BY SCOTT TAYLOR

Staff Writer

   Frank Anicetti can talk about conspiracy theories.

He can talk about ley lines - the supposed lines of energy that criss-cross the Earth's crust, an esoteric web of power some mystics claim they can tap.

Anicetti can talk about UFOs. He's heard of Area 51, the secret government base in Nevada where skywatchers and conspiracy buffs camp out nightly to watch mysterious lights dance above the desert.

"Oh yeah, I've heard all about that," he says. "I'd love to go out there and see that stuff some day."

He may not have to go anywhere, if a site on the World Wide Web is to be believed. The folks at  www.CounterEvidence.com say Area 51 has moved to Maine.

The Counter Evidence Research Consortium, or CERC, tells how the government closed Nevada's Area 51 about a year ago and moved part of the operation to the Worumbo Mill in Lisbon Falls.

Conspiracy theories

Area 51, the mecca of conspiracy theorists, was a real place. It was famous as the test site for the U-2 spy plane in the 1950s and various other secret aircraft thereafter. But conspiracy theorists make darker allegations. They claim the site is home to crashed alien spacecraft, back-engineered alien technology and even alien bodies - alive or not.
A 1997 Popular Mechanics article claimed the U.S. Air Force has officially abandoned Area 51. But CERC claims several projects from the area were loaded into military aircraft last year and moved to undisclosed locations. CERC's researchers allegedly tracked the aircraft to Brunswick Naval Air Station and a convoy of trucks from Brunswick to Lisbon Falls.

They stopped at the Worumbo Mill.

"Well, I would say that this comes as news to the folks around here," Anicetti said.
He owns Frank's Famous Frozen Fruited Flavors across the street from the blanket mill, which dominates the southeastern edges of the main drag. State routes 9, 196 and 125 all converge in front of the mill.

Anicetti said he might have noticed if a military convoy rolled through town and set up shop. Except for workers, the only traffic at the Worumbo Mill is bargain shoppers visiting the outlet store.

Blankets of secrecy

Jo Miller would have noticed. She is co-owner and manager of the mill and the accompanying outlet store. For the past eight years she has watched workers knit blankets - good, old-fashioned blankets.

"The most high-tech material we use is rayon," she said.

The complex consists of the outlet store, administrative offices, the mill, a hydroelectric plant - and the mysterious Building 14.

"That's just our warehouse," Miller alleged.

What about advanced, black-budget alien technology? Some of the machinery is new, but much of it has been in use for a number of years. Some machines built to make yarn haven't been used since the 1950s, Miller said.

As to why the conspiracy researchers at Counterevidence.com picked Lisbon Falls and her mill, Miller said she had a theory of her own.

"It's the name, Worumbo, and the way it rolls off the tongue," she said. "They always have trouble saying it on the radio. It's just one of those words."

Other Lisbon Falls residents seemed equally surprised to find out their hometown was the new home to conspiracy central, though none reported seeing secretive men in black, mysterious lights in the sky or anything other worldly.

"I'm surprised that they even knew Lisbon Falls or Worumbo existed," said Lisbon House of Pizza's Amanda Coyne.

'Non-secure line'

CERC's choice of Worumbo will remain a mystery. Rival researchers are either unaware of CERC's claims or are just plain ignoring them.

Phone calls and e-mails to the consortium's Washington, D.C., offices go unanswered. A recording advises: "You are calling from a non-secure line and cannot be connected directly to our offices. Please call back using a secure phone line."

An e-mail request for information or an interview was turned down by "Jay Michaels" in the public affairs and legal offices of the consortium.

"Please understand that it is the policy of CERC to not grant media interviews," Jay Michaels wrote. "We do not go out of our way to garner external publicity on our findings."
Michaels never replied to subsequent messages sent to his law.com e-mail address. Law.com, it turns out, is a free and anonymous service available to anyone with a computer.

CERC's story was first posted to the Internet in January 2001, and a second report posted in February 2001 delivers more information, but only to paying members. Later updates, scheduled to appear monthly through July 2001, never materialized. According to the Web site, those reports are still being edited and will be released when they are finished.

Hmm ...

Locals are skeptical, but author Stephen King, a Durham native, didn't seem surprised by the rumor. King toiled in the mill for a time as a young man.

"If ever there was a place to stick aliens, Worumbo Mill was it," the author said through his assistant.

Still, Anicetti wonders.

"When you get right down to it, Maine would be perfect for that kind of thing," he said. "There's a lot of land where you could do something without most people ever knowing. And the people here just let you work without bothering you."

The more he thought about it, the more Anicetti said he was willing to believe it - or at least part of it.

"In fact, if there is anything to this, I bet the story that it's at the mill was designed to throw everyone off the track. I bet it's really going on someplace else ....  Like Lewiston."

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