The Basement: Michael Salla | Nordics, Grays, and the Secret Space Program

Michael Salla (0:00)

Suffering from dry, tired, irritated eyes? Don't let dry eyes win. Use Sustain Pro. It hydrates, restores and protects dry eyes for up to 12 hours. Sustain Pro, triple action dry eye relief.

AJ Gentile (0:12)

Today we're sitting down with Dr. Michael Salla. Michael was a peace and conflict professor at American University, just back from East Timor and Kosovo, when he decided UFOs belonged in the curriculum. The Washington Post wrote about him. The university showed him the door.

He spent 25 years building a field he calls exo-politics. And I can't research a story without tripping over his work. Today we're covering the night Eisenhower went missing in 1954 The president vanishes for a night, and the story is he was at the dentist. That's what I told Gerty after my weekend in Reno.

Did she buy it?

Michael Salla (0:46)

She did not.

AJ Gentile (0:47)

Nobody with teeth this perfect goes to the dentist.

Michael Salla (0:50)

They go gambling.

AJ Gentile (0:52)

Anyway, we'll also be covering why Michael thinks Space Force was the real disclosure and a soldier named JP who says he seen what's hidden under a mountain in Alabama. He also told me about a body on a beach in Grenada in 1977 and what the prime minister did about it at the United Nations. I never heard that story and I was surprised. The UN actually did something. Uh, human, that's the most alien part of the story.

I don't disagree. Stick around after the episode, I'll pop back in and untangle the conversation. Let's go down to the basement.

Dr. Salla is here. Um, I need to thank you because I don't know if I would have a platform without you. Really? Because you're, I can't really, I don't research a story and not find something that you've already covered. You're a great resource, so thank you.

Michael Salla (1:45)

You're welcome, yeah. Well, I've had plenty of time to do it.

AJ Gentile (1:49)

You do a lot of stuff. Before we get into the, all the good stuff, I want to talk about what you're doing in East Timor and your diplomacy work there.

You said that you had a lot of success getting the Timorese and the Indonesians to talk.

Michael Salla (2:11)

That's right, yeah.

AJ Gentile (2:13)

Can you give us just a quick background of what was going on there because it was pretty violent?

Michael Salla (2:17)

Well, that's right, yeah.

AJ Gentile (2:19)

And how you got them to work together?

Michael Salla (2:22)

Right. I went to East Timor in 1993 and 1994, December, January of those years, and I spent two, three weeks there. And I was just touring the island of East Timor, interviewing people, just interviewing all the Timorese. What's it like? I mean, are the Indonesians treating you well, or is this a very bad situation that you're in? And most of the East Timorese were like, no, we're in a very bad situation. And some were kind of like very hesitant to reveal what's going on and very frightened. And they were watched. And I remember probably one of the most vivid instances was I was interviewing a Catholic priest in East Timor, and he was telling me about how the Indonesians were repressing the Timorese, the Timorese are Catholic, Portuguese colony, ex-Portuguese colony, and the Indonesians being Muslim. And he was saying that, well, right now there's a guy that's watching us talking. And as soon as you leave here, he's going to come in here and he's going to beat me up and get the information from me about what we talked about.

And that was a Catholic priest.

AJ Gentile (3:41)

Did that really happen, do you think, to him?

Michael Salla (3:42)

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was shaking. I mean, as we're talking, he was shaking. Because I was a researcher from Australia, and the Indonesians had this difference to Australians. I mean, because I guess they had a little bit, a lot to fear or some fear that the Australian authorities would give them a hard time at the United Nations. And they already had a big problem with Portugal that was really championing the East Timorese cause. So I went there because I just… that was one of the areas that I was very interested in, like ethnic minorities and how are they treated by the majority. And often it's horrible.

And so that's what I found. That's what I confirmed. And probably one of the most vivid things that happened after I left East Timor, actually, I got arrested.

AJ Gentile (4:36)

You got arrested there?

Michael Salla (4:38)

Yeah, in East Timor.

AJ Gentile (4:39)