Tales of the Divine Comedy

by      Thomas Ragazzi   and Dr. Philip A. Pecorino

Chapter EIGHT

Bin Laden in AREA 51

Hey,  Captain Beachem.  How you are? 

Just fine.  I have not seen you in a while. 

Yeah, I have been on a new assignment. 

Well, it is good to see you Hal. 

Hey, let me ask you something. 

What? 

So, how is he doing? 

Who? 

Bin Laden. It’s been what, 6 months now? 

Well, he is doing what you’d expect of anyone here.  Why would you think differently? 

Well it’s just that he is such a dedicated even fanatical guy.  I thought he be different in some way and maybe not even fit in here. 

Why think that?  He is fitting in just fine.   

How so? 

Well he has plenty of activities here that he has taken to quite well.  In fact he seems to enjoy table games,  card games and a little physical activity.  He likes sitting with the others and talking. 

Come on now, I find that hard to believe. 

Well, trust me he does. 

Well, you are the chief psychiatrist on staff and probably have spent a lot of time with him as I understand the program here would require that.  I have not had a chance to talk to you lately as I have been assigned to the base security and have not gotten in here to the activities center in a long time.  I have not spoken with you in all that time nor do I see Bin Laden or have any reason to cross paths with him or most of our guests here.  How is it that he managed to fit in? 

Look, Jimmy Hoffa and Elvis fit in very quickly.  They came in under quite different circumstances and yet they took no time at all in accepting the confinement and making the most of their time here.  

Yeah, but Bin Laden is so different from the criminal types and near criminal types and he is so different from people looking to get away from it all, so to speak. He is not like those who come here to escape the threats they face remaining within the rest of the world. 

Well, Haile Salassie  entered the program to further a movement of his own.  Whatever their motives for accepting the offer to come here or the reasons for being taken here, most find that with all that we offer them here they are much better off than not being here with us. We have been operating this place since the start of the second war to end all wars in order ,as they say, "to provide for greater domestic and international tranquility" and have learned a good deal about what makes our guests want to stay here.  

But they must sever their ties with everyone they have known and all that they knew in their previous lives. 

True enough. 

What Bin Laden had going for him was a cause that involved converting the world to Islam. He was dedicated to having all humans surrender their wills to that of Allah. 

Well, all that changed pretty quickly here. 

How could that be? He was so dedicated to the point of being willing to surrender his life and of course getting others to surrender theirs to the cause. 

I think you forget the power of this place. 

I can’t believe that the resort-like conditions here with our recreation center and golf courses and pools and sports facilities and game rooms and theatres would have any appeal at all to Bin Laden. 

In my experience getting to know our guests quite well I have found that the real aspect of this place of ours that holds people here has not much at all to do with the amenities but it has almost entirely to do with  our special guests, our visitors. 

The aliens?

 That’s right and that is it in a nutshell or a saucer! 

How’s that work with someone like Bin Laden? 

When people arrive here and learn of the nature of this place there are some who like the refuge we provide but for many others there is some resistance to the idea of spending the rest of their lives here until they learn of and meet our visitors.   

Really? 

Yes. In fact we make the introduction to our special visitors a part of our routine program of intake and indoctrination. 

How? 

Well, after describing all of the basics of what this place is about we build up to who is here already and then we get into our special visitors and how they come to be here and what they are doing here and how our guests can spend time with them as long as our visitors want to spend time with them. 

And Bin Laden? 

The same. We explained the basics to him and he would have none of it and so we moved more quickly to the opportunities he might have to speak with our special visitors.   

That worked? 

Not at first. He was incredulous.  So we presented our materials to him and screened our videos on our special visitors and then told him he could ask any questions that he wished. He did have a lot of them.  It seems in his version of Islam the existence of other intelligent life forms is not possible.  The existence of beings from another solar system, or in this case another galaxy, was not something he could accept in his frame of reference.  His belief system had no room to accommodate such a possibility and now we were presenting to him the actuality.  He was quite shaken and it was covered over by his extreme skepticism. 

So, what happened? 

We realized that we might need to accelerate our normal program and move more quickly to introducing him to our special guests.  So, we took him to meet Rennzar and Lemel and explained that they were from the what we call the Andromeda galaxy and a planet that they translate into our language as Mentamor. 

He met them? 

Yes, of course, as do all of our guests, just a little sooner. 

He accepted them? 

At first he was prepared by the videos for what they would look like but he was taken aback by their being just a little taller than he and their being able to converse with him in Arabic and their knowledge of just about everything going on with all of us on this planet. 

He posed questions to them first about events here on Earth and then began to question them about where they came from and how they arrived here.   

That did it? 

Bin Laden wanted to get into details of the situation they were in and how they were willing to remain here with us all in Area 51.   

Did that do it for him? 

Well, yes it did, but there was more.   

What? 

They explained how they were on a mission and prepared for it by learning all about our planet and its peoples and their histories and cultures.  Most of it was gathered from their monitoring of our earliest radio transmissions and then television.  Bin Laden was impressed that they could speak almost any of our living languages and he spoke to them in two of them.  He asked them about their mode of transportation and their mission and its purposes.  He seemed more and more willing to accept what they were telling him.  But as Bin Laden grew more accepting to what they were telling him he grew even more inquisitive and posed questions about their beliefs.  I’d suppose you could say he was asking them about their religion.   

That must have been interesting. 

Quite so.  They explained that where they come from they have no concept of religion but that is because all those on their home world are of one way of thinking about the universe and their place in it and do not have separate belief systems.  They went further to explain to him that where they are from they do not have belief at all, but instead, have knowledge as they hold to be true only what they have come to directly experience through their direct contacts with what is.  This led Bin Laden to ask the question that provided an answer so disturbing that he withdrew for a moment or two to contemplate their answer. 

What’d he ask? 

He asked if they knew and submitted to Allah.  Rennzar and Lemel responded that they were aware of his beliefs along those lines and that they had direct experiences of the creator of all that is and their name for this being  was other than “Allah” and that their concept was of a being with whom their people had direct contact multiple times and continuing into the present.  The name they had for the creator was that which the creator spoke to them: Aman.  Further they described how Aman had provided the knowledge to them of what we call science and occasionally of technology and that in fact Aman had supplied the information needed for the construction of vehicles capable of space travel and even speeds faster than what we call “light”.   Aman appeared to them regularly but not often and generally gave advice and basic knowledge and not often direct instructions or detailed description of technologies.   Bin Laden asked if Aman gave them their mission and they replied that indirectly Aman had done so by urging the people of Mentamor to explore other worlds and to visit other sentient life forms.  Their particular mission was to visit our planet and gather more information to send back to Mentamor. 

He accepted all of that? 

Bin Laden asked more questions particularly about why they accepted this ”Aman” as the creator of all.  They answered that, over ten thousand of our years  on numerous occasions that were directly recorded in their annals with text and other media, Aman had altered conditions on their planet and even altered the condition of their sun each time explaining before the event what was to take place and why. 

Did they tell him about their accident? 

He did ask about why it was that they were now confined to Area 51 and why they did not return to Mentamor.  And they told him of the unplanned drainage on their energy source and how they were awaiting another ship to take them back and how in the meantime they did not wish to extend the number of human contacts that they had to a large number as they were instructed not to interfere with the life forms on this planet, but only to observe.  

You know the rest of that story and how once detected they made an agreement with the government to stay in Area 51 protected from any greater contacts other than a few government personnel and a few guests of our humble resort. 

 I know it quite well and my reasons for agreeing to all of this personally, I must admit, also has a lot to do with feeling that I am so lucky, if you’d call it that, to be offered the chance to work here and live here and occasionally get to speak with Rennzar and Lemel.  Lucky as well to have met a woman and married here and be raising a child here as well. 

So what is keeping Bin Laden here? 

After speaking with our Rennzar and Lemel he became withdrawn and sullen and silent and it took three weeks before he spoke again to anyone other than simple “yes” or “no” to offers of food and such.  This was after he pressed the visitors to answer questions about Aman.  Rennzar and Lemel told him directly that Aman knew of all the ways in which conscious beings in all of the multiple universes, as we might think of them, had attempted to learn of Aman, the creator, and of all the various versions of concepts of the divine being or creator being or deity or deities.    Rennzar and Lemel told Bin Laden that the concept of Allah was among them and noted for its inaccuracies.  They told him of the lessons Aman had delivered unto them concerning the general plan or purpose for creation and how Aman was interacting with what had been created and was guiding it towards the end Aman had for creating it all.  And then Rennzar and Lemel told Bin Laden of what disturbed him so deeply, wounded him so painfully and caused him to retreat into silence. Aman condemned most directly and clearly all deliberate taking of sentient life and this was without exception. The deliberate destruction of sentience was against the very purpose and direction of all events in all of creation.    

Wow, I can understand how that would do a job on Bin Laden’s head. 

It did indeed.  The guilt and the doubts and the horror overwhelmed him.  After three weeks of self-imposed solitude and what appeared similar to meditation Osama Bin Laden emerged a different man and a different human being. 

How so? 

For starters he moved away from the traditions of Islam as he continued to learn more of the ways and teachings  of Aman.  He also thought himself so privileged to be learning this from Rennzar and Lemel that he abandoned whatever desires or hopes he may have been harboring of one day leaving Area 51.  He wanted only to spend as much time with Rennzar and Lemelas as he could, learning more of the ways of Aman,  before they would return to Mentamor. 

So that is what you meant when you said he was like the others? 

Yes, exactly.  He stays here as most do, because they believe as I do that we all are in fact so special to be in the presence of Rennzar and Lemel.  

And how does Bin Laden spend his time with them? 

Mainly talking to them about Aman while shooting hoops and playing Texas Hold’em.

© Copyright Thomas Ragazzi and Philip A. Pecorino 2010. All Rights reserved.