FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

One of our most successful covert disinformation programs has been the
"desert varnish" cover story used for decades to explain away stains such as the one pictured here.

But the truth is that the stains have nothing to do with the reaction of rain water with minerals in the sandstone. As described fully in the Group Committee Report of Incidents and Theories Concerning Unidentified Flying Objects (1954; TOP SECRET WITH PREJUDICE), these stains are caused by a very different type of reaction, one that is not completely understood.

It is almost certain that an intergalactic spacecraft, powered by energy not yet duplicated on Earth, cruised throughout the desert Southwest, perhaps on reconnaissance missions. For example, the scene above appears in Black Dragon Canyon, a feature in the San Rafael Reef in Emery County, Utah. It is believed that the spacecraft sprayed a solution on the terrain to obtain information. There are two theories about this. One holds that the spraying was an act of decontamination in preparation for an invasion. The other postulates that it was an attempt to cause a chemical reaction that would identify the nature of the minerals on the surface of the planet. The sprayed substance apparently did interact with the rock to produce massive dark stains.

The aforementioned report suggests that the stains are limited to certain areas because the spraying was concluded before a wider area could be subjected to it. It could be that the stains became apparent to the "invaders" during their reconnaissance, causing them to halt the practice for fear that it would arouse suspicion among the planets' primitive inhabitants.

Explaining all this to the public would have been impossible when the report was issued in 1954 and even now it would not be prudent. That kind of information, when freely disseminated, would cause disbelief, then doubt, then uneasiness, then fear, then panic, then a complete breakdown of human civilization. Thus the importance of the cover story so widely accepted---even by experts in the fields of geology, chemistry, and bowling-ball recycling.

It should come as no surprise that you are not to reveal any of this to anyone, and that the penalty for doing so is permanent deactivation.