UFO researchers are reacting skeptically to a new book's claims that the "Roswell incident" was a Soviet hoax using German technology to scare Americans into thinking space aliens were invading.

Annie Jacobsen's Area 51 speculates that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin recruited Nazi physician Josef Mengele after World War II to produce "grotesque, child-size aviators" who would fly into the United States.

According to the book, published this month, Stalin hoped the sight of these odd-looking creatures disembarking from strange aircraft would panic Americans by reminding them of the Martians in Orson Welles' 1938 radio drama, The War of the Worlds.

When the craft crashed in Southern New Mexico in the summer of 1947, Jacobsen writes, the U.S. government decided to cover it up, spawning the world's most famous space-alien legend, dozens of books and films, and a major tourist attraction for Roswell that culminates with an annual UFO Festival on the first weekend of July.

Bill Lyne of Lamy agrees that the Roswell incident was faked, but he thinks the hoax was perpetrated by the U.S. government — not the Russians.

"They're just saying what I've been saying all along, that it was a hoax," he said. "But that Mengele stuff is a bunch of hogwash because Mengele was recruited by the CIA (rather than the Russians), and he was actually brought to Albuquerque."

Lyne, who self-published a book called Space Aliens from the Pentagon in 1993, maintains the creatures recovered after a crash near Roswell in July 1947 were rhesus monkeys killed in a rocket-sled or early rocketry experiment. He said monkeys were shaved so their "g-suits" would fit.

"They changed from rhesus monkeys to chimpanzees after that," Lyne said. "The rhesus monkeys were too hard to handle. They were violent. ... They probably cut (the monkeys') fingertips off because they had these claws."

Lyne said that he hasn't actually seen Jacobsen's book but has heard about it through Internet chat rooms. He said his research indicates the U.S. military tried to float the rumor that a "space saucer" had crashed by photographing the dead, shaved monkeys after their skin was tinted green.

"What probably happened was, when the Pentagon saw those fake photos, they hit the ceiling, you know, and recalled the whole thing, so they redacted the whole hoax," he said.

Jacobsen is a Los Angeles-based journalist who has written for magazines and websites about business, finance and terrorism, according to her Wikipedia profile. Snopes.com, a website devoted to unmasking rumors, disputes her claim on WomensWallStreet.com that she flew from Detroit to Los Angeles in 2004 with 14 Middle Eastern men who were on a "dry run" for a terrorist bombing.

Area 51, published by Little, Brown and Co., primarily deals with the secret Air Force base in Nevada. A review of the book by Time.com says the Roswell angle is its "one flaw" because Jacobsen never explains why the U.S. government would want to keep the tale secret. The New York Times review says her reporting on the Nevada base is backed by "numbingly intensive documentation," but the Roswell story is the most controversial aspect because it lacks sources and attacks "a story cherished by conspiracy theorists and not easily refuted."

Peter Davenport, who runs the National UFO Reporting Center in Washington state, said he hasn't read Area 51, but became a skeptic after watching Jacobsen interviewed on National Public Radio recently.

"I should not pass judgment on her book until I've read every word in it, of course," he said. "All I'm going on is her tone, her apparent attitude in the NPR interview. I've probably seen the same thing happen hundreds of times. People, by virtue of their academic credentials or their academic affiliations — I'm being overly histrionic here, a little dramatic — feel that they and only they can get to the truth. ...

"People have been studying the Roswell case for decades now. They've got death-bed testimony. They've got testimony from military officers who were involved, eyewitnesses. I think I'll go with the latter, rather than this young lady who penned this new book."

Like Lyne, Davenport believes the U.S. government has covered up the facts behind the Roswell incident, but he sees no reason to blame the Soviets or the Germans.

"If they had had that kind of technology, the Germans would have won the war," he said. "They wouldn't have had to worry about B-17s and B-29s. ... They would have just wiped them out."

Clifford Clift of the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, in Greeley, Colo., says he has not seen Jacobsen's book, but has read other articles that suggest the Roswell incident involved German technology.

"After researching the claim, I found little truth in this theory," he said. "It is a stretch. One of my concerns is if they wanted to create panic, why in New Mexico and not New York where there are more people to panic? I would suggest it is another conspiracy theory and, heavens, MUFON knows about conspiracy theories. They do sell books."

David Perkins of Santa Fe, who has studied cattle mutilations for more than 30 years, finds Jacobsen's thesis about Roswell and "anti-gravity" flying machines so "fantastical" that it seems like something out of a novel.

"If we have had all this technology all this time, why haven't we seen it in the theaters of war where it was supposedly needed?" he asked. "I think this Jacobsen gal just got sucked in. I really do. I've seen this so many times, I don't know whether to say this is a giant plot on the part of the government to fan the flames of these myths."

Perkins said he thinks the most logical explanation for the Roswell incident is that it was a crash by an experimental aircraft that the government tried to disguise as an alien craft to confuse foreign enemies.

"Our enemies might say, 'Jeez, these crazy Americans might actually have alien technology,' so that creates a defense mechanism. It's a bluff in a way," he said. "It's my hunch that (government officials) know no more about alien visitations than your average UFO researcher. ...

"They washed their hands of it years ago and said, 'Well, it doesn't appear to be a threat, so let's incorporate it and act like secretly we know what it is, but we can't tell you fools out there.' "

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.