1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,440
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the best of Coast to Coast podcasts.

2
00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:05,920
Speaker 1: Become a Coast Insider and you can hear this complete conversation,

3
00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:09,840
Speaker 1: as well as recent shows featuring guests discussing new cases

4
00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:14,040
Speaker 1: of the troubling cattle mutilation phenomenon, worried some instances of

5
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,520
Speaker 1: clandestine c I, a torture, and the evidence that the

6
00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:21,640
Speaker 1: lost City of Atlantis may have really once existed. Check

7
00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:25,040
Speaker 1: out these programs and many other fascinating episodes waiting for

8
00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:27,920
Speaker 1: you and the Coast to Coast archive by heading over

9
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: to Coast to Coast a m dot com and signing

10
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:33,840
Speaker 1: up for Coast Insider. Now here's a highlight from Coast

11
00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:38,320
Speaker 1: to Coast AM on iHeart Radio, Final Strike. It's a novel,

12
00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,280
Speaker 1: but it's got a lot of truth to it. The

13
00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:44,199
Speaker 1: possibilities that we could get hit by an asteroid and

14
00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:48,479
Speaker 1: it would literally change the way this country is. That

15
00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:52,479
Speaker 1: would change the planet, wouldn't it. It would um people

16
00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:55,440
Speaker 1: would say, well, how how realistic is it, How how

17
00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,279
Speaker 1: much the threat is it? It's improbable in terms of

18
00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:04,000
Speaker 1: one of the the probabilities here, but possible. And so

19
00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:09,319
Speaker 1: there are about seven hundred thousand uh known asteroids Uh.

20
00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,280
Speaker 1: Some are very small rocks that burn up in the

21
00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:16,320
Speaker 1: atmosphere before they reach the reach the Earth, but for

22
00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:20,840
Speaker 1: many of them go undetected. There about it. These twenty

23
00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:23,920
Speaker 1: five thousand asteroids that are bigger what I have to

24
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:27,600
Speaker 1: call a Mickey Mantle home run four hundred sixty. Uh.

25
00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:33,120
Speaker 1: Those are city busters and can read regional damage on

26
00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,160
Speaker 1: a massive scale. But then there are those that are

27
00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:41,840
Speaker 1: kilometer or um or even um bigger than that. Uh.

28
00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:45,199
Speaker 1: Those are the types of asteroids that can end life

29
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:49,400
Speaker 1: on the planet itself. And so we, uh, we don't

30
00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:53,800
Speaker 1: have enough. We don't have the capability to detect all

31
00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:57,400
Speaker 1: of them. In fact, sevent them will go undetected. So

32
00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:00,960
Speaker 1: what NASA is trying to do. The Air Force has

33
00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,680
Speaker 1: recommended us back as early as back I read one

34
00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:08,280
Speaker 1: of their reports about planetary defense, is that we need

35
00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:11,400
Speaker 1: to find the asteroids before they find us. If we

36
00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,800
Speaker 1: find them out in space, far enough out in space,

37
00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:19,400
Speaker 1: we can in fact help deflect their their orbit if

38
00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:23,600
Speaker 1: they're coming into conflict with Earth. But if we only

39
00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:28,399
Speaker 1: have well, Charles Bolton, the former director of NASA, he said,

40
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,040
Speaker 1: if you give me three weeks, it's time to pray.

41
00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:35,720
Speaker 1: And so going back. Just three years we saw a

42
00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:41,520
Speaker 1: small asteroid pass over Russia, parts of Russia's Siberian Force. Uh.

43
00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:45,840
Speaker 1: It's leveled. It injured twelve people, and it leveled hundreds

44
00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:50,480
Speaker 1: of acres of forests. It was only fifteen feet in width,

45
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,480
Speaker 1: and so if you can now magnify that to be

46
00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:58,120
Speaker 1: a six hundred almost six tenths of a mile, that's

47
00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:00,639
Speaker 1: the end of the planet. If something like the hits,

48
00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:03,200
Speaker 1: it will hit with a force, come in at a

49
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:07,119
Speaker 1: speed about thirty three thousand miles an hour. It will

50
00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,680
Speaker 1: hit with the force of all of the nuclear weapons

51
00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,120
Speaker 1: we have on the planet, and so it will lead

52
00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:14,840
Speaker 1: to the destruction of life as we know it. So

53
00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:21,160
Speaker 1: they out there that there are kind of these real

54
00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,840
Speaker 1: threats to our existence and we don't have the ability

55
00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:27,720
Speaker 1: right now to detect them. And when here's something people

56
00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:30,919
Speaker 1: have to understand, even if we detect them, they then

57
00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:35,800
Speaker 1: go undetected. We've had large asteroids. One discovered back in

58
00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:39,920
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty. We followed it for seventeen days and then

59
00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:43,240
Speaker 1: it disappeared. It was not re It was not rediscovered

60
00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:46,120
Speaker 1: until the year two thousands, So fifty years we lost

61
00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:49,480
Speaker 1: track of this huge asteroid and We've had that with

62
00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:51,920
Speaker 1: other asteroids as well. So we've got to get a

63
00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:58,360
Speaker 1: space based UM system which can detect where these asteroids are,

64
00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:01,880
Speaker 1: how far away they are Earth, and again, if we

65
00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,680
Speaker 1: had enough time, we can move them. Um. Right now,

66
00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:07,040
Speaker 1: we don't have that capability. Yeah, this is something the

67
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,560
Speaker 1: United Nations should get behind and back because all nations

68
00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:13,040
Speaker 1: are going to get it. It's it's not going to

69
00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:16,160
Speaker 1: be just one country that might get hit, but it's

70
00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,240
Speaker 1: going to affect the entire planets well. As a matter

71
00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:22,000
Speaker 1: of fact. What we're looking at here in terms of

72
00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,960
Speaker 1: the novels um The Final Strike is a sequel to

73
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,800
Speaker 1: a previous novel called Collision. What got my attention is

74
00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:32,159
Speaker 1: the fact that a number of countries, including the United States,

75
00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:37,000
Speaker 1: including Russia, including China, and most recently Luxembourg are getting

76
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,640
Speaker 1: into the business of mining asteroids. There are trillions of

77
00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:46,040
Speaker 1: dollars worth of minerals in these asteroids, and so countries

78
00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:50,960
Speaker 1: and even private space buccaneers are now looking to move

79
00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:55,320
Speaker 1: asteroids into a closer orbit to Earth so we can

80
00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,840
Speaker 1: actually mind them, either robotically or by astronauts, mind the

81
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,000
Speaker 1: for their resources and bring them back to Earth, or

82
00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,000
Speaker 1: mind them for water, which can then be converted into

83
00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,480
Speaker 1: energy to help us on our missions to Mars. So

84
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,599
Speaker 1: what happens if we start moving them into an orbit

85
00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:16,440
Speaker 1: and suddenly it gets pulled into what we call a

86
00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:21,719
Speaker 1: gravitational keyhole, putting on a collision course with Earth? How

87
00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:24,640
Speaker 1: how do we deflect it at that point and again

88
00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,120
Speaker 1: give it enough time? We can, But if we don't

89
00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:29,560
Speaker 1: have enough time, it's over. We used to have a

90
00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,920
Speaker 1: section called near Earth tracking. Is that still around you know? Yes,

91
00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,760
Speaker 1: we still have the system, but again it's limited because

92
00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:43,400
Speaker 1: it's our tracking of asteroids is really it's Earth based

93
00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,360
Speaker 1: and optical. We need to have a space based capability

94
00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:51,480
Speaker 1: that's infrared as well and that can tract, uh, the

95
00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:56,080
Speaker 1: the asteroids that are in our Solar system, so we

96
00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,279
Speaker 1: can track. We can track them, but it's not very

97
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,200
Speaker 1: it's not very cure in terms of being able to

98
00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:04,800
Speaker 1: maintain contact with him all the time. Final Strike has

99
00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:07,240
Speaker 1: all the makings of a movie. William, when's that going

100
00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:10,159
Speaker 1: to happen? I don't know that there there was a

101
00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,520
Speaker 1: movie made by Bruce Willis. Yeah, I remember that one. Yeah,

102
00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:15,720
Speaker 1: this is a little bit different in terms of I

103
00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:18,880
Speaker 1: tried to include in each of the novels I write,

104
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,920
Speaker 1: I tried to include a portion of my own experience

105
00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:25,520
Speaker 1: in a Blink of an Eye. For example, I I

106
00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:28,640
Speaker 1: worried about while I was at the Pentagon. People the

107
00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,000
Speaker 1: reporters would say, what keeps you awake at night? And

108
00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:33,480
Speaker 1: I would say, a nuclear bomb destroying an American city?

109
00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:36,719
Speaker 1: And it did. I worried about it constantly. Obviously I

110
00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:39,280
Speaker 1: couldn't write about it them By one of the novels

111
00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:41,560
Speaker 1: I wrote, It's called blink of an Eye in terms

112
00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:43,520
Speaker 1: of what happens if we do In fact, I have

113
00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,200
Speaker 1: a bomb that destroys an American city, and the city

114
00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:50,320
Speaker 1: of Savannah, Georgia was destroyed in this novel, and you

115
00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:52,599
Speaker 1: have to read the novel if I find out why

116
00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:55,960
Speaker 1: Savannah was a target. But it raises the issue what

117
00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,960
Speaker 1: happens uh Number one, the United States that have to

118
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,520
Speaker 1: find out who did this, how did they do it,

119
00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:05,599
Speaker 1: why did they do it, and what do we do

120
00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:08,520
Speaker 1: about it? In response, all within a period of four

121
00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:11,560
Speaker 1: or five days. Because the tremendous pressure we placed on

122
00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,440
Speaker 1: any president, you must respond to someone and then you

123
00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,920
Speaker 1: hope you've got the right country that has is responsible

124
00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:21,360
Speaker 1: for it. But I tried to take these issues and

125
00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:26,120
Speaker 1: here UH with the Final Strike, I wanted to include

126
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,080
Speaker 1: covert actions what they call rendition actions, where we have

127
00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:34,160
Speaker 1: an American citizen who's being held UH in a in

128
00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:36,520
Speaker 1: a hotel in Moscow. How do we get them out

129
00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:38,080
Speaker 1: of there? And how do we do it in a

130
00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,040
Speaker 1: way that doesn't start a war with the with the

131
00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:45,400
Speaker 1: Russian So I tried to include experiences that I've had

132
00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,280
Speaker 1: during the course of my long career UH and include

133
00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:51,880
Speaker 1: as part of the novel. So it's not just about asteroids,

134
00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:57,320
Speaker 1: it's about US Russia relations, about covert actions, about murder

135
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:03,320
Speaker 1: and intrigue um UH and in an uh UM operations,

136
00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:05,920
Speaker 1: if we had a six month head notice that we

137
00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:09,720
Speaker 1: knew an asteroid was coming this way, would governments tell

138
00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:14,320
Speaker 1: us as people? Would they inform us that this is coming? Well,

139
00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:18,080
Speaker 1: that's that's another issue that's raised in the novels. What

140
00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:22,000
Speaker 1: would be the obligation of the heads of state of

141
00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:26,280
Speaker 1: all of the of the countries. How much notice would

142
00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:29,480
Speaker 1: you give? How much panic would you instill? How would

143
00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,320
Speaker 1: you control the panic? What measures would you undertake? Would

144
00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:37,400
Speaker 1: you declare martial law uh making sure that people didn't

145
00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:43,559
Speaker 1: break into riots and break into various storage supplies. Who

146
00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:48,000
Speaker 1: get as much food and medicine as possible? When you

147
00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:52,880
Speaker 1: think about it, we only have uh. Our access to

148
00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:56,240
Speaker 1: food supply comes from within let's say a hundred and

149
00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:01,280
Speaker 1: fifty miles um or more. What happens when that's cut off?

150
00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:05,560
Speaker 1: We have a very limited supply of food and water.

151
00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:08,079
Speaker 1: What happens it gets cut off. So then you would

152
00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:12,400
Speaker 1: have panic set in. You would then have to decide

153
00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:15,000
Speaker 1: whether you impose martial law? How would you do that?

154
00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,679
Speaker 1: So these are all issues that a commander chief has

155
00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:20,959
Speaker 1: to think about. He doesn't have to think about it

156
00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,240
Speaker 1: for a day to day basis, But his secretary Defense

157
00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:28,280
Speaker 1: is sectary of homeland security, all of those in the

158
00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,960
Speaker 1: business of protecting our country, and the same would be

159
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,840
Speaker 1: applied to China, Russi, or any other country. What do

160
00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:38,760
Speaker 1: we do in terms of a catastrophe that strikes on

161
00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:42,920
Speaker 1: a massive basis, whether it could be biological, it could

162
00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:47,920
Speaker 1: be a plague that is unleashed across the world. We

163
00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:51,559
Speaker 1: had does something to take place back in during that

164
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:56,160
Speaker 1: time frame which we had the flu that devastated um

165
00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:01,160
Speaker 1: uh yeah, many countries. So we worry about those things

166
00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:04,800
Speaker 1: to to try to prepare as best we can. Uh.

167
00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:07,520
Speaker 1: Number one, understand where would the supplies be, how do

168
00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:11,160
Speaker 1: we get them to people? How you get medicines to individuals.

169
00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:14,600
Speaker 1: If we had any kind of a virus that's spread,

170
00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:16,640
Speaker 1: would you keep people at home? Would you let them

171
00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:20,200
Speaker 1: come to work? You've got all of those issues. Huge

172
00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,839
Speaker 1: major companies now also have to have plans for what

173
00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 1: they do with their employees under those circumstances. And so

174
00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:31,400
Speaker 1: most people assume that we're making those plans and taking

175
00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,680
Speaker 1: all that into consideration, and they go on their lives

176
00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:37,120
Speaker 1: without having to worry too much about it. But all

177
00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:39,240
Speaker 1: of those issues we have to deal with. One of

178
00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,760
Speaker 1: our late friends is a poloforteen astronaut edgar Mitchell was

179
00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:46,959
Speaker 1: convinced that this planet was being visited by extraterrestrials. William

180
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,320
Speaker 1: and just recently it's been revealed the government spent twenty

181
00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:54,200
Speaker 1: two million dollars to try to study the possibilities. I

182
00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:57,400
Speaker 1: got to ask you, as a former Secretary of Defense,

183
00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:03,520
Speaker 1: that this question of UFOs et s ever cross your desk. Well.

184
00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,599
Speaker 1: I was asked frequently about Area fifty one as to

185
00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:10,440
Speaker 1: whether or not that we were doing anything unusual out there.

186
00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,120
Speaker 1: I never got to visit Area fifty one, but I

187
00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,400
Speaker 1: raised the issue. I don't know, um, but it seems

188
00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:19,920
Speaker 1: to me pretty extraordinary to say, out of all of

189
00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:24,600
Speaker 1: the um planets in the in the universe, that we're

190
00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,679
Speaker 1: the only ones where some form of life exists. Um,

191
00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:30,160
Speaker 1: but I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

192
00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:32,440
Speaker 1: Would they have told you or would they have kept

193
00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,360
Speaker 1: this from you? And and and let's say President Bill Clinton,

194
00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,520
Speaker 1: would they have kept it from him? Uh? The answers no.

195
00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:43,560
Speaker 1: If if the Secretary of Defense is inquiring about something

196
00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:48,079
Speaker 1: as important as that, or they better tell them. You

197
00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,160
Speaker 1: have to. And I know there are questions now where

198
00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:54,480
Speaker 1: that some sightings have been of UFOs or allegedly have

199
00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:58,960
Speaker 1: been seen. I take this position. Look, we're spending billions

200
00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:02,880
Speaker 1: of dollars to explore space, and what makes us think

201
00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,439
Speaker 1: that we're the only ones who are out in space?

202
00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:08,079
Speaker 1: And if we're spending billions, I know it's a big

203
00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:11,319
Speaker 1: price tag for the twenty two million, But if we're

204
00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,160
Speaker 1: spending billions to find out if there's life out there,

205
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,439
Speaker 1: how can we rule out whether there are other forms

206
00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:20,640
Speaker 1: of life not looking like us or being like us

207
00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:23,880
Speaker 1: that are exploring the universe as well. So I don't

208
00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:25,800
Speaker 1: know the answer to it, but this is part of

209
00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,679
Speaker 1: we're great explorers. That's what the destiny of mankind is

210
00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:32,880
Speaker 1: to can constantly explore the new frontier and the new

211
00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:36,199
Speaker 1: frontier space. Would you tell me if you knew? Yes?

212
00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:39,959
Speaker 1: Okay great. Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every

213
00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:43,160
Speaker 1: weeknight at one a m. Eastern and go to Coast

214
00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:45,000
Speaker 1: to Coast am dot com for more