'Unidentified' - Episode 5 - when TTSA crashed and burned with outright dishonesty and deception

NOTE: This thread assumes the reader possesses general knowledge about the UK 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident as I outline what 'Unidentified''s episode 5 presents to us. Very few pretty pics in this thread, no time for that, so let's just get stuck in, shall we...?

TTSA's close friend and controversially 'soft-questioner', George Knapp, is Zondo's main contact when it comes to UFOs near nuclear installations. We're swiftly fed numerous anecdotes from the late-1940s to the late-1960s, plus a bonus 2003 'diamond-shaped' Cash-Landrum-style sighting, before the episode's core case is reached. George paraphrases the UK's Lord Hill Norton who said USAF personnel at USAF Bentwaters near Rendlesham Forest in Dec 1980 were either hallucinating, or they saw what they saw – accentuating the defence significance. He forgot to add they may have simply been mistaken, or even lying (what makes the RFI irksome is that, like the 2004 Nimitz affair, lying certainly plays a part with some witnesses).

We see Colonel Charles Halt in his Virginia lounge reading 'The Halt Perspective', a book so damn heavy that the TV crew must have airlifted it from his lap when Zondo came a-knocking to Chuck's feigned surprise (even worse acting than Delonge). Luis & Chuck replay Norton's words, Zondo nodding sagely as if acknowledging the words of God.

The Halt trek is simplified/twisted into the pursuit of horizontally moving lights (rather than one red light) through a forest before they loomed above them – omitting the original detail (also in the Halt memo) that the single red light 'split' as they climbed a field fence (effectively disappearing) before various 'star-like objects' were later spotted.

The original pencil-beams of light sent down by one 'object' are visually depicted as beams with a radius up to 15-feet in diameter on the ground. Halt claims he heard radio chatter about beams hitting the WSA, but confirms radar installations detected nothing when he contacted them (at 0325). We're not told that senior personnel also saw nothing with their bare eyes. Ultimately, despite the supposed high anxiety, Halt's team simply trudged back to base, wet and miserable. So much for any emergency.

In Illinois, John Burroughs is the next Zondo interviewee, looking tired, miserable and almost regarding this funny baseball-capped dude as an alien himself. He begins recounting Night One (25th Dec), coming ON DUTY at 2300... before TTSA shamelessly and dishonestly transforms it into Night Three when John (OFF DUTY, in civvies) met with Halt's team at approximately 0400. It seems Nights One and Two have effectively been eradicated from history by History - or have they...?

Almost scandalously, making this the most muddled and inaccurate Rendlesham documentary ever made, we're told that Burroughs and Penniston, LATER THE SAME NIGHT as Halt's trek on Night Three, ventured towards another “set of lights” in the forest. Or, as Burroughs says, a single descending orange light. Wait - so this IS Night Three when he was with Sergeant Adrian Bustinza at 0400, not Penniston. Bustinza has effectively been air-brushed from history, too. What the hell is going on here?

TTSA are deceptive and inept baboons by this point, which is when I should have stopped watching, but the appalling dishonesty is somehow riveting in itself!

So, with Penniston somehow substituted for Bustinza, John claims the light approached and shot over them, his memory of the aftermath fuzzy. “Penniston” saw John “vanish into thin air” (Bustinza said he was enveloped by light rather than vanishing), but the lack of support from other personnel nearby, especially Halt who had a duty of care towards both men, makes this section of the event unclassifiable as fact or fiction.

Why is Zondo trying to appear exhaustively accurate in his note-taking whilst twisting facts as we watch? John's health issues are discussed, including his military file being classified and the commencement of apparent stonewalling that even disputed when he joined the USAF. Jim Penniston is revealed as the only other person, besides John, who received medical compensation. Considering Jim claimed he actually “touched” a craft on Night One (which, remember, now doesn't exist), shouldn't he be six-feet-under?

Bryan Bender (which sounds like a Harry Enfield character in the UK) pipes up as usual, but by this stage, the Rendlesham segment was over and I switched it off in disgust. Which includes the show in general and the finale – the final insult to our intelligence.

The show's meme? “Alien Threat!, Threat!!, Threat!!!, Threat!!!!”

My meme for TTSA's show and TTSA in general? Grow up and/or retire in disgrace, and stop using the US people (the show is not widely available internationally) as lab rats for some bizarre social experiment. ATS may well be part of that experiment, too, with Dr Kit Green having a small stake in the site.





Jim Penniston and Adrian Bustinza have a right to be offended by the outright lies perpetrated by this episode, but John Burroughs especially has such a right. It's no wonder he has packed his bags, saddled-up, and ridden off into the sunset, leaving TTSA's crass professional ineptitude and deception behind in the dust.

So should we all, frankly... Slow down, John! I'm only riding a tired old donkey I hired from Knapp...!

originally posted by: ConfusedBrit

TTSA's close friend and controversially 'soft-questioner', George Knapp, is Zondo's main contact when it comes to UFOs near nuclear installations...

...We see Colonel Charles Halt in his Virginia lounge reading 'The Halt Perspective', a book so damn heavy that the TV crew must have airlifted it from his lap when Zondo came a-knocking to Chuck's feigned surprise (even worse acting than Delonge). Luis & Chuck replay Norton's words, Zondo nodding sagely as if acknowledging the words of God...

...Ultimately, despite the supposed high anxiety, Halt's team simply trudged back to base, wet and miserable. So much for any emergency...

In Illinois, John Burroughs is the next Zondo interviewee, looking tired, miserable and almost regarding this funny baseball-capped dude as an alien himself...

Almost scandalously, making this the most muddled and inaccurate Rendlesham documentary ever made...Bustinza has effectively been air-brushed from history, too. What the hell is going on here?

“Penniston” saw John “vanish into thin air” (Bustinza said he was enveloped by light rather than vanishing), but the lack of support from other personnel nearby, especially Halt who had a duty of care towards both men, makes this section of the event unclassifiable as fact or fiction.

Why is Zondo trying to appear exhaustively accurate in his note-taking whilst twisting facts as we watch?

Bryan Bender (which sounds like a Harry Enfield character in the UK) pipes up as usual, but by this stage, the Rendlesham segment was over and I switched it off in disgust. Which includes the show in general and the finale – the final insult to our intelligence.

...Grow up and/or retire in disgrace, and stop using the US people (the show is not widely available internationally) as lab rats for some bizarre social experiment. ATS may well be part of that experiment, too, with Dr Kit Green having a small stake in the site.


Jim Penniston and Adrian Bustinza have a right to be offended by the outright lies perpetrated by this episode, but John Burroughs especially has such a right. It's no wonder he has packed his bags, saddled-up, and ridden off into the sunset, leaving TTSA's crass professional ineptitude and deception behind in the dust.

CB, you unerringly encapsulated just about every eccentric & contrived aspect this embarrassing spectacle had to offer. Your wit, however, in describing them almost made it worth the suffering of sitting through it.

It only got worse as Zondo tried to keep a straight face by telling us that he would never lie to us---only to the Russians---and Dick Doty be damned!

The prior episodes were great in comparison to this one. I feel an anticlimax building it that's not an impossible contradiction.

Speaking of contradictions I noted enough to elaborate on but as this point TTSA's complicity in their own irrelevancy basically render those observations moot.

My favorite one more time for the lulz:

...TTSA's close friend and controversially 'soft-questioner', George Knapp

a reply to: ConfusedBrit

TTSA are deceptive and inept baboons by this point, which is when I should have stopped watching, but the appalling dishonesty is somehow riveting in itself!

And you fell for it

I bailed before the end of the first episode, already disgusted with myself at the stolen half an hour of my life

Funny, this is the only episode as far as I’m concerned that I would give a little praise to... At least they opened up the obvious; the disinformation question.

Oh, the show qualitatively was its usual low level as all of them were in terms of UFO research, and in terms of production value and quality… pitifully amateurish.

That said, I’m running out of energy in criticizing TTSA. Now that’s me, anybody else, have at it but it seems to me it's like kicking a dead dog.

Sooner or later one gets tired of it, at least I have, and realize it ain't waking up…it's not coming back to life if it even ever was alive.

One can only at this point be baffled at this organization. It's so weak, so incompetent, so frail you wonder is it just what it appears to be.

The tic-tac, gofast, and, gimble videos were the "bait" for their bait and switch con came.

If you remember back to the beginning Tom Delonge said he was in this to turn his hobby into cash.


That being said, 2 decades of researching (unfortunately not archiving) this incident have lead me to believe this was a psychological experiment on heavily drugged servicemen.

There were servicemen that said after the events they were kept up for hours into the night drugged and shown UFO footage.

If you listen to the audio tape from that night Holt sounds like he's on heavy hallucinogens.

Especially when he says " This is WEIRD" repeatedly.

Listen to it for yourself.

The guy is tripping balls.

The alphabet soup spells CIA not ET on this one.

Rendlesham is such a convoluted mess that it would have been better left alone. But these type of shows are made to 'entertain' the viewer first and bring in ad revenues. The 'threat' angle had to be portrayed though and I guess that although there is no hard proof Burroughs was injured by a UFO in Rendlesham Forest the surrounding circumstances do point to something shady.

As for the UFOs and nuclear bases claims. What does it actually prove? None of these UFOs have ever been proven to be alien. No one stopped Hiroshima or Nagasaki getting fried and no one stopped Kim Young Gun in Korea testing his own nukes either. Of course an adversary would be very interested in these facilities.

However what seems very apparent is the huge disconnects being presented here by the wider group of people who are all linked in the current TTSA/Skinwalker/Lazar rebranding plot.

■ Zondo was head of AATIP that studied UFOS.

But he appears to be only just studying UFOs a decade later.

■ The Pentagon appears unaware what UAPs/UFOs are and the threat they pose.

But they had alien saucers in a hangar at Area 51

■ And Skinwalker Ranch has a huge history of paranormal and UFO sightings.

But you can't find any before the mid-90s. It seems it was actually used for experimentation on human subjects.


How can anyone believe these people?

a reply to: mirageman

Yes Rendlesham is a mess but was interesting to hear both men got compensation , John and now Jim.
It also seems John was shocked by Jim getting compensation, he mentioned it on his facebook page?

Otherwise it was a bit messy.

I did read that Zondo knew nothing of the Rendlesham case till recently. Strange if you ask me.

As for the rest of the show it was ok.

If you're in it for the entertainment, have at it--because you'll be satisfied based upon your expectations.

These TTSA guys are laughing all the way to the bank.

Just as I predicted....

a reply to: Zcustosmorum

I watched the A-Teamesque start and turned it straight off lol

a reply to: ConfusedBrit
The "skeptics" have found that this is the way to discredit the phenomena. Pretend you want to highlight it then use various other senarios, "mind control" "drug control" " the people are lying" Etc. They use a bit of ridicule with a bit of "this scenario could be the one" all putting doubt in your mind. Job done.
One of the stars of this play is Georgio Tsoukalos. With his buffoonery hair style to his go to answer "it's extra terrestrials" for everything.

originally posted by: TheTruthRocks
If you're in it for the entertainment, have at it--because you'll be satisfied based upon your expectations.

I have to disagree..

Thats what Im in it for, and I havent been too impressed.

With the total failure of mainstream sci-fi franchises like Star Wars, I was hoping for something a bit similar. I enjoyed the first sekret machines book (haven't checked out more), but I was kinda hoping for some good "cinema" type experiences too.

I like the story they are selling.

But, there are so many hallmarks of all the issues that have plagued the topic and community. Even if this is the legitimate, chosen path to Disclosure, lets just say I have my doubts about the intent behind it all.

Thats not so much referring to DeLonge though. I believe he is genuine, even if I dont feel he has been all that great about being the "face" for this. That disappointment started with the AMA here. Which was bad. Like.. impressively so.

That episode was as awful as Rogans "Migraines and Musings with your Minder" Lazar Episode the other night.

I just can't anymore, it's at breaking point the saturation by the biggest bull# artists of all time. At this point I'm more willing to believe an asshole like Richard Doty than anything that comes from these terrible spies or "Documentary" Snake oil salesmen. Was Spies Like Us based on Zondos abilities? That notepad prop lmao.

a reply to: ConfusedBrit

ATS may well be part of that experiment, too, with Dr Kit Green having a small stake in the site. 

Exactly what was this ATS experiment? Gut did bring that up some time ago to Kevin Prettybear, but not sure what it really was about?
Mmmmm.

originally posted by: ManyMasks
a reply to: Zcustosmorum

I watched the A-Teamesque start and turned it straight off lol

Obviously the memories of the A-Team are fresher in your mind than mine, I curse myself at missing the similarities

originally posted by: ConfusedBrit
NOTE: This thread assumes the reader possesses general knowledge about the UK 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident as I outline what 'Unidentified''s episode 5 presents to us. Very few pretty pics in this thread, no time for that, so let's just get stuck in, shall we...?

TTSA's close friend and controversially 'soft-questioner', George Knapp, is Zondo's main contact when it comes to UFOs near nuclear installations. We're swiftly fed numerous anecdotes from the late-1940s to the late-1960s, plus a bonus 2003 'diamond-shaped' Cash-Landrum-style sighting, before the episode's core case is reached. George paraphrases the UK's Lord Hill Norton who said USAF personnel at USAF Bentwaters near Rendlesham Forest in Dec 1980 were either hallucinating, or they saw what they saw – accentuating the defence significance. He forgot to add they may have simply been mistaken, or even lying (what makes the RFI irksome is that, like the 2004 Nimitz affair, lying certainly plays a part with some witnesses).

We see Colonel Charles Halt in his Virginia lounge reading 'The Halt Perspective', a book so damn heavy that the TV crew must have airlifted it from his lap when Zondo came a-knocking to Chuck's feigned surprise (even worse acting than Delonge). Luis & Chuck replay Norton's words, Zondo nodding sagely as if acknowledging the words of God.

The Halt trek is simplified/twisted into the pursuit of horizontally moving lights (rather than one red light) through a forest before they loomed above them – omitting the original detail (also in the Halt memo) that the single red light 'split' as they climbed a field fence (effectively disappearing) before various 'star-like objects' were later spotted.

The original pencil-beams of light sent down by one 'object' are visually depicted as beams with a radius up to 15-feet in diameter on the ground. Halt claims he heard radio chatter about beams hitting the WSA, but confirms radar installations detected nothing when he contacted them (at 0325). We're not told that senior personnel also saw nothing with their bare eyes. Ultimately, despite the supposed high anxiety, Halt's team simply trudged back to base, wet and miserable. So much for any emergency.

In Illinois, John Burroughs is the next Zondo interviewee, looking tired, miserable and almost regarding this funny baseball-capped dude as an alien himself. He begins recounting Night One (25th Dec), coming ON DUTY at 2300... before TTSA shamelessly and dishonestly transforms it into Night Three when John (OFF DUTY, in civvies) met with Halt's team at approximately 0400. It seems Nights One and Two have effectively been eradicated from history by History - or have they...?

Almost scandalously, making this the most muddled and inaccurate Rendlesham documentary ever made, we're told that Burroughs and Penniston, LATER THE SAME NIGHT as Halt's trek on Night Three, ventured towards another “set of lights” in the forest. Or, as Burroughs says, a single descending orange light. Wait - so this IS Night Three when he was with Sergeant Adrian Bustinza at 0400, not Penniston. Bustinza has effectively been air-brushed from history, too. What the hell is going on here?

TTSA are deceptive and inept baboons by this point, which is when I should have stopped watching, but the appalling dishonesty is somehow riveting in itself!

So, with Penniston somehow substituted for Bustinza, John claims the light approached and shot over them, his memory of the aftermath fuzzy. “Penniston” saw John “vanish into thin air” (Bustinza said he was enveloped by light rather than vanishing), but the lack of support from other personnel nearby, especially Halt who had a duty of care towards both men, makes this section of the event unclassifiable as fact or fiction.

Why is Zondo trying to appear exhaustively accurate in his note-taking whilst twisting facts as we watch? John's health issues are discussed, including his military file being classified and the commencement of apparent stonewalling that even disputed when he joined the USAF. Jim Penniston is revealed as the only other person, besides John, who received medical compensation. Considering Jim claimed he actually “touched” a craft on Night One (which, remember, now doesn't exist), shouldn't he be six-feet-under?

Bryan Bender (which sounds like a Harry Enfield character in the UK) pipes up as usual, but by this stage, the Rendlesham segment was over and I switched it off in disgust. Which includes the show in general and the finale – the final insult to our intelligence.

The show's meme? “Alien Threat!, Threat!!, Threat!!!, Threat!!!!”

My meme for TTSA's show and TTSA in general? Grow up and/or retire in disgrace, and stop using the US people (the show is not widely available internationally) as lab rats for some bizarre social experiment. ATS may well be part of that experiment, too, with Dr Kit Green having a small stake in the site.

Jim Penniston and Adrian Bustinza have a right to be offended by the outright lies perpetrated by this episode, but John Burroughs especially has such a right. It's no wonder he has packed his bags, saddled-up, and ridden off into the sunset, leaving TTSA's crass professional ineptitude and deception behind in the dust.

So should we all, frankly... Slow down, John! I'm only riding a tired old donkey I hired from Knapp...!

I'm sorry to hear you feel this way. I don't agree. I thought the episode was excellent, and everyone in it was credible and truthful. I had heard about Rendleshem, and the gentlemen they interviewed were very honest. I found it very telling that the Air Force classified Burrough's medical records. That is simply not done. The Air Force tried to screw this guy over, just appalling. I'm glad he is getting the benefits he deserves.

I have my own thread on the episodes of Unidentified. So I'm glad you finally found a way to watch this, as you indicated you were not able to access it at the time. We'll just have to agree to disagree on the series. Why all the hating? I'm really trying to understand.

a reply to: ChiefD



You do realise that the RFI case was portrayed extremely poorly?


As said by CB.

Almost scandalously, making this the most muddled and inaccurate Rendlesham documentary ever made

originally posted by: ChiefD

Why all the hating? I'm really trying to understand.

You are obviously a nice person, Chief, and I do think you sincerely want to understand. That's possible but it takes a bit of research. Are you familiar with the hoax called Project Serpo?

Some of the same folk that tried to pull that off form the backbone of TTSA. Once you understand that, you will understand why we have a problem with what's being presented.

a reply to: Zcustosmorum

No way, reminded me of this for some reason.
Soldier's of fortune haha