Koi Alien Photo 19 appears to show an alien shaking the hand of President George W. Bush. It appears on literally dozens of websites, usually unaccompanied by any text indicating its source.
In fact, Koi Alien Photo 19 was first published in the Weekly World News on the front cover of the issue of the Weekly World News dated 9 May 2000 (under the headline "Space Alien Backs Bush for President!") and on several pages inside that issue. The Weekly World News was a satirical newspaper which appeared to take a delight in inventing the silliest stories it could create.
Greg Sandow, a UFO researcher that participates in discussion on the UFO UpDates email discussion list, had some knowledge of the relevant "alien", which he wrote about in a post on that list on
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2. Stories and claims relating to this image
3. The real background to this image
4. Relevant online forum discussions
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1. The relevant image
2. Stories and claims relating to this image
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3. The real background to this image
Koi Alien Photo 19 appears to show an alien shaking the hand of President George W. Bush.
In fact, it was first published in the Weekly World News - a satirical newspaper which appeared to take a delight in inventing the silliest stories it could create. Relevant photographs were published on the front cover of the issue of the Weekly World News dated 9 May 2000 (under the headline "Space Alien Backs Bush for President!") and on several pages inside that issue.
The relevant front cover of the issue of the Weekly World News, dated 9 May 2000,is shown below (labelled "koi_ap_19_k"):
Photos of the relevant story inside the edition are shown below (labelled "koi_ap_19_l" and "koi_ap_19_m", beings pages 8 and 9 of that edition respectively).
The article was apparently written by "Mike Foster" and purportedly based on information provided by "UFO investigator Dennis Baleri".
The article included the following:
SPACE ALIEN BACKS BUSH FOR PRESIDENT!
WASHINGTON -- In a surprise move that has astonished political pundits, the space alien that endorsed Bill Clinton in 1992 has switched party allegiance and is backing GOP Presidential contender George W. Bush!
The political stunner came after a two-hour, hush-hush meeting in a Washington hotel suite, during which the extraterrestrial quizzed Texas Governor Bush on his knowledge of international affairs, basic astronomy and plans for the future before agreeing to throw his weight behind the candidate, according to respected UFO investigator Dennis Baleri.
"This decision comes as a tremendous blow to Vice President Al Gore, who naturally assumed he would inherit the alien's support from his predecessor, Bill Clinton," said Baleri, who has been studying the influence of extraterrestrials on U.S. politics for two decades.
"And it is a tremendous coup for Governor Bush because in past elections, the alien endorsement has been a critical factor -- perhaps even the deciding factor."
The news has sent shockwaves through Washington and many political insiders from both parties initially expressed skepticism about Baleri's report. But the researcher has come forward with a photo leaked to him from the Bush camp that clearly shows George W. and the alien together.
Ironically, this same alien's insensitive treatment of the Republican candidate's father, President George H. Bush, once left the Bush family embittered and mistrustful.
As Weekly World News and other media reported in April 1991, the alien held a secret summit with the senior Bush at Camp David. At the time, the historic, first-of-its-kind meeting was seen as a signal that the strange visitor planned to support the President's re-election bid.
But within a few short months, the alien was photo-graphed in a chummy meeting with maverick billionaire and third-party candidate Ross Perot. Finally, the fickle space visitor pulled the rug out from under both leaders and backed Democrat Bill Clinton, as reported by the NEWS in our August 11, 1992, issue.
Clinton publicly crowed about the endorsement, telling the press, "I'm glad he saw through Bush and Perot."
Incumbent President Bush was reportedly disappointed at the turnaround.
At that time, sources close to Bush said he felt betrayed.
That November, of course, Clinton narrowly defeated his Republican rival -- and many political analysts believe that the alien endorsement is what put the Arkansas Governor over the top.
"The alien appears to intervene in very close elections, suggesting that the fate of our society is vital to his mysterious extraterrestrial civilization," said Baleri. "My research indicates that his planet also played a behind-the-scenes role in the photo-finish elections of 1960 and 1968.
"The upcoming contest between the younger Bush and Al Gore looks like it's going to be another such case, decided by just a few percentage points."
Given the alien's track record, George W. Bush had serious misgivings when aides told him that the nameless extraterrestrial wanted an audience with him on April 8 -- especially when Bush learned the visitor planned to question him on his knowledge of world affairs and space science.
"It sounded like some kind of set-up," an aide to Bush told Washington-based Baleri. "But Governor Bush knew it was too big an opportunity to pass up, so he started cramming like crazy."
Bush hit the books for days, boning up on geography, current affairs and astronomy. Then on the evening of April 8, he met with the pale, hairless being at an undisclosed D.C. location.
"The Governor was sweating bullets when he went into that meeting and the alien certainly didn't go easy on him," said the aide. "He was peppered with some pretty tough questions, from the heads of state of tiny countries to the approximate number of stars in the Milky Way.
"But the Governor's preparation paid off -- he got through the 'job interview' with flying colors."
Although the other matters discussed at the meeting remain a closely guarded secret, it is known that the wide-ranging talk covered Bush's plans for improving education as well as possible trade between the alien's home world and our own.
The alien also told the candidate he was switching parties because he was unhappy about "moral failures" in the White House -- a possible reference to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
Said Baleri, "At the end of the meeting, the alien shook hands with Governor Bush in a very friendly manner and told him, 'You have my support. I am behind you 100 percent.'"
The Gore campaign has as yet issued no formal reaction to the endorsement, but the Vice President is said to be "confused and disappointed" by the alien's decision. By contrast, Bush campaign insiders say their candidate is walking on air.
"Governor Bush is ecstatic," said his aide. "He's now convinced that he'll be a shoo-in this November."
A photo purportedly showing the source of the story, "UFO investigator Dennis Baleri", appeared in the article (shown below with the label "koi_ap_19_n):
George W Bush appeared to have a sense of humour about this article and posed with the relevant copy of the World Weekly News:
The Weekly World News had previously run similar stories in relation to the same alien backing President Clinton (see Koi Alien Photo 24, relating to the 11 August 1992 issue of Weekly World News) and, indeed, had also run a front cover article (in the 14 May 1991 edition) about President George W Bush's father, President H W Bush, having met with a space alien at Camp David (accompanied by photographs of an "alien" in an equally bad costume, which was also also used by the Weekly World News in Koi Alien Photo 64).
The front cover of the Weekly World News issue dated 14 May 1991 regarding President H W Bush is shown below (labelled "koi_ap_19_e").
Photos of the article about President H W Bush inside that issue are shown below (labelled "koi_ap_19_f" and "koi_ap_19_g"):
Greg Sandow, a researcher that participates in discussion on the UFO UpDates email discussion list, had some knowledge of the relevant "alien", which he wrote about in a post on that list on
"“I do know a thing or two about the Weekly World News. I wrote a feature on it, got to know the editors, and even worked there for a week. … I went through the photo files one day, and found the outtakes from the alien/president photo shoots. What a pathetic alien -- you could see, in half the shots, flagrant cracks in the papier mache. Similarly, I doubt that intelligence agencies influence the paper's content. They'd hardly have to; as I've said, on a good day, the staff has an uproarious time thinking these things up.”
During 2010, I emailed Greg Sandow to seek further details. He kindly took the time to provide the further comments (below, email to Isaac Koi dated 23 December 2010) which included stating that
"It's amusing to be reminded of all this. And amusing, too, to think of people citing these photos on the web, as if (I gather from your email) they could be real.
Here's what I know. Like many people in the US in the 80s and 90s, I read the Weekly World News with a lot of enjoyment, not believing a word of what they wrote. In the '90s, when I worked for Entertainment Weekly magazine, I did a feature article on the WWN, which — given that EW is a major national magazine — will show you how prominent the WWN had gotten.
By doing the feature, I got friendly with the editors of the WWN, and they invited me to come down to Florida, where their office was, and work for them for a week. So I did it. I think they hoped I'd come to work for them permanently, but I wasn't thinking of that. Just thought I'd have some fun.
Which I did. Almost all the stories are made up. The exceptions were stories about peculiar items of human interest that had been reported in the US press — a man, let's say, with 15 wives. The paper might run that story, and might even do original reporting on it. There was an easy way to tell which stories in the paper were real and which were faked. The real ones had bylines from actual staff members (whose names could be seen on the paper's masthead). The fake ones were written by names you wouldn't find on the paper's stafff list, and which were completely made up. The photos that might run alongside those names were photos, often, of friends of WWN staff members, who contributed their photos for a small fee. When I did my week=long stint on the staff, I was asked to make up a name to use.
The editors of the paper would make up headlines. Hubble Space Telescope Photographs Heaven. Werewolf Captured by the FBI. Dinosaur Seen on California Highway. Woman Eaten by Her Own Fur Coat. And then staff writers (such as myself, that week) would be assigned to write the stories. We also made up small items on our own. My big triumph, during my week, was having the editors like one of my small items so much that they wanted it expanded into a full-length article. It was about a girl who could read two books at the same time, because she had two brains. Typically, we made this happen in Bulgaria. That's because in the story I made up, I quoted an imaginary scientist.
The rule at the WWN was that such people couldn't live in the English-speaking world, in case someone tried to contact them to verify the story. Similarly, when we wrote a story that took place in the US, and quoted imaginary Americans, we had to make sure the names of these people (which we'd made up) weren't listed in the telephone directory for the city where the people supposedly lived. Again, that was to make it impossible for anyone to find these people and check on the story.
I don't know anything about how the stories about the political alien were concocted, apart from what I wrote online about what I saw in the photo file. But I did watch a photo being concocted about the dinosaur on the California highway. I joined a group standing around a computer terminal, watching as two staff membered debated exactly where the phony dinosaur should be Photoshopped (as we'd say now) into the photo of the highway.
I could write a lot more about this, but I think you get the idea. These stories and photos are entirely imaginary, and even when they were quoted in the press, the editors of the WWN barely tried to pretend that they were real."
The article about "a girl who could read two books at the same time, because she had two brains" mentioned by Greg Sandow appeared in the 21 January 1997 edition of the Weekly World News (at page 6) and a copy appears below to illustrate the points made by Greg Sandow (labelled "koi_ap_19o").
4. Relevant online forum discussions
5. Further references and resources
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