Andy Fickman, The Race to Witch Mountain, the CIA and UFOs.

Hello, ATS.
I recently discovered an article in 49th Parallel* entitled, A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television by Robbie Graham of Bristol University and Matthew Alford from the University of Bath. It is a general overview of Hollywood’s, and especially Disney’s, involvement with government agencies (CIA) concerning UFOs and the public’s perception of UFOs.

The material regarding Disney and the Alien Encounters documentary and also the history on Ward Kimball, Disney and the USAF was familiar to me; but there was one portion of the article that really stood out for me and made me scratch my head…

Have you ever heard of Andy Fickman?



He was the director of the Walt Disney film, Race to Witch Mountain and he claims, in interviews with Robbie Graham, to have had direct assistance from the CIA in creating many elements of the film.

Fickman said of his CIA advisor:

“All of the on-camera alien language in terms of their spaceship and everything – that was all designed by him in the sense [of what] the mathematics of communication would be, so you know... there would be a similar mathematical equation that the government probably has if they were to ever come across an alien race (F210: Huh?). So a lot of the things we ended up using were things he was bringing to me... and the next thing you know, that’s what I had on screen”.

The advisor also recommended that certain UFO-related content be removed from the script: “there were things we got rid of in the script that he was just trying to follow logic [on] from a protocol standpoint,” said Fickman, although he would not elaborate on the nature of the changes made.

Then Fickman goes on to claim to have had the red carpet rolled out for he and his crew at Cheyenne Mountain…

Fickman further claims that he was afforded a visit to NORAD’s sensitive Cheyenne Mountain facility in 2008, where – accompanied by his CIA advisor – his team spent twelve hours taking photographs and talking with on-duty military officers, including the heads of NORAD.

“We wanted our Witch Mountain to resemble what NORAD and Cheyenne Mountain look like inside,” he said, adding: “We took a thousand photos and then by the time they released us into the wilderness maybe we had three hundred that had been approved for us to somewhat copy [for production design purposes]".

It is also interesting to me that Andy Fickman grew up in Roswell New Mexico. Hmmmmm. I wonder if he knows Jose Escamilla.

In a separate interview by ‘Michael’ at MoviesOnline.ca Fickman says this about how growing up in Roswell influenced the making of the movie…

“I think if you're born in a place like Roswell, New Mexico... because of its reputation of being a UFO centre and there's such mythology out there, you just spend your whole life with people always asking you: "Do you believe in UFOs?" Or: "You're an alien!"

So, from the time I was born I've always had an interest in the subject matter and by the time we started doing this movie and sitting down with Dwayne, Ciaran Hinds and the rest of the cast, one of the things I wanted to do was not so much make it about my opinion, but one that shared as much information as I had from videos and books”.


www.moviesonline.ca...

I don’t know why this is irritating me so much, ATS. I don’t understand how this could be. Obviously there is collusion occurring here; some way, somehow. Or has this Fickman guy merely slipped a cog?

The CIA, for its part, claims to have had no involvement in Race to Witch Mountain. In an email to the author, Paula Weiss, Media Spokeswoman at the CIA Office of Public Affairs, said:

“to the best of our collective knowledge in the media relations office, we did not provide any technical or other support to this production".

Fickman was puzzled by the CIA’s denial. Questioned by the author on whether or not the CIA man could have been retired from the Agency and had been acting in a private capacity (as is the case with a number of ex-CIA operatives in Hollywood, including Robert Baer, Milton Beardon and Chase Brandon), the director replied:

“there’s no way we would have had what we had, had he not been an active CIA employee...”Indeed, throughout the NORAD visit, Fickman claims he relied heavily on the influence wielded by his CIA man: “Nothing happened at NORAD without him flashing his card and making his calls”.

I can’t know for sure if he has or not (slipped a cog).

It looks to me, ATS, like the real subject here is not UFOs but the carefully manicured public perception of UFOs. I tend to believe Fickman. Based on Disney’s prior involvement with the USAF I would say it is likely that it went down just as Fickman said it did.

Check out this bit from the ‘Michael’ interview…

…”So, when we created the UFO convention we actually went outside the box and invited everyone within the UFO community to come and be there. So, the convention you see in the film is actually manned and all those booths are real booths from UFO conventions. We put the word out and everyone showed up, and we got people like Bill Burns, who hosts a show called UFO Hunters on the History Channel and publishes UFO Magazine”.

www.moviesonline.ca...

I am beginning to see that this really is a great big money generating dog and pony show. Of course all of these people are going to come out of the woodwork for an impromptu ‘convention on demand’. And it looks like certain aspects of our Government have a stake in keeping the show going too.

I would like to take one further quote concerning this from Robbie Graham and his blog...

As a closing thought on Disney’s establishment ties in relation to the UFO question, in January 2011, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) staged its 5th Annual Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) – a major International business convention which this year featured keynote speeches by the likes of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Intriguingly, this year’s GCF event also featured a special panel discussion entitled: "Contact: Learning from Outer Space," in which names such as Stanton Friedman, Jacques Vallee, Nick Pope and Professor Michio Kaku addressed the wide-ranging implications of UFOs and potential extraterrestrial life.

How is this relevant to our topic? Well, it might not be, but the primary sponsor of the GCF event was Boeing – a company highlighted by Disclosure Project witnesses as being a key player in UFO-related ‘deep black’ programmes and which you’ll also recall is linked at a directors-board-level to the Walt Disney Company – and a key note speaker at the event was none other than Chairman of Walt Disney International, Andy Bird. UFOs, Disney, Boeing, even former heads of state – all under one roof, so to speak.

It proves nothing of course, but is nevertheless worthy of mention in that it brings to mind what the famous ex-CIA operative Robert Baer once told me regarding the Hollywood/Washington relationship: "All these people that run studios – they go to Washington, they hang around with senators, they hang around with CIA directors, and everybody's on board."

Certainly, Disney has long been "on board" with supporting government and military power structures; as to whether or not this support extends to an involvement in some indefinable "Hollywood UFO conspiracy" is impossible to say. For now, at least, all we can do is weigh-up what little evidence is available to us and each draw our own conclusions as to precisely what UFO secrets – if any – might lie behind the Magic Kingdom.

Please read the whole story, if you are so inclined, at:
Robbie Graham's Blog: silverscreensaucers.blogspot.com...

So what do you think of all of this, ATS? I found this to be one of the stranger stories out there concerning the media, movies and UFOs and it looks like we haven't checked it out yet.

Finally, just as a side note, I think it is interesting that all of this investigative work and the journal that supports it are coming out of the U.K.



*49th Parallel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies
A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television
Vol. 25 (Spring 2011) Graham & Alford
ISSN: 1753-5794 (online)
www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk...

reply to post by Frater210

I notice your skepticism. Something struck me as a little off about half way through this so I hopped off to look something up for myself. Isn't he making it sound like Norad/Northern Command was in operation and Cheyenne Mountain was actually running at the time he was there? Maybe I'm reaching, but that is sure the impression I get from his description. Heads of Norad? Okay...I hate to be a stickler for details but Cheyenne Mountain was shut down and mothballed in a 'warm stand-by' state in July of 2006. His visit was 2008? I'm sure he's not lying about being there.....but someone may be exaggerating just a wee little bit, I'm thinking.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by Frater210

 

Isn't he making it sound like Norad/Northern Command was in operation and Cheyenne Mountain was actually running at the time he was there? Maybe I'm reaching, but that is sure the impression I get from his description. Heads of Norad?

Okay...I hate to be a stickler for details but Cheyenne Mountain was shut down and mothballed in a 'warm stand-by' state in July of 2006. His visit was 2008? I'm sure he's not lying about being there.....but someone may be exaggerating just a wee little bit, I'm thinking.

Today, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex serves as NORAD and USNORTHCOM's Alternate Command Center and as a training site for crew qualification. Day-to-day crew operations for NORAD and USNORTHCOM typically take place at Peterson Air Force Base

Just because it is now an alternate command center and training site, does not mean that people are not in command of it.

Pretty sure you can't just walk in....

Source

reply to post by boncho


More details on the evolution of Cheyanne Mountain:

On July 28, 2006, the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate was re-designated as the Cheyenne Mountain Division, with the mission to assist in establishing an integrated NORAD and USNORTHCOM Command Center within the headquarters building at Peterson Air Force Base.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the NORAD agreement--May 12, 2008--the Command Center located within Cheyenne Mountain Complex was officially re-designated as the NORAD and USNORTHCOM Alternate Command Center. The Cheyenne Mountain Division of NORAD and USNORTHCOM was re-designated as the J36 branch within the NORAD and USNORTHCOM's Operations Directorates.

*

reply to post by boncho

Ahhh... Thank you for the correction. Sometimes being proven wrong can be as educational as being right. I appreciate the additional information.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Hi, Wrabbit2000, thanks for coming by. Yeah, I'm really skeptical. This whole turdball of a story just throws up so many red flags.

I don't mean Graham and Alford's work, but the story of Finkman and how it is obviously of the same breed of shenanigans as previous dealings between the Govt. and Disney.

Here is some more from Graham on Finkman and Cheyenne Mt. ...

Incidentally, Fickman’s Cheyenne Mountain visit took place just a few weeks after the high-profile Stephenville Texas UFO sightings. Remembering that witnesses had described seeing fighter jets in pursuit of the Stephenville UFO/s, Fickman raised the incident with NORAD officers:

"I asked the question of all the NORAD people point blank: ‘so, what about those jets – did you guys release those jets?’ And after a kind of thoughtful pause, the guy in charge said, ‘hypothetically, if something had invaded US airspace, we would have responded in kind. I have no indication one way or another that jets ever pursued any unknown object at the time you’re referring to.’ Fickman found NORAD’s ‘non-denial denial’ to be "very telling."

I mean this guy is bordering on Fulfordian intensity in his delivery and style.

What are we to seriously make of this?

reply to post by boncho


Thanks, Boncho.

You are a very resourceful curmudgeon.

reply to post by Frater210


The entire entertainment industry is geared towards controlling and manipulating public perception so this comes as no surprise to me. I have come across (as I'm sure you have) people who have a great deal of difficulty separating reality from Hollywood. We're all guilty of it to some degree. We believe our police are better equipped and more knowledgeable because we've seen CSI. We think all Doctors will be like House or our medicinal treatments are more advanced then they are.

Its a horrible and insidious business to begin with and it is no shock that politicians and power mongers are directing something so filthy The CIAS already smuggling drugs, running illegal torture facilities in American principalities, Hollywood is used to keep the people at home thinking every thing is okay.

Frickman says he took thousands of pictures:

Fickman further claims that he was afforded a visit to NORAD’s sensitive Cheyenne Mountain facility in 2008, where – accompanied by his CIA advisor – his team spent 12 hours taking photographs and talking with on-duty military officers, including the heads of NORAD.

"We wanted our Witch Mountain to resemble what NORAD and Cheyenne Mountain look like inside," he said. "We took a thousand photos and then by the time they released us into the wilderness maybe we had three hundred that had been approved for us to somewhat copy [for production design purposes]."

But was only able to keep a couple hundred for production use.

My question is, did he ask if he could keep just one for personal use?

reply to post by boncho


Buzinga!

Like I said; so many red flags. That set my hair on end, too. There is just something very disturbing about the whole melange. Shouldn't there be some kind of something or other that happens when one makes unfounded claims about the CIA? At least public humiliation?

Because if he is telling the whole truth than I just don't know. This is a neck breaker of a whipper-snapper of a tale that Mr. Finkman has spun. Another member named SpringHeeledJack posted two pictures that sum it up; I will go fetch them.

Back again. Here it is...



That pretty much sums it up.

reply to post by Frater210


I am always skeptical, usually the truth is always somewhere in the middle, and as sensational as the truth is, it is also very mundane.

Tours of Cheyenne mountain are not unheard of apparently:

Tours actually ARE available. I work in Cheyenne Mountain and they offer tours every Friday in the spring/summer months. And in the colder, slower months they offer them every other Friday. But here's the catch - you have to know someone who works there to be your escort. These are called "Friends & Family" tours.

1

It's certainly not closed off completely to cameras.



Truth in the tale.





Who knows?

reply to post by boncho


I pulled this out from a quote above but this is another neck-snapper of quote from Fickman...

“there were things we got rid of in the script that he (the CIA guy) was just trying to follow logic [on] from a protocol standpoint

What protocol?

reply to post by boncho


Yes, I believe he went to Cheyenne Mt. for sure. And I think that makes the whole thing even weirder.

What do you think of the alleged CIA handler?

reply to post by Frater210

What protocol?

I noticed that too. That could play two ways.

Hypothetically, let's say the intel agencies first know about ET's and interact with them (1), and then lets say there is no such thing.(2)

1. A system of denial and manipulation to keep people from going anywhere too close to the truth.
2. A system of manipulation to maintain a status quo in the disinformation game to make sure theories are always similar enough to keep up the charade, blocking suspicion on other things going on.

Murkier and murkier. These things will never be proof of anything until someone has a picture of themselves with two special agents and bobblehead sitting around a campfire drinking beer.

Originally posted by Frater210
reply to post by boncho

 

Yes, I believe he went to Cheyenne Mt. for sure. And I think that makes the whole thing even weirder.

What do you think of the alleged CIA handler?

I think it is 100% plausible. Plenty of shows and movies are influenced by government organizations through consulting to ensure certain things about the production are accurate. Just as Stargate SG1 had members of the Air Force as consultants.... Of course, they deny the whole Stargate part.

reply to post by boncho


Crucial, Mon...

1. A system of denial and manipulation to keep people from going anywhere too close to the truth.

2. A system of manipulation to maintain a status quo in the disinformation game to make sure theories are always similar enough to keep up the charade, blocking suspicion on other things going on.

Could not have said it better myself.

Thanks, Boncho.

Here is some more from The 49th Parallel article (linked above as a downloadable .pdf file);

Fickman is unwilling to name this advisor, but claims he is an Air Force Colonel with a background in Technical Intelligence, that he had been “very active in Hollywood” and “had a lot of connections in the computer world and [experience in] satellite imagery.”

Kind of makes me want to go and watch the movie. It has been on HBO several times but I only glanced at it. Mostly because I am interested in Brown Mountain North Carolina, which is the actual 'witch mountain'.

it doesn't look like NORAD has been mothballed at all. in fact, it seems like they have been constantly upgrading that facility...who knows whet else in in that mountain...i know they don't just monitor air traffic over north america, they monitor satellites, and anything else in the skies...whether we can see it, or not

reply to post by Imhotepsol

I have come across (as I'm sure you have) people who have a great deal of difficulty separating reality from Hollywood.

I sure have. I live in La La land (L.A.) Something happened when I was 25 or so and ever since then I have had to kind of self activate my ability to suspend my disbelief so that I could enjoy movies and T.V. like everyone else. It doesn't leave much for entertainment. I usually go for Animation or Manga if I want something outside of Novels.

We think all Doctors will be like House or our medicinal treatments are more advanced then they are.

What is even weirder is watching actual people in the field emulate people in medical dramas; really creepy.

Hollywood is used to keep the people at home thinking every thing is okay.

Yes, I agree, and if Fickman is to be believed then we are getting a little glimpse in to how it is done. For whatever reason it is done.

reply to post by Frater210


You should watch Code Geass and Bleach if you get a chance. They're great Animes.

The reason is pretty straight forward. To keep people confused so they can continue doing and profiting off of whatever they want. The trick is actually to do things that are so abhorrent and evil that people just cannot bring themselves to consider that their elected officials would ever do such a thing.

It started (in our Era) with the Nazi experiments in Weltanschauungskrieg (world view warfare) which was imported into the US after the war with Project paper clip. From that time onward you can see a rise in Nazi symbolism used in America and the methods they were researching to control the population (such a flouride in the water to subdue rebellion.)