee meetings, were filed in triplicate in
Washington, Moscow and Geneva where Alternative 3 had its operational
headquarters.</p>

<p>The system had been instituted to ensure there was no
misunderstanding between the principal partners.  He occasionally had
access to some of that material although it was often weeks or even months
old before he saw it and he was willing to supply what he could to Benson. 
He wanted no money.  He merely wanted to alert the public, to help stop the
mass atrocities.</p>

<p>Benson's immediate reaction, after he had assessed the value of this
offer, was that Sceptre should mount a follow up programme, one which
would expose the horrors of Alternative 3 in far greater depth.</p>

<p>He argued bitterly with his superiors at Sceptre but they were adamant.
The company was already in serious trouble with the government and there
was some doubt about whether its licence would be renewed.  They refused
to consider the possibility of doing another programme.  They had officially
disclaimed the Alternative 3 documentary as a hoax and that was where the
matter had to rest.</p>

<p>Anyway, they pointed out, this character who'd come forward was
probably a nut$  If you saw the documentary, you will probably realize that
Benson is a stubborn man.  His friends say he is pig obstinate.  They also say
he is a first class investigative journalist.</p>

<p>He was angry about this attempt to suppress the truth and that is why
he agreed to co-operate in the preparation of this book.  That co-operation
has been invaluable.</p>

<p>Through Benson we met the telephone caller who we now refer to as
Trojan.  And that meeting resulted in our acquiring documents, which we
will be presenting, including transcripts of tapes made at the most secret
rendezvous in the world, thirty five fathoms beneath the ice cap of the
Arctic.</p>

<p>For obvious reasons, we cannot reveal the identity of Trojan.  Nor can
we give any hint about his function or status in the Operation.</p>

<p>We are completely satisfied, however, that his credentials are authentic
and that, in breaking his oath of silence, he is prompted by the most
honourable of motives.</p>

<p>He stands in relation to the Alternative 3 conspiracy in much the same
position as the anonymous informant "Deep Throat" occupied in the
Watergate affair.  Most of the "batch consignments" have been taken from the
area known as the Bermuda Triangle but numerous other locations have also
been used.</p>

<p>On October 6, 1975, the Daily  Telegraph  gave prominence to this
story:  </p>

<p>The disappearance in bizarre circumstances in the past two weeks of
20 people from small coastal communities in Oregon was being intensively
investigated at the weekend amid reports of an imaginative fraud scheme
involving a "flying saucer" and hints of mass murder.</p>

<p>Sheriff's officers at Newport, Oregon, said that the 20 individuals had
vanished without trace after being told to give away all their possessions,
including their children, so that they could be transported in a flying saucer
"by UFO to a better life."</p>

<p>"Deputies under Mr. Ron Sutton, chief criminal investigator in
surrounding Lincoln County, have traced the story back to a meeting on
September 14 in a resort hotel, the Bayshore Inn at Waldport, Oregon$ 
Local police have received conflicting reports as to what occurred (at the
meeting).</p>

<p>But while it is clear that the speaker did not pretend to be from outer
space, he told the audience how their souls could be "saved through a UFO.</p>

<p>"The hall had been reserved for a fee of $50 by a man and a woman who
gave false names.  Mr. Sutton said witnesses had described them as "fortyish,
well groomed, straight types."</p>

<p>The Telegraph said that "selected people would be prepared at a special
camp in Colorado for life on another planet" and quoted Investigator Sutton
as adding:</p>

<p>"They were told they would have to give away everything, even their
children.  I'm checking a report of one family who supposedly gave away
150-acre farm and three children."</p>

<p>"We don't know if it's fraud or whether these people might be killed. 
There are all sorts of rumours, including some about human sacrifice and
that this is sponsored by the (Charles) Manson family."</p>

<p>"Most of the missing 20 were described as being "hippie types"
although there were some older people among them."</p>

<p>People of this calibre, we have now discovered, have been what is
known as "scientifically adjusted" to fit them for a new role as a slave 
species.</p>

<p>There have been equally strange reports of animals, particularly farm
animals, disappearing in large numbers.  And occasionally it appears that
aspects of the Alternative 3 operation have been bungled, that attempts to
lift "batch consignments" of humans or of animals have failed.</p>

<p>On July 15, 1977, the Daily  Mail  under a "Flying Saucer" headline
carried this story:</p>

<p>Men in face masks, using metal detectors and a geiger counter,
yesterday scoured a remote Dartmoor valley in a bid to solve a macabre
mystery.  Their search centred on marshy grassland where 15 wild ponies
were found dead, their bodies mangled and torn.</p>

<p>All appeared to have died at about the same time, and many of the bones
have been inexplicably shattered.  To add to the riddle, their bodies
decomposed to virtual skeletons within only 48 hours.</p>

<p>Animal experts confess they are baffled by the deaths at Cherry Brook
Valley near Postbridge.</p>

<p>Yesterday's search was carried out by members of the Devon
Unidentified Flying Objects centre at Torquay who are trying to prove a link
with outer space.</p>

<p>They believe that flying saucers may have flown low over the area and
created a vortex which hurled the ponies to their death.  Mr. John Wyse,
head of the four-man team, said:</p>

<p>"If a spacecraft has been in the vicinity, there may still be detectable
evidence.  We wanted to see if there was any sign that the ponies had been
shot but we have found nothing.  This incident bears an uncanny
resemblance to similar events reported in America."</p>

<p>The Mail  report concluded with a statement from an official
representing The Dartmoor Livestock Protection Society and the Animal
Defence Society:</p>

<p>"Whatever happened was violent.  We are keeping an open mind.  I am
fascinated by the UFO theory.  There is no reason to reject that possibility
since there is no other rational explanation."</p>

<p>These, then, were typical of the threads, which inspired the original
television investigation.  It needed one person, however, to show how they
could be embroidered into a clear picture.</p>

<p>Without the specialist guidance of that person the Sceptre television
documentary could never have been produced, and Trojan would never have
contacted Colin Benson.</p>

<p>And it would have been years, possibly seven years or even longer,
before ordinary people started to suspect the devastating truth about this
planet on which we live.  That person, of course, is the old man$</p>

<p>  </p>

<p>Section 2</p>

<p>THEY Realize now that they should have killed the old man.</p>

<p>That would have been the logical course to protect the secrecy of
Alternative 3.  It is curious, really, that they did not agree to his death on
that Thursday in February for, as we have stated, they do use murder.</p>

<p>Of course, it is not called murder, not when it is done jointly by the
governments of America and Russia.  It is an Act of Expediency.</p>

<p>Many Acts of Expediency are believed to have been ordered by the
sixteen men, official representatives of the pentagon and the Kremlin, who
comprise the Policy Committee.</p>

<p>Grotesque and apparently inexplicable slayings in various parts of the
world in Germany and Japan, Britain and Australia are alleged to have been
sanctioned by them.</p>

<p>We have not been able to substantiate these suspicions and allegations
so we merely record that an unknown number of people, including
distinguished radio astronomer Sir William Ballantine, have been executed
because of this astonishing agreement between the super-powers.</p>

<p>Prominent politicians, including two in Britain, were among those who
tried to prevent the publication of this book.  They insisted that it is not
necessary for you, and others like you, to be told the unpalatable facts.</p>

<p>They argue that the events of the future are now inevitable, that there is
nothing to be gained by prematurely unleashing fear.</p>

<p>We concede that they are sincere in their views but we maintain that
you ought to know.  You have a right to know.</p>

<p>Attemps were also made to neuter the television programme which first
focused public attention on Alternative 3.  Those attemps were partially
successful.  And, of course, after the programme was transmitted, when
there was that spontaneous explosion of anxiety, Septre Television was
forced to issue a formal denial.</p>

<p>It had all been a hoax.  That's what they were told to say.  That's what
they did say.</p>

<p>Most people were then only too glad to be reassured.  They wanted to
be convinced that the programme had been devised as a joke, that it was
merely an elaborate piece of escapist entertainment.  It was more
comfortable that way.</p>

<p>In fact, the television researchers did uncover far more disturbing
material than they were allowed to transmit.  The censored information is
now in our possession.  And, as we have indicated, there was a great deal
that Benson and the rest of the television team did not discover, not until
after their programme had been screened.  </p>

<p>------------------------------------------------------------------------ </p>

<p>Copies of Alternative 3 are rare.  There is a source in ENGLAND which
we do not currently know, however, you may purchase an imported copy for
about $11.00 from Metaphysical Book Store, 9511 E. Colfax, Aurora, CO
80010 (303) 341-7562.  Please mention that you got the address from VANGARD 
SCIENCES or the KeelyNet Bulletin Board System.  Thanks.</p>

<p>Placed in the public domain from the</p>

<p>VANGARD SCIENCES archives on October 28 1989.
Our mailing address is PO BOX 1031, Mesquite, TX 75150.
Voice phone (Jerry 214-324-8741...Ron 214-484-3189
KeelyNet (214) 324-3501</p>

<p>======================================================================</p>

<p>The Truth about Alternative 3
from its author, Leslie Watkins</p>

<p>(This article is taken from the $Windwords$ newsletter)
address not available</p>

<p>In our June issue, we told you about the controversial book Alternative
3, by British author Leslie Watkins. In out attempt to find out if the
shocking theories in the book were true, we called Avon Books, the 
American  publisher; they  said the book was out of print in the states. We
called Penguin Books in London and found that it was listed on their
NON-FICTION list. A senior editor there told us that it was officially
classified as FICTION BASED ON FACT.  The author's agent told us it was
most definitely fiction.  We wrote to the author himself to try to get the
real story, and here is the letter he sent us.</p>

<p>Dear Ms. Dittrich:</p>

<p>Thank you for your letter, which reached me today.  Naturally, I am
delighted by your interest in Alternative  3 and by the fact that you plan to
sell it in the Windwords bookstore.  I will certainly cooperate in any way I
can.</p>

<p>The correct description of Alternative 3 was given to you by the
representative from Penguin Books.  The book is based on fact, but uses that
fact as a launchpad for a HIGH DIVE INTO FICTION.  In answer to your
specific questions:</p>

<p>1)  There is no astronaut named Grodin.
2)  There is no Sceptre Television and the reported Benson is also
fictional.
3)  There is no Dr. Gerstein.
4)  Yes, a "documentary" was televised in June 1977 on Anglia
Television, which went out to the entire national network in Britain. 
It was called Alternative 3 and was written by David Ambrose and
produced by Christopher Miles (whose names were on the book for
contractual reasons).  This original TV version,  which I EXPANDED
IMMENSELY for the book, was ACTUALLY A HOAX which had been
scheduled for transmission on April Fools' Day.  Because of certain
problems in finding the right network slot, the transmission was
delayed.</p>

<p>The TV program did cause a tremendous uproar because viewers
refused to believe it was fiction.  I initially took the view that the
basic premise was so way-out, particularly the way I aimed to
present it in the book, that no one would regard it as non-fiction. 
Immediately after publication, I realized I was totally wrong.  In fact,
the amazing mountains of letters from virtually all parts of the world
including vast numbers from highly intelligent people in positions of
responsibility-convinced me that I had ACCIDENTALLY trespassed
into a range of top-secret truths. </p>

<p>Documentary evidence provided by many of these
correspondents decided me to write a serious and COMPLETELY
NON-FICTION sequel.  Unfortunately, a chest containing the bulk of
the letters was among the items which were mysteriously LOST IN
TRANSIT some four years when I moved from London, England, to
Sydney, Australia, before I moved on to settle in New Zealand.  For
some time after Alternative  3 was originally published, I have
reason to suppose that my home telephone was being tapped and my
contacts who were experienced in such matters were convinced
that certain intelligence agencies considered that I probably knew
too much.</p>

<p>So, summing up, the book is FICTION BASED ON FACT.  But I now feel
that I inadvertently got VERY CLOSE TO A SECRET TRUTH.  I hope this is of
some help to you and I look forward to hearing from you again.</p>

<p>With best wishes,
Leslie Watkins</p>

<p>Unfortunately,  Alternative  3 is no longer available. We  (Windwords)
bought all the remaining copies from the British publisher and those quickly
sold out.  If the book is reprinted, you can be sure we'll let you know and 
we'll carry it in the Windwords bookstore.</p>

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