A Wall of UFO Secrecy since the Earliest Days

An excellent synopsis of the changing attitudes among defence and national securities agencies towards extraterrestrial spacecraft since the 1947 Roswell crash appears on a WanttoKnow website: http://www.perceptions.couk.com/reports.html

I have taken the material, edited it, rearranged some of it. But I am very grateful to WanttoKnow.com for putting this out on the net and give them full credit for the result minus my own rearrangement of certain portions.

The original report appears at http://www.perceptions.couk.com/reports.html

REPORTS
of UFO Suppression

Sept. 1947

Lieutenant General Nathan F Twining – writing for Air Technical Intelligence Center:-
“The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious” (apparently kept secret until 1969)

quote (& copy): `UFOs:`The Government Files’ – Peter Brookesmith, Brown Books, London, 1996
Sept. 1947

Initiation of `Project Sign’ to “investigate” reports of UFOs
1949

renamed `Project Grudge’

1951

renamed `Project Blue Book’
(downgraded mid 60’s, closed ’69 see below)

1948

‘Project Sign’ gave `Estimate of the Situation’ to Lieutenant General Hoyt S Vandenberg (USAF Chief of Staff) which concluded that:

“UFO’s are real and that an extraterrestrial explanation is the most likely”.

Report destroyed but later (c.1952) revealed by Captain Edward I Ruppelt (Director `Blue Book’)

Source: `The UFO Encyclopedia’ – Margaret Sachs, Corgi London 1981 (p 92)

August 1952
CIA secret briefing paper ordered that CIA’s involvement with UFO affairs be kept secret, to prevent further public interest.

quote : `The Real Roswell Crashed Saucer Cover-up’ Philip J. Klass, Prometheus, 1997 (p 53);

Also see: “Washington UFOs – 1952 – Intro” & “Washington UFOs – Background”
Sept. 1952

memo from Director of CIA Special Intelligence to Allen W. Dulles (Director CIA) asked:-

“whether or not these sightings: (1) could be controlled, (2) could be predicted, and (3) could be used from a psychological point of view, either offensively or defensively?”

quote : `The UFO Encyclopedia’ – Margaret Sachs, Corgi London 1981 (p 269)

Dec. 1952

memo from H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of Scientific Intelligence, said:-

“At this time the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention.  Sightings of unexplained objects at high altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of vehicles.”

Memo to then-director of the CIA, General Walter B. Smith – December 2, 1952

Jan. 1953

The CIA convened `Robertson Panel’ under Dr H.P Robertson
(Director – Defense Department Weapons System Evaluation Group)

[panel contained 5 top scientists including Dr Luis Alvarez of later K/T extinction fame]

who reported:-

a) “… the national security agencies (should) take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired;

b) “That the national securities agencies institute policies on intelligence training and public education designed to prepare for material defenses and the morale of the country to recognize most promptly and to react most effectively to the true intent of hostile intent or actions”

quote : `The UFO Encyclopedia’ – Margaret Sachs, Corgi London 1981 (p 269)

August 1953

US Air Force Regulation (200-2) criminalized AF personnel speaking to public or Press about `sightings’.

Base commanders were authorized to publicize `sightings’ only if they could be firmly identified as “familiar or known objects”

I.e – only `debunking’ reports allowed

quote: `UFOs:`The Government Files’ – Peter Brookesmith, Brown Books, London, 1996 (p 38)

1960

“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”
– Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, former CIA Director (1960)

“I am aware that hundreds of military and airline pilots, airport personnel, astronomers, missile trackers and other competent observers have reported sightings . . . These UFOs are interplanetary devices systematically observing the earth, either manned or under remote control, or both.”
– Colonel Joseph Bryan, CIA (1960)
(Col. Bryan was a founder member of the CIA’s psychological warfare staff, also an advisor to NATO.)

some refs at ufomonthlymagazine.co.uk/2.html

1961

Report for NASA – by the Brookings Institution’s Committee on Science and Astronautics (34 men 1 woman)

“It has been speculated that, of all groups, scientists and engineers might be the most devastated by the discovery of relatively superior creatures, since these professions are most clearly associated with the mastery of nature rather than with the understanding and expression of man” (*1)

“Advanced understanding of nature might vitiate all our theories at the very least, if not also require a culture and perhaps a brain inaccessible to earth scientists”

The `Brookings Report’ (kept under wraps for many years) went on to propose keeping secret any contact with alien cultures under the guise of preventing a “collapse of civilization”.

quote : Intro http://www.enterprisemission.com/brooking.html
.pdf version http://www.anomalies.net/brookings/brookings_summary.pdf

1967

USAF’s `Project Blue Book’ – above (1) – was officially “reviewed” by the Condon Committee under Dr Edward R. Condon of University of Colorada

Two committee members were soon fired for leaking memo (from Committee Co-ordinator Robert Low) which said:-

“The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that to the public, it would appear to be a totally objective study, but, to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be objective, but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer”.

[note: get that obsessive use of commas.  Is that typical of desk-bound “yesmen”?]

quote : `The UFO Encyclopedia’ – Margaret Sachs, Corgi London 1981 (p 70)

1969

the Condon Committee – above (9) – recommended that USAF’s `Project Blue Book’ – above (2) – be closed down as “UFOs do not warrant further study” – paraphrased

Even though their accounts showed that “25% of sightings were unexplained” (but see below).

Only later (below) was it said that “up tp 50%” of UFO sightings were probably due to secret military – `spy’ and `stealth’ see U2 & SR71 – aircraft, covertly flown to test public reactions.

The Condon Committee “findings” were anyhow less than accurate; i.e due to purposeful mis-classification around 30% – 35% of all UFO sightings were probably `unexplained’.

quote: `UFOs:`The Government Files’ – Peter Brookesmith, Brown Books, London, 1996 (pp 91-94)

1974

“I must say that if listeners could see for themselves the mass of reports coming in from the airborne gendarmerie, from the mobile gendarmerie, and from the gendarmerie charged with the job of conducting investigations, all of which reports are forwarded by us to the National Centre for Space Studies, then they would see that it is all pretty disturbing.”
– Robert Galley, French Minister of Defence (1974)

some refs at ufomonthlymagazine.co.uk/2.html

Leon Davidson (of Los Alamos Natl Lab, Atomic Energy Commision & IBM) has concluded, after intensive investigations, many or most `UFO flaps’ were traceable to the intelligence agencies – see (5) above –

quote : `Flying Saucers: An Analysis of Air Force project Blue Book Special Report No 14′ – Leon Davidson
Later Jacques Vallée agreed with this – additionally quoting the “Pentacle Memorandum” – Jan 1955 – which recommended creating `UFO flaps’ in areas of the USA `to test effects on civilians’.

quote : `Forbidden Science’ – Jacques Vallée, North Atlantic Books, Berkley, 1992

see exosci.html#not – “The Big Secret”

As Vallée indicates: (to paraphrase) the subsequent mess of contradictory `sightings’ / `mutilations’ / `abductions’ & all permutations owes maybe as much to instigators _and_ debunkers _and_ hypers in various intelligence agencies (military & corporate, aiming for temporary political or security effect) as it does to honest reports from the public.

“The group of people who will first manage to harness the fear of cosmic forces and the emotions surrounding UFO contact to a political purpose will be able to exert incredible spiritual blackmail.”

quote : `Messengers of Deception – UFO Contacts and Cults’ – Jacques Vallée – And/Or Press Berkley, 1979

Gregory M. Kanon’s `The Great Ufo Hoax: The Final Solution to the UfO Mystery’ (1997 ISBN 1-880090-41-4) extends the evidence – from early BLUEBIRD-type ops. to CIA-AFOSI entanglements – to show covert but active agency generation of flap hype.

***********************
Acknowledgements for much of this page’s research: Lynn Picknett’s “The Mammoth Book of UFOs”

2001 ISBN 1-84119-075-6 (pbk) http://www.constablerobinson.com
**********************

We are left with questions: did our authorities know about UFOs and associated phenomena or did they not?

If they did, but did not tell us – where does that leave our `fully informed democracy’?

From Patrick D. Knowles – with permission (lightly edited)

From: Patrick D. Knowles
To:ufoupdates at virtuallystrange.net
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 04:03:54 -0800
Subject: Re: Sagan In Stars & Stripes 11-26-92
[Non-Subscriber Post]

In a presentation given in Berkeley in March of 2002, Steven Greer claimed to have inside knowledge that Sagan had been given a position on the board of a secret MJ-12 style group, and that this was what brought about his reversal.

This might be old news to many, but around this same time an article appeared in the New York Times quoting former Director of Central Intelligence, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter as saying:
“It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings… behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFO’s.  But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe that the unknown flying objects are non-sense… to hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.”

– New York Times, Sunday February 28, 1960, p. 30.

Hillenkoetter had been an active member of Keyhoe’s NICAP, and had sent a letter to Congress about the possible danger of UFO misidentifications leading to a nuclear exchange between the US and the USSR.  But he, too, was somehow persuaded to keep quiet.  Just when he was about to serve as the lynchpin of NICAP’s effort to get open Congressional hearings, he suddenly cut off all contact with Keyhoe and went totally silent on the matter.  Keyhoe himself talks about this in detail in `Aliens From Space’ (Doubleday, 1973).

You can get the NYT article from any public library – through the interlibrary loans department, if necessary.

Below, are similarly powerful quotes from other highly credible, very widely respected sources, all properly cited so that people can check the quotes for themselves.

Apollo 10, 14, & 16 Astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, Ph.D. (Aeronautics, MIT):

“Yes, there have been ET visitations.  There have been crashed craft.  There have been material and bodies recovered.  And there is some group of people somewhere that may or may not be associated with government at this point, but certainly were at one time, that have this knowledge.  They have been attempting to conceal this knowledge or not permit it to be widely disseminated.

The question of, ‘has it been kept secret, or how could it be kept secret?’ It hasn’t been kept secret.  It’s been there all along.  But it has been the subject of disinformation in order to deflect attention and create confusion so the truth doesn’t come out.

Well, Dr. Greer did indeed mount an initiative and did go to Washington, did speak with high level government people, did present some of the witnesses that we’ve talked about here, to give briefings.  He has asked for Congressional hearings on these matters.  I attended and helped him with that.  And I believe it is a very important effort that we get Congressional oversight of all this.  But so far that hasn’t happened.

We briefed certain members of Congress, some of their staff, some of the people from the White House.  We talked with people in the Pentagon.  And in general, it was well received and some were quite amazed at what they heard.”

– Videotaped Interview.  Transcribed in Steven M. Greer, M.D., ed., Disclosure (Crozet, VA: Crossing Point Inc., 2001), pp. 61-64. Book and video available at http://www.disclosureproject.org.  See also Edgar Mitchell & Dwight Williams, The Way of the Explorer (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996), p. 212.

FAA Division Chief of Accidents and Investigations (ret.), John Callahan:

“This particular incident started with a phone call from the people in Alaska.  I said, ‘What’s the problem?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s that UFO.’.  The UFO was bouncing around the 747 here.

They brought in three people from the FBI, three people from the CIA, and three people from Reagan’s Scientific Study team – I don’t know who the rest of the people were but they were all excited.

Well, I’ve been involved in a lot of cover-ups with the FAA.

When we gave the presentation to the Reagan staff I was behind the group that was there.  And when they were speaking to the people in the room, they had all those people swear that this never happened.  But they never had me swear it never happened.

It still bothers me that I’ve seen all this, I know all this, and I’m walking around with the answer, and nobody wants to ask the question to get the answer.

…For those people that say that if these UFOs existed, they would some day be on radar and that there’d be professionals who would see it, then I can tell them that back in 1986 there were enough professional people that saw it.

What I can tell you is what I’ve seen with my own eyes.  I’ve got a videotape.  I’ve got the voice tape.  And I’ve got the reports that were filed that will confirm what I’ve been telling you.”

– Video Interview. Op. cit., pp. 79-85.

Chief of Defense Staff, British Ministry of Defense (ret.), Admiral Lord Hill-Norton:

“I have frequently been asked why a person of my background – a former Chief of the Defense Staff, a former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee – why I think there is a cover-up, or what the reasons may be for government’s wishing to cover up the facts about UFOs.

A number of explanations have often been put forward.  The most frequent, and perhaps the most plausible, is the government’s concern (which is primarily that of the United States, and that of my own country) over the public’s reaction if they were told the truth – which is that there are objects in our atmosphere which are technically miles in advance of anything that we can deploy, that we have no means of stopping them coming here, and that we have no defense against them, should they be hostile.  I believe governments fear that if they did disclose those facts, people would panic.

I don’t believe that at all.  I’ve said so in print.  I do not believe that people today, in the 21st century, are going to panic at that sort of information. . .

What I’d like to say is that there is a serious possibility that we are being visited- and have been visited for many years – by people from outer space, from other civilizations; that it behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want.

This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation, and not the subject of rubbishing by tabloid newspapers.”

– Video Interview. Op. cit., pp. 305-307. See also Lord Hill-Norton, Foreword to Timothy Good’s Above Top Secret (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1988), pp. 7-10.

Mercury & Gemini Astronaut, Colonel Gordon Cooper (ret.):

“At Edwards Air Force Base I was having some of the cameramen film precision landings and we were right on the edge of a dry lake.  A saucer flew right over them, put down three landing gears, and landed out on the dry lakebed.  They went out there with their cameras towards the UFO.

By the time they got back with the developed film I had higher and higher level officers talking to me.  I had a chance to hold it [the film] up to the window to look at it.  It was certainly good film.  Good close-up shots.  Nothing like I had ever seen.  [A] double inverted saucer shape.

Well, at the time this happened I was involved in research and development and doing very classified projects at the task center.

I knew we didn’t have any vehicles [like that] at that time.  I am 99.9% sure that the Russians didn’t have any of that type either.  there was no doubt in my mind that it was made someplace other than on this earth.

In my opinion they were worried it would panic the public if they knew that someone had vehicles that had this kind of performance way back right after WWII.

So they started telling lies about it.

Then I think they had to cover it with another lie… now they don’t know how to get out of it.

Who was flying these vehicles we saw? I think there were extraterrestrial pilots flying them, no doubt about it.”

– Video Interview. Op. cit., pp. 225-229.  See also Gordon Cooper & Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut’s Journey into the Unknown (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2000), pp. 80-91, 194-200.

Brigadier General Stephen Lovekin, Army National Guard Reserve:

“One afternoon when we were just about ready to finish up training, Colonel Holomon brought out a piece of what appeared to be metallic debris.

We were told that this object came from matters connected with Operation Bluebook.

He went on to further explain that this was the material that had come from a New Mexico crash in 1947 of an extraterrestrial craft and that was discussed at length.

I got an opportunity to travel a little bit with the President. [Eisenhower].

Well, on some of those occasions he had just been given messages or had been given information pertaining to sightings or information about UFOs, and I know that for a fact because I was in the COM Center and I saw that information… and what made them go.

But what happened was that Eisenhower got sold out.  He realized that he was losing control of the UFO subject.  He realized that the phenomenon or whatever it was that we were faced with was not going to be in the best hands.

As far as I can remember, that was the expression that was used, ‘It was not going to be in the best hands.’  That was a real concern.  And so it has turned out to be.

It had been discussed with me on numerous occasions what could happen to me militarily if I discussed this.”

– Video Interview. Op. cit., pp. 230-237.

Former Director of Central Intelligence, Vice Admiral R.H. Hillenkoetter:

“It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings.  Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs.

But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are lead to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.  To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.”

– The New York Times, Sunday, February 28, 1960: “Air Force Order on ‘Saucers’ Cited,” p. L30.  See also Steven Greer, M.D., Disclosure, p. 58; http://www.disclosureproject.org

Best regards,
Patrick

UFO UpDates – Toronto – ufoupdates at virtuallystrange.net
A UFO & Related Phenomena E-Mail List operated by Errol Bruce-Knapp
UFO UpDates Archives are available at The Virtually Strange Network:
http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/

We are left with questions: did our authorities know about UFOs and associated phenomena or did they not?

If they did, but did not tell us – where does that leave our `fully informed democracy’?

Extract from “Unexplained Phenomena – A Rough Guide Special”
“The military complex fears that malicious foreign agents could use a nation’s credulity and anxiety against itself but, historically the only signs of social manipulation on this scale are the lies many governments, dictators and tyrants have told their own peoples.”

`Perceptions’ note:

The most obvious conclusion, from these reports, is that `security’ – MI-5, CIA etc. have had 30 – 50 years of experimentation to determine that ET-phobia has the same effect as stirred-up `nationalism’ (it’s the same thing really : xeno-phobia).

I.e. – If a UFO flap is arranged pre-election then people will tend, from subconscious fear, to vote for the most `aggressive’ candidate (the `war-monger’ or `racist’ or `xenophobe’ rabble-rouser).

Such politicians prefer to use fear and hatred responses rather than logic – Why?
Because we’re all vulnerable to fear / hatred:  no-one can be consistently logical.

Check fear analysis – nationalism analysis – genocide conclusion – plus metaphysical propaganda context.

So, it seems we’ve been subjected to mass mind-control, and over a long period.

Evidence seems to say sightings were made and reported frankly by qualified observers.  Also – that qualified observers have stopped reporting sightings c.1950.  Why?

Here’s the very last time reports were obtained from professional astronomers – but only by fellow astronomer J Allen Hynek presenting himself as willing to “chat – off the record”.

Their apparently new, and clearly increasing reluctance to talk was presumably due to fear of official punishment.

The testimony is in a report from J Allen Hynek written (for the USAF) in Aug 1952 at:
http://tinyurl.com/fjx9c or
http://www.bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=MAXW-PBB1-958
Pages 958 to maybe 980

Note: there’s a heck of a contrast if you read reports of events and sightings from just before this period.  A list – to 1949 – is at `Fortre1883′.

And, maybe check http://www.perceptions.couk.com/exosci.html#nonE for the reason for all this interest.

Looking for an explanation for 60 years of lies; maybe gov’t ordered military lies and scientists’ lies.

From `Wiki’ on E.T.H

In a letter that was published in the New York Times. Fort wrote, “If it is not the respectable or conventional thing upon this earth to believe in visitors from other worlds, most of us would watch them a week and declare that they were something else, and likely make things disagreeable for anyone who thought otherwise.”[8]

According to a 1969 lecture by Carl Sagan: “The idea of benign or hostile super beings from other planets visiting the earth [is clearly] an emotional idea. There are two sorts of self-deception here: either accepting the idea of extraterrestrial visitation in the face of very meager evidence because we want it to be true; or rejecting such an idea out of hand, in the absence of sufficient evidence, because we don’t want it to be true. Each of these extremes is a serious impediment to the study of UFOs.”[18].

Astrophysicist Dr. Peter A. Sturrock wrote that for many years, “discussions of the UFO issue have remained narrowly polarized between advocates and adversaries of a single theory, namely the extraterrestrial hypothesis … this fixation on the ETH has narrowed and impoverished the debate, precluding an examination of other possible theories for the phenomenon.”[19]

According to Dr. Frank B. Salisbury of Utah State University, in order to prevent science from descending into pseudosciences, some burden of proof must also be be put on those who do not support ETH.

“Can we eliminate the spaceship hypothesis in any rigorous scientific manner? Logically one might think of two approaches: we must show in each and every instance ever reported that the object was not an extraterrestrial spaceship, or we must show by some sort of scientific logic that it is impossible for extraterrestrial beings to visit us.” Dr. Frank B. Salisbury[24].

“Perceptions” note: neither `proof’ has ever been established, instead, suppression of reports and of facts has been the order of the day, since c. 1950.