I-Team: Area 51 whistleblower takes a lie detector test

thirty years ago tonight klas began an eight-part news series about the weird world of ufo conspiracies one of the featured interviews was with a respected polygraph examiner who became entangled with ufo lore when he agreed to conduct a lie detector test on a controversial whistleblower named bob lazar george knapp and the i-team caught up with the polygraph expert three decades later so this is the same machine you used on lazar that's it how many polygraphs do you think you've done on this machine terry tavernetti doesn't use his gleaming polygraph machine anymore during his many years working in corporate security at major casino properties on the las vegas strip he tested thousands of employees before that he worked as a police officer in southern california he had no idea he and his lie detector might be drawn into one of the most controversial ufo cases of all time the claims made by former government scientist bob lazar yeah i think so in november 1989 lazar's name and face were revealed to the public for the first time in the klas tv news series lazar's claims about working on flying saucers at a hidden facility near area 51 set off a ufo stampede that continues to this day the job i had the involvement with the you know the government cover-up that sort of thing the story isn't altered in in any way lazar agreed to a polygraph test the first one he did was inconclusive the examiner thought lazar was so nervous that it was difficult to get an accurate read on him tabernetti was recommended he questioned lazar about the central allegations that he had seen a flying disc at a base called s4 that the craft was powered by an anti-matter reactor and generated its own gravity to tabernetti's surprise lazar passed my personal thoughts the pre-test interview of three and a half hours the test itself the post-test interview showed absolutely nothing to detour my thought that bob was always truthful tavernetti wasn't a ufo guy had never polygraphed anyone about that issue had no core beliefs either way but 30 years later he recalls what was going through his mind during the test as it appeared lazar was being truthful is it occurring to you holy crap this guy could be telling the truth this paul could be real oh when that time comes that is unbelievable after the first news story aired about tabernetti's test two strange things happened the first is he was called on the carpet by his employer because of a phone call from an unnamed federal agency the corporate offices or unemployed received a telephone call from a government agency wanting to know why i was getting involved in something that i shouldn't be and i asked well what agency what was said did they identify themselves he never learned which agency had called there was an internal investigation by his employer but tabernetti was not disciplined the second thing to happen two months after the story aired is there was a break-in at his home and these are the charts huh the actual charts yeah did somebody try to steal these from me are there a break in somebody tried to come and get them you know right off the bat i want to say yes but tabernetti had made copies of the lazar charts he shared them with colleagues to see if they agreed with his opinion two of them did one suggested there should be more testing tabernetti admits polygraphs are not foolproof but they are widely used by police and employers as useful tools he doesn't regret getting drawn into the bob lazar saga and says the experience caused a permanent change in how he views the ufo question over the years my belief has swayed that way it gets to the point now we're going why not is it because of that oh yeah george knapp 8 news now tavernetti retired a few years ago but still lives here in las vegas the original story about his polygraph test was part of an investigative series that aired only once starting on this date back in 1990 but we have resurrected the stories from our archives and you can watch them on mysterywire.com

Channel: 8 News NOW Las Vegas

Views: 637,731

Keywords: video, news, UFOs, UFO conspiracies, Terry Tavernetti, George Knapp, Mystery Wire

Id: H31OtidF8TQ

Length: 4min 25sec (265 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2020