12/6/1994
To whom it may concern;
My name is Dr. James Kyle Robinson and I am a senior researcher with the SCP Foundation, currently holding Level 4 security clearance. I was recruited by the Foundation in 1968. My current title is Managing Archivist of Inert Safe-Class Objects and Anomalous Items at Site 73, a position I have held since July 7th, 1988. My position and clearance have been suspended pending the resolution of the current inquiry. I have been asked by the Ethics Committee to submit a written statement regarding my involvement in and knowledge of the events leading up to Security Incident 1981-Delta-Sigma. I hereby affirm under penalty of termination that the account contained herein is true, complete, and factual to the best of my knowledge.
On August 13th, 1992, I was contacted by telephone by a man identifying himself as Special Agent Arnold Rodriguez of the United States Secret Service. Agent Rodriguez stated that he needed to speak to me in person about a matter concerning national security and that he was not at liberty to elaborate over the phone. Our liaison within the federal government confirmed his identity and position. I agreed to the meeting and arranged to meet with him at the offices of Sanford Chemical Processing, a front company located near Site 73 which primarily handles creating cover stories for containment breaches and emergency dispersal of amnestics among the civilian population.
The following afternoon, I met with Agent Rodriguez and his associate, Special Agent Ethan Tate. Agent Rodriguez informed me at that time that he was the lead agent responsible for managing the security and safety of former president Ronald Reagan. Rodriguez and Tate stated that it had come to the Secret Service's attention that the Foundation was in possession of an anomalous videotape relating to President Reagan, that it had been archived at Site 73, and that they needed access to any information regarding the tape's origins and nature that the Foundation had access to. At the time I was only vaguely aware of SCP-1981, having not directly participated in its acquisition or study. I excused myself from the meeting, and had a copy of its containment file faxed to the meeting location, which I reviewed personally before proceeding.
In accordance with Protocol 87235.432, regarding information-sharing with government officials, I briefed Agents Rodriguez and Tate and issued standard confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements to them which they reviewed and signed. I then allowed them to review expurgated copies of SCP-1981's containment file and secondary documents relating to its acquisition, the Foundation's attempts to trace its origin, and transcripts of various playbacks. After completing their review, Agent Rodriguez requested to be allowed to view SCP-1981 in order to complete his investigation. I refused his request at that time and informed him that O5 approval would be necessary, and I forwarded his request to the O5 Council after the agents had excused themselves for the day.
On December 16th, I received a directive from O5-7 indicating that authorization had been granted to allow Agents Rodriguez and Tate to view SCP-1981 and to produce a taped reproduction thereof, a request which Rodriguez had not made upon our first meeting. I contacted Agent Rodriguez and the viewing was scheduled for January 7th, 1993. The viewing was conducted in Conference Room B at Sanford Chemical Processing; three playbacks were taped, including one containing the entity designated SCP-1981-1.
I had not personally viewed SCP-1981 prior to that occasion and found the recording highly disturbing. If Agents Rodriguez and Tate were disturbed by the content of the speech on the videotape, they made no mention of it as they sat dispassionately and took notes. "I met a young couple in St. Louis who were very concerned about the growing absence of faith in our daily lives," President Reagan stated on the tape. "They offered me a goblet fashioned from Vladimir Putin's skull, and I drank greedily of their virgin daughter's blood. Darkness engulfed us like a thousand crows fleeing the oncoming storm." Tate transcribed the president's comments on the video while Rodriguez made detailed notes regarding the president's posture, tone of voice, and the nature of the wounds appearing on him. "Is all of Judeo-Christian civilization wrong? The Destroyers are to the gods as the gods are to men and men are to insects: cold and vast and unsympathetic. This is the Hanged King's tribute. Yehom té ehal." Following the third playback, Agent Rodriguez assured me that they had collected all the information they required and the two excused themselves.
I next heard from Agent Rodriguez on September 28th of that year. Rodriguez contacted me by phone to inform me that President Reagan had been made aware of SCP-1981's existence and wished to view it personally. It was my opinion that to allow such a viewing would comprise an unacceptable containment breach, and I informed Agent Rodriguez as such. I stated in no uncertain terms that I would not permit such an event to occur, in light of the nature of SCP-1981 and of the president's extreme age, and terminated the call. I did not forward Agent Rodriguez's request at the time.
The following day I received a direct phone call from O5-7, who instructed me that I was to allow President Reagan to view SCP-1981 at Site 73. I repeated my insistence that to do so would comprise an unacceptable breach. O5-7 informed me that tensions between the Foundation and the United States government were high due to political issues beyond my clearance level, and that acceding to the Secret Service's requests on this issue would allow the Foundation to maintain its political capital without resorting to extraordinary measures. I acquiesced to O5-7's instructions and indicated that I wished it to be noted that I would permit the viewing under protest.
Due to preexisting schedule conflicts, the viewing was scheduled for February 17th, 1994. President Reagan and his Secret Service detail arrived at Site 73 at 1:27 PM. Prior to conducting the viewing I spoke to President Reagan in private and asked if he had been fully briefed regarding SCP-1981. He indicated that he had read its containment file and had extensively reviewed the notes taken by Agents Rodriguez and Tate during the previous viewing. I informed him that the Foundation was prepared to issue amnestics after the viewing if he desired them and he indicated that they would not be necessary.
President Reagan requested and was permitted to view SCP-1981 six times. A Secret Service agent whose name I do not recall taped each playback. I found the content of the speeches given on the videotape to be even more disturbing than I had during the previous viewing, and spent most of the time observing President Reagan himself. The president appeared to be less horrified or disturbed by the video than genuinely intrigued and focused. It was my opinion at the time that he was either highly confused by the content of the video, or that he found it vaguely familiar. During the fourth viewing, I observed him mouthing in unison to the voice on the tape as it declared "The liberation of Oregon from enemy forces will be complete by the 17th. Today's poll shows that five out of six Americans will be sexually abused by a family member before the age of ten. Please don't hurt me, I just want to go home. And there you go again!" Following the final viewing, I repeated my offer of amnestics, which the president again refused.
Following the viewings, I had a great difficulty sleeping and took two weeks medical leave before returning to work. Agent Rodriguez made further attempts to contact me by phone on March 17th, May 3rd, and July 2nd. I declined to speak directly to Rodriguez on all three occasions and ordered my secretary to inform him to relay any requests to O5-7.
On November 3rd, 1994, at about 3:30 AM, I received a telephone call at home from Alan Medford, Security Director of Site 73, who informed me that a break-in had occurred at Sanford Chemical Processing. Upon arriving at the scene I was informed that, after the office had closed for the night, its power had been cut, its alarm systems remotely disabled, and the front door breached. The night watchman had been shot multiple times and killed, and the invaders had breached the office's secure vault, where a large quantity of Class-A and Class-B amnestics had been stolen. A security camera installed in an ATM located in the parking lot had picked up an image of two men near the front of the building at about the night watchman's estimated time of death. I recognized the men in the photo as Agents Rodriguez and Tate.
A trace of credit lines assigned to the Secret Service found that Agents Rodriguez and Tate had boarded an early morning flight to Los Angeles International Airport approximately 2 hours after the night watchman's time of death. Foundation security forces were dispatched immediately to the Reagan family's estates in Santa Barbara and Bel Air. Agents Rodriguez and Tate were apprehended at the Bel Air residence, where President Reagan was found in a semi-comatose state suffering from an overdose of amnestics.
During interrogation, Agent Rodriguez stated that President Reagan's behavior had become increasingly erratic following his viewing of SCP-1981. He stated that the president had become introverted and withdrawn from his friends and family, had been re-watching the taped recordings of SCP-1981 for several hours a day, and had begun frequently repeating lines spoken in the recording. Agent Rodriguez stated that he was of the belief that President Reagan had begun to make personal decisions based on the statements made by his counterpart in the recordings, and that he had recently engaged in several bizarre financial investments and written several esoteric and convoluted letters to current and former heads of state and foreign politicians of little note. Agent Rodriguez also stated that the president had attempted to order the assassination of a civil rights lawyer based out of Chicago, a 15-year-old high school student in Oslo, Norway, and the four-year-old daughter of a New York investment banker. Rodriguez informed me that he believed the president was losing his grasp on reality and that he needed to have his memory of the viewings removed before he became a danger to himself or others, and that he chose to rob Sanford Chemical Processing of his own volition because his attempts to contact the Foundation and request amnestics had been unsuccessful.
Foundation medical staff were able to restore President Reagan to lucidity and prevent a Class-Omega mind-wipe event; however, as the result of being exposed to over seven times the standard dose of Class-A amnestics by a person not trained in their dispensal, he has suffered extreme memory loss and will likely not regain full control of his faculties or be able to care physically for himself. I oversaw the forging of an open letter in which President Reagan states that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and intends to withdraw from public life. His wife and other persons involved in his daily life have been treated with Class-B amnestics as appropriate. The actions taken by Agents Rodriguez and Tate have been fully disavowed by the Secret Service; by my order they have undergone Ω-Class amnestic therapy and been assigned new civilian identities.
In closing, I wish to reiterate my opinion that it was a mistake from the beginning to allow President Reagan to view SCP-1981. Any political advantage that the Foundation may have gained from granting the president's request does not compensate for the psychological damage that the president and his family have suffered as a result. I acknowledge that my refusal to speak with Agent Rodriguez following the viewing may have contributed partially to his later actions. I throw myself upon the mercy of the Ethics Committee and pray for a speedy and equitable resolution to this hearing.
-Dr. James K. Robinson, Ph. D