А scientist from the Space Research Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), who claims to have been in touch with extraterrestrial beings, has been reportedly discredited by a Croatian news team.

The Croatian journalists were allowed to interview Lachezar Filipov in the lobby of the Academy of Sciences building in Sofia, but the 19-minute interview was not used because, according to the news team, Filipov was "intoxicated," writes Tim Brosnan at Technorati.com.

A Phoenix-based paranormal talk radio host named Kevin Smith, who did not manage to do an interview with the scientist, obtained a copy of the video.

It is said to include many close-ups of Filipov's face, and, in Smith's opinion, Filipov was suffering from sleep deprivation. A former international policeman, Smith says that Filipov showed no signs of HGN (Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus), which always accompanies alcohol intoxication. He also points out that sleep deprivation is a favorite tool of the gone-but-still-active Darzhavna Sigurnost, or Bulgarian KGB.

In an email to Tim Brosnan, the talk radio host confirms that he has viewed “the entire 19-minute video of the interview attempt by a Croatian TV news crew after Filipov had been handled for about 10 days.”

“That video,” Smith said, “has never been released by them, but it is most instructive. The reporter asks over and over if the aliens are in communication with us and Filipov finally says, ‘That is the information that if I tell you, they will kill me.’”

Filipov made headlines around the world in November last year after claiming that Bulgaria's space research institute is in contact with aliens.

The Bulgarian researchers said they are now analyzing pictograms contained in 150 crop circles which have appeared around the globe in the past year.

The team believe the field markings contain the answers to the posers they beamed into Space. Lachezar Filipov, deputy director of the space research institute, said: ‘Aliens are currently all around us and are watching us all the time“.

The news came in the midst of a controversy over the role, feasibility, and reform of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, which has even led to an exchange of offensive remarks between Bulgaria's Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, and President Georgi Parvanov.