Bob Lazar

Template:Short description Template:Protection padlock Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Robert Scott Lazar (Template:IPAc-en) is an American conspiracy theorist. In 1989, Lazar claimed to have been part of a classified US government project concerned with the reverse engineering of extraterrestrial technology; he also purported to have read government briefing documents that described alien involvement in human affairs over the past 10,000 years. A self-proclaimed physicist, Lazar supposedly worked at a secret site near the United States Air Force facility popularly known as Area 51. His story brought additional public attention to the facility and spawned conspiracy theories regarding government knowledge of extraterrestrial life.

Lazar has provided no evidence of alien life or technology, and his claims about his education and employment history are replete with fabrications. Lazar also has several criminal convictions: he was convicted in 1990 for his involvement in a prostitution ring, and again in 2006 for selling illegal chemicals. As well as being dismissed by skeptics, Lazar has been denounced by some ufologists.

Background

File:Groom Lake and Papoose Lake.jpg

Groom Lake (left) and Papoose Lake (right)

Lazar graduated from high school late, in the bottom third of his class. The only science course he took was a chemistry class. He subsequently attended Pierce Junior College in Los Angeles.<ref name=reaima>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1986 Lazar, who at the time described himself as a self-employed film processor, filed for bankruptcy.<ref name=reaima/><ref>Public records, Case BK 86-01623, US Federal Bankruptcy Court, Las Vegas.(702) 388-6257</ref>

Claims

Education

Lazar claims to have obtained master's degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and in electronics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). However, both universities show no record of him.<ref name=reaima/><ref name=salrea>Template:Cite book</ref> Scientists Stanton T. Friedman and Donald R. Prothero have stated that nobody with Lazar's high school performance record would be accepted by either institution.<ref name=reaima/><ref name="ProtheroCallahan2017">Template:Cite book</ref> Lazar is unable to supply the names of any lecturers or fellow students from his alleged tenures at MIT and Caltech; one supposed Caltech professor, William Duxler, was in fact located at Pierce Junior College and had never taught at Caltech.<ref name=reaima/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Friedman asserted, "Quite obviously, if one can go to MIT, one doesn't go to Pierce. Lazar was at Pierce at the very same time he was supposedly at MIT more than 2,500 miles away."<ref name=reaima/>

Employment

Template:Quote box Lazar claims to be a physicist and to have worked in this capacity during his tenure at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility.<ref name=reaima/><ref name="KLAS interview">Template:Cite AV media</ref> This assertion was echoed by local journalist Terry England, who interviewed Lazar about his interest in jet-powered cars in 1982;Template:Efn some media outlets have since dubbed him a "physicist".Template:Efn Asked about the article in 2021, however, England admitted that he took Lazar's claims at face value and did not fact-check his credentials as a physicist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Inquiry into Lazar's position at Los Alamos revealed his role to have been a technician for a contractor firm, and that he worked neither as a physicist or for the lab directly.<ref name=reaima/><ref name="ProtheroCallahan2017"/><ref name="Goldwag">Template:Cite book</ref> As such, the facility retains no records on Lazar, whom Prothero states was "in short, rather a minor player".<ref name="ProtheroCallahan2017"/> The Smithsonian, along with various other mainstream news outlets, have stated that his designation as a "physicist" is self-proclaimed.Template:Efn

Since 1989, Lazar has achieved public notoriety as an Area 51 conspiracy theorist.Template:Efn In May of that year, he appeared in an interview with investigative reporter George Knapp on Las Vegas TV station KLAS, under the pseudonym "Dennis" and with his face hidden, to discuss his purported employment at "S-4", a subsidiary facility he claimed exists near the Nellis Air Force Base installation known as Area 51. Lazar said that his job was to help with the reverse engineering of one of nine flying saucers, which he alleged were extraterrestrial in origin. He claims one of the flying saucers, the one he coined the "Sport Model", was manufactured out of a metallic substance similar in appearance and touch to liquid titanium. In a subsequent interview that November, Lazar appeared unmasked and under his own name, where he claimed that his job interview for work at the facility was with contractor EG&G and that his employer was the United States Navy. EG&G stated it had no records on him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn His supposed employment at a Nellis Air Force Base subsidiary has also been discredited by skeptics, as well as by the United States Air Force.<ref name="ProtheroCallahan2017"/><ref name="RadfordSeptember2017"/>

Lazar has claimed that the studied vehicle was fueled by the chemical element with atomic number 115 (E115), which had not yet been artificially created.<ref name="ProtheroCallahan2017"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> E115 was first synthesized in 2003 and later named moscovium.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lazar said that the propulsion system relied on a stable isotope of E115.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> No stable isotopes of moscovium have yet been synthesized. All have proven extremely radioactive, decaying in a few hundred milliseconds.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Area51 gate.JPG

An Area 51 gate

Lazar alleges that his employment and education records have been erased, an allegation that Friedman, Prothero and author Timothy D. Callahan consider implausible.<ref name="ProtheroCallahan2017"/> His story has drawn significant media attention, controversy, supporters, and detractors. Lazar has presented no actual evidence of alien life or technology.<ref name=salrea /><ref name="RadfordSeptember2017"/><ref name="vice_BobL">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Lazar owns and operates United Nuclear Scientific Equipment and Supplies, a company that sells a variety of materials and chemicals.<ref name="Wired2006">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2017, Lazar's workplace was raided by the FBI and local police. The raid was reported as part of a murder investigation (in which Lazar is not listed as a suspect) to determine if United Nuclear sold thallium to a murder suspect in Michigan.<ref name="vice_BobL"/>

Public appearances and media

Lazar co-operated the Desert Blast festival, an annual event in the Nevada desert for pyrotechnics enthusiasts. The festival features homemade explosives, rockets, jet-powered vehicles, and other pyrotechnics.<ref name=popbla>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name=wirboo>Template:Cite news</ref>

Lazar was featured in Knapp's and Jeremy Corbell's 2019 documentary Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers,<ref name="DFP">Template:Cite web</ref> and he has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience.<ref name="vice_BobL"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="roll_Lovi">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Criminal convictions

In 1990, Lazar was arrested for aiding and abetting a prostitution ring. This was reduced to felony pandering, to which he pleaded guilty.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="lvrgui">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=lvrpro>Template:Cite news</ref> He was ordered to do 150 hours of community service, stay away from brothels, and undergo psychotherapy.<ref name=lvrgui /><ref name=lvrpro />

In 2006, Lazar and his wife were charged with violating the Federal Hazardous Substances Act for shipping restricted chemicals across state lines. The charges stemmed from a 2003 raid on United Nuclear's business offices, where chemical sales records were examined.<ref name="Wired2006"/> United Nuclear pleaded guilty to three criminal counts of introducing into interstate commerce, and aiding and abetting the introduction into interstate commerce, of banned hazardous substances. In 2007, United Nuclear was fined $7,500 for violating a law prohibiting the sale of chemicals and components used to make illegal fireworks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Journalist Stephen Rodrick and author Neil Nixon write that further doubts have been cast on Lazar's credibility due to his criminal activity.<ref name="roll_Lovi"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• John Lear

Sources

• Template:Cite AV media
• Template:Cite AV media

External links

• Template:Official website
• Interview and document repository